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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Hand Recount Ordered in Florida Senate Race; North Korea Deports Detained U.S. Citizen. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired November 16, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:12] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Are charges on the way for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and could they upend the Russia probe?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A hand recount starts this morning in Florida's razor-thin Senate race but Democrats looking for gains, they're left with little reason for hope.
BRIGGS: An astonishing 631 people are unaccounted for in the deadly Camp Fire in California.
ROMANS: And parts of the northeast crippled by the first major snow of the season. That commute was epic last night. Expect a messy Friday morning, too.
BRIGGS: Ugly.
ROMANS: I mean, my husband, it took him 3 1/2 hours to get home.
BRIGGS: Do tell.
ROMANS: He was a very unhappy person. And we knew this storm was coming.
BRIGGS: I bet that man needed a bourbon.
ROMANS: So --
(LAUGHTER)
BRIGGS: Upon returning to the Romans household.
ROMANS: All right, good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Thank God it is Friday, November 16th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. For the tenth day we're waking up wondering when the midterms elections are going to end. But we'll get to that shortly.
ROMANS: Still here.
BRIGGS: We start with some big news in overnight. References to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in an unsealed court filing suggests he might be criminally charged. The developments could have significant implications for the Mueller investigation. Assange has made a name for himself leaking government secrets, including on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Federal prosecutors in Virginia included references to Assange apparently by accident, in a filing unsealed last week.
While arguing to keep a seemingly unrelated case sealed they wrote, quote, "No other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged."
ROMANS: All right. A spokesman for the Eastern District of Virginia says, quote, "The court filing was made in error." He declined to comment on whether there are in fact existing charges against Assange or what the error was, that it was revealed or that it was written in the first place. The "Wall Street Journal" reports the Justice Department is preparing to prosecute Assange.
Assange has been living of course in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012. He's hiding from rape charges in Sweden and other legal problems. An indictment by the special counsel has painted WikiLeaks as a tool of Russian intelligence for releasing thousands of hacked Democratic e-mails during the 2016 campaign.
Mueller has been exploring communications between WikiLeaks and associates of President Trump, then candidate Trump, including political operative Roger Stone.
BRIGGS: The Russia investigation weighing heavily on the president the last few days. He met with his lawyers three times this week to discuss written responses to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The trump legal team is wary of Mueller's questions. Rudy Giuliani describing some of them as, quote, "possible traps."
The pathway narrowing for Democrats to win critical recounts in Florida. A hand recount has been ordered in the Senate race between Republican Governor Rick Scott and Democratic Senator Bill Nelson. But in the face for governor Republican Ron DeSantis has declared victory after a machine recount did not help Democrat Andrew Gillum narrow that gap. That race effectively over which leaves Democrats hoping for a miracle in the Senate race where Governor Scott leads by less than 13,000 votes out of 8.2 million cast.
ROMANS: Senator Nelson dealt another blow by a late-night court ruling in Scott's favor. A federal judge ruling guidelines for evaluating voter intent during a manual recount constitutional. Most Florida counties did file their recounts on time. A few did not. Including one heavily Democratic county. They finished counting but then missed the submission deadline by, I don't know, two minutes?
BRIGGS: Two minutes.
ROMANS: The deadline for the hand recount that is underway today, Sunday.
CNN's Jessica Dean has it all for us from Florida.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave and Christine, from Palm Beach where they hope to get started on the hand recount today. Let's zoom out and give you the big picture.
All across Florida they are going to go through a hand recount for this incredibly close .15 percent Senate race that was triggered yesterday. Here in Palm Beach County, well, they didn't get their recount results in. They were one of three counties here in Florida that didn't get those second recount numbers in.
Here in Palm Beach, they blamed it on the machines. They said that they were old, they were breaking down, they were overheating. They simply weren't able to get it in on time. In Hillsborough County, they suffered a couple of power outages. And so they simply weren't confident enough in their numbers to submit the new numbers. They went with the old numbers as well. And then you had Broward County who missed the deadline by two minutes.
They say that that was all due to familiarity with the Web site. Someone not really understanding how to upload that information. So all three of those counties by law went with the first unofficial set of results.
[04:05:04] Back here in Palm Beach County, they're going to try to now separate the under votes and the over votes. That's what they're going to be looking at in a hand recount and then from there, they are hoping to get started with that by 11:00 a.m.
Back to you.
BRIGGS: Jessica Dean, great job there.
Democrats this morning celebrating another House seat they picked up in Maine's 2nd District. Jared Golden defeating incumbent Republican Bruce Poliquin. That makes Democrats' net gain in the House 33 seats. There are still seven races yet to be called by CNN with Democrats now leading in six of those seats. All of them are Republican-held districts, mind you.
ROMANS: Meantime, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi feeling confident she will be elected speaker. However, one critic, Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton suggesting Pelosi is overconfident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. SETH MOULTON (D), MASSACHUSETTS: She's wrong. We have the votes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Democrats to select their nominee in a November 28th vote. Right now Pelosi is the only first and officially running.
In California alarming news, 631 people -- 631-- now unaccounted for in the Camp Fire in the Sierra Foothills as people call in to report missing persons. Authorities are also going back to 911 call incident reports. They're trying to determine where missing people might be. So far, at least 63 people are known to have died in the Camp Fire. BRIGGS: Officials say the fire has burned more than 140,000 acres.
It is 40 percent contained. Evacuation orders and warnings are being reduced or lifted in some areas affected by the Camp Fire.
Our Scott McLean visited the Walmart parking lot in Chico, California, each serving as a makeshift camp for 20,000 displaced people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What do you miss most?
ELI KINGERI, CAMP FIRE VICTIM: Just being in a bed.
MCLEAN: You just miss your bed? The warmth?
KINGERI: Being under a ceiling and actually having a real bathroom.
MCLEAN: Yes, that's nice, isn't it? You seem like you're being pretty strong, though.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You OK?
KINGERI: Just hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Meanwhile, heavy smoke has been drifting into the Bay Area. The air quality in San Francisco yesterday was as bad as in Chico. Chico is 30 minutes from Paradise. It was by far the worst air quality of Bay Area had since since the fires broke out, forcing several school districts to close today.
The total death toll in the California wildfires now stands at 66, including a new death from the Woolsey Fire in Southern California.
President Trump is scheduled to travel to California tomorrow to meet people affected by those blazes.
BRIGGS: All right, six inches of snow meanwhile brought here to New York City and surrounding areas to a virtual standstill. This is what you were staring at for hours on the George Washington Bridge. Commutes extended by several hours. This morning many schools in New Jersey have delayed openings. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio promising to clear the streets for the morning commute. More of the same as you head south. This is Union County, Pennsylvania. Lines of traffic for miles.
ROMANS: The death toll from the storm stands at eight. One person killed in Maryland, Ohio and Indian on slick roads. Five other deaths reported in Mississippi and Alabama. Thousands of flights delayed and canceled. A majority of those in New York.
More also reported in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston and even Chicago. More than 292,000 customers are without power in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. BRIGGS: So who got hit hardest and when will it melt and what's in
store for this weekend? Here's meteorologist Derek Van Dam with the answers.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Some impressive snowfall totals from a mid-November winter storm and it's not even over for some.
Look at this. Eighteen inches and counting for Mt. Hope, New York. Even Central Park got half a foot of snowfall. Of course snarling traffic. We still have winter storm warnings in effect for much of Upstate New York, through Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, all the way to Maine.
An additional six inches or more of snowfall is expected across the higher elevations as the storm wraps up and finally exits the region. In its wake cold conditions and very blustery weather week. However, we might see a few peeks of sunshine later today for New York City.
Look at the winds gusts in excess of 30 miles per hour at times this after from New York all the way to Nantucket. Temperatures today, well, 43 for the Big Apple. So snow will melt quickly on the ground. Any precipitation left over this morning should be in the form of rain this morning. And you can see our temperatures over the next seven days staying well below average.
Back to you.
ROMANS: All right. Thank you for that.
Thousands of student veterans waiting months to be paid for their education as promised.
[04:10:03] What the VA says is to blame.
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ROMANS: Wow. Facebook is on the defensive after a "New York Times" investigation suggested it had not been forthcoming enough about Russian interference on its platform and it actually hired a hit firm to write negative stories about its critics. During a call with reporters Thursday the CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged Facebook has been too slow to deal with Russian disinformation on its platform back in 2016.
But Zuckerberg said that to suggest we weren't interested in knowing the truth was simply untrue. Now the "Times" reported Facebook expanded its work with a group called Definers Public Affairs in October 2017 to fight back against all this criticism that Facebook was asleep at the switch. Definers reportedly wrote articles attacking Google and Apple and downplaying how Facebook was affected by Russian interference. Zuckerberg on the call said he learned Facebook's work with Definers when he read the report after he said I got on the phone with our team and we are no longer working with this firm.
[04:15:08] Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, her handling of Facebook's approach to the fallout from this information and interference on the platform was one of the focuses of the "Times" report. Sandberg wrote on the platform Thursday evening, "At Facebook we are making the investments that we need to stamp out abuse on our system. It won't be easy. It'll take time. It'll never be complete. This mission is critical and I am committed to seeing it through."
In a statement provided to CNN, a spokesperson for the "Times" says. "Our story article is accurate and we stand by it." It's worth a read. It is a withering assessment of just a lack of ability to deal with the Russia issue on Facebook.
BRIGGS: Read it in that brutal commute because it takes a while.
First Lady Melania Trump taking on critics of her initiative to combat cyber bullying. She is taking a lot of heat for her focus on the issue given her husband's Twitter tendencies. But at a Family Online Safety Institute Conference, Melania defended the effort.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: As I have said before, it is not news or surprising to me that critics and the media have chosen to ridicule me for speaking out on this issue and that's OK. I remain committed to tackling this topic because it will provide a better world for our children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: First lady says she hopes people bring awareness and understanding about responsible online behavior.
ROMANS: V.A. officials admit thousands of student veterans are not receiving their monthly housing and education payments from the U.S. government on time. Top brass at the department blame the delays which date back to April on the V.A.'s antiquated information and technology system. The payments are part of the Forever G.I. Bill that President Trump signed into law last year to expand education benefits for veterans. During a White House event Thursday afternoon Trump cited the expansion of the G.I. bill as a point of success in his administration's efforts to modernize the V.A.
BRIGGS: The Food and Drug Administration enacting new measures against flavored nicotine products. There's been a major spike in vaping almost 80 percent among high school students since last year. The FDA said to impose sale restrictions on flavored e-cigarettes except for mint and menthol flavors. The plan would also limit sales to brick and mortar outlets that have either age restricted entry or areas inside stores that are not accessible to people under 18. The FDA also seeking a ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars in order to combat smoking among young people.
ROMANS: I mean, the real war is you can't smell the smoke, right? And so that's why the kids do it.
BRIGGS: Yes. ROMANS: And their parents have no idea. And then the flavor is
something that makes it seem more like a candy than a nicotine product.
BRIGGS: One in five high school students apparently vape.
ROMANS: It's a big deal.
BRIGGS: According to the numbers.
ROMANS: It's a big deal. Yes.
All right. Shock and fear in a Baltimore theater as a man yells "Heil Hitler" during a performance of "Fiddler on the Roof." It happened Wednesday night during the classic Jewish themed musical's intermission. The man began shouting the Nazi salute from the upper balcony. An audience member tells CNN several people ran toward the exits. Others were visibly shaken until the man was finally hustled out by security. The outburst comes during a dramatic spike in anti- Semitic incidents in the U.S. including that horrific Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that killed 11 worshippers.
BRIGGS: A painting by British artist David Hockney sold for a whopping $90.3 million.
ROMANS: Wow.
BRIGGS: At a Christie's auction Thursday. The price easily breaks the record for a work by a living artist sold at auction. The piece is called "Courtship of an Artist" and is considered one of the 81- year-old Hockney's premier works. The 1972 painting has been long held by a private collector. The new buyer was not immediately revealed. The previous record by a living artist was set by Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" in 2013. It sold for $50.4 million. $90 million for the pool painting.
ROMANS: Wow. Setting a new record for a living author or artist. Amazing.
BRIGGS: It's pretty. But $90 mil? Come on.
ROMANS: I can't afford it.
BRIGGS: No.
ROMANS: I can't afford it.
BRIGGS: Out of our league.
Breaking overnight. North Korea deports a U.S. citizen detained last month and Kim Jong-un supervises a test of a new weapon. A live report next.
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[04:23:48] ROMANS: Breaking overnight. North Korea deporting a U.S. citizen who was detained last month after illegally entering the country. That's according to the nation's state-run media. The expulsion came hours after the news agency's report that Kim Jong-un just supervised the test of a newly developed ultra-modern tactical military weapon.
CNN's Alexandra Field live in Hong Kong with more.
So what about the connection with the timing? Is there one?
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the question of the timing will have to do with how officials in the U.S. and South Korea respond to all of these. What we have was late-breaking this afternoon, news from the North Korean state news that they had released a U.S. detainee whom they said they've had since October 16th. This is someone who they said illegally entered the country.
They now say they have deported this American citizen to somewhere outside of the North Korean border. No word on exactly where and we're still waiting for confirmation from U.S. officials about the conditions of this detainment and also about the release of this American citizen. But that came at around the same time that we have been learning more about this weapons test conducted by North Korea that appeared to be North Korea's flexing a little bit of muscle.
A source tells CNN that South Korean officials have analyzed the test that the South Korean government considers this to have been a test of long-range artillery.
[04:25:03] So they're drawing a major distinction between the test that was recently done in the missiles that were tested, in the nuclear tests that were done about a year ago. In fact these sources say the South Korean government does not see this latest weapons test as any kind of military provocation.
But it does, of course, appear to anyone who's been watching North Korea closely that North Korea has been flexing a little bit of muscle, they've been raising the rhetoric as they've reach something of an impasse in talks with the United States. How does that impasse break? Well, that could be up to U.S. officials. In the last day they've been projecting a lot of confidence saying that the two sides can work together and also just in the last day you've had U.S. Vice President Mike Pence telling NBC News that the U.S. will not insist that North Korea provide full disclosure of its nuclear assets and missile sites as a precondition for a second summit. But that that is something that they would insist on achieving during a second summit so certainly creating a window there for this summit to move forward even in light of all of these fast-breaking developments.
ROMANS: Yes. Dropping that precondition is really an important development.
All right, Alexandra, thank you so much for that.
BRIGGS: It is because an accounting of North Korea's nuclear facilities should have been required before a first summit most experts say, let alone a second but here we go. All right. Ahead, is it the Russia investigation or a government
leak? Julian Assange could be in some big legal trouble. References to the WikiLeaks founder accidentally revealed in a court filing.
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