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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Democrats Caucus Today In Iowa; America's Choice 2020; Senate Prepares To Acquit Donald J. Trump; China Lashes Out At U.S. Coronavirus Response; Super Bowl, Hail To The Chiefs; Trump And Bloomberg Spend Millions On Super Bowl Ads; Impeachment Trial Resumes With Closing Arguments; Chinese Stocks Getting Battered; Chinese Stocks Have Worst Day Since 2015; Coronavirus Prompts New U.S. Travel Restrictions; London Terrorist Was Under Surveillance; Sundance Film Festival First. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired February 03, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A split screen for the ages. Democrats begin deciding who they want to replace President Trump as the Senate prepares to acquit him of high crimes and misdemeanors.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: China lashing out at the U.S. as more stringent travel restrictions on China take effect to contain the coronavirus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Williams makes a cut and will roll into the end zone for the touchdown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And another epic come back in a post-season full of them. The Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champs for the first time in 50 years. And what a halftime show.
Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This Early Start. I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Monday February 3rd, 4:00 a.m. here in New York. Well, this is week that will reverberate in U.S. history. And President Trump's impeachment trial today marks the beginning of the end for the Democratic race to unseat the president, it's the end of the beginning.
ROMANS: The first (inaudible) caucuses in Iowa are today after a year of campaigning, we get a first glimpse how voters feel about this Democratic field. A field that's shrunk considerably but remains deep with months of voting to go.
JARRETT: And closing arguments are today in President's impeachment trial. A forgone conclusion, of course, the Senate will acquit him on charges that he abuse his power, but the pushed to uncover who knew what and when could be just to be the head start --
ROMANS: -- on his victory lap tomorrow night with the state of the union in Nancy Pelosi's chamber.
JARRETT: But we begin in Iowa where Democrats will begin answering the critical 2020 question today. Can a party at war with itself beat the president in November? Arlette Saenz begins our coverage with the Biden campaign in Des Moines.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Laura and Christine. Heading in tonight's caucuses, Joe Biden has been consistent with this message. He's essentially framed this race as a matchup between himself and the president. Biden has also been arguing that he is the candidate who could best unify and heal the country which he thinks is something that Democrats are craving in this presidential race.
Now, he has at times try to make some distinctions between himself and the other contenders. Over the weekend, he was arguing that Democrats and Iowans need to consider a candidate who can actually fulfill the promises and make their promises a reality. And take a listen to a part of the closing message he left with Iowans as he held his final rally in Des Moines.
JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We choose hope over fear.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERS)
We choose science -- science over fiction. And we choose unity over division. And we choose truth over lies.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERS)
SAENZ: Now, Bidens campaign has said that Iowa is not a must-win state, but he has invested significant time and resources here in the state. Biden himself has predicted that this will be a toss-up. He believes that candidates could emerge from Iowa bunched up in the amount of delegates that they acquire.
And what Biden and his team have argued is that he has a diverse coalition waiting for him in states like South Carolina and Super Tuesday which have a more diverse demographic. But Biden as he's closed out his argument and his pitch to Iowans here, he has stressed to them that they should caucus for him because the president is most concerned about facing him in a general election. Laura and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Arlette, thank you so much for that. You know, Joe Biden has been a front-runner since he first entered this race, but a late surge by Bernie Sanders even after a heart attack just four months ago underscores how fractured the party is. CNN's Ryan Nobles is on the trail in Iowa.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGON CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, Bernie Sanders is back in Washington, D.C. today after spending all of Sunday in Iowa. And right now his campaign is feeling confident. They do believe that there are more caucus goers, Democratic caucus goers here in this state that support his campaign than any of the other campaigns. But what their focus now is getting them to those caucus locations on Monday night.
And Sanders crisscrossed the state on Sunday particularly hitting these canvas locations where his volunteers then are going to go out into the community and get those people to show up on caucus night. This was Sanders' final push to his volunteers to make sure that they understood the stakes that were ahead of them.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My request of all of you is to do everything that you can in the next 24 hours, to knock on doors, to talk to your friends, to get on the phone to make sure that we have a large turn out tomorrow night, because I've said this before and I'll say it again, if there is a low voter turnout tomorrow night, we're going to lose.
[04:05:15]
NOBLES: There's no question that Sanders and his team are feeling confident right now but they know that this is a close race and nothing is guaranteed. That's why their putting such a heavy emphasis on their organizational effort here in Iowa. It's important to also point out it is pretty remarkable that Sanders finds himself in this position on caucus day when just a few months ago he was suffering from a heart attack and many political observers wondered if that was the end of his campaign. He stands now here today in a position to possibly win. Laura and Christine?
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JARRETT: Ryan Nobles, thanks so much.
Well, President Trump is attacking a Democrat who's not even on the ballot in Iowa. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Bloomberg is skipping the first four states. His campaign points out Iowa and New Hampshire had 65 delegates between them while California, Michigan and Pennsylvania have 726. And a change to the rules by the DNC could land Bloomberg on the next debate stage.
ROMANS: President Trump not waiting to find out tweeting mini Mike wants boxes or a lift to stand on for the debates. Bloomberg firing back Donald Trump knows I can beat him and the fear that keeps him up tweeting about me late into the night. Both trump and Bloomberg spent millions on Super Bowl ads.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm free to hug my family. I'm free to start over.
This is the greatest day of my life. My heart is --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: President Trump touting his criminal justice reforms while Mike Bloomberg highlighting years of work for gun legislation.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- aspirations about going to the NFL on a Friday morning, George was shot. George didn't survive.
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JARRETT: Bloomberg also released his tax reform plan. It calls for a 5 percent surtax on income above $5 million a year to pay for infrastructure, education and health care.
ROMANS: The first of two final anticlimactic stages of President Trump's impeachment trial, gets underway in a matter of hours. Both sides will make their closing arguments today. The final vote is scheduled for Wednesday though the outcome is not in doubt. Even the Republican Senators who admit the president acted improperly are preparing to acquit him.
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SEN. JONI ERNST, (R-IA): Generally speaking going after corruption would be the right thing to do. He did it maybe in the wrong manner.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No, but he is after the Bidens.
ERNST: And the president has a lot of latitude to do what he wants to do. Again, not what I would have done but certainly again, going after corruption, Jake.
TAPPER: So you're saying it's not perfect. I get that. But it's not something --
ERNST: Maybe not the perfect call.
SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-TN): When you look at Nixon when the vote authorized that inquiry it was 410-4 and you look at Trump, where not a single Republican voted for it. If you start out with a partisan impeachment you're almost destined to have a partisan acquittal.
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JARRETT: Senator Alexander doesn't want a partisan process. It does not call out Republican colleagues in the House who refused to accept the same facts that he does. Democratic Adam Schiff will not say whether he will subpoena John Bolton after Alexander's vote killed any chance of that happening in the Senate. Unlike the last president to be acquitted don't expect President Trump to apologize or express any contrition. People close to him say they expect him to claim vindication and proclaim his complete and total innocence.
ROMANS: Yes, President Clinton apologized to the American people and said that, you know, he apologized for putting them through all this and for dividing the nation and no one expects this president to do that.
JARRETT: No.
ROMANS: Well, for the first time in 50 years. The Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champs.
JARRETT: Andy Scholes has more on their thrilling come back over the 49ers in this morning's bleacher report from Miami. Hi, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, guys. What a game Super Bowl LIV was, you know, Chiefs fans leave -- left here with a big smile on their face. I'm sure they're still partying right now because for the first time in most of their lifetimes they can call themselves Super Bowl champion, but it was not easy. Like their other two playoff games. They had to mount a comeback. The Niners were up 20-10 with just 7 minutes left to go in this game and Patrick Mahomes, you know, this wasn't his best game but when they needed to make a big play he came through.
Big passes in the fourth quarter to eventually give the Chiefs the lead. And Mahomes now the first quarterback in NFL history to win an MVP award and a Super Bowl before turning 25 years old. He was your Super Bowl MVP as the Chiefs stunned the 49ers in a comeback 31-20 and Coy Wire was on the field after the game and he caught up with the Super Bowl MVP.
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PATRICK MAHOMES, SUPER BOWL MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: Hey, we're coming home. It's going to be amazing. Everyone be out there for the parade. We're going to bring the Lombardy home.
ANDY REID, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS COACH: I got very bunch of guys, man. You know, they're phenomenal, so, I can coach another 20 years with this group.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Come back kids how?
REID: Its heart, man, you know that. Its heart, so, I'm proud of him.
WIRE: You're just the third African American quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl. What does your story -- what does that message send to kids all across America?
[04:10:07]
MAHOMES: I think it just means no matter where you come from, no matter how you're raised or what race you are that you can go out and follow your dreams. That's what I've always believe. No one thought I would be a football player, everyone thought I was going to be a baseball player, but I followed my dreams and now I'm here winning the Super Bowl with all my teammates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Check out this tweet from Mahomes seven years ago, he said wouldn't it be amazing to be a quarterback and win a Super Bowl and then say I'm going to Disney World, and that's exactly what he did on the stage after raising the Lombardy trophy. Now the Chiefs were the sentimental favorite in this game coming into it. Now as (inaudible) because of their head coach, Andy Reid, 21 years coaching in the NFL and had never won a Super Bowl. He was considered the best coach to never win a big game. But you can't say that about him anymore. And all of his players couldn't have been happier to win the big Super Bowl for him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm happy as hell. He's a legend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll tell you what, I am more excited for that guy than anybody else. He deserves it so much. He puts so much work into everything he does and to see everything pay off for him, I mean that was unbelievable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coach Reid told me, both of them to keep firing, keep believing in your eyes, keep throwing it and it he gives me the confidence to go out there no matter what I do and it worked out well in the end.
SCHOLES: Yes. They're going to have a victory parade in Kansas City on Wednesday. Guys, and Coach Reid joked that he's going to eat the biggest cheeseburger ever to celebrate this win.
JARRETT: I think he deserves it.
ROMANS: That's awesome. All right. Andy Scholes, thanks, Andy. He's been up late, hasn't he? Shakira and Jennifer Lopez stole the show at halftime. Shakira began her set with Miami and Whenever, Where ever. Jennifer Lopez on a pole invoking scenes from her film Hustlers. Remember Lopez is 50 years old and still defying age. I mean, she is such an entertainer, plenty of Latin flair in Miami, they (inaudible) a Puerto Rican flag. Jennifer Lopez sang Born in the USA, while wearing -- that coat, I think there are thousands of feathers with the American flag on one side and the Puerto Rican flag on the other. It really was something.
JARRETT: They're both just a feat.
ROMANS: Oh my gash. They're in incredible shape -- I mean, and just --
JARRETT: So much energy. It's amazing.
ROMANS: The core strength it must have taken her on that pole. Oh, my gosh, back to the gym.
JARRETT: Well, President Trump muffing his congratulatory tweet to the Chiefs. The president praised the Super Bowl champs for representing the great state of Kansas so very well, but of course the Chiefs played in Missouri and Twitter lit up. Matt Fuller of the Huffington Post says, no one actually thinks Trump could locate Ukraine on a map, right? Remember his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who is from Kansas recently tried to embarrass a reporter by asking her to point out Ukraine on a map which she says she did.
ROMANS: And this, from CNN's Rebecca Buck as if losing the Rams weren't enough. Now Missouri has zero NFL teams by presidential decree, very funny, Rebecca. This map has been retweeted thousands of times. Looks like someone took a sharp sharpie to Kansas and extended it into Missouri. Remember sharpie (inaudible), right? After about 10 minutes the president deleted the tweet and posted a new one with the correct state. Those of us from flyover country. We don't really --
JARRETT: Exactly, the Midwesterner girls here.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Come on.
JARRETT: Strong feelings. Right.
ROMANS: All right. Chinese stocks having their worst day in years. Investors with their first chance to react to the coronavirus after the lunar new year.
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[04:15:00]
ROMANS: All right, Chinese stocks having their worst days in years. Investors finally have a chance to react to the coronavirus outbreak and look what happened, Shanghai plunged almost 8 percent on the first day of trading after an extended Lunar New Year holiday. This is the worst day for Shanghai stocks since August 2015. That is big -- a 7 percent move, folks. That is a big move.
On Wall Street right now, taking a look at futures they are up just a little bit here leaning higher. A bounce back from what was kind of a rough week last week here. It's still impossible to determine how much this virus will affect the Chinese economy and the global economy. Some economists have said that China's growth rate could drop 2 percentage points this quarter. A drop that big could mean a loss of $62 billion to China's economy. China may have to respond by cutting taxes, boosting spending, slashing interest rates to prevent the outbreak from wreaking havoc on an already fragile economy.
But way back in SARS China was about -- I don't know -- maybe 4 percent of the global economy. Now it's more like 16 percent. So China's impact on the rest of the world is different this time. And so that's why investors are so nervous.
JARRETT: Well, the U.S. has started endorsing tougher travel restrictions in an effort to contain the Wuhan corona outbreak. The plan includes a temporary ban on foreign nationals who visited China in the 14 days prior to their arrival to the United States. So far, the virus has killed more than 350 people and infected more than 17,000 in China. That's more than 600 percent spikes since this time last week.
Over the weekend the first death outside mainland China. Health officials say in the Philippines, a 44-year-old Chinese man died after flying in from Wuhan. There is concerns for a medical teams in China trying to treat the growing number of patients and this morning the Chinese government has some harsh words for the U.S. CNN's David Culver is in Beijing for us. And David, officials are not happy about these travel restrictions.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're not, Laura. And I should point out you and Christine were talking about the extended Lunar New Year holiday, today it's supposed to be back to business. Though a lot of folks are staying inside, not really going out. People recommended to work from home except for the foreign ministry. We did hear from them today. And you're right, harsh words towards the U.S. They are angry, there is no question. And the reason they're so upset is because the U.S. was one of the first if not the first to issue these travel restrictions against China.
[04:20:07]
What happened afterwards, several other countries followed suit. So China essentially has become in its own quarantine. It's become increasingly isolated. I want you to listen to some of the words spoken by the spokesperson, kind of Foreign Minister here. She said, quote, the U.S. Government hasn't provided any substantial assistance to us, but it was the first to evacuate personnel from its consulate in Wuhan, the first to suggest partial withdrawal of its embassy staff and the first to impose a travel ban on Chinese travelers. All it has done could only create and spread fear which is a bad example.
They mention the evacuations. There was supposed to be a second flight that was supposed to leave today. We've heard from some of the folks who we're told that they were going to be on that flight, the Americans who are within the epicenter of all this, the city of Wuhan, that's it's been delayed. They didn't know why it was delayed, but it seems like there was some back and forth between the U.S. and Chinese governments to try to figure out coordinating that.
It essentially comes down to, Laura that it seems the Chinese government is saying, that some of these folks who are being evacuated by other countries are bringing in supplies. The U.S. has not yet done that. But Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, saying today that they will consider bringing in medical supplies and then getting their people out.
JARRETT: All right, David, thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right, 21 minutes past the hour. The terrorists who attacked a busy London street was already under surveillance and recently released from prison. We'll tell you why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:25:00]
JARRETT: A terrorist who stabbed two people in South London on Sunday had just been released from prison days earlier. According to U.K. Government source, he served about a half of a three-year sentence for possessing and distributing extremist material. He had to be released under British law and was under surveillance at the time of the attack. This comes three months after a similar attack near London Bridge. The British government said at the time it would toughen sentences and end early release for terrorist offenders.
ROMANS: Some big news from the Sundance Film Festival. Tabitha Jackson, becomes the first woman and the first person of color to lead the influential festival in its nearly 40-year history. Jackson had been the head of the Sundance Institute documentary film program for the past seven years.
JARRETT: Three frenzied days that could shape this country for years. The Senate poised to acquit the president in his impeachment trial and new urgency for Democrats voting today in Iowa hoping to make Donald Trump a one term president. What he will say about all of it in tomorrow's state of the union.
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