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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Tensions Spike In Trio Of Hotspots; Trump Doesn't Want Mueller To Testify; Russian Plane Crash Kills 41; Kentucky Derby Drama; Russian Foreign Minister On Trump-Putin Phone Call; Trump Renews China Tariff Threat; Hundreds Of Rockets Fired From Gaza Toward Israel; North Korea Missile Test; Kamala Harris Takes Campaign To Michigan; Boeing Safety Crisis; Brunei Backtracks On Death Penalty For Gays, Adulterers; Avengers Endgame Reaches $2 Billion Globally; More Severe Storms In Central U.S.; Adam Sandler Returns To SNL; Uber And Lyft Drivers To Strike Before Uber IPO. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired May 06, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: Tensions escalating in three global hot spots, the U.S. deploys a strike group to counter Iran. A tenuous cease fire between Israel and Gaza and global market plummet after the president threatens to expand his trade war with China.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: The president reversed his course and now says Robert Mueller should not testify, so why try and keep the special counsel quiet?
ROMANS: Forty one people including an American perished when a Russian jet crashes during an emergency landing.
BRIGGS: And after a historic disqualification at the derby, the owner of Maximum Security could take the derby result to court. What a sloppy mess it was, not talking about the track. Welcome back to "Early Start," and our beautiful New Hudson yard studio here. First day, I'm Dave Briggs. Welcome home.
ROMANS: Welcome home, our new home here, I'm Christine Romans, it is 31 -- almost 32 minutes past the hour. Let begin here. Breaking overnight, the U.S. deploying a carrier strike group and a bomber task force in response to what the White House calls troubling actions by Iran.
Officials not detailing the nature of threats, but telling CNN they were against both U.S. sea and land based forces in the Middle East. The deployments are aimed specifically at deterring any Iranian military action. Let's bring in CNN's Frederik Pleitgen. He joins us with more from Finland. He is there, because the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is headed there right now. All right. So bring us up to speed on what these threats are, what we know about these threats from Iran and the response from the United States.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there Christine. Well, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and also National Security Adviser John Bolton have been saying, really on the past couple of days and the past couple of weeks, there have been threats by the Iranians against U.S. military assets in the greater eastern area and specifically in the strait, Hormuz, of course that vital waterway that boarders Iran, there are a lot of the world's oil traffic goes through, but also a lot of military activity taking place there as well.
Now, National Security Adviser John Bolton, he came out and he claimed the following, he said that the deployment of these carrier strike group is quote to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime as he calls it that any attack on the United States interest or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.
Now, it's quite interesting, because over the past couple of weeks, Christine, I have been able to speak to some senior military commanders in Iran, and the Iranian revolutionary guard corps and they did say that if there was an escalation with the United States, one of the things that they possibly could do was to hit American military targets in the region, and one of the places they were specifically talking about was the Strait of Hormuz was that vital waterway.
Now, the interesting thing is that Iranian Foreign Minister, he has got a bit of a different tune, he is sort of trying -- to try to sow divisions within the Trump administration. He came out just a couple of days ago and said that he does not believe that President Trump wants an escalation or a war with Iran, but he does believe that others in the administration like for instance Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are more so inclined which then obviously brings us to where we are right now, the Secretary of State meeting with Russia's foreign minister. Of course, those two countries not seeing eye to eye almost anywhere in the world. One of the main topics could be Iran, could also be the crisis in Venezuela as well, Christine.
ROMANS: Of course. All right, Fred Pleitgen for us, thank you, keeping us up to speed on developments there.
BRIGGS: All right, to Middle East now, at this hour, a ceasefire appears to be taking hold between Israel and militants in Gaza. The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been threatening massive attacks against terrorist elements in the region after an estimated 600 rockets were fired toward Israel. CNN's Oren Liebermann has the latest live from the Israel Gaza border where it appears quiet this morning. Oren, good morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[04:35:04] OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave. It was Palestinian and Islamic Jihad inside of Gaza here, behind me that announced that a ceasefire had taken effect at 4:30 in the morning. And since 4:30 and just before that we haven't heard any of what we have heard here over the course of the past 48 hours. That is rocket fire or air strikes or interception of Israel's iron dome aerial defense system.
Now Israel has not acknowledged or confirmed the ceasefire in any way. It rarely does, but at 7:00 in the morning the Israeli military says that civilian restrictions on the communities around Gaza had been lifted and that is as clear an indication as any that in fact a ceasefire is holding right now, and that the Israeli military believes it will hold at least in the immediate future.
Let's review this round of fighting, the worst since the end of the 2014 war. Israeli says, nearly 700 rockets were fired from Gaza, not only short-range rockets, but medium-range rockets that reached some of the largest cities in southern Israel as well as even an anti-tank missile that targeted a civilian vehicle from inside of Gaza into Israel. Four people were killed in Israel during this fighting.
Meanwhile, Israel carried out a wave of strikes against targets in Gaza from the air, from artillery and from tanks that is according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health killed 23 people in Gaza. Smaller targets at first, military posts and then escalating into larger targets, multistory building that Israel says were terror infrastructure and then the first targeted killing the Israeli military has carried out in several years, and that gives you an idea of where this escalation was heading.
The U.N. and Egypt stepping in here for the very beginning trying to restore a ceasefire, trying to bring both sides back from a brink of another level of escalation. It took nearly 48 hours, but it appears at least so far that they have succeeded. Dave, it's interesting to note the U.S. clearly came out on Israel's side, but the U.N. and the E.U. both said it is Gaza here that needs to stop firing rockets.
BRIGGS: Oren Liebermann there from the suddenly quiet Israel Gaza border, thank you, sir.
ROMANS: All right. Not quiet, the trade war with the U.S. and China. Trade trouble this morning, the president threatening to jack up tariffs on Chinese good and add new tariffs, Trump threatening to increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent this morning, and he warned he could tax nearly all of the roughly $500 billion of Chinese exports to the U.S., a departure from recent upbeat messaging's on those trade talks. And this is the president just Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The deal itself is going along pretty well. I would even say very well. We'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks, but we're getting close to a very historic monumental deal. And if it doesn't happen, we'll be fine too, may be even better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Support from the president's sharp tone from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who said this, strength is the only way to win with China. Now, the threat caught trade watchers by surprise. Chinese negotiators are scheduled to arrive in D.C. on Wednesday. The "Wall Street Journal" reporting China is now considering pulling out of those talks. Global markets tumbling as you might expect. Now Japanese markets are
closed for a public holiday, so is London. But everything else showing big declines and Wall Street futures are down hard as well, foreshadowing more than 400 point decline for the DOW, for the almost 2 percent. Now, Trump's threat came via tweet in which he said, China is paying that tariff bill and that is been good for the U.S. economy. Fact check, the bill is paid by U.S. importers and consumers. The Chinese do not write a check to the American treasury as the president often says. This threat once again though getting in the way of a great economic message for the president, all, but burying the very good news from a strong jobs report last week.
And this just in, China's foreign ministry says the U.S. should work with China for an agreement based on quote mutual respect adding that the U.S. has threatened new tariffs numerous times in the past.
BRIGGS: Forty one people including one American killed in a fire aboard a Russian passenger plane. We do want to warn you some of the video you're about to see is disturbing. The jet made an emergency crash landing and caught fire Sunday at a Moscow airport.
Two children are among the dead. The air flight super jet 100 was flying from Moscow to (inaudible) according to the Interfacts News Agency. It was hit by lightning, lost communication, and circled back to the airport where it made a hard landing and caught fire, 37 people did survive.
ROMANS: All right. President Trump reverses course, reverse his course rather now says Robert Mueller should not testify before Congress. In apparent tweet, Trump suggest that Democrats are looking for a redo because Mueller couldn't prove collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The president was asked Friday about the possibility of Mueller testifying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, should Mueller testify? Would you like to see him testify?
TRUMP: I don't know. That is up to our attorney general, who I think has done a fantastic job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So the president says it's up to the A.G.
[04:40:00] BRIGGS: But Bill Barr didn't seem to mind when he testified just last week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about Bob Mueller, should he be allowed to testify before this?
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I have already said publicly, I have no objection. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: So, what change and why doesn't the president want to hear from Mueller? Well, who knows? Trump's reversal came after House Judiciary member, David Cicilline said, the committee had reached a tentative date of May 15th for Mueller to testify. Mueller has yet to confirm that date.
Democratic candidates looking to energize their presidential campaigns now that Joe Biden has entered the race and stolen some of their thunder. Kamala Harris making a stop in Michigan, a critical state that Hillary Clinton lost. Harris spoke to the Detroit chapter of the NAACP about electability. She says the preconceived notion that the voters choose a nominee base on age, race or gender is wrong. The California Senator also wants to stem the tide of hate in America and is putting social media companies on notice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will hold social media platforms accountable for the hate infiltrating their platforms, because they have a responsibility. If you profit off of hate, if you act as a megaphone for misinformation or cyber warfare, if you don't police your platforms, we are going to hold you accountable as a community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Bernie Sanders in Iowa to announce his plan to support rural America, the Vermont Senator vowing to strengthen regulations to protect small family farms.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In rural America, we are seeing giants Agri-business conglomerates extract as much wealth, as much wealth out of small communities as they possibly can while family farmers are going bankrupt and in many ways, are being treated like modern day indentured servants.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: But Colorado Senator Michael Bennet entering the race, 21 Democrats are now running for president.
BRIGGS: Breaking overnight, Boeing confirming it was aware of problems with its 737 Max fleet well before last October's deadly Lion Air crash and decided to do nothing about it. Boeing previously acknowledged an alert system that was supposed to be a standard feature in the fleet was not (inaudible) on all airplanes. But the company now says its engineers discovered flight control software was not meeting requirements in 2017. Safety review committees from Boeing and the FAA determined it was a low risk problem.
ROMANS: That was before the first of two crashes possibly involving the software killed 346 people. Boeing and the FAA are already facing scrutiny over the process for designing and certifying commercial jets in the U.S. The company says neither its senior leadership nor the FAA knew about the software issue until after the Lion Air crash.
BRIGGS: The results of the Kentucky Derby could be headed to court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They disqualified him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So for the first time in the history of the Kentucky Derby, the horse that crossed the line first has been disqualified.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Gary West, the owner of Maximum Security, tells the daily racing form, he wants to appeal the steward's decision, but according to Kentucky regulations, the decision is final and not subject to appeal, 65-1 Long Shot Country House was declared the derby winner.
ROMANS: The jockey aboard Country House, Flavian Pratt's says Maximum Security drifted and turned Pratt's Horse sideways.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA BORDEN, KENTUCKY CHIEF STEWARD: The riders of the 18 and 20 horses in the Kentucky Derby lodged objections against the seven horse, the winner, due to interference. We determined that the seven horse drifted out and impacted the progress of number one in turn interfering with the 18 and 21.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: President Trump weighed in on the results. He blamed the decision on political correctness. The second leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes will be run on May 18th in Pimlico race course in Baltimore.
BRIGGS: Had nothing to do with the political correctness. A lot of people hated this decision. It was the right decision based on interference, it's just a sport that most people don't understand. It's a sport that most of us watch once or twice a year.
Ahead, Kim Jong-un fires off a missile just days after meeting with Vladimir Putin, but the president doesn't seem too concerned. We're live in Seoul.
[04:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIGGS: New satellite images obtained exclusively by CNN showed the smoke trail of a rocket launched by North Korea on Friday. It is believed to be a short range missile, and has the Trump administration scrambling to salvage nuclear talks with the regime. Let's go live to Seoul and bring in CNN's Paula Hancock. Paula, good morning. PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Dave. Well, we just have
new information coming in, the intelligence agency here in South Korea has briefed lawmakers today. In just the past few minutes, those lawmakers have been briefing reporters saying that the NIS believes that what happened on Saturday morning local time with North Korea launches was not as provocative as before. They specify to lawmakers that North Korea had insisted that they were regular drills and they were defensive in nature.
And when asked by lawmakers why exactly South Korea hadn't responded in some kind of way, the lawmakers were effectively quoting the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, pointing out that no countries were under threat. So this is certainly a different kind of response than we are used to when North Korea carries out these kinds of launches. But this is exactly what U.S. Secretary of State had said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:50:00] MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: So we know a couple of things. One, at no point was there ever any international boundary crossed, that is they landed in the water east of North Korea, and didn't present a threat to the United States or to South Korea or to Japan. We know that they were relatively short range. We still believe that there's an opportunity to get a negotiated outcome where we get fully verified denuclearization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS: One thing that Secretary Pompeo also mentioned that is getting a lot of attention here in the region was specifying that North Korea hadn't actually broken a moratorium on long range missile testing or intercontinental ballistic missile testing, those that potentially could hit mainland United States. But of course, these short-range ballistic missile can still hit South Korea. Dave?
BRIGGS: Yes, the Trump administration giving an awfully long leash. Paula Hancocks live for us in Seoul, thank you.
ROMANS: All right. The nation of Brunei is backtracking on a new law that would allow homosexuals and adulteress to be stoned to death. The controversial law took effect last month. Brunei's Sultan claims there were many questions and misconceptions regarding the implementation of the law.
The change comes after the law prompted a global backlash. Major celebrities like George Clooney and many others called for a boycott of hotels around the world owned by the sultan of Brunei. Some top hotels in London and Hollywood that many people said they would boycott.
All right. This, the best movie in the history of the world. I have seen it, I agree, Avengers End Game.
BRIGGS: We can finally talk about it.
ROMANS: It is still dominating office -- the box office, it is the second highest grossing film of all time.
BRIGGS: In less than two weeks.
ROMANS: I know, CNN business has the details next. Even the song makes me happy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Another wet week ahead for the already soaked middle part of the country. Flash flooding possible for hard hit Davenport, Iowa, you have heard of a baseball diamond, I love his baseball diamond, that's the baseball island in the middle of the Mississippi River which crested at a record 22.7 feet Thursday. This is my hometown, by the way.
BRIGGS: Yes, I know.
ROMANS: More rain starting today. Going to extend the time the area's rivers remain above flood stage. It's been about 30 days of water logged conditions here. At least 7 deaths have been reported in flooding last week in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Indiana.
BRIGGS: Welcome home old friend to SNL.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Sandler.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: That is right, Water Boy Adam Sandler returning to Saturday
Night Live for the first time since 1995 when he was fired. The sandman brought back one of his classic characters to weigh in on 2020.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have slim chance, they no wear pants-o, Beto will have to wait, oh, here we go again, 70-year-old men.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Well done opera man. With Sandler ended the night on an emotional note with a musical tribute to his late friend and SNL legend Chris Farley.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last big hang we had was at Timmy Meadows wedding party, we laughed all night all because of Farley, but a few more slave the party came to an end, we flew out to Madison to bury our friend nothing was harder than saying good-bye, except watching Chris's father have his turn to cry. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Funny and sad too.
BRIGGS: He was hysterical, but that was not the tone you expected it to end on. But Chris Farley is surely missed from the comedic world.
ROMANS: Those guys were good friend.
(CROSSTALK)
All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this Monday morning. Global markets reacting to o President Trump's renewed tariff threat against China. Basically everything is down, guys. Japanese markets are closed for public holiday. The FTSE, you see the markets up, because it's closed too for a holiday. Everything else has taken a hit, Wall Street futures also down sharply here.
You know, pretending a 400 point decline at the open, almost 2 percent. Stocks ended the week though slightly higher. The NASDAQ hit a record high Friday, closing above 8100 points for the year. The DOW is up 13.5 percent, NASDAQ up 17 percent, 22 percent for the NASDAQ, the president's tariff threat many caught many of you by surprise, and they say for anybody who is looking to -- maybe take profits after such a big run, renewed problems with China on tariffs could be the reason.
All right. Uber and Lyft drivers are joining forces to strike just days ahead of Uber's Wall Street debut. Drivers in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco expected to protest by logging off their respective apps for two hours Wednesday morning. According to the New York taxi workers alliance, drivers are protesting for livable incomes, job security, and they want regulated fares. Right now, New York City is the only market with a minimum wage law for ride hail drivers. Drivers are supposed to earn 17.22 an hour, that's the equivalent of a $15 minimum wage in New York. Uber is expected to begin trade publicly on Friday.
Avengers Endgame, I love you 3,000. It is still dominating the box office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 3, 2, 1.
END
