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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
New Tariffs on Mexico Over Border Security; Eight Kids Winners in Historic National Spelling Bee; Bill Barr Says He Has Concerns About Handling of Russia Probe. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired May 31, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:55] 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 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: That was one word, one of eight winning words, eight kids from six different states. 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?
Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour this Friday morning.
BRIGGS: Happy Friday.
ROMANS: And happy Friday. Big news, big news here.
BRIGGS: Yes. ROMANS: The tariff man is back. President Trump threatening tariffs
on Mexico in less than two weeks to get action on border security. Now the first round of tariffs would start at 5 percent on June 10th, escalating each month coming up to 25 percent by October 1st if Mexico doesn't stop illegal immigration at the border. One big question here, could this derail 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 chains. The U.S. imported $346.5 billion in goods from Mexico last year. Mexico the biggest supplier of Ag products to the U.S., $26 billion in 2018.
And of course this is a really important market for U.S. produce as well, especially pork. Remember, Mexico will not pay these tariffs. American consumers will. Investors reacting to Trump's threat, there are U.S. futures looking like a down day in the markets. Asian markets declined. Really losses around the world.
This caught people by surprise. It caught people by surprise. 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 secretary of Border Patrol all from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador.
Not clear if the White House has the legal authority, though, to impose tariffs on this scale and not everyone is on board. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley slammed Trump's move saying trade policy and border security are separate issues. This is a misuse of presidential tariff authority. 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: There are no words, literally, the big loser in this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee is 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: Odylic was one of eight winning words. Eight winners of the annual competition from six different states. They survived 20 total rounds on a historic night. They just ran out of competitive words.
Over the last five rounds, no one made mistakes. This is the first time in more than two contestants won. Each will receive 50 grand in cash, a Scripps trophy, and trips to Hollywood and New York to do the talk show rounds. Merriam-Webster tweeting, "The Dictionary concedes," and they had no words to describe it other than, "so proud." Perhaps the 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. My money is on the kids.
ROMANS: Yes. Can't wait for that.
All right. If President Trump did obstruct justice, Attorney General Bill Barr is putting the burden of proof on Robert Mueller. The special counsel made it clear Wednesday his investigation did not -- did not exonerate this president.
[04:35:05] Mueller says he could not make a recommendation on obstruction because Justice Department guidelines didn'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)
BRIGGS: 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 has suggested. 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)
BRIGGS: Barr faced criticism for the way he summarized Mueller's findings. The attorney general says we live in a, quote, "hyper- partisan age," and claims he makes his decisions based on the law and the facts.
ROMANS: President Trump's restraint after Special Counsel Robert Mueller spoke out lasting less than 24 hours. 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)
ROMANS: Trump in this case contradicting himself from less than an hour earlier when he claimed, quote, "I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected." It's right there. 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)
ROMANS: Well, fact check, 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 between the two countries.
BRIGGS: All right. Here's a pairing you probably never thought you'd see. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz joining forces working together to ban former lawmakers from taking paid lobbying positions. They found common ground on Twitter, where else, where Ocasio-Cortez wrote, "If you are 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?" Believe it or not. 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."
ROMANS: 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.
BRIGGS: More companies are threatening to scale back their 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 are considering withdrawing from the state. 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, citing the concerns of predominantly liberal leaning stars and producers. The law takes effect January 1st.
ROMANS: Breaking overnight levee failures forcing evacuations in Missouri and Arkansas. Officials say overflow from the Mississippi River chased hundreds of people from their homes in West Quincy, Missouri. That's near the Illinois border.
And overnight another levee in Dardenville [PH], Arkansas, breached. At least 500 homes have been affected by the flooding so far.
BRIGGS: The Holla Bend levee about five miles southeast began leaking water overnight as well.
[04:40:03] People there being asked to consider evacuating. For some context, look at this before and after view from a dam near the Arkansas border. On top is January, below is this week. Wow. President Trump has approved an emergency declaration. Thursday did see welcome relief from tornadoes, only two have been reported so far after two straight weeks of bad storms.
Twenty-three -- 25, rather, million Americans facing the risk of severe weather today in the Carolinas, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Here's meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Christine and Dave. You're looking at the National Weather Service's flood warnings currently in effect. And you can almost trace the entire Mississippi River Delta all the way to the Gulf of Mexico with our warnings. There's the Arkansas River. There's the Mississippi River.
You look at the river gauges reporting flooding. We're talking about over 80 reporting major flooding. Over a hundred reporting moderate flooding.
Now in terms of precipitation going forward, we have a brief lull at the moment but by the end of the weekend showers and thunderstorms will once again form in some of the hardest hit areas, making the flood threat last right into the better part of next week.
Now in terms of tornadoes, we had two reported yesterday, that brings our total over the past 15 days to over 400 over the continental United States. Unbelievably active weather pattern across the U.S. In terms of severe weather today southwest Texas, central Michigan, northern portions of Wisconsin, the Carolinas into Virginia, large hail, damaging winds, maybe an isolated tornado. Not the widespread threat.
And some good news here, a cool down in store for the early parts of next week. Enjoy your weekend, everyone. Back to you.
ROMANS: Derek, thank you for that.
BRIGGS: Will do.
ROMANS: All right. So do you feel like you have too many streaming services? A log-in here, another one there. I asked the Disney chief where this market is headed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB IGER, DISNEY CEO: You're going to see a lot of change in media due to technological disruption.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: More from Disney CEO Bob Iger, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:46:12] BRIGGS: The 2020 latest, the 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: Also Elizabeth Warren staying focused on policy. She released a new calculator on her campaign Web site showing 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, remaining under the radar. Joe Biden has events Saturday night in Ohio.
ROMANS: All right. Opening today, "Galaxy's Edge," the largest Disney theme park expansion ever. It's a new land, the Planet Batu, with a new story, breathing new life into the "Star Wars" franchise just as the Skywalker saga ends with the film "The Rise of Skywalker," that comes out in December. It's all new material for a franchise that will feed Disney's entree into the streaming wars. Disney Plus debuts in November at $6.99 a month. It's a crowded market. I talked to the Disney CEO Bob Iger about
where he sees Disney Plus fitting in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: I've heard you say it's going to be about choice, so you've got Hulu, you've got ESPN Plus, you've got Disney Plus. Is this -- what is this going to look like for consumers who want choice from Disney content?
IGER: Well, we believe that all three will offer consumers different kinds of programming. I think that you're going to see a lot of change in media due to technological disruption, and that will create change in consumer behavior.
ROMANS: So where are we at this point in the streaming game? What inning are we in in the streaming evolution because I'm not sure if this is the second inning or we're half way through this ball game. I mean, there's Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Warner Media. I mean, there's so many players, is it going to continue to evolve?
IGER: Yes. I think we're in the early innings.
ROMANS: OK.
IGER: And I think it's likely that direct to consumer, over the top platforms that are focused more on program consumption versus channel consumption are likely to grow significantly over time.
ROMANS: Right.
IGER: And I think you're going to see consolidation on the linear channel front. So I think you're in the -- when I say later innings, I don't want to suggest there's not going to be an extra inning game when it comes to the channel business but I think that's a mature business.
ROMANS: Yes.
IGER: And consolidation is ahead and necessary as a consumer migrates to a different form of television consumption.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Disney's service joins the streaming market later this year. And at $6.99, I said how long can you have $6.99?
BRIGGS: Yes.
ROMANS: I mean, that seems like you're pricing it obviously to be less than Netflix. And he said just right now, they want to get in there and offer a lot of choice of these -- the Disney content to consumers.
BRIGGS: How many of these packages people are willing to pay for. Big question in the future. ROMANS: He sees a lot of disruption so I think it's going to be
interesting for consumers.
BRIGGS: All right. Is the plant based protein trend heading for KFC? CNN Business has the details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:54:19] BRIGGS: Former U.S. Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi has died. The soft-spoken Republican representative stayed in Congress for more than four decades. He used his influence as the head of the Appropriations Committee to steer billions of dollars in aid to Mississippi especially after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the state in 2005. Cochran left the Senate last year because of health issues. Cause of death has not been released. The senator was 81 years old.
ROMANS: Measles cases in the United States have just reached their highest level in a quarter of a century, and we're not even half way into 2019. According to the Centers for disease control, there are now 971 measles cases in 26 states with nearly 700 of them in New York.
[04:55:01] Clark County in Washington state has the second largest outbreak with more than 70 cases reported. That county has a low vaccination rate.
BRIGGS: Police are searching for the person who wrote an anti-Semitic message in front of the Jewish Children's Museum in Brooklyn. Governor Andrew Cuomo ordering the state's Police Hate Crimes Task Force to assist with the investigation. He's also calling on the nation to stand united to condemn these despicable acts and to root out hate in all its forms.
ROMANS: Growing concern for a Connecticut mother of five missing for nearly a week. Fifty-year-old Jennifer Dulos was last heard from last Friday shortly after she dropped off her children at school. The "Hartford Current" reports she was in the middle of a bitter two-year divorce and custody battle. Police sources tell the "Current" investigators searching her home found traces of blood and other evidence. They now say she -- they now suspect she may have been the victim of a violent crime. Her children are all fine and they are under the protection of an armed guard at their grandmother's New York apartment.
BRIGGS: New details about the investigation into the possible hate crime claim made by "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett. Documents just unsealed by the Chicago Police Department reveal that after officers showed Smollett pictures of the two brothers suspected in his alleged attack, Smollett responded that the brothers could not have been the attackers, saying they were, quote, "black as sin."
Police previously released text messages that suggest Smollett discussed drugs with the two brothers who later said Smollett hired them to carry out a hoax hate crime in the newly released documents. Police said those drugs included marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine. ROMANS: All right. You might want to cover your kids' eyes for this
next story. The Air Force says the resemblance of these jet contrails to a giant penis in the sky is purely coincidental. The contrails appeared during an F-35 fighter jet training exercise Tuesday. Officials at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona say they reviewed the training tapes and concluded the pilots were in fact conducted standard maneuvers. They say they were -- there was no nefarious or inappropriate behavior during the training flight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX TREBEK, HOST, "JEOPARDY": That gives them $58,612 and now a new total of $2,382,583 for 31 days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Thirty-one straight wins and counting for James Holzhauer. Thursday's haul leaving him less than $150,000 shy of Ken Jennings all-time "Jeopardy" record. Holzhauer and Jennings are the only two players to ever eclipsed $2 million in winnings. The professional gambler accomplished the feat in less than half the episodes needed by Jennings.
ROMANS: Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Global markets reacting to the president's threatening tariffs on Mexico. Down around the world and on Wall Street, it looks like it will be a soft open, another 250 points down for the Dow. U.S. markets barely finished higher on Thursday, recovering a small chunk of this week's losses. The Dow grows just 43 point. That's less than 2/10 of a percent. The S&P 500, the Nasdaq also rose slightly.
Now despite gains, all three major averages are still down for the week. The Dow is on track for its sixth consecutive weekly decline. The longest losing streak since June 2011.
Uber reported earnings for the first time since going public saying it lost more than a billion dollars in the first quarter. It's the latest sign Uber has a long road ahead to profitability. It posted revenue of $3.1 billion, up 20 percent from the year prior, but its ride-sharing revenue, its core business grew just 9 percent. Uber's rival Lyft also struggling, losing a billion dollars in the first quarter.
There are meatless burgers so is a plant based chicken next. Kentucky Fried Chicken is taking an interest. Chicken isn't a big trend in the plant based protein market, but KFC's president says it is looking at suppliers, and it could test out a menu item featuring the protein. Consumers are increasingly interested in eating plant based protein for health and environmental reasons, and the market for meat-like protein is exploding. One research firm says the market could reach $2.5 billion by the year 2023.
I haven't tasted it yet.
BRIGGS: No?
ROMANS: But the science behind it I think is really fascinating.
BRIGGS: I think chicken will be easier because it's the skin that gives it most of its flavor.
ROMANS: I don't know.
BRIGGS: Just got to master the texture.
All right, EARLY START continues right now.
ROMANS: The president picks another tariff fight. This time it's over border security with Mexico. Is he putting his own trade deal, though, in jeopardy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJA: O-d-y-l-i-c. Odylic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Odylic, one of eight winning words from eight kids. This entire group winners of a historic National Spelling Bee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRAWFORD: You don't think that they committed treason.
BARR: Not as a legal matter. They don't realize --
(END)
