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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Hurricane Michael Trashes Six States; Trump Had Lunch with Kanye West at the White House; New Evidence Surfaced in the Case of Missing Journalist Jamal Khashoggi; Will Turkey Release Pastor Andrew Brunson; Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired October 12, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:00:14] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's obliterated and it's awful. It's awful to look at.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The wrath of Michael wiping out entire ocean front communities. Some returning home saying it looks like a bomb was dropped. A report from Florida as the death toll rises.
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KANYE WEST, MUSICIAN: I love this guy right here.
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DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump spending his afternoon with Kanye West as millions of Americans pick up the pieces from Hurricane Michael. Their bizarre Oval Office meet.
ROMANS: Turkish officials claimed they have new evidence to prove that a missing "Washington Post" columnist was murdered inside the Saudi consulate. What they say led up to his killing.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START this Friday morning. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning. Happy Friday, everyone. I'm Dave Briggs. It is October 12th. 4:00 a.m. in the East. We start with breaking news this morning regarding Hurricane Michael.
Clean-up under way in the wake of the worst hurricane to hit the Florida Panhandle ever. The death toll from Hurricane Michael has risen to six people in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, including an 11-year-old girl killed when debris punctured her trailer home. Nearly 1.4 million customers without power this morning in six states. Officials say nearly 4400 people remain in shelters. Recovery efforts underway now in Florida, Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas.
ROMANS: From the air in this Coast Guard footage, you can see the rows of homes, look at that, houses and ocean-side businesses in Mexico Beach, Florida, just wrecked. Some residents returning to find their homes destroyed.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So many memories here. I can't describe it. It's just terrible. I just can't describe the feeling. And I know I'm not the only one here that feels the same that lost everything.
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ROMANS: Many survivors who stuck it out in their homes say they feel lucky to be alive. Recounting the surreal experience.
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SCOTT, SURVIVED HURRICANE MICHAEL: The car just started flowing by, and stuff. And all the debris was in the air. And the wind was so tremendous. So strong. We had furniture in our house that wasn't our furniture. The surge had brought stuff in so bad.
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ROMANS: These pictures that Brooke brought us yesterday just really remarkable.
Our national correspondent Miguel Marquez is also on the ground for us. He filed this report from Mexico Beach.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, I want to show you what Mexico Beach looks like tonight and we actually have a lot of resources now pouring into town. This is the first time we've seen this today. Just dozens and dozens of vehicles from -- this is Orange County Sheriff's Department bringing in boats and all- terrain vehicles with the hope of getting into these areas of Mexico Beach and areas east of here to help search for people.
But this is pretty much what is left of many parts of Mexico Beach tonight. It is completely wiped off the planet. These were beautiful homes and businesses along the beach here 36 hours ago. It has now been scrubbed down to the foundations. And I've met a lot of people here in Mexico Beach in the time I've been here, searching for their loved one. They are stuck here. They cannot get word out to anybody that they are OK.
But just absolute devastation here. It looks like a bomb went off destroying much of the city. And then for 20 or 30 miles out as we were driving in, the trees just all taken out in sort of neat rows. All bending over in the same place. All broken in the same place and all facing the same direction. It's eerie, it's bizarre. It is just heartbreaking to see what is happening here. It is going to be a very long time before Mexico Beach is back in business -- Dave, Christine.
BRIGGS: Miguel Marquez there.
At this hour, Michael remains a tropical storm packing 50-mile-an-hour winds. More than 60 million people are now under a flashflood watch from the Carolinas into New England. Michael is still driving weather as it moves northeast.
Meteorologist Karen Maginnis tracking it all from the CNN Weather Center.
Karen, good morning.
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. And you can imagine that the people that we're viewing from in Mexico Beach and saw this category four hurricane just knocking on their door didn't imagine that the image that looked like this would soon look like an image where total devastation took place. Very little in the way still standing.
And as you can imagine that storm surge had this biggest impact across that region along with category four hurricane force winds. Now to tropical storm intensity. It is now offshore. It is becoming post tropical.
[04:05:03] It is losing its tropical characteristics. But in its wake we did see some high winds and some heavy downpours. So lots of power outages. As a matter of fact, in North Carolina and Virginia, there are more than a million people in both of those states that are reporting right now without power. Northumberland is one of those counties. That is in coastal sections of Virginia and just about 100 percent of that county reporting no power.
Here is how it breaks down. North Carolina, over 600,000. But Virginia and North Carolina still feeling the brunt of what is now Tropical Storm Michael.
Back to you, guys.
ROMANS: Wow. All right. Karen Maginnis, thank you so much.
For ways that you can help those affected by the storm, go to CNN.com/impact -- Dave.
BRIGGS: While millions of Americans were fighting to recover from Michael, President Trump was hosting a rather bizarre working lunch with Kanye West. It was billed as a meeting about prison reform but it went off the rails in a hurry.
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WEST: Trump is on his hero's journey right now. And he might not have expected to have a crazy mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED) like Kanye West run up and support, but best believe we are going to make America great.
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BRIGGS: So that happened.
For more on lunch with Kanye, here's Jeff Zeleny.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, for all the surreal scenes we have seen this at this White House, for all the unorthodox moments, there certainly was a major one yesterday here at the White House when rapper Kanye West was coming for a meeting, a private meeting with President Trump to talk about prison reform. They were scheduled to have a private lunch and nothing on the public schedule.
Well, all that changed when the president invited Kanye West into the Oval Office. Sitting right there at the Resolute Desk, the president listened as Kanye talked.
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WEST: I love Hillary. I love everyone, right? But the campaign "I'm With Her" just didn't make me feel as a guy that didn't get to see my dad all the time, like a guy that can play catch with his son. It was something about when I put this hat on it made me feel like Superman.
If he don't look good, we don't look good. This is our president. He has to be the freshest, the flyest, the flyest planes, the best factories, and we have to make our core be empowered.
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ZELENY: Now for nearly 10 minutes or so this went on in somewhat of an incoherent rant, with Kanye talking about everything under the sun. About -- you know, about race relations, about other matters.
The president clearly enjoying this moment, enjoying this celebrity moment, but other eyebrows were indeed being raised because so much else is on the president's agenda, the stock market slide, of course, the hurricane recovery and damage and devastation in Florida, and certainly, the escalating crisis with Saudi Arabia.
But the president clearly had time for Kanye West in two separate sessions. The old adage if the most valuable thing is the president's time, if that's true we certainly saw what that was yesterday -- Dave and Christine.
ROMANS: Remarkable piece of reality television there. 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Eight minutes past the hour, the president's legal team is preparing answers to written questions it received from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. According to a source familiar with the matter, the questions are focused on possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russians seeking to influence the 2016 election. Still no agreement on whether the president will be interviewed in person. Mr. Trump's suggestion -- suggesting rather he has not ruled it out.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, it seems ridiculous that I have to do it when everybody says there is no collusion. But I'll do what is necessary to get it over with.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: This first round of questions may not be the last. The special counsel negotiated an opportunity to ask follow-up questions before the two sides finally agreed to begin the process.
BRIGGS: The White House is now eyeing Nancy Brinker to replace Nikki Haley as ambassador to the U.N. Brinker, the founder of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, according to a source close to the administration, officials believe she could be fast tracked to confirmation since she already went through the process before, serving as U.S. ambassador to Hungary in 2001.
Former deputy national security adviser Dina Powell is out of the running. She informed the president she is keeping her job at Goldman Sachs. One official tells CNN her nomination became incredibly more complicated by the escalating diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia because, quote, "no one knows more about the relationship between Jared Kushner and Crown Prince bin Salman than Powell."
ROMANS: All right. CNN has learned the U.S. is working on the assumption that a missing "Washington Post" columnist was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. We're going to go to Istanbul next.
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[04:13:52] ROMANS: The breaking news this morning. New evidence that missing "Washington Post" columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate. A CNN source briefed by western intelligence says the evidence shows Khashoggi was killed following some kind of assault and struggle. The "Post" itself reports the Turkish government has told U.S. officials the evidence is in the form of audio and video recordings from inside the consulate.
A source tells the "Post" the recordings include voices speaking Arabic and the sounds of Khashoggi being, quote, "interrogated, tortured and then murdered." Turkish media reports a team of 15 Saudi men including a forensic expert arrived by private jet in Istanbul and left the same day. Saudi Arabia categorically denying any involvement in Jamal's disappearance.
BRIGGS: That has not slowed momentum in Congress where leading senators are putting pressure on Saudi Arabia to account for Khashoggi.
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SEN. BOB CORKER (R), CHAIRMAN, FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: My instincts say that there's no question the Saudi government did this and my instincts say that they murdered him.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I have never been more concerned about his well being than I am right now. And all the indicators point to Saudi Arabia and if it turns out to be Saudi Arabia, as I've said before, there will be all hell to pay.
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[04:15:11] BRIGGS: This is a test for Lindsey Graham.
The White House resisting calls for action against Saudi Arabia. President Trump Thursday said the U.S. sent investigators to work with Turkey. Something Turkish officials flatly denied.
International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has been all over this story, he's live in Istanbul with the very latest.
Nic, good morning.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, good morning, Dave. What our sources telling us here is that the Turkish authorities shared some of their investigation with their allies. This material that they've shared clearly indicates Khashoggi's death inside the consulate. This is what the Turkish authorities have said all along.
They're sharing this evidence, this information that they have, audio, visual, typed information, not precisely clear but they've shared it with these allies. And what we understand from this source, who is briefed by one of those allies and intelligence officials from one of those allies, he says that the -- that the intelligence agencies are shocked, shocked by the nature of what they heard.
It took some time for them to digest it. It reveals the assault and the struggle and the death of Jamal Khashoggi. Very, very damning damaging evidence that the Turks are sharing from their investigation with their allies here. It paints Saudi Arabia into an incredibly difficult corner.
How do they get out of this? Well, last night they said that they were forming a joint investigative committee, if you will, a forum with the Turkish authorities to look at this investigation. But having seen and having understood now what the Turks are releasing to their allies, it does make the Saudi position, almost, it would seem, untenable at this moment. So the pressure growing on Saudi Arabia.
And the Turkey's allies now clearly understanding, aware and shocked, shocked we're told by the details, the graphic details of his death -- Dave.
BRIGGS: And President Trump yesterday made clear even if this is true, he wants no part of cancelling an arms deal with the Saudis.
Nic Robertson, live for us this morning. Thank you, sir.
ROMANS: All right. U.S. officials believe an American pastor is on the verge of being released by Turkey. Pastor Andrew Brunson has been jailed since 2016 for allegedly plotting a coup against President Erdogan. Brunson is in court right now.
Let's go live to Turkey and bring in CNN's Ben Wedeman -- Ben.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Christine, well, the trial or rather this session of the trial is expected to begin shortly. It's the fourth so far. And there are widespread expectations that there will be some sort of deal worked out between Turkey and the United States to allow for him -- not necessarily to be pardoned or found innocent, but simply to leave the country.
The deal would perhaps involve in exchange for his release, the United States lifting sanctions on Turkey that were imposed just this summer. For instance the United States imposed an asset freeze on Turkey's Interior and Justice ministers. President Trump ordered the raising of tariffs on Turkish exports of steel and aluminum, and the United States halted plans to sell the F-35 jet to Turkey as well.
So what is expected, although these are expectations that have been dashed in the past, is that Turkey will lift the travel ban that Mr. Brunson is under and therefore he will simply be able to go to the airport and fly out of the country. That doesn't necessarily mean he will be found innocent, but he will be for all intents and purposes a free man -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Keep us posted. Ben Wedeman, thank you so much.
All right. 18 minutes past the hour. Another Dow drop. Plunging more than 1300 points in the last two days. We'll explain the sudden selloff next.
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[04:23:28] ROMANS: All right. Wall Street damage report. Another brutal day on Wall Street. The Dow fell another 546 points. Losing now more than 1300 points in two days. But broader S&P 500 closed 2 percent lower. That is its sixth straight down day. Six days in a row. That's the longest slump since just before the 2016 presidential election.
Now it looks like the market could bounce back today. Global stocks and U.S. futures are a little bit higher. Investors concerned about two things -- the U.S.-China trade war slowing growth and rising interest rates. Higher rates make borrowing more expensive. That eats into company profits.
President Trump often uses the stock market as a personal scorecard. So he's been blaming the Federal Reserve which is raising interest rates for this drop. Trump's top economic adviser, though, says he's not trying to influence the independent agency.
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LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER: The president is not dictating policy to the Fed. He didn't say anything remotely like that. And as I say, they are independent. They're going to do what they're going to do.
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ROMANS: No, he said that the Fed is crazy and it's out of its mind and --
BRIGGS: Loco in fact. ROMANS: And should not be raising interesting rates. Kudlow also
said rising rates means a strong economy. And he's right on that. Consumers are spending. Unemployment is the lowest in a generation. But Trump's tax cuts juiced corporate profits like pouring gasoline on an already hot economy. The Federal Reserve is the firefighter here, slowing raising interest rates to keep the economy from overheating.
BRIGGS: Allegations of voter suppression in the Georgia governor's race.
[04:25:03] Democrat Stacey Abrams' campaign calling on Republican candidate Brian Kemp to resign as secretary of state. That demand coming after an Associated Press report revealed Georgia put on hold more than 53,000 voter registration applications with nearly 70 percent of them belonging to African-Americans. The reason? They failed to clear the state's exact match standard. That means even the most minor discrepancy like a typo or a missing letter disqualified them.
Abrams is trying to become the first black woman elected governor of any state. She is running neck and neck with Kemp.
ROMANS: We're now just 25 days from the midterm elections. If you still haven't registered today is the deadline in Idaho, Oklahoma, New York and North Carolina. All right.
BRIGGS: Important to remember, folks.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: Get out and register.
ROMANS: And I do think the survey -- a poll, "USA Today" poll has found that only 35 percent of Americans 18 to 29 plan -- absolutely certainly they're going to vote.
BRIGGS: Disturbing.
ROMANS: That really shocked me.
BRIGGS: After reinforcement.
ROMANS: That really shocked me.
All right. The death toll rising from Hurricane Michael to six people now including an 11-year-old girl. The latest on the recovery next.
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