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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Former VP Biden to Enter 2020 Race Today; Trump Won't Back Down, Miller Won't Testify; Man Behind 1998 Dragging Death Executed; Health Officials: Zero Screen Time for Some Kids; Clippers Force Game 6 Against Warriors. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired April 25, 2019 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: -- has tested balloons for a decade and expects to hold a first commercial trial in Kenya this year.
[05:00:06] EARLY START continues right now.
(MUSIC)
BRIGG: 2020 race in for an epic shakeup as Joe Biden gets into the race today.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're fighting all the subpoenas. Look, these aren't, like, impartial people.
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MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump proudly vowing not to back down to Democrats. Two more aides now refusing to testify including immigration hawks Stephen Miller.
BRIGGS: The execution has been carried out for man behind one of the most horrific hate crimes in American history.
KOSINSKI: And how does zero screen time sound for your kids?
BRIGGS: Pretty good.
KOSINSKI: I can already hear whining already.
New guidelines would certainly curtail how long children should spend in front of their screens.
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Michelle Kosinski.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs, Thursday, April 25th, 5:00 a.m. in the East. You think later today, the list is finally full.
Has the field been filled out.
KOSINSKI: Never say never. I know you're considering a run.
BRIGGS: I am thinking about it.
KOSINSKI: I am sure others are.
BRIGGS: Twenty for '20 sounds good.
The list of Democrats running in 2020 jumps to 20 today. Joe Biden will announce his presidential bid this morning. The former vice president rallied donors and supporters on a conference call yesterday. He offered a brief preview of his campaign's message saying the soul of the country is at stake.
Biden underscored the importance of a strong fundraising performance right out of the gate.
KOSINSKI: A source tells us, the Pennsylvania native will hold a campaign event on Monday and hit the road to the early voting states of Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. Biden's decades in the Senate, eight years as V.P., and high name recognition put him at the top of recent polls.
But he faces a Democratic Party far different than the last time he ran for office. Progressive issues now front and center. Not so much foreign policy.
BRIGGS: Sources say Biden's team thought about releasing the announcement yesterday. But they were warned it might be a bad idea, drawing attention away from a 2020 forum focus on women of color. Several candidates in the race already appeared at the She the People event. Here are some of the highlights.
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SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will have a woman running mate. To me, it's really clear that we do that.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Women of color are our heart and soul of the Democratic Party and heart and soul of our nation. They're critically important.
BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We also need an equal rights amendment ratified in this country so that no woman can be discriminated against on any basis whatsoever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why should women of color choose you as the nominee for president?
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because of my track record my entire life of focusing on women of color.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: The focus on women yesterday prompting speculation that John McCain's widow Cindy McCain and daughter Meghan would endorse Biden, a long-time friend of late Republican senator. But Cindy McCain denied the speculation, tweeting Joe Biden is a wonderful man, however, I have no intention of getting involved in presidential politics.
For now, I might say.
BRIGGS: For now.
Two more cases of blatant stonewalling from the White House. The administration officials informed the House Oversight Committee that Trump adviser Stephen Miller will not testify about immigration policy and DOJ official John Gore will not comply with subpoena to answer questions about the Census.
In recent days, the White House has interfered with Democrats seeking information on virtually everything, security clearance, Mr. Trump's financial records, his taxes and a subpoena for testimony from former White House counsel, Don McGahn.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're fighting all the subpoenas. Look, these aren't, like, impartial people. The Democrats are trying to win 2020. The only way they can luck out is by constantly going after me on nonsense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings calls the president's actions a massive, unprecedented, and growing pattern of obstruction. He says these employees and their personal attorneys should think very carefully about their own legal interests rather than being swept up in the obstruction schemes of the Trump administration.
BRIGGS: It was, quote, like pulling teeth to get the White House to pay attention to attempted Russian interference ahead of the 2020 election. A U.S. official tells CNN one reason it was so hard is that senior West Wing staff felt it wasn't a good idea to bring up issues related to Russia in front of the president.
KOSINSKI: One person who does not need to be reminded about Russian influence is Hillary Clinton. President Trump's 2016 opponent penning a new op-ed for the "Washington Post."
She writes: The debate about how to respond to Russia's sweeping and systematic attack and how to hold President Trump accountable for obstructing the investigation and possibly breaking the law has been reduced to a false choice: immediate impeachment or nothing.
[05:05:06] History suggests there's a better way to think about the choices ahead.
BRIGGS: Clinton urges House Democrats to conduct hearings to help the public better understand the allegations in the Mueller report and she adds, obviously, this is personal for me and some may say I'm not the right messenger.
That line was retweeted by George Conway, being the husband of presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway with the note, perhaps so. Probably so. But if she's with the Constitution, I'm with her.
KOSINSKI: A man who carried out one of the most disturbing hate crimes in the country's history has been executed in Texas. Forty- four-year-old John William King is one of three suspects convicted for the murder of James Byrd Jr.
In 1998, King, Lawrence Russell Brewer and Shawn Berry picked up Byrd and drove him to a secluded area and beat him, spray painted his face, tied a logging chain around his ankles and dragged him behind a pickup truck for three miles. Byrd's death led to new hate crime laws passed by Congress and the state of Texas.
Byrd's sister Clara releasing a statement saying King showed no remorse then and showed no remorse tonight. His execution tonight was just punishment for his actions.
The Boy Scouts of America announces it believes more than 7,800 of its leaders sexually abused children. New court testimony shows that number is 3,000 more than previously known. It includes scout leaders and scout masters across the country.
The abuse happened over the course of 72 years. More than 12,000 alleged victims have been identified.
The Boy Scouts in a statement say they sincerely apologize. Adding: At no time have we ever knowingly allowed a perpetrator to work with youth.
BRIGGS: An Alabama police chief says he's disgusted by video that shows an officer cursing and threatening a woman during a traffic stop that turned violent.
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(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me your arms! Put your hands --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put your hands behind you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, please, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you lost your freaking --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, please, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me your arms! If you bite me, you're going to lose every one of your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) teeth. You understand me?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Whew. 22-year-old Jasmine Shepherd was accused of leaving the scene of app accident Friday. The Tuscaloosa officer began to handcuff her after requesting her driver's license. Another officer arrived moments later. Shepherd telling CNN, officers made me feel like I wasn't even human. Local media reports the officers are on desk duty pending an investigation and will face a disciplinary board.
KOSINSKI: Murder charges have been filed against the parents of 5- year-old A.J. Freund. After the little boy's body was found in a shallow grief about ten miles from his home in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
Andrew Freund, Sr. and Joanne Cunningham reported A.J. missing last week. Police interviewed the parents again after obtaining new information from cell phone data.
The cause of the boy's death, still unknown.
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JAMES BLACK, POLICE CHIEF, CRYSTAL LAKE, ILLINOIS: Once presented with the evidence obtained by investigators, both Joanne and Andrew, Sr. provided information that ultimately led to the recovery -- what we believe is the recovery of deceased subject A.J.
To A.J., we know you are at peace playing in heaven's playground and are happy you no longer have to suffer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: We expect to see A.J.'s parents in court today. His mother's attorney has not responded to requests for comment and it's not clear whether his father has a lawyer.
BRIGGS: Two big tech companies with big problems reported earnings on Wednesday. Tesla and Facebook both reported huge losses in the first quarter. Tesla snapped its profit streak, losing $702 million. Its revenue also fell 37 percent to $4.5 billion. Earlier this month, Tesla revealed it's delivered about 63,000 vehicles to customers in the first quarter, a 31 percent drop from the fourth quarter last year and the single largest decline it's every reported.
If you think $700 million is bad, well, Facebook preparing to pay $3 billion to $5 billion in fines related to an ongoing investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. The company set aside $3 billion in legal expenses related to the investigation which cut into it profits for the first quarter. Facebook's profit fell for the first quarter, 51 percent, to $2.4 billion. That marks the company's first year over year profit decline since 2015.
KOSINSKI: Hmm. How much screen time is actually healthy for young children? In some cases now, none.
[05:10:00] The World Health Organization issuing strict new guidelines on screen time for kids. They say never for children under one and rarely in their second year. Those 2 to 4 years old should spend no more than an hour a day in front of a screen.
The WHO drew on emerging science about the risks screens pose to the development of young minds. So children are spending increasing amounts of time on smart phones and mobile devices.
BRIGGS: You know, I lost my phone on vacation last week. We talked about this.
KOSINSKI: I might have heard that. Maybe a complaint or two --
BRIGGS: It was costly. But valuable reminder of how bad we all are. Our children, ourselves. How attached we are.
KOSINSKI: You feel human though not having your phone?
BRIGGS: I think I can see and breathe better.
KOSINSKI: Yes, the world is a pretty place when you look up now and then.
All right. Ahead, a new dress code at school. Not for the students, for the parents. And there's backlash at one Houston, Texas school.
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[05:15:04] BRIGGS: Measles outbreak in the U.S. now, the largest since it was declared eliminated in 2000. According to Centers for Disease Control, there have been 695 measles cases in 22 states this year. It's only April. The previous high was 667 back in 2014.
Federal health officials had been mostly quiet. But Health Secretary Alex Azar released a statement Wednesday saying: Measles is not a harmless childhood illness. We have the ability to safely protect our children and our communities. Vaccines are a safe, highly effective public health solution that can prevent this disease.
There's been growing anti-vaxxer movement online, most of the cases in the U.S., emerged in communities with lower rates of vaccinations.
KOSINSKI: All right. That has been persistent.
Well, the confessed Parkland gunman Nikolas Cruz is set to inherit more than $430,000 from a life insurance policy. As a result, the Broward County public defender's office says he should get new lawyers. The office says it's prohibited from representing someone who is not impoverished. The money comes from the estate of Cruz's adoptive mother who died in 2017.
Cruz killed 17 people at his former school, in Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.
BRIGGS: An unexpected show of support for actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman in the college admissions cheating scandal. Martha Stewart says she feels sorry for them. The TV icon, business mogul and ex-con says they might have made a bad mistake. The two are accused of making big payments in a scheme to get their kids into elite universities at the expense of more deserving applicants.
In the early 2000s, you might remember Stewart served five months in prison for lying to investigators about a stock sale. Felicity Huffman agreed last week to plead guilty and Lori Loughlin and her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded not guilty. KOSINSKI: We've heard of high schools implementing dress codes for
the kids, but now James Madison High School in Houston, Texas, is telling parents how to dress. In a letter sent out earlier this month, officials say parents cannot enter school grounds wearing pajamas or revealing clothing, leggings, sagging pants, low rider shorts are off limits along with hair curlers and shower caps.
Rosemary Young was handed a copy of the new dress code when she wore a satin cap to pick up her son.
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ROSEMARY YOUNG, PARENT: It doesn't matter how a parent comes. If we come here belligerent, out of control, that's what you have the police for. What I wear should never be an issue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: The schools have a policy put in place to let students know how to dress appropriately when entering a building or applying for a job. The Houston independent school district declined to comment. Ouch. Ouch.
BRIGGS: Interesting policy.
All right. Ahead, a chocker out west. The L.A. Clippers stay alive against the defending NBA champs. Coy Wire has the shocker in the "Bleacher Report", next.
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[05:22:38] BRIGGS: There's playoff intensity and then there's hockey. Game 7 level intensity.
Coy Wire will tell us there is nothing like it. He has the story in the "Bleacher Report".
Good morning, my friend.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave.
This NHL playoffs could not have been more unpredictable. After a wild game 7 in Washington, the defending champion Capitals are going home. The Carolina Hurricanes were down two goals on the brink of elimination. They fight back to tie it with this. All we see is five caps defenders, all at the back of the net.
And then about two minutes to go, the Caps could have taken the lead. Look at Brock McGinn come flying in knocking the puck away. With effort like that, Carolina forces O.T. then double O.T. and guess who was there to deflect in the game winner, Brock McGinn.
That goal ends the third longest game 7 in NHL history, 4-3 Carolina. The underdogs moving on to face the New York Islanders in round two. With the Caps eliminated, this is the first time that all four division champs fail to make it out of the first round. Speaking of underdogs, the L.A. Clippers went on the road to face
Golden State and refused to let the Warriors finish their series last night. Lou Williams came off the bench to wreak havoc on the defending champs, 33 points in a 129-121 win that forces game 6 in L.A. tomorrow.
Coach Doc Rivers says there probably wasn't a ticket sold because nobody thought they'd make this far. Lou Williams says, the Warriors, they shouldn't have been looking ahead. They have fight.
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LOU WILLIAMS, LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS GUARD: It's a little mix of arrogance and just hard work. You know, we have a lot of young guys. We have a lot of veterans, guys that want to prove their names.
We were wrote off early in the year. People saying we weren't a good team. We take those things, digest it and make as much as we can out of it. It showed in the series.
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WIRE: Houston Rockets get extra rest as they wait to face the winner of the Warriors/Clippers series. Punching their ticket to the second round with pay 100-93 win over Utah last night.
Minutes after the game, Clint Capella is ready for a date with Golden State.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINT CAPELA, HOUSTON ROCKETS: This is what I want. I want to face them.
CHRIS PAUL, HOUSTON ROCKETS : Oh, man, he's going to be all over bleacher report.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: You called it, Chris Paul.
[05:25:00] Finally, the lines of 32 college football players will change forever tonight as the NFL draft starts in Nashville. It's the first round. The Arizona Cardinals hold the number one pick. They're going to take that guy. Oklahoma's Heisman winning trophy, Kyler Murray, he could be the first player ever to be picked in the first round of the football and baseball draft.
New Arizona head coach Kliff Kingsbury playing it close to the vest, told reporters, I wouldn't say the hay is in the barn just yet.
But we'll see if the 5'10" fire plug changing the game of quarterback will be first.
BRIGGS: He's going number one overall. Coy, I'm waiting for my call from an NFL team. You, however, can tell
us what it's like to be drafted. Take us back. What is that feeling like?
WIRE: Oh, man. Look at the photos.
I was sitting on the couch with my parents in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, Dave. I didn't know where I was going to play. I didn't know where I was going to live. My life was going to change forever.
I got that phone call from the Buffalo Bills. You can see my mom and my dad, my brother Casey, my sister Tiffany, tears flowing everywhere.
And kind of full circle real quick. The NFL called and asked me to fly to Nashville today after the shows and I'll be making their third round pick on stage.
BRIGGS: Yes.
WIRE: And announce who will be their third round pick like I was some years ago.
BRIGGS: Fantastic. We'll be watching. I know it's airing on three networks tonight. Very different than when you were drafted.
Coy Wire, enjoy tonight, my friend. Thank you.
WIRE: Thanks.
BRIGGS: Michelle, what's coming up.
KOSINSKI: Coy looks exactly the same.
BRIGGS: Little less hair.
BRIGGS: He's not changed other than that.
Six-term senator, former vice president and soon to be three-time presidential candidate, Joe Biden gets in the race any moment now.
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