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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Pilots for Ethiopia 737 MAX Followed All Procedures; House Democrats are to Vote on Subpoena that Would Release Mueller Report. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired April 03, 2019 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[05:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Shall we say chaos online.

Fans rush to buy tickets after Marvel released a new trailer Tuesday morning. But those who logged on to Fandango found themselves in a virtual line. Some fans waiting hours before getting tickets. Just like the old days. We need to wait in line for movie tickets. And then AMC Theaters Web site and ticketing app crashed because of the high demand. Fandango and AMC sites were up and running by the afternoon. Even with all those issues Fandango said "Endgame" broke its first day pre-sale record in six hours, passing the previous record which was?

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: "Star Wars."

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: Come on. That's a given.

ROMANS: "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

BRIGGS: I did not get my tickets, did you?

ROMANS: I didn't either but my son has this elaborate theory about how Tony Stark is going to get out of space. I mean --

BRIGGS: I bet he came out of that as well. My wife said my son can skip school for the opening day. So --

ROMANS: Really? I like your wife.

BRIGGS: EARLY START continues right now.

ROMANS: Breaking overnight, pilots on that doomed Boeing flight in Ethiopia last month used the exact procedures Boeing recommends, but still couldn't keep the plane in the air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Anything we give them will never be enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: House Democrats will vote to authorize a subpoena for the full Mueller support. But will the Judiciary chairman see it through?

ROMANS: A historic night in Chicago. The city elects its first mayor who is a black woman and who identifies as gay.

BRIGGS: And another case of a fake ride share driver. Police looking for a man in Washington state who raped a woman who got into his car.

Good morning, everyone. And welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, April 3rd, halfway through the week. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East. So get up and get started, America.

Breaking overnight, pilots flying that Boeing 737 MAX that crashed in Ethiopia last month, they initially followed Boeing's recommended emergency procedures and were still unable to recover control of that jet. That report coming from the "Wall Street Journal" citing people briefed on preliminary findings from the plane's black boxes.

For the very latest, let's turn to CNN's Robyn Kriel. She is in Ethiopia for us live this morning.

And Robyn, this reporting certainly cast some doubt on what we've been hearing from Boeing's that there are training and mechanisms to overcome this problem. Not in this case.

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes. According to Boeing, they did have training and mechanisms in place after the Lion Air crash in order to somehow stop this faulty MCAS failure or at least provide pilots with ways that they could circumnavigate this problem.

But indeed, if this report -- if this "Wall Street Journal" report turns out to be true, then it does state that that's what pilots did. They followed those emergency procedures and guidelines outlined by Boeing, post that Lion Air crash and yet the plane still did not respond. From what we understand, according to that "Wall Street Journal" the pilots recognized a problem with the automatic trim -- automated trim. They deactivated according to what Boeing stipulated. They went to a manual trim option that's for fail safe, the backup. And then they struggled with this, too.

They could not keep the plane's nose upright. It kept pointing down. So then they went back to that MCAS automated system and we're not sure what happened from there. All we do know is that the final -- this whole scenario took six minutes in total. And the pilots -- the plane eventually plunging into the ground south of the airport Bole International Airport. Since then, all of those 737 MAX's have been grounded, really, around the world.

ROMANS: All right. Robyn Kriel for us in Ethiopia. Thank you so much for that reporting this morning.

BRIGGS: Meantime whistleblower reports are raising new questions about the FAA inspectors who reviewed the 737 MAX planes for certification and whether they were properly trained. According to information from whistleblowers and documents reviewed by the Senate Commerce Committee, the FAA may have been notified about training deficiencies as early as August of 2018. That's two months before the first of those two deadly Boeing crashes.

ROMANS: An investigation is now under way to determine how the Boeing 737 MAX fleet was certified to fly. Justice Department prosecutors have also issued subpoenas as part of a grand jury criminal investigation. One former Boeing employee being asked to turn over all communications including drafts related to the Boeing 737 MAX.

BRIGGS: A significant security breach at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort. Federal prosecutors filing charges against a woman carrying Chinese passports and malicious software, who they say entered the facility illegally over the weekend. The president was staying there at the time but was not on site when Yujing Zhang initially gained access through a miscommunication with members of the resort's security detail.

[05:05:10] ROMANS: Zhang was detained after telling a receptionist she was there to attend an event but the receptionist knew that that event did not exist. Secret Service agents found four cell phones, a laptop, an external hard drive device, and a thumb drive in this woman's possession. Prosecutors say the thumb drive contained malware. The Secret Service says Mar-a-Lago management is responsible for deciding who is permitted access to the club but then it's Secret Service who decides who gets access to the proximity of the president.

BRIGGS: In a matter of hours House Democrats will vote to authorize a subpoena to get the full, unredacted Mueller report. That will give House Judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler the green light to issue a subpoena. He's not said whether he would do that before Attorney General Barr releases a redacted version sometime this month. The president still says release it but is clearly agitated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think it's ridiculous. Now we're going to start this process all over again? I think it's a disgrace. Anything we give them will never be enough.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What about the --

TRUMP: We could give them -- it's a 400-page report, right? We could give them 800 pages and it wouldn't be enough. They'll always come back and say it's not enough, it's not enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Democrats argue there's ample precedent for Barr to release to Congress the full report, including grand jury material. They point to investigations into Watergate and former President Bill Clinton. Former FBI director James Comey says Barr deserves the benefit of the doubt on the report, but top House Democrats don't see it that way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. JERRY NADLER (D), CHAIRMAN, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Well, the attorney general is an agent of the president. He auditioned for his job by saying that this kind of investigation was wrong and that the president could not possibly commit obstruction of justice, which is a rather extreme legal view, and he got the job in order to protect the president.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: If he came to the job clean, without any history in this investigation, I would say yes, give him the benefit of the doubt. But he didn't. He wrote a 19-page legal memo, which was basically a job application, saying if you pick me for your AG, I will have your back on the obstruction of justice case. And that's exactly what he's done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The House Oversight Committee voted yesterday to authorize subpoenas in the White House security clearance probe. Among those targeted, Carl Kline, the former personnel security director at the Trump White House, that's despite the fact Kline offered to testify.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM JORDAN (R), OHIO: Today we're going to subpoena a guy who just sent us a letter saying he's willing to come here voluntarily. I have been on this committee 10 years, I've never seen anything like this.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), CHAIRMAN, OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: Oh please.

JORDAN: Never seen anything like this. I haven't.

CUMMINGS: Yes, you've done it.

JORDAN: I haven't.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D), NEW YORK: We are conducting foreign relations with folks with security clearances via WhatsApp. I mean, every day that we go on without getting to the bottom of this matter is a day that we are putting hundreds, if not potentially thousands of Americans at risk. I mean, really, what is next? Putting nuclear codes in Instagram DMs?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: With that her latest viral clip. This after a White House whistleblower Tricia Newbold told the committee she kept a list of 25 instances in which decisions to deny security clearance were reversed by the Trump administration to senior level White House officials.

ROMANS: All right. History in Chicago. Lori Lightfoot elected mayor of the nation's third largest city. She becomes the first African- American woman to lead Chicago. She's also the first to identify as gay. The 56-year-old former assistant U.S. attorney vowing to remake the city by putting the interest of all the people over the powerful few.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORI LIGHTFOOT, MAYOR-ELECT OF CHICAGO: I remember something Martin Luther King said when I was very young. Faith, he said, is taking the first step when you can't see the staircase.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

LIGHTFOOT: Well, we couldn't see the whole staircase when we started this journey, but we had faith and abiding faith in the city, its people and its future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Lightfoot faces serious issues like crime and police community relations. She'll be sworn in next month replacing Rahm Emanuel who chose not to seek a third term.

BRIGGS: Today is a big day in the college admissions scandal known as Operation Varsity Blues. Thirteen people in total, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, along with Loughlin's husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, all set to appear in a federal court in Boston. They are expected to enter pleas on charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. The parents accused of paying a college prep business to cheat on standardized tests and/or bribe college coaches in order to get their children into competitive universities.

[05:10:04] ROMANS: All right. In Washington state, authorities are looking for this man. They call him a person of interest in a reported rape of a passenger in a fake ride share. The woman told King County sheriff's detectives she got into a car she thought was the ride share she had ordered and was raped inside that vehicle.

Authorities say the man was seen near the victim's home the night of the reported rape last December. The sheriff's office not releasing the name of the ride share company because it has confirmed the woman never actually made contact with any of its drivers that night.

BRIGGS: A sad farewell to the victim of a ride-share killing in Columbia, South Carolina. The vigil in memory of USC student Samantha Josephson held in her hometown of Robbinsville, New Jersey. Police say Josephson was killed after getting into the wrong car while waiting for an Uber early Friday. 24-year-old Nathaniel Rowland charged with kidnapping and killing her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEYMOUR JOSEPHSON, VICTIM'S FATHER: He was a monster, right? What he did was -- I don't want anybody else to go through it as a parent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The funeral will be held today at noon. In the wake of her death South Carolina lawmakers planning legislation to require ride- share vehicles to display lighted signs.

ROMANS: All right, 11 minutes past the hour. President Trump knows the economy will take a hit if he shut the border with Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Sure, it's going to have a negative impact on the economy. Hey, all you hear me talking about is trade. But let me just give you a little secret. Security is more important to me than trade.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. Well, here's what's at stake. The move, closing the border, would disrupt the flow of $1.7 billion of goods daily of store shelves and factory floors supporting five million American jobs. Economists say the entire U.S. auto industry would shut down within one week. The Center for Automotive Research says every automaker depends on parts from Mexico. About 16 percent of all auto parts used at assembly plants and sold in stores originate in Mexico.

Grocery stores would take a hit. We get nearly 90 percent of avocado sold in America -- avocado imports, rather, are from Mexico. The U.S. could run out of avocados in just three weeks. Americans also buy more than $4.6 billion a year in beer, wine, and alcohol, that includes tequila from Mexico. A border closure would also squeeze U.S. corn, soybean and dairy farmers, too, if they can't ship their produce into Mexico.

Meantime, there's something called the USMCA, that's Trump's new NAFTA. That is at stake. The president has signed the deal but it hasn't been approved by Congress. Shutting the border while you're trying to negotiate NAFTA, that is something.

BRIGGS: I hate to say this, at least he's moved in the right direction. It was Friday when the president he said closing the border would be a profit-making operation due to the trade imbalance. So at least he's been informed on the reality of it.

ROMANS: And, you know, and while you're seeing reports of progress on U.S.-China trade, at the very moment then to close the U.S. border and hurt American farmers again. American farmers, by the way, who had flooding to deal with on top of all of their goods that are unsold sitting in their silos rotting. Awful.

BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, hidden cameras used to record hundreds of patients in delivery rooms at a California hospital. Why the hospital says the cameras were installed in the first place.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:17:35] BRIGGS: 5:17 Eastern Time. And the suspect in a hit-and- run crash that severely injured a 9-year-old girl is in custody this morning. According to CNN affiliate WSB Gabriel Fordham turned himself into police. His attorney says he's apologetic and wants to help the family get closure. The attorney says Fordham was fighting off a carjacker when the crash occurred. Surveillance video shows Laderihanna Holmes playing with a friend when the car plowed into her and then into the house. The 9-year-old suffered a fractured skull and a shattered pelvis.

ROMANS: A California hospital facing a lawsuit for using hidden cameras to record hundreds of patients without their consent. Those cameras were located in three labor and delivery rooms at the Women's Center at Sharp Grossman Hospital in La Mesa. About 1800 patients were recorded over a period of more than 11 months beginning in the summer of 2012. Among the secretly taped images partially robed women on operating tables and C-section procedures.

BRIGGS: The lawsuit states the recordings were stored on desktop computers and some could be viewed without the need for a password. Sharp Healthcare claimed it installed motion-detecting cameras because drugs were disappearing from operating rooms. In its attempt to catch the thief patients and medical personnel were sometimes recorded.

ROMANS: Pittsburgh city council passing a package of controversial gun laws. The vote comes months after 11 people were gunned down at the Tree of Life synagogue. The three bills restrict the use of assault weapons, extended magazines and armor piercing ammunition in public places. They also allow courts to temporarily take guns away from individuals deemed to pose a significant danger to themselves or others.

City officials are expecting the legislation to be challenged in state court. Just last week, a federal judge overturned California's brand new ban on high capacity magazines.

BRIGGS: All right. Guess who came back to Washington last night?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bryce Harper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Bryce Harper heard it from Nationals fans. Hear who got the last laugh, next in the "Bleacher Report" with Andy Scholes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:24:09] BRIGGS: All right. Baseball superstar Bryce Harper hearing the boos as he made his return to the Nationals last night.

Andy Scholes has more in the "Bleacher Report." They were not so happy to see their former star, were they?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: They were not, Dave. I mean, you know, Nationals fans, they've had last night circled the (INAUDIBLE) ever since Bryce Harper left to go to the Phillies for $330 million. And the crowd in D.C., well, they were ready to welcome Harper back during his first hit bat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right fielder, number three, Bryce Harper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, the rowdy fans letting Harper have it. In his first at bat, Harper going down swinging to Max Scherzer. And as you see the fans were loving it. Harper struck out at his first two at bats. But he gets the last laugh top of the eighth. Philly up, 6-2, Harper crushed that pitch, flipped his bat.

[05:25:01] The ball lands in the second deck. It traveled 458 feet. All the Phillies fans that hung around they were enjoying the moment. They won this one 8-2. And afterwards Harper said he was fired up to be back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYCE HARPER, PHILLIES RIGHT FIELDER: I mean, I guess that's sports. You know, I guess it's part of, you know, what they felt like. And you know, that's him. So I guess I know what I'm going to get into for the next 13 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: In the NBA last night, Russell Westbrook having a game for the ages. Westbrook had 10 assists in the first quarter alone. Then in the fourth quarter, he's going to grab this rebound right here in the final minute. And he was pretty fired up because he finished with 20 points, 20 rebounds and 21 assists. It's only the second 20-20-20 game in NBA history. Will Chamberlain owns the other. And Westbrook dedicating his performance to his friend, fellow Los Angeles native, rapper Nipsey Hussle, who was killed in a shooting over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSSELL WESTBROOK, THUNDER GUARD: For the game and that wasn't for me, it was for my bro, man. That was for Nipsey, man. Somebody I looked up to, somebody that paved the way for a guy like myself, growing up in the inner-city, man, and having those conversations with him. I'm just truly saddened by the situation, man. Just continue to pray for his family, his wife, his daughter. And just continue to live on his legacy the right way and be positive in the community. And I'm going to do my part.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And finally, the Alliance of American Football shutting down operations. The league didn't even make it through its first season.

BRIGGS: Yes. That was quick. A lot of celebrating when that league first started, but did not last long.

All right. Andy Scholes, thank you, my friend.

Romans, who's coming up?

ROMANS: All right. Thanks, guys. Breaking overnight, the exact recommended emergency procedures not

enough to keep a doomed Boeing plane in the air last month. We're going to go live to Ethiopia.

And who is "TRICKY DICK"? The four-part CNN original series explores Richard Nixon's rise, fall, comeback and destruction featuring never- before-seen footage. That series continues Sunday night at 9:00, only on CNN.

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