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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Mueller Versus Barr; Uprising in Venezuela; Deadly NC Campus Shooting. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired May 01, 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] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The special counsel himself disagrees with how his report was characterized by the attorney general. Bill Barr now faces tough questioning on Capitol Hill today.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Both sides claimed the upper hand in Venezuela. The opposition trying to wrestle power from Nicholas Maduro. The U.S. says he was close to leaving, but the Russians stopped him.
ROMANS: And two people are dead and four hurt after a shooting on the campus of University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Last day of classes, it's tragedy there.
Good morning and welcome to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning. I'm Dave Briggs. Wednesday, May 1st, 4:00 a.m. in the East.
Huge news today. We start in the nation's capital. The question everyone was asking after Attorney General Barr released his summary of the Mueller report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Would Bob Mueller support your conclusion?
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I don't know whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Well, we now know the answer. Special counsel Mueller did express concern that Barr's four-page letter to Congress did not fully capture the findings of the 448-page report critically when Barr said he didn't know whether Mueller supported the conclusion, that was two weeks after the special counsel expressed his concerns to Barr.
ROMANS: Those concerns echoed the sentiments of members of Mueller's team. They also vented frustration about the way the findings were summarized. These disagreements sure to come up when Barr testifies on Capitol Hill this morning.
Here's CNN's Shimon Prokupecz in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: Dave and Christine, special counsel Robert Mueller expressed concerns in a letter to William Barr that Barr's four-page letter to Congress summarizing the principal conclusions of Mueller's findings didn't fully capture his report.
Now, we're told that later, Barr and Mueller did speak by phone, and while Mueller didn't think Barr's letter was inaccurate, his initial letter to Congress, to special counsel believed his report was more nuanced on the obstruction of justice issue, according to Justice Department officials. Now, we're told that Mueller was frustrated. He was frustrated by media coverage and wanted more of the report to come out, these officials tell us.
Then, justice officials keep in mind, Dave and Christine, the have been puzzled, they've been puzzled all along why Mueller did not reach a conclusion on the obstruction issue. And we're told, as a result, that Barr felt he needed to provide finality on the matter as the attorney general overseeing the investigation.
Now, Democrats have erupted ahead of Barr's testimony. Barr is supposed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, highly anticipated and certainly more to come on this issue, certainly with the Democrats on the committee -- Dave and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRIGGS: Well, you've got that right. Thank you.
Attorney General Barr gets to defend his handling of the Mueller report in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the nation at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time this morning. Sitting on that committee, three Democratic candidates for president. Right now, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler in a stand off with Barr over a second scheduled testimony this week on Thursday. Nadler demanding a copy of Mueller's letter and says the special counsel must be allowed to testify.
ROMANS: We already know how Barr plans to testify from his prepared remarks. He is going to tell lawmakers, quote: After the special counsel submitted the confidential report on March 22nd, I determined it was in the public interest for the department to announce the investigation's bottom line conclusions, that is the determination whether a provable crime has been committed or not. I did so in the March 24 letter. I did not believe that it was in the public interest to release additional portions of the report in piecemeal leading to public debate over incomplete information.
Special coverage of the hearing begins at 8:30 this morning, right here on CNN.
BRIGGS: Another intense and potentially explosive day ahead for the people of Venezuela after opposition leader Juan Guaido made his boldest attempt yet to seize power from President Nicolas Maduro. Guaido called for an uprising alongside a group of soldiers in Caracas on Tuesday, leading to violent clashes on the street.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telling CNN Maduro actually was on the verge of leaving Venezuela last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: He had an airplane on the tarmac. He was ready leave this morning, as we understand it. The Russians indicated he should stay. We think the situation remains incredibly fluid. We know that there were senior leaders inside the Maduro government that were prepared to leave.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": So, you blame Russia for the violence right now?
[04:05:00] POMPEO: He was headed for Havana.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: How about that? Maduro appeared on Venezuelan TV late Tuesday, denying Pompeo's claims.
ROMANS: All right. Two are dead following a shooting on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Four people were injured, three critically. Video posted to Twitter shows people running from a campus library as police sprint toward the area. An officer quickly went to the room where the suspect had fired and disarmed him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JEFFREY BAKER, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHARLOTTE POLICE & PUBLIC SAFETY: Our officers are highly trained and we train for this type of incident. And we were able to get to the building. And our officers immediately -- one officer immediately went to the suspect to take him down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: He's identified as 22-year-old Trystan Andrew Terrell. Right now, he is in custody with charges against him pending. Some people were trapped in buildings until late Tuesday before being allowed to leave campus. Tuesday was the last day of classes for exams to begin on Thursday.
BRIGGS: Three more stops in Iowa today for Joe Biden. In his first visit since declaring his run, he told supporters, rebuilding the middle class is his, quote, North Star. He's not backing away from the polarizing elements of the Obama-Biden legacy, Obamacare.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We made historic progress. The fact of the matter, it extended health care to 22 million people who didn't have it before. We covered pre-existing conditions. I can go on with the list, you know it. Health care is about piece of mind. How many people go to bed at night staring at the ceiling thinking, my God, if something happens to me, we are going to lose everything?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Also Tuesday, Bernie Sanders defending his controversial stance that prisoners should be able to vote, even domestic terrorists. In a new op-ed in "USA Today", he writes: If we are serious about calling ourselves a democracy, we must firmly establish that a right to vote is an inalienable and universal principle that applies to all American citizens 18 years or older. Period.
That did not sit well with fellow senator and presidential candidate, Cory Booker.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We locked up more people for marijuana in 2017 than all the violent crimes combined. And so, here, we have a nation that takes away people's liberty and their right to vote for doing things to the last three presidents admitted to doing. So, if Bernie Sanders want to get involved in a conversation about whether Dylann Roof and the marathon bomber should have a right to vote, my focus is liberating black and brown people and low income people from prison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Senator and 2020 hopeful Kamala Harris joined teachers at a round table in South Carolina. Thousands of educators are set to walk out of classrooms today protesting their stagnant wages. Harris' first big policy proposal is a raise for teachers, which would amount to an annual $10,000 increase in South Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is $10,000 a year represents a years worth of grocery bills. $10,000 a year represents putting a significant dent in student loan debt, which is one of the greatest barriers to teachers staying in the profession because they have the heavy student loan debt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The latest CNN poll shows Biden well ahead of the Democratic field after jumping into the race last week.
ROMANS: All right. CNN has learned exclusively the Department of Homeland Security plans to start a DNA testing pilot program next week. Two department officials tell us, it is designed to combat human smuggling by identifying migrants who are posing as family members. This is the latest move by the Trump administration to address the swell of migrants at the southern border, mostly families and children from Central America. DHS repeatedly warned children are being exploited by traffickers to skirt immigration laws. ICE officials say the information collected will not be stored or shared.
BRIGGS: A federal judge has ruled Democrats can move ahead with a lawsuit that could give them access to a wide array to President Trump's tightly held financial records. The suit filed by about 200 congressional Democrats claims the president's private business violates a constitutional ban on gifts or payments from foreign governments. The judge rejected the president's narrow definition of those payments called emoluments, saying it's unpersuasive and inconsistent.
ROMANS: All right. The Food and Drug Administration strengthening warnings about some popular sleep aids. Sleeping pills marketed under these names will now require new black box warnings for dangerous side effects. There have been reports of rare, but serious injuries and death results from sleepwalking, sleep driving and other complex behaviors by those who took the drugs on your screen.
According to CDC, some 4 percent of adults have used prescription sleep aids in the past month.
[04:10:01] BRIGGS: OK, ahead, corporate tax cuts are adding to this country's massive debt in a booming economy. But Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney doesn't seem too worried about it. What he said, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: President Trump wants interest rates cut to inject stimulus into the economy like this is a financial crisis, which, it is not. Trump attacked the Fed again on Twitter Tuesday, saying the Fed should slash interest rates by a full percentage point to boost American growth.
Quote: With our wonderfully low inflation, we could be setting major records and at the same time make our national debt start to look small.
When President Obama was injecting stimulus, or the Fed under Obama, to keep the U.S. economy from falling off a cliff in 2008, Republicans and Trump were screaming about it. Trump's comments today came just days after the economy grew by 3.2 percent in the first quarter, and before the Fed meets for a second day on interest rates.
[04:15:04] At the same time, fiscal conservative and acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said this about the country's $22 trillion debt during a financial conference in Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I'll be the first to admit, I have been complaining about the debt since I ran in 2009. It doesn't seem to ber holding us back from an economic standpoint.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Ahh, what? That's Mick Mulvaney. I could give you hours and hours of video of him saying the opposite.
Meanwhile, corporate tax cuts are unpaid for and new government spending is swelling the deficit and adding to the debt in what is a booming economy. Folks, we have never been in territory like this before.
BRIGGS: And it looks like it is about to get worse. If you blinked and missed it, there was a rare moment of bipartisanship that may add a few trillion. The White House on Tuesday, no cameras as Democratic leaders met with the president to discuss infrastructure. No guarantee the deal will get done, but the two sides reached an agreement on the massive price tag for a potential plan: $2 trillion, which the president thought sounded better than $1.9 trillion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): It's clear that both the White House and all of us want to get something done on infrastructure in a big and bold way. We agreed that infrastructure is crucial to the future of America. We agree it creates jobs. We agree it keeps us competitive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi agreed to another meeting to discuss details, including the most important part, how in the world do you pay for $2 trillion.
ROMANS: The Chamber of Commerce says if you do a big infrastructure bill, it will supercharge the economy. How you pay for it, other business leaders look at it as an investment. Every dollar invested in infrastructure is $3.70 of economic activity.
BRIGGS: We are at the easy part. How to pay for it is going to be a massive bout.
ROMANS: They can figure that out.
BRIGGS: Sure.
ROMANS: Clap like we are at a strip club. That's what U.S. Navy sailors aboard the USS Harry S. Truman were actually told to do to show their enthusiasm when Vice President Mike Pence visited in Norfolk, Virginia, yesterday. The instruction came from the ship's senior enlisted sailor. They confirmed the comment was made and called it inappropriate.
BRIGGS: Just vaguely.
OK, ahead, a home invasion captured on a 911 call. Who fired the shots and what happened next?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:22:03] BRIGGS: Four-twenty-one Eastern Time.
Former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor found guilty in a 2017 fatal shooting. Noor shot and killed an unarmed woman Justine Ruszczyk while responding to her 911 call. Noor's lawyer says a perfect storm of events led him to open fire on Ruszczyk when she called 911 to report a possible assault in progress in an alley behind her home. Noor says he feared for his partner's life.
Prosecutors claimed Noor overacted and failed to properly assess the situation. He now faces up to 16-1/2 years in prison. Noor will be sentenced in June.
ROMANS: USA Gymnastics removing its new director of sports medicine just one day on the job. Edward Nyman was named to the position on Monday. On Tuesday, the organization said his employment would not continue due to a, quote, conflict of interest. They are not saying what that conflict is.
It is another false start for an organization trying to recover from the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal. More than 150 women and girls alleged Nassar, the former team doctor, for both USA Gymnastics and Michigan State sexually abused them.
BRIGGS: Deadly home invasion captured on a 911 call in Washington state. A terrified homeowner hiding in his bathroom, cornered, as burglars move in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: 911, what are you reporting?
HOMEOWNER: Yes, my house is getting robbed right now.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Where are you?
HOMEOWNER: In my bedroom.
911 OPERATOR: Are you armed?
HOMEOWNER: Yes, I have a gun.
911 OPERATOR: The crashing behind you, is that them?
HOMEOWNER: Yes. They broke the window.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: As the man waited for police to arrive, the suspect opened the bathroom door.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Is your door locked?
(GUNSHOTS)
911 OPERATOR: Can you hear me?
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: The shots you heard were the homeowner shooting the burglar, killing him. Police say the homeowner will not face charges. You also heard the calm and collected dispatcher. She had only been on the job three weeks.
ROMANS: Terrifying.
All right. Severe storms and tornadoes roared across the Southern Plains Tuesday. The National Weather Service reporting 25 tornadoes in five states -- Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Heavy rain in my hometown, Davenport, Iowa, led to this, a breach of a levee, flooding parts to downtown area. The Mississippi River is expected to crest more than 22 feet in Davenport today. The weather system is slowing down. The threat remains from Texas to Missouri with the possibility of flash flooding.
[04:25:06] BRIGGS: Star players on both teams suffering injuries in game two of the series between the Rockets and Golden State Warriors. The Warriors' Steph Curry left the game with an injured finger. It's dislocated. The Rockets James Harden going down after getting hit in the eye. He was briefly bleeding for a moment. Both players though would return. Defending champion Warriors held on for a 115-109 win, going up 2-0 in that series. Game three Saturday night in Houston.
ROMANS: OK, make that 19 in a row for the reigning "Jeopardy" champ, James Holzhauer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX TREBEK, "JEOPARDY!" HOST: Thank you for making an even bet, it helped my math. You have $96,726 earned today and a new total of $1,426,330.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Good for him. He is tied for the third longest winning stream in show history. Last night's final "Jeopardy" clue was about a former capital about half way between Paris and Berlin. The answer was Bonn. Holzhauer was the only one with the correct answer. But Beverly had the cleverest answer, what is, congrats to James.
BRIGGS: James being James.
Death, taxes, and James winning "Jeopardy!".
All right. In just a few hours, critical testimony from the attorney general, the stakes raised significantly, now that we know Robert Mueller disagreed with the way Bill Barr mischaracterized his findings.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
