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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Robert Mueller's Misgivings About A.G. Barr's 4-Page Summary; Juan Guaido Renews Call For Uprising Against Venezuela President Maduro; Deadly North Carolina Campus Shooting. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired May 01, 2019 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:31:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The special counsel, himself, disagrees with how his report was characterized by the attorney general. Bill Barr faces tough questioning on Capitol Hill today.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Both sides claim the upper hand in Venezuela. The opposition tried to wrestle power from Nicolas Maduro. The U.S. says he was so close to leaving but the Russians stopped him.
ROMANS: And two people are dead, four hurt after a shooting on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. It's the last day of classes and tests -- finals this week. Just awful there.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: Good morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Dave Briggs, 5:31 Eastern time.
Big news out of the nation's capital. It is the question everyone was asking after Attorney General Bill Barr released his summary of the Mueller report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Did Bob Mueller support your conclusion?
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I don't whether Bob Mueller supported my conclusion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Well, now, we do know. Special counsel Mueller did express concern that Barr's 4-page letter to Congress did not fully capture the findings in the 448-page report, critically, when Barr said he didn't know whether Mueller supported his conclusion. That was two weeks after the special counsel expressed his concerns to Barr.
ROMANS: Those concerns echo the sentiments of members of Mueller's team. They also vented frustration about the way the findings were summarized. These disagreements are sure to come up when Barr testifies on Capitol Hill this morning.
Here is CNN's Shimon Prokupecz in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Dave and Christine, special counsel Robert Mueller expressed concerns in a letter to Attorney General William Barr that Barr's 4-page letter to Congress summarizing the principal conclusions of 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 -- the 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.
And senior Justice officials -- keep in mind, Dave and Christine -- they've 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)
ROMANS: All right, Shimon. Thank you for that.
BRIGGS: All right, let's bring in "Washington Post" White House correspondent Toluse Olorunnipa. Good morning, sir.
ROMANS: Good morning.
BRIGGS: Some big news in your town. I want to get to some of "The Washington Post" reporting about this letter from Mueller to Bill Barr and what it says and, according to "The Washington Post," that Barr did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of Mueller's work.
Did Bill Barr lie to Congress?
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, that's a question that he's going to have to answer during congressional hearings both today and tomorrow.
There is a lot of concern among congressional Democrats that when Bill Barr was asked about the Mueller report and when he was asked about his conclusions and his summary of the Mueller report that he may have misled Congress.
Now, it's very clear now that we've seen the redacted version of the full report that what Mueller found and what Barr found are very different.
Barr presented a whitewashed account of the Mueller report that made the president look much better and allowed the president to claim total exoneration and total vindication when the report itself, from Mueller and his team, was much more damning, both on the issue of Russian election meddling and on the issue of obstruction of justice.
So, Democrats are going to be pushing Bill Barr very hard on whether or not he misrepresented the report to the public and whether or not he misrepresented his conclusions when he answered questions before Congress just a few weeks ago.
[05:35:06] ROMANS: And we should point out there will be some Democrats who are running for president who will be there today -- Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris -- all of them.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: So there's that sort of political optic to look through, too, as well.
But I wonder -- it's so important -- I mean, all of this is so incredibly important for this country but does it change anybody's mind? Does it change the narrative going forward here?
You've got this polling before this report, but you've got kind of a country that's evenly split on how they feel about Bill Barr. He's got a 34 percent favorable, 35 percent unfavorable, 31 percent unsure. And his handling, specifically, of the Mueller report -- 44 percent approve, 43 percent disapprove.
OLORUNNIPA: Well, we have not previously heard from Robert Mueller and he has even --
ROMANS: Right.
OLORUNNIPA: -- higher approval ratings. He's someone who is seen from both sides of the aisle as sort of an upstanding prosecutor -- someone who's not in it necessarily as a person who just wants to take down the president. Only among the president's base is he seen that way.
And even the president, himself, has not gone directly after Mueller. He's mostly gone after the so-called angry Democrats that Mueller has employed.
BRIGGS: Yes.
TOLORUNNIPA: But the fact that now, Mueller is finally speaking out through this letter could change those numbers --
ROMANS: Yes. TOLORUNNIPA: -- for Bill Barr.
And the fact that he's going to be grilled by members of Congress of what does seem to look like inconsistencies between what he found and how he presented Mueller's report to the public, that could skew his numbers and that could make him seem less of an honest broker in this process if he's seen more as President Trump's personal lawyer and not necessarily --
BRIGGS: Yes.
TOLORUNNIPA: -- the attorney general for the United States. That could make his numbers seem even more negative going forward.
BRIGGS: Well, those words fatally misconceived from June of 2018 --
ROMANS: Right.
BRIGGS: -- seem to ring back.
But there's something for everyone here, Toluse, because later in the reporting it says this. When Barr pressed Mueller on whether he thought Barr's memo to Congress was inaccurate, Mueller said he did not think it was inaccurate.
Is that the bottom line for Republicans?
OLORUNNIPA: Yes. We've heard Republicans stick to that line and we've also heard the Justice Department tout that line. And they've talked about how Bill Barr and Robert Mueller were able to get on the phone and discuss some of their differences of opinion.
So that does make it a little bit more easy for Bill Barr to try to navigate this and try to navigate these congressional hearings that he can say listen, what I wrote was not inaccurate, but that's not necessarily going to placate Democrats.
And as Christine was saying, there are a number of Democratic presidential candidates --
ROMANS: Yes.
OLORUNNIPA: -- who are going to want to push this as far as possible. And the fact that Mueller may have said that this was not inaccurate is a low bar for a number of these Democrats and they're going to want much more from this attorney general in specifically --
BRIGGS: Yes.
OLORUNNIPA: -- describing why he came to the conclusions that he did.
BRIGGS: We have one of those candidates. Amy Klobuchar talked last night on CNN. And, Mike Lee, a Republican senator also on the committee, had his reaction last night -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN) (via telephone): I think it's just one more example of how this 4-page letter that he sent out was political. And this is not about politics, it's about protecting our democracy.
SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): The fact is that this has been a very thorough investigation. It took them two years. They concluded that there was no collusion.
And so now, they're losing their minds because they've been relying on the Mueller report as this sort of Holy Grail from whence was going to come all of these blessings. And they didn't have that and they're frustrated. They want to take it out on Barr. We can't let them do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: There you go. Choose your --
BRIGGS: Choose your own conclusion.
ROMANS: Choose your own conclusion.
BRIGGS: Yes, yes.
ROMANS: Well, let's move forward to today. You've got Joe Biden, who is at the top of the heap in our polling in terms of the 2020 field.
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: He's in Iowa again today. We heard from his yesterday in Dubuque and he was not running away from his former administration's position on health care and history on health care, and he said that rebuilding the middle-class is going to be his north star -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We made historic progress. The fact of the matter is we extended health care to 22 million people who didn't have it before. We covered preexisting conditions. I could go on with the list, you know it.
Health care is about peace of mind. How many people go to bed at night staring at the ceiling thinking, my God, if something happens to me we're going to lose everything?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So the economy is strong, the stock market up 30, 40, 50 percent since the election. Is that what we're going to be hearing from Joe Biden and maybe other Democrats that they have to zero in on parts of the economy that might not be working for people and remind them that Obamacare was good for them?
OLORUNNIPA: Yes, we can expect to hear Joe Biden fully embracing the Obama record -- the eight years under President Obama where they were able to expand health care and they said that they were able to sort of put the economy back on track after the Great Recession.
Other Democrats are going to be saying that the economy hasn't worked well for working Americans --
ROMANS: For everyone, right.
OLORUNNIPA: -- for 20 years.
But, Joe Biden is going to specifically say that his record with Barack Obama as president is something that he's proud of. And he's using that to sort of focus on how to rebuild the coalition that Obama put together of both non-white voters and also voters in the Midwest and places that Trump ended up winning.
[05:40:10] And, Joe Biden believes that by putting together that coalition, and Obama continues to be pretty popular among Democrats, that he's going to be able to clear the field and remain where he is in the polls, which is garnering 35-40 percent of the Democratic primaries --
BRIGGS: Yes.
OLORUNNIPA: -- which in a big field like this will be enough.
ROMANS: Certainly.
BRIGGS: Yes, it looks like he wants 19 to be one. It looks like that's a dynamic that works for Joe Biden.
ROMANS: Yes, and it -- I think Iowans are going to have a lot of Joe Biden in their living rooms over the next days and week.
BRIGGS: They sure are.
ROMANS: A lot of -- a lot of candidates in their living rooms.
All right, Toluse, nice to see you. Thank you.
OLORUNNIPA: Thanks.
BRIGGS: All right.
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 Tuesday, leading to violent clashes in the streets.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telling CNN Maduro was on the verge of leaving Venezuela.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: He had an airplane on the tarmac. He was ready to leave this morning, as we understand it, and 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 ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM": So you blame -- you blame Russia for the violence right now?
POMPEO: He was headed for Havana.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Maduro appeared on Venezuelan state T.V. late Tuesday denying Pompeo's claim.
We do want to warn you here some of the video you're about to see could be disturbing for some of you.
Stefano Pozzebon reporting for CNN live in Caracas. Stephano, good morning.
STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Good morning -- good morning, Dave.
Yes, indeed, another crucial day ahead here for not only just the international community and the press corps that have been covering the story here for some time now, but for, indeed, the people of Venezuela who are probably asking still themselves what happens next? What is the next move?
Was yesterday a genuine attempted coup or just a move to somehow try to topple Nicolas Maduro? Did it fail outright or did -- it can be expected that some more action will happen?
We'll be monitoring because today, May first, International Workers Day, a crucial day here in Venezuela with hundreds of thousands of anti-Maduro protestors and pro-Maduro supporters both scheduled to take onto the streets to show their support for the two leaders. The jostling for power in Venezuela is now over yet.
And, Dave, let me finish with a note on the international community because as we said, Mike Pompeo was saying yes and has spoken to CNN saying that the U.S. is standing firmly behind Juan Guaido's back and behind yesterday's attempt to a military uprising.
But at the same time, Nicolas Maduro's allies -- China, Russia, Turkey, Iran, and most crucially, Cuba -- all with invested economic interest here in Caracas.
Here in Venezuela, we'll be watching closely to understand who will succeed in this dramatic jostling for power in Venezuela -- Christine, Dave.
BRIGGS: Yes, that Russian and Cuban involvement, in particular, crucial in the days ahead. Stefano, thank you.
ROMANS: All right. Two people are dead following a shooting on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Four people were injured, three of them critically.
Video posted to Twitter shows people running from a campus library as police sprint toward the area. A police officer quickly went to the room where the suspect had fired and disarmed him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JEFFREY BAKER, POLICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHARLOTTE: Our officers are highly trained and we train for this type of an incident. And we were able to get into the building and our officers immediately -- one officer immediately went to the suspect to take him down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The suspect identified as 22-year-old Trystan Andrew Terrell. He has been charged with murder.
Tuesday was the last day of classes, with exams to begin tomorrow.
BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, a home invasion captured on a 911 call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Hey, is your door locked?
(Gunshots)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Who fired the shots and what happened next?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:49:27] ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on "CNN Business" and your leading indicator this morning, the stock market. A strong April on Wall Street after the worst December since the Great Depression.
Take a look. The Dow is up 14 percent this year, 45 percent since the election. The S&P 500 up almost 18 percent, 37 percent since Election Day. And the Nasdaq up a whopping 22 percent just this year-- almost 56 percent since the election.
That is four straight months of gains and the strongest start to a year for the broader market in at least 20 years.
[05:50:01] Now, the White House loves these numbers. Expect President Trump to keep using the stock market as his personal scorecard, even as he attacks the Fed and demands a 100-basis point rate cut.
On Wall Street right now, futures are slightly higher ahead of the Fed's meeting on interest rates -- the second day of that meeting.
Wavering support -- Republican support for Fed pick Stephen Moore. New scrutiny over his writings -- writings that seem to disparage women -- a scrutiny of his personal financial issues, and his views about the Fed.
Senators Joni Ernst, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins, and others all sending signals not to officially send his confirmation to the Senate. Senator Ernst gave a strong statement on Moore, telling reporters "It's very unlikely that I would support that person."
Moore has been under scrutiny over columns he has written about women. Yesterday, CNN's KFile uncovered 25 years of Moore criticizing gender advancement.
And during an interview with CNBC's "SQUAWK BOX" yesterday morning, Moore said this was the biggest problem in the economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN MOORE, NOMINEE, FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD: The biggest problem I see in the economy over the last 25 years is what has happened to male earnings for black males and white males as well. They've been declining and that is, I think, a big problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: "The Wall Street Journal" reported last week that Moore said he would back out of this process if he becomes a political, quote, "liability."
BRIGGS: So stay tuned to that.
OK, incredible drama as a deadly home invasion was captured on a 911 call in Washington State. A terrified homeowner hiding in the bedroom concerned as burglars moved in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: 911, what are you reporting?
HOMEOWNER: Yeah, my house is getting robbed right now.
911 OPERATOR: OK, where are you?
HOMEOWNER: In the bedroom.
911 OPERATOR: Are you armed?
HOMEOWNER: Yes, I have a gun.
911 OPERATOR: Hey, is that crashing I hear behind you, is that them?
HOMEOWNER: Yeah, they broke the window out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: As the man waited for police to arrive, the suspect opened the bedroom door. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Hey, is your door locked?
(Gunshots)
911 OPERATOR: Can you hear me?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The shots you heard there were the homeowner shooting the burglar and killing him. Police say the homeowner will not face charges.
You also heard the calm and collected dispatcher. She'd only been on the job for three weeks.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:56:47] BRIGGS: Are meteors a real threat to the planet? Well, the NASA chief says yes.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine points to a meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013. More than 1,000 people were hurt, many by flying glass.
It exploded just 18 miles above earth. Bridenstine says it packed 30 times the energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The NASA boss warns agency models show similar events will occur about once every 60 years.
ROMANS: All right.
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.
Now, Noor opened fire on Ruszczyk when she reported a possible assault in an alley behind her home. Noor says he feared for his partner's life, but prosecutors claim Noor overreacted and failed to properly assess the situation.
He now faces up to 16 1/2 years in prison.
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.
And heavy rain in Davenport, Iowa led to the breach of the levee, flooding part of the downtown area. The Mississippi River is expected to crest at more than 22 feet in Davenport today.
This weather system is slowing down. The threat remains today from Texas into Missouri with a possibility of flash flooding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX TREBEK, HOST, "JEOPARDY!": Oh, I thank you for making an even bet. It helps my math. You now have $96,726 earned today and a new total of $1,426,330.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: And that smile. Make that 19 in a row for the reigning "JEOPARDY!" champ James Holzhauer. Holzhauer is now tied for the third-longest winning streak in show history.
Last night's final "JEOPARDY!" clue was about a former capital about halfway between Paris and Berlin. What was the answer, Romans?
ROMANS: Bonn.
BRIGGS: Of course, you knew that.
Holzhauer was the only one with the correct answer, though third-place finisher Libby Wood had the most clever -- "What is congrats to James." She had risked some money on the line.
The ratings apparently up. A million viewers an episode in the most recent week.
ROMANS: That's great. That --
BRIGGS: I'm watching.
ROMANS: That James smile -- the million-dollar smile now -- officially, a million-dollar smile.
All right, good morning, everyone. Have a great rest of your day. Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: And I'm Dave Briggs. Here's "NEW DAY." We'll see you tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PROKUPECZ: Mueller expressed concerns to Barr that Barr's 4-page letter didn't fully capture his report.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the problem when Barr acts as the personal attorney to the president.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The special counsel couldn't conclude Barr was doing what he was supposed to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are looking ahead to two days of the attorney general testifying.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is an opportunity for him to be completely transparent if he stands by his statements. He should be forthcoming. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is going to get tarnished if he just isn't fully cooperative.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, May first.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Rabbit, rabbit.
CAMEROTA: Thank you. That's good luck, right?
BERMAN: Yes.
END
