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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Deadly Flooding in Arkansas; McConnell Flips On Supreme Court Vacancies; Huawei Wants U.S. Ban Lifted; Worst Ceremonial First Pitch Ever? Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired May 29, 2019 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:03] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: For the 13th straight day, tornadoes carve a destructive path, this time the worst damage in Kansas. And historic flooding is expected in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Oh, we'd fill it.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A total 180 for Mitch McConnell who says he would fill a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year.
BRIGGS: An embattled Chinese firm wants back in after being black listed two weeks ago. Huawei claims it's no security threat despite accusations it stole trade secrets.
ROMANS: And a new nominee for worst first pitch of all time. Wait it until you see where this one ends up. Everyone's laughing in the end, so no hard feelings.
Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. It is an all-time great. I think one of the best we've ever seen. We'll show you that in a moment.
Wednesday, May 29th, 5:00 a.m. in the East.
And we start with more brutal weather. Another night of terrifying tornados stretching from the Southern Plains to the Northeast. Eastern Kansas hit especially hard. The cities of Linwood and Lawrence suffering extensive damage. They're located just across the border from Kansas City.
Linwood's mayor says dozens of homes in the area are gone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN CHRISTENSON, LAWRENCE, KANSAS: It got really dark, and it started raining really hard and I could feel air moving the walls, and I could feel the air coming from above and then all of a sudden, I heard stuff flying around up above me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Storm clouds stretching for miles across the region. Homes in the area flattened. Lawrence police warning residents about downed power lines and downed trees. At least 12 people are being treated for injuries. Some people forced to take cover in the safe room off a local gas station.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRAD PERKINS, KANSAS RESIDENT: Just lightning hitting the ground in front of me. Just everything pitch-black. (INAUDIBLE) my wife, too. She called me, too, though, and said, hey, it's right in front of you. You need turn around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The Red Cross has opened a shelter for anyone in the county displaced by the storm. which crossed the Missouri and spawned a tornado near the town of Kearney. A tornado also touched down in Berks County, Pennsylvania. One neighborhood in Morgantown suffered heavy damage with several trees uprooted. And a New Jersey high school was damaged by a severe band of storms, but nobody was inured.
ROMANS: All the damage and destruction coming from the same system stretching from Texas to the New York City metro area. Authorities in Ohio are getting a handle on all the damage suffered late Monday. The ceiling fan remains, the ceiling itself is gone. For 13 consecutive days, a tornado has touched down in the U.S. That's the longest stretch since 1980.
And is there more ahead? Here's Karen Maginnis with the latest forecast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It was a devastating afternoon as you well know we saw reports of tornadoes from Ohio, all the way down to Kansas. Devastating storms reported, and this particular one, a rain-wrapped tornado. People across the tornado alley, the central United States, they know when they see something like this, it is time to take cover.
But this is a rain-wrapped tornado. A monster system as it has been described and local authorities say they'll come and take a look at the damage. They're trying to get their job done. A lot of people are sifting through the debris power outages. They've lost their cars, their businesses. It has been devastating.
May -- at least since May 15th, not a day has gone by where we haven't had tornado reports. Nineteen tornadoes reported in the past 24 hours and the risk is still out there, also the potential for flash flooding.
Who is in harm's way? It looks like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and that enhanced risks, St. Louis, Springfield, Little Rock, Dallas could see an isolated tornado. Certainly large hail and heavy downpours expected and we're looking at that ground to shift further to the east. So, a lot of people in danger not just from tornados but from flooding as well.
Back to you, guys.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRIGGS: OK, Karen Maginnis, thanks.
The flooding in Arkansas turned deadly overnight. Police say a driver steering around a barricade on a flooded roadway drowned. And the rain-swollen in Arkansas River could crest at nearly 41 feet later today. It's putting western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma on alert for record breaking flooding.
The mayor of Tulsa warning residents to prepare for a worst-case scenario. The Army Corps of Engineers has been releasing water from the Keystone Dam, ahead of the river cresting. But this could worsen the flooding in nearby communities. Further east, flooding in at least eight states, along portions of the Mississippi. It is the longest, lasting flooding since the Great Flood of 1927.
ROMANS: All right. For the second time in a week, a House Republican has blocked passage of a $19 billion disaster relief bill.
[05:05:00] Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky objecting to the measure even though it has overwhelming bipartisan support and the president has promised to sign it. It only takes one person to block a bill from passing immediately by unanimous consent. Massie says he's trying to stop what he calls legislative malpractice. He wants all House members present before taking a vote. On Friday, Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas also objected to a unanimous consent vote.
BRIGGS: Presidential candidate and former vice president, Joe Biden, back on the trail in Texas, talking more about policy, laying out part of his education plan in Houston. It includes more funding for schools in low income areas, and helping teachers pay off student debt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You all gone (ph) and went to college, you spent four years. You ended up with a debt, most of you, if not all of you, and you end up in a situation where you in fact are making 25 percent less than most college graduates. And it's a just -- it's just not right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Biden's campaign also hit back at President Trump's low IQ comments overseas, criticizing him for embracing autocrats like Kim Jong-un, saying, and this is a statement from the campaign, to be on foreign soil on Memorial Day and to side repeatedly with a murderous dictator against a fellow American and former vice president speaks for itself.
Trump defended his comments by saying he was actually sticking up for Sleepy Joe Biden. We think tongue and cheek. Trump tweeting that Kim Jong-un called Biden a low IQ idiot, while he claims he used a much softer term, low IQ individual. Trump adding, who could possibly be upset with that?
ROMANS: All right. Then this -- a brazen flip-flop by Mitch McConnell. The Senate majority leader says if a Supreme Court vacancy occurs during next year's presidential election, he will work to confirm a nominee appointed by President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: If a Supreme Court justice was to die next year, what would you do?
MCCONNELL: We'd fill it.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: You might recall McConnell's decision to block President Obama's nominee to the high court following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February of 2016.
(BEGN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCONNELL: All we're doing, Chris, is following a long-standing tradition of not filling vacancies on the Supreme Court in the middle of a presidential election year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: McConnell's explanation for the flip-flop, his spokesman claims there's a difference between now and three years ago because in 2016, the White House was controlled by Democrat and the Senate by Republicans. And this time both are controlled by the GOP.
BRIGGS: The Supreme Court sidestepping a big decision on abortion, but still ruling on two key parts of an Indiana abortion law. The court leaving in place a block that keeps the state from prohibiting abortions based solely on a race, sex and disability. The justices did decide part of the law that requires clinics to bury or cremate fetal remains can go forward. The split decision seems to signal there is little appetite to reexamine core abortion precedents like Roe v. Wade. It comes as a number of states pushed antiabortion measures with the goal of getting the issue back before the Supreme Court.
ROMANS: Missouri is poised to become the first state in the country to stop offering abortions since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. On Friday, the state's health department is expected to block services at the very last health center providing the procedure in Missouri. Missouri's annual license for abortion services expires on May 31st.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LEANA WEN, PRESIDENT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA: We know that banning abortion is not going to stop abortion. But it will stop safe, legal abortion. We are seeing now just how extreme these anti-women's health politicians are and how far they're willing to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A circuit court judge in St. Louis will hear arguments today in Planned Parenthood's lawsuit against the state. On May 24th, Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed a bill prohibiting all abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy.
BRIGGS: Air travelers left behind almost a million dollars at airport security checkpoints in 2018, according to a new report from the Transportation Security Administration. That's $90,000 more than passengers left behind the previous year. The TSA by law is allowed to use the money for projects it considers important for civil aviation security. Much of the unclaimed funds remain in TSA coffers.
The report says travelers at New York's JFK airport left behind the most money, followed by LAX, Miami, then O'Hare in Chicago, and Newark Liberty.
ROMANS: All right. Excessive gaming is now a legitimate medical condition.
[05:10:02] The World Health Organization says gaming disorder can be diagnosed when it interferes with daily life and when a person loses control and prioritizes gaming over other interests in daily activities, like work, school, family or social relationships. The new guidelines call for 12 months of symptoms before a diagnosis can be made. A video and online game posted nearly $44 billion in sales last year.
The video game industry has opposed this gaming disorder classification since the WHO first proposed it in 2018. No surprise.
I think it's interesting that 45 percent of daily gamers are women.
BRIGGS: I'm curious to know how many parents throughout saw it the symptoms and raised their hand and said my child might have this disorder. I just did. It interferes with daily routines?
ROMANS: I put limits on my kids, right? There's a certain amount of time they can use it and that's their reward and they just to be really consistent on that. But when they get older, they have their own time, it's hard, you know?
BRIGGS: Yes. Let us know what you think about this @earlystart on Twitter.
Ahead, a first at time trial. Did Johnson & Johnson flood the market with prescription painkillers and should the company pay for it? The state of Oklahoma says yes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:15:50] BRIGGS: It's a battle that could determine the future of technology worldwide. Embattled tech giant Huawei claims the United States is setting a dangerous precedent by cutting off business ties with the company. The Chinese firm says it will ask a U.S. court to reverse measures that bar federal agencies from buying Huawei products.
CNN's Sherisse Pham has been inside Huawei. She joins us live from Shenzhen, China.
Good morning to you.
This has been front-page news for the last several days on all of our major papers, "The New York Times," "The Washington Post," "The Wall Street Journal." Where is this battle headed next?
SHERISSE PHAM, CNN REPORTER: Well, Huawei wants the battle to go back to the U.S. courts. So, they filed this lawsuit against the National Defense Authorization Act back in March, challenging the constitutionality of that act, because part of the law specifically identified Huawei as the risk and barred federal agencies from doing business with it.
But, of course, that came down before the Commerce Department slapped Huawei on this entity list, which is essentially banning U.S. companies from doing business with Huawei. And that, Dave, was a much more crippling blow. It means that U.S. companies like Google and Microsoft and GE and Qualcomm can't supply vital parts and software to Huawei.
But let's not forget that the United States has also accused Huawei of IP theft and of violating sanctions on Iran, allegation that we should note that Huawei also denies.
What does this mean for some of our viewers out there? It means that the roll out, the global roll out of 5G, for one thing, could be slowed down and delayed. And for viewers in the United States, especially in rural areas, it means that their mobile network bill might become more expensive because Huawei equipment is used by a few rural carriers and under this new ban, they would have to strip that equipment from their network.
And what we saw today here in Shenzhen was a really defiant company, defending itself, calling the United States a bully, but also acknowledging that these restrictions do threaten their business, Dave.
BRIGGS: Yes. And regarding the accusations that it's a security threat, they say there's no gun, no smoke, only speculation. This battle will continue.
Thanks so much. Great reporting.
ROMANS: All right. Thank you for that, Sherisse.
Amid this trade war, American consumers remain confident, even as we near the one-year anniversary of this dispute with China. New data from the Conference Board shows consumer confidence rose in May, near 18-year highs. The Conference Board notes the increase was mainly driven by strong jobs market. Adding this, despite weak retail sales in April, these high levels of confidence suggest no significant pullback in consumer spending in the months ahead.
But high levels of confidence on Main Street sometimes spell tough times for Wall Street. Stocks have pulled back amid these trade war concerns. One analyst notes that maximum optimism tends to coincide with maximum prices. Many retailers have warned that higher tariffs on Chinese goods will lead to higher prices for consumers.
Now, for investors, the recent slide in stocks and long-term bond yields may be more, a more important indicator of a possible slowdown in consumer confidence. The 10-year treasury yield fell to 2.26 percent Tuesday. That's the lowest level since September 2017.
BRIGGS: History unfolding in Oklahoma with the nation's battle with opioids, has reached inside a courtroom. Oklahoma's attorney general accusing Johnson & Johnson and his subsidiaries of creating the worst man-made public health crisis in America's history by flooding the market and creating prescription pain killers, then staying silent as the deadly grip of addiction took hold.
The company claims its products are regulated by the government and are just a fraction of the painkillers consumed in Oklahoma. Oklahoma's seeking $17.5 billion to tackle the problem. One of the most important lawsuits in the country because of what it means as these lawsuits spread across the country. Purdue Pharma --
ROMANS: And who got rich while America got addicted? You know, that's the big question.
BRIGGS: Right.
All right. Ahead, as a child, he battled cancer.
[05:20:02] Last night, Devin Smeltzer made his debut on the mound for the Minnesota Twins. Andy Scholes has that remarkable story in the "Bleacher Report", next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:25:07] BRIGGS: The general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers apparently concocted a phony story about Kobe Bryant and the late Oscar winner Heath Ledger.
Andy Scholes has more on this riddle in the "Bleacher Report".
Good morning, my friend.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Dave. Man, the Lakers sure look like they're in a state off chaos right now. You know, they missed playoffs for a sixth straight year. Magic Johnson quit. And now, ESPN releases a scathing report about the culture of the team.
In that report, they detailed how general manager Rob Pelinka, he's known for not always being truthful. And Pelinka was caught in a bad lie during a celebrity inspirational talk Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was given to the team. During the session, Pelinka a story about how Kobe who was a client when he was an agent watched the movie "The Dark Knight" and then wanted a dinner arrange would with Keith Ledger to talk about his performance as the Joker.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROB PELINKA, LAKERS GENERAL MANAGER: So there was one time when Kobe, who I worked with for 18 years, was going back to play Madison Square Garden. And he just seen "The Dark Knight". Obviously, you guys saw that movie. He's like, hey, hook me up with Heath Ledger because he got so locked in to that role. I want to know how he mentally went there. And so, he had dinner with Heath.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: One small problem, 'The Dark Knight" came out in July of 2008. Heath Ledger died in January of 2008. So far, no explanation from Pelinka.
All right. Twins and Brewers last night. Devin Smeltzer making his Major League debut, and what a debut it was. He threw six shutout innings in a win for Minnesota.
Now, Smeltzer is a cancer survivor. When he was 9 years old, he had a mass removed from his abdomen. Smeltzer, now 23, has been in remission for seven years now. Smeltzer says everything he's been through has turned him into the hard worker he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEVIN SMELTZER, MINNESOTA TWINS PITCHER: I dreamed about this from the time I was a kid. And just went out there and tried to stay calm, and trusted the process and, you know, it was a blast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: And finally, we have a candidate for the worst first pitch ever. White Sox employee of the month gets to throw out first pitch last night and somehow hit the cameraman standing seven feet to the left of her. How she did it I don't know.
The White Sox tweeted out the pitch that he took. You see that blast right there? Still in her hand at this moment but they tweeted out, I like the tweet. Life comes at you pretty fast.
And, Dave, the cameraman's name is Darren Georgia. He said he's fine, the camera is fine, he was just shocked at how bad it was a first pitch that was. He didn't see it coming at all.
BRIGGS: So, weigh in -- better or worse than 50 Cent?
SCHOLES: 50 Cent is pretty epic the way he just threw it so high. But I would say worst because he hit the guy standing to the left of you. Just don't hit him and you'll be OK.
You know, people get the jitters. You know, they think it's going to be easy and it looks so far away. But that's impressive right there. I mean --
BRIGGS: I applaud her. I thought it was a terrific pitch. Darren Georgia took one like a champ there.
Thank you, Andy Scholes.
Romans, would you throw it better or worse than that?
ROMANS: I would decline the invitation because I know not to get a tape of myself trying to do that.
BRIGGS: Smart move, my friend.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks, guys.
More than 39 million people under enhanced risk of severe weather today. Tornadoes carving a destructive path in Kansas overnight -- the 13th straight day with tornadoes in the U.S.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
