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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Threatens New Tariffs on Mexico -- Over Immigration; Co- Champs Share Scripps National Spelling Bee Honors; AG Barr: Some in FBI "Antithetical" to Democracy; Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Cruz Agree to Team Up; Toronto Takes Center Stage in NBA Finals. Aired 5- 5:30a ET
Aired May 31, 2019 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The president picks another tariff fight. This time, it's over border security with Mexico. But is he putting his own trade deal, though, in jeopardy?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROHAN RAJA, CO-WINNER, SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE: O-D-Y-L-I-C, odylic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are correct, that is complete.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Odylic, one of eight winning words to make kids this entire group winners of a historic National Spelling Bee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[05:00:02] JAN CRAWFORD, CHIEF LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, CBS NEWS: You don't think that they committed treason?
WILLIAM BARR, U.S. 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, 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?
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.
Good to see you back from Galaxy's Edge.
ROMANS: Yes, it was pretty interesting.
BRIGGS: Thumbs up. ROMANS: Thumbs up. Big theme park expansion for Disney, and we got
to interview the CEO. We have some of that sound coming up in this hour.
BRIGGS: Very good.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday, May 31st. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.
But we begin here. 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.
One big question, could this derail USMCA? Just yesterday, the administration tried to jump-start the approval process for that trade deal.
Now, the U.S. trades a lot with Mexico, many U.S. companies rely on Mexico as a central part of their supply chains. In fact, you have some manufactured goods that cross the border two or three times by the time they are finished.
The U.S. imported almost $350 billion in goods for Mexico last year. Mexico also the biggest supplier of agricultural imports, $26 billion in 2018.
Remember, Mexico will not pay these tariffs. American importing companies will. They can pass them on to consumers or they can take a hit to their profit.
The president here is frustrated about the border issue amid an increase in illegal crossings. Hours before this tariff announcement, DHS announced the largest group of migrants ever apprehended by border patrol. More than a thousand people detained by the El Paso sector Border Patrol.
Not clear the White House has the legal authority to impose tariffs like this, and not everyone agrees. 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, the 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: Not just one word, but eight words from eight kids from six different states, all winners of the annual competition. They survived 20 total rounds on a historic night.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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 tweeting its concession and adding that it is 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.
BRIGGS: My money on the kids.
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 on 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 the president 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 sometimes people can convince themselves that what they're doing is in 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, quote, hyper- partisan age and he claims he makes his decisions based on the law and the facts.
BRIGGS: Well, here's a political pairing you probably never thought you would see. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz joining forces working together to ban former lawmakers from taking paid lobbying positions.
[05:05:08] They found common ground on the least likely of places, Twitter, where Ocasio-Cortez wrote if you're a member of Congress and leave you shouldn't be allowed to turn right around and leverage your service for a lobbyist check.
Cruz replied: On this point, I agree with AOC, the swamp would hate it, but perhaps a chance for some bipartisan cooperation.
The New York Democrat tweeted that if the bill focused only on lobbying, she would spearhead the effort with Cruz.
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. The last day 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 the 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 heart beat is detectable with no exceptions for rape or incest. A fetal heart beat could be detected as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. That's before most women even know they are pregnant.
BRIGGS: More companies are threatening to scale back business dealings with Georgia, if the state's new antiabortion 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 could reconsider their business in 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 from their home in West Quincy, Missouri, near the Illinois border. And overnight, another levee in Dardanelle, Arkansas, breached. Look at that, at least 500 homes have been affected by the flooding so far.
BRIGGS: The Holla Bend levee, about five miles southeast began leaking water as well. People there being asked to consider evacuating. For some context, look at this before and after view from a dam near the Arkansas River. On top January, below, this week.
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.
ROMANS: 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 Massie 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.
All right. The trade war with China affects business around the world. I asked the chief of Disney what he thinks about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:13:10] ROMANS: All right. Opening today in Anaheim, California, Galaxy's Edge, the largest Disney theme park expansion ever. It's a new land of Planet Batuu, with a new story, "The Rise of the Resistance", and breathes new life into the Star Wars franchise just as the sky walker saga comes to an end with the film "The Rise of Skywalker." That's in December.
I sat down with the Disney CEO, Bob Iger, ahead of its biggest expansion this week. We talked "Star Wars", streaming wars and trade wars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Are you concerned at all about a faltering into the economic recovery because of the trade war, maybe Chinese consumers coming less, or even a trade war hurting the U.S. economy? IGER: I certainly hope a trade agreement is reached, because that
will obviously be better for our business. 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: He says Disney takes a long view and they have to look really far out here. Iger told me Disney has not seen the signs that a trade war is hurting them right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IGER: I was just in Shanghai and didn't detect any anti-Americanism or any slow down in terms of the Chinese tourists. Visitation to the United States from Chinese we hear is down. It's small to our parks. We draw from much larger markets outside the United States in terms of visitation, and then China. So if there's an effect of a slow down in Chinese tourism to the U.S., we haven't felt it yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And theme park attendances, if you look the at theme park attendance, and what people spend at theme parks, it shows the American consumer is strong right now. Though concerns about the trade war are rising, investors are worried tariffs will slow the global economy and ding corporate profits.
[05:15:04] BRIGGS: CNN has learned Boeing has no plans to introduce hands-on flight simulator for pilots of 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 programming for pilots in the wake of recent crashes of the Lion Air, and Ethiopian Airlines jets which killed 346 people. The FAA has not yet announced a decision on final training requirements.
ROMANS: It turns out a dead man's files could be new evidence of political motives for adding a citizenship question to next year's census.
Groups suing to block the question point to a newly disclosed 2015 study by Thomas Hoffeller, a Republican redistricting expert. Hoffeller wrote that drawing new districts based on citizens of voting age would help Republicans and non-Hispanic whites. The challengers also say Hoffeller shared his view with the top adviser to the commerce secretary, the commerce secretary then proposed the question.
After Hoffeller died last August, his estranged daughter went through his belongings where she found the census study. The Justice Department says the study played no role in the decision to add the citizenship question. BRIGGS: A mysterious ship wreck from the mid-1800s, discovered by
accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Explorers picked up a sonar reading 160 miles off the coast of Florida and nearly 1,500 feet down. A remotely operated vehicle was sent to the location, found a 124-foot ship believed to be a scooter with the numbers 2109 along the edge of the border. Video will be analyzed by experts in the coming months to learn more. Evidence indicates the ship may have caught fire before sinking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFEID MALE: Thompson, drives off balance, shot missed, rebound, tapped it in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Is the three-peat in jeopardy? The Toronto Raptors taking game one of the NBA finals, and two-time defending champion Warriors. Coy Wire has that story in the "Bleacher Report", next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:22:18] BRIGGS: For the first time in NBA history, the finals tip off north of the border.
Coy Wire has more on NBA finals game one of the "Bleacher Report".
A number of firsts in game one, Coy. Good morning.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave. Toronto Raptors entered the league in 1995, so the first NBA finals game played outside of the U.S. was a party 24 years in the making.
Most teams get an entire city to rally around them. But Golden State is going against a team with an entire nation behind them. Fans gathering outside the arena about 18 hours before tip-off, and the Raptors gave them something to celebrate.
Their star Kawhi Leonard made five buckets in the game, but Pascal Siakim, nicknamed "Spicy P", was red hot. He had 11 straight shots at one point, the longest stream in the last 20 finals. Siakim finishes with 32.
Toronto takes down the two time defending champs, 118-109. The hockey crazy town is now just three wins away from the title.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PASCAL SIAKAM, TORONTO RAPTORS FORWARD: The fans are amazing. I just want to say that. Coming out from warm up to the end of the game, just the support and you know, going crazy. I've never seen anything like that. Just, you know, just happy to be a part of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Rapper and Raptors global ambassador Drake sat in his court side seat wearing a signed Dell Curry jersey, the ultimate troll job as Steph's father finished his career with the Raptors.
Now, NBA commissioner asked Drake to tone down his antics during the game, but I guess that doesn't include after the game. Drake with a trash talk and Drake face directed at Draymond Green. Game two Sunday night in Toronto.
The family of the 4-year-old girl hit by a foul ball during Wednesday night's Cubs/Astros game is asking for privacy while she recovers. She's one of more than 1,700 fans injured by foul balls each year in the Majors. The girl was sitting 10 feet past where the protective netting ends. MLB mandated that all 30 teams extend the netting to the far end of the dugouts, the league said in a statement in part, quote, we will continue our efforts on this important issue, unquote.
To the French Open, Serena Williams steam rolling her way into the third round. Kurumi Nara never stood a chance. Williams beat the 5'1" Nara in straight sets in just over an hour of play. Serena gets Sofia Kenin next.
Seventeen-year-old Amanda Anisimova became the youngest American woman to reach the round of the French Open since Serena did it back in 1998. All smiles since taking out the number 11 seed yesterday.
[05:25:05] And did you know LeBron James can still win a title tomorrow? Yes, he owns a $6 million stake in Liverpool, who's playing Tottenham for the Champion Leagues Title, European soccer Super Bowl, if you will. Watch it tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on TNT and BR Live.
It's going to be some incredible action, if it lives up to the hype from last month's games.
BRIGGS: Yes. And if those are any indication, don't stop watching at half-time. This could be a huge comeback.
Can you make the Drake face?
WIRE: Oh, come on, Dave, it's what I do to you every time you ask me a silly question.
BRIGGS: I got it too. Good job. Great face.
Good to see in game two. Let's see what he does in that one.
Coy Wire, thank you.
WIRE: All right.
BRIGGS: Romans, Drake face?
ROMANS: I can't do it.
BRIGGS: OK.
ROMANS: But how do you fix the border crisis? With tariffs. The president ready to levy new tariffs on Mexico. Could hit your wallet in the next few months.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
