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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Insists 2020 Census Form Will Include Citizenship Question; Netherlands Reach Women's Cup Final with Win Over Sweden; Trump Campaign Ad Uses Stock Footage of Actors. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired July 04, 2019 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:30:01] MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Max Foster in London. We're going to update you on the top stories this hour.

We're just hours away from Independence Day celebrations in the U.S. capitol and this year's festivities will bear the military mark of Donald Trump complete with tanks and fighter jets. Critics are complaining about the cost and what they call the politicization of American armed forces.

President Trump is brushing aside growing criticism about overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at border detention centers. In a tweeted he defended border agents and said many of the illegal immigrants are living far better now than they were -- than where they came from.

Australia says North Korea has released one of its citizens from detention with the help from Sweden. 29-year-old Alek Sigley is now at the Australian embassy in Beijing. The student at Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang was reported missing by his family more than a week ago. It was unclear why he was detained.

News just coming into CNN from the English Premier League. Chelsea has got a new head coach. The London cited that just a short while ago that Frank Lampard will take the position. Lampard being Darby manager for just over a year leading the English's second tier club to the championship playoff finals. Lampard was a standout player at Chelsea. By the time he left in 2014, he had scored a record of 211 goals in 649 appearances over 13 seasons. During that time he helped the Blues to three Premier League titles, the English FA Cup on four occasions and the 2012 European Champion's League Title. Again, Frank Lampard, the new Chelsea head coach. We'll have more in "WORLD SPORT" in a few hours' time for you.

Now Census chaos. The U.S. Justice Department is reversing course again on including a citizenship question in the 2020 Census. The department told a federal judge it's now looking for a way to ensure the controversial question is included in the form. On Tuesday the government started printing the questionnaire without the question after the U.S. Supreme Court froze President Trump's attempt to add the question.

The about turn followed this tweet from President Trump on Wednesday. "The news reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the citizenship question on the Census is incorrect or to say it differently fake. We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to the question."

Only thing, there is nothing fake about the reports. One Justice Department lawyer even admitted to the federal judge, "The tweet this morning was the first I heard of the president's position on this issue just like the plaintiffs and, your honor." The DOJ attorney adding, "I do not have a deeper understanding of what that means at this juncture other than what the president has tweeted." The president acted following a backlash on pro-Trump media over an issue he's been advocating for months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE: I think it's very important to find out if somebody's a citizen as opposed to an illegal. You're not allowed to ask whether or not somebody's a citizen of the United States? How horrible and ridiculous is that?

Hey, can you imagine you send out a census and you're not allowed to say whether or not a person is an American citizen?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: For more, I'm joined by Inderjeet Parmar, professor of International Politics at City University.

Thanks for joining us.

INDERJEET PARMAR, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, CITY UNIVERSITY: Thanks. Good morning.

FOSTER: First of all, the question. What is the question we're discussing here?

PARMAR: The question here is about -- in the Census to ask everybody filling in the form, are you a citizen of the United States?

FOSTER: What's wrong with that?

PARMAR: Well, if you like -- superficially it appears to be a kind of a decent question but on the other hand, federal funding follows population, not citizenship, so it could be in one household you have a number of people who are undocumented or without permanent residence and citizens. So what you effectively are doing is being to identify as part of a broader policy who is maybe undocumented and that means a federal funding will decrease because people may not fill the Census in. They will fear for their safety and so on. And that could also askew the politics of a district because voting districts are based on population figures, too.

FOSTER: So when people are concerned about being targeted as a result of their answer to this question, what do they mean and is it realistic?

PARMAR: Well, we know that ICE and other agencies have been raiding undocumented immigrants or what they claim are immigrant communities and so on and that's increased. And just a couple of weeks ago President Trump threatened a raid to such -- of that type to round up people all over the country, which were called off or suspended. And I think the deadline is coming up this week.

So this is part of a kind of much broader strategy, if you like, which President Trump has trumpeted all along from the campaign onwards which was that these are illegals, they are criminals, they're rapists, they're murderers, gang members, and so on. And he basically has declared a national emergency in the border and so on. And we know that the situation is very serious. So this is part of a broader issue.

[04:35:01] FOSTER: What -- I mean, people, with your argument, I mean, is there a risk that you're over thinking it and the question isn't nearly as loaded as you think? He just wants to have this question in there as part of a Census survey.

PARMAR: Sure. Well, the key thing is that Chief Justice Roberts of the Supreme Court said that the claims or the rationale put forward by the Trump administration for this question was incongruent with the facts. And the facts are that the Commerce Department had first of all -- Wilbur Ross, the secretary of Commerce, had discussed this question with Stephen Bannon, when he was White House chief strategist, and a Republican consultant called Thomas Hofeller was asked to try to square this question with the Voting Rights Act.

And what he had said in part of his computer files which revealed after his death was that this would be an advantageous question which would help Republicans and non-Hispanic whites. And that was part of the documents put forward to a court I think in Maryland. So what we've actually got is an intent to disadvantage Democrats, disadvantage Hispanics, and others and that is overt in court documents and that is what Chief Justice Roberts was --

FOSTER: So you think this is about the election?

PARMAR: It clearly has electoral consequences and yes, sure, of course. The House now controls -- is controlled by the Democrats. They can do a lot of redistricting. And we know the Republicans have been waging a war on the Voting Rights Act for many decades. But to try to use the Voting Rights Act as something that they wanted to enforce through this question was revealed as false by Thomas Hofeller's own files themselves so --

FOSTER: OK --

PARMAR: Like a bit -- like the Muslim ban.

FOSTER: Yes.

PARMAR: It was so overtly anti-Muslim and therefore discriminatory but it's possible, therefore, that if you change the rationale, the Supreme Court majority could swing in the other direction.

FOSTER: Yes. We tried to accept what was going on in court at the moment, let's -- you know, and the tweets are playing into it as well.

What's your understanding about where we are in the court process on this question?

PARMAR: Well, it looks like the administration is willing to postpone the 2020 Census.

FOSTER: In order to get the question in?

PARMAR: In order to get the question in.

FOSTER: And despite it being the printing already starting?

PARMAR: Yes. Correct. And in fact, the Constitution does say that there should be a Census every 10 years so effectively it would be overriding the Supreme Court at this stage, other courts, the Constitution, his own administration and the machinery which has now begun to print the Census itself.

FOSTER: Presumably there's a way of changing the narrative and the reasoning behind this as you say as well of what was initially a Muslim ban that the terminology is wrapped around, that was changed to allow it to go through the court process. How might the Trump administration do that on this particular question?

PARMAR: I think it's going to be very, very difficult because it is so overt, the language used about disadvantaging Democrats and advantaging Republicans and -- you know, disadvantaging Hispanics. I think it's going to be very difficult now to say that there is another rationale especially as the discussions with Stephen Bannon have been revealed, too. And that this was something started quite early on his administration. So I think they've got a major legal and constitutional battle on their hands to try to reverse this particular one.

FOSTER: In terms of the wider debate about immigration, and we've also got his border issues, haven't we, as well, the detention centers.

PARMAR: Right.

FOSTER: Do you think that it all comes together in one narrative, that is kicking ahead to the election?

PARMAR: Absolutely. That is the big number one question around which his political base is most strongly, and I think President Trump has focused on maintaining his base as the basis of his victory. The key problem with that strategy is that he didn't win the election in 2016 on the basis of that, he won it on the basis a large number of Democrats and others stayed away, some of them joined him, and the fact that he won some independents and so who had voted for Obama, for example. The problem is that he's galvanized his opposition so strongly.

FOSTER: Yes.

PARMAR: That they are more highly motivated to vote than perhaps his own political base.

FOSTER: And we've also seen the Democrat side become more divided as well from, you know, different --

PARMAR: Yes.

FOSTER: Many Americans describe as extreme left up to the center ground. So they're not clear about their policy on immigration as to deal with Trump either.

PARMAR: Well, the Democratic leadership has basically supported in a kind of softly way a large part of the movement in that President Trump has inaugurated. They have not fundamentally challenged him on most questions and most recently in the last two weeks.

FOSTER: Yes.

PARMAR: They voted for about $5 billion to be spent on further border security and so on. The mass base of the Democratic Party, on the other hand, the Democratic electorate, has shifted much further to the left in fact.

[04:40:01] So what we've got is a kind of increasing bifurcation of leadership and the mass base and you can see that from a number of candidates.

FOSTER: Deserting center ground effectively.

PARMAR: The center ground shifted a long time ago.

FOSTER: Yes.

PARMAR: And the polarization is in full swing and has been since at least 2016.

FOSTER: Inderjeet, thank you very much indeed for coming in today.

PARMAR: Thank you.

FOSTER: U.S. Navy SEAL convicted of posing for a picture with a dead ISIS prisoner will get a demotion and a pay cut, we understand. Eddie Gallagher was acquitted on Tuesday of nearly all other charges against him including murder. He's already spent more than 200 days in custody and isn't expected to serve any more time. Gallagher told the jury he takes full responsibility for his actions. U.S. President Donald Trump who supported Gallagher throughout this trial tweeted his congratulations saying, "Glad I could help."

Now it's America's 243rd birthday. And Donald Trump had big plans for the nation's capital. Will it rain on his parade? We'll have the forecast for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: A popular tourist spot in Italy is being rattled by one of the world's most active volcanos. One hiker was killed of a series of eruptions on the island of Stromboli. Much of the island was engulfed in smoke and ash and local reports say some tourists jumped into the sea to escape the lava flows. Firefighters have targeted hot spots with water drops in the air.

Sweltering temperatures and the possibility of thunderstorms are in the forecast for President Donald Trump's Fourth of July celebration. In Washington, Karen Maginnis joins us from the International Weather Center.

What he can look forward to, Karen?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, a very typical hot, steamy forecast for this July 4th especially across the eastern third of the United States with millions of people expecting very hot temperatures from the upper 80s into the low 90s. And we did see some records over the previous 24 hours.

[04:45:02] I don't think this is a record-setting day but it's going to be very typical. But I think the bulk of the fireworks will be for Washington D.C. About a 60 percent chance of daytime high temperatures in the mid to upper 80s. New York looks great. Boston with the spectacular fireworks there. You're looking at almost a zero percent chance of storms. But where we see the most organized set of storms will be across the northern tier, also for Nebraska into Colorado and for Wyoming.

Otherwise, widely scattered storms from Nashville, to New Orleans, Orlando, and for Atlanta. Atlanta is hosting the Peach Tree Road Race. 60,000 people running about six miles or 10 kilometers. It is going to be a very hot and steamy forecast for them. It's going to feel like 97 for the afternoon. Lots of people celebrating, picnics. In Chicago it will feel like mid 90s there. So as you can see, pretty much from the eastern Rockies all the way to the eastern coast of the United States, temperatures are going to be sizzling hot but as I've mentioned, it does look like Washington, D.C. could see fireworks from Mother Nature, as we go through the afternoon.

The biggest fireworks as far as Mother Nature goes from Rapid City towards Denver, but for the West Coast of the United States, you're looking at a fairly quiet weather picture. That will be good news. Temperatures in Southern California mostly into the 70s.

Enjoy your holiday. Max, back to you.

FOSTER: Karen, thank you very much indeed.

Southern Japan is braced for possible landslides meanwhile following extremely heavy downpours across the island of Kyushu, home to more than 30 million people. Almost a million residence have been told to leave areas (INAUDIBLE) and there were warnings of landslides. The heavy weather is now over the mainland and impacting Tokyo through the storms no longer seen as severe.

We're getting a new look inside Hong Kong's Legislative Council Building after protesters stormed it on Monday. Police showed reporters some of the damage on Wednesday. You can see debris, broken glass, graffities spray-painted on the walls. The protest was sparked several weeks ago by now a suspended bill that would allow people to be extradited from Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong's chief executive Carrie Lam strongly condemned Monday's violent protest which saw 13 police officers taken to a hospital. One man has been arrested in connection with the incident.

Boeing says it will pay $100 million to help support the families of 346 people who were killed in two 737 MAX jet crashes in the past year. A computerized stall prevention system is believed to have played a role in both crashes, in Indonesia and in Ethiopia. Boeing says the payout will not affect the families' lawsuits against the company. Boeing's CEO said, "We know every person who steps aboard one of our airplanes places their trust in us. We are focused on re- earning that trust and confidence among customers and the flying public in the months ahead."

Now the match-up is set for the world women's -- the Women's World Cup. After Netherlands and Sweden battled out until the very last minute for their chance for the championship. We'll have details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:52:19] FOSTER: Well, the stage is set for the Women's World Cup Final. It's the U.S. versus the Netherlands on Sunday after the Dutch team's last-minute win over Sweden.

CNN's Amanda Davis has the highlights.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANDA DAVIS, CNN WORLD SPORT: It was only four years ago that the Netherlands made it to the World Cup for the first time. Now they're gearing up for a World Cup final against three-time champions the USA. It certainly won't go down as a classic against Sweden. It was difficult to compare it as in occasion to what we saw in the other semifinal match-up between England and the USA on Tuesday night, both in terms of atmosphere and precision and urgency on the pitch.

We had two sides confident in possession but not always finding the opportunities to do something with it. The likes of Vivianne Miedema for the Netherlands and Sweden's Stina Blacksteniu were short of chances. Both keepers did make a couple of stunning saves and ultimately the Dutch continued their habit of scoring late. So late this time we needed extra time.

It was Manchester United's new signee Jackie Groenen who made the breakthrough and put the European champions into Sunday's decider which will no doubt prove their biggest challenge yet.

Amanda Davis, CNN, Lyon, France.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Just the final to go.

Politicians spend a lot of money trying to convince people to vote for them of course. In the case of Donald Trump's new campaign ad about 117 bucks a piece. CNN's Jeanne Moos has the truth behind the testimonials.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Trump ad features Tracey from Florida walking the beach praising the president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could not ask for a better president of the United States of America.

MOOS: And he couldn't ask for a better testimonial unless it was from a real supporter because Tracey from Florida is just a model from Istockphoto. But surely Thomas from Washington offering Trump religious support is the real thing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In our prayers.

MOOS: No, not a prayer that he's real, just a bearded and tattooed hipster type from Istock. And A.J. from Texas?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump, although I am a lifelong Democrat --

MOOS: He's another model from Istockphoto available for a modest licensing fee of 170 bucks. All this was first reported by the Web site Popular Info. What's an ad guy who spent 17 years making Democratic spots think of this?

J. J. BALABAN, DEMOCRATIC AD MAKER: If I did anything remotely like this for any one of my clients, I'd be fired.

MOOS: Actually no word of firings from the Trump Make America Great Again Committee that made these Facebook ads.

(On camera): Now there is an itty-bitty disclaimer that pops up on the ads for maybe two seconds but you better have your trusty magnifying glass handy.

[04:55:09] (Voice-over): Don't blink, it's coming. What you missed says, "Actual testimonial, actor portrayal."

Why would someone do this when they could just grab a real Trump supporter?

BALABAN: Sloppiness and laziness.

MOOS: Sloppiness is nothing new. There was that Marco Rubio screwup.

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON": This is real.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's morning again in America.

FALLON: Stop, stop the clip there. That's Vancouver, Canada.

MOOS: Someone on Twitter defended the Trump committee's use of Stock images. Because the unhinged jackasses on the left would go to no end to make some Trump supporter's life a living hell. But they didn't just borrow the people, they lifted the storefront, it's in Tokyo. Note the Japanese sign. And the beach that Tracey from Florida is walking on is actually the Mediterranean Sea. Better check Tracey's birth certificate.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: The real Jeanne Moos.

First there was the ice bucket challenge. Now the bottle cap challenge is the latest viral trend. The idea is to spin kick the cap off the bottle without knocking over the bottle. It was started by mixed martial artist Max Holloway. He then challenged singer- songwriter John Mayer. He nailed it in this attempt.

Action star Jason Statham and former UFC fighter Connor McGregor followed suit. These guys were impressive. This one not so much. Just needs a little more practice.

I'm Max Foster in London. "EARLY START" is next for our viewers in the U.S. For everyone else, stay with us. "THE AMANPOUR" starting next for you. Thanks for joining us.

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