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House Democrats Hitting White House With Oversight; Boeing Acknowledges Software's Role In Crashes; Bezos Divorce Finalized; Person Found In Kentucky Is Not Timmothy Pitzen. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired April 05, 2019 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:58] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: House Democrats versus the White House. Neither willing to compromise on how much to reveal of the Mueller report or the president's taxes.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, breaking overnight, not one, but two major software flaws in the Boeing 737. Boeing's CEO says the company owns the responsibility to fix these issues.
ROMANS: And, MacKenzie Bezos is now the world's fourth-richest woman. What she got and what she gave up in the divorce from the Amazon founder.
The fourth-richest woman in the world and he, after giving her $35 billion, is still the richest man in the world.
SANCHEZ: And he got to keep more than half --
ROMANS: That's right.
SANCHEZ: -- which we still can't understand.
ROMANS: Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
SANCHEZ: And I'm Boris Sanchez in for Dave Briggs. We are 31 minutes past the hour.
And we start in Washington. The White House and House Democrats gearing up to fight on two fronts, the Mueller report and President Trump's tax returns.
First, on Mueller, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler demanding communications between the Justice Department and Robert Mueller's office about the special counsel's report.
ROMANS: Nadler wants to clear up reported discrepancies between two different summaries of the 400-page report, Attorney General Bill Barr's 4-page summary, and the still-secret summaries actually written by Mueller's team.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Yes, and I think it's inevitable that Mr. Mueller is going to testify at some point, but the first thing we need is -- well, the -- is the release of the report and the documents.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think it's inevitable that Mueller is going to come before your committee?
NADLER: At some point, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Sources tell us several of Mueller's investigators are frustrated with the way Barr summarized the special counsel's findings, in particular on obstruction of justice.
The DOJ is defending the attorney general's handling of the report. The Justice Department saying every page of the report was marked as possibly containing information that should not be publicly released.
ROMANS: The president, who had encouraged the release of the report, now changing his tune, tweeting, "This is the highest level of presidential harassment in the history of our country!"
Meantime, the White House is threatening to block Democrats' demand for the president's tax returns. The president is suggesting the Justice Department could become involved.
More now from White House correspondent Abby Phillip.
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ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Boris, President Trump is now facing the full brunt of this new reality in Washington as Democrats who now control the House of Representatives are using their oversight power to ask for a number of things, one of them being the full Mueller report to be released to the public and to the relevant committees, and also now, the president's tax returns.
They are asking for six years of tax returns, personal and from his businesses. And the president is responding to all of that by essentially dismissing it, saying that he's not inclined to allow them to have access to those returns.
The problem for President Trump may be that this request was not made to him personally but, rather, was made to the IRS using an obscure part of the U.S. code that allows select committees on Capitol Hill to gain access to certain people's tax returns.
Now, it's clear that the White House and the president's allies on Capitol Hill are going to be pushing back on both of these requests.
REPORTER: Are you asking the commissioner of the IRS not to disclose to the House Ways and Means Committee your tax returns?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They'll speak to my lawyers, they'll speak to the attorney general.
PHILLIP: It's not clear what exactly he meant by that and what role he believes Bill Barr will have in this. But either way, the White House continues to insist that President Trump is still under audit and that those tax returns won't be released until those audits are completed -- Christine and Boris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Abby. Thank you for that.
SANCHEZ: And joining us now from Washington, "Politico" congressional reporter Melanie Zanona on her maiden voyage with the USS EARLY START. Melanie, thank you so much for getting up early and joining us.
MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Yes, thanks for having me.
ROMANS: It's only a 2-hour tour. Not a 3-hour tour --
SANCHEZ: Yes.
ZANONA: Yes.
ROMANS: -- but, yes.
SANCHEZ: We have to ask you about what the president said regarding his tax returns. House Democrats here flexing their muscles, trying to get six years' worth of the president's tax records. But the president here responded by saying they'll have to talk to the attorney general.
Do they have to talk to the attorney general or is this a separate process that they can get around DOJ to get this information that everybody's been waiting for for years?
[05:35:00] ZANONA: Right. So they are trying to use this little- known law in the tax code that says Democrats can ask for these tax returns. But they have quietly been preparing for this for weeks. They wanted to make sure that the request was absolutely legally sound and that is was completely airtight.
You'll notice they also ended up asking for only six years of returns as opposed to 10, which is something we have been hearing about. They think that they have a little bit more legal footing in that space by only asking for six years.
But look, I think the bottom line here, it's important to note Democrats are getting their groove back after what was like a really disappointing conclusion to the Russia report. They're trying to pick up the pieces and we've seen this sort of two-pronged approach. They're releasing -- they're trying to get the release of the tax returns and trying to get the release of the Mueller report.
ROMANS: And getting their groove back. The president calls it presidential harassment, so a very different view there. You know, the president heading to the border today after what has been a very confusing 24 hours of policy about what the president really wants to do about closing the border. Here's what he said first yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to give them a 1-year warning and if the drugs don't stop or largely stop, we're going to put tariffs on Mexico and products -- in particular, cars. And if that doesn't stop the drugs, we close the border.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: You know, obviously, he'd been hearing from his advisers who were telling him closing the border was a very bad idea. And then, he said this about that tariff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't think we'll ever have to close the border because the penalty of tariffs on cars coming into the United States from Mexico at 25 percent will be massive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: But he -- but he negotiated a big, beautiful trade deal between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico that would exempt Mexico from tariffs if you have this new NAFTA.
Is he making policy kind of in reverse here or just -- what's happening?
ZANONA: I think this is classic Trump. He tends to throw things at the wall and see what's going to stick.
It's no surprise Trump is not a real policy guy. He's much more about ideas. He likes to workshop things around to his closest aides and advisers, whether it's who he's going to nominate or what policy he's going to pursue next.
But I do think he is really struggling with how to move forward with this new divided Congress in Washington that we've seen. So he is just trying everything he can to get through what he wants ahead of 2020, especially on the border that has been a source of frustration for him, so he's gone back and forth.
But this isn't the first time we've seen a little bit of whiplash. Just this week he reversed on health care -- something else. He said the GOP was going to be the party of health care. Now, he says we're not going to see a vote on that until after the 2020 election.
So I think he throws up these trial balloons --
ROMANS: Yes.
ZANONA: -- and then waits to see what's going to be popular.
ROMANS: But, tariffs on cars for illegal immigration and drugs, it's like, what?
SANCHEZ: Yes, yes. Some see this as chaos, others suggest that this is a good negotiating tactic. That he keeps people on their toes. You never know what he's going to do.
I'm curious -- when you talk to people in Congress, how are they responding to these sort of back-and-forths by President Trump?
ZANONA: Well, Republicans really privately are frustrated, especially when it comes to things like trade and the economy where they say this is Trump's strongest spot. This is where he's going to win back the 2020 election in their minds. So they get very nervous when he starts messing around with that.
And something like closing the border could really threaten the economy. It could really have a huge impact on trade.
Also, he's still trying to get that rework of NAFTA that you mentioned --
ROMANS: Yes.
ZANONA: -- through Congress. It has not been for a vote yet so there is a lot at stake here.
ROMANS: Yes. I mean, very unpopular, closing the border for farmers in the Midwest who already have really been hurt by retaliatory tariffs from China. Their goods go to Mexico --
SANCHEZ: Right.
ROMANS: -- so that's a real problem.
All right. Melanie Zanona, congressional reporter from "Politico." Thank you for joining us this Friday morning.
SANCHEZ: Thank you so much.
ZANONA: Thank you for having me.
ROMANS: Have a great rest of your day.
ZANONA: You, too.
SANCHEZ: Breaking overnight, Boeing acknowledging a second software issue in the 737 MAX flight control system. The new issue separate from the anti-stall system under investigation in two recent crashes.
Boeing tells "The Washington Post" the new problem involves software that affects flaps and other hardware. Boeing calls the issue relatively minor. Its discovery delayed a planned software update scheduled for last week. ROMANS: All of this coming a day after the release of the preliminary report on the Ethiopian Airlines crash obtained first by CNN. It left families devastated.
Here's the mother of American victim Samya Stumo. The family now suing Boeing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NADIA MILLERON, MOTHER OF CRASH VICTIM: Obviously, this could have been prevented and that's what makes me cry because all of these people -- it's not just Samya. One family lost their whole family -- grandparents, parents, children. Another guy lost his wife and his 1- year-old child. I mean, this is just repeated 157 times and we've met so many of these families and this could have all been prevented.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Boeing's CEO acknowledged the company has a major issue to fix.
[05:40:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS MUILENBURG, CEO, BOEING: It's apparent that in both flights the maneuvering characteristics augmentation system, known as MCAS, activated in response to erroneous angle of attack information. It's our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it and we know how to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And the back-to-back disasters raising questions of whether years of looser oversight at the FAA was a factor here.
CNN's Tom Foreman has more.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The report says the trouble starts right after takeoff with airspeed and altitude readings from the left side of the 737 MAX 8 that don't match the readings from the right side, and two sensors on the front disagreeing about the angle of the aircraft's nose. A sensor on the right shows steady readings around 15 degrees, but the one on the left swings wildly from 11 to nearly 75 degrees steep, as if the plane is rocketing upward.
ALASTAIR ROSENSCHEIN, AVIATION CONSULTANT: What stands out and is significant is the difference in angle attack indication between the left-hand side and the right-hand side of the aircraft. There was a 60-degree difference. And this feeds directly into the MCAS computer system -- the system which forces the nose down in the event of a perceived stall. This is the same as the Lion Air accident.
FOREMAN: The report does name MCAS, but Boeing has now acknowledged it was involved. The captain asked the first officer to pitch up together, to pull back on their controls simultaneously. It does not work. Instead, the flight data recorder shows the plane diving -- in all, four times without pilots' input. An impact warning sounds in the cockpit -- "Don't sink, don't sink."
The report says the cockpit crew even figures out what is wrong and disables the MCAS system. Then, the captain asks his first officer about a key part of the plane needed to regain control -- the trim. The reply, "It is not working."
FOREMAN (on camera): Still, only a couple of years ago, Boeing was talking about how much it appreciated the government's new streamlined approach to regulation, particularly in regard to the MAX line of planes. And now, these planes are surrounded by investigations into how they were developed, how they were tested, how they were certified, and whether people should ever really trust them again.
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SANCHEZ: And, Tom Foreman, thank you for that.
The legendary head fencing coach at Harvard is under investigation for transactions involving the family of a current and former student- athlete. Officials at the university are focusing on Peter Brand's real estate and nonprofit deals.
According to "The Boston Globe," a wealthy Maryland businessman purchased Brand's home for $989,000 when it was valued at just over half that amount. That businessman's son was eventually accepted at Harvard.
The school says it became aware of allegations against the coach Monday and that all applications for student-athletes are reviewed thoroughly.
ROMANS: All right.
The young man found wandering in Kentucky is not a teen missing for nearly eight years, and his family is devastated.
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[05:47:22] ROMANS: All right, it's Friday. Let's get a check on "CNN Business" to end this week.
President Trump confident the U.S. and the Chinese are close to finalizing a deal to end their year-long trade war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This is the -- this is the granddaddy of them all and we'll see if it happens. It's got a very, very good chance of happening. I think that it will be great for both countries.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: All right. He acknowledged, though, compliance is a sticking point here. But you heard him there. He sounded optimistic that a deal could happen in weeks.
With the S&P 500 up almost 15 percent this year and just two percent from record highs, there's a lot at stake here. A) If it doesn't happen or b) it happens but the deal is hollow.
The president declined to confirm reports he would hold a summit with the Chinese president Xi Jinping later this month, instead stressing if there's a deal -- if there's no deal, a summit with Xi is off. So watch this space.
Also new this morning, President Xi calling for negotiations on the trade agreement to wrap up as early as possible. In a message delivered by the vice premier to President Trump, President Xi said trade negotiators had, quote, "achieved new substantive progress on a deal." His comments were a rare note of optimism from the Chinese side over these ongoing negotiations.
Global stock markets mostly higher here amid optimism the U.S. and China may end their year-long war.
On Wall Street, looking at futures there, futures are pointing a little bit higher. We've got a March jobs report coming up in just under three hours.
Markets closed mostly higher Thursday. The Dow ended the day up 160 points. The S&P rose a little bit. The Nasdaq fell slightly.
Again, the big event this morning, that March jobs report, 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. The big question for me here, which version of the labor market is closer to reality -- January, 311,000 net new jobs or February, just 20,000? Economists expect it's somewhere in the middle.
SANCHEZ: The divorce has been finalized between Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie. The agreement makes her one of the richest women in the world.
On Thursday, she tweeted she would be keeping 25 percent of the couple's Amazon stock, giving her a four percent stake in the company. Based on Amazon's current market value, that stock is worth about $35 billion.
Jeff Bezos retains voting control over all of her shares and will also maintain his interest in "The Washington Post" and Blue Origin, a private space company.
ROMANS: And, Jeff and MacKenzie both tweeted they're looking forward to the future. It sounds pretty amicable here.
The couple first announced plans to separate in January, ending a 25- year marriage, and that separation quickly morphed into a media frenzy with reporting on Bezos's infidelity. He published a tell-all blog post accusing "The National Enquirer" of trying to blackmail him. His net worth estimated at $150 billion.
[05:50:00] And the $35 billion settlement for MacKenzie Bezos makes her the fourth-richest woman on the planet behind heiresses Francoise Bettencourt Meyers -- that's the L'Oreal fortune; Alice Walton -- that's the Walmart fortune; and, Jacqueline Mars. That's the candy fortune.
SANCHEZ: Hopes raised and then shattered for the family of Timmothy Pitzen. DNA tests reveal the person who told police that he had escaped kidnappers and claimed to be Pitzen is not. The news another blow for the family of the boy who vanished in 2011 at age six.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARA JACOBS, TIMMOTHY PITZEN'S AUNT: It's devastating.
ALANA ANDERSON, TIMMOTHY PITZEN'S GRANDMOTHER: Yes.
JACOBS: It's like reliving that day all over again. And, Timmothy's father is devastated, once again.
ANDERSON: He's a wonderful little boy and I hope he has --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
ANDERSON: -- the strength or personality to do whatever he needs to do to find us. My prayer has always been that when he was old enough he would find us if we couldn't find him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The police say the young man found in Kentucky is actually 23-year-old Brian Michael Rini from Medina, Ohio. He has a criminal history, including prison time for burglary.
His brother says Brian has mental issues and that this is not the first time he has assumed a false identity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JONATHAN RINI, BROTHER OF BRIAN RINI: He's been doing stupid stuff -- not this serious, but he's been doing stupid stuff for as long as I can remember. He used my name in a traffic stop in Norton and then skipped court, and I received a traffic warrant for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Timmothy Pitzen's family has searched for him ever since his mother's reported suicide on a road trip with him. She left behind a note saying her son was with people who love him and that, quote, "You'll never find him."
Stay with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:56:18] SANCHEZ: Storms are moving up the East Coast just in time for the weekend and parts of New England could even see snow.
Derek Van Dam has your forecast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good Friday morning, Christine and Boris.
We have quite the wet start to our early weekend along the East Coast today, so grab your raincoat and your umbrella heading out the door this morning because a storm system is going to bring in ample amount of moisture.
You can see it on our high-res forecast radar imagery -- Atlanta, Raleigh, D.C., New York, all the way to Boston. Even some high elevation snowfall expected for Upstate New York, New Hampshire, into the Maine region as well.
Now, look at western Texas. The potential exists for some severe storms today -- large hail, damaging winds, isolated tornadoes. Basically, Wichita Falls down to the border near Mexico.
But by Saturday, that area expands. We're looking for the potential for a large severe weather outbreak in terms of geographical size, anywhere from Little Rock all the way to Corpus Christie, including Houston. Again, that's for Saturday afternoon.
Temperatures today, 44 in the Big Apple, 74 for Atlanta, 57 in Detroit. The next seven days calls for a mild weekend into the Big Apple. Look at Tuesday, 70 degrees.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: All right, Derek Van Dam. Thank you.
Racist remarks and forcing injured players to play reportedly behind the University of North Carolina's decision to bench its Hall of Fame women's basketball coach.
"The Washington Post" reports that parents are saying that Sylvia Hatchell told players they would be, quote, "hanged from trees with nooses" if their performance didn't improve.
Parents also say that she tried to force players to compete with serious injuries. One player saying that she learned later that she had torn a tendon in her knee; another saying that Hatcher made her doubt that she'd suffered a concussion.
The coach and her staff are on paid leave right now as UNC investigates. Hatchell's attorney tells the "Post" that the coach's comments were being misconstrued. ROMANS: All right. A milestone for women in television. For the first time ever, all three network morning programs have female executive producers.
CBS naming Diana Miller to the new -- the new E.P. of CBS this morning on Thursday. Roxanna Sherwood became the executive producer of ABC's "GOOD MORNING AMERICA" in July 2017. And, Libby Leist became the executive producer of NBC's "TODAY SHOW" in February of last year.
The gender dynamics of morning T.V. have gained a lot of attention in recent years with the downfall of Charlie Rose at CBS and Matt Lauer at NBC.
SANCHEZ: Women in positions of power, exactly where they should be.
ROMANS: All right, thanks. Hey, you can come back. Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
SANCHEZ: And I'm Boris Sanchez. Great to see you. "NEW DAY" starts right now.
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RAJU: Jerry Nadler sent a letter demanding all communications between the Mueller team and the Justice Department.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're very concerned. We've only seen one 4-page summary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had 23 months of jumping to wrong conclusions. Let him do his job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boeing is admitting its software played a role in the Ethiopian crash.
MUILENBURG: It's our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it and we know how to do it.
MILLERON: This is not an accident. This is something that should have been prevented.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this is where it gets interesting. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Friday, April fifth, 6:00 here in New York.
And the major headlines this morning, the president is not closing the border with Mexico, he is not proposing a new health care plan, and his father is not from Germany. So maybe you remember a time when those wouldn't be such glaring revelations but within the last few days, the president has said the exact opposite on all those things and more. So in the midst of the flipping and fibbing, there is some fighting. So we have the three F's of the apocalypse, as it were.
END
