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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Sri Lanka Death Toll Spikes To 290; Leaning Toward Impeachment; Comedian Wins Ukraine's Presidency; Deputy Investigated For Slamming Teens Head; Nadler Plans To Call McGahn To Testify; Trump Fuming Over Fallout From Mueller Report; Ukraine's Choice 2019; CNN Business, Dimon, We Need Infrastructure; Iran's Sanctions Waivers; Search For Missing Illinois Boy, Zookeeper Attacked By A Tiger; Late Night Laughs; CNN Business, Earning Season In Full Effect. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired April 22, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN HOST: Nearly 300 people now dead in coordinated Easter terror attacks in Sri Lanka. A security warning was circulated among police 10 days earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It may be that we have undertaken impeachment. What is the best thing for the country?
CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: Do you think this is impeachable?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: A lengthy pause. Some Democrats starting to come around on impeachment in the wake of the Mueller report.
KOSINSKI: A comedian scores a decisive to win in Ukraine's next president. I'm sorry, I screw that whole thing up as Ukraine's next president.
BRIGGS: Because it's so hard to believe.
KOSINSKI: Sorry. Bringing fresh uncertainty to an ally.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you doing? He is bleeding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: And claims of excessive force in Florida. Video captured police slamming a teen's head to the ground. What that Deputy is saying this morning. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to "Early Start." I'm David Briggs. KOSINSKI: And I'm Michelle Kosinski. It is 31 minutes past the hour.
The death toll in Easter Sunday attack in Sri Lanka rising steeply to 290 people now. That number includes at least two Americans. The attack involved coordinated explosions in at least eight locations across Sri Lanka, including three churches and four high-end hotels.
Officials now say 24 people are under arrest so far. The state department says terror groups are still plotting possible attacks with little or no warning.
BRIGGS: Also, a police source tells CNN an internal memo was sent by authorities before the bombing set contained a warning to raise security. Senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson live at the Sri Lankan capitol of Colombo. Ivan, good morning, what are we learning?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Dave. It is a subdued and frankly it's a city of mourning here. And I'm standing in front of the St. Anthony Shrine. It's one of the three catholic churches that was so viciously attacked on the holiest day of the Christian calendar, Easter Sunday.
So, right here, there is a tight security cordon, you can see clergy gathered there as well as armed police. We have had soldiers here as well and some of the damage, the glass and even the roof and the clock tower appearing to be frozen at 8:45, which is when we believe that the suicide bomber struck at this location and this was a coordinated attack, because there were three luxury hotels up the road from where I am here in Colombo that were also attacked as well as two other catholic churches in two other cities in this country.
So just a kind of organization that has frankly shocked the authorities here. One government minister telling me that this is a brand new type of terrorism for Sri Lanka, and that is saying something, because this country fought a civil war for decades that ended almost 10 years ago. And it's no stranger to acts of political violence.
There's some big questions right now, though, because some government ministers have published parts of a memo between different security departments issuing a warning that they got from a foreign intelligence service, warning about possible suicide attacks against catholic churches and the Indian high commission, the embassy here in Colombo.
So some government ministers are saying why wasn't action taken in response to these warnings, calling this negligence and incompetence, but they also trying to keep people safe. In one of the police raids yesterday, the targets of the raid detonated bombs, killing three police. So, they're not taking chances. There is a 12-hour curfew that will go on into effect 10 hours, I'm sorry, at 8:00 p.m. tonight.
There are also freezing access to social media here worried about rumors being spread and to secure the government and the security forces being very careful not to point any big fingers at any one group or organization in this multiethnic, multi sectarian country before the investigation gets more details. I might add, no claims of responsibility up until now for these atrocities. Dave and Michelle.
BRIGGS: Just past 2:00 p.m. there. Ivan Watson live for us. Thank you.
[04:35:00] KOSINSKI: There is a frightening scene Sunday at an Easter service in San Diego. Church members tackled a woman carrying a 10- month-old baby and a handgun after she threatened to blow up that church. Witnesses say the woman walked into the auditorium at Mount Everest Academy around noon during a nondenominational service.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID MICHAEL MILLER, HELPED TACKLE WOMAN HOLDING BABY AND GUN: And two minutes after I came in, this lady comes on stage, came through the back with her baby and a gun, and she starts talking all of this craziness about the rapture not being real and everyone is going to hell. After she started pointing the gun at the baby, one of the older gentleman grabbed it from her and me and a couple of other men tackled her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: Police arrested the woman identified by local media, 31 year-old Anna Konke. They later found her 5-year-old daughter healthy and unhurt. The children are now in protective custody.
BRIGGS: A growing number of Democrats are warming up to the idea of impeaching President Trump, including three key committee chairman who seemed hesitate in the past, he even discuss the issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Now, it may be that we have undertaken impeachment nonetheless. I think, what we are going to have to decide as a caucus is what is the best thing for the country? Is it the best thing for the country to take up an impeachment proceeding, because to do otherwise sends a message that this conduct is somehow compatible with office?
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D-MD): There comes a point in life where we all have to make decisions based upon the fact that it is our watch, and you know, history, I think, even if we did not win possibly, if there were not impeachment, I think history would smile upon us for standing up for the constitution.
TODD: Do you think this is impeachable?
REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): Yes, I do. I do think that this, if proven -- if proven, which hasn't been proven yet, some of this, if proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes.
TODD: All right.
NADLER: Obstruction of justice if proven would be impeachable.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: Chairman Nadler plans to call former White House counsel Don
McGahn to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. According to the Mueller report, McGahn refused an order from President Trump to fire the special counsel.
KOSINSKI: And Politico is reporting Democrats on the judiciary committee are already engaged with the Justice Department. They're making preliminary arrangements for Robert Mueller to testify next month. The White House now in full spin mode.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: Do you feel like he is truthful?
RUDY GUILIANI, ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: I believe he is truthful, yes, as much as he can be in a world in which every single word you say is picked apart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: Rudy Giuliani not stopping there, the president's personal lawyer launching a blistering attack on the Mueller report, while curiously not questioning its findings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're saying that this document is not credible.
GUILIANI: No. How about looking at it this way, people who wrote an unfair to him, people who wrote an unfair report, people who came close to torturing people to get information and break them --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Came close --
GUILIANI: Yes, how about having --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They put forward a report that ultimately cleared President Trump.
GUILIANI: And that takes every cheap shot imaginable because he couldn't prove it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You called it cheap shots. Other people call it evidence.
GUILIANI: But you don't just spew out all this stuff.
TODD: Do you and the president accept the idea that the Russian interference was designed to help President Trump?
GUILIANI: I believe it was. I can't tell you for sure. I haven't examine all that evidence, but I have --
TODD: Did the president accept that?
GUILIANI: -- no reason to dispute it. I think he does.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Boris Sanchez traveled with the president for the holiday weekend. He filed this report from West Palm Beach.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Michelle, according to sources President Trump spent the weekend fuming over news coverage of details in the Mueller report and the depiction from some former White House officials of a White House in chaos. A president that is unhinged, paranoid and angry, and aides that either ignore or refuse to carry out his orders.
Meantime, the president's attorney, Rudy Giuliani was on the Sunday morning talk shows. He spoke with Jake Tapper on State of the Union. And Jake asked him about some of the behavior outlined in the Mueller report, specifically whether it was ethical or moral. Listen to what Giuliani's response.
GUILIANI: Any candidate in the whole world in America would take information.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: From a foreign source? From a hostile foreign source?
GUILIANI: There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians.
TAPPER: There's nothing wrong from taking information --
GUILIANI: It depends on where it came from. It depends on where it came from. You're assuming that the giving of the information is a campaign contribution. We do report carefully. The report says we can't conclude that because the law is pretty much against that.
SANCHEZ: The strategy REID: from the president's legal team is one that we have seen before. They are now just questioning the credibility of people cited in Mueller's report even as they accept the report's general findings. We should point out, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to hold a conference call with the Democratic caucus at 5:00 p.m. on Monday to talk about the possibility of pursuing impeachment. David and Michelle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[04:40:00] KOSINSKI: Thank you so much, Boris.
Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan says there's a potential obstruction case against President Trump once he is out of office. He notes the Mueller report said evidence was being preserved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PREET BHARARA, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK:
The president, once he leaves office can be charged with crimes committed while in office. I don't think it can be more clear, whether or not a prosecutor will seek to do it, and whether or not there will be viable defenses, I don't know, but the position of the Mueller team, to me is clearly the case, they think there is future legal jeopardy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: President Trump remember fired Bharara as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, that's the same district where Trump was named as individual one, in the hush money case against his former lawyer Michael Cohen.
BRIGGS: Former Vice President Joe Biden poised to make his long awaited announcement this week that he is entering the 2020 race. Sources close to Biden tell us, he will likely make a video announcement followed by a series of events, still to be determine. Separately, Biden spent the Eastern holiday in Delaware with his family. His entry to the race will answer one of the biggest questions still lingering over the crowded and historically diverse Democratic primary field, this would mark Biden's third run for the White House.
KOSINSKI: Life imitating art in Ukraine, a TV comedian who played a teacher who becomes president of Ukraine is now, in fact, the real president of Ukraine. Political newcomer, Volodymyr Zelensky, declaring victory after Sunday's presidential election. Phil Black now is live from Kiev. Tell us about the reaction to this. I mean, is there shock there?
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not really, Michelle because such was the popularity and the dominance of Volodymyr Zelensky throughout the campaign, his messages, his ideas, his persona, it has all resonated so strongly. The regular guy who in probably becomes president and then cleans up politics in this country. That is the character he plays on television. That is the character he says he is now playing in real life. That is what his whole campaign was based about, the TV show's phenomenally successful here. He is an incredibly popular, charismatic comic and actor, and he's conducted this campaign in a clever, although distant way.
He has not appeared in public often, he hasn't given a lot of interviews, he has not talked about detailed policy. Instead, campaigning in pretty vague generalities about cleaning up politics, fighting corruption, making things better, doing things for the Ukrainian people. All of that has really worked for him. It's just that he is a fresh face and people are ready for it. He has secured, according to exit polls, and the counts so far, something around 73 percent of the vote. A truly spectacular result really, but that is a mix of people who were simply fed up with the old system, a protest vote, if you like, and those who have generally fallen for Zelensky, people who have projected their hopes and dreams on to his likable face and vague campaign. But the problems are going to start for him on day one of his
presidency, the weak economy, the ongoing fighting and now war against Russian backed separatists in the East. It all matters in a biggest sense, because Ukraine is in many ways the front line of the West ongoing confrontation with Russia, across a range of issues.
And so a big part of Volodymyr Zelensky's job now are really important part, will be going toe to toe with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the professional comic and clown, if you like, up against the guy who has dominated Russian politics and world affairs for something close to 20 years.
And there's a theory that says Putin is going to be very happy about this because he will now be dealing with a truly inexperienced Ukrainian president, Michelle.
KOSINSKI: Great story. Thanks so much, Phil.
BRIGGS: It is astounding and said a Ukrainian office manager in the paper I'm reading, it's like when you go to a cheap supermarket and all the food is rotten and you rummage around to find the least rotten piece. That is who you vote for as president, folks in 2019.
A 5-year-old is missing in Illinois, and police are focusing on what happened inside the boy's home. Critical story ahead.
[04:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIGGS: 4:48 Eastern Time, and J.P. Morgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon says America has an infrastructure problem and told Fox's Maria Bartiromo, it will cost the U.S. more if it's not fixed now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMIE DIMON, CEO, JP MORGAN CHASE: Infrastructure not even in the top 20 anymore, and we need infrastructure and we have time. I would spend the money on infrastructure and find a way to pay for it. If you don't fix it, it's three trillion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Last week J.P. Morgan announced it is investing $3 million in each of five U.S. cities as part of the firm's advancing city's program. The 500 million, 5-year initiative is meant to drive growth and create economic opportunities in cities across the country. Dimon says Sunday, infrastructure is a bipartisan issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIMON: And (inaudible) Democrats and Republicans, we both sit in a room and say we need infrastructure, so I'm hoping there might be a common ground here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Still mounting debt makes conversations around future expenditures difficult. And now the White House has had numerous infrastructure weeks. They have still yet to put forward a legislative proposal.
KOSINSKI: The U.S. tightening sanctions on Iran this morning. The state department says countries importing Iranian oil, including many U.S. allies could face sanctions starting next month. "The Washington Post" reporting that sanctions wavers will no longer be granted to those countries after May 2nd, something the state department has been foreshadowing now for weeks.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is expected to make that announcement this morning. The state department issued 180-day waivers last November to China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy, and Greece.
[04:50:00] The idea was to give them time to find alternative oil sources. Now, though, U.S. officials say this is happening and the goal of the new policy is to drive up the costs of Iran's maligned behavior and address the regime's threats.
BRIGGS: All right, ahead, a tentative deal reached to end the ten-day stop and shop strike. CNN business has the details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KOSINSKI: Thirteen students and chaperons were hospitalized Sunday, after arriving on a flight at Boston's loading airport, they are part of the larger group of about 40 on a trip to Ecuador. While in a connecting American airlines flight from Miami to Boston, a total of 16 passengers reported feeling symptoms of a stomach illness.
[04:55:07] According to the Boston Globe, the students and chaperons who became ill ate at the same restaurant in Ecuador on Saturday night before heading home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you doing? He is bleeding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: A Florida sheriff's Deputy under investigation for slamming a teenager's head into the ground and punching him. Moments after another officer pepper sprayed the teen. The entire incident caught on camera. Broward County Sheriff is vowing to conduct a thorough investigation. In the arrest report, the Deputy claims he had to act quickly, because he feared he would be struck or have his weapon taken from him. He has been placed on restrictive administrative assignment.
KOSINSKI: A 5-year-old boy is missing in Illinois and police do not believe he was abducted or walked away. Authorities say they are putting a special focus on the family's home. The parents of five year old Andrew A.J. Freund reported him missing last Thursday. The search has included 15 police agencies, drones, and rescue k-9 units. But the dogs only picked up Andrew scent within the resident, indicating he had not left the home they believe on foot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW FREUND SR., FATHER OF MISSING BOY: Well, we are just doing whatever we can at this point. I have no control over what people think. I just want my son to come home. OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has been involved with the family since just after Andrew was born. Officials say there were sign of neglect by his mother.
BRIGGS: A veteran zoo keeper recovering this morning after she was attacked this weekend by a tiger at the zoo in Topeka, Kansas. Officials say the woman and a 7-year-old male Sumatra tiger named Sanji were both in the tiger habitat when the animal essentially tackled her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRENDAN WILEY, TOPEKA ZOO DIRECTOR: It's a normal part of the daily process for her to enter that space to clean it, to maintain it, to put out enrichment items. All of that is normal. The one point that was not normal was that Sanji also found access to that space at the same time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: No small problem. The zoo keeper suffered lacerations and punctures to her head, neck, back and arms. She is currently in stable condition. The Indian zoo keeper is the facility's primary tiger keeper and has been working in that space for years. The Topeka Zoo will not euthanize Sanji.
KOSINSKI: Comedian, John Oliver takes a look at one of the biggest surprises in the redacted Mueller report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are multiple instances of people ignoring the president's instructions. Like when Trump asked Cory Lewandowsky to send his Attorney General a message.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president gave him orders to tell Attorney General then Jeff Sessions to curtail the scope of the Russia investigation. Now, Lewandowski according to the report never followed through on it, intending to pass it off to another aide who did also not follow through on what the president instructed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is a chain of two people failing to follow through on a demand from the president, and it didn't stop there, because that aide passed Trump's order off to an assistant who opened the window and shouted it to a grounds keeper, who wrote it down, and taped it to a Roomba that was passing by, who threw itself straight into a river. Because this isn't why it gotten to government. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: All right. Let's check on CNN Business now, 4:58 Eastern Time. Asian markets closed lower to start the week. European markets are closed today. And on Wall Street, futures pointing lower ahead of a busy earnings week, Wall Street ended last week higher, DOW ended up just under 1 percent.
The S&P declined just a bit of NASDAQ closed up slightly higher. Earnings season is in full bloom. Facebook, Boeing and Tesla will report their first quarter earnings Wednesday. Tesla reported a massive drop in sales for the first quarter, so far it has not changed its guidance of 360,000 to 400,000 vehicles for the year.
Boeing's earnings are expected to take a hit after the grounding of the 737 Max planes last month. Investors will be eager to hear when the grounding will be lifted. They also will want the company's outlook for deliveries and orders for the jet going forward.
Stop and shop employees and the grocery chain have reached a tentative deal to end their 10-day strike. United food and commercial workers union said late Sunday, stop and shop workers who were on strike will return to work Monday morning adding the message you sent by collectively standing up for yourselves, your families and for good jobs has resonated not only with the company, but all of America.
The strike began in April 11th when 31,000 workers walked out of stores across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The Hill reports the three-year deal includes a pay increase for all associates and continued health coverage and retirement benefits. That is a huge sigh of relief for people in towns like mine that have one grocery store and have had nowhere to buy toilet paper for the last 10 days.
KOSINSKI: Yes. A good ending for this one.
BRIGGS: "Early Start" continues right now.
END
