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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Pardons Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner; Trump Vetoes Defense Bill, Issues 26 New Pardons; Trump Blames Iran for Rocket Attack on U.S. Embassy in Iraq; U.S. Likely to Reach 330,000 Virus Deaths by End of Week; COVID Testing for Stuck Truckers Begins at UK Port. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired December 24, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:24]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is a special holiday edition of EARLY START, and we're covering the world only the way CNN can. We have reports from Washington, Florida, UK, Istanbul, New York, Moscow and Bethlehem.

I'm Boris Sanchez, in for Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Thursday, December 24th, 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And by any measure, this Christmas Eve will be different. Fewer big family dinners, fewer stores open for last minute shopping, what would typically be a joyous time marked this year with so much loss for so many families. The country is grieving from another day of over 3,000 deaths from coronavirus.

An appropriate time, perhaps, for a message of national healing but in the words of CNN's Kevin Liptak, there are no silent nights in the Trump era. It's one lump of coal after another, creating completely unnecessary uncertainty and anxiety for millions of people as the president wakes up this morning at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

SANCHEZ: In the last 24 hours, not a word from the president about the pandemic, but Trump did veto a defense bill that would pay American troops. He vetoed it because he's unhappy about the way Twitter handles the misinformation and lies he frequently puts out.

The president also leaving millions of already struggling Americans in limbo this Christmas, with eviction protection and expanded unemployment benefits set to expire within days. Trump also threatening Iran on his way out the door. We'll have more on that in just a moment.

But overall, the president stirring chaos, and seemingly unable to cope with the idea that he's unable to lose his power. And yesterday, Trump filling the stockings of several convicted felons that he's personally connected to with pardons. Among more than 25 pardons, a group Republican Senator Ben Sasse calls rotten to the core. CNN's Pamela Brown has details from Washington.

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSSE CORRESPONDENT: The president continues his revenge against the Russia investigation, rewarding two former advisers indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, issuing the full pardons to his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, who was convicted for a slew of financial crimes, and Roger Stone after commuting his sentence earlier this year.

Also on this list is Jared Kushner's father, Charles Kushner.

Now, let's tick through this. You have Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, they were indicted by special counsel Mueller went to trial and convicted by juries of multiple trials. Investigators say Manafort broke the cooperation agreement by lying to them. Roger Stone never cooperated by lying and has never shown remorse.

So, now, both men are being rewarded by the president for their loyalty. The president has been long aggrieved by the Russia probe and has said he thinks his advisers were treated unfairly. But it's worth noting here, the Mueller report detailed any obstruction of justice part how Trump team's dangled pardons as a way to protect the president. How Trump himself did that. And now, we're seeing the president's plan play out with these pardons.

Also, Charles Kushner, the father of the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner, he was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering, and served a 24-month sentence.

Now, the White House official said Jared did not advocate for his father to get the pardon because it was the unspoken word between him and Trump that this would happen. This is what sources have told to me and my colleague Gloria Borger.

But overall, the story emerging from these pardons is that the president is using his pardon power to reward those close to him, some of whom would not likely meet the DOJ criteria for pardoning.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Pamela, thank you so much.

Now, to the president's sudden reversal on a $900 billion COVID relief bill. House Democrats have seized on Trump's demand for fatter stimulus checks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to move for pass legislation for $2,000 by what's called unanimous consent.

It's a good bet that will be dead on arrival. It only takes one lawmaker to block a request. GOP leader Kevin McCarthy is also going that route to tackle another of the president's complaints. McCarthy telling Republicans he will seek unanimous consent to revisit parts of the broader spending bill that includes foreign aid. SANCHEZ: This is really interesting. He writes, quote, we ought to

re-examine how our tax dollars are spent overseas while so many neighbors at home are struggling to make ends meet. McCarthy following the president's lead here on complaints about foreign aid. But a point of fact, almost every line of foreign aid in that spending bill that Congress passed matches exactly what the White House asked for in their budget nearly dollar for dollar.

[05:05:03]

So, Trump is complaining about getting exactly what he asked for. Remember, COVID relief was tied to the larger spending bill. So, unless Trump changes course and signs that bill, some of those pandemic-related benefits will expire this weekend. And the entire government should shut down early next week.

JARRETT: So while the president dangles one veto, he's also followed through on another. President Trump made good on his threats to veto the national spending bill that had bipartisan approval putting his desire to punish big tech and his grievances over the names of Confederate military bases ahead of paychecks for the U.S. military.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on this.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Laura and Boris.

President Trump is escaping to his Mar-a-Lago resort here in South Florida, after setting fires back in Washington. You can see the president is flexing every amount of power that he still has as he tries to defy a notion that he's a lame duck president.

And so, on Wednesday, we saw President Trump issuing a veto, vetoing that National Defense Authorization Act. That's the annual defense bill that got overwhelming support in Congress. In fact, a veto-proof majority in both the House and Senate passing that piece of legislation.

But the president deciding on Wednesday to move forward with that threat to veto the legislation after members of Congress refused to remove a key provision that would allow military bases named after Confederate generals to be renamed. That was just one of the problems the president had with that legislation. And now, he's setting himself up to have the first veto override by Congress in four years as president. That vote could happen as soon as next week.

And all of this is coming as he arrives here in Mar-a-Lago. This is the place where the president sometimes turns out to be his most volatile, his most erratic. And where he has allies in his ears who are encouraging often his worst impulses. So, now, as the president is in this already volatile state of mind about the 2020 election and his status as a lame duck president, he now has a week here in Mar-a-Lago -- Laura, Boris. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Jeremy, thanks for that. A dangerous deja vu between President Trump and Iran. The president and Iran's foreign minister baiting each other on Twitter days after a rocket attack near the U.S. embassy in Iraq.

CNN's Arwa Damon is live in Istanbul with more.

And, Arwa, just about a year ago, we were in a similar situation, talking about tensions in Iran and Iraq ratcheting up with the U.S. taking out Qassem Soleimani. And now president Trump is promising more of the same?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And it's quite frightening, especially for those who are living inside Iraq, because after all, that country is the proxy battlefield where these tensions between Iran and the United States unfold.

Here's what's been happening most recently. You'll remember on Sunday, there was a multi-rocket attack on the Green Zone where the U.S. embassy is located. A number of those rockets falling inside the U.S. embassy compound, not causing any casualties but causing some damage.

This has led to once again accusations being leveled that the Iranian- backed militias by various officials within the U.S. administration, including American intelligence agencies who are also saying that for quite some time now, for the last few weeks, they have been tracking intelligence that seems to indicate an increase of activity inside Iraq by these Iranian-backed militias. And, of course, tensions are heightened even further, generally speaking, because of Trump's pardoning of the Blackwater contractors, the four Blackwater contractors who were convicted of the murders back in 2007 in al Nisour Square, killing 17 Iraqis and wounding more than two dozen others.

But there has been quite the back and forth between President Trump and various Iranian officials unfolding on Twitter with Trump warning Iran if even one American is killed there will be severe consequences.

Iraq is denying any involvement in the rocket attacks on a fairly regular basis, it must be said. But Iran always denies involvement. However, Iran's foreign minister did tweet and snapped back at President Trump saying that he should not be putting Americans abroad at risk to try to divert from his own catastrophic failures at home.

So, we do have this high ending of tensions. But it's also worth noting, Boris, for the last few months, Iraqi officials have been gravely concerned about the ratcheting up of these tensions between Iran and the United States.

[05:10:00]

And there is some concern, according to our own Barbara Starr's reporting many senior Pentagon officials that President Trump could be considering some sort of military strike. SANCHEZ: Yeah, sources have indicated that the president was

presented with military options even after Election Day. So his aggressive stance on Iran, certainly not waning even in the final days of his presidency.

Arwa Damon, reporting from Istanbul, thanks.

JARRETT: All right. Well, states that need vital data on coronavirus will have to work harder to get it. The White House task force has told states it will no longer proactively send reports with tailored recommendations every week. Instead, states will need to request reports each week. States are trying to fill in the gaps where this Congress has thus far failed. The governors of New York and North Carolina and Washington all extending eviction moratoriums.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker also announced almost $700 million to help small businesses. In Missouri, 40 mayors sent letters to St. Louis County asking for more help for endangered restaurants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNE BLANTON, OWNER, BJ'S BAR AND RESTAURANT: Just praying for the phone to ring so that somebody can come. It's -- it's been heartbreaking.

I'm supposed to pay my taxes on time, but I don't have any money coming in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Remember, the mantra one month wag as stay home for Thanksgiving. Stay out of the hospital for Christmas. Folks didn't listen and now it shows.

A record 119,000 Americans are hospitalized right now, a number that has doubled in the last two months.

And projections show that the future holds more of the same. The CDC's ensemble forecast projects for the next three weeks, up to 4,000 Americans, 4,000 Americans will die from coronavirus every day.

CNN's Alexandra Field has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Laura, Boris, United States is set to hit a devastating milestone by the end of the week. By the end of the week, it is likely that 330,000 Americans will have been killed by COVID. That's roughly 1 in every 1,000 Americans. Let that number sink in.

This as the U.S. strikes a deal with Pfizer to buy another hundred million vaccines. That rollout of vaccines started more than a week ago, but administration of doses is actually moving slower than expected. According to the CDC's website, just over 1 million people have been vaccinated. Health official has expected to vaccinate some 20 million people by the end of the year. They have now revised their estimate saying it is likely that 20 million doses of the vaccine will have been delivered around the country by the first week of January.

Here at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York City, they're saying they will continue to work every day through the holidays to get the doses to front line workers who so badly need it and very much want it -- Laura, Boris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Alexandra Field, thank you for that report.

Still ahead for you, they've been under assault for months over bogus claims of voter fraud. Now, a voting machine company is getting ready to take on the president.

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[05:16:11]

JARRETT: COVID testing has started as a port in the U.K. where thousands of truckers have been stuck for days. That new variant of COVID-19 discovered in England abruptly shutting down the border with France but the testing process is slow. And frustration is running high.

Salma Abdelaziz has been there for us all week. She joins us from Dover.

Salma, what are you seeing at this hour? Is it moving any faster?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Laura, we finally have a moment of calm. We have seen a steady stream of these truck drivers now getting tested here at the port of Dover and that's really because what they did yesterday was hold a protest. Hold a demonstration. They shut down the roadway, they demanded the testing get conducted. The police had to react and they're shutting down and now they're testing.

But it's about 30 truck drivers every 30 minutes. We did the math, that's 1500 a day. There's up to 10,000 truck drivers located in this region. We know there's two other testing sites but this will take days to unblock.

Now that there is a pause, this moment of calm, I know you're looking at the chaos with the stranded drivers, frustrated, cut off from main land Europe. I want to point the pictures out because it is these images that may have been illustrated to European leaders what would have happened if there is no agreement on Brexit.

It is these pictures that jolted them into reaction. They're a wake-up call that reminded people cutting off these truckers is like cutting off Britain, isolating Britain from Europe, and its partners and its neighbors. It reminded all of these decision-makers that without action, that without cooperation, you're looking at cutting a vital supply route. You're looking at isolating families. You're looking at essentially a country cut off from its neighbors and

kept from the world. It's important to have this partnership as we wait for an agreement today, Laura.

JARRETT: Yeah, such a good point about Brexit, as you said to wait to see whether they reach that trade deal later this morning.

Salma, thank you so much for all of your work all week.

SANCHEZ: Only two days in, it did not take long for the NBA to cancel a game due to the pandemic. Your "Bleacher Report" is next, after a quick break.

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[05:21:51]

SANCHEZ: There might be a very real price to pay for spreading baseless claims of election fraud. The president and his inner circle are getting more and more exposed to possible legal action as some of the targets of their nonstop bogus claims fight back.

Here's CNN's John Harwood at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Guys, it's one thing to tell crazy lies about the 2020 election when all you're doing is misleading your supporters, tending to the ego of the wounded president and raising money from the president's supporters. It's quite another when you're staring down the barrel of a defamation lawsuit.

That is the lesson now confronting White House counsel Pat Cipollone and the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, because they have been instructed by lawyers representing Dominion Voting Systems to preserve all with regard to that company which are baseless claims on the right and among the president's supporters that it somehow participated in election fraud.

Now, a Dominion executive a few days ago sued the Trump campaign and Trump allies.

ERIC COOMER, SECURITY DIRECTOR, DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS: I've never even joked about influencing elections. I've done this for 15 years and I do it because I really believe in the democratic process. What I've experienced in the last six weeks has been a complete upheaval of my life. As you mentioned, I have been in hiding in a secure location. I have not been able to return to my normal life since all of these baseless accusations came out.

HARWOOD: The threat of this kind of litigation was dramatized this week when another company that had also been targeted put on notice right wing media organizations that they were facing lawsuits. And those organizations promptly responded by reading statements on the air disavowing some of the things that were said on the air saying they had no evidence to prove any fraud.

So this is another level of difficulty that is being encountered by the president and his lawyers who, of course, have had no success in court trying to halt the 2020 election. This chapter is going to be extended, of course, through January 6th, when the Congress is meeting to certify electoral votes. The Trump campaign and legal team says they're not backing down. But they've got a lot of problems on their hands -- guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: John, thank you for that.

The NBA postpones its first game in the new seasonal due to coronavirus concerns.

Coy Wire has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Hey, Coy, the NBA had been doing so well. What happened?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Laura, the NBA bubble last season worked, right? Twenty-two teams, about 100 days for those in the finals, zero positive cases.

But this season, no bubble, and just two games in, a game is postponed. Last night's Thunder and Rockets game in Houston postponed after three Rockets players returned tests either positive or inclusive for COVID-19. Four other players are quarantined at this time with contact-tracing leaving them short, Laura, of the eight players needed to play under league rules.

James Harden was one of those unable to play. He was fined $50,000 violating health and safety protocols when he attended a private indoor party on Monday.

[05:25:04]

The Rockets are waiting to see how long Harden will need to be in quarantine. Their next game is scheduled for Saturday in Portland.

Now, 12 games were played last night, would have finished for the Bucks in Boston. Celtics down one, final seconds and banks one for Jayson Tatum. Look at the three, off the glass, going in, to put Boston up two.

The Bucks are going to have to inbound now with just 0.4 to go. Giannis is fouled at the rim by Tristan Thompson. He can't believe it. So, the two-time defending league MVP steps on the line, he makes his first free throw, but the game-tying shot is short. Tough start for Milwaukee but big win for Boston, 122-121 in their opener.

Now, this ending may be even better. Kings down two in overtime in Denver. And De'Aaron Fox with a huge block preventing the Nuggets from taking a lead. (INAUDIBLE) tie it at 122.

Then, six seconds to go, watch the King's Harrison Barnes poked ball away from Jokic. And then his winning dunk is blocked but his buddy, Buddy Hield is there to tip in the game winner and my goodness, what a finish, sprinting down the floor afterward to celebrate the Kings win in OT, 124-121.

Finally, for the first time since March, we could be seeing fans, at a sporting event in New York state. Governor Andrew Cuomo considering a plan to allow the Buffalo Bills to host 6,700 fans next month for the first home playoff game since 1996.

Each fan would have to pass a rapid COVID-19 test at the gate with results expected within 15 minutes. Boris, the Bills, you know, they won their first division title since 1995 on Saturday ensuring them at least one home playoff game. So if it happens it will make for quite a few, I'll say, fans up there in Buffalo.

SANCHEZ: I know you'll be celebrating. I know you've got a soft spot for the Bills drafted by them in 2002, of course. As a Dolphins fan, I'm here for them, anybody but the Patriots. Anybody but the Patriots.

WIRE: That's right. John Berman would disagree with us, but I'm with you.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Coy. Merry Christmas.

WIRE: You, too.

SANCHEZ: Another round of pardons of allies and loyalists convicted of crimes. The president also vetoing military pay, stalled stimulus and baiting Iran, all before skipping town for a holiday break.

Stay with EARLY START. We'll be right back.

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