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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Wants New Tariffs on Mexico Over Immigration; Eight Winners in National Spelling Bee; Bill Barr Claims Mueller Could Have Reached a Decision. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired May 31, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:17] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The president picks another tariff fight, this time it's over border security with Mexico. Is he putting his own trade deal d in jeopardy?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROHAN RAJA, CO-WINNER, SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE: O-D-Y-L-I-C, odylic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Not just him, this entire group winners of a historic National Spelling Bee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAN CRAWFORD, CHIEF LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, CBS NEWS: You don't think that they committed treason?
WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Not as a legal matter. They don't realize that what they're doing is really antithetical to the democratic system we have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Is it antithetical to democracy to investigate election interference? Plus, where Bill Barr says Robert Mueller went wrong on obstruction.
BRIGGS: And archrivals on the same page. What has Ted Cruz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joining forces?
My co-host just back from "Star Wars" out there. Just like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, teaming up?
ROMANS: Yeah. Maybe. Maybe.
BRIGGS: Maybe.
ROMANS: Who's Luke Skywalker and who's Darth Vader. I guess it depends --
BRIGGS: You'll tell us about "Galaxy's Edge" in a bit.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans, back from a galaxy far, far away. Back to the real world here. It is Friday, May 31st. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.
And let's begin with this, the tariff man is back. President Trump threatening tariffs on Mexico in less than two weeks. Why? To get action on border security. The first round of tariffs would start at 5 percent on June 10th, escalating each month, going up to 25 percent by October 1st if Mexico doesn't slow the number of migrants coming to the U.S. But the White House doesn't even specify a threshold.
One big question, could this derail the president's trade deal with Mexico and Canada, the USMCA? Just yesterday the administration tried to jump start the approval process.
The United States trades a lot with Mexico. Many U.S. companies rely on Mexico as a central part of their supply chain. You know there are products in the United States that cross the border two or three times. The U.S. imported $346.5 billion in goods from Mexico last year. Mexico is also the United States' largest supplier of Ag products, $26 billion in 2018.
Remember, Mexico will not pay these tariffs. American consumers will be. Importing companies pay the tariffs and they could choose to pass on to consumers or to eat it.
Investors reacting to Trump's threats. You can see around the world Asian markets fell more than 1 percent. Therefore Nasdaq futures right now -- that's the around the world. What you just saw what the U.S. looks like.
Trump has grown frustrated about the border issue amid an increase in illegal crossings. Hours before the announcement, DHS announced the largest group of migrants ever apprehended by Border Patrol on Wednesday. More than a thousand people detained by El Paso sector Border Patrol. All from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. And not clear the White House has the legal authority to impose tariffs on this scale and not everyone is on board.
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley slammed the move saying trade policy and border security are separate issues. This is a misuse of presidential tariff authority.
Folks, that is a Republican senator.
In a letter to President Trump, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez- Obrador called for dialogue, saying he doesn't believe in an eye for an eye retaliation.
BRIGGS: OK. There are no words, literally, the big loser in this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee, well, the dictionary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJA: O-D-Y-L-I-C, odylic. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are correct. It's complete.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: There's not just one, two, three, four, five, six or even seven but eight. Eight winners of the annual competition. They survived 20 total rounds on a historic night.
ROMANS: Over the last five rounds, no one made mistakes. This is the first time more than two contestants won. Each will receive $50,000 in cash, a Scripps trophy, and trips to Hollywood and New York to do the talk show rounds. Merriam-Webster by the way tweeting its concession and adding that it is so proud.
BRIGGS: That's all they got?
ROMANS: That's all they got.
[LAUGHTER]
ROMANS: Perhaps their biggest prize for us anyway, all eight will be on "NEW DAY" this morning showing how they can out-spell John Berman and Alisyn Camerota. But they can spell Alisyn Camerota? That is my question.
BRIGGS: Alisyn is even tricky for some.
ROMANS: I know.
BRIGGS: How she spells it.
ROMANS: I know.
BRIGGS: All right. If President Trump did obstruct justice, Attorney General Bill Barr is putting the burden of proof on Robert Mueller.
[04:05:01] The special counsel made it clear Wednesday his investigation did not exonerate the president. Mueller says he could not make a recommendation on obstruction because Justice Department guidelines don't allow him to charge a sitting president, but Barr insists Mueller should have taken a position.
BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARR: I personally felt he could have reached a decision.
CRAWFORD: In your view, he could have reached a conclusion.
BARR: Right. He could have reached a conclusion. The opinion says you cannot indict a president while he's in office but he could have reached a decision as to whether it was criminal activity but he had his reasons for not doing it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Barr is breaking with the president on one issue telling CBS News, he does not think investigators who opened the Russia investigation committed treason as Mr. Trump of course suggests. But he does question some people's intent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRAWFORD: You don't think that they committed treason?
BARR: Not as a legal matter, right.
CRAWFORD: But you have concerns about how they conducted the investigation?
BARR: Yes, but, you know, sometimes people can convince themselves that what they're doing is in the higher interest, the better good. They don't realize that what they're doing is really antithetical to the democratic system we have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Barr faced criticism for the way he summarized Mueller's findings. The attorney general says we live in a hyper-partisan age, claims he makes his decisions based on the law and the facts.
BRIGGS: President Trump's restraint after Special Counsel Robert Mueller spoke out lasting less than 24 hour. The president exploding in a falsehood filled rant. One of those fictions was this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, Russia did not help me get elected. You know who got me elected? You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn't help me at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Trump in this case contradicting himself from less than an hour earlier when he claimed on Twitter, "I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected." Also of course U.S. intelligence and the Mueller report laid out in detail a systemic effort by Russia to interfere, and there was also this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I believe that Russia would rather have Hillary Clinton as president of the United States than Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: You might remember Vladimir Putin stood right next to President Trump in Helsinki last year and said he wanted Trump to win because it would be better for relations.
ROMANS: All right. Here's a pairing you probably never thought you would see. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz joining forces working together to ban former lawmakers from taking highly paid lobbying positions. They found common ground on Twitter, where Ocasio-Cortez wrote, "If you're a member of Congress and leave, you shouldn't be able to turn right around and leverage your service for a lobbyist check." Cruz replied, "On that point, I agree with AOC. The swamp would hate but perhaps a chance for some bipartisan cooperation?"
The New York Democrat tweeted that if the bill focused on lobbying she would spearhead the effort with him. The Texas Republican replied, "You're on."
BRIGGS: Protests in Missouri over a new anti-abortion law. Today could be the last day for abortions in the state since "Roe v. Wade" became law. Right now, the Missouri courts are trying to decide whether to renew Planned Parenthood's annual license.
Take a look at this sign at a rally in St. Louis. It reads, "If you cut off my reproductive choice, can I cut off yours?"
And yesterday in Louisiana, Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards signed a bill banning abortions once a heartbeat is detectable with no exceptions for rape or incest. A fetal heartbeat can be detected as early as six weeks into pregnancy before most women even know they're pregnant.
ROMANS: OK. More companies are threatening to scale back business dealings with Georgia, if the state's new anti-abortion law goes into effect. Executives from Netflix and Disney spoke up earlier this week, now CBS, Showtime, NBC Universal, AMC networks, Sony Pictures, STX, Viacom, and Warner Media all say they can -- are considering from the state. Now Warner Media has thousands of employees in Georgia, many at CNN headquarters in Atlanta.
All the companies would be giving up Georgia's generous tax incentives if they pull out. Of course they're pulling out citing the concerns of predominantly liberal leaning stars and producers. That law takes effect January 1st.
BRIGGS: Breaking overnight: levee failures are forcing evacuations in Missouri and Arkansas. Officials say overflow from the Mississippi River chased hundreds from their homes in West Quincy, Missouri, near the Illinois border.
And in Arkansas, the Holla Bend levee began leaking water. People there being asked to consider evacuating.
ROMANS: The overflow could stretch as far as Dardanelle about five miles northwest. At least 500 homes have been affected by the flooding so far.
[04:10:01] For some context, look at this before and after view from a dam near the Arkansas border. Wow. On top that's January, below is this week.
President Trump has approved an emergency declaration. Thursday did see some welcome relief from tornadoes, only two have been reported so far after two straight weeks of bad storms. BRIGGS: For the third time in less than a week, a House Republican
has blocked the passage of a multibillion dollar storm and wildfire disaster relief bill. Tennessee Republican John Rose's objection yesterday blocked the bill from being approved by unanimous consent because he was critical of the $19.1 billion price tag. Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky objected Tuesday and Congressman Chip Roy of Texas objected last Friday. The legislation is still expected to have the votes to pass when the House returns to Washington next week.
ROMANS: All right. The trade war with China affects business worldwide. What does the CEO of Disney think about that.
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BOB IGER, DISNEY CEO: If it gets worse, more acrimonious, it's possible that it will be harmful to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: More of what Bob Iger told me, next.
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[04:15:45] BRIGGS: All right. Center of the political universe heads west for the next few days as the California State Democratic Convention kicks off later today. At least 14 of the presidential candidates plan to attend, among them California's Kamala Harris, making a return to her home state where more than half of the Democrats in the assembly have endorsed her. Meanwhile, Beto O'Rourke trying to build some much needed momentum, laying out his immigration plan to Chris Cuomo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These families do not belong in detention. They pose no risk to this country, and in fact, if we implement something that we call for in our plan, the Family Case Management Program, for a fraction of the cost and at no risk to our communities, we can guarantee that these families show up to their court dates, meet their appointments with ICE officials and follow our laws.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Elizabeth Warren also staying focused on policy. She released a new calculator on her campaign Web site which shows how much child care and early education could cost under her plan, paid for by a wealth tax.
One candidate not heading to California is the front runner, Joe Biden, remains low key, has an event Saturday night in Ohio.
ROMANS: All right, as a trade war with China escalates, American companies are looking at how tariffs will affect their business.
I had the chance to sit down with the Disney CEO Bob Iger. This is the week of its biggest expansion in theme parks ever. There is the Millennium Falcon, I piloted that craft. I got to tell you, I did do the Kessel Run in 12 under parsecs.
Look, "Galaxy's Edge" opens today. I had a chance to sit down for a wide ranging interview with the Disney CEO about the park expansion, about the "Star Wars" franchise, and I asked him about the U.S.-China trade war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Are you concerned at all about a faltering there 10 years into the economic recovery because of a trade war? Maybe Chinese consumers coming less, travel from Chinese consumers less, or even a trade war hurting the U.S. economy?
IGER: I certainly hope that a trade agreement is reached because that will obviously be better for our business. And if it gets worse, more acrimonious, it's possible it will be harmful to us. But I think our countries eventually will figure out a way to coexist as the number one and number two economies in the world. I think there's a necessity to that happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: I would say he was painstakingly diplomatic about how he talked about the trade situation. He also pointed out that Disney made huge investments in 2008 and 2009. You know, in the financial crisis so they take a very long view. Iger told me Disney hasn't seen signs of the trade war hurting the company right now. Concerns about the impact of the U.S.-China trade, warm, though, are growing. Investors worried tariffs will slow the growing economy and ding corporate profits.
BRIGGS: And indications are from China that they are not ready to back down in this trade war.
ROMANS: That's right. That's right.
BRIGGS: Do most CEO's agree with him that they feel like there will eventually be some sort of agreement?
ROMANS: I mean, most CEOs are concerned about the trade situation right now. I think how diplomatic he was in that response I think was very interesting. I mean, I think it maybe signals that a lot of folks think that we're here to stay. The acrimonious situation is here to stay and they are trying to plan out beyond it.
BRIGGS: I want to hear more about the Millennium Falcon later.
ROMANS: It was awesome.
BRIGGS: All right. Why would Boeing bypass hands-on simulator training when the 737 MAX is put back in service.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:24:05] ROMANS: CNN has learned Boeing has no plans to introduce hands-on flight simulator training for pilots of its troubled 737 MAX jets. The company is proposing to bring pilots up to speed by way of a computer based training program. That has the potential to save airlines time and money.
Pilots and aviation analysts criticize Boeing for failing to mandate simulator training for pilots in the wake of the recent crashes of the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines jets which killed 346 people. The FAA has not yet announced its decision on final training requirements.
BRIGGS: It turns out a dead man's files could be new evidence of political motive for adding a citizenship question in next year's census. Groups suing to block the question point to a newly discovered 2015 study by Thomas Hoffeller, a Republican redistricting expert.
Hoffeller wrote that drawing new districts based on citizens of voting age would help, quote, "Republicans and non-Hispanic whites." The challengers also say Hoffeller shared his view with the top adviser to the Commerce secretary who proposed the question.
[04:25:08] After Hoffeller died last August, his estranged daughter went through his belongings where she found the census study. The Justice Department says Hoffeller's study played no role in the decision to add the question.
ROMANS: A mysterious ship wreck from the mid-1800s, discovered by accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Explorers from NOAA were testing out sea floor equipment two weeks ago when they picked up a sonar reading 160 miles off the coast of Florida and nearly 1500 feet down. A remotely controlled -- remotely operated vehicle was sent to the location. It found a 124-foot ship believed to be a schooner with the numbers 2109 along the edge of the rutter. Video of the vessel will be analyzed by experts in the coming months to learn more. Now evidence indicates the ship may have caught fire before sinking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drives off balance, shot missed, rebound, tapped it in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The Toronto Raptors taking game one of the NBA Finals, 118- 109 over the Golden State Warriors. Toronto's Pascal Siakam putting out a career high of 32 points on 14 of 17 shooting. During one stretch he drained 11 straight shots. After the game Raptor super fan Dr. Dre had some words and that face for Draymond Green. Interesting confrontation game two Sunday night in Toronto. That is the first time this dynasty Golden State has lost game one.
ROMANS: All right. So how to fix the border crisis? Tariffs of course. The president ready to levee new tariffs on Mexico. It could hit your wallet in the next few months.
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