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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trumps Defense Team Prepares to Make Case for Acquittal; Trumps Attorneys Meet Behind Closed Doors with Graham, Lee and Cruz; Economists Lift Expectations for Economic Growth in 2021; 1.7 Million Counterfeit 3M Masks Seized in Long Island; Biden to Roll Back Trump- Era Policy on Migrants at Southern Border; Futers Lower After S&P and Nasdaq Hit Record Highs. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 12, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning. This is "EARLY START." I'm Christine Romans.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's about 30 minutes past the hour here in New York.
So if Donald Trump's impeachment were a real trial with an unbiased jury, the defense team would face an uphill battle today. A devastating case chock full of video evidence and an unremorseful client. If this were a real trial, he wouldn't have the defense attorneys openly conspiring with the jurors or going on TV in the middle of this case, but this isn't a real trial.
House managers wrapped their case painting Trump as a dangerous autocrat who turned his mob on a co-equal branch of government and did it on purpose. If this were a real trial the defense would have to confront all of the graphic detail, how the deadly siege terrorized the rank and file at the Capitol including the black police officers repeatedly being called the "N" word by the mob and janitors having to clean up all the mess left by the rioters.
ROMANS: Acting as if this were a real trial, Democrats offered a pre- buttle of sorts, trying to get in front of the defense argument that whipping up a frenzied insurrection is protected by the First Amendment.
Manager Jamie Raskin says, if anything it was Trump who attacked free speech by dispatching his mob.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD) HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGER: January 6th was not some unexpected radical break from his normal law abiding and peaceful disposition, this was his state of mind. This was his essential MO. He knew that egged on by his tweets, his lies, and his promise of a wild time in Washington to guarantee his grip on power. His most extreme followers would show up bright and early, ready to attack, ready to engage in violence, ready to fight like hell for their hero.
Is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he's ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way? Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that? Would you bet the safety of your family on that? Would you bet the future of your democracy on that? President Trump declared his conduct totally appropriate. So if he gets back into office and it happens again, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Jessica Dean is live on Capitol Hill this morning for us. Good morning, Jessica. How is the Trump legal team planning to rebut this?
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well good morning to you, Christine. We know that this is going to be quite concise. They have indicated they want to get through this as quickly as possible. Just a reminder, they have a full 16 hours over two days to make their case, but we're told they expect to do so in three to four hours, so wrapping up later this afternoon.
We know in addition to the constitutionality question, which the Senate actually already voted on, that it is constitutional. But that has been an argument that it's unconstitutional to impeach a former president. They're going to talk about that. As you mentioned, they're going to talk about former President Trump's First Amendment rights.
We also know that they're going to try to make the case that Democrats have used language similar to what former President Trump used. Now of course the House impeachment managers making the case that there was an insurrection after this language, after what former President Trump did, that he was directly responsible for inciting violence here on January 6th that resulted in deaths and a lot of trauma for so many people who were here on that day.
Yesterday we heard from former President Trump's -- one of his defense attorneys, Bruce Castor, who told CNN that the rioters were not acting -- he did not believe the rioters were acting on the advice or the instruction of former President Trump. But if you listen to the video, and take a listen here, those rioters use a lot of language that the former president did. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Stop the steal.
CROWD: Stop the steal. Stop the steal.
TRUMP: That's treason. That's treason.
CROWD: Treason. Treason. Treason.
TRUMP: And Mike Pence, I will tell you right now, I am not hearing good stories.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Pence (BLEEP).
TRUMP: The Democrats are trying to steal the White House. You cannot let them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't get to steal it from us.
TRUMP: We're bringing our country back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want our country back.
TRUMP: This is our country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our House. This is our country. It's our country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[04:35:00]
DEAN (on camera): Now we're also learning from the Department of Justice, they have come out and said that a member of the far-right group, The Oath Keepers, said that she was responding to what former President Trump had told her to do. That is coming now from the Department of Justice.
Now as we look ahead to today, again, they'll get started at noon as they've been doing throughout the week. Right now there's no indication that House impeachment managers will call for witnesses and it's possible that the Senators will bypass their typical speeches that they would give at the conclusion of both presentations from both sides. And if they keep that time frame going, Christine, this trial could wrap up as soon as Saturday. And, again, at this point all indications point to an acquittal. Just a reminder that Democrats would need 17 Republicans to join them to get a conviction.
ROMANS: All right, Jessica Dean at the Capitol for us. Thank you, Jessica.
JARRETT: OK, let's bring in CNN's senior political analyst, John Avlon. John, if this were a fact-based trial, a trial based on substance, the defense team I think would be in an awfully tough spot, but we know it's not the case. This is not a real trial. And they know it, too. Apparently, the defense team previewing they're only going to need three hours even after their abysmal performance earlier this week. So what's their strategy today?
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Their strategy is going to be to try to ignore the evidence, say the evidence doesn't exist. To say that Democrats are hypocrites, put the onus on them. And what that all sounds like, is basically just ripping a page from Donald Trump's playbook -- denial and deflection. They're not going to want to deal with the evidence because they don't actually have any answer for it. They're going to probably try to argue it's unconstitutional even though that should be taken off the table. They're going to waste people's time by saying the Democrats has done this behavior too, while there's never been another attack on America's Capitol in our history in politics.
And I think finally they will try to say and argue that you can't connect the rioters with the president's intent. They may have understood this to be the presidential order, but it wasn't Trump's intent. That may be the strongest argument they have. But it's unclear they even feel a need to make an argument.
ROMANS: You know, remember, it wasn't just Democrats who said Trump was responsible. Listen.
AVLON: Yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE GALLAGHER (R-WI): Mr. President, you have got to stop this. You are the only person who can call this off. Call it off.
CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: Pretty simple, the president caused this protest to occur. He's the only one who can make it stop.
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): The guy that knows how to tweet very aggressively on Twitter, you know, puts out one of the weakest statements in one of the saddest days in American history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: How persuasive is the argument that if Trump isn't convicted, this could happen again?
AVLON: Very because you're basically giving a green light. You're saying there's no accountability even in the eyes of history. Again, this isn't about removing a president. That 2/3 bar is appropriately pretty high. But this isn't about removing a president. It's about sending a clear signal that having a president incite an insurrection against another branch of government, against our democracy is not allowed.
And then one thing, you know, among that litany of Republicans who were trying to appeal to the president directly and indirectly to tell the mob to stand down was House Republican leader McCarthy. And that pattern suggests that Republicans were admitting on that day in real time that only Donald Trump could turn back the crowd. That seems to me to be a very relevant piece of evidence in terms of the cause/effect of incitement of insurrection.
JARRETT: It's amazing how much can change in just one month. You know that you felt the sense of urgency on that day because they wanted to stop the violence and now it's so much silence.
I've been saying all morning that this isn't a real trial. But one of the more glaring examples of how we this, is that some of the jurors aren't even bothering to seem impartial here. Last night Trump's defense team caught in a room with Senators Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. The problem, of course, I mean these Senators are both jurors but they're also victims and arguably complicit themselves to the extent they also participated in fueling the big lie.
AVLON: Yes.
JARRETT: How should people see this?
AVLON: Look, at the end of the day even though Alexander Hamilton, one of the founders, said that impeachment is a political process not for what would literally be a statutory crime, the Senators are jurors. And they all took an oath to do impartial justice under the Constitution. And so counselor, I have a question for you, Laura. Typically if jurors were conspiring with defense attorneys --
JARRETT: They'd be thrown off the case.
AVLON: Would they be pulled off the case?
JARRETT: Yes, immediately. But you what part of the problem is here, is one of the jurors is also the judge. Right? This whole thing is turned on its head, right. How is the judge going to throw them off the case? He's a juror.
AVLON: Well just because this is an unprecedented situation, doesn't mean certain standards apply.
[04:40:00]
They took an oath to do impartial justice, they're doing the opposite.
JARRETT: That's right.
ROMANS: All right, John Avlon, CNN senior political analyst, thanks for dropping by this morning.
AVLON: Thanks guys.
ROMANS: All right, the economy is still struggling, but confidence in the recovery is growing. There's renewed optimism over vaccines and impending stimulus from Washington even as fears of coronavirus variants are rising. Economists and major banks have boosted their GDP forecast for the year with one economist calling for a summer mini boom courtesy of the fiscal stimulus. Oxford Economics now expects 5.9 percent growth. Goldman Sachs raised its 2021 forecast to 6.8 percent. If Goldman's prediction is true, it would be the fastest annual growth for the U.S. since all the way back in 1989. But there is still a very long road here.
The jobs recovery has stalled. The economy added just 49,000 jobs in January. Unemployment claims are still stubbornly high. Another 793,000 Americans filed for the first time for jobless benefits last week alone. That is still among the worst levels of the great recession.
JARRETT: Well the White House is set to hold a meeting with major airline executives later today. Sources telling CNN the industry is in an uproar over the possibility of testing domestic travelers for coronavirus. Airlines have been financially crippled by the pandemic of course and are weary of new restrictions. Last month the CDC began requiring a negative test from international travelers before boarding a U.S. bound flight.
ROMANS: Law enforcement officers who protected the Capitol during the insurrection are in line for the highest honor Congress can bestow. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is introducing legislation to grant the Congressional Gold Medal to officers, including officer Eugene Goodman. He not only directed the violent mob away from the Senate, he also redirected Senator Mitt Romney to safety. We'll be right back.
[04:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back. The Australian Open is banning fans for five days. Victoria Premiere Daniel Andrews announcing a hard lockdown for the entire Australian state after a coronavirus cluster broke out at a quarantine hotel. All 13 virus cases connected to the Melbourne hotel are the U.K. variant. The tennis tournament will continue as planned for the players. Australia has had huge success against coronavirus due to the strict lockdown last year.
JARRETT: More than 1.6 million counterfeit N-95 masks seized from a warehouse in New York. The Queens district attorney's office says the masks were manufactured to look exactly like the 3M products. $700,000 worth of masks were sold to one health care system in the south. Phony masks are becoming a big problem. Federal authorities are currently investigating the distribution of counterfeit N-95 sold to hospitals and medical facilities nationwide. A homeland security official calls it, quote, our biggest fear.
ROMANS: States across the country are dialing back restrictions despite the concern about the spread of these new coronavirus variants. All but one region of Washington state is now moving to the next reopening phase. Wyoming is relaxing rules for restaurants and large gatherings. And bars in Rhode Island are set to reopen today with increased limits on social gathering. CNN has this pandemic covered coast to coast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Lucy Kafanov. Montana became the latest state to lift its mask mandate after the governor signed a bill intended to protect business and houses of worship from coronavirus related lawsuits. While the statewide mask mandate is allowed to expire today, the governor say that local communities may continue to enforce their own mandates. He says that he will continue to wear masks and encourages all residents to do the same.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Athena Jones. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine allowed the state's curfew to expire at noon on Thursday citing a sustained decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations. The move comes as the state's hospitalization numbers dropped below 2,500 for seven consecutive days. Governor DeWine said it was crucial that Ohioans continued safety protocols and to slow the spread of the virus and allowed that if hospitalizations begin to rise again, the Ohio Department of Health may reinstate the curfew.
(END VIDEOTAPE
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Evan McMorris-Santoro. New York City restaurants will reopen for indoor dining starting on Friday. Restaurants will be limited to 25 percent capacity. The reopening was expected to come on Sunday, Valentine's Day, but this week New York Governor Andrew Cuomo pushed the reopening date back two days to give restaurants time to prepare for a day they all hope to be very, very busy.
Restaurants were closed to indoor dining back in December as pandemic numbers surged here, but those numbers have come back down leading officials to relax certain restrictions including this one on indoor dining.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: All right, thanks to all of our correspondents for those updates.
President Biden prepared to roll back a controversial Trump era policy on migrants at the southern border. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is live for us with the details. Priscilla, what more are you learning?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Officials are telling us that the Biden administration is preparing to admit migrants who are along the southern border and were subject to a Trump era policy that forced them to remain there while they claimed asylum.
Now this significant element because it begins to address the more than 20,000 migrants who were forced again to remain in Mexico as their immigration hearings continued in the United States. Now the Biden administration has slowly begun to draw down the program by stopping new enrollments, but this is the first time we're seeing them really start to address the thousands who are there.
Now officials tell us this is by no means going to a quick process, it will be gradual. So they will look at vulnerable migrants first as well as those who were initially put in the program, some of whom it could have been at least two years ago.
So this is all going to be a process that plays out slowly on the southern border. It also will not be across the entirety of the border, but rather at select ports of entry. Now one of the biggest challenges the administration is going to face is how do you communicate to the migrants when it's their turn to come to the border. And this is a problem because frankly there's a lot of misinformation and rumors that circulate along the southern border, via smugglers or word of mouth. And that can happen across platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter.
[04:50:00]
And so attorneys tell me the critical part is going to be communicating to the migrants. When it's their turn. When they should present at the port of entry. Because otherwise what we're seeing is migrant smuggling networks are really starting to move up along the border. And that's because we're in this unprecedented situation where we have thousands of migrants who are waiting there. And so as the Biden administration begins this roll back, they will have to assess how do we provide accurate information.
JARRETT: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, always great to get your expertise on all of this. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right, to the winter weather now. At least nine people have been killed in car crashes due to winter storms in Texas. Police say a 133 car pileup on Interstate 35 spanned roughly a mile. More than 300 accidents were reported overnight during weather conditions that included a freezing rain and accumulating ice.
JARRETT: Police in St. Louis are looking for a funeral home van that was stolen with a body inside. The white cargo van was taken Thursday morning when the driver stopped at a convenience store leaving the vehicle unattended and the car running. Police want to question a man and woman seen on surveillance video inside of the store.
All right, felony charges against two Buffalo police officers who pushed an elderly protester to the ground last summer have been dismissed. Officers Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe pleaded not guilty to second degree assault. 75-year-old Martin Gugino suffered a skull fracture in the fall during a protest against racism and police brutality. Both officers remain suspended from the force pending an internal investigation. Gugino calls the Grand Jury's decision in the case, quote, a little surprising.
ROMANS: The video is certainly shocking even now.
Looking at markets to end the week. Markets in China and Hong Kong closed for the lunar new year. European markets opened lower after the record slump in GDP. The U.K. economy contracted 9.9 percent last year, the largest annual fall in U.K. economic growth on record. The pandemic has effectively wiped out economic growth in the U.K. over the last seven years.
Moving to Wall Street, futures down a little bit this morning. The Dow fell short of hitting a new record high Thursday, but the S&P and the Nasdaq managed fresh highs.
In an awful year for the economy, some good news for homeowners. Home prices rose across the country at the end of last year. The price gains were widespread. Home prices rose by double digits all across the country. Credit record, low mortgage rates, strong demand from families moving for more space. And there's not a lot of supply to choose from. Record low inventory right now. It's made it harder for many buyers to find homes. Home prices are rising much faster than the income of the average working family. The National Association of Realtors notes the large swings in prices could start to sideline potential buyers.
Mastercard is bringing bitcoin to the checkout counter. Announcing it will support select cryptocurrencies directly on its network later this year. Mastercard says its crypto-partners will convert the digital currency into traditional currency and the transmit it over its network yet. This will make Mastercard bitcoins most main street platform yet. Earlier this week Tesla announced a $1.5 billion investment in bitcoin and said it will soon accept bitcoin as payment for Tesla vehicles.
Disney+ smashed expectations in the quarter. The streaming service now has 95 million subscribers, up from 86 million in December. The increase shows just how vital Disney+ is to the health of the company. A bright spot for Disney as its parks struggle. Revenue at its parks division fell 53 percent. Many if those parks are still closed or operating at reduced capacity. The CEO Bob Chapek said, when the parks reopen, that depends on when the public is more widely vaccinated.
JARRETT: A TSA officer going beyond the call of duty to help a family that landed in Portland, Oregon, instead of their intended destination, Portland, Maine -- 3,000 miles away. Officer Martin Rios was asked to translate for this Spanish speaking family. It turns out a travel agent had booked them on a flight to the wrong Portland late last year and didn't realize the mistake until they arrived. Rios took them to get the corrected tickets and even used his own money to help buy them.
ROMANS: What a mix up.
A restaurant tip war breaking out in Cincinnati. Alumni fans of rival College Xavier and the University of Cincinnati have been one upping each other with generous tips at local restaurants. It began when a Xavier alum left a $1,000 tip with a note to share it with all the employees. Then two Cincinnati fans left a $1,001 tip at another restaurant with a note saying let's see how long we can keep this going. In one month they've raised $34,000 for restaurant workers hit hard by the pandemic.
JARRETT: Wow. Just shows you a little healthy competition, right.
ROMANS: I love it. I love it. And let's remember everybody, our restaurants workers definitely need a nice tip these days. Thanks for joining us this Friday morning.
[04:55:00]
I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. JOE NEGUSE (D-CO) HOUSE IMPEACHMENT MANAGER: Evidence is clear. President Trump incited an insurrection that he alone had the power to stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has condemned the violence and doesn't in any way want to be associated with what happened in this violent incident.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of these people who have been arrested and charged, their leader must be held accountable as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president to continue to say the election was stolen. He built that statement so how do you defend that? How do you describe that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The defense has its job cut out for them. They have a bad client. They have bad evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is "NEW DAY" with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. It is Friday, February 12th, 5:00 in the East. This is a special edition of "NEW DAY." And we have breaking new information about how the former president's defense team.
