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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Massive Flooding Wreaks Havoc in Central U.S.; Nancy Pelosi Meets with Democrats Amid Growing Impeachment Calls; Ben Carson Did Not Understand Meaning of REOs during Testimony; Trump Officials Try to Convince Divided Congress of Iran Threat. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired May 22, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:25] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Oklahoma under water. Dozens of dangerous rescues required at the grain and a tornado outbreak leaving parts of the plains and the Midwest devastated.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: More Democrats say it's time to consider impeaching the president. Can the speaker rein in her party?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP: KATIE PORTER (D-CA): Do you know what an REO is?
BEN CARSON, HUD SECRETARY: An Oreo?
PORTER: R-- no, an Oreo. An R-E-O.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The Housing secretary does not know the difference between a cookie and a foreclosure.
BRIGGS: And one of the wildest police chases you will ever see. A busted stolen RV, multiple crashes, a dog escaping, the driver not so fortunate.
Good morning, everyone. And welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: Good morning. I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, May 22nd. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.
And happening right now, thousands of people in the nation's heartland waking up to utter devastation. Vicious weather bringing damaging tornadoes and torrential rains overnight.
In Oklahoma, dozens of dramatic water rescues. A woman here spotted clinging to a tree as floodwaters rush around here. After one rescuer reached her two others pulled her to safety.
Neighbors also helping each other out including this woman confined to a wheelchair. This house in Edmond, Oklahoma, surrounded by massive floodwaters. And this car trapped. Raging floods closing parts of Interstate 40 just west of Oklahoma City including El Reno where water stretched as far as the eye can see. BRIGGS: Major erosion on Cimarron River from heavy rains in
Kingfisher County. Eleven injuries were reported in Oklahoma.
There were at least 30 reports of tornadoes in the central U.S. Most of the twisters touching down in Kansas and Missouri.
And look at this image out of Nebraska. A state trooper tweeting this photo, he says the tornado stayed in the field and likely didn't cause much damage.
The central U.S. not out the woods yet. Two systems are converging, expected to deliver a dangerous end to this week.
ROMANS: All right. Beto O'Rourke trying to jumpstart his presidential campaign at a CNN town hall last night. He says he is seeking a national audience for his ideas even though the early stages of his campaign featured a more personal touch with O'Rourke holding up to six town halls a day in early voting states.
The former Texas congressman says he can see the U.S.-Mexico border from his porch in El Paso and he does not approve of President Trump's attempt to cut $500 million in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras where many asylum seekers are fleeing violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He wants to cut that. I would double it and I would focus it on violence prevention so that no mother has to make the God-awful decision of sending her child on that 2,000-mile trek because it is the only choice that she has now.
Let's invest in those solutions there so that families can stay there, they can be prosperous there, they can help those countries come together and make sure that we have partners in the western hemisphere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Well-versed Beto last night and according to a new Quinnipiac poll, O'Rourke has a lot of ground to make up.
Joe Biden the leading choice of Democratic voters by more than 2-1 over Bernie Sanders. And while Elizabeth Warren is trending up, Pete Buttigieg is leveling off, and O'Rourke is actually trending down.
And look at this. The majority of voters who are not paying a lot of attention to the campaign back Bernie Sanders while voters who are paying a lot of attention favor Biden. Interesting.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi huddling with fellow Democrats this morning. A growing number of her members clamoring to initiate impeachment proceedings against the president. The number of Democrats calling for impeachment or at least an inquiry growing significantly. CNN's count now shows 18, the "Washington Post" says 25. Pelosi holding her ground for now and resisting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Madam Speaker, are you under increased pressure to impeach the president?
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): No.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: In your caucus?
PELOSI: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Pelosi insists she wants to pursue a more methodical approach and allow the committees and the courts to do their work. But some members are getting antsy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think it's time to move forward with an impeachment inquiry?
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I do. I personally do. And we can't be scared of elections. We need to uphold the rule of law.
RAJU: Are you there yet?
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D-MD): I'm getting there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: He's getting there. Even if Democrats do pass an impeachment resolution, the Republican-led Senate is all but guaranteed to reject it.
[04:05:07] President Trump's tax returns must be turned over to Congress unless he invokes executive privilege. That's according to a draft of a confidential IRS memo from last fall obtained by the "Washington Post." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defied the subpoena for the returns last Friday, claiming he is not authorized to fulfill a request that, quote, "lacks a legitimate legislative purpose." But according to this IRS draft memo he has to regardless of the reason for the request.
President Trump is still refusing to release his returns, claiming he is not -- he is under audit. That has not stopped past presidents from releasing their taxes.
BRIGGS: An unexpected visitor on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meeting with the top Democrat and Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. A source tells CNN the interview focused on the Trump administration's dealings with Russia and Jared Kushner's role in foreign policy.
Tension between Tillerson and Kushner, who effectively ran a shadow State Department on Middle East issues, was well-documented. Tillerson was fired via tweet in March of 2018 and in a later interview called President Trump undisciplined.
ROMANS: All right. The Internet and more than a few Democrats losing their cookies over Ben Carson. The secretary of Housing and Urban Development testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday. He was asked a question that involved a common real estate term. This is the Housing secretary. Carson's testimony took a bad turn from there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PORTER: Explain the disparity in REO rates. Do you know what an REO is?
CARSON: An Oreo?
PORTER: R-- no, an Oreo. And R-E-O. R-E-O.
CARSON: Real estate --
PORTER: What's the O stand for?
CARSON: E -- organization?
PORTER: Owned. Real estate owned. That's what happens when a property goes to foreclosure, we call it an REO. I'd like to know why we're having foreclosures that end in people losing their homes with stains to their credit and disruption to their communities and their neighborhoods at FHA than we are at the GSEs.
CARSON: I would be extremely happy if you'd like to have you work with the people who do that.
PORTER: Well, Mr. Carson, that -- respectfully, that was my day job before I came to Congress. So now it's my job to ask you to work with the people.
CARSON: Well, I'm talking about the people at HUD who do that. I would be happy --
PORTER: I spent decades working with people at HUD on this problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Awkward. Secretary Carson fired up his Twitter account after the hearing, and he tweeted a photo of himself holding -- a bunch of Oreos saying, "Oh, REO." Even offered to send some cookies to Katie Porter, the congresswoman who was questioning him.
BRIGGS: That's right. Making fun of his own ignorance and his own department. 2019.
A wild ride through the streets of Los Angeles.
ROMANS: Are you kidding me? That is unbelievable.
BRIGGS: Here we go. A woman driving a stolen RV leading police on a dangerous high-speed chase last night. It began in Sta. Clarita and continued for a half hour with the RV -- yes, (INAUDIBLE) -- you're seeing an RV hitting speeds up to 60 miles an hour through the San Fernando Valley. At one point a dog who's on the driver's lap could be seen half way out of the shattered windshield and appeared to tumble out of the speeding vehicle. The dog was unharmed. A second dog was dangling from the window until the RV slammed into another car and plowed into some trees.
Not done yet. The driver got out and tried to flee on foot with the dog following behind. But she was quickly tackled by police and taken into custody.
ROMANS: I'm just gobsmacked. That is just unbelievable video.
All right. It was a brutal start to the year for America's department stores and the trade war with China is not helping. Kohl's, JC Penney, Nordstrom, all those stocks fell Tuesday after reporting slower sales in the first quarter and now they are bracing for higher tariffs on the things they sell. Retailers depend heavily on China for their supply chains. 41 percent of all apparel and 72 percent of all footwear sold in the United States was imported from China.
Nordstrom's sales fell 3.5 percent during the first quarter. Sales fell at Kohl's. JC Penney, 5.5 percent. Nordstrom CEO blamed the decline on executional misses with customers and now expects revenue for the year to fall as well. Kohl's cut its guidance for the year blaming tariffs. The "Wall Street Journal" reports Kohl's imports about 20 percent of its goods overall from China.
Some stores are passing the cost of tariffs on to you, the consumer. Last week Walmart warned it would prices on some products, though it didn't specific exactly which ones. China also bracing for a protracted trade war with the U.S. "The New York Times" reporting President Xi Jinping said Monday now there is a new long march and China should make a new start.
BRIGGS: Yes. Just reading about those comments, it sounds like he's a bit dug in against this president.
[04:10:02] ROMANS: Sounds like both sides are dug in.
BRIGGS: Could go on a while.
Ahead, a Chicago baby ripped from its mother's womb showing his first signs of life. Well, now the hospital treating him, under investigation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIGGS: 4:14 Eastern Time. Lawmakers are sharply divided along party lines over the threat posed by Iran after top Trump administration officials briefed the House and Senate in two closed door sessions.
[04:15:04] Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan pushing the message of deterrence. They say changes in the U.S. defense posture in the Gulf has prevented potential attacks on Americans. But in an exclusive interview with CNN Iran's top diplomat does not agree.
CNN's Nic Robertson live for us in Abu Dhabi with the latest.
Nic, good morning. What are you hearing?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign minister, pushes back on the notion that the United States's military posture in the Gulf is making the United States and its allies safer. What he is saying and what he told our Fred Pleitgen is that actually the U.S. naval build up in the Persian Gulf makes tensions and the situation more dangerous.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAVAD ZARIF, IRAN'S FOREIGN MINISTER: Having all these military assets in a small waterway is in and of itself prone to accident, particularly when you have people who are interested in accidents. So extreme prudence is required and we believe that the United States is playing a very, very dangerous game.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: So what Patrick Shanahan essentially said to that is Iran is the threat, we're managing that threat. But I think you also get a sense when you listen to some of the Iranian leaders, how they are playing to a domestic audience in Iran, perhaps as much as, you know, President Trump is trying to deliver on his own domestic messaging on Iran.
What Rouhani, the Iranian president, said was that when President Trump threatened Iranians that they should essentially be afraid of U.S. military assault, according to the Iranian president, then President Trump's military advisers told him to back down on that, and he said that shows the power of Iran and the region of this time. But what is actually happening here is managing the tensions, the United States with Gulf partners and what we are told enhanced naval military patrols in the Persian Gulf.
BRIGGS: Tensions not dying down anytime soon. No.
Nic Robertson live for us in Abu Dhabi, thanks.
ROMANS: All right. British Prime Minister Theresa May is offering a deal to lawmakers to get her new Brexit plan through parliament. If they back it, she will call for a vote on a second referendum. Her plan is really not new. It looks a lot like her old Brexit deal with a few sweeteners added to sway skeptical parliament members like pledges on worker rights, environmental provisions, and a temporary customs relationship with the European Union.
But the plan is already facing serious opposition. The leader of a pro-Brexit bloc in the prime minister's party calls it worse than before because it ties the UK to the EU.
All right. Serious reminder, do not cross the tracks when the crossing gate is down. A Texas trooper nearly paid the ultimate price.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:22:45] BRIGGS: A migrant processing center in McAllen, Texas, has been temporarily shut down after a large number of immigrants were found to have high fevers. Medical staff are currently working to provide all those infected with proper medical treatment. The closure comes after a 16-year-old migrant from Guatemala died six days into his stay at the facility. He was the fifth young migrant to die in government custody since December.
ROMANS: A baby -- that baby cut from his mother's womb after she was killed has opened his eyes. The infant attached to tubes as he fights for his life is being held by his father. Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, his mother, was killed in April after she was lured into a Chicago woman's home with an offer of free baby clothes on Facebook. Police arrested and charged three people in the murder.
Now the hospital that received the baby, Advocate Christ Medical Center is under investigation because the Department of Child and Family Services was not contacted until May 9th. Ochoa-Lopez was killed in April. Illinois law requires immediate reporting. The hospital is not commenting.
BRIGGS: A Texas sheriff's deputy lucky to be alive this morning after trying to cross railroad tracks when the gate was down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Whew. The Midland County officer drove around the lowered railroad crossing gate and was struck by an oncoming train. His police cruiser flipped over on impact and rolled off the tracks. According to local affiliate, the sheriff's deputy only suffered minor injuries and is recovering.
ROMANS: Never cross when the arms are down.
All right. Cue the "Jaws" music. With just a few days to go until a major holiday beach weekend, a 10-foot great white shark has been spotted in the Long Island Sound. It was detected off the coast of Greenwich, Connecticut, on Monday.
BRIGGS: Yikes.
ROMANS: A nonprofit group that tracked the shark says it's unusual for the species to be in the area. The shark was first tagged off the Nova Scotia coast last October. It initially traveled south to the Gulf of Mexico in January before returning north along the East Coast of the U.S.
BRIGGS: Wow. A few miles from my house. The streak goes on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX TREBEK, HOST, "JEOPARDY": His wager, a big one? 31,010, yes, indeed.
[04:25:05] A payoff today of $86,905. And now a 24-day total of $1,867,142. Wow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: There's the toothy grin. James Holzhauer adding to his "Jeopardy" legacy with the 24th consecutive win now. Starting to close in on Ken Jennings all-time record of more than $2.5 million. It took Jennings 74 games. Holzhauer plays game 25 tonight.
Hockey's Stanley Cup Final all set. It's a rematch of 1970. The St. Louise Blues beating San Jose, 5-1 to the series in six games to advance to the final. At one point this season, this calendar year, the Blues had the worst record in the NHL. Now they'll play for the Stanley Cup against the Boston Bruins. The last time the Blues made it to the cup final, 1970 when they were swept by the Bruins. Game one Monday should be an outstanding series.
Ahead, major clean up ahead in Oklahoma. Flooding across the state. More dangerous weather is on the way.
ROMANS: And to impeach or not to impeach. The House speaker makes her case today with more Democrats angling to move against the president.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
