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Here Come the Democrats; U.S. Warned Sri Lanka of Imminent Attacks; House Dems Subpoena Don McGahn; U.S. Nearing a Measles Record. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired April 23, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:20] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Battle lines drawn at CNN's 2020 Democratic town halls. Felon voting, free college, impeachment -- hear what five candidates have to say.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. believes a key terrorist operative in the Sri Lanka attacks has ties to ISIS. Four Americans killed in the attacks are being remembered.
BRIGGS: Another subpoena from House Democrats, this one for Don McGahn, a former White House counsel who refused to fire Robert Mueller.
KOSINSKI: And the U.S. is closing in on a record it would rather avoid. The largest measles outbreak since the disease was eliminated or thought to be almost 20 years ago.
Good morning, and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Michelle Kosinski.
BRIGGS: Good morning, my friend.
KOSINSKI: Hi.
BRIGGS: Good morning to all of you.
I'm Dave Briggs. Tuesday, April 23rd, 4:00 a.m. in the East.
A big night here on CNN. We start this morning with that big town hall. Five Democrats on one stage. One goal: reclaiming the White House in 2020. They were all in Manchester, New Hampshire, for a CNN town hall, the first major candidate event of the campaign.
Senators Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg all asked about one key issue for the party, whether to impeach President Trump over the findings in the Mueller report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The impeachment proceedings are up to the House. They're going to have to make that decision. I am in the Senate, and I believe that we are the jury.
There is a third way to hold this president accountable and that is by defeating him in the 2020 election.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If any other human being in this country had done what's documented in the Mueller report, they would be arrested and put in jail. If there's going to be any accountability, that accountability has to come from the Congress. And the tool that we are given for that accountability is the impeachment process.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If, and this is an if, if for the next year, year and a half going right into the heart of the election, all that the Congress is talking about is impeaching Trump and Trump, Trump, Trump, and Mueller, Mueller, Mueller, and we're not talking about health care, we're not talking about raising the minimum wage to a living wage.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we have very good reason to believe that there is an investigation that has been conducted which has produced evidence that tells us that this president and his administration engaged in obstruction of justice. I believe Congress should take the steps toward impeachment.
MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think he has made it pretty clear that he deserves impeachment. My role in the process is try to relegate Trumpism to the dustbin of history, and I think there's no more decisive way to that, especially to get Republicans to abandon this kind of deal with the devil that they made than to have just an absolute thumping at the ballot box.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: Top Democrats putting a damper on impeachment talks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi telling colleagues on a call last night Democrats should focus on, quote, two words, duty and democracy. The move to put the brakes on coming a day after several top House Democrats signaled a new willingness to consider impeachment. But sources say Pelosi was firm about moving cautiously.
BRIGGS: In a dear colleague letter, if you will, to House Democrats Monday, Pelosi wrote the president can be investigated outside impeachment hearings, quote, whether currently indictable or not, it is clear the president has at a minimum endangered in highly unethical and unscrupulous behavior which does not bring honor to the office he holds.
KOSINSKI: CNN's town halls included a lot of discussion about hot button policy issues, of course. Candidates had clear disagreements on felon voting. Senator Bernie Sanders defended his belief that everyone, including people in prison, should have the right to vote, even convicted domestic terrorists like the Boston marathon bomber.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: If somebody commits a serious crime, sexual assault, murder, they're going to be punished. They may be in jail for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, their whole lives. But I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy, yes, even for terrible people. HARRIS: I agree that the right to vote is one of the very important
components of citizenship. I think we should have that conversation.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": Should people convicted of sexual assault, the Boston marathon bomber, should they be able to vote?
BUTTIGIEG: While incarcerated?
COOPER: Yes.
BUTTIGIEG: No.
Part of the punishment when you're convicted of a crime and you're incarcerated is you lose certain rights, you lose your freedom. And I think during that period, it does not make sense to have an exception for the right to vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:05:08] BRIGGS: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren touting her sweeping tuition free college education plan. The proposal would eliminate student loan debt for ten of millions of Americans and make all public colleges tuition free.
Warren's $1.25 trillion dollars proposal getting some pushback from Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.
(BEIGN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN: I started in several months ago talking about a wealth tax, an ultra millionaire's tax. It's 2 cents on every dollar of the great fortunes above $50 million. Good for you that you have now gotten this great fortune, but 2 cents, you got to pay something back so everybody else gets a chance.
KLOBUCHAR: I wish I could staple a free college diploma under every one of your chairs, I do. Don't look, it's not there. I wish I could do that, but I have to be straight with you, and tell you the truth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: California Senator Kamala Harris discussed mass shootings, saying the topic is one that young voters ask her about most often on the campaign trail. She said she will take executive action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: I will give the United States 100 days to get their act together and have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws. If they fail to do it, then I will take executive action and specifically what I will do is put in place a requirement that for anyone who sells more than five guns a year, they are required to do background checks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg acknowledging he has been light on policy specifics. His website is missing a policy section. Now, Buttigieg says his team launched a website tool that lets users search comments he's made on a number of issues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUTTIGIEG: It's important that we not drown people in minutia before we vindicated the values that animate our policies, because as Democrats, that this is a habit that we have. We go right to the policy proposals and we expect people to be able to figure out what our values must be from that. I expect that it will be very easy and clear to tell where I stand on every specific policy challenge of our time, but I'm going to take the time to lay that out while also talking about values and every day impacts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Now, according to a University of New Hampshire poll, Sanders from neighboring Vermont leads the field by a double digit margin followed by former Vice President Joe Biden who's expected to get in this week, and Buttigieg.
KOSINSKI: A national day of mourning in Sri Lanka as the death toll in the terror attacks climbs daily, now at 310 people, following coordinated bombing attacks on Easter Sunday. Eight explosions rocked the country targeting worshippers at Christian churches and tourists at luxury hotels.
Overnight, families of the victims killed in the attacks held a memorial service.
Meanwhile, the U.S. believes it has identified a key terrorist operative in the attack, and has initially concluded that person is linked to international terrorism organizations including ISIS.
CNN's Ivan Watson is live at St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, with the latest.
And, Ivan, the warnings that came before these attacks, we're hearing more about that today. What is the latest from there?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, unfortunately, the police have just updated that the death toll is now at least 321 killed in these Easter Sunday attacks, and let me explain to you why, part of why this was so lethal.
We're in front of St. Sebastian Church and this is where a suicide bomber came in on Sunday morning, during Easter Sunday services when the church was packed with worshippers and now it has become the site of a police forensic investigation.
You've still got the Easter service flowers up there on the altar and what's even more chilling is that the many security cameras here around this church documented that the bomber came in carrying a large backpack and actually patted the head of a small girl here in the courtyard where I'm standing before walking in to the church to kill all of these innocent people. And this was just one of three churches that was so viciously targeted on Sunday in addition to three luxury hotels.
The police here in Sri Lanka say they have arrested at least 40 people, all Sri Lankans, but they're also calling for international assistance with the investigation, acknowledging that there must be some international links, which is what U.S. sources are telling CNN, that they have identified one individual they believe is connected to this series of very carefully planned, very lethal attacks and working on that investigation.
[04:10:21] There have been a number of travel advisories to U.S. citizens, South Korean, Chinese, Australians, even as these governments are offering to help Sri Lanka root out the threat that the security forces here are still facing on this national day of mourning in this grieving country -- Michelle, Dave.
KOSINSKI: To see it up close like that puts it into perspective. Thank you, Ivan.
BRIGGS: At least four American citizens are among the dead in Sri Lanka. One of them is a Kieran Shafritz de Zoysa, a fifth grader from Washington, D.C.
His heartbroken father sharing his grief with ABC news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX ARROW, VICTIM'S FATHER: A brilliant mind who was going to be a neuroscientist and now he won't make it to his 12th birthday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Also killed, Dieter Kowalski from Colorado. He was sent to Sri Lanka on business.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARVIN KOWALSKI, VICTIM'S FATHER: He was only 40 years old, and you never expect that you would outlive your son. I always hoped I would go first, but it didn't happen that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Before he left, Dieter posted his excitement on Facebook, telling friends: The fun begins. Love these work trips. See you soon, Sri Lanka.
KOSINSKI: Former White House counsel Don McGahn subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee. Democrats want his testimony as part of an investigation of President Trump for alleged obstruction of justice. The Mueller report says McGahn refused the president's order to fire Mueller. But that's not how the president remembers it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Are you worried that your staff is ignoring your orders as the Mueller report portrays? DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nobody disobeys my
orders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: For the record, the Mueller report points to at least a dozen examples of Trump staffers essentially saving the president from himself by ignoring or disobeying orders.
Georgia Congressman Doug Collins is the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee. He accuses Chairman Nadler of issuing the subpoena to McGahn prematurely.
BRIGGS: Health officials say we are near a record for the largest measles outbreak since the disease was declared to be eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. According to the CDC, there have been 626 cases so far this year, 71 in the last week, 22 states have been affected. The current record is 667 cases in 2014.
And remember, it is only April.
KOSINSKI: A source tells CNN, 72 percent of the cases involve people who have not been vaccinated. Authorities say the anti-vaccine rhetoric is contributing to the measles spread.
New York has seen the most cases. Last month, New York City declared a public health emergency requiring proof of immunity or vaccination in the most heavily affected zip codes.
BRIGGS: All right. Coming up, why is the U.S. threatening to veto a U.N. resolution to combat rape on the battlefield?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:17:37] BRIGGS: A check on CNN Business at 4:17 Eastern Time.
Herman Cain is out. President Trump's controversial pick to serve on the Federal Reserve board said Monday he's withdrawing his name from consideration for one reason, he doesn't want a pay cut.
In a blog post, Cain wrote that he spent the weekend reconsidering his interest in a nomination, quote, without getting too specific about how big a pay cut this would be, let's just say I'm pretty confident if your boss told you to take a similar pay cut, you would tell him where to go.
Salaries of board members are set annually by Congress. Cain would have received a yearly salary of $183,100. Trump announced earlier in a tweet that Cain had asked not to be nominated, adding Herman is a great American who truly loves our country.
Trump's other pick, Stephen Moore, has drawn opposition from Democrats over his closeness to Trump and his reversals on interest policy. CNN's KFILE reported that as a "National Review" columnist in the early 2000s, Moore called it a, quote, travesty that women feel free to play sports with men. Moore said on an email that the columns were spoofs.
KOSINSKI: The U.S. now is threatening to veto a U.N. security resolution designed to combat rape as a weapon of war because of phrases that reinforce a woman's right to reproductive health services. A U.N. source who gave us a copy of the draft resolution showing the changes the U.S. wants to make tells CNN that the U.S. seems to have a red line when it comes to this kind of phrasing mentioning simply sexual and reproductive health.
Changes to that language are being proposed to try to satisfy the U.S. on this so they don't veto it this morning. The Trump administration has put up all kinds of similar road blocks in the past. Last year, a State Department appointee challenged U.N. documents that simply condemned racism as a threat to democracy because they used words like nationalism, populism, and xenophobia.
BRIGGS: All right. Don't skip that bagel this morning, folks. Skipping breakfast may increase your risk of cardiovascular related death.
KOSINSKI: Ooh.
BRIGGS: Yikes, Michelle. That supported with a study --
KOSINSKI: Hand me that burger.
BRIGGS: -- in the "Journal of American College Cardiology", researchers tracked over 6,500 adults from 1988 to 1994, and those who never ate breakfast had a higher risk of death from heart disease and stroke, independent of socioeconomic status and cardiovascular risk factors.
The data did not include the types of foods or drinks that were consumed for breakfast or whether breakfast consumption patterns changed after 1994. I never skip a breakfast, do you?
KOSINSKI: This ruins my day. I never eat breakfast. I'm not ready yet. I'm just not there yet.
BRIGGS: We just saved your life.
KOSINSKI: This is sobering. This is very sobering.
Another big summit for Kim Jong-un, but not with President Trump this time. Who he's meeting with and why it matters, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:25:02] BRIGGS: Four-twenty-four Eastern Time.
Kim Jong-un has another high profile summit on his agenda. This time, the North Korean leader will be meeting with Vladimir Putin. According to North Korean state media, the summit will happen soon.
Matthew Chance live from the Russian port city of Vladivostok this morning. Matthew, good morning. Do we have any sense of what's on the agenda?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you as well, Dave.
We don't actually at the moment. In fact, you just mentioned the only detail we're getting is that it will be soon. They haven't even confirmed what day it will happen. But we're expecting it will start tomorrow. Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader will be riding here in Vladivostok, which is one of the easternmost cities in Russia, some 5,000 miles more than that from the capital of Moscow.
He'll be arriving here by train and coming to the local train station. They have already anecdotally, we've heard, that already, they've lowered the platform of the train to make way for his carriages and broaden the gate so his limousine and his entourage can drive out of the Vladivostok train station.
In terms of what's on the agenda, denuclearization, of course, on the Korean peninsula is something President Trump was also speaking to Kim Jong-un about. President Putin perhaps thinks he's going to be more successful in that regard. But what this is really about, Dave, is Vladimir Putin saying, look, the U.S. president can have a close personal bond with Kim Jong-un of North Korea, so can I.
This is Russia, again, trying to insert itself into those big diplomatic issues, this time it's the denuclearization on the peninsula. Russia wants to be seen as a major player in that regard.
BRIGGS: All right. Matthew Chance live for us this morning in Vladivostok, thank you, sir.
Of course, Donald Trump has not ruled out a third summit with Kim Jong-un.
KOSINSKI: Yes, let's see.
BRIGGS: No progress on denuclearization. Yes.
KOSINSKI: Yes, of course.
All right. Felon voting, free college, impeachment, you name it, front runners with the 2020 Democratic nomination weigh in on those topics and more at five CNN presidential town halls.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
