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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
America's Choice 2020, Democrats Brace For New Hampshire; Coronavirus Cases Nearly Double On Quarantined Ship; Parasite Makes Oscar History; Trump Targets Enemies Post Impeachment; Trump White House; V.A. Watchdog Weighs Request To Probe Wilkie; Coronavirus Viral Outbreak; Coronavirus Could Hurt Trump's Economy; Flooding Forces Evacuations In Australia; Storm Ciara Causes Travel Disruptions In Europe; Free Whoppers For Your Ex's Pictures; Man With Knife Arrested Outside White House; Fake Ride-Share Driver Arrested; Redskins To Hire Jennifer King; Teen Refuses To Cut Hair, Drops Out Of School; Stocks Close Lower Despite Strong Jobs Report; SNL Takes Jabs At 2020 Dems, Trump's Acquittal. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 10, 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]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This guy's not Barack Obama.
MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-SOUTH BEND-IN) 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, he's right. I'm not, and neither is he.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALISON KOSIK, CNN HOST: Democrats with a final push ahead of the New Hampshire primary. The Biden campaign going negative, but did it have to?
LAURA JARRETT, CNN HOST: The number of coronavirus cases nearly doubling on a quarantined ship in Japan. Now another Chinese citizen trying to spread awareness of the outbreak has been silenced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Parasite.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: History at the Oscars. How Parasite broke 92 years of precedent at the academy awards.
Welcome back to Early Start. I'm Alison Kosik. Good morning. JARRETT: Good morning, I'm Laura Jarrett, 31 minutes past the hour
here in New York. There is a new urgency in Democratic race right now. Struggling candidates are trying to salvage hopes for a comeback facing a critical juncture in tomorrow New Hampshire primary. The latest CNN poll shows a clear top tier, Bernie Sanders leading at 28 percent that's about where he was last month. And Pete Buttigieg making the biggest gains, now at 21 percent. Everybody else including Joe Biden well behind.
KOSIK: Biden and Sanders forcing the surging Buttigieg to play defense this weekend. First it was Biden, his campaign going negative with an ad in New Hampshire highlighting former Mayor Pete's experience gap.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joe Biden had to leave the passage of the affordable care act which gave health care to 20 million people. And when park goers called on Pete Buttigieg, he installed decorative lights under bridges giving citizens of South Bend colorfully illuminated rivers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Then Biden himself took a shot. He was asked about his decision to attack another moderate in the race. Listen to his answer and the response from Buttigieg.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this an act of desperation on your campaign to be making this assertion right now of Mayor Buttigieg?
BIDEN: Oh man, this guy is not Barack Obama.
BUTTIGIEG: Well, he's right. I'm not. And neither is he. Neither is any of us running for president. And this isn't 2008. It's 2020. And we are in a new moment calling for a different kind of leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Biden now looking beyond New Hampshire focusing squarely on the next contest in Nevada and South Carolina. Both with larger minority voting blocks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: That I've viewed from the beginning and I really mean this. I've viewed from the beginning that you have to take the first four as one. You've got two primaries and two caucuses back-to-back basically. Not a single person has won without overwhelming support from the black community, overwhelming, overwhelming. OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Overwhelming. Bernie Sanders meantime beating a familiar drum to go after Buttigieg. Billionaire, money and politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm running against a candidate, Pete Buttigieg among others who has raised contributions from more than 40 billionaires.
BUTTIGIEG: Hundreds of thousands of people who supported our campaign, some of them have a lot of money. And just as I'm going to expect them to pay more in taxes when I'm president. I invite them to contribute as much as they can if they share our vision for defeating Donald Trump.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: This week there's also a lot at stake for Senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. Warren came in a disappointing third in Iowa. Klobuchar placing fifth. But that was better than many had expected. And she had a strong debate performance on Friday.
KOSIK: President Trump wasting no time punishing his enemies in the aftermath of the impeachment trial. His actions undermining claims by Republican Senators about the shame of impeachment tempering the president's behavior. U.S. Ambassador to Europe Gordon Sondland sent packing. His testimony implicated the president in a direct quid pro quo exchange of favors with Ukraine.
[04:35:04]
JARRETT: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman escorted out of the White House for testifying about the president's July 25th phone call with Ukraine's president. That came just hours after Defense Secretary Mark Esper had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK ESPER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We welcome back all of our service members wherever they served, any assignment they're given. We protect all of our service members from retribution, anything like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: This week, President Trump is expected to gut the National Security Council, one of the few remaining sources of non-Trumpian thought in the federal government. He's also expected to trample on Congress' power of the purse by diverting billions more in already appropriated funds to pay for his border wall.
JARRETT: Drumroll please, the newly minted best picture making history at the Oscars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Oscar goes to Parasite.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERS)
KOSIK: Critical darling Parasite becoming the first non-English language film in the Oscars 92 year history to win top prize. The show did not have a host, but there was no shortage of political humor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A couple of years ago there was a big disaster here at the Oscars where they accidently read out the wrong name. And it was nobody's fault but they have guaranteed that this will not happen this year because the academy has switched to the new Iowa caucus act.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: The lack of recognition for women filmmakers came up several times. Past Oscar winner Natalie Portman even wearing a cape embroidered with the names of snubbed female directors. But the night belonged to Parasite. CNN's Stephanie Elam has more from Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Laura and Alison, this Oscars is all about Parasite. It's the movie that grew so much by word of mouth and a lot of people thought it was a dark horse in this race and then it just shot through. Now, walking away with four academy awards. We caught up with the Director, the screenwriter behind it, Bong Joon-ho, after his win after he came up here to the Governor's Ball. Take a listen to what he said about the win. How are you feeling right now?
BONG JOON-HO, PARASITE, SCREENWRITER (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I think we destroyed the barrier too much. We should have taken our time actually.
JOON-HO: And when he is doing speech -- I hear like this, -- I felt like the Oscar trophy was staring at me so we locked eyes for a second.
ELAM: And that was before the drinking.
JOON-HO: Yeah, I was sober. Totally sober.
ELAM: On the acting side the wins went pretty much the way Hollywood was expecting. You have Laura Dern winning for best supporting actress for Marriage Story. Renee Zellweger winning best actress for Judy. Brad Pitt, one for Once upon a time in Hollywood. He was the best supporting actor there. And he did get a little political while he was there on stage in his acceptance speech.
BRAD PITT, HOLLYWOOD ACTOR: They told me I only have 45 seconds up here which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week.
(APPLAUSE)
ELAM: And winning for best actor, as expected, Joaquin Phoenix for Joker. He's been political all award season long. This was no different.
JOAQUIN PHOENIX, BEST ACTOR, JOKER: I think at times we feel or are made to feel that we champion different causes, but for me I see commonality. I think whether we're talking about gender inequality or racism or clear rights or indigenous rights or animal rights we're talking about the fight against injustice. We're talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender or one species has the right to dominate, control and use and exploit another with impunity.
ELAM: But still while all of the acting categories were pretty much as expected, the big news here is the win for Parasite. Definitely taking home big wins in categories that we weren't so sure. However, we can tell you it also broke history becoming the first foreign language film to win best picture. So, a great night for the Parasite team indeed. Laura and Alison.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOSIK: OK, that means I actually have to go see the movie now.
JARRETT: I know. I know, I'm so behind on all of them.
KOSIK: All right, the coronavirus may be centered in China, but the effects are far reaching including for the election year in the U.S. Economy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:40:00]
JARRETT: The number of coronavirus cases on a quarantined cruise ship off the coast of Japan nearly doubling. There are now 65 new cases of the virus onboard the ship bringing the total to 135. The global death toll has now climbed to 910 surpassing the 2003 SARS outbreak. There's now more than 40,000 cases worldwide. CNN's Matt Rivers on the phone from Yokohama Japan with more. Matt, how surprising is it that the number of cases keeps ticking up even though folks are in quarantine? I mean, they're basically sequestered in their rooms there.
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, I think -- there's two things going on here. I think on the one hand it's already saying look, it's not the (inaudible) the number of cases go up, because this incubation period for this virus can be up to two weeks. So, even though people have been quarantined they say it's still possible that these people haven't shown symptoms and then they begin to show symptoms, or they test positive.
The key thing to take away here from what authorities are saying is they believe that all 66 new cases, and that's an eye popping number. That's why people are quite surprised by how many cases there are, but they believe that all these new cases are people who contracted the virus before this quarantine, this two week quarantine period went into effect.
So, they say because of that they believe the quarantine is working, and they are going to keep people in this quarantine. That said, that's a tough pill to swallow for people onboard. Even if they believe what Japanese authorities are saying, which most of the people (inaudible) to do, it's still difficult.
[04:45:15]
However, some are keeping a good spirit. Here's one couple from Canada we spoke to earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We still feel good. We still think we're in a good, safe place. We've quarantined ourselves. We're not getting in touch with -- we're not dealing with any other people on a personal basis.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we've decided not to participate in the walks on deck that the captains arranged for people. We're fortunate we've got the outside cabin with a balcony.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is one of the nicest prisons in the world and here we're going to stay until we ride this out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERS: And at least here we have -- there's freedom of speech in Japan. In China where this outbreak has happened there isn't. And there's a good example of that. There's a citizen journalist from Wuhan who had really been doing some critical reporting online talking about what was going on inside of China and it was early and late last week actually that he just disappeared. And it's not uncommon for that to happen in China among citizen journalists. He disappeared. No one knew where he was until family members confirmed that he had been, quote, forced into quarantine by government officials.
You would not be mistaken if you believe that is the Chinese government trying to silence its own people trying to talk about what is happening to them. So here in Japan these people can talk about what's going on. In China, not so much.
JARRETT: that's a great point, Matt. Thank you so much for being there for us. And we want to note the Royal Caribbean Anthem Of The Sea ship, docked in New Jersey since Friday. Well, it will set sail today. Passengers began boarding Sunday after four passengers tested negative for coronavirus.
KOSIK: A strong economy is central to President Trump's re-election campaign, but the x factor in the election year economy is the coronavirus outbreak. It's hard to know how much the outbreak could affect the U.S. Economy. Goldman Sachs estimates the virus could trim four tenths of a percent from growth in 2020.
But uncertainty is already threatening global growth. There is concern about agricultural purchases. Farmers could have to wait longer to see orders for soybeans and corn coming from China. The outbreak has also disrupted the global supply chain. Shipping containers are idling in shipping ports creating uncertainty for American companies that rely on Chinese suppliers. And tourism is taking a huge hit. Airlines including American, United and Delta and others have canceled flights to and from China. And the crisis could shutdown auto plants around the world. Most assembly plants in China are closed. Widespread halt at global auto plants could become more likely if the plant shutdowns continue.
JARRETT: Another round of evacuations in New South Wales not from wildfires. This time it's flooding. Heavy rain forcing everyone to head for higher ground in several towns along Australia's Southeast Coast. More than 8 inches of rain fell in one 24-hour period in some areas. And over 15 inches have fallen in four days. That's the most in 30 years. Over 50 schools in New South Wales are closed because of the floods.
KOSIK: Winter storms Ciara causing major travel disruption across Europe. The storm forcing two of Europe's busiest airports in Frankfurt and Amsterdam to each ground more than 100 flights. A number of flights were also affected at Britain's Heathrow airport. Ciara's high winds also helping to break a new record. The fastest ever non- supersonic flight from New York to London. Just 4 hours and 56 minutes compared to the average 6 plus hours. The British airways flight reaching speeds above 800 miles an hour as it rode the Jetstream accelerated by Ciara.
JARRETT: That's a lot faster.
KOSIK: Thanks, Ciara.
JARRETT: Yes.
KOSIK: They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But how about revenge with a side of fries? CNN Business has the details on Burger King's Valentine's Day promotion next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:50:00]
JARRETT: A man from the Tampa area arrested outside the White House after threatening to assassinate President Trump. According to D.C. police, 25-year-old Roger Hedgpeth approached a secret service officer on Saturday and told him he planned to kill the president. He was arrested and a 3.5 inch blade was found on his left hip. Police described Hedgpeth as a quote critically missing endangered person. He's been taken in for a mental health evaluation.
KOSIK: The watchdog for veteran's affairs is reviewing a request to investigate the V.A. Secretary Robert Wilkie. Wilkie is accused of seeking dirt on a Congressional staffer who alleges she was sexually assaulted. The request to investigate Wilkie was made by California Congressman Mark Takano. One of Takano's top aides, Navy Veteran Andrea Goldstein claims she was sexually harassed and assaulted at the V.A. Medical Center in Washington last fall. Once she filed a complaint, the Washington Post reports, Secretary Wilkie began inquiring about her background and encouraging staffers to discredit her.
JARRETT: A California man arrested for allegedly posing as a ride share driver to lure women into his vehicle, 48 year-old Nassef Ragheb, a Bakersfield, facing burglary, false imprisonment, and attempted sexual battery charges. He's a suspect in a February 1st prowling case and has also been linked to several incidents involving women dating back to 2018. Police are asking any other victims who may be out there to come forward.
[04:55:13]
KOSIK: The Washington Redskins are reportedly working to hire the first full time black female coach in NFL history. That's according to the athletic. Jennifer King would also become just the fourth full- time female coach in the league. King worked closely with current Redskins coach Ron Rivera when she was an intern with the Carolina Panthers in 2017 and is expected to help out with Washington's offense. She was also an offensive assistant with Dartmouth College this past fall.
JARRETT: A 16-year-old Texas student withdraws from school after refusing to cut his hair that he's growing out to help his sick sister. Newt Johnson 11-year-old sister and best friend Maggie has Wegener disease, it's a rare auto-immune disease that affects her kidneys. Johnson wants to donate a wig to her someday, but his school handbook says male students can't have hair past their ears. Since he needs eight to 14 inches before he can donate it, Johnson dropped out. The school district says Johnson would have been allowed in class but would have to serve detention. The district also raised $3,000 to help the family with hospital expenses.
KOSIK: Well, let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Taking a look at global markets. It's looking like a mixed picture for Asian markets although it looks like they've mostly closed lower. European markets have opened lower and on Wall Street, it's looking like we're going to start a little bit lower when stocks open in a few hours from now.
On Friday stocks closed lower despite a strong jobs report. The economy added 225,000 jobs in January. The unemployment rate edged up to 3.6 percent but for the right reasons. More people decided to get into the work force and look for a job. The DOW closed down 277 points as investors continue to worry about how the coronavirus will affect the economy. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ both closed half a percent lower.
Birds of Prey promotion with Burger King may help it at the box office. The chain is offering free whoppers to heartbroken customers on Valentine's Day. All they have to do is bring in a printed picture of their ex to the restaurant's break up boxes. Burger King says, photos brought in for the promo will be destroyed.
Don't have a photo, no problem. Customers in New York can also bring in letters, stuffed animals or a piece of clothing in exchange for their free burger. All right, I have a quick story, a stuffed animal did they say? I once broke up with a boyfriend in high school. I had given him like a cat. And we share the same locker and he cut off the cat head and left it in my locker.
Maybe he's watching right now. Who knows?
(LAUGHTER)
JARRETT: If so watch out at Burger King.
(LAUGHTER)
Well, Saturday Night Live taking jabs at the 2020 Democratic field and the conclusion of President Trump's impeachment trial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By the time we get to the south (inaudible), Joe Biden's going to do what Joe Biden does best, creep up from behind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have an idea for an app. It's called no apps. No apps, no computers, no gadgets, no gizmos. You show up to your polling place, take a number like you do at the butcher, they'll call you ticket, you walk up to the counter and say to the guy give me a pound of whatever is about to go bad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know a lot of people like me but they worry about if I'm electable, and I have a great solution for that. Elect me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guess what? Elizabeth is J. Lo and I'm Shakira and so to Donald Trump I say la-la-la-la.
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump was acquitted in the Senate trial this week and Democrats are calling it a cover-up. But does this look like a guy who can pull off a cover-up? Trump also railed against public schools calling them failing government schools. OK, but you went to private school and you don't even know where Kansas City is?
Because after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, Trump mistakenly tweeted congratulations to the State of Kansas despite the fact that the Chiefs are from Kansas City Missouri. Incidentally, Kansas also has the only Manhattan where Trump is still welcome.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: SNL really killing it.
JARRETT: The best thing about 2020 is Larry David being back on SNL. More of that please.
KOSIK: Agreed.
JARRETT: Well, thanks so much to our international viewers for joining us. Have a great rest of your day. For our USA viewers, Early Start continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: This guy's not a Barack Obama.
BUTTIGIEG: Well, he's right. I'm not and neither is he.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: Democrats with a final push ahead of the New Hampshire primary. The Biden campaign going negative, but did it have to?
END
