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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Avengers: Endgame Dominates Global Box Office; U.S. Deploys Carrier, Bombers in Warning to Iran; President Trump Renews China Tariff Threat. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 06, 2019 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: Friday. "Avengers: Endgame", I love you, 3,000. It is still dominating the Box Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No fears, no regrets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The superhero film crossed the $2 billion mark at the global Box Office, and it only took 11 short days to do it. "Endgame" is now the second highest grossing film of all time -- OK, movie buffs, what movie did it beat?

The king of the world, James Cameron's 1997 hit titanic that earned 2.1 billion at the global Box Office, so where does "Endgame" go from here? The film sits behind the highest grossing film in history. Guess what it is.

DAVE BRIGGS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: Well, I've read a lot about this. "Avatar" took more than 5,000 days to reach that level.

ROMANS: Right, and then --

BRIGGS: It appears "Endgame" will blow by that --

ROMANS: It's unbelievable --

BRIGGS: In three or four weeks.

ROMANS: It was good, it wrapped everything up, I love the storyline, I love the finish, I loved all of it.

BRIGGS: It's incredible and the spoiler is over, and you can talk about it today --

ROMANS: That's price I saw yesterday, because I knew looking at the time, was running out.

BRIGGS: Now, we can chat. EARLY START from Hudson Yards in New York City continues right now.

ROMANS: Tensions flare in three global hot spots, the U.S. deploying a strike group to counter Iran, a tenuous ceasefire now between Israel and Gaza. And global markets plummet after the president threatens new tariffs in his trade war with China.

BRIGGS: The president reverses course and says Bob Mueller should not testify. 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, the owner of Maximum Security could take the Kentucky Derby results to court. What a mess it was over the weekend, and well beyond the track. Good morning, everyone, welcome to EARLY START in our new studios here in Hudson Yards.

ROMANS: Right here in Hudson Yards --

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans, it's Monday, May 6th, it's 5:00 a.m. in the east, and so far everything here is working here. Breaking overnight, the U.S. is deploying a carrier strike group and a bomber task force to deter what the White House calls troubling actions by Iran.

Officials, they're not detailing the nature of the threats, but telling CNN those threats were against both U.S. sea and land-based forces in the Middle East. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen joins us with more. He is in Finland where the American Secretary of State is headed right now. Hi, Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right, Christine. One of the things that U.S. officials have been talking about over the past couple of weeks, specifically Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was threats against U.S. assets in the greater Middle Eastern area, specifically of course in the Persian Gulf and there, the Strait of Hormuz; that very narrow waterway where you very frequently have U.S. and Iranian military assets in very close proximity.

Now, the U.S. National Security adviser, John Bolton, he came out and he said the following, quote, "he said the U.S. is trying to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force."

Now, it's quite interesting to hear what the Iranians have to say about this. Because he was in Iran a couple of times over the past couple of months, and one of the things that senior Iranian military officials, including members of the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps have told me, they said that yes, if there is an escalation with the United States hitting American bases in the Middle East and also American assets in the Strait of Hormuz, that would be something that would be in the cards for the Iranians.

Now, it's quite interesting to hear, the Iranian Foreign Minister because he came out just a couple of days ago, and he sort of playing on divisions that he believes are out there in the Trump administration, saying he believes that President Trump does not want an escalation or a war with Iran.

But he believes that for instance, National Security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo might be more so inclined. Bringing that to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, he is obviously meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov here in Finland. One of the key topics also, the crisis in Venezuela, Christine.

ROMANS: Absolutely, all right, Fred Pleitgen for us, thank you so much.

BRIGGS: All right, to the Middle East now, at this hour, a ceasefire appears to be taking hold between Israel and militants in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been threatening, quote, "massive attacks against terrorist elements in the region after an estimated 600 rockets were fired toward Israel."

CNN's Oren Liebermann has the latest for us live from the Israel-Gaza border. Oren, good morning.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave. That ceasefire was announced by Palestinian Islamic Jihad inside of Gaza. And they say took effect at 4:30 this morning, and true to that, since that time, it has been quiet above the skies of Gaza.

[05:05:00] We have been at this spot along the Gaza border for most of the past 48 hours, and if you stood here for more than a few minutes, you would see either rocket fire or an Israeli airstrike or an interception by Israel's Iron Dome aerial defense system. Now, it has been quite, the calm has been restored.

Israel rarely if ever acknowledges a ceasefire, but at 7:00 this morning, Israel lifted civilian restrictions around Gaza, the strongest indication yet that the Israeli military expects this round of fighting to be over. And this round was the worst round of fighting since the end of the 2014 war.

The military says more than 700 rockets were fired from Gaza or nearly 700 rockets were fired from Gaza, not only short-range rockets that would hit around where we're standing now, but also more powerful medium-range rockets that target some of the major cities in southern Israel.

A guided anti-tank missile was also fired at an Israeli car. Four people in Israel killed by that fire. Meanwhile, Israel carried out a wave of some 350 -- a wave of strikes against some 350 targets inside of Gaza, and again, those escalated as well throughout the fighting from smaller military posts to multi-storey buildings and then the first targeted killings we've seen Israel carry out in years. The Ministry of Health there saying 23 Gazans were killed. Dave, it

is worth noting, no surprise the U.S. has strongly backed Israel, but even the UN and the EU stepping in here to condemn the rocket fire from Gaza.

BRIGGS: OK, quiet if only for a moment. Oren Liebermann live along the Israel-Gaza border, thank you.

ROMANS: All right, trade trouble this morning. The president threatening to jack up tariffs on Chinese goods and add new tariffs. Trump threatening to increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods to 25 percent from 10 percent, starting this Friday.

And he warned, he could tax nearly all of the roughly $500 billion of Chinese exports to the U.S., that's a departure from recent upbeat messaging on those trade talks. This is the president just last 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, maybe even better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right, support for the president's sharp tone from Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer who said this, "strength is the only way to win with China." 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 are tumbling as you would expect. Japanese markets are closed for a public holiday so is London. Everything else though is down big. Look, Shanghai down more than 5 percent, 2 percent move for the other European markets.

Trump's threat came via tweet, in which he said, "China is paying that tariff bill and that has been good for the U.S. economy. Fact-check, the bill is paid by U.S. importers and U.S. consumers. The bill from Customs goes to the American importers, not the Chinese government."

Now, this threat once again is getting in the way of a great economic message for the president, all but burying the good news from Friday from that strong jobs report last week. Now, new this morning, China's Foreign Ministry is reacting, says the U.S. should work with China for an agreement based on quote, "mutual respect."

And a foreign ministry said the U.S. has threatened tariffs numerous times in the past. The spokesperson declined to comment if the Chinese delegation still plans to travel to Washington.

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 Aeroflot super jet 100 was flying from Moscow to Murmansk. According to the "Interfax 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 survived.

ROMANS: President Trump reverses course and now says Robert Mueller should not testify before Congress. In a pair of tweets, Trump suggests 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's up to our Attorney General who I think has done a fantastic job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: So the president says it's up to his AG, but Bill Barr didn't seem to mind when he testified last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about Bob Mueller, should he be allowed to testify before the --

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL, UNITED STATES: I have already said publicly, I have no objection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: So what changed, and why doesn't the president want to hear from Mueller? Who knows? Trump's reversal came after House Judiciary chairman --and member rather, David Cicilline said the committee had reached a tentative date of May 15th for Mueller to testify.

[05:10:00] Mueller is yet to confirm that date.

ROMANS: Next up for Michael Cohen, the federal prison of Otisville, New York. President Trump's former lawyer and fixer set to begin his three-year sentence today for crimes that included arranging a hush money scheme at the president's direction.

It caps a nearly year-long saga since Cohen publicly broke with the president and later implicated him in federal crimes. Cohen had sought to reduce his prison sentence, offering to provide federal prosecutors and congressional investigators with more documents about the president and his associates.

That outreach has largely been rebuffed since Cohen testified before Congress back in February. BRIGGS: All right, it turns out Boeing knew two years ago about

problems with the 737 Max fleet. It was classified, a quote, "low risk problem."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIGGS: Five-fourteen eastern. Let's talk 2020 Democratic candidates are looking energized there. Presidential campaigns, now that Joe Biden has entered the race and stolen a considerable amount of their thunder. Kamala Harris, making a stop in Michigan.

[05:15:00] A critical state that Hillary Clinton lost. Harris told the "Detroit Chapter" of the NAACP that preconceived notion that voters choose a nominee based on age, race or gender is wrong. 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), 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 (D-VT), 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.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Colorado Senator Michael Bennet entering the race, 21 Democrats are now running for president.

BRIGGS: 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 standard in the fleet was not operable on all planes.

But the company now says as early as 2017, its engineers discovered flight control software was not meeting requirements. Safety review committees from Boeing and the FAA determined it was a quote, "low- risk problem."

ROMANS: That was before the first of two crashes, possibly involving the software. Three hundred and forty six people died in both of those accidents. The company says neither its senior leadership nor the FAA knew about the software issues until after the Lion Air crash.

BRIGGS: The result of the Kentucky Derby could be headed to court.

(WORLD SPORTS)

Yes, first time in 145 derbies. Gary West, owner of Maximum Security tells the Daily Racing Forum he wants to appeal the steward's decision, but according to Kentucky regulations, the decision is final and not subject to appeal. Sixty five to one long shot, Country House was declared the derby winner.

ROMANS: The jockey aboard Country House Flavien Prat says Maximum Security drifted and turned Prat'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 result, blaming the decision on political correctness. The second leg of horse racing is Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes will be run on May 18th at Pimlico race course in Baltimore.

BRIGGS: Yes, and we watched that sport, once, twice, maybe three times a year, most of us who are kind of --

ROMANS: I know --

BRIGGS: Adds to the confusion and shroud of secrecy around horse racing.

ROMANS: I know --

BRIGGS: Made the right call, but --

ROMANS: But the --

BRIGGS: Bad for the sport.

ROMANS: Right, well, we'll see.

BRIGGS: All right, another sport ahead. A Giant's pitcher gives up three home runs, but he gets the last laugh. Andy Scholes tells us how in the "BLEACHER REPORT" next.

[05:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIGGS: Well, the second round of the NBA playoffs heating up. The Denver Nuggets showing amazing resiliency to even their series with the Blazers. Andy Scholes has that story in the "BLEACHER REPORT". Andy, good morning to you, my friend. And Nuggets star Nikola Jokic is something I think NBA fans have arguably never seen before.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: That's right, and he's having a coming out party in these playoffs because he has been just so good. And you know, your Nuggets, Dave, they lost the longest playoff game in NBA history on Friday, four overtimes.

Do you think it would have been tough to bounce back from that emotional loss. But you know, they're superstars, Nikola Yokic showing why he is one of the best players in the NBA last night in game four.

Yokic, he played in 65 minutes in game three. That was the fourth most ever in a playoff game. You think he would have been a little tired, but the 44-year-old Serbian star just trucking along, helping the Nuggets make all the big plays a late in this game.

He had 21 points to go along with 12 rebounds and 11 assists. Jamal Murray leading all scorers with 34 points in this one. The Nuggets get a big win in game 4, 116-112 to even the series. And after the game, Yokic, he was trying to take the mic off his stand so he could lean back in his chair and relax, and he accidentally broke it off. You see there, his reaction was priceless.

The Raptors also able to pull even in their series with the Sixers and yes, that's the Raptors, not the Atlanta Hawks that people were joking that those jerseys look like the Hawks.

[05:25:00] Those already (INAUDIBLE) jersey the Raptors wear on occasion. Now, Kawhi Leonard in this game just dominant. In a minute to go, he had that step back three, he had 39 points as the Raptors win 101-96.

The playoffs continue tonight, a pair of game 4, Celtics hosting the Boston, you got the Rockets hosting the Warriors, both of those games are on "TNT". All right, Giants starter, Jeff Samardzija didn't get off to the best start yesterday, the Reds hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs off Samardzija on three straight pitches in the first inning.

But hey, he pulled it together after that. Samardzija didn't give up a run over the next four innings, and the Giants actually ended up winning the game 6-5. All right, finally, it was senior day in Austin, Texas, for the long haul in softball team. Ki'Audra Hayter flanked by her mom and dad for the pre-game ceremony.

Now, her brother La'Kedran unfortunately is serving in the Army and stationed in Okinawa, Japan, he couldn't be there, so he recorded a video message which they played for Ki'Audra. But get this, La'Kedran was there and he comes out to surprise her, and you see her just fall to the ground in tears. This is the first time they had seen each other in person in three

years. I'll tell you what, Dave, no matter what, nothing ever beats military surprises. They always get you.

BRIGGS: Anytime you air one of those, we need a separate Romans cam to capture the tears. It's a given, man. Ten out of ten times --

ROMANS: I know --

BRIGGS: Gets me too, though, it is --

ROMANS: I know --

BRIGGS: It is a wonderful moment --

ROMANS: I just love those --

SCHOLES: So good --

BRIGGS: In sports --

SCHOLES: Yes --

BRIGGS: Thank you, my friend, good to see you.

SCHOLES: All right --

ROMANS: Thanks, guys --

BRIGGS: Romans?

ROMANS: All right, tensions ratcheting up overnight in three global hot spots as strike group heads for the Middle East to deter Iran. Global markets plummet after the president threatens another spike in tariffs on Chinese goods. And a ceasefire is reached between Israel and Gaza, but for how long?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END