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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
White House Says Mueller's Team Played Politics; New York City Terror Plotter To Go Free Soon; Venezuela Protests Continue. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired May 03, 2019 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:30:27] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The White House launching a full counteroffensive on Robert Mueller. They say his team played politics and the president may still exert executive privilege.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: He plotted to bomb the New York City subways a decade ago. Why Najibullah Zazi is on the very of freedom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRISON FORD, ACTOR, "STAR WARS": Chewy!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: A Wookiee. Mourning the loss of a gentle man. Peter Mayhew, who will forever live on as Chewbacca, has died.
ROMANS: And if you're not always happy, Burger King has your back. A new campaign with a purpose.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to EARLY START this Friday morning. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: And I'm Dave Briggs. It's a fast-food Friday, really. We go from Burger King to KFC --
ROMANS: Oh, yes.
BRIGGS: -- on Capitol Hill.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: I'm old enough to remember when Parliament was a laughing stock, but this is where we are in 2019. Again, happy fast-food Friday.
We start with President Trump thrilled with the Mueller report once, but the White House not so much.
A top White House lawyer, Emmet Flood, accusing Robert Mueller's team of playing politics, laying out facts far more detailed than what's typically found in the criminal indictment. Flood protested in a letter to Attorney General Bill Barr one day after the release of the redacted Mueller report.
ROMANS: Flood described the report as, quote, "A prosecutorial curiosity -- part 'truth commission' report and part law school exam paper."
It is true the Mueller report did not establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
Mueller did unearth substantial evidence of obstruction by President Trump but he did not say whether Mr. Trump should be prosecuted, a move the attorney general questioned on Capitol Hill this week.
BRIGGS: The president touted the report as total vindication even though possible obstruction came up about a dozen times, and that includes when the president told then-White House counsel Don McGahn to have Mueller removed.
Last week, House Judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler subpoenaed McGahn to testify and now, the president says that's not going to happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've had him testifying already for 30 hours --
CATHERINE HERRIDGE, CHIEF INTELLIGENCE CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS: So is the answer no?
TRUMP: -- and it's really -- so I don't think I can let him and then tell everybody else you can't. I would say it's done.
HERRIDGE: Over.
TRUMP: We've been through this. Nobody has ever done what I've done. I've given total transparency. It's never happened before like this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Emmet Flood's letter also makes clear President Trump has not closed the door on asserting executive privilege, so expect this battle to continue.
Attorney General Barr was a no-show for a second day of scheduled testimony, all over a dispute about who would ask the questions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered a serious response about something the attorney general told Congress under oath weeks ago.
BRIGGS: Here we go. Let's bring in "CNN POLITICS" reporter Jeremy Herb, live in Washington. Happy Friday, my friend. Good to see you.
JEREMY HERB, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: You, as well.
BRIGGS: Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, I envision as kind of pulling the reins through the midterms, not engaging with President Trump, and then through this impeachment talk, really pulling back her party. Suddenly, she is kicking this horse.
Here's what the speaker said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): He lied to Congress. He lied to Congress and if anybody else did that it would be considered a crime. Nobody is above the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: He lied to Congress and committed a crime. Where are we headed?
HERB: Yes, this is about how Attorney General Barr has characterized the Mueller report and questioning from Charlie Crist last month. He said he didn't know why -- if there were any objections from Mueller and his team about the report. Obviously, Mueller's letter that came out that raised objections about how Barr characterized the report called that into question.
Now, the Justice Department, I should say, pushed back and said that the speaker was wrong here in saying that the attorney general lied.
But what we're seeing is an all-out kind of assault on the attorney general from House Democrats.
We had the no-show yesterday.
ROMANS: Yes.
HERB: Chairman Jerry Nadler -- he's threatening to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress next week over trying to get access to the Mueller report. So this is really barreling towards a major showdown between the Justice Department and House Democrats.
ROMANS: And then, you've got -- Mueller didn't rule on obstruction and now you've got the White House sort of using that to its advantage.
The White House attorney Emmet Flood, a day after that redacted report went public, wrote this letter to Bill Barr mocking the Mueller report as a -- what, a law school exam paper and essentially, laying out how the president should be able to stop anybody from going to Congress to talk about the contents of the Mueller report. That they -- that he has that right.
[05:35:13] Where does this go from here? Where does the oversight end then? Is that what they're making the case for?
BRIGGS: Yes.
HERB: Well, House Democrats certainly don't think so. But that letter was -- even though it wasn't directed and written to Democrats, that was the intended target here. It's going to be a big fight over executive privilege. The president -- the president waived executive privilege to let Don McGahn and let others testify and be interviewed by the special counsel. Now, Congress is trying to say that because the president waived executive privilege for the special counsel, it's waived for Congress and they can't stop Don McGahn from testifying.
Obviously, the White House feels very differently and this letter was a way to put that out there right after Mueller finished that --
BRIGGS: Yes.
HERB: -- no, we're not going to just let McGahn and the others come up and talk to you as well because Congress is a very different story than the criminal investigation that Mueller conducted.
BRIGGS: All the while, Jeremy, the President of the United States at 11:45 last night -- what else would he be doing other than tweeting and saying now, Republicans and Democrats should come together.
I mean, look, it's hard to make that argument after what we've seen the last couple of years. It would be nice if that were the case. Saying we should get done immigration, infrastructure, lower drug prices.
Is there any chance of Republicans and Democrats coming together? Will all this ultimately be litigated in 2020?
HERB: I think this will certainly be litigated in 2020. That doesn't mean that the two sides can't find certain issues.
We saw Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer this week. They did have a meeting with the president where they talked about infrastructure and whether they could come up with a true trillion-dollar deal on infrastructure.
Now, can the president do that, on the one hand, while on the other hand, fighting tooth and nail every subpoena and every call for a witness to testify? I think that still remains to be seen whether the president will be able to kind of put those two things aside.
BRIGGS: Yes.
HERB: We saw that during the Clinton administration. They did get things done with a Republican Congress while impeachment was going on. It's not clear yet whether the president will be able to do the same.
BRIGGS: I'm not holding my breath.
ROMANS: Yes. No, listen, let's talk a little bit about the president's -- the latest in his doomed nominees.
Stephen Moore told the president in a letter yesterday that he was withdrawing from the process of the Fed board. Herman Cain, he pulled out, too. I mean, there are a lot of questions about his viability for that job given some of the questions about sexual harassment that he had faced on the -- you know, in the campaign trail -- that came up from the campaign.
You know, a lack of vetting really causing problems in this White House. There's a long list of people the president goes for his gut -- put somebody forward and then during the vetting process it falls apart.
What does this say about all the best people surrounding this president?
HERB: No, that's absolutely the case. And the fact is there isn't a vetting process before the president has put forward these out-of-the- box nominees.
And we hear frustrations from Senate Republicans constantly about this issue where the president will find a nominee. He will announce if, often, on Twitter and then the vetting will begin from the press.
CNN's KFile did a lot of reporting on some of the derogatory comments towards women that Stephen Moore made.
And the nomination doesn't even really make it to the Senate before it falls apart. And it's one of those things where Senate Republicans have to take what they see as the good and the bad of this administration, but it certainly is a frustration that they would like to see fixed. It doesn't seem like the president is going to change his ways, of course. So as we --
BRIGGS: No.
HERB: Yes.
BRIGGS: Going with his gut, isn't he?
HERB: Exactly.
BRIGGS: Jeremy Herb makes his point with words, not with porcelain farm animals nor fast food, and we appreciate that, my friend. Have a great weekend.
HERB: Absolutely -- you, too.
ROMANS: Thank you.
All right. A man who plotted to bomb New York City's subways goes free in a matter of days. Najibullah Zazi has been locked up since 2009.
He has spent a decade helping the United States identify and prosecute terrorists. He was rewarded for his help Thursday with a 10-year prison sentence equal to the time he has already served.
BRIGGS: A federal judge in Brooklyn citing his extraordinary cooperation with investigators.
Zazi pleaded guilty in 2010 to three charges connected to a plot to bomb the subway around the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. On Thursday, Zazi told the court, "I tried my best to correct my
horrific mistake. I am not the same person. I find it almost to imagine what I was involved in, in 2008 and 2009."
ROMANS: Facebook is purging some high-profile people from its platform, saying they're dangerous.
They include Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, notorious for using anti-Semitic language. And right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was banned from Facebook last summer but still maintained a presence on Instagram. Instagram is owned by Facebook.
BRIGGS: Also banned, Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semite who ran unsuccessfully for Congress, along with fringe right-wing media personalities Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer, as well as Paul Joseph Watson.
Facebook said it has always banned individuals or organizations that promote violence and hate regardless of ideology, but critics quick to point out Facebook did not take action against the accounts at the time they were actually in violation of the company's rules.
[05:40:08] ROMANS: All right. This morning, tributes pouring in for actor Peter Mayhew who played Han Solo's loveable Wookiee sidekick Chewbacca in the "Star Wars" franchise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY DANIELS, ACTOR, "STAR WARS": He made a fair move. Screaming about it can't help you.
FORD: Let him have it. It's not wise to upset a Wookiee.
DANIELS: But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid.
FORD: That's because a droid don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lost. Wookiees are known to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMAN: Mayhew died this week at his home in north Texas. He was 74.
Mayhew fit the bill for the Wookiee, standing more than seven feet tall. He played Chewbacca in the original "Star Wars" trilogy and reprised the character in "Revenge of the Sith" and "The Force Awakens." He consulted on "The Last Jedi" to help guide his successor.
BRIGGS: A memorial is planned for fans in December in Los Angeles before the release of the new "Star Wars" film, the final chapter in the Skywalker saga.
Co-star Harrison Ford says in a statement, "Peter Mayhew was a kind and gentle man, possessed of great dignity and noble character."
And, Luke Skywalker, himself, Mark Hamill, tweeted this tribute to Mayhew. "He was the gentlest of giants, a big man with an even bigger heart who never failed to make me smile, and a loyal friend who I loved dearly."
He was discovered as an orderly by John Lucas (sic) at King's College Hospital in the radiology department.
ROMANS: Oh, really?
BRIGGS: Such an iconic actor.
Ahead, Florida voters said most ex-felons could vote, but the State Legislature has approved a new hurdle to make that happen.
ROMANS: And, Dr. Sanjay Gupta voyages through one of the darkest, coldest countries and finds some of the happiest people. What's Norway's secret? "CHASING LIFE WITH DR. SANJAY GUPTA" tomorrow night at 9:00 Eastern.
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[05:46:13] BRIGGS: Five forty-six Eastern time.
Wicked storms still devastating the central U.S.
Neighborhoods ripped to shreds in Little Rock, Arkansas. The National Weather Service confirming two tornadoes hit the state.
The Mississippi River hitting record levels in Iowa. This is Burlington. Flooding stretching for miles.
Sixteen million people from Texas to Indiana now under a flash flood watch. Severe weather shifting east for the weekend.
Here's meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good Friday morning, Christine and Dave.
We have a soggy start to the day, once again, across the Southern Plains. This frontal boundary where you see a few different areas of low pressure responsible for our precipitation, and that will extend across Tennessee all the way to the mid-Atlantic and the New England coastline through the afternoon. So maybe a passing shower from Charleston into the nation's capital, as well as the Big Apple.
Keep an eye to the sky. You see that shading of yellow across central and southern Texas? That is a slight risk of severe weather -- damaging winds, large hail, and maybe an isolated tornado as well.
We do have a marginal risk of severe storms across West Virginia and parts of Maryland as well.
Look at the active weather across the region. We get the daytime heating from the sun and thunderstorms start to fire up by later this afternoon and evening.
Then we see that chance of severe weather shift eastward as we head into the day on Saturday, including Atlanta all the way to the New Orleans region.
Check out these temperatures. Quite a difference between New York and D.C. today. Fifty-seven for the Big Apple, 84 for Washington. We cool off by the end of the weekend.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Derek Van Dam. Thank you for that.
At least two people have already died in the worst cyclone to hit India in two decades. One hundred million people said to be in the path of Tropical Cyclone Fani. It made landfall overnight near Puri in the Indian state of Odisha.
Sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, that's equivalent to a super typhoon or category four hurricane.
Eleven districts along India's east coast are on red alert.
BRIGGS: To the crisis now in Venezuela as clashes between demonstrators and police escalate. Self-declared president Juan Guaido vow the deaths of protesters will not be in vain.
Meantime, a court supporting embattled President Nicolas Maduro has issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez.
CNN's Paula Newton is live for us on the ground in Caracas. Paula, good morning.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning, Dave.
We await to see the opposition's next move. They are saying here that right now, they want people to continue to hit the streets with a national strike and then continued protests. Juan Guaido saying that is the only way that their protest movement -- their opposition movement will work in order to dislodge President Nicolas Maduro.
What's interesting here Dave is they're saying they're going to take some of those protests on Saturday right to the military installations. And now, while that is true that it will be confrontational, I've seen it myself on the streets here where you will have the protestors literally face-to-face with military guard personnel and saying look, I know you're hungry -- I know you're hungry like me. I know you want to join us.
That has led, as I said, to more violence and confrontation. The opposition continuing to maintain it, saying look, we want a peaceful transition. But it seems those pitched battles on the streets continue to be inevitable. The U.S. Trump administration, of course, continuing to try and figure this all out. They thought three days ago that Juan Guaido did have the backing of three top military leaders in order to oust Nicolas Maduro out of office. That hasn't happened.
But, both Leopoldo Lopez and Juan Guaido continue to say that they are talking to top officials in the military here, something that is backed by the Trump administration that continues to try and negotiate with Russia.
Between Russia and the United States, very interesting. Both sides saying stay out of Venezuela and yet, both sides continuing to negotiate to see if they can try and find a compromise on the ground -- Dave.
BRIGGS: Another crucial day ahead.
Paula Newton live for us in Venezuela this morning, thank you.
[05:50:02] ROMANS: All right, Friday morning -- it's just that time in the morning. Let's get a check on "CNN Business" right now.
Wall Street futures barely moving, leaning higher here. Investors are waiting for this April jobs report that comes out at 8:30 Eastern time.
Stocks were down yesterday. That's a day after the Fed decided to keep interest rates unchanged. The Dow lost about 122 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both closed slightly lower.
After today's jobs report, investors will turn their attention back to trade talks. Talks to end the U.S.-China trade war -- it looks like they're nearing the finish line. The Chinese vice premier -- he will be in D.C. on May eighth.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, yesterday, said talks are almost done. Still ironing out a few critical issues here but folks around the trade world say this thing looks like it's nearing the finish line.
Meatless burgers are growing in popularity and Beyond Meat is cashing in. Beyond Meat made its Wall Street debut Thursday trading at $46.00 a share, up 84 percent over its IPO price of $25.00. That values the company at $3.7 billion.
The increase shows just how hot demand for plant-based protein is right now. More consumers are turning to meat alternatives to keep healthier diets and to reduce their impact on the environment.
We'll be right back.
[05:55:26] BRIGGS: Melting glaciers due to climate change on Mt. Everest revealing a horrifying reality.
A clean-up team in Nepal recently picked up tons of garbage from the mountain, but they also found bodies of climbers who died trying to scale the summit. They expect to pick up some 11 tons of trash in a 45-day cleaning period that began last month.
ROMANS: Five top drug company executives have been found guilty in a bribery case involving the opioid Fentanyl.
The multi-billion-dollar -- multibillionaire founder of INSYS Therapeutics, John Kapoor, and four other top execs convicted of racketeering. Prosecutors said their scheme involved bribes, kickbacks, even lap dances for physicians who prescribed large amounts of the company's Fentanyl spray to patients who didn't need it. They lied to insurance companies to cover it all up.
It's a first-ever conviction of a drug company CEO in the Fed's fight against the opioid crisis. Appeals seem likely.
BRIGGS: Ex-cons in Florida would have to pay to vote under a bill passed by the State Senate. The measure requires felons to pay all court-ordered restitution fees, fine, and costs before their right to vote is restored.
Republicans argue the payments are part of completing a sentence, while Democrats call it a hurdle voter did not intend when they approved the new constitutional amendment in November. A judge can waive the payments or convert them into community service hours.
The bill now goes back to the State House.
Two Florida teens prayed for help after being swept out to sea and boy, were their prayers answered.
Eric Wagner and his crew were sailing from Florida to New Jersey last month when they heard what he calls a desperate scream two miles offshore. They saw an arm flailing in the ocean, turned the boat around, and rescued two teenagers.
The name of the boat, the "Amen."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYLER SMITH, SWIMMER RESCUED BY THE "AMEN": I was like, if you really do have a plan for us just, like, come on -- just bring something.
HEATHER BROWN, SWIMMER RESCUED BY THE "AMEN": The name of their boat is the "Amen." I started crying.
SMITH: There's no other reason or, like, explanation in the world that that wasn't God.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Wow. Tyler Smith and Heather Brown say they had been in the water almost two hours when the "Amen" came to their rescue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX TREBEK, HOST, "JEOPARDY!": Did you come up with The Glass Menagerie? You did, indeed. And what did you wager -- $29,403. That gives you a nice payday today
of $80,615 and you have gone over a million-six -- $1,608,627.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Who is unstoppable? "JEOPARDY!" sensation James Holzhauer just won his 21st in a row. It puts him all alone now in second place for the most consecutive wins ever on "JEOPARDY!"
Holzhauer will try for number 22 on tonight's episode. The show will then break for a "JEOPARDY!" teachers' tournament.
BRIGGS: Burger King wants you to know it's OK to be grumpy. No one is happy all the time.
The fast-food chain rolling out a new line of real meals to reflect real moods, an obvious nod to McDonald's happy meals. These meals come in boxes that say feeling your way is just as important as ordering your way.
They're trying to raise awareness about mental health and combating social media pressure to be happy all the time. The promotional meals will only be available in five cities during May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month.
ROMANS: There is a lot of pressure to be happy all the time and perfect all the time.
BRIGGS: There is.
ROMANS: Like, just watch -- look at Instagram. It's all these perfect people and their perfect lives. It's like come on, I'm going to have a --
BRIGGS: We're not always happy.
ROMANS: I'm lazy and tired. That's the happy meal I'm going to have today. All right.
Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm happy, it's Friday. Do what makes you happy today. Go play some golf with your crew. I don't know, whatever you do.
ROMANS: I need a nap.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. I'll take a nap, too. Here's "NEW DAY."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The White House has no leverage over McGahn.
TRUMP: I've had him testifying already. I don't think I can let him and then tell everybody else you can't. It's done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Executive privilege is there. He has a really strong case.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Why don't you ask Bob Mueller? And I said well, I will.
PELOSI: The attorney general is not telling the truth. That's a crime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The argument that he lied is overwrought. The attorney general still doesn't know whether Mueller agrees with that conclusion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to respect the rule of law. It would be in the best interest of our country if he resigns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Friday, May third, 6:00 here in New York, and the news continues.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, yes.
CAMEROTA: It does not change.
END
