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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Deadly Shooting in Portland Amplifies Racial Unrest for Trump And Biden; U.S. Election Security Briefing Scaled Back Ahead of Vote; Health Experts Call for Independent Panel to Review Vaccines. Aired 5- 5:30a ET
Aired August 31, 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]
LAURA JARRETT, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: A deadly shooting amplifies dueling perspectives on race in the presidential election. The president and Joe Biden both heading to critical swing states.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: And threats of a subpoena after election security briefings are scaled back, why the change two months before vote officials already say is under assault from overseas. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world, this is EARLY START, I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: And I'm Laura Jarrett, it is Monday, August 31st, 5:00 a.m. here in New York, just 64 days to the election. And Joe Biden and President Trump both heading to critical swing states today with their dueling messages over race and violence at a defining moment in the 2020 campaign. More on that in a moment, but first, tensions mounting after a deadly Portland shooting between clashes between Trump supporters and protesters against police brutality. "The New York Times" reporting the victim of Saturday's shooting was wearing a hat with the insignia, a "Patriot Prayer", that's a far-right group that has had confrontations with protesters in the past.
Local authorities are still looking for the gunman with assistance now from the FBI and ATF. President Trump quick to offer public sympathy and support for his followers after the Portland shooting, but the same president who previously said there were good people on both sides of a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, has yet to say a good word about racial justice protesters including two who were shot and killed in Kenosha.
ROMANS: After a Summer of protests in many big cities, the president is again zeroing in on Portland's mayor for things getting out of control. But Ted Wheeler is forcefully pushing back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR TED WHEELER, PORTLAND, OREGON: It's you who have created the hate and the division. Your campaign of fear is as anti-democratic as anything you've done to create hate and vitriol in our beautiful country. You've tried to divide us more than any other figure in modern history. And now, you want me to stop the violence that you helped create. What America needs is for you to be stopped.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Directly addressing the president. Overnight, Oregon's governor releasing a plan to curb the violence in Portland after more than three months. The plan includes help from nearby police forces and state police. Some local officials renewing their calls for demonstrations in Portland to wind down. That seems unlikely though, overnight, Portland police declared the protests an unlawful assembly and began taking demonstrators into custody.
JARRETT: President Trump meanwhile is still pushing ahead with plans to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, this week. He's expected to meet with law enforcement and survey some of the damage from the recent protests, and that's despite Democratic Governor Tony Evers urging the president to reconsider this trip. Evers is concerned that the visit could do more harm than good as the city grapples with the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Kenosha County is now extending its curfew through Tuesday in anticipation of the president's visit. Meantime, Joe Biden heads to Pittsburgh today, he's looking to flip the script on the main theme of President Trump's convention. CNN's Jessica Dean gives us a preview.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Laura and Christine, later today, we're going to hear from former Vice President Joe Biden in remarks that campaign aides say will provide a contrast of his vision of leadership, presidential leadership with that of President Donald Trump's. And it's going to focus in on a central question which really turns around the Trump campaign's attack on him, asking if people are safe in Donald Trump's America. He's going to be calling out what he says are failures of Donald Trump as the president especially in this moment. Now, this comes after Sunday when he released a statement strongly, vehemently condemning the violence in Portland.
I want to read a bit about that. He said "shooting in the streets of a great American city is unacceptable. I condemn this violence unequivocally, I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right. And I challenge Donald Trump to do the same. It does not matter if you find the political views of your opponent abhorrent, any loss of life is a tragedy." We also learned that Biden and his aides considered going to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to condemn the violence there personally, but they were concerned, they heard from local officials, some of whom were concerned about President Trump's visit there, and the Biden campaign simply didn't want to be a problem, didn't want to cause any other additional stress on that community at this time. So instead, they settled on Pennsylvania which is where we will hear from Joe Biden later today. Christine and Laura.
ROMANS: All right, Jessica, thank you so much for that. President Trump's director of National Intelligence is defending a move critics say is the latest to undermine election integrity. The top intelligence office will no longer brief Congress on election security in person.
[05:05:00] There will be written updates. But that means no chance to press Intel
officials on any conclusions. Democrats are now threatening a subpoena. The decision comes just weeks after the Intel community warned that China, Iran and Russia, all of them are trying to interfere in the 2020 election. So why the move towards secrecy? Jeremy Diamond is at the White House.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Christine and Laura. Over the weekend, we learned that the director of National Intelligence has informed congressional leaders that his office will no longer brief members of Congress in person on matters of election security, and these questions of foreign interference in the 2020 presidential elections. Now, this is a big change because of course, we have seen briefings in the past from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, including a series of briefings in July during which point I was told that the Director of National Intelligence and his officials indicated to members of Congress that they would continue to provide these in-person briefings. But now no longer the director of National Intelligence and the president of the United States suggesting that this change is coming because of leaks by members of Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Director Ratcliffe brought information into the committee, and the information leaked. Whether it was "shifty" Schiff or somebody else, they leaked the information before it gets in. And what's even worse, they leaked the wrong information, and he got tired of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAMOND: Of course, they didn't provide any details or any evidence to back that up. And Democrats responding with wholesale condemnation, calling this an abdication of the director of National Intelligence's responsibility and duty to inform Congress on these sensitive intelligence matters. And of course, there's also the broader issue of President Trump's claims about the 2020 election. He has repeatedly claimed that falsely, we should note, that there would be widespread voter fraud as a result of mail-in ballots, and also suggested that mail-in ballots make -- are more vulnerable to foreign interference, and that foreign countries might seek to take advantage of that system.
That's something that U.S. Intelligence officials in recent weeks have said is patently false, but of course, this is another issue that these members of Congress won't get the opportunity to press intelligence officials on because these in-person briefings with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence won't be happening. Christine, Laura.
JARRETT: Jeremy, thank you. Speaking of election interference, the Justice Department kept former special counsel Robert Mueller on a tight leash as he investigated Russian election interference back in 2017. That's according to new reporting from the "New York Times" that claims while Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein may have publicly instructed Mueller to examine any links and/or coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, privately, Rosenstein ordered Mueller to conduct only a criminal probe. This new reporting is only further illustrating the narrow work that Mueller was actually doing, it's likely to fuel new scrutiny from Democrats who say the president's ties to Russia have never been fully investigated.
ROMANS: All right, not to be forgotten. Millions of Americans who have to pay rent this week and don't have the money because of the pandemic, tens of thousands of new layoffs announced, is any stimulus on the way?
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[05:10:00]
ROMANS: Today, the United States will top 6 million coronavirus cases, more than 183,000 Americans are now dead, more than 2,200 lives lost since we signed off the air on Friday. Health experts are now calling for an independent review of all vaccines before they're allowed on the market. Physicians say an extra review could help rebuild confidence after several government blunders during the pandemic and growing public mistrust of vaccines.
JARRETT: Now the FDA chief tells the "Financial Times" the agency could consider emergency use or approval for a vaccine before phase 3 trials are complete. Stephen Hahn says the decision will be based on data, not politics. Even though the president has openly pushed for a vaccine before the election, and Hahn had to apologize just last week for misrepresenting the benefits of a coronavirus treatment. The COVID response coordinator at the White House though says waiting for a vaccine is the wrong strategy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Don't wait for a vaccine to do the right thing. Do the right thing today because if we do the right thing today, we go into the Fall with much fewer cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Dr. Birx says mitigation efforts should also be used in private settings. In other words, do not assume the virus only spreads in large crowds. New cases in the U.S. have dropped by about 35 percent in a month, but the curve is starting to level off. Twenty states, many in the upper mid-west are reporting a rise in cases up from 10 states early last week.
JARRETT: And 36 states are now reporting cases on college campuses. Temple University in Philadelphia is transitioning to remote learning for two weeks after reporting more than a hundred cases there. The University of Alabama has recorded more than 1,200 cases since classes resumed on campus two weeks ago. And Northeastern University just sent warnings to 115 freshmen planning on a party on Instagram, in some cases threatening to withdraw their admissions. ROMANS: All right, 14 minutes past the hour, millions of Americans
are still out of work, stimulus talks are not moving, and now many furloughed workers are being let go for good. Last week, several major companies including MGM Resorts, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Stanley Black and Decker all announced layoffs as they re-assess damage cause by coronavirus. The job cuts at MGM starts today, they represent a quarter of its workforce. Las Vegas of course has been crushed by this pandemic. Data shows the number of visitors declined 61 percent in July from last year, major airlines are planning thousands of layoffs unless they receive more federal funding.
[05:15:00]
Airlines are not allowed to make layoffs or pay cuts because of the CARES Act, but that money runs out at the end of September. This new wave of layoffs as the economy slowly showing signs of some recovery, economists expect 1.4 million jobs were added back in August, but many jobs are simply people returning to work from temporary layoffs. If those estimates stand, it would bring the total number of recovered jobs to roughly 10.8 million. That's about half of what was shed in March and April. Really important. Half of those jobs lost in that huge jobs purge have come back. Half of them are still there.
JARRETT: You know, Christine, you say it all the time, but I think it's worth underscoring, we can't normalize this amount of job loss. And you know, it's also leading to serious food insecurity. We've seen those lines around food banks all over the country.
ROMANS: Yes --
JARRETT: I mean, these are the issues that are really affecting people's daily lives.
ROMANS: Absolutely, 10 percent unemployment, we're above 10 percent unemployment. That is not healthy, it's not good for the fabric of society. I think so much of the emotion you see around the country, I think you can draw -- you can draw a line under that, that the -- just the insecurity, economic insecurity, really, is the basis of so much of this too.
JARRETT: Yes, that's for sure. Emotions also running high as the NBA playoffs resume against the backdrop of the fight for racial justice.
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[05:20:00]
JARRETT: NBA star Jamal Murray pays a powerful tribute to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other victims of police brutality. Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "BLEACHER REPORT", good morning, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: Yes, good morning, Christine. Jamal Murray, man, what a night for him. He came up huge for Denver, scoring 50 points for the second time in three games to force a game seven against Utah tomorrow night. And check out what Murray was wearing for the game. He had custom-made shoes with the faces of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor on them. And after the big win, Murray, he was just overcome with emotion when speaking about the game and the continued fight for social justice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMAL MURRAY, DENVER NUGGETS: I just want to win. And in life, if you find things that hold value to you, and things to fight for, we found something worth fighting for. As NBA, as a collective unit, and I use these shoes as a symbol to me to keep fighting. Because it's not just in America, it happens everywhere. And for us to come together in the NBA, and you know, it doesn't take one meeting, it takes a couple of meetings, few meetings, it takes phone calls, it takes resistance, it's not going to take one night. And we've been doing -- trying and fighting for 400 years.
But these shoes give me life. Even though these people are gone, they give me life, they give me -- they help me find strength to keep fighting as well. That's why I'm going to keep doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yes, and after that interview, Murray crouching down and crying in the tunnel, just inspirational night for him on and off the court. The Nuggets and Jazz play game seven tomorrow night. Now, the Clippers and Mavs meanwhile kneeling during the national anthem before game six of their series. We saw this from all of the teams over the weekend, and tempers flaring though late in the first quarter of this one. Luka Doncic, driving to the basket, watch Marcus Morris just smack him right in the head. This coming after there were questions over whether Morris intentionally stepped on Luka's hurt ankle in the last game. Morris would get ejected for a flagrant two.
Clippers though, they would advance, winning this game 111-97. They'll face the winner between the Jazz and the Nuggets. Two games on a sister network, "TNT" tonight, Bucks battle the Heat in game one of their semi-final series, that will be followed by game six between the Rockets and the Thunder, Houston leads that one 3 games to 2. All right, finally, we had one of the greatest finishes to a golf tournament ever yesterday at the BMW championship. World number one Dustin Johnson had to sink this putt in order to force a playoff against world number two, Jon Rahm, unbelievably, he nails it, all fired up, we go to the first playoff although, and watch this from Rahm, 66 feet away, plays it perfectly, and just look at it go.
An unreal --
JARRETT: What?!
SCHOLES: Putt to win the tournament, and he, as you can see, was even more fired up, more -- he said he couldn't believe what he -- what just happened. And D.J. just sent -- kind of laughed it off in the end, what are you going to do? It was amazing.
JARRETT: Yes, it was pretty amazing, even with crowds -- without crowds there, you know, they could really rise -- you know, rise to the performance --
SCHOLES: Yes --
JARRETT: Right, Andy, nice to see you this morning, thanks so much.
SCHOLES: All right.
JARRETT: All right, a quick programming note here for you, follow CNN's fearless female political reporters as they cover the 2020 presidential campaign. Watch "ON THE TRAIL: INSIDE THE 2020 PRIMARIES" and "HBO Max" original, Saturday night, 8:00 p.m. on CNN.
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[05:25:00]
ROMANS: A deadly shooting in Portland amplifies dueling perspectives on race in the presidential election. The president and Joe Biden both heading to critical swing states.
JARRETT: And threats of a subpoena after election security briefings are scaled back, why the change two months before a vote officials already say is under assault from overseas? Good morning, this is EARLY START, I'm Laura Jarrett.
ROMANS: Happy Monday everybody, I'm Christine Romans, it is 29 minutes past the hour this Monday morning. Joe Biden and President Trump both heading to crucial swing states with dueling messages over race and violence at a defining moment in the 2020 campaign. Tensions mounting after a deadly shooting in Portland during clashes between Trump supporters and protesters against police brutality. Now, "The New York Times" reporting the victim of Saturday's shooting was wearing a hat with the insignia of a group called Patriot Prayer; a far-right group that has confrontations -- has had confrontations with protesters in the past.
Local authorities are still looking for the gunman with assistance from the FBI and the ATF. President Trump quick to offer public sympathy and support for his followers after the Portland shooting. But the same president who previously said there were good people on both sides of a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, well, he has refused.
