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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Washington Nationals Win World Series; New Declassified Video Released Of Raid That Killed ISIS Leader; Key Document In Boeing 737 MAX Probe Revealed. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired October 31, 2019 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WORLD SERIES ANNOUNCER: Three-two -- there it goes. The Washington Nationals
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The nation's capital is united for once. A World Series for the ages. The Nats with a furious comeback to win the fall classic.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: One of the most consequential days in the impeachment inquiry. Big moments expected in Congress, in court, and behind closed doors.
BRIGGS: Twitter bans political ads amid heightened social media scrutiny. What do 2020 candidates think?
ROMANS: And the Pentagon declassifies images from that raid that killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Incredible images as the ISIS founded was taken down.
BRIGGS: Wow.
ROMANS: Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs, good morning. Happy Halloween, everyone, 5:30 Eastern time.
We begin in the nation's capital with breaking news and it has nothing to do with politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WORLD SERIES ANNOUNCER: Three-two -- there it goes. The Washington Nationals are world champions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The Washington Nationals coming from behind again in game seven to beat the Houston Astros and win their first World Series. Houston's own Andy Scholes and the champagne celebration in Houston.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: The champagne and beer flowing for the Washington Nationals for the first time as World Series champions. And this was a team of destiny. Every time they had their backs against the wall they figured out a way to get it done.
And in game seven of the World Series, it was Howie Kendrick with the big 2-run home run.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so happy for the organization and for the city. I hope they're ready for a party because we're coming home.
STEPHEN STRASBURG, PITCHER, WASHINGTON NATIONALS: Yes, there was some heartbreak in the past but nothing but love here and we're just enjoying the ride.
SCHOLES: What do got to say to the fans waiting in D.C. for you?
STRASBURG: Oh, man -- I hope to see them -- I hope to see them loud and excited just like we are.
TREA TURNER, SHORTSTOP, WASHINGTON NATIONALS: We couldn't be happier. I think the fans have been behind us all year. We showed them how we were going to continue to fight for them and give it our all, and I'm just happy we got it done for them.
JUAN SOTO, OUTFIELDER, WASHINGTON NATIONALS: It's amazing, amazing. It's amazing.
SCHOLES: The road team won all seven games of this series. It's the first time that's ever happening in American professional sports and it's only fitting that this 'never say die' gritty Nationals team was the one to accomplish it.
In the party in the Nationals' clubhouse in Houston, Andy Scholes, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRIGGS: Another legend has been made in World Series history -- that guy. That guy is amazing. That was Nats Park after the final out. He had been waiting for this all series long.
The celebration in D.C. probably still going on at 5:32 Eastern time.
The Nats official Twitter feed summed it up this way. "BRB -- be right back. We're partying."
ROMANS: United in D.C. over one thing, at least.
And then today, some dramatic turns are expected in the impeachment inquiry. At 8:00 a.m., the National Security Council's top Russia expert, Tim Morrison, testifies. He will be the second witness who listened in on the July 25th call between President Trump and the leader of Ukraine.
CNN has reported Morrison will corroborate key elements of Bill Taylor's account. Remember, Taylor is the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine. He testified Mr. Trump pressed Ukraine to publicly announce an investigation into the Bidens in exchange for security assistance.
BRIGGS: CNN also learning Morrison is leaving his job soon, raising expectations he'll speak more freely in his deposition.
Also this morning, the first House floor vote on impeachment around 10:30 Eastern time. That resolution allows for public impeachment hearings and the release of deposition transcripts. It also outlines the role of House Democrats and more limited rights for Republicans and the White House.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sounding optimistic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Mr. Clyburn, our whip, has given me a very good report about our vote tomorrow. He's the whip -- the vote counter. Thank you, Mr. Clyburn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: One big remaining question, will John Bolton testify? A source tells CNN House investigators invited the formal national security adviser to appear next week, but Bolton's lawyer says he won't appear unless he is subpoenaed.
Other witnesses have said Bolton raised concerns about shadow diplomacy with Ukraine -- shadow diplomacy by the president and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
BRIGGS: Also today, two hearings that will determine whether the White House can defy subpoenas. Bolton's former aide, Charles Kupperman, has asked the judge to decide whether he should testify over White House objections. A different judge will hear arguments on whether former White House counsel Don McGahn is immune from testifying.
ROMANS: All right, a lot more ahead on this. Plus, new incriminating documents revealed as Boeing's CEO faces family members devastated over two 737 MAX crashes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:39:08]
ROMANS: All right, it's a big day ahead for the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry. A top National Security Council official to give his deposition in just a few hours. Tim Morrison is expected to back up earlier testimony that President Trump expected a quid pro quo of favors with the leader of Ukraine.
Meantime, Democrats are set to formalize the procedure for a full public impeachment probe addressing many of the Republican complaints about the process.
BRIGGS: All right, let's talk about this with "Washington Post" congressional reporter Karoun Demirjian. Good morning to you.
ROMANS: Good morning.
BRIGGS: Congrats on the World Series. We'll get to that in a minute.
But let's start with what is dividing --
KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: That's all I want to talk about.
BRIGGS: -- the city this morning.
So, this floor -- this House vote today -- symbolically, what does it mean? How many holdouts are there on the Democratic side? And practically, how does it change things moving forward?
DEMIRJIAN: Well, we now that it's going to be establishing, basically, the rules of the road going forward and that this is going to be indicating to people exactly what procedures will be followed as they proceed through the rest of the closed-door hearings, the public hearings, and the structure that -- the basic structure that those will take.
[05:40:11]
And also, what the rights of the minority are going to be because, of course, there's been quite a lot of political tension surrounding all of this.
This will basically indicate the steps that the House Democrats are going to follow. It is not yet an impeachment declaration or anything like that --
ROMANS: Yes.
DEMIRJIAN: -- but it is certainly layout out the step-wise motion that they will take to get to what everybody now expects is that inevitable point.
ROMANS: Right.
DEMIRJIAN: And there will be a few Democrats -- we know about one for sure, but there may be a few Democrats who don't vote for it, but the overwhelming majority will. There's no question that this is going to pass later today and then the next round of political fights will surely ensue. But this is at least going to be them having established -- written down what it is they're planning on doing so that everybody can refer to that as we go forward.
ROMANS: And also today, the lawmakers will hear from someone named Timothy Morrison, who is the National Security Council's director for Europe and Russia. He may be stepping down soon. He's someone who was recruited to join the NSC by John Bolton and was mentioned 15 times in Bill Taylor's testimony.
How important is his testimony, do you think, and what may be an opening statement that is revealed to the public filling in the details here?
DEMIRJIAN: Yes. If he corroborates with what Bill Taylor -- the current top-ranking diplomat to Ukraine -- said in his extremely detailed testimony, then that is potentially huge because Taylor said that Morrison was the person who first let him know in very early September that the military aid to Ukraine -- the nearly $400 million in congressionally-approved military aid was being withheld until the Ukrainian president made this public promise to conduct these investigations into the energy company that employed Hunter Biden, the former vice president and current presidential candidate's son.
And then also, this debunked conspiracy theory involving the server -- the DNC server that was hacked in 2016. And so, that's fairly revealing.
We have been waiting on these firsthand accounts because Taylor's account has been criticized by members of the GOP as being secondhand. Others have come in and said what they knew, but people like Morrison were in the room for many of these discussions and closer to the action and that.
We saw earlier this week Lt. Col. Vindman, who is also on the NCS, come in and testify that he saw what amounted to a quid pro quo, which involved the promise of a face-to-face meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian president -- that that was being leveraged until the Ukrainians promised to conduct these investigations.
If Morrison now comes in and says it was the money, too, that's a double whammy for the Democrats. That is making their case, basically, with somebody who is a lot closer to the action and probably --
BRIGGS: Yes.
DEMIRJIAN: -- was in on the action and can say exactly what was going on with that authority of having been there.
BRIGGS: You write in the "Post" this morning about the White House planning to invite GOP lawmakers to see where they are on this.
Any chance a Republican in the House votes with Democrats? And what about John Bolton if, in fact, he is subpoenaed? Do you expect him to defy that?
DEMIRJIAN: If any Republicans do vote with House Democrats it's going to be in the numbers of like one or two because there's so much political pressure on them for this vote.
And remember, again, this is not a vote to impeach so it's not really the final word. It's a process vote. So there's a little bit of wiggle room there to explain that and even if it does not match with the final vote that numbers take. And as far as Bolton goes, it's significant that this letter of invitation has gone out for next Thursday, but it's an invitation. And based on the way that Bolton's top deputy, Charles Kupperman, has been responding to even a subpoena, which is going to be bring him into court, his lawyer is the same as Bolton's lawyer.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: Yes.
DEMIRJIAN: We can assume that they're probably going to follow the same practice.
So if that judge does surprise everybody and rules very, very quickly to order Kupperman to respond to the House's subpoena and show up then, OK, maybe we may see another friendly situation -- a friendly subpoena situation with Bolton because remember, most of the witnesses that have come forward, to this point, have actually been testifying under subpoena, even if it's just to facilitate their testimony.
But, Bolton's a big prize. I think a lot of the Democrats feel like they have their case without him but their case would be made much, much better with him. And they've got a little bit of time to play with because they -- you know, it's still early. It's not even November yet --
BRIGGS: Yes.
DEMIRJIAN: -- but they need to settle this at some point soon. And so, this is the salvo of saying OK, we're really going to try to make this happen.
BRIGGS: All right, now to what is uniting your city there -- to baseball.
But do you get to celebrate the World Series two years in a row -- two different teams winning? I know you're from Boston. You're a little bit spoiled. But how's the city taking it, and do you get to celebrate both?
DEMIRJIAN: Yes. Well, I regret not having gone all the way downtown to the big party but I live about three miles up the road and it would still -- there were still fireworks above my house. Oh, that's from my Twitter.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: There it is.
DEMIRJIAN: That was my neighbor four doors down lighting off fireworks. And it was an impromptu block party where I was, too. I think everybody in the city is really happy. And it's nice to have something that everybody can celebrate that gets our heads out of this impeachment game, even if it's just for a night.
[05:45:03] ROMANS: Yes, exactly.
DEMIRJIAN: It was worth staying up for.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: Escapism in a big, big way.
BRIGGS: No doubt about that.
ROMANS: All right. Karoun Demirjian, nice to see you. Thank you.
BRIGGS: Congrats.
DEMIRJIAN: Thank you so much, OK.
BRIGGS: All right. No more political ads on Twitter. Its CEO tweeting, "We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought."
There is tense scrutiny the social media giants, particularly Facebook, for allowing politicians to run false ads.
ROMANS: Twenty twenty Democratic presidential candidates are responding.
Former Vice President Joe Biden's spokesperson saying, "...faced with a choice between ad dollars and the integrity of our democracy, it is encouraging that, for once, revenue did not win out."
Fellow presidential hopeful Andrew Yang called it the "...the rare triumph of the public good over the bottom line."
And, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg said this in New Hampshire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a bold step. I think it reflects that sense of responsibility. And I think other online platforms would do well to either accept their responsibility for truth or question whether they should be in the business.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: President Trump's campaign manager called the move yet another attempt to silence conservatives since Twitter knows President Trump has the most sophisticated online program ever known.
Without directly addressing the announcement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg opened his company's third-quarter earnings call by saying, quote, "We need to be careful about adopting more and more rules around political speech."
ROMANS: And, of course, Facebook critics will say you need to be more careful about what is on your platform and your role in democracy.
Here's what to watch today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rising rent and home prices are pushing Americans further from the places they work. This is straining the backbone of our communities.
To do our part, Wells Fargo has committed $1 billion over the next six years to develop housing affordability solutions, putting affordable homes within reach. This is our commitment. This is Wells Fargo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:51:30]
ROMANS: The Pentagon releasing newly-declassified video and images of the daring 2-hour raid that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
CNN's Barbara Starr has the latest from the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Dave, Christine, the top U.S. commander, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, briefing reporters at the Pentagon about the mission to get Baghdadi.
Right off the top, it should be noted that Gen. McKenzie said he could not confirm President Trump's details that Baghdadi died whimpering and crying. In fact, Gen. McKenzie suggested that Baghdad had, at some point, attempted to fire his weapon.
He showed three sets of videos.
The first video was U.S. forces, on helicopters, approaching the compound when they came under fire from the ground. Forces onboard those helicopters returned fire and eliminated that threat. They don't actually think it was ISIS forces protecting Baghdadi; that it was simply other militants in the area.
The second video then -- if you can look and see the dark figures approaching, those are U.S. special forces approaching Baghdadi's compound. They, of course, found him in a tunnel. He detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and two children. That had thought it was three; now they know there were two children there.
The tunnel then collapses, fills with water, and two U.S. troops and a military working dog are injured with electrocution injuries because there were wires in that water. Very dangerous business. All three, including the dog, have returned to duty.
The final video that they showed, of course, was U.S. warplanes rolling in and bombing the compound. Gen. McKenzie said they really wanted to obliterate it -- they didn't want it to become a shrine. They wanted it just to become another piece of ground -- Dave, Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Barbara Starr, thank you for that.
Breaking overnight, a new fire in Southern California. Fire officials say the brush fires blazing in Jurupa Valley. That's in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles. Evacuations are now underway.
So far, the fire is small but spreading rapidly. Officials say there are already 74 firefighters on-scene.
BRIGGS: Hurricane-force winds driving giant flames across a 6-lane freeway in Simi Valley, California, setting fire to grass on the other side.
A new inferno named the Easy Fire -- some flames reaching 30 feet into the sky. At last report, the Easy Fire has burned more than 1,600 acres and threatened 7,000 structures.
The flames inching dangerously close to the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. A herd of hungry goats actually helped save the library. The goats are brought in every year to chew a fire break on the hillside around the facility.
ROMANS: In Northern California, crews are finally gaining ground on his huge Kincade Fire. It's grown to more than 76,000 acres. It's not about 45 percent contained. Evacuation orders remain in place, though, for nearly 6,000 people.
Meantime, Pacific Gas and Electric says its equipment may be linked to three more fires in the state. Right now, more than 200,000 customers without power in Northern California. That's an improvement, though -- more than a million earlier this week.
BRIGGS: Boeing's CEO back in the hot seat on Capitol Hill. This hearing was far more intense than Dennis Muilenburg's appearance Tuesday answering about these 737 MAX crashes.
Crash victims' families groaning while Muilenburg repeatedly mentioned his boyhood on an Iowa farm.
[05:55:03]
A mother whose daughter died in one of the crashes confronted him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOTHER OF EPIOPIAN CRASH VICTIM: When you were talking about your performance and like how you've done in this company and the mistakes that have been made and regrets that have been made.
And then you start talking about Iowa. When you talked about Iowa just like one too many times and the whole group said go back to the farm -- go back to Iowa -- do that. And it's because when you make mistakes like that and you can acknowledge them, then someone -- maybe someone else should do that work.
And so, I don't feel like you understand when you say I want to dig in and I want to like confront an issue -- confront a situation and I want to solve the situation, it's come to the point where you're not the person anymore to solve this situation.
DENNIS MUILENBURG, CEO, THE BOEING COMPANY: I respect that -- I really do -- but I want to tell you the way I was brought up, and I'm just being honest here about it.
What I learned from my father in Iowa was -- is when things happen on your watch you have to own them and you have to take responsibility to fix them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Also, new documents revealed suggest Boeing had ample warning long before two 737 MAX jets went down, killing 346.
Here's Rene Marsh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENE MARSH, CNN GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND TRANSPORTATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine and Dave, Boeing's CEO admitted two things he says he regrets.
Number one, the plane's flight control system's faulty design that relies on just one sensor to feed it critical flight information. He says if they knew everything they know now, quote, "We would have made a different decision." The second thing he regrets is just how slowly Boeing acted after that first crash.
We also learned about a new document -- another internal Boeing e- mail. This one dating back to 2015 and it shows an employee raising concerns that the MCAS system in the 737 MAX that essentially pushes the nose of the plane down was relying on data from a single sensor.
That e-mail saying, quote, "Are we vulnerable to single AOA sensor failures?" It is unclear where the conversation went from there.
But the scenario raised is largely believed to be the one that doomed both the Lion Air flight and the Ethiopian Airlines flight.
Now, Boeing has fired one executive, so far. But Muilenburg sidestepped questions about whether he would resign, saying that's not where he's focused. He also sidestepped questions about whether he would take a pay cut -- Christine and Dave.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Rene Marsh, thank you.
Let's get a check on "CNN Business" this Thursday morning -- Halloween edition.
Taking a look at markets around the world, mixed right now, although you can see European shares leaning mostly lower.
On Wall Street, futures right now down a little bit here. You know, stocks rallied Wednesday after the Fed cut interest rates for a third time in a row. The Fed has now erased all of last year's rate hikes.
The S&P 500 eked out a fresh all-time high. The Dow finished up 115. The Nasdaq closed higher as well.
All right. An iconic brewing company is suddenly changing its name and laying off workers. Molson Coors is consolidating into two businesses and will now be known as Molson Coors Beverage Company as it plans to move beyond beer.
Coors' sales have struggled as younger drinkers choose drinks like White Claw and other spiked seltzers over beer.
It will close its Denver office and cut up to 500 jobs. Coors plans to launch more non-beer products in the future.
And speaking of beer and Halloween, Dave Briggs --
BRIGGS: That's right. The Bud Light hero, Jeff Adams, here in-studio for you on Halloween.
For those of you that don't remember Jeff, he was the Nats fan that carried two beers, double-fisting down the aisle, a home run ball heading right at him. He didn't want to spill or drop the beers. He took the home run ball right off the chest. He's a real man.
ROMANS: Oh.
BRIGGS: He just took it in the chest and didn't get hurt.
Happy Halloween, everyone.
ROMANS: No, wait, wait -- I'm not the one throwing them.
BRIGGS: Cheers, Jeff Adams.
ROMANS: Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs and Jeff Adams. Happy Halloween.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In just a few hours, the House committee will be hearing from another key witness, Tim Morrison, a top adviser on the president's National Security Council. Morrison is also expected to step down.
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): If this was in a court of law there would be a mistrial, right now, based upon what these Democrats have done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to show the American people in real time exactly what happened.
WORLD SERIES ANNOUNCER: There it goes. The Washington Nationals are world champions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so happy for the organization and for the city. I hope they're ready for a party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A very exciting win for the Nationals.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It was amazing. A come-from-behind World Series victory to give Washington its first World Series in --
CAMEROTA: In 100 --
BERMAN: -- 95.
CAMEROTA: Ninety-five.
BERMAN: I know you remember it well.
CAMEROTA: Yes, I do.
BERMAN: Ninety-five years.
CAMEROTA: Yes, yes -- it's -- look at this.
END
