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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Violent Clash in Memphis; Oil Tanker Fire, Reports of Attack; Trump: "I'd Want to Hear" Foreign Dirt; Blues Win! Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired June 13, 2019 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:06] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And they're singing "Gloria" in St. Louis after the Blues stunned Boston to capture their first Stanley Cup.
Congratulations. They're probably still partying.
Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, they probably are.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Dave Briggs. It's Thursday, June 13th, 5:00 a.m. in the East. It is 4:00 in Memphis, Tennessee.
And that's where we begin with breaking news this morning. Two dozen police officers injured in Memphis during clashes with protesters after a fatal shooting by police. Police cars were vandalized, and there is other damage, including shattered windows at a fire station.
Memphis police say the police shooting happened after officers tried to stop a man they say was wanted on multiple warrants. Police say the man rammed police cruisers and exited his vehicle with a weapon before he was shot. No officers were injured in the initial shooting incident.
ROMANS: But in the altercations later, two journalists also were hurt as well as I think 24 police officers injured --
BRIGGS: Throwing rocks.
ROMANS: -- in the clash.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: All right. President Trump says he would not necessarily report to the FBI if a foreign government like Russia approached his campaign again with damaging information about an opponent. In an interview with ABC News, the president disputed the idea that such an offer amounted to election interference, and he said there would not be, quote, anything wrong with listening.
The president was asked whether Donald Trump Jr. should have gone to the FBI when he was offered an email offering dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russians. Here's how the president answered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: OK, let's put yourself in a position. You're a congressman. Somebody comes up and says, hey, I have information on your opponent. Do you call the FBI? I don't think --
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: If it's coming from Russia, you do.
TRUMP: I'll tell you what? I've seen a lot of things over my life. I don't think in my life I've ever called the FBI, in my life. You don't call the FBI. You throw somebody out of your office. You do whatever --
STEPHANOPOULOS: Al Gore got a stolen briefing book, he called the FBI.
TRUMP: Well, that's different. A stolen briefing book. But this is somebody who said we have information on your opponent. Oh, let me call the FBI. Give me a break. Life doesn't work that way.
STEPHANOPOULOS: The FBI director says that's what should happen.
TRUMP: The FBI director is wrong.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your campaign this time round, if foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else offers you information on an opponent, should they accept it or should they call the FBI?
TRUMP: I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen. I don't -- there's nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country -- Norway -- we have information on your opponent. Oh, I think I'd want to hear it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You want that kind of interference in our elections?
TRUMP: It's not interference. They have information. I think I'd take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: One important note for context -- it is a crime for a campaign to knowingly solicit or accept anything of value from foreign nationals. That and the danger of election interference were recurring themes in the furious reaction to President Trump's comments.
Many of his Democratic opponents tweeted their outrage. Some were asked about it by reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is the commander in chief and has a duty and a responsibility to the American people to be a defender, if not the greatest defender, of our democracy. And -- but to quite the contrary, what we hear tonight is that he is yet again open to the idea of working with foreign governments to undermine the integrity of our elections system. It's outrageous, and it tells me the guy just doesn't understand the job and can't do it very well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, who's leading multiple investigations into Mr. Trump, tweeted: It is shocking to hear the president say outright that he is willing to put himself in debt to a foreign power.
One other person who said foreign dirt should be reported to the FBI, Attorney General William Barr, last month at a Senate judiciary hearing. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Going forward, what if a foreign adversary -- let's now say North Korea -- offers a presidential candidate dirt on a competitor in 2020? Do you agree with me the campaign should immediately contact the FBI? If a foreign intelligence service --
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: A foreign government? Foreign intelligence service?
COONS: A representative of a foreign government says --
BARR: Yes.
COONS: -- we have dirt on your opponent, should they say, we love it, let's meet, or contact the FBI?
COONS: If a foreign intelligence service does, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: You can see the attorney general specifically identifying foreign intelligence service. We'll see if that's a distinction that he's trying to make here today.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: Donald Trump Jr., meantime, back in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, appearing Wednesday behind closed doors under subpoena. A source close to the president's eldest son says he stuck to his earlier testimony from 2017. Afterward, Trump Jr. told reporters he was not at all worried about perjury charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, JR., PRESIDENT'S SON: I don't think I changed anything of what I said because there was nothing to change. I'm glad that this is finally over.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Our source says Trump junior told senators Wednesday he did not talk to his father about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians.
[05:05:04] He also said he did not pay close attention to the Trump Tower Moscow project because it was one of many potential deals. Since the release of the Mueller report, there have been questions about discrepancies between Trump Jr.'s testimony and what other witnesses told Congress and Mueller's team.
BRIGGS: Authorities in the Dominican Republic say the shooting of Red Sox legend David Ortiz was a hit job. Police say the alleged gunman, 25-year-old Rolfi Ferreira Cruz, has confessed to shooting Ortiz at a nightclub last weekend in Santo Domingo. They say Cruz and six other men were involved in the shooting. One is still at large. Authorities are not commenting on a possible motive, but they say the suspects were offered the equivalent of about $7,800 to carry out the hit on Ortiz.
ROMANS: President Trump, who hates trade deficits, presides over the worst May in history for budget deficits. Eye-popping new figures from the Treasury Department show Washington ran a $208 billion deficit last month, up 41 percent from the year before, the deficit year-to-date, $739 billion. Now, the deficit ballooned as the government spent more on the military, veterans affairs, Social Security, and Medicare.
You typically see deficits decrease in a strong economy. Job growth has been strong, wages are rising. However, the Treasury is taking in less money because of tax cuts for corporations and individuals led by that 2017 Republican tax reform.
An aging American population will drive up Medicare and Social Security spending sharply in coming years. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the deficit will reach just under $900 billion this year.
BRIGGS: For the first time in their 52-year history, the St. Louis Blues will drink from the Stanley Cup.
The Blues beat the Bruins, 4-1, in Boston to take the winner-take-all game seven of the Stanley Cup finals series. In one of the great sports traditions, the Stanley Cup champion Blues led by their team captain carried around the cup, passing it from player to player. The Blues' Ryan O'Reilly named Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the most valuable player in the NHL playoffs.
Back in St. Louis, Blues fans celebrated the team's hockey milestone the only way they know how, with a stirring rendition of "Gloria." The team and its fans adopted the 1982 Laura Branigan hit song during this historic run to the Stanley Cup.
ROMANS: Oh, let's look. We have these live pictures. We think this is a shot of the plane at the airport in St. Louis with them getting off right now. Could this be?
BRIGGS: This appears to be the cameraman --
ROMANS: Oh!
BRIGGS: There was the plane. Congrats to everyone in St. Louis --
ROMANS: Well --
BRIGGS: A couple of Blues. I think I saw the cup somewhere off there in the background, but still celebrating at 4:07 in St. Louis.
ROMANS: We'll check in with them in a few minutes.
All right. Breaking news right now, another incident involving an oil tanker in the Middle East. A confirmed fire and circumstances similar to sabotage attacks last month. Live, breaking information and spiking oil prices, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:13:01] ROMANS: All right. The operator of a chemical tanker in the Gulf of Oman says it was attacked with some sort of shell. The Kokuka Courageous was one of two tankers involved in a security incident, we're told, in the Gulf. Officials say the crews of both the Courageous and the Front Altair were evacuated with only one injury.
We know tensions have been flaring in the region, specifically since May, really, when the Trump administration started withdrawing these waivers that had been granted previously for buying Iranian oil, and there's big concern about the U.S. and its allies in the region on one side and Iran on the other side and these potential altercations. A few weeks ago, there were four different tankers had suffered from some sort of sabotage.
Nic Robertson is monitoring the situation live in London.
Explain to us why the tensions have flared there and what's happening, what we know about this incident.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, we know that the tensions are high because Iran is sort of desperate to change their tough sanctions that it's facing at the moment, particularly those put in place by the United States.
So, the attacks that we've seen today, 44 people rescued from the two -- the crews and the captains from those two vessels -- one an oil tanker, one of them carrying chemicals. What appears to have happened is, according to at least the captain of one of the ships, the two projectiles were fired at these ships, damaging the hull on the starboard side of the ship. Sufficiently for the crews of both those ships to have to abandon ship.
So, this is a much more significant attack than those attacks we saw a month or so ago that were much closer to the coast of the Emirates. This time, the attacks have taken place while the ships are moving on the sea. They're closer to the coast of Iran. The last attacks, the ships were at anchor, close to the coast of the
United Arab Emirates.
[05:15:05] And those attacks a month or so ago appear to be from mines, that they were below sea level on the ships and appeared to be from mines.
So, this is different. This is missiles fired at the vessels. The vessels damaged in such a way that one crew member has been injured, that the crews have had to abandon ship.
The tensions in these waterways right now, as we know, is high. The United States has been warning that its intelligence estimate in the area is that Iran was a potential threat to commercial shipping in that area. This is going to amplify those concerns.
And just in the last few days, the United Nations issued its assessment of who was responsible for those attacks a month or so ago. They said it was a state actor was most likely behind those attacks. Both the United States and Saudi Arabia said they believed Iran was behind those attacks.
So, again, the search for responsibility is going to shine a light brightly on Iran at the moment. But that said, no proof offered yet. But this is an ongoing situation, and I think we are going to learn more details through the day.
ROMANS: Nic, do we know who rescued those sailors? Was it the Fifth -- you know, the U.S. Navy and the Fifth Fleet, or was it the Iranians? Do we know?
ROBINSON: We appear to know, I should put it that way at the moment. We know that the U.S. Fifth Fleet based out of Bahrain is in attendance, that it's rendering assistance where it can in the area.
What we are hearing from the Iranian state news agency, they are saying their navy, the Iranian navy, picked up 44 sailors from those two vessels and they are currently, according to Iranian state media, currently on an Iranian island near where the incident happened. Again, this is ongoing and the details are only just becoming clear.
ROMANS: Sure. Sometimes in flux.
All right. Nic Robertson for us in London monitoring that -- thank you, sir.
BRIGGS: All right. Coming up, the Blues return to St. Louis this morning. Stanley Cup champs. Coy Wire has that story and the celebration happening as we speak, next in "Bleacher Report."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:22:09] BRIGGS: From last place to lifting Lord Stanley's cup, the St. Louis Blues are hockey champions for the first time ever.
Coy Wire has that story in the "Bleacher Report." They are still partying this morning in St. Louis. Good morning, my
friend.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are.
Good morning, Dave.
This team thrived on being an underdog. Dead last in the NHL in January, then rallying to do something no other blues team had done before them. It was a crazy scene in Boston.
Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman and Super Bowl MVP Julian Edelman hyping up the crowd before the game. Meantime, 1,200 miles west in St. Louis, fans selling out the arena with thousands more watching inside Busch Stadium during the Cardinals baseball game, and their Blues deliver.
Ryan O'Reilly getting a stick on the puck and deflecting it in. St. Louis scoring two goals in the opening period to take control of the game. From there, Jordan Bennington, the rookie, unreal! Thirty-two saves after starting the season ranked fourth amongst the team's goalies. Blues win 4-1, and for first time in their 52-year history, they are Stanley Cup champions.
Ryan O'Reilly matching Wayne Gretzky with four goals in the four straight Stanley Cup final games, wins the MVP in front of his parents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN O'REILLY, STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS MVP: The hours and money they put in, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be in the NHL. I can't stop thanking them for, you know, putting their lives aside to, you know, for us, for the kids, and doing whatever we needed to, taking us to all these hockey practices and training things. Just, I can't thank them enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: And what a special moment for 11-year-old superfan Laila Anderson, battling a rare immune disease. She celebrates with her team on the ice. She got special clearance from her doctors in St. Louis to travel to Boston for the game. Blues players saying she has been an inspiration to them all season.
Look at her breaking down in tears of joy with her hockey heroes. That's what it's all about.
Let's go to basketball. The Toronto Raptors had a chance to win their first title in tonight's NBA Finals game six in Oakland. Standing in their way, two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors. T
hey will be without Kevin Durant as KD confirms on Instagram that he ruptured his Achilles in game five. He's already undergone surgery to repair it and will likely miss all of next season. He could be a free agent if he opts out of the final year of his contract. Finally, the U.S. Open tees off later today at Pebble Beach, and it's
truly open to all, including a firefighter, Matt Parziale, taking a leave of absence from the station in Brockton, Massachusetts, and his career in the insurance business to play with the likes of Tiger and Phil in the year's third Major.
[20:25:05] He played in the 2018 Masters and then shared low amateur honors at last year's U.S. Open. His dream summer ended with him getting married and then playing the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT PARZIALE, PLAYING IN U.S. OPEN: Yes, it's been a lot of fun these last almost 20 months now since winning in 2017. Life changed pretty quickly, but I've been having a blast. This is great. Another chance to compete at a major, I've always said I wanted it play golf at the highest level, so I'm happy to have that opportunity this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Parziale tees off at 10:00 Eastern. Tiger waits a little longer, 5:09 Eastern, Dave.
But what an incredible moment for the Blues.
BRIGGS: And for Laila Anderson, glad you showed that, Coy, that young superfan. So nice to see her get that moment.
Thank you, my friend, good stuff.
Romans, I know you had a few tears there.
ROMANS: Yes, they handed me a box of tissues. Love that girl.
All right. Breaking overnight, we have word of a violent clash between police and protesters in Memphis. Breaking details, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
