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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; Locust Swarms Threaten Somalia; Trump Touts Economy In Super Bowl Ad; Army Sergeant Surprises Mom; Global Stocks Fall As Coronavirus Spreads; World's Richest Person Gets Richer. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 03, 2020 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: A split screen for the ages. Democrats starts deciding who they want to replace President Trump as the Senate prepares to acquit him of high crimes and misdemeanors.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, 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)
JARRETT: 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.
ROMANS: And that halftime show.
JARRETT: Spectacular.
(CROSSTALK)
JARRETT: Welcome back Early Start, I'm Laura Jarrett.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans, 32 minutes past the hour here in New York. This is week though that will reverberate in U.S. history. In 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. The first two nation caucuses in Iowa are today after a year of campaigning we get a first glimpse of 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 Trump's impeachment trial. A forgone conclusion the Senate will acquit him on charges he abuse of his power but the pushed to uncover who knew what and when could just be the beginning. The final vote is expected on Wednesday. Oh, and by the way, the president will get a head start on his victory lap tomorrow night with the state of the union in Nancy Pelosi's chamber.
ROMANS: But we begin in Iowa where Democrats will be -- begin answering the critical 2020 question today. Can a Party at war with itself beat the president in November? Candidates made their closing arguments across the state this weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We choose unity over division. And we choose truth over lies.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), 2020 U.S. DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE: We've got a choice to make. Now we can bend our knees, we can pull in, we can cower. We can be tenant or we can fight back. Me, I'm fighting back. That's why I'm here.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've said this before and I'll say it again. If there is a low voter turnout tomorrow night we are going to lose.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, I know that we're in a primary right now but one of your jobs is to look how we're going to win in the general. That is your job. My profound advice is this, we better not screw this up.
MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-SOUTH BEND-IN) 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Every single time my party has won the White House in the last 50 years. We have done it with a candidate who is new in national politics, who is opening the door to a new generation of leadership and who either doesn't work in Washington or hasn't been there very long. That is how we win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: All right. So, how is all this going to work? Well, there are nearly 1,700 caucuses' sites across Iowa. And it's important to remember Iowa votes for Party nominees like few other places. CNN's Tom Foreman explains it all from Guna, Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Caucus time in sites like this all over the state, people will gather who were eager to help pick the Democratic nominee for president, and this is how they will do it. Different areas will be designated for supporters of each candidate, and the voters will physically walk to those areas to indicate their preference. This is the first vote. Once everyone has settled, they are counted and each candidate's percentage of the vote is calculated.
[04:35:03]
Now the math will vary depending on the size of the caucus. But in larger ones such as this, if any candidate gets less than 15 percent of the overall crowd, he or she is declared unviable and effectively knocked out of the running for that caucus.
But the people who chose that candidate can still be in play because each caucus goer will receive a card like this. Now, take a closer look. On the front they will list their first choice. If that candidate is pushed out, then those voters can flip the card over and make their second choice. Now, this frequently comes amid a good deal of discussion and wrangling and talking with people and the other groups because in the final vote those people whose candidates are unviable can move their support to a viable candidate or they can combine with others like them to create another viable candidate.
A couple quick points though, if your candidate is viable from the start, meaning he or she has at least 15 percent of the overall vote, the voters who selected that candidate cannot change. They are stuck with their first choice. And if your candidate is unviable, you do not have to realign, you can simply go away with if you want to.
In any event, after the final vote everyone will be counted again, the cards will be collected to create a physical record of how many people stood for each candidate on each vote and then through a series of mathematical calculations, all those people at all those caucuses all over the state will be turned into a delegate count. Some candidates will get more delegates than everyone else and will likely declare him or herself the winner of the Iowa caucuses.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Yeah, it is really unique and democracy at work. All right. The first of two final anti-climactic stages of President Trump's impeachment trial gets under way in just 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, they are preparing to acquit him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Senator Alexander speaking there. Doesn't want a partisan process but does not call out Republican colleagues in the House who refuse to accept the same facts he does. Democrat Adam Schiff will not say whether the House will subpoena John Bolton after Alexander's vote killed any chance of that happening in the Senate. And 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. I'm surprised there.
ROMANS: All right, 38 minutes past the hour. The Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champs for the first time in 50 years.
JARRETT: Andy Scholes has more on their thrilling come back over the 49ers in this morning's bleacher report from Miami.
ROMANS: Hi, Andy.
JARRETT: Hi, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys. I'll tell you what, Super Bowl LIV, more than lived up to the hype. What a great game. And for Chiefs fans for the first time in most of their lifetimes they got to leave this stadium as Super Bowl champions, but it wasn't easy. There was a lot of emotion in this game. The Chiefs like they've done in every one of their playoff games this year falling behind by double digits.
The Niners were up 20-10 with 7 minutes to go, but that's when Patrick Mahomes turns it on. It wasn't his best game but when the Chiefs needed him he came through in the moments that were the biggest. Mahomes now the first quarterback in NFL history to get an MVP award and Super Bowl trophy before turning 25 years old. The Chiefs stunned the Niners with a comeback win, 31-20 and our Coy Wire was on the field after the game and he caught up with the Super Bowl MVP.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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?
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)
[04:40:05]
SCHOLES: And check out this tweet from Mahomes seven years ago, he tweeted, wouldn't it be amazing to be a winning quarterback in the Super Bowl and say I'm going to Disney World? And that's exactly what he did after lifting the Lombardy trophy Sunday night. Now, Mahomes seems like he might have been destined for greatness. His dad Pat Mahomes, Sr. was a baseball player in the big leagues for 11 years and Pat got to be around all kinds of big leaguers, from (inaudible), to Alex Rodriguez to see how they trained and get ready for games. Mahomes said it really helped him develop in him into the player he is today. And I actually caught up with Pat Sr. on the field after the game and asked him, well, how proud is he of his son?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAT MAHOMES SR., PATRICK MAHOMES' FATHER: It's a dream come true. You know, very exciting. You know, went out there and played a game. Didn't give up. You know, played it all the way through to the last second and that's what athletes do.
SCHOLES: First player ever with a MVP and Super Bowl, before turning 25. Has that sunken yet, to that, to your son?
MHOMES SR.: It's sinking in. You know, I think it would be tomorrow before it really hits, but I just always had a vision of him doing great things and I'm glad that he finally got to realize his dream.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yeah, and this seems like it could be the first of many for Patrick Mahomes, guys. And the sentimental favorite of this Super Bowl, Andy Reid, finally getting that Super Bowl title. He coach on the NFL for 21 years. He is sought as the best coach to never win one, but never going to hear that anymore. And Coach Reid said after this one, guys, he's going to celebrate by eating the biggest cheeseburger ever.
JARRETT: He deserves it after 21 years. I think so. ROMANS: All right, Andy Scholes, thanks so much.
JARRETT: Thanks Andy. Well, the other winners last night Shakira and Jennifer Lopez stole the show at halftime. Shakira began her set with Miami and Whenever, Wherever. Jennifer Lopez on a pole invoking themes from her film Hustlers. OK, Lopez is 50 years old, still defying age there, a lot of Latin flair as well. They unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and Jennifer Lopez sang Born in the USA while wearing a Puerto Rican flag. 40,000 feathers --
ROMANS: -- 40,000 feathers that was something. And that's her daughter.
JARRETT: Her daughter, Emme there.
ROMANS: Emme, singing and wow she's amazing. All right, that was cool.
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. Of course the Chiefs played 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, by the way, 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.
JARRETT: And this from our very own Rebecca Buck as if losing the Rams weren't enough. Now Missouri has zero NFL teams by presidential decree. This map, as you can see right there, retweeted thousands of times. Looks like someone took a sharp sharpie to Kansas and extended it into Missouri. Of course who could forget sharpie Gate? After about 10 minutes the president deleted the tweet and posted a new one with the correct state.
ROMANS: Well. All right, Chinese stocks having their worst day in years, folks. Investors waking up with to their first chance to react to the coronavirus after the Lunar New Year.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:45:00]
ROMANS: And welcome back. Before the first votes are cast in Iowa, President Trump rolled out a Super Bowl ad touting the economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Best wage growth I think we've seen in almost a decade.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unemployment rate sinking to a 49-year low.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unemployment of African-Americans fell to a new low.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unemployment for Hispanics hit all-time record low.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The message of course central to his re-election bid. You know, the economy is strong almost 11 years into the recovery, but it is not as super charged as the president claims. The economy grew 2.3 percent last year. That is not the 3, 4, even 5 percent he promised from his tax cuts and deregulation.
As for jobs growth, really interesting here. The unemployment rate, yes, it is the lowest in 49 years. The economy added only 145,000 jobs in December bringing last year's total to 2.1 million jobs. Since President Trump took office, 6.6 million jobs have been added. That trails -- 6.6 million that trails the 7.9 million in the final months of the Obama administration. We will find out how many jobs were added in January on Friday.
Now, the president has repeatedly used the stock market as a barometer, as his personal scorecard. Now the fuller market has been running for 11 years, the longest in history, the S&P 500 has more than quadrupled since the depths of the financial crisis. But he doesn't get all of the credit for that. This is the Trump bump. It has been a long recovery over the past 11 years or so.
It is interesting, because this is really central to the president's re-election campaign. Americans are feeling it finally. You know, 10 years into this recovery, I keep saying time heals all wounds, something that the president is selling people are finally believing about the economy. Can the Democrats talk about health care, about income inequality, about some of the soft underbelly of a strong economy? They haven't really broken through out that yet.
JARRETT: No. they haven't, but they are about to have a huge opportunity.
ROMANS: That's right.
JARRETT: Well, meantime, Chinese stocks are having their worst day in years. Investors finally had a chance to react to the coronavirus outbreak. Shanghai plunged almost 8 percent on the first day of trading after an extended Lunar New Year holiday. That's the worst day since August of 2015. The U.S. has started enforcing tougher travel restrictions in an effort to contain the Wuhan corona outbreak.
[04:50:00]
The plan includes a temporary ban on foreign nationals who visited China in the 14 days prior to their arrival to the U.S. 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.
There's also concern for medical teams in China, trying to threat 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. David, what's the latest there? DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Laura. Well, it seems
there's animosity between the U.S. and the Chinese government and that's coming across from the Chinese foreign ministry in particular. Now, the back and forth between the two governments is pertinent, because it relates directly to the hundreds of Americans who are within the lock down, within the city of Wuhan and who want to be evacuated. They want to get on flights out. And it was supposed to be a flight that was scheduled to leave today.
However talking to some of those folks who were confirmed to be on it, they tell me it was delayed and they weren't sure why. We're getting a better idea as to what maybe behind that delay and it seem to be the back and forth between the two governments. I want you to hear from what the foreign ministry had to say their spokesperson about the U.S.
They 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.
The reason they are upset is because they have essentially isolated China with that decision, the U.S. that is and other countries have followed suit. More and more issuing these travel bans against Chinese nationals or folks coming from China. Now, as far as the aircraft that are supposed to be coming in, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he's working with the Chinese government. We know that other countries like Japan and South Korea, Laura, when they bring their aircraft in, they're bringing medical supplies, much needed medical supplies. It seems that the U.S. may be doing that and that perhaps will allow the Chinese to then say, OK, we can allow your plane to land, because now we have the capacity to unload this medical supplies much needed and then you can take your people out.
JARRETT: Obviously, really hard for the people who are stuck in the middle of this, who just want to get home. David, thanks so much.
CULVER: All right.
JARRETT: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:55:00]
ROMANS: A national emergency has been declared in Somalia in response to swarms of desert locusts. Government officials say the short horn grasshoppers are consuming enormous amounts of forage and crops, threatening the livelihoods of food -- and food security in the entire Somalian population. The United Nations warns the surge of desert locusts in the horn of Africa has the potential to become a regional plague that could cause enormous suffering and displacement.
JARRETT: A real Kleenex moment in Irving, Texas, 42-year-old Erika Benning sworn in as the city's newest police officer and she broke into her tears when her son, 21 year-old Army Sergeant Giovanni Pando showed up to pin the badge on her. He's been stationed overseas, and they hadn't seen each other for two years. Erika had to postpone her dream of becoming a police officer for a couple of years there when she became Giovanni's mom.
ROMANS: Awesome. All right. Let's go check on CNN Business this morning. Taking a look at markets around the world, you can see European shares have bounced back but still some concerns in Asia especially Shanghai. Look, the coronavirus hitting Chinese markets hard. That is a big one day move for Shanghai down 7 percent as -- it was close for holiday, right. SO, it had to catch up to this anxiety that we've been experiencing in the markets.
U.S. futures up just a little bit here. Stocks fell on Friday as fears of the economic impact of this virus spread. The DOW ended down 603 points Friday. Yeah, that's the worst day since August. The S&P and the NASDAQ also fell almost 2 percent. Goldman Sachs warns the virus could slow first quarter growth of the U.S. economy and global companies are reacting. Apple temporarily closed all of its stores in China and (inaudible). The DOW, like Starbucks had also temporarily closed operations in China. And a lot of domestic companies are saying if you've been doing business travel in China, you should work from home, now that you are back in the U.S. up for a couple of weeks, just to be safe.
The world's richest person got even richer last week. Jeff Bezos added an all cool $8 billion to his fortune, Friday, after Amazon's stocks jump more than 7 percent, briefly joining the elite group of companies worth a trillion dollars. Amazon reported strong earnings for the holiday quarter is better than Wall Street had been expecting, and investors responded. Bezos total net worth now sits at $124 billion.
JARRETT: Wow, $8 billion just from that. That's amazing.
ROMANS: Yes.
JARRETT: Thanks so much to our international viewers for joining us. Have a great rest of your day. For our U.S. viewers, Early Start continues right now.
A split screen for the ages. Democrats start deciding who they want to replace President Trump as the Senate prepares to acquit him of high crimes and misdemeanors.
ROMANS: 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 the clock and will roll into the end zone for the touchdown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Hail to the Chiefs. 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.
ROMANS: What a game. And what a halftime show. I've got to tell you, I'm going to be honest. Full disclosure, I'm dragging this morning, but it was worth it. That was a game that was worth it for the (inaudible).
JARRETT: Preceded here for Shakira and J-Lo.
END
