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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
The Attorney General Set To Answer Questions About How Much Of The Mueller Report Americans Can See; Trump's Treasury Secretary Says No One Is Telling Him What To Do Concerning The Release Of The President''s Tax Returns; There Are Tens Of Millions Under Some Kind Of Wind Or Weather Advisory In America Today; Deadline For The Treasury Department To Turn Over Trump's Tax Returns To Congress. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired April 10, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
WILLIAM BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: I don't intend, at this stage, to send the full, unredacted report to the committee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The attorney general set to answer questions about how much of the Mueller report Americans can see.
STEVEN MNUCHIN, UNITED STATES TREASURY SECRETARY: I'm -- I'm not afraid of being fired at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: President Trump's treasury secretary says no one is telling him what to do concerning the release of the president's tax returns.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST Israel's prime minister locked in a virtual tie with the man who wants to replace him in an election that is too close to call.
BRIGGS: Another bomb cyclone could drop a blizzard from Denver to the Dakotas; tens of millions under some kind of wind or weather advisory in America today. We mentioned Denver earlier, it was 80 degrees on Tuesday; it will fall into the 20s today. A 60 degree flip. Good morning everyone, welcome to "Early Today," I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, April 10. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. Good morning everyone. We begin here with the Attorney General Bill Barr back on Capitol Hill this morning. Yesterday he was grilled by a House subcommittee for hours. Most of the questioning focused on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Democrats demanding to know what is in the Mueller report, how much of it Barr will release and when.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
BARR: My original timetable of being able to release this by mid April stands. So, I - I think that, from my standpoint, by the - by -- within a week, I'll be in a position to release the report to the public. I don't intend, at this stage, to send the full, unredacted report to the committee.
(END VIDEO)
ROMANS: Barr says there will be four types of redactions in the report, color coded for convenience. Grand jury material, classified information, material related to ongoing investigations and what he calls information that harms the privacy and reputational interest of peripheral third parties. Barr also refused to say whether he's given the White House a look at the Mueller report.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
REP. NITA LOWEY, (D) NEW YORK AND HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS CHAIRWOMAN: Did the White House see the report before you released your summarizing letter? Has the White House seen it since then? Have they been briefed on the contents beyond what was in the summarizing letter to the judiciary committee?
BARR: I've said what I'm going to say about the report today. I'm not going to say anything more about it until the report is out and everyone has a chance to look at it.
(END VIDEO)
BRIGGS: A notable exchange there. House democrats planning to waste no time seeking the full Mueller report as soon as they receive Attorney General Barr's redacted version.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
REP. JERRY NADLER, (D) NEW YORK, HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: Congress has need of the entire report, including the grand jury material, including - including everything. I presume we are going to get the redacted report within a week. When we do so, if we don't get everything, we will issue the subpoena and go to court.
(END VIDEO)
BRIGGS: Democrats highly critical of Barr's refusal to release grand jury material from the full report. House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff comparing Barr to the late and notoriously zealous attack dog lawyer, Roy Cohn, a one-time mentor for the young Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D) CALIFORNIA AND HOUSE INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN: I think that's a betrayal of what he promised during his confirmation but it is what he was hired to do which was to protect the president. The president wanted his own Roy Cohn and apparently he's got one, but it is concerning.
(END VIDEO)
BRIGGS: Republicans, meantime, dismissing the need for the full and unredacted Mueller report assuming the attorney general's four page summary matches the redacted version.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: It's over for me, unless there's something in the report that suggests Mueller did not say there was no collusion or he did not find -- if he says, you know, I can't decide on obstruction, you decide. The decision by Barr is OK with me. If the report indicates no collusion found by Mueller, that's it. Done. Over, for me.
(END VIDEO)
ROMANS: All right the attorney general is also supporting the Trump Administration's decision not to defend Obamacare. Barr was questioned about the Justice Department taking a position that could leave tens of millions of Americans uninsured. Here is how he responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
BARR: Do you think it's likely we are going to prevail?
REP. MATT CARTWRIGHT, (D) PENNSYLVANIA: If you prevail, well you're devoting scarce resources of your department toward that effort are you not attorney general?
[04:05:00]
BARR: We're in litigation. We have to take a position. If you think it's such an outrageous position, you have nothing to worry about. Let the courts do their job.
(END VIDEO)
ROMANS: In a stunning reversal last month the administration sided with red states seeking to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act. Previously the White House indicated only parts of Obamacare were unconstitutional.
BRIGGS: Today is the deadline for the Treasury Department to turn over President Trump's tax returns to Congress. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin testifying on Capitol Hill admitting his department has consulted with the White House about the request. That set off a fiery exchange with Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Mnuchin insisting no one in the Trump Administration is telling him what to do.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
MNUCHIN: I have had no direct conversations with the president or anybody else in the White House about this. Our legal department has consulted with the White House as - as - as they would and as I believe would be normal. That is not taking direction from the White House. I don't view that as interference. It was not specific to the president's -- anything related to the president's tax returns other than the expectation of getting this request.
REP. MAXINE WATERS, (D) CALIFORNIA: You are not afraid that you will be fired if in fact you release the returns?
MNUCHIN: Well I'm -- I'm not afraid of being fired at all.
(END VIDEO)
BRIGGS: Mnuchin and Waters got into a verbal spat when the treasury secretary insisted on leaving the hearing to keep a previous appointment. More on that exchange later on "Early Start."
ROMANS: President Trump refuting reports his administration is looking to resume a policy that tears apart families at the southern border. Instead, he blamed the Obama Administration for beginning the policy of child separation, separating children from their parents, a claim that is misleading at best. CNN's Abby Phillip has more from the White House.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, President Trump has now ruled out that his administration will attempt to bring back their policy of separating children from their parents at the border. The president was responding to a question about reports, including from CNN, that the president's aides were deliberating on an idea of giving these migrants what they are calling a binary choice, that would be to either stay with their children in detention indefinitely or to allow their children to remain in the United States while they are deported at the border.
The president did not say that wasn't being deliberated, he just said it wasn't going to be done. He did also acknowledge that this was a policy that he believed would deter immigrants from coming up from Central America to the United States' southern border.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I'll tell you something, once you don't have it, that's why you see many more people coming. They are coming like it's a picnic because let's go to Disneyland. President Obama separated children. They had child separation. I was the one that changed it.
(END VIDEO)
PHILLIP: And a senior administration official also adds that this policy was being deliberated in the administration but it was not ready for operational effectiveness. They basically had not figured out how to make it work on the ground and advocates are also saying it would probably be illegal and subject to the same kinds of legal challenges that the previous policy faced. Christine and Dave?
ROMANS: All right Abby Phillip at the White House. All right backlog at the border. The White House has reassigned hundreds of border agents away from customs and toward immigration duties. A CBP Operations Director Randy Howe says now there is a backlog at the border.
(BEGIN VIDEO) RANDY HOWE, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: The border security humanitarian crisis at the southwest border has ripple effects that impact the entire nation. Suspended services negatively affect the trade community, the supply chain, businesses that rely on these products and ultimately the consumer.
(END VIDEO)
ROMANS: So wait time is Monday for cargo processing in El Paso were as long as 250 minutes. That's about four hours sitting in a truck waiting to go through the legal lanes of traffic here. Last year wait times were less than 15 minutes. The Bridge of America's cargo lane closed for the first time Saturday. CNN affiliate KFOX said some businesses in El Paso did not receive their imports over the weekend because of the delays adding that the Bridge of the Americas will be closed to cargo trucks every Saturday until further notice because of this reassignment of - of agents. Remember truck and rail routes carry $1.7 billion in goods every single day back and forth across the border. U.S. manufactures have supply chains that crisscross Canada, the United States and Mexico. Any delay at those border crosses hurts American factories and American workers. We are watching very closely to see if the American auto industry has any kinds of delays in manufacturing because of a problem getting - getting shipments. BRIGGS: OK, another top-ranking homeland security official bites the
dust. Claire Grady, the number two at the DHS is the latest to leave the department. Grady was next in line to replace Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen after she was forced out.
[04:10:00]
Her departure paves the way for Kevin McAleenan to lead Homeland Security in an acting capacity. President Trump insisting the personnel moves are not what they appear.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
TRUMP: Well I never said I'm cleaning house. I don't know who came up with that expression. We have a lot of great people over there.
(END VIDEO)
BRIGGS: The change come as the president signals a tougher line on stopping the flood of migrants at the U.S./Mexico border.
ROMANS: The race for Prime Minister of Israel, too close call at this hour. More than 90 percent of votes have been counted and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Conservative Likud party is ahead of the former General Benny Gantz's Blue and White Party by fewer than 13,000 votes. Both sides already claimed victory. Let's turn to CNN's Michael Holmes, live in Jerusalem. And Michael, we knew it was going to be a nail biter. I mean the polling heading into this show, just neck and neck. You know, when will we know?
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well actually Christine, it actually could be days before all of this is sorted out. You know, you had that sort of bizarre situation, the sight of both main leaders - Netanyahu and Benny Gantz appearing before their respective supporters. Both of them claiming victory. Now of course any one of them could be right. Benjamin Netanyahu does appear to have the easier path to forming a coalition.
He looks like he is going to have enough support from the smaller parties who won seats to reach the magic number of 61. In fact, some projections have him 65-55 advantage over the Blue and White Party and Benny Gantz. Gantz would have to get defections of traditional Likud allies. That could happen, deals are being done and promises no doubt being made, but is a long shot and it is fair to say Mr. Netanyahu, at the moment, is favored to be the one who will be asked by the president to form a coalition. Not, however, a done deal just yet. Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Michael Holmes for us in Jerusalem where it's been a long 24 hours for you covering that race. Thank you so much, sir.
BRIGGS: And the question moving forward, not only who wins, but if Netanyahu wins, can he then pass a law preventing him from being prosecuted for corruption?
ROMANS: Wow.
BRIGGS: A lot to follow there. Ahead, he's been reeling against millionaires for years. Bernie Sanders, in fact, is a millionaire so what does the democratic socialist had to say about that.
ROMANS: And a Seattle couple narrowly escaping death when a power pole comes crashing down on their car. Their story next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:15:00]
ROMANS: Wild, spring weather. Another possible bomb cyclone developing out of the Rockies this morning and that means an April blizzard from Denver through the Dakotas. Let's get right to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Christine and Dave, good morning guys. What an incredible pattern here when it comes to the significance and the wide-reaching impacts of this storm system across the Western U.S., the Plains, the intermountain west. Not only do we have winter weather watches, winter storm warnings and also blizzard warnings in place. But it even includes Denver metro as we go in towards this afternoon and this evening and of course, blizzard warnings - I mean blizzard conditions imminent or occurring we know by the afternoon hours certainly. The likelihood increases there across eastern Colorado, portions of Nebraska on into Kansas.
But quiet conditions so far this morning but the elements will come together inside the next say 18-24 hours. The perspective across this region, significant snowfall for an extended period then of course the interstate is going to be severely impacted by this system. The band of activity here shifts off towards portions of the upper Midwest as we go in from Wednesday night into Thursday morning so that's where the area of interest will be. In fact, Minneapolis could see one its snowiest days for the month of April on record if seven inches come down and that's precisely what is in store across portions of Minneapolis. But notice background the Dakotas there into South Dakota, upwards of two feet of snow possible here in the heart of April. Guys?
BRIGGS: Two feet in mid-April. Pedram, thanks.
Bernie has big bucks. Democratic socialist Bernie sanders confirming he is a millionaire and offering no apologies. The Vermont Senator says the cash came from his best-selling book "Our Revolution," a "New York Times" best seller in 2016. Of course Sanders has been critical of the upper crust in the past.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS, (D) VERMONT: Billionaires and millionaires have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the political process supporting republican candidates and today is payback time for them.
The bulk of the benefits in this legislation go to large profitable corporations and to millionaires and billionaires.
Well my view is you don't give, as Trump wants to, huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires.
(END VIDEO)
BRIGGS: Sanders does plan to release ten years of tax returns on or before Monday. When asked about the growing nest egg, he replied, "If you write a best-selling book, you can become a millionaire, too."
ROMANS: All right then. A program you know, Washington Governor Jay Inslee in a live presidential town hall moderated by Wolf Blitzer, tonight at 10:00 Eastern only on CNN.
BRIGGS: The academy of pediatrics calling for the immediate recall of Fisher-Price's Rock 'N Play sleeper after a Consumer Reports analysis linked the product to 32 infant deaths. According to "Consumer Reports," Fisher-Price does not believe the deaths were caused by its product. The Consumer Products Safety Commission is asking customers to stop using the Rock and Play sleeper if their children are able to roll over. But the American Academy of Pediatrics says that warning does not go far enough. They are asking stores to remove the product from shelves.
ROMANS: This is a really important story because so many people think you are being safe when you put your baby in there snapped in. But the point here is accidental suffocation of a baby that can roll over, that soft fabric on the sides.
[04:20:00]
The doctors say a baby should be flat on their back, no soft bedding. And also interesting the Consumer Product Safety Commission is - is not mandating that this be taken off the shelves. They're working with the manufacturer to take this off the shelves.
BRIGGS: This is a chair your kids may be sleeping in right now. I know mine did growing up. They loved it so take a look folks.
ROMANS: Read the "Consumer Reports" story if you have this chair.
All right, caught on video, a Seattle area couple narrowly escaping death as a power pole falls and crushes their car, with them inside. Tom and Linda Cook were trapped in their Ford Edge for about an hour. They say they were extremely lucky to have survived with only minor injuries.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
LINDA COOK, POWER POLE CRUSHED THEIR CAR: The car could blow up. All kinds of things were going through my head.
TOM COOK, POWER POLE CRUSHED THEIR CAR: If it had hit the windshield or the sunroof, the power lines would have come inside the car. If it had been off center to one side or the other, it would have collapsed the roof on top of one of us.
(END VIDEO)
ROMANS: Either the unluckiest day or luckiest day of their lives. It was just like that. The pole that landed on the Cooks' care was one of 26 that fell last Friday. Seattle light officials say it's unclear why the pole passed full inspection three years ago.
BRIGGS: Remarkable they survived. Ahead, did Ted Cruz jinx Texas Tech? The tweet that some say cost the team a national championship.
ROMANS: Plus could Danny and Sandy ride again in a new "Grease" movie?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:25:00]
BRIGGS: Texas Senator Ted Cruz is getting ripped across social media and for once, it's not about his politics. Texas Tech fans say Cruz gave their team the proverbial kiss of death in the national championship game with this tweet. Cruz was in the stands posted a selfie with 35 seconds left in the game and Texas Tech up by one point. Of course, they went on to lose to Virginia in overtime. Cruz later tweeted about a heart-breaking loss and congratulated the team on making an historic season but Red Raider fans were pretty unforgiving accusing Cruz of jinxing the team's chances.
ROMANS: All right Paramount looking to recapture some greased lightning. A prequel to the classic 1978 musical "Grease" is in works titled "Summer Nights."
(MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Summer loving had me a blast. Summer loving happened so fast.
ROMANS: (voice over) You're welcome America. That soundtrack will be in your head all day. According to the "Hollywood Reporter," the film will tell the story of how Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson, the characters played by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John how they met before reconnecting in the original movie. There was a "Grease" sequel in 1982 which tanked at the box office. Fox aired a live version of "Grease" in 2016.
BRIGGS: (voice over) I don't mind that as far as ear worms go for the rest of my Wednesday.
ROMANS: That's a good sound track. That's a good sound track.
BRIGGS: All right ahead, Attorney General Bill Barr under fire for refusing to release the entire Mueller report to Congress. A look ahead to his testimony this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:30:00]
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