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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Calls for New Asylum Process; Trump Tries to Block Deutsche Bank and Capital One from Congressional Subpoenas; Joe Biden Kicks Off Campaign in Iowa; Army Veteran Targeted White Supremacist Rally. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired April 30, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:52] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Another dig at migrants from the Trump administration. A new proposal could put up more roadblocks for asylum seekers.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Joe Biden makes his first campaign trip to Iowa today. The president repeatedly going after him despite warnings from advisers to keep quiet.
ROMANS: A murder mystery in Iowa, a driver shot in the neck as she drives home. A man hunt for the shooter is underway.
BRIGGS: And grab the Kleenex, a man who got a heart transplant randomly meets the family of a man who saved him at a baseball game.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody, on a Tuesday. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans, it is 31 minutes past the hour.
We begin here with the president 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. Now right now they typically take years because of a huge and growing backlog.
The president also wants migrants to pay for work permits and asylum applications. And he wants migrants barred from receiving work authorization if they've entered or attempted to enter the U.S. illegally.
BRIGGS: Mr. Trump has been stepping up his anti-immigration rhetoric, accusing migrants of taking advantage of legal loopholes. 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 --
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: It's a big fat con job, folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The president's asylum reform memo calls on the DOJ and DHS to take action within 90 days.
ROMANS: President Trump taking his stonewalling tactics to a new level. 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 harass the president.
Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters, chairs of the House Intelligence and Financial Services Committees, condemned the lawsuit. In a joint statement they call it a legal ploy to, quote, "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.
BRIGGS: Joe Biden brings his newly-launched campaign to Iowa today. The former VP kicking things off with a rally in Pittsburgh Monday. 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)
ROMANS: The president responding with a Twitter tirade branding Biden "Sleepy Joe" while touting the economy under his administration. CNN has learned Mr. Trump's advisers, though, are urging him not to get drawn into a one-on-one verbal battle with Biden or any of the top candidates. The president's advisers fear that could elevate his rivals, give 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.
[04:35:04] I strongly opposed the Transpacific Partnership. He supported it. I voted against the war in Iraq. He voted for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Beto O'Rourke, meanwhile, looking to regain his footing in the crowded Democratic field. He's been criticized for lacking policies. So he just rolled one out his the first one on climate change. It calls for a $5 trillion investment and net zero emissions by 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)
ROMANS: And what's next for rising Democratic star Stacey Abrams of Georgia? She has decided against running for the Senate in 2020. She plans to focus on her voting rights project and has not decided whether to seek any other office.
BRIGGS: 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.
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.
ROMANS: All right. Jessica Schneider, thank you for that.
A standing room-only crowd of some 700 people turned out Monday at the Chabad of Poway synagogue to pay respects, 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 choking back tears as she spoke about her mother.
(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)
BRIGGS: 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. How our son was attracted to such darkness is a terrifying mystery to us."
ROMANS: The FBI was alerted by tipsters to a threatening post on the anonymous message board 8chan just minutes before the synagogue shooting. The gunman is charged with murder, attempted murder and arson of a house of worship. He will be in court today.
BRIGGS: Measles cases reaching another historic high, more than 70 percent of those infected were not vaccinated. As of Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 704 cases of measles nationwide this year. That is the highest number of cases in a single year since the disease was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. Six of the outbreaks were in an under immunized close knit religious or cultural communities.
ROMANS: 474 cases have been reported in New York City and New York state, mostly in ultra orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. New York City's Health Department closed two more schools for violating an order that keeps unvaccinated students out of class.
[04:40:05] Meantime, encouraging news in Washington state, health officials there declared a month's long measles outbreak that affected 71 people in Clark County over now.
BRIGGS: Pioneering film maker John Singleton has died. He had been in a coma since suffering a massive stroke earlier this month. At 24 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)
BRIGGS: Introduced us to Ice Cube among others. 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 black female director to have her film nominated for 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.
ROMANS: A manhunt underway right now 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, this was early Sunday morning. Now they say a bullet struck the driver identified as Micalla Rettinger, struck her in the neck. The 25-year- old later died from those 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 were returning home from work when this accident happened. Police say it does not appear Rettinger was specifically targeted.
BRIGGS: Boy, is that terrifying.
Ahead, an 8-year-old in Ohio saves himself and his sister from an attempted carjacking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:46:17] ROMANS: All right. Conflicting signals from the White House over the future of Stephen Moore's nomination for the Federal Reserve's powerful Board of Governors. Early Monday Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said this about Moore's past columns which appeared to disparage women.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Certainly we're reviewing those comments and when we have an update on that front we'll let you know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Reviewing those comments. It was the first time any White House official has openly acknowledged Moore's past positions. "The New York Times" highlights a 2000 C-SPAN appearance where Moore blamed the decline of the family on women working. The male he said at the time needs to be the breadwinner. A few hours later yesterday National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KUDLOW, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: We're still behind him. And he's going through the process, vetting, and we'll see what happens through that process, and then hopefully will go off to Senate Banking Committee. No change in our position.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Moore said he was embarrassed by some of his past writings. He said that over the weekend. But he's also spoken out against his critics. He said this last week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN MOORE, PRESIDENT'S NOMINEE TO THE FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD: You know, they're pulling a Kavanaugh against me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Senator Lisa Murkowski acknowledged reservations about Moore yesterday telling reporters, he's written a lot and said a lot. There's a lot there. Of course he will need the Republicans in the Senate to be able to confirm him.
BRIGGS: The best known deputy attorney general in history stepping down. Not saying much, I suppose. Rod Rosenstein, the man who appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitting his resignation effective May 11th. Rosenstein personally delivered his resignation letter to the president writing, "We ignore fleeting distractions and focus our attention on the things that matter because a republic that endures is not governed by the news cycle. We keep the faith, we follow the rules and we always put America first."
Well, the celebration of Woodstock's 50th anniversary this summer go on as planned. The three-day Woodstock 50 festival was supposed to take place in August in upstate New York. The marketing firm that was financing the festival told Billboard it was cancelled because they didn't think they could pull off the event in a safe manner.
ROMANS: But festival organizers denied it has been cancelled and said they would seek a legal remedy. Chance the Rapper, Miley Cyrus, Jay-Z were slated to headline, along with some of the artists who played at the original Woodstock like Santana, John Foggerty and David Crosby. Tickets for Woodstock 50 were set to go on sale April 22nd but the event Web site now says that they'll be available soon.
BRIGGS: An 8-year-old boy from Ohio being praised for saving himself and his older sister from a kidnapping attempt. It happened in Middletown northeast of Cincinnati. Chance and his sister Skylar were sitting in the backseat of their grandmother's car. She took a woman to the ER. About 10 seconds later, though, a man hopped into the driver's seat and took off. Chance immediately opened the door to escape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SKYLARK WEAVER, CARJACKING SURVIVOR: My brother went to go grab me, opened the door and went out. My brother fell out but the guy pulled me back in the car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: As Skylar tried to escape, her little brother grabbed hold of her, he then pulled her and they both tumbled out of the car as it was moving.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHANCE BLUE, CARJACKING SURVIVOR: I was acting in the moment because I didn't want my sister to get hurt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Terrifying. Officers spotted the vehicle and quickly stopped it and arrested the driver. The driver now facing kidnapping and grand theft charges.
BRIGGS: It was close but it was enough for the reigning "Jeopardy" king.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX TREBEK, HOST, "JEOPARDY": Let's take a look, $20,500, just enough, takes him up to $54, 017.
[04:50:03] Yes. He has a big sigh of relief because Adam made you earn it today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: James Holzhauer won his 18th game Monday night by $18, his total earnings on "Jeopardy" now over 1.3 million bucks. His 18-game streak, the fourth longest in the game show's history. Just one win away from catching the third place record holder.
ROMANS: The answered Chamber of Commerce.
OK. A remarkable chance encounter at a baseball game and had everyone in tears. On Sunday, the St. Louis Cardinals held Transplant Awareness Day at Bush Stadium. Donovan Bulger's family was there to honor their brother. Their brother was just 21 when he died in 2016. And Donovan was an organ donor and it turns out the recipient of his heart was also at the 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.
There is no greater gift in the world than an organ donation.
BRIGGS: Spread that message. Emotional viral video, but spreading an important message as you've mentioned.
ROMANS: Absolutely.
JPMorgan Chase tried to give its customers some Monday motivation. It did not go over so well. CNN Business has details about the backlash next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:55:51] ROMANS: All right. Did you hear the one about a whale spying for Russia? Take a look. This whale was spotted off the coast of Norway by a fisherman. He contacted local officials who found a harness on the whale mounted with GoPro cameras on each side of it. The clips read equipment to St. Petersburg. CNN has contacted Russian authorities for a comment.
BRIGGS: Very cool. Japanese Emperor Akahito stepping down from the throne today marking and making the first monarch to abdicate in over 200 years. 85-year-old Akahito received legal permission to stand down after declaring he was unable to fulfill his role because of age and declining health. His son, Crown Prince Narahito, now ascends to the throne.
ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Global stock markets lower here right now. You can see there, Tokyo closed for a holiday, but on Wall Street, futures barely moving here, stocks closed higher Monday as the S&P 500, the Nasdaq composite squeaked out another record high.
This marks the third record since last Tuesday. Upbeat consumers data from earlier in the day helped pushed stocks higher. I like the sound of consumers being confident in spending. The Dow ended a little change, but still up 11 points.
Today the Fed needs to discuss interest rates. The central bank has signaled it's done hiking interest rates this year so Wall Street will be listening for clues about just where rates are headed next.
WeWork has confidentially filed for an IPO. The We Company said Monday it has submitted paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. Founded in 2010, WeWork is one of the most valuable privately held companies in the U.S. raising billions of dollars in funding on the selling point of community. WeWork joins a hoard of other so-called unicorn companies that expect to go public this year.
Lyft, Pinterest, and Zoom have already made their Wall Street debuts while Uber and Slack are expected soon.
All right. So JPMorgan Chase tried to give its consumers a bit of a Monday motivation. Whoo, it backfired. The bank deleted a tweet posted by its Chase Bank Account Monday after several people including presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren criticized it as tone deaf. OK. The tweet depicted a hypothetical conversation between the customer and their bank account with the hash tag "Monday motivation."
Senator Warren who has frequently criticized big banks called Chase out for receiving $1 billion bailout in 2008 in the wake of the financial crisis. The Chase Bank Twitter account responded to the backlash saying, "Our Monday motivation is to get better at Monday motivation tweets. Thanks for the feedback, Twitter world."
That Monday motivation, sorry, we didn't give you the core of it there. It essentially --
BRIGGS: I've been trying to catch the actual tweet.
ROMANS: It essentially said don't pay for the cup of coffee, you know, try not to spend some money today. And her backlash was that, oh, right, you're telling people that they have a choice, you know, not to pay a few bucks.
BRIGGS: You must have seen the big question mark off my head there for a moment.
While you were sleeping, comics had some fun with Joe Biden's campaign, and the president's struggles with the truth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Trump has passed 10,000 lies. Man, I got to tell you. If Trump had a dollar for every lie he's told, he would say he had a billion dollars.
JAMES CORDEN, HOST, "LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN": President Trump just told his 10,000th lie since taking office. Yes. That is a lot of lies. Especially since that doesn't include any of the times he told Eric and Donald Jr. that he's proud of them.
JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": The first 24 hours of his campaign, Joe Biden raised $6.3 million. And he did it in a very interesting way. He sat outside a movie theater and said give me a thousand bucks or I'll ruin "The Avengers" for you. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Interesting spin.
EARLY START continues right now.
ROMANS: Another dig at migrants from the Trump administration, a new proposal could put up more roadblocks for asylum seekers.
BRIGGS: Joe Biden makes his first trip to Iowa today. The president repeatedly going after him, meanwhile, despite warnings from advisers to keep quiet.
ROMANS: A murder mystery in Iowa.
[05:00:00]
