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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Calls for Sweeping Changes to Asylum System; Trump Sues Deutsche Bank and Capital One; Biden Brings Campaign to Iowa; Army Veteran Plotted Terror Attack; Hundreds Turn Out to Mourn Poway Synagogue Shooting Victim; ISIS Leader May Have Reappeared in New Video. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired April 30, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:19] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Another dig at migrants from the Trump administration. A new proposal to put up more roadblocks for asylum seekers.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Joe Biden makes his first campaign trips to Iowa today. The president repeatedly going after him. Despite warnings from the president's advisers to be quiet.
BRIGGS: A murder mystery in Iowa, a driver shot in the neck as she drives home. A manhunt for the shooter now underway.
ROMANS: And grab the Kleenex, a man who got a heart transplant randomly meets the family of the man who saved him at a baseball game.
Remarkable. Good morning, and welcome to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning. Good morning, everyone, I'm Dave Briggs. Tuesday, April 30th, 4:00 a.m. in the East, 2:00 a.m. in Denver where my Nuggets got a win, if you're wondering.
ROMANS: OK.
BRIGGS: In the NBA Playoffs. We start, however, with the ongoing immigration battle in this country. President Trump taking direct aim at migrants seeking asylum in the United States in a new plan to overhaul the nation's immigration system. In a memo to the attorney general and the Homeland Security secretary, the president calls for all asylum applications to be adjudicated within 180 days of filing.
Right now they typically take years because of a growing backlog. The president also wants a fee imposed for all work permit and asylum applications. And he wants migrants barred from receiving work authorization if they have entered or attempted to enter the U.S. illegally.
ROMANS: Mr. Trump has been stepping up his anti-immigration rhetoric, accusing migrants of taking advantage of legal loopholes. Even though DHS reports a 2,000 percent increase in migrants claiming credible fear the first step in the asylum process over the last five years.
BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The asylum program is a scam. Some of the roughest people you've ever seen. People that look like they should be fighting for the UFC. They're all met by the lawyers and they say, "Say the following phrase. I am very afraid for my life. I am afraid for my life."
OK, and then I look at the guy. He looks like he just got out of the ring. He's the heavyweight champion of the world. He's afraid for his --
It's a big fat con job, folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The president's asylum reform memo calls on the DOJ and the DHS to take action within 90 days.
BRIGGS: President Trump taking his stonewalling tactics to new heights. The Trump Organization and the president's family suing Deutsche Bank and Capital One to block congressional subpoenas. Deutsche Bank has loaned Mr. Trump more than $360 million in recent years. The filing claims subpoenas are being issued just to, quote, "harass the president."
Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters, chairs of the House Intelligence and Financial Services Committees, condemned the suit in a joint statement. They call it a legal ploy to put off meaningful accountability as long as possible.
The suit is similar to one Mr. Trump filed earlier this month against his own accounting firm Mazars USA to stop it from complying with a subpoena for financial documents.
ROMANS: All right. To 2020 now, Joe Biden brings his newly-launched campaign to Iowa today. The former vice president kicking things off at a rally in Pittsburgh on Monday where he called for a $15 minimum wage and a public option for Medicare to bring down health care costs. Biden says Democrats need to worry less about the president and look inward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Everybody knows who Donald Trump is and I believe -- I believe and hope they know who we are. We have to let them know who we are. Quite frankly, folks, if I'm going to be able to beat Donald Trump in 2020 it's going to happen here. It's going to happen here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: And the president responding with a Twitter tirade branding Biden again "Sleepy Joe" while touting the economy under his administration. CNN has learned Mr. Trump's advisers are urging him not to get drawn into a one-on-one verbal battle with Biden or any of the top candidates. They fear that could elevate his rivals, giving them oxygen to rise up. With 20 Democrats seeking the nomination, it was only a matter time before the party infighting started.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I helped lead the fight against NAFTA, he voted for NAFTA. I helped lead the fight against PNCR with China. He voted for it. I strongly opposed the Transpacific Partnership. He supported it. I voted against the war in Iraq. He voted for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Beto O'Rourke is looking to regain his footing in the crowded Democratic field. He's been criticized for lacking policies. So he just rolled one out, the first one, on climate change.
[04:05:01] It calls for a $5 trillion investment and net zero emissions by the year 2050.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The climate change that we're seeing here in the Central Valley that makes the water difficult to drink, the air difficult to breathe. We're talking about $5 trillion invested in infrastructure, in innovation, in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by climate change. This is by far the most ambitious plan to confront climate change that we have ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: And what's next for rising Democratic star Stacey Abrams of Georgia? She has decided against running for the Senate in 2020 and plans to focus on her voting rights project, and has not decided whether to seek any other office.
ROMANS: All right. A 26-year-old Army veteran charged with plotting a terror attack in the Los Angeles area. According to the Justice Department, Mark Domingo was radicalized online and seeking retribution for last month's deadly mosque attacks in New Zealand.
CNN's Jessica Schneider has more.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, this 26-year-old former Army soldier who served in Afghanistan for four months has allegedly been plotting an attack since early March.
Authorities say Mark Steven Domingo began posting his support for violent Jihad online and then, for the past two months, repeatedly met with an FBI informant before ultimately staking out a spot in Long Beach, California, where he planned to detonate a homemade bomb on Sunday.
But authorities were tracking him the entire time and agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force, they arrested Domingo on Friday after the FBI informant he had been talking with handed over the bomb materials to Domingo. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK HANNA, U.S. ATTORNEY: This is a case in which law enforcement was able to identify a man consumed with hate and bent on mass murder, and stop him before he could carry out his attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHNEIDER: Now what we know about this 26-year-old is that he served in the military from 2011 to 2013 and deployed to Afghanistan for four months in 2012. But in videos recently, he proclaimed that he had become a Muslim and wanted to harm Americans, and Jewish people, and police officers, among others -- Dave and Christine.
BRIGGS: OK. Jessica, thanks.
A standing-room-only crowd of some 700 people turning out Monday at the Chabad of Poway synagogue to pay their respects to Lori Gilbert Kaye. She was killed Saturday in an attack on the synagogue near San Diego. Forty-five minutes before the funeral, people lined the sidewalk outside the temple. A large screen was set up to accommodate those who couldn't fit inside. Lori's daughter Hannah choked back tears as she spoke about her mom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HANNAH KAYE, VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: I know my mother has already forgiven this man who shot her, not only because she had a profound and motherly capability to forgive me in our history together but because her mission, how she lived her life and her decision to preserve the life of the leader of the community, the children, all of us, automatically banishes the hatred that tried to take her light.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Meantime, the family of the suspected shooter issued this emotional statement. "We are shocked and deeply saddened by the terrible attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue. But our sadness pales in comparison to the grief and anguish our son has caused for so many innocent people. He has killed and injured the faithful who were gathered in a sacred place on a sacred day. To our great shame, he is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated on Jewish people for centuries.
"Our son's actions were informed by people we do not know and ideas we do not hold. Like our other five children, he was raised in a family of faith and a community that all rejected hate and taught that love must be the motive for everything we do. How our son was attracted to such darkness is a terrifying mystery to us, though, we are confident that law enforcement will uncover many details of the path that he took to this evil and despicable act. Our heavy hearts will forever go out to the victims and survivors. Our thanks go to the first responders who prevented even greater loss of life and the well wishers who have supported us and we pray for peace."
BRIGGS: The FBI was alerted by tipsters to a threatening post on the anonymous message board 8chan minutes before the synagogue shooting. The gunman charged with murder, attempted murder and arson of a house of worship. He will be in court today.
ROMANS: There's a lot to keep investors busy this week starting with trade. The Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are in Beijing in hopes of finalizing a trade deal. Mnuchin told the "New York Times" over the weekend the negotiations are in the final laps. The Federal Reserve meets today on interest rates.
A lot of drama over whether super low inflation or super strong economic growth need a rate cut or a rate hike. The question is how long can the Fed remain patient. The consensus is no move on rates right now. And remember the fears of that yield curb inversion seemed overblown. No real concerns at all about a recession.
Major companies report first quarter earnings today. Apple, General Motors, as well as General Electric. Google shares dropped 7 percent after hours Monday after some weak earnings.
[04:10:03] Revenue grew by 17 percent. That's good. But Reuters reports that's the slowest in three years, and down from 26 percent growth a year ago.
With one more day in March it was a record-setting month for the S&P, up 17 percent. Hopes for a U.S.-China trade deal and better-than- expected earnings season and a dovish Fed have been the drivers of this resilient stock market.
BRIGGS: A manhunt is underway in Iowa after a woman was mysteriously shot and killed on a highway. Waterloo Police responded to a car accident on Highway 218 near the Green Hill Exit early Sunday morning. They say a bullet struck the driver identified as Micalla Rettinger in the neck. The 25-year-old later died from her injuries.
The passenger in the car, Adam Kimball, was also injured. Rettinger's dad tells the "Des Moines Register," Kimball was her boyfriend. Another person in the car was not hurt. The victims returning home from work when the accident happened. Police say it does not Rettinger was specifically targeted.
ROMANS: Pioneering film maker John Singleton has died. He had been in a coma since suffering a massive stroke earlier this month. At 24 years old Singleton became the youngest and the first black director to be nominated for an Academy Award. That was for his 1991 debut film "Boyz N the Hood."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ICE CUBE, ACTOR, "BOYZ N THE HOOD": Either they don't know, don't show, or don't care about what's going on in the hood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Singleton went on to direct films like "Poetic Justice" and the remake of "Shaft." A spokesperson says Singleton was surrounded by family and his friends when he was taken off life support yesterday. Ava DuVernay is the first of black female director to have her film nominated for the Best Picture Oscar with "Selma." She says, "He was a giant among us, kind, committed and immensely talented. His films broke ground, his films mattered. He will be missed and long remembered." John Singleton was just 51 years old.
BRIGGS: All right. Last time the president met with Chuck and Nancy on camera, this happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The trio back together in public today for the first time since that day. We'll tell you what's on the agenda, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:16:27] ROMANS: In a few hours, President Trump meets with congressional Democrats to discuss one area where they may be able to make progress, fixing the nation's infrastructure. But the last time Mr. Trump sat down with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer in the Oval Office, remember, it led to a made-for-TV brawl over border funding. That resulted in the longest ever government shut down. Other Democrats including Congressman Richard Neal, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, will also be there.
BRIGGS: The president has told Democrats several times he wants trillions for an infrastructure deal but his administration has proposed significantly less and structured it in a way Democrats won't support. Axios reports Democrats are insisting that any infrastructure bill, quote, "must be real money," which means major federal spending not through public private partnerships or deregulation.
ROMANS: All right. Boeing CEO says the safety systems on its 737 Max jets were properly designed and not at fault in two recent fatal crashes. It's a bit different from Dennis Muilenburg's comments earlier this month when he said it is Boeing -- Boeing owned the responsibility to eliminate the risk and knows how to do the job.
Now on Monday he faced shareholders and reporters for the first time since the crashes that killed 346 people. And the CEO said some blame rests with the pilots.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS MUILENBURG, BOEING CEO: When we design a system, understand that these airplanes are flown in the hands of pilots and in some cases, our system safety analysis includes not only the engineering design but also the actions that pilots would take as part of a failure scenario. All right. That's all baked into a system end-to- end analysis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Muilenburg says the pilots did not completely follow the procedures. That contradicts what Ethiopian officials said earlier this month. On Monday, Boeing and the FAA were sued by two Canadians who lost a total of 10 family members in the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March. One man's wife and three kids were on board the air craft visiting Kenya.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL NJOROGE, LOST FAMILY IN ETHIOPIAN PLANE CRASH: I wanted it to be that they had missed the flight and so I called my brother-in-law and he confirmed it to me that my entire immediate family had perished in the flight. Those six minutes will forever be embedded in my mind. I was not there to help them. I couldn't save them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: There is no date set for the grounded 737 Max fleet to get back in the air and no date for Boeing to present its software fix to the FAA, which would need to approve it.
ROMANS: All right. A remarkable chance encounter at a baseball game and had everyone in tears. On Sunday, the St. Louis Cardinals held a Transplant Awareness Day at Bush Stadium. Donovan Bulger's family was there to honor their brother. He was just 21 when he died in 2016. Donovan was an organ donor, and it turns out the recipient of his heart was also at that game.
John Sueme was in heart failure for five years before he received Donovan's heart three years ago. After they met, it was a literal and emotional hug fest with John holding the Bulger family members close to his chest so they could listen to Donovan's heartbeat.
I just -- these stories are so important. My mom got a liver three years ago, and that family, what they give and how important it is to be, those close relationships are between the recipient families and donor families.
Everyone, please, check your license, tell your family members you want to be an organ donor, You can change lives.
BRIGGS: Emotional stuff. Good to see.
[04:20:03] All right. Ahead, he had not been seen in five years but new video shows the leader of ISIS alive and directing more attacks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right. For the first time in five years, ISIS has apparently released a new video message from its leader, Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi. Now in this video the speaker praises the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka which killed more than 250 people. CNN's Sam Kiley live in Sri Lanka with more. What else are we
learning about what's in this video of what looks to be Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi?
[04:25:06] SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, Christine, interestingly the element of the video that refers to the Sri Lankan bombings doesn't have Baghdadi in the picture. It seems to have been recorded as an afterthought with up to date images. Nonetheless they do appear to be able to authenticate the fact that it was recorded sometime in April.
He praises the efforts in the Sahel in Northern Africa, calls for attacks on the -- what he calls the French crusaders, quote-unquote, there and calls for the followers around the world to continue their battles to take revenge over the fall of Baghouz, that last redoubt where the so-called Islamic State was finally defeated by a combination of foreign special forces and Kurdish forces on the ground.
But nonetheless, this represents a propaganda stunt and effort by Baghdadi, by the so-called Islamic State, to keep their brand out there, to keep their brand in the public consciousness and to tie themselves to what they would argue has been the success in inverted commerce of their atrocious massacre here on Easter Sunday. The murderers here did pledge allegiance to the so-called Islamic State prior to carrying out the attack, and we found a lot of connection in terms of the material, so this is really a publicity stunt for them -- Christine and Dave.
ROMANS: We don't see very many images of him, certainly with that mosque in Mosul from several years ago. We'll continue to try to authenticate that video.
Sam Kiley, thank you so much for that.
BRIGGS: Coming up here, a new proposal could mean more roadblocks for asylum seekers trying to enter the United States.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:30:00]
