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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Missouri Capital Takes Direct Hit from Tornado; Trump Not Working With Dems Until Investigations End; Prison Sentence for "American Taliban" to End After 17 Years; Trump Golf Trips Have Cost Taxpayers Around $102 Million. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired May 23, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:31:40] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, a deadly tornado outbreak rattles Missouri. Three people are dead. Major damage in the capital of Jefferson City.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: The move that the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't do cover-ups.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Government at a standstill, the president refusing to work with Democrats if they continue their investigations.
ROMANS: A baby girl in Florida has died after her daycare left her alone for hours in a sweltering van.
BRIGGS: And he joined the Taliban to fight the United States. Now John Walker Lindh is set to go free on American soil.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning.
ROMANS: Nice to see you all this morning. It is 32 minutes past the hour and breaking overnight, a tornado outbreak turning deadly in Missouri.
A tornado emergency for Missouri's capital, Jefferson City. The National Weather Service confirms the city took a direct hit from a twister. We just spoke to the city's mayor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR CARRIE TERGIN, JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI: The biggest concern is that we are hoping that everybody's OK. Buildings and things can be replaced. We just are hoping that everybody is all right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The damage is extensive. Roofs ripped off of homes. Debris is everywhere. At least 10,000 customers are without power this morning. At this Chevy dealership, the cars were literally tossed around, landing upside down. People on the ground tell CNN they were sheltering wherever they could as flashes lit up the sky. Officials are asking people to remain indoors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. DAVID WILLIAMS, JEFFERSON CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT: We do not need citizens coming out, helping us by driving around identifying problems. We've got enough calls coming in from affected citizens to where we don't need people driving around telling us that there's a tree in the roadway. We have personnel out doing that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Three people in Missouri are confirmed dead. The debris reached as high as 13,000 feet in some places. Several injuries reported in the Carl Junction area of Jasper County. A possible tornado also downed trees and power lines in Joplin eight years to the day after a catastrophic storm there killed 158 people.
In Oklahoma we're keeping an eye on a pair of runaway barges that may hit the interstate bridge in a nearby dam in Weber Falls. Officials are calling for evacuations all along that. Residents have been told if they decide to stay, they are supposed to write their name on their arm in permanent marker.
BRIGGS: And that, the flooding from earlier storms literally sinking that home along the Cimarron River in Logan County. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol racing to rescue this woman. She had to climb out of a window of her home to get to safety. The Oklahoma National Guard deploying 120 personnel to help with evacuation efforts. The threat in the region far from over.
CNN's Pedram Javaheri live in the Weather Center in Atlanta this morning.
Pedram, good morning.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Dave. We're still watching these thunderstorms, certainly far from over, as you said. In the southern portions of Missouri we're finally beginning to see some of the activity die down.
[04:35:03] That's at least better news in that region. But notice as you work your way into areas of Illinois eventually into Indiana, severe thunderstorm watch still in place, a tornado watch is in place until about 5 to 6:00 a.m. local time across this region.
And thunderstorms and lightning strikes still about a thousand strikes per hour in each of the last four hours, so, you know, speaks to the intensity of the storms especially on this northern fringe of it. Some of the lines here of the thunderstorm is going to begin and move right through Indianapolis over the next 30 or so minutes. So we'll see some powerful winds associated with that as well.
And then farther towards the south, St. Louis and areas just to the south of St. Louis seeing some strong thunderstorms at this hour. No reports of a tornado warning at this hour, at this moment, at least so at least better news in that sense. But you notice almost 170 tornado reports since last Friday. Almost 30 reports coming in just in the past 24 or so hours, and also interesting to see the tornado count, very comparable to the wind and hail count, which often is flipped the other way around where you have more wind and hail damage than tornado damage.
But today, more of a tornado day across the region. But thunderstorms as we work our way towards the afternoon hours, and enough thunderstorm potential across portions of the mid-Atlantic and the northeast where we have an enhanced risk in place. On a scale of one to five, that's a three, includes areas around, say, central and southern tier of Pennsylvania, you're your way into portions of Delmarva as well. So we'll watch us here for isolated shot of tornadoes.
But to a higher extent there for some large wind, large hail and damaging wind in the forecast and notice the plains still back at it again with another round of active weather. That's because high pressure is camping out here across the southeast. So we're going to be putting a stop to the motion of these storms over this region, and we'll watch that throughout this afternoon and potentially even tomorrow afternoon across much of the same areas -- guys.
ROMANS: All right. Pedram, thank you so much for that. Keep an eye on it for us.
All right. President Trump proving there is more than one way to shut down the federal government. Until all investigations by the House are done, Mr. Trump will not work with Democrats, not on infrastructure, immigration, health care, or disaster aid. Even the budget appears to be on hold. The Trump tantrum erupting Wednesday morning after this comment from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELOSI: We do believe that it's important to follow the facts. We believe that no one is above the law, including the president of the United States, and we believe that the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: That appears to be the trigger. The president walked into a meeting with Dems on infrastructure, lectured them for about five minutes and left. His disdain spilled over into the Rose Garden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Instead of walking in happily into a meeting, I walk into -- look at people that had just said I was doing a cover-up. I don't do cover-ups. This whole thing was a takedown attempt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Fact, the president was an unnamed co-conspirator in the hush money case that sent Michael Cohen to prison for three years. The president brought a poster to the Rose Garden slamming the Mueller report, incorrect facts on it. But Pelosi continued her tough talk later in the day, even invoking the I word.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELOSI: In plain sight, in the public domain, this president is obstructing justice, and he's engaged in a cover-up, and that could be an impeachable offense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Appearing on the late show, 2020 Democratic hopeful Kamala Harris defended the speaker.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So he's going to hold America's infrastructure hostage.
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Yes.
HARRIS: Right?
COLBERT: Yes.
HARRIS: Over the issue of the investigation. This is a false choice. We cannot abandon our democracy for the sake of appeasing somebody who is completely focused on his interests only.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: In a letter to her Democratic colleagues, Pelosi says Trump had a temper tantrum for us all to see. The president didn't see it that way tweeting, "This is not true, I was purposely very calm and polite. As much as I was minutes later with the press in the Rose Garden."
Indeed, there are some who are saying, was this a temper tantrum or was this sort of like a staged reality show episode? The president --
BRIGGS: It's a tarp.
ROMANS: Never wanting to sit down, came out.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: The press had been assembled already. BRIGGS: Right.
ROMANS: Quickly, they knew that he was coming out.
BRIGGS: Well, one day prior, the president had attempted to squash this by saying no infrastructure until we get the deal done on the USMCA. So he already had plans to squash the infrastructure conversation. This was political theater.
ROMANS: This solves how you pay for his $2 trillion in infrastructure.
[LAUGHTER]
BRIGGS: Perhaps. Yes.
ROMANS: If you just walk away.
BRIGGS: All right. A second major setback for President Trump in his fight to keep his financial records from the public. A federal judge in New York ruling the president cannot block a subpoena by House Democrats to Deutsche Bank and Capital One. The judge says the subpoenas are broad but clearly pertinent to the work of Congress. The decision starts a one week clock for Trump's legal team to find a way to hold off the banks.
[04:40:05] They may have to hand over decades of extensive information about President Trump, his businesses and family members. Earlier this week a D.C. federal judge said former Trump accounting firm Mazers would have to comply with congressional subpoena. The president's attorneys have appealed that ruling.
ROMANS: Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says Vladimir Putin was more prepared than President Trump for their 2017 meeting in Germany. Tillerson telling House lawmakers in a secretive hours long meeting this week that it put the president and the U.S. diplomatic team at a disadvantage for the key sit-down. A source tells Tillerson that members of the Foreign Affairs Committee that he was guided by American values such as democracy and freedom but could not or would not say whether the same could be said for President Trump.
BRIGGS: Pentagon officials expected to brief President Trump's National Security team as soon as today on a plan that could send thousands of additional U.S. troops to the Middle East over those rising tensions with Iran. The officials emphasized no decision has been made and the troops may not be needed at all. Once the president's approval is needed for such a significant deployment, it's unclear if he'll authorize the action after criticizing past U.S. interventions overseas.
ROMANS: All right. Six migrant children have now died after crossing the southern border and the latest case being reported happened eight months ago. A 10-year-old girl died while in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement last September. Five other minor migrants have died since. A spokesman for Health and Human Services says the girl came to their San Antonio office in March 2018 with a history of congenital heart defects. Surgery complications left her in a coma and she died at a Nebraska children's hospital months later. When CNN asked HHS why her death was not announced, we were told notifying the media is not required by the department.
BRIGGS: An infant girl just a few months old has died after being left in a daycare van in Florida. Police responded to a call about an unresponsive baby at the Ewing's Love and Hope Preschool and Academy Wednesday afternoon and found the baby in a car seat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN KEE, JACKSONVILLE SHERIFF'S ASSISTANT CHIEF: 8:00 a.m. to about a little after 1:00 p.m. so almost five hours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Temperatures in the area reached as high as 92 degrees. Daryl Ewing, a co-owner of the daycare facility, was arrested for child neglect.
ROMANS: All right. A dog that jumped from the speeding RV, remember, during this wild chase, is on the road to recovery.
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[04:46:52] ROMANS: All right. A big blow to the world's largest maker of smartphone chips, a federal judge says Qualcomm has violated anti-trust laws by charging excessive fees to phone makers that license and use its technology. The judge wrote this, "Qualcomm's licensing practices have strangled competition for years and harmed rivals, including manufacturers and consumers in the process."
The company makes computers and modems for smartphones but it makes most of its money from licensing technology that allows phones to connect to cell phone towers. The judge ruled Qualcomm should not receive a percentage of sales of each phone a company sells and ordered it to renegotiate license terms with customers in good faith.
The ruling could drastically change how much phone makers pay for their smartphones to do basic things like making calls and connecting to the Internet. Qualcomm must also license its patents to rival chip makers. Qualcomm said it disagrees with the decision. Qualcomm will appeal.
BRIGGS: More legal trouble for lawyer Michael Avenatti. He's been charged with stealing $300,000 from his former client Stormy Daniels and using that cash to pay employees at his law firm and a coffee business he owned.
According to the indictment, Avenatti has not repaid Daniels about half the cash he allegedly stole. Avenatti told CNN he will be fully exonerated. He's facing charges in two other cases in New York and Los Angeles.
ROMANS: All right. The first U.S. born detainee in the war on terror walks out of prison a free man today. John Walker Lindh, also known as the American Taliban, he was captured in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. He has served 17 years of his 20-year sentence. His case is raising questions about radicalists reentering society. A small but growing number of Americans convicted on terror related charges, they're completing prison sentences in the coming years.
There are calls for investigation into Lindh's time in prison. Two U.S. government reports say he made pro-ISIS statements that could land him back in detention.
BRIGGS: Charges are pending against the driver in one of the craziest high speed police chases you'll ever see. Julie Ann Rainbird was behind the wheel of a stolen RV Tuesday night. She crashed into several cars during the chase. The half-hour pursuit ending when she lost control of the RV, crashed into another car and hit a tree. The driver of that white car suffered major injuries. Rainbird's injuries were minor. She was arrested and faces charges that include evading police and causing injury.
There is some good news here about the two dogs caught up in the high speed chase. One a Mastiff mix seen jumping out of the speeding RV. She suffered lacerations and soft tissue damage but is now in good hands.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. HUGHES SANDERS, VCA MCCLAVE ANIMAL HOSPITAL: She let us clean her paws, she let us place the bandage on her paw. You know, she is really a -- she's really a sweet dog.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Both dogs are now in the care of Animal Control. Officials are checking micro chips to see if they belong to Rainbird or someone else.
ROMANS: That was just wild, just wild.
All right. Wall Street's love affair with Tesla appears to be over. CNN Business has the details on how much Tesla stock has declined, next.
[04:50:02]
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BRIGGS: President Trump's golf habit has cost the American people some $102 million and counting. Remember this promise from then candidate Donald Trump in 2016?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to go play golf.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: Clearly not the case. According to a Huff Post analysis, U.S. taxpayers have picked up the tab for over $81 million in travel and security expenses for the president's two dozen visits to Florida and another $17 million for his 15 trips to New Jersey.
[04:55:05] To date, President Trump has spent more than twice as many days on the links as President Obama did in this point in their first terms. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump enjoyed day number 250 at one of his properties since becoming president.
ROMANS: Three more wealthy parents pleading guilty in the college admissions scandal. Gregory Abbott, his wife Marcia, along with Peter Sartorio, all went before a federal judge Wednesday. They admitted paying bribes to get better SAT and ACT scores for their children. As part of their plea agreements, prosecutors are recommending a year in prison for the Abbotts and zero to six months for Sartorio.
BRIGGS: Your diet may have a greater impact on your cancer risk than previously known. A new study finds in 2015 more than 80,000 new cancer cases among adults were linked to poor diets. That is equivalent to roughly 5.2 percent of all invasive cancer cases. Researchers evaluated dietary factors like a low intake of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and dairy products and a high intake of processed meats, red meats and sugary beverages.
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ALEX TREBEK, HOST, "JEOPARDY": You came up with the correct response and your wager, $28,571 bumping you up to $71, 885, giving you now a total of $1,939,027.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: "Jeopardy" juggernaut James Holzhauer inching closer to the $2 million mark, winning his 25th straight game at his daily average of more than $77,000. He would top two million bucks with just one more victory.
All right. Speaking of money, let's get a check on CNN Business this morning, taking a look at global stock markets right now, leaning lower around the world. On Wall Street, stocks retreated slightly yesterday. Look at that, they're down this morning as well. They retreated slightly Wednesday on declining oil prices and more wreckage in the retail world. The Dow fell 101 points, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq also lower on the day.
The energy sector was the biggest loser. U.S. oil prices dropped nearly 3 percent to just above $61 a barrel on a surprise increase in stockpiles. In retail, Lowe's declined 11 percent after slashing its outlook for the year. Higher costs weighed on its first quarter earnings.
Tesla once had faster sales growth than any other auto company. Now it's different story. The stock has plunged nearly 40 percent since the start of the year. The stock has erased most of the gains it's made over the past several years. Tesla recently posted its biggest drop in sales ever and it's facing more competition than ever before. It has also been forced to close stores and raise prices as it struggles to make money. Tesla will need to return to profitability soon before concerns about another cash crunch weigh on its stock even more.
Ford is experimenting with something different, a package carrying robot. Ford announced Tuesday it's testing a robot called digit to carry deliveries from its self-driving cars to customer's doorstep. Digit can climb steps, walk on uneven terrain. It can carry packages up to 40 pounds. Ford declined to say if or when it will launch a commercial delivery program with Digit.
It's interesting what the car companies are working on these days.
BRIGGS: Yes. Very cool.
All right, EARLY START continues right now the with latest damage out of Missouri.
ROMANS: Breaking overnight, a deadly tornado outbreak rattles Missouri. Three people are dead. Major damage in the capital of Jefferson City.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELOSI: The move that the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up.
TRUMP: I don't do cover-ups.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Federal government at a standstill, the president refusing to work with Democrats if they continue their investigations.
ROMANS: A baby girl in Florida has died after her daycare left her alone for hours in a sweltering van.
BRIGGS: And he joined the Taliban to fight the United States. Now John Walker Lindh is set to go free on American soil.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning.
ROMANS: It's nice to see you all this morning. It is Thursday, it is May 23rd. 5:00 a.m. exactly in the East. And breaking overnight, a tornado outbreak turning deadly in Missouri.
A tornado emergency for Missouri's capital Jefferson City. The National Weather Service confirms the city took a direct hit from a twister. All Jefferson City firefighter have been called into work on rescue operations. We just spoke to the city's mayor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERGIN: The biggest concern is that we are hoping that everybody's OK. Buildings and things can be replaced. We just are hoping that everybody is all right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The damage is extensive.
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