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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Border Wall Battle; Rudy Giuliani Versus Southern District Of New York; Obamacare Up In The Air Again; Big Spike In Teen Vaping; NBC Polls 62 Percent Think Trump Is Lying About Russia. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired December 17, 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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CHUCK SCHUMER, SENATE MINORITY LEADER: We're going to do whatever is necessary to build a border wall. He is not going to get the wall in any form.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: Five days until the government shutdown. No closer to the deal on the border wall. Now questions about whether Republicans will even show up for a vote.
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RUDY GUILIANI, ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: $130,000 to Stormy whatever and $100,000 to the other one is not a crime.
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DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: Michael Cohen may disagree. Rudy Giuliani at odds with prosecutors. Now, where the Russia probe may be hampered by big tech.
ROMANS: Healthcare once again in limbo for millions of Obamacare users. A Texas judge scraps the entire law. But will his ruling stabbed stand up on appeal?
BRIGGS: And the big spike in the number of teen vaping nationwide. Even as alcohol and other drug used declines. Interesting numbers we have for you this morning. Hope you had a great weekend everybody. Good morning. Welcome to "Early Start." I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, December 17th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. It is now less than five days until the partial government shutdown unless President Trump and Congress can reach a deal on funding for his border wall. Now, the White House is demanding $5 billion for the wall. Which remember, Mexico was going to pay for it? Congressional Democrats rejecting that request. The White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, taking a hard line on "Face the Nation," echoing the president's demand.
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STEPHEN MILLER, SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: We will do whatever is necessary to build the border wall, to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration. This is a very -- if it comes to it, absolutely. This is a fundamental issue. At stake is a question of whether or not the United States remains a sovereign country. Whether or not we can establish and enforce rules for entrance into our country.
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BRIGGS: But "The New York Times" reports that House Republicans leaders have a more immediate problem. Members, who are retiring or defeated in November, just don't want to show up to vote any longer. Many have been skipping votes since the midterms and GOP leaders are unsure if they will ever return. Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, says the president just don't have the votes to get the wall.
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SCHUMER: President Trump should understand there are not the votes for the wall. In the House or the Senate, he is not going to get the wall in any form.
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ROMANS: If a partial shutdown happens at the end of the week, the consequences could ripple across the U.S. economy, but of course, nothing concentrates minds in Washington like a holiday. The President is scheduled to leave this week for his Christmas vacation in Florida.
BRIGGS: A damning new report this week, claiming Silicon Valley may have done the bare minimum to help the Senate Russia investigation. The Intelligence Committee commissioned a report from an online intel firm. The report claims social media companies could have done a better job providing data about Russian accounts that posed as Americans. "The Washington Post" has obtained a separate report prepared for the Intel Committee. It finds the Russians used every major social media platform to influence voters to elect President Trump and work even harder to support him once in office.
ROMANS: Yes, in the election and then after. President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani says his client may have been involved in conversations about Trump tower Moscow significantly later than previously known. The President's former personal attorney Michael Cohen had claimed those talks ended in January of 2016, before the primaries. And when Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the project, he said those talks lasted through June. Now Giuliani said the talks could have gone on even longer through the whole campaign.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Donald Trump know that Michael Cohen was pursuing the Trump tower Moscow into the summer of 2016? GUILIANI: According to the answer that he gave, it would have covered
all the way up to November of 2016. He said he had conversations with him.
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BRIGGS: CNN reported last week, the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller, is still interested in interviewing the President in person, but Giuliani is having none of it.
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GUILIANI: Good luck. Good luck. After what they did to Flynn and the way they trapped him into perjury and no sentence for him? 14 days for Papadopoulos, I did better on traffic violations than I did with Papadopoulos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, when you say, good luck, no interview.
GUILIANI: They were joke. Over my dead body, but you know, I could be dead.
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BRIGGS: So there is that. For more, here is Boris Sanchez, very much alive at the White House.
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, Rudy Giuliani in clean up this weekend after Michael Cohen was sentence to three years in prison and made some negative comments about the President in public. Giuliani, effectively trying to discredit Michael Cohen and put distance between the president's former fixer and the White House.
[04:05:02] Giuliani insisting that the payments that were made to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal were not campaign contributions.
GUILIANI: It is not a crime. It is not a crime, George. Paying $130,000 to Stormy whatever and paying $100,000 to the other one is not a crime. If there is not a purpose, it is no longer a campaign contribution. It is a personal purpose. Now think about this, supposed he tried to use his campaign funds to pay off Stormy Daniels that would be totally illegal, if it is not a campaign expense, it can't be campaign contributions.
SANCHEZ: Though, in the Southern District of New York, Michael Cohen pleads guilty to campaign finance violations for those specific payments. And so there is what Rudy Giuliani is saying and there is what is actually happening in court. We should point out, we may not have heard the last of Michael Cohen. Representative Elijah Cummings, the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee has said that he would like to invite Michael Cohen back to Capitol Hill to testify once more, Dave and Christine.
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ROMANS: All right, Boris, thank you for that. A new poll finds most Americans believe President Trump is lying about the Russia investigation. In the NBC Wall Street Journal poll, 62 percent now think that the President is not being honest about Russia, up six points from August.
And a new CNN good morning register poll has mixed news for the President, from the first in the nation caucus state. 2/3 of Iowa Republican voters say they would definitely vote to reelect Mr. Trump if the general election were held today. But the caucus is to pick the 2020 general election candidate. Only 2.3 of Republican say the state party should welcome challengers to the President.
BRIGGS: The future of Obamacare once again up in the air, a Federal Judge in Texas, striking down the entire Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional. You may remember back in 2012, the Supreme Court did uphold the law that claiming the individual mandate at its core was a legal tax. But last year, Congress reduced that tax to zero and the judge's now decided zero tax means, zero individual mandates. The argument without it, the whole law falls.
ROMANS: The affordable care act provides cover for people with pre- existing conditions. It let's states expand Medicaid for low income adults and allows young people to stay on their parent's policies until the age of 26. These are really popular parts of Obamacare. President Trump declared that the decision is a great ruling for our country, but even some Republicans are not sold. Maine Senator Susan Collins believes the ruling will be overturned on appeal.
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SEN SUSAN COLLINS, (D) MAINE: There's no reason why the individual mandate provision can't be struck down and keep all of the good provisions of the affordable care act.
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BRIGGS: A group of states led by California vowing to appeal the decision and another Judge considering a case brought by Maryland defending Obamacare. So we may get dueling rulings here. The Texas judge's decision is not immediately affect coverage enrollment for 2019 ended Saturday.
ROMANS: Interesting to see if this development change will impact enrollment numbers.
All right, President Trump's incoming acting Chief of Staff has not had kind words for his boss in the past. This is what Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said about Mr. Trump during the campaign debate in 2016.
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MICK MULVANEY, BUDGET DIRECTOR: I think he is a terrible human being, but the choice on the other side is just as bad.
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ROMANS: On Friday, President Trump tapped Mick Mulvaney to replace John Kelly on an acting basis at the end of the year. Spokeswoman at OMB, Office of Management Budget calls a Mulvaney's criticism at Mr. Trump in 2016 old news and claims he likes and respects the President now. The Herald newspaper South Carolina did report Mulvaney debate remarks at the time they were made. And look, to be fair, a lot of mainstream Republicans were critical of the President along the way. I mean, he sort of had a hostile takeover of the Republican Party. Now they are working with the guy who was at the helm.
BRIGGS: Well, he even both predecessors in that Chief of Staff or reportedly called him - reportedly called him, an idiot. So, anyway, President Trump expected to name new Interior Secretary this week, after announcing Ryan Zinke is out at the end of the month. Zinke faces multiple ethics investigations. Including allegations he used his office for personal gain. He calls those claims false. "The Washington Post" reports the White House had been pushing Zinke to resign for weeks. And that he was told, he had until the end of the year to leave or he would be fired. Possible contenders to replace Zinke, include Deputy interior secretary David (inaudible) and Nevada Republican Senator, Dean Heller who lost his re-election bid.
ROMANS: The president says he is reviewing the case of army Major Matt Goldsteyn, he is a green beret charged in the 2010 killing of a suspected bomb maker in Afghanistan. The incident came during a polygraph test for 2011 CIA job interview.
BRIGGS: According to "The Washington Post," Goldsteyn admitted the killing the bomb maker. His lawyers said he did it during a mission order by superiors.
[04:10:02] The president's tweet could complicate even derail military prosecution of Goldsteyn. Commanders in Chief do not usually weigh in on active cases to avoid undue influence.
ROMANS: It is a really complicated -- complicated situation. All right, volatility is the new normal on Wall Street, trade war, a fight over government spending, Brexit chaos all making for wild swings in the stock market. The DOW is up 497 points 5 that's 2 percent. The S&P declined 1.9 percent, falling to the lowest levels since early April. The NASDAQ fell 2.3 percent. A couple of reasons for the sell off a batch of negative corporate and economic developments, especially growth numbers out of China and Europe.
The Nikkei close down 2 percent, the Shanghai composite climb 1.5 percent, the Hang Seng also down. European markets closed lower as well, news on the U.S. China trade fight did not have a positive effect on the market. Wall Street unfazed by President Trump hitting and imminent, hinting an imminent breakthrough with China. The president tweets about a very big and very comprehensive deal that China could happen rather soon. This week, the focus shifts to the Federal Reserve, the central bank wildly expected to raise interest rates on Wednesday.
BRINKLEY: All right, ahead Theresa May not too happy with one of her predecessors, Tony Blair jointly calls for a second Brexit vote. We are live in London ahead.
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BRIGGS: When Theresa May stands before the House of Commons this afternoon, she is expected to speak out against the possibility of a second Brexit referendum. The British Prime Minister arguing, it would irreparably harm the integrity of the U.K. political system. Former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, not buying it. He's backing a second Brexit vote and publicly calling on May to do the same. Erin McLaughlin, live in London for us this morning. Erin, good morning to you. She is in a corner once again.
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I tried and it was a bruising week last week for Prime Minister Theresa May and she expected to come out today swinging against the growing calls for that second Brexit referendum from Tony Blair, the former U.K. Prime Minister. Other prime ministers speaking out in favor that option as well. Gordon Brown, for example, even the media reports of numbers of her own cabinet, her deputies, and her Chief of Staff planning for that eventuality, although those reports have been denied. Theresa May today is expected to argue against it saying that it's undemocratic and divisive, but the fact of the matter is her Brexit deal looks unlikely to get past Westminster and if that happens, the options for Theresa May are limited. There is the option of the no deal Brexit, seen as economically catastrophic for both sides of the channel, both the E.U. and the U.K.
In fact, some projections show that if that happens, the U.K. economy to go into recession, the GDP dipping by some 7 percent. The other option then is another referendum and that is why we are seeing just a momentum going here for that possibility.
BRIGGS: Oh, what a mess and she was even skewered on Saturday Night Live of all things that we can be. Erin McLaughlin, live for us. Thanks.
ROMANS: All right. Starting to separate an archaeological sites of Cairo private tomb, belonging to a royal purification priest name, Wahtye. Roughly 4400 years ago the tomb's walls are remarkably well preserved. There are decorated with colorful scenes of the priest and his family and there are hieroglyphs and other drawings depicting things like wine and pottery making, musical performances, sailing and hunting. The tomb also contains five burial shafts which had not been excavated yet, but certainly an exciting find there south of Cairo.
BRIGGS: Very cool. All right ahead, the father of a girl who died in U.S. custody after crossing the border illegally says, border agents did all they could to help, but he says part of their story is not true.
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ROMANS: A Congressional delegation heads to Lordsburg, New Mexico tomorrow. The group is getting a firsthand look at the customs and border patrol facility where a seven-year-old Guatemalan migrant was taken before she became sick and died this month, the father of Jakelin Caal says he has no complaints about the treatment of his daughter by CDP. The father is disputing a Homeland Security Officials claimed his daughter had gone days without food and water. He says she was properly fed on their journey.
BRIGGS: A new report shows vaping among America's teens continues to climb, all uses of other substances like alcohol and opioids has declined. In recent years, report released Monday called monitoring the future. It comes from the University of Michigan Institute for social research and says vaping was the second most common substance use in 2018. Those numbers up sharply from last year, the director of the National Institute on drug abuse, which followed the reports as vigilance is needed, because raping could lead teens to other drugs.
ROMANS: Expressions of love and support pouring in for Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davidson. New York City police even conducted a wellness check on the comedian after he posted this alarming note on Instagram Saturday. I really don't want to be on this earth anymore. He said in that note. The entire Instagram account was later deleted.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once again, Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERS)
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BRIGGS: A lot of relief for friends when Davidson made a brief appearance laid on SNL this weekend. It's been a rough year for the 25-year-old. He only went through that painful breakup with Arianna Grande in October and I do apologize last month for mocking the appearance of Texas congressional candidate Dan Crenshaw, who lost his eye serving in Afghanistan.
ROMANS: I imagine if he live a world where Donald Trump is not president. SNL tried with that take up of the classic, it's a wonderful life.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone looks so different. Look at those things on their faces.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those are called smiles.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brett Kavanaugh, how is the Supreme Court?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Me on the Supreme Court? With my temperament? Are you insane?
(LAUGHTER) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They went with that nerd Merrick Garland, but on
the plus side, when I tell people I like beer, they find it charming and not like I am threatening violence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess the world does need me to be president after all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that was not the lesson at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to be President again. I want to be President again.
[04:25:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Listen, Donald, every time a bell rings, someone you know quits or goes to jail.
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ROMANS: The next morning, the real President lumped SNL with news shows and criticizes what he called this one sided coverage and he suggested without any basis that it was defamation. I think he was hosting, I mean he has been on the show.
BRIGGS: Just laugh it off. All right. It took 15 weeks, but the defending Super Bowl champs finally looked like just that. Led once again by their backup quarterback Nick Foles, the Eagles took a 30-13 lead in the third quarter on the strength of three rushing touchdowns. With Philly had to survive late, a (inaudible) breaking up the potential game-tying pass, the time expires. Eagles, still alive for the playoffs at seven and seventh. Their Pittsburgh counterparts though they turned in the other Sunday shocker in the NFL. The Steelers limited Tom Brady and the Patriots to just 10 points in the 17 offset. Surprising Pittsburg lost at Oakland last year. There's your team photo. Always the celebrations is the new thing.
ROMANS: All right. Will the government shutdown over Christmas? Two sides no closer to the border wall deal, just days to the deadline.
BRIGGS: And Obamacare remains in place for now, but could a judge's ruling force millions to change plans in coming years?
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