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Wall Street Journal Reports Pilots Followed Boeing's Emergency Procedures; House Democrats Ready To Subpoena Mueller Report; Chicago Elects First Black Woman Mayor; Video Released In Fake Rideshare Rape. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 03, 2019 - 05:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:31:14] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, pilots on the doomed Boeing flight in Ethiopia last month used the exact procedure 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)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: House Democrats will vote to authorize a subpoena for the full Mueller report, but will the Judiciary chairman see it through?

BRIGGS: History in Chicago. The city elects its first mayor who is a black woman who identifies as gay.

ROMANS: And another case of a fake rideshare driver. Police are looking for a man in Washington State who raped a woman who got in his car.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: Good morning. Good morning to all of you. I'm Dave Briggs, 5:31 Eastern time on a Wednesday.

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

For the latest, let's turn to Robyn Kriel live in Ethiopia. Robyn, good morning.

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi there.

We're still waiting for some preliminary reports or at least indications of when this preliminary report will be released by Ethiopian authorities. It was due to come out on Monday, but it was postponed. And really, that will be an indication -- a real indication of what happened. This "Wall Street Journal" report citing a high-level FAA -- high-level briefing from an FAA source.

We're also understanding that the pilots recognized the problem with that automated trim. This is according to the report. They then went to a manual trim, which is really the back-up -- the second option. They struggled with this, too, and that's when the plane plunged to the ground.

So once we have more of an idea of exactly what is contained in this preliminary report, we'll obviously be able to understand what the pilots did to try to stop it. They followed emergency procedures, according to "The Wall Street Journal" article, and yet, they still weren't able to keep this plane from plunging into the ground.

Now, that captain -- Captain Yared Getachew -- he's obviously been under immense scrutiny, including his first pilot. And if this report does turn out to be true that they did everything possible to keep the plane up, then it will be a vindication for both him and his first officer. And it will also be a vindication for Ethiopian Airlines, who has been under immense scrutiny as well.

Of course, the question will be after the Lion Air crash in October, why more wasn't done to prevent this system from repeatedly failing. And, of course, tough questions for Boeing will then be leveled.

BRIGGS: All right, a lot of questions. Robyn Kriel live for us in Ethiopia this morning -- thanks.

ROMANS: All right.

Meantime, whistleblower reports 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 two deadly Boeing crashes.

BRIGGS: An investigation is now underway to determine how the Boeing 737 MAX fleet was certified to fly.

Justice Department prosecutors have also issued subpoenas as part of a criminal investigation. One former Boeing employee being asked to turn over all communications, including drafts related to the Boeing 737 MAX.

[05:35:00] ROMANS: 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.

Now, the president was staying there at the time but no one was on site when Yujing Zhang initially gained access through a miscommunication with members of the resort's security detail.

BRIGGS: Zhang was detained after telling a receptionist she was there to attend an event that did not exist.

Secret Service agents found four cell phones, a laptop, an external hard drive device, and a thumb drive in her possession. Prosecutors say the thumb drive was containing malware.

The Secret Service says Mar-a-Lago management is responsible for deciding who is permitted access to the club, but not who gets access or proximity to the president.

ROMANS: In a matter of hours, House Democrats will vote to authorize a subpoena to see the full unredacted Mueller report. That will give House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler the green light to issue a subpoena. He has 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 he 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 MALE: What about the fact that --

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)

BRIGGS: Well, that would be 400 blank pages so, of course, they'd be irritated.

Democrats argue there's ample precedent for Barr to release to Congress to full report, including grand jury material.

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-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE 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), CALIFORNIA: 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 A.G., I will have your back on the obstruction of justice case. And that's exactly what he's done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The House Oversight Committee voted yesterday to authorize subpoenas in a White House security clearance probe. Among those targeted, Carl Kline, the former personnel security director at the Trump White House.

It's even though Kline -- he offered to testify.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM JORDAN (D-OH), RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE OVERSIGHT AND REFORM COMMITTEE: Today, we're going to subpoena a guy who just sent us a letter saying he's willing to come here voluntarily. I've been on this committee 10 years and I've never seen anything like this.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D-MD), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE OVERSIGHT AND REFORM COMMITTEE: Oh, please.

JORDAN: I've never seen anything like this -- I haven't.

CUMMING: Yes, you've done it.

JORDAN: I haven't.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-ORTEZ (D-NY), MEMBER HOUSE OVERSIGHT AND REFORM COMMITTEE: 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 D.M.s?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: This, after a White House whistleblower, Tricia Newbold, told the committee of 25 instances in which decisions to deny security clearances were then reversed by the Trump administration.

All right, let's bring in CNN digital director -- politics digital director Zach Wolf, live for us this Wednesday morning in Washington, bright and early. Good morning, Zach. How are you?

ZACHARY WOLF, DIGITAL DIRECTOR, CNN POLITICS: Good morning. Good, how are you?

BRIGGS: Good morning.

ROMANS: So, I'm wondering -- you know, the Trump storyline here is that it will never be enough for Democrats. Could he be right?

WOLF: Well, it's certainly not going to be enough if they don't get to see everything. He might be taking the precedent of Republicans with the -- you know, all the Clinton investigations that sort of never felt like enough. His own conspiracy theories about President Obama -- you know, his place of birth -- it never seemed like it was enough.

ROMANS: Yes.

WOLF: So there's some precedent for political opposition never being satisfied with what they're given.

In this case, I don't think he can say they're never going to be satisfied before you can release the report. I mean, after a 4-page summary with the most beneficial things probably to him in it, you at least have to let people see the evidence before you're going to say they're not going to be satisfied.

BRIGGS: At the very least, they seem to be opening themselves up to that criticism.

Can they walk and chew gum at the same time? That was the central question after taking back the House. And the answer appears to be no because they're not proposing answers on health care, they're not proposing answers on immigration.

Meanwhile, the president threatening to close the border. And then on health care, is saying the party is going to be the party of great health care.

But, Mitch McConnell, Zach -- actually some policy pushback yesterday on both behalf's -- listen.

[05:40:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: I pointed out to him the Senate Republicans' view on dealing with comprehensive health care reform with a Democratic House of Representatives. I made it clear to him we were not going to be doing that in the Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Is Mitch McConnell suddenly drawing a line on what the president should or should not do, who hasn't done much of that the last two years?

WOLF: What I just heard there is Mitch McConnell said no to Donald Trump --

ROMANS: Yes.

WOLF: -- which is kind of an important thing. He might have done it before but he did it, and then he said that he did it in public. So, President Trump has someone basically telling him you can't do that with regard to things like health care, in particular -- potentially, with the border closing.

We've seen Trump walk those things back a little bit. So he's sort of reached the limits, I guess, of how he influences --

ROMANS: Yes.

WOLF: -- the party.

Now, make no mistake, he's still very much in control of the Republican Party. But, Mitch McConnell also has a job to do and he has to be able to tell the president you just -- there's no way you can accomplish some of these things -- and he can't.

ROMANS: On the border thing, it's just so fascinating guys because we've been reporting about what would happen if you shut the border and how detrimental that would be to the American economy at the very moment when the president -- it looks as though there could be some progress on China trade.

BRIGGS: Right.

ROMANS: And then you would put -- do this self-inflicted wound --

BRIGGS: More than a billion dollars a day in trade.

ROMANS: -- with Mexico. We export more to Mexico than we do to China. So it seems as though maybe that reality is starting to sink in.

There are other realities, though, with this president that I think it's important not to normalize. Some of the things he says that are just not true. What's our latest number on how many --

BRIGGS: Nine thousand four hundred fifty-one false or misleading statements in 801 days.

ROMANS: So that's about 12 of those a day. Here's three from yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations -- your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer.

I don't want to use names because I'll get in trouble because it's always -- somebody's going to leak this whole damn speech to the media.

My father is German, right -- was German, and born in a very wonderful place in Germany.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: In reverse order, his father was born in New York. This speech was always going to be televised, and -- BRIGGS: There was cameras all over the place.

ROMANS: -- noise does not cause cancer.

So what does this tell us about this president that, in some cases, these things don't even make news anymore because he's making --

BRIGGS: No.

ROMANS: -- so much other news on shutting the border, and I'm going to have -- I'm going to fix health care, but maybe I'm not? You know what I mean?

WOLF: Yes, he has a long-documented distaste for windmills.

ROMANS: Yes.

WOLF: He doesn't want them near his golf courses. So that sort of, I guess, kind of explains that. It looked like he was going for a punchline there so maybe they would say it was a joke.

The father being born in Germany thing is really weird, largely I think because you should theoretically know where your father is, especially if you're a very public person like Trump. You're doing diplomacy next to the NATO secretary-general. It's just a strange thing.

And why, I wonder, don't they correct him on this? It's like the fourth time he's done it, by some estimates.

BRIGGS: Yes.

WOLF: Shouldn't somebody at the White House say to President Trump --

ROMANS: But, Germany -- and the born in Germany thing, you could see how it was meant to say I'm an authority on Germany not paying its fair share to NATO because my dad was born in Germany. First of all, that logic doesn't even make sense and his dad wasn't born in Germany. You know, it's just so Trumpian.

BRIGGS: And to Zach's point, it's the fourth time he's said that --

ROMANS: It's so Trumpian.

BRIGGS: -- very lie or whatever that is -- Tim Apple. It just -- why do you lie about these things?

WOLF: Right.

BRIGGS: It's hard to --

ROMANS: It's a feature of the software, not a bug, as someone said yesterday.

BRIGGS: Yes. WOLF: And it could just be him mistaking things -- his mind getting cluttered and he just doesn't know what he's saying. I think that's entirely possible. Things just shoot out and he's not even sure what he's saying half the time.

ROMANS: And, Trump supporters love it when the establishments' heads pop off because Trump says something that's not entirely true. That's what they love about him -- it's entertaining.

BRIGGS: Right.

Zach Wolf, thank you, sir.

ROMANS: Nice to see you.

WOLF: Thanks.

BRIGGS: History in Chicago as Lori Lightfoot was elected mayor of the nation's third-largest city. She becomes the first African-American woman to lead Chicago and also the first to identify as gay.

The 56-year-old former assistant U.S. attorney vowing to remake the city by putting the interests of all the people over the powerful few.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), MAYOR-ELECT, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: 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. Well, we couldn't see the whole staircase when we started this journey but we had faith -- an abiding faith in a city, its people, and in its future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:45:10] BRIGGS: Lightfoot faces serious issues in Chicago, like crime and police and community relations. She'll be sworn in next month, replacing Rahm Emanuel who chose not to seek a third term.

ROMANS: All right. Hundreds of pairs of shoes, all for a good cause. Why one Kansas woman cleaned out her local shop, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: In Washington State, authorities are looking for this man. They call him a person of interest in the rape of a passenger in a fake rideshare. The woman told King County sheriff's detective she got into a car she thought was the rideshare and was raped inside that vehicle.

Authorities say the man was seen near the victim's home. The sheriff's office is not releasing the name of the rideshare company because it confirmed the woman never made contact with any of its drivers that night.

[05:50:05] BRIGGS: A sad farewell to the victim of a rideshare killing in Columbia, South Carolina. A 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. Twenty-four-year-old Nathaniel Rowland charged with kidnapping and killing her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEYMOUR JOSEPHSON, FATHER OF SAMANTHA JOSEPHSON: 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: Her funeral will be held today at noon.

In the wake of her death, South Carolina lawmakers planning legislation to require rideshare vehicles to display lighted signs. Can't say enough. Check the license plate, check the name of the driver. It's all there.

ROMANS: And make sure they say your name when you get into that car.

BRIGGS: Good point.

ROMANS: All right.

Global stocks markets are higher on hopes this morning that the U.S. and China are closer to a final trade agreement. The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce telling reporters 90 percent of the deal is done. Another round of talks begin today in D.C. That's a look around the world.

Let's take a look at Wall Street. Futures are slightly higher here -- about 112 points higher. The Dow closed down yesterday. The problem there was Walgreens. Walgreens lowered its profit goal for the year.

The Dow closed down 79 points. The S&P, though, was flat and the Nasdaq ended up just a tiny bit.

The mixed trading day comes after the Dow closed at the highest level since October on Monday. The Dow and S&P, I think about three percent away from record highs.

Get ready for a big drop in Tesla sales. Tesla will report first- quarter figures this week and analysts expect sales and deliveries of the best-selling car -- the Model 3 -- to be about 50,000 cars, significantly lower than the 63,000 it reported last quarter.

The report could reveal the first quarter -- the quarter drop in sales at Tesla in nearly two years and that could also renew concerns among some investors, at least, about whether Tesla has enough cash going forward. Tesla needs more cash soon as it prepares to start making the Model Y.

All right, did you get your "Avengers: End Game" tickets? Presales for the latest Marvel movie caused, shall we say, chaos online. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH BROLIN, ACTOR, "AVENGERS: END GAME": You could not live with your own failure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Yes, that's the new trailer. Fans rushed to buy tickets after Marvel released that new clip.

Those who logged on to Fandango found themselves in a virtual line -- some fans waiting hours before getting tickets. And then, AMC Theatres' Web site and ticking app -- oh, they crashed because of the demand. Even with all those issues, Fandango said "End Game" broke its first-day presale record in six hours, passing the previous record holder, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

BRIGGS: Thankfully, it's assigned seats now at most theaters.

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: And back in the day you had to wait in those gigantic lines and clamor for good seats.

ROMANS: Yes. Waiting in line -- waiting in line but waiting in line online.

BRIGGS: All right, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:57:37] BRIGGS: Hidden cameras recording labor and delivery patients at a California hospital. A new lawsuit says 1,800 patients were recorded at the women's center at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa. The lawsuit claims recordings were stored on desktop computers and some could be viewed without a password.

ROMANS: Sharp HealthCare claims it installed those cameras because drugs were disappearing from operating rooms and in its attempt to catch the thief of the drugs, patients and medical personnel were sometimes recorded.

BRIGGS: For the second time in three weeks, the Houston area coping with a chemical plant fire. At least one person was killed at the KMCO plant in Crosby. Two others are in critical condition.

Harris County officials say hazardous chemicals have not been detected in the air. The KMCO plant is about 25 miles northeast of Deer Park where a facility caught fire and burned for several days last month.

ROMANS: I love this story.

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: A Kansas woman walked out of her local Payless with hundreds of pairs of new shoes for a very good cause. Addy Tritt says the store was closing and all the shoes were marked down. The retail value was around $6,000. She paid only $100 for the entire haul. I think they were a dollar a pair for these little kids' shoes.

So who are they for? Tritt donated all of the shoes to flood victims in Nebraska.

A reminder that people are really hurting in the Midwest. First, hit by lower farm values, then hit by -- they had to hold so much of their grain in storage because of the --

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- trade policies that were hurting them. And then, this flooding. Just awful there.

BRIGGS: Difficult times there.

ROMANS: Thanks for joining us this morning. Have a great day, everybody. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Here's "NEW DAY."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NADLER: We are asking that the entire Mueller report be given to Congress.

TRUMP: There's no collusion. Now we're going to start this process all over again? I think it's a disgrace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are the committee that has responsibility to determine whether or not there was any wrongdoing; not the attorney general.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This woman showed up at Mar-a-Lago. She had malicious malware.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER OBAMA OFFICIAL: The only question I have is why does it look so clumsy? Did they intend for her to get caught?

JACK WEISS, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, CYBERSECURITY EXPERT: It's stunning how far she got in. We see the front doors and the back doors open to this administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: This show starts at 6:00.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's coming. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, April third, 6:00 here in New York. And this morning, Congress will take a giant new step for getting its hands on the full Mueller report.