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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Senator Warren Appears on SNL with Doppleganger Kate McKinnon; Global Markets Sink as Coronavirus Spreads; Senator Cruz and Congressman Gosar to Self-Quarantine After a Possible Exposure with a Coronavirus-Infected Victim. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 09, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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


[05:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE MCKINNON, ACTRESS & COMEDIAN: Here in a purple heart.

(LAUGHTER)

Fat babies.

(LAUGHTER)

What's the maid saying?

(LAUGHTER)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA) & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not only did I not accept money from billionaires, I got to give one a swirly on live TV.

(CHEERS)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, how are you?

(CHEERS)

(APPLAUSE)

WARREN: Thanks!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry, I just -- I wanted to put on my favorite outfit to thank you to -- to thank you for all that you've done in your lifetime.

WARREN: Oh, I'm not dead, I'm just in the Senate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

LAURA JARRETT, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: Here's a reminder, she's still here. She's OK.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: Her kind of timing is always good.

JARRETT: Yes --

ROMANS: I think, Elizabeth Warren.

JARRETT: Absolutely, all right, thanks to our international viewers for joining us. Have a great rest of your day. For our U.S. viewers, EARLY START continues right now.

ROMANS: Markets around the world shudder, stocks dive overnight, oil prices crash and investors run for cover. How the coronavirus and now an oil war could make for a very chaotic day.

JARRETT: Thousands of passengers and crew will dock today after almost a week in limbo over coronavirus. What's next in their long journey home?

ROMANS: And Bernie Sanders facing a big test tomorrow in Michigan. Can he beat back the Joe Biden surge and can he stay viable if he doesn't?

JARRETT: Good morning and welcome to EARLY START, I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, March 9th, it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. And today -- well, today is the 11th anniversary of the bull market, and stocks face the biggest test since the great recession. Today is not just the coronavirus, oil prices are crashing, more on that in a moment. U.S. stock index futures down so sharply at one point it triggered a mechanism to stop the damage.

Asian markets down sharply, European shares opening up even worse, 6 percent and 7 percent declines there, almost unheard of for a one day move. Strained supply chains, workers staying home, Deutsche Bank this weekend lowered its second quarter GDP forecast in the U.S. to a negative 0.6 percent. That's a contraction. The 10-year treasury yield has collapsed to an all-time low, dropping below 0.5 percent as investors pile into safe haven assets.

This is a flashing red warning sign that there are risks of recession around the world. The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates for borrowers, Congress passed $8.3 billion in emergency funding that includes money for local businesses, communities, hospitals, testing and diagnosis. That is important emergency stimulus. But what about the workers?

A Brookings study shows 53 million Americans earn about $18,000 a year. They are more likely to live paycheck to paycheck. They cannot afford to miss work, and many white collar companies are asking employees to work from home. They are more likely to have paid sick leave even if those workers cannot work. Engineers and business managers can bring their laptops home, but that doesn't work for rank- and-file employees or employees with consumer-facing kinds of jobs. Uber and Lyft said they will compensate their drivers for up to 14

days if they are diagnosed with coronavirus or put under quarantine. We look to see if more companies do the same. As for what's next, it looks like markets expect two more rate cuts from the Federal Reserve soon. It meets again on March 18th. There are big concerns the Fed just doesn't have the ammunition to goose this market.

It's that the trick buying up mortgages and other U.S.-backed securities? That trick only works when it's buying up these things at higher interest rates. There is chatter the Fed may need to buy other things like stocks. That would take an act of Congress to expand the Fed's mandate.

JARRETT: Market turmoil is about more than just the virus. Oil prices suffer a historic collapse late Sunday after Saudi Arabia shocked the market by launching a price war against one-time ally Russia. U.S. oil down as much as 33 percent overnight. CNN's John Defterios is live in London for us. John, investors have to be waking up this morning, scratching their eyes. Can it be true?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes, can it be true? This is a free-for-all between two of the largest oil producers, Laura, in the world. Saudi Arabia on one side and Russia on the other, and it's very likely that the U.S. shale producers in particular will get caught in the cross fire. If there's a silver lining here, we seem to have found a stable floor with the loss of better than 20 percent on the day.

But that takes the losses between Friday and Monday to 30 percent. I was looking for the best analogy. It's almost like an ugly family dispute that spilled onto the streets while I was in Vienna at the OPEC-Plus meeting. Saudi Arabia wanted to take more oil off the market, another 1.5 million barrels a day to stabilize prices. Vladimir Putin of Russia told his Minister of Energy, we're not budging and we're not cutting.

And over the weekend, what happens? Saudi Arabia goes into a new pricing regime and offering discounts of $4 to $7 a barrel to its preferred customers, particularly in Asia suffering from the coronavirus. And low and behold, you see a correction of nearly 35 percent over two days at its worst point.

[05:05:00]

And you have to go all the way back to 1991 to see a drop like this. That's when the U.S. went into Kuwait, expecting to meet resistance from the Iraqi forces, that didn't happen and prices plummeted. And the level right now is where we were at the start of 2016, ironically, that led to the OPEC-Plus agreement to stabilize prices. And right now, Saudi Arabia and Russia do not see eye-to-eye.

JARRETT: John, it seems important to remind our viewers, gas prices may come down, and for consumers, that's a good thing, but it comes at a significant cost for people's jobs.

DEFTERIOS: It certainly does, Laura, you can say, yes, that's great because you're going to save money at the pump and probably throughout 2020, but -- and this is a big "but" here, we have better than 10 million jobs linked to the energy business right now. I'm thinking of the Permian Basin in Texas, but this stretch is to Oklahoma, Louisiana, North Dakota. We've had this huge boom over 10 years, and they do not make a profit at $30 a barrel.

There will be more resistant than people are suggesting though, Laura, in the oil belt because all the majors from ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Total of France, Shell in the U.K. also have all gone in, and they have deeper pockets. So this strategy by Russia to put pressure on U.S. shale and then Saudi Arabia doubling down on prices is going to get very nasty. And it won't lead to immediate dislocation. I just don't see a winner anywhere in the world in oil and gas.

JARRETT: Yes, no winners here. All right, John, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right, a big test today for the U.S. efforts to keep coronavirus from spreading on American soil. The Grand Princess cruise ship expected to dock today in Oakland. At least, 21 people aboard have coronavirus, 19 crew and two passengers. Those numbers could rise after passengers are screened upon docking by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first group who will be moved will be those who are symptomatic and most in need of medical support. Those in need of hospitalization will be sent to medical facilities around the region.

ARCHIE DILL, GRAND PRINCESS CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER: It's not quite prison, but it's a lot like that. I am running out of medicines that I usually take. I feel like the government really didn't have a plan and they're just making this up as they go along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: That just about sums it up. The government didn't have a plan. Well, passengers will get a full refund, but that's hardly the point. The Grand Princess has been in limbo since Wednesday when officials learned a California man who traveled on that same ship last month later died of coronavirus. The State Department is now warning Americans against traveling by cruise ship, especially those with underlying medical conditions. There are now 565 cases of coronavirus across 34 states and the District of Columbia.

ROMANS: An employee at the hard hit Life Care Nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington now testing positive for coronavirus. The employee is one of at least three staffers hospitalized with symptoms. Life Care says 70 others are showing coronavirus symptoms and are being asked to stay home. Life Care housed 120 residents in mid February, that number now down to 55, including this woman who wants out immediately.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) SUSAN HAILEY, LIFE CARE CENTER PATIENT: I want to go home. I want to

go home. All these people -- you just don't know who's going to die next.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROMANS: The vast majority of deaths in King County stem from Life Care. Our first responder tells CNN at one point, there were only three staff members left to take care of about 90 residents last week. Life Care says it now has enough test kits to test all of the remaining residents.

JARRETT: And they waited so long to get those --

ROMANS: I feel --

JARRETT: Testing kits.

ROMANS: Yes, I feel terrible for the family -- could you imagine --

JARRETT: No --

ROMANS: If that was your grandmother or your aunt who was there and how -- oh --

JARRETT: No --

ROMANS: Just terrifying.

JARRETT: Well, limits in the U.S. don't even compare to new restrictions in northern Italy. CNN is live in Rome, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:10:00]

JARRETT: Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Paul Gosar will self- quarantine after interacting with someone who had coronavirus at the Conservative Political Action Conference. The two Republicans currently do not have any symptoms. They say they're isolating themselves as a precaution, even as coronavirus cases rise across the country, the U.S. Surgeon General outlines a shift in strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: Now, we're shifting into a mitigation phase, which means that we're helping communities understand you're going to see more cases. Unfortunately, you're going to see more deaths, but that doesn't mean that we should panic. Good that some parts of the country have contained it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: So, from containment to mitigation, his comments about containment echo other White House officials, and the president said this Friday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, my uncle was a great person. He was at MIT, he taught at MIT for, I think like a record number of years. He was a great super genius, Dr. John Trump. I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Everyone of these doctors said, how do you know so much about this? Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe, I should have done better instead of running for president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The nation wants confidence the government is in control of the situation with realism and facts, that's not coming from the president bragging that he knows this stuff because his uncle is a super genius at MIT. Contact Friday, the CDC said there are 34 million flu cases in the U.S. so far this season with 20,000 deaths.

[05:15:00]

JARRETT: Northern Italy has imposed the largest coronavirus lock-down outside of mainland China, restricting the movements of nearly 60 million people. CNN's Delia Gallagher is live in Rome for us. Delia, it seems like this situation is just getting worse by the day.

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Laura, it's a really trying time right now. A lot of Italians that we've spoken to can't remember in their lfie times a situation like this. You have a lockdown in the north with checks on people that are coming in and out of those areas, but also in the rest of the country as of yesterday, we have museums closed, historical sites like the coliseum closed.

All social engagements are off for the next three and a half weeks, basically, public spaces entirely closed. So, it's affecting the daily lives of Italians here with the consequent concern for the economic repercussions of this in the tourism industry, in the restaurant and hotel business. In fact, just a while ago, we had a statement from the Finance Ministry saying that they are going to help support workers and those industries that are going to be affected by this temporary economic downturn.

But the message from the Prime Minister on down to the Italians is to accept this temporary disruption in their daily lives, at least for the next three and a half weeks in the hopes of helping to stop the spread of the virus.

JARRETT: Sure, we're trying to figure out --

GALLAGHER: Laura?

JARRETT: Trying to figure out how to support workers. It seems really paramount right now in all countries --

GALLAGHER: Yes --

JARRETT: Affected by coronavirus. Thank you so much, Delia. All right, well, some epic action at Sunday's XFL game in Washington D.C., not on the field, but in the stands. Andy Scholes with more in the "BLEACHER REPORT" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:00]

JARRETT: All right, welcome back. This could be a make or break week for Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign. Six states vote tomorrow. Senator Sanders stumping in Michigan with a sense of urgency, trying to stop the resurgence of former Vice President Joe Biden. Sanders surprised a lot of people with a win over Hillary Clinton four years ago in Michigan. He's hoping for a repeat of that tomorrow, following a disappointing Super Tuesday. On CNN, he tapped into the anti- globalization message that helped elect President Trump and slammed Biden for his trade deals that he says led to the loss of 4 million jobs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT) & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In Michigan, the people here have been devastated, devastated in Flint and Detroit by these disastrous trade agreements that Joe Biden voted for. He voted for NAFTA, he voted for PNTR with China which forced the American workers to compete against desperate people who were making pennies an hour.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Biden now leading in delegates is striking on more positive tone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Presidents have to heal. Presidents cannot hold grudges. Presidents have to bring us together. We must beat Donald Trump and the Republican Party, but we cannot become like them.

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: As Democrats start to coalesce around Biden, the Trump campaign is arguing he's just like Sanders. During a call with reporters Sunday, one official said they are two sides of the same coin. Sources say Trump is frustrated by Biden's comeback.

ROMANS: All right, one of tennis' top tournaments has been called off due to the coronavirus. This is the first big U.S. sporting event to be canceled because of the outbreak. Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "BLEACHER REPORT". Hi, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: Yes, good morning, Christine, Indian Wells is the largest international tennis tournament outside of the Grand Slams. And it was scheduled to start on Wednesday, but it's now been canceled due to the coronavirus. Tournament officials ultimately decided to call it off after a case of coronavirus was confirmed in the Coachella Valley yesterday. And local officials declared a public health emergency.

Coco Gauff tweeting, "so sad to hear the news about postponing of the tournament. I was so excited to make my debut in Indian Wells, but safety is always the number one priority. Stay safe."

Tournament officials say they hope they can hold the tournament later on this year. Now, on International Women's Day, the U.S. women's national team was victorious. They beat Spain 1-0 in the She Believes Cup. That extends their unbeaten streak to 30 straight. As they continue to play on the field, the team continuing their fight for equal pay off of it. The U.S. Soccer Federation President Carlos Cordeiro sending out a letter on Saturday, explaining how the federation was offering equal pay for non-FIFA games.

A representative for the women's team responded to that letter, saying it was misleading and riddled with falsehoods. And Megan Rapinoe was asked about their fight for equal pay after beating Spain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGAN RAPINOE, MIDFIELDER, U.S. WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM: We're trying to prepare for the Olympics and win this tournament and be as good as we can be, and now we've got to put effort towards this, you know, and pull some media team and the lawyers and everybody out on Saturday. Not the nicest move, I would say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What needs to happen? What about May 5th trial?

RAPINOE: I mean, an actual offer for equal pay and, you know, some considerable damages as well. So I don't think we're anywhere close to that right now though.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right, and finally, XFL, well, it's loads of fun. Check out the snake made up of beer cups the fans in D.C. made yesterday. Got to be a world record. And look who came to add to it, XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck, defenders, they beat the BattleHawks in that one, 15-6. And you know, Christine, but there was only 256 yards of offense in that game between the defenders and the BattleHawks, so I guess plenty of beer was needed, you know, to keep that one going.

[05:25:00]

ROMANS: What is the worth of all the beer in all those cups? That's what I'd like to know? I want to back out -- sorry, Andy Scholes, nice to see you this morning --

SCHOLES: All right --

ROMANS: Thank you, sir. All right, this is shaping up to be the most dangerous morning for the economy since 2008. Coronavirus now mixed with an oil market crash. The U.S. economy now forecast to shrink this quarter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: Markets around the world shudder, stocks dive overnight, oil prices crash and investors run for cover.

END