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Congress in 2019; 2020 Race for Democrats; Economy in 2019; Late Night 2018 Political Moments. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired January 01, 2019 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Also, comics making hay of some of the biggest political headlines of 2018. So we have all of those highlights straight ahead for you.
But first, let's get a check of your headlines at the news desk.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, good morning. I'm Ryan Nobles in New York.
Welcome to 2019.
Las Vegas ringing in the new year with an awesome fireworks display. Thousands of revelers packed The Strip in downtown Vegas to celebrate.
And in Rio de Janeiro, more than 2 million people welcomed the new year with a massive fireworks show. The dazzling display lighting up the sky over Rio's famed Copacabana Beach.
A new year's warning from Kim Jong-un. The North Korean leader affirming his commitment to denuclearization in his new year's speech, but warning he may have to pursue a new path because of too many one- sided demands by the United States. Kim claims North Korea is no longer making or testing nuclear weapons and insists he is ready to meet with President Trump anytime if the U.S. doesn't test his patience with sanctions and broken promises.
U.S. Strategic Command, which controls America's nuclear weapons, now apologizing for this video posted on Twitter that makes light of B-2 stealth bombers dropping huge bombs. The now deleted tweet said, quote, Times Square tradition rings in the new year by dropping the big ball. If ever needed, we are ready to drop something much, much bigger. Strategic Command now admitting the tweet was in poor taste and does not reflect our values.
While 12 NFL teams look forward to the playoffs, eight others are looking for new head coaches. The NFL's Black Monday saw four coaches fired, including the Arizona Cardinals Steve Wilks, who was let go after just one season. Two teams, the New York Jets and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers don't -- didn't wait for the traditional Monday bloodletting, firing their head coaches on Sunday.
I'm Ryan Nobles. We'll have more headlines coming up in just 30 minutes.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A big change is coming to Washington this week, Democrats take over the majority in the House of Representatives. So after years of gridlock with Republicans controlling the House and the Senate, will anything get done in 2019?
I want to bring back Nia-Malika Henderson, David Gregory and John Avlon.
If you are Nancy Pelosi, David, and you are beginning this new year as the once again speaker of the House, what's the first thing you want to do?
DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you want to set the ground rules for how you're going to take on Trump. And I think she did that at the end of last year by taking him on quite publicly in the Oval Office.
But she's got this dual job. She has to, you know, clinch the thirst to investigate the administration, but also show the way for Democrats who want to retake power in Washington in 2020, and they've got to actually accomplish something. So she's got to be able to do both things well.
And on the investigative front, if that's a runaway train, it's going to play into Donald Trump's hands. I think she knows that. She's got a pretty fractious caucus.
Democrats are in a weird way right now. They are going through their own fracturing right now as they figure out who they want to be, especially in a presidential race. And she is really the most important political figure going into this new year.
CAMEROTA: What do you think their top priorities are? What do they really want to get done in 2019?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, I think if you're Democrats, you have to look realistically at the Senate, right? And if they want to go too far to the left, say, for instance, on something like healthcare, voting rights, student loans, any infrastructure, even, that's going to be tough. I mean is it just a matter of kind of laying out what the Democratic Party stands for, putting a bunch of bills up that they get out of the House, with the full knowledge that they're not going to get anywhere in the Senate, or are they really going to try to meet in the middle somewhere and, frankly, possibly hand Donald Trump a victory, right? If he signs a big infrastructure plan, then that goes to him. That possibly helps his reelection. So you've got to really, I think, you know, balance those two competing ideas. On the one hand, defining Democrats, but not -- not giving too much to Donald Trump.
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: But as you walk that line, I mean, they may want to pass something that has a big spending ticket on it with the Republican president, reduces some of the political culpability. Look, I think they're going to be opening up literally with an anti-
corruption and pro-democracy bill, which is very good. Probably doesn't have a prayer in the Senate, but it's the kind of stuff that people really do need. It includes things like voting rights, reducing the influence of money in politics, things that I think are -- really do feed a lot of the anger and anxiety in politics. But I think it will be something like infrastructure if there's a prayer. It will be something like prescription drugs. I think probably, you know, Nixon in China on immigration reform, probably too much to hope for.
On the investigatory front, I think the baseline will be, how early does the chair of the Ways and Means Committee release Trump's taxes? I think that's something that's clearly within the power and purview. Something that needs to be done.
[06:35:06] CAMEROTA: Why wait?
AVLON: I don't know that there's a good reason to wait. I think you get that out early. And then -- and then, you know -- and no one should be an impeachment enthusiast. There are folks on the far left certainly who are. Let's see what the Mueller report comes forward with. And -- but I think that will be one of Nancy Pelosi's most difficult jobs is corralling that caucus.
GREGORY: But I do think financial corruption, you know, you've seen some of this ethical financial corruption within the administration, within the cabinet. I think, and we know from Jeff Toobin's reporting in "The New Yorker" at the end of the year that Adam Schiff, who's running the Intelligence Committee, who's the chair, wants to look into the financial relationship that the Trump Organization had with overseas interests that might have conflicted with his presidential ambitions. I think that's the potential big story about potential corruption in this administration and within Trump's orbit.
I think voting rights is important in terms of getting into 2020. I also think shoring up healthcare becomes very important. Democrats did well at that in the midterms in 2018. So I think those are going to be the priorities.
BERMAN: Yes, some -- Congress may get brought into a situation where they have to do --
HENDERSON: Right.
BERMAN: Things on healthcare --
HENDERSON: That's right.
BERMAN: Depending on what happens with the courts and this overturning and the district court overturned Obamacare. They may have to do something if the economy turns sour, although I'm not sure you can provide much stimulus given where we are with the tax cuts that already existed.
HENDERSON: Already had (INAUDIBLE). Yes.
AVLON: Yes.
BERMAN: But, you know, you just don't know.
AVLON: That's one of the dangers of what Donald Trump did early on is he pulled gasoline on an already roaring economic fire. The engine was humming fine, but now we've taken a lot of the leverage out of the Fed and out of other folks. So, you know, another round of tax cuts isn't going to accomplish what it -- what they might hope. But that will be the Republican's impulse. You know it -- that changes the political dynamic in profound ways.
And the big question you always ask is, what could make some Republicans start to question their so far uncritical loyalty of Donald Trump almost no matter what he does. Mueller report, the economy, I think also to the point David just made, if all of a sudden we find -- start finding out more about financial relationships possibly with Russia and other things, that could start to change the calculus.
GREGORY: But the obvious thing is --
HENDERSON: And also -- yes.
GREGORY: Yes.
HENDERSON: In some ways foreign policy, too.
AVLON: Yes.
HENDERSON: I mean this is an area where he obviously is a dominant figure in terms of arguing where America should be in the world. And you've already seen some of those cracks, right, with Saudi Arabia, for instance, and the war in Yemen. So that will be an interesting area to watch, whether or not you see some fraying there.
GREGORY: If he gets more politically vulnerable --
HENDERSON: Yes.
GREGORY: And if the economy is more vulnerable, then that's only then do Republicans feel strong enough to separate from him without fearing the reprisals.
CAMEROTA: All right, we're six minutes into the new year. Time to talk 2020?
BERMAN: Yes.
CAMEROTA: OK.
BERMAN: That's late. We're seven minutes late as far as I'm concerned.
CAMEROTA: This is John's favorite topic. Even in 2018 it was. All right, well, back in 2018 here were the top -- here were the front runners. It was Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren. We're missing some, obviously. Beto O'Rourke, et cetera, et cetera.
HENDERSON: Yes.
CAMEROTA: So --
HENDERSON: Sanders has got to be up there somewhere.
CAMEROTA: But, seriously, when does this begin in earnest?
HENDERSON: I mean it already has begun, right? In some ways you've got some folks already out there, Julian Castro, the exploratory committee. Remember back in 2007, Bill Richardson, I think he announced on "Meet the Press" maybe, I think, on TV, or one of those Sunday shows, and then Obama announced his in February 2007.
BERMAN: The future is now.
HENDERSON: It's now.
GREGORY: Yes.
HENDERSON: People are going to roll because they've got to lock down donors, they've got to lock down the buzz.
GREGORY: And there's a lot of money out there.
HENDERSON: Yes, there's a lot of --
GREGORY: There's a lot of money out there and a lot of Democrats vying for it. Trying to figure out who's viable is going to take -- is going to take a long time.
But I think -- I think we're going to see it early because the president wants to try to define his path. And, look, I think this will confound a lot of people, as politically weak as he may look, if you just look at the polls and you look at all of the potential problems for him, it's not so easy to take power away from an incumbent president. And that's -- and especially with such a large Democratic field, which will maybe start to winnow this year.
BERMAN: I will note, history tells us often that sometimes when you think that it is an election worth running in or winning --
GREGORY: Right.
BERMAN: It turns out to be the opposite and sometimes, you know, Bill Clinton ran against George H.W. Bush --
AVLON: Right.
HENDERSON: Yes. Yes.
BERMAN: And no one thought he had a chance.
I think there's one thing happening on the Democratic side and it's, you know, this may not last, but right now, as we head into the new year, I think Beto O'Rourke is driving the story, not maybe him, but everything surrounding him and forcing decisions by some of these other people who may run.
AVLON: Well, there is an energy and an enthusiasm that reminds some folks of kind of the Obama energy. He's an outsider, he's progressive, but speaks in a more unifying manner. From Texas. Obviously lost a Senate race. This is not typically, as people pointed out, the last person who pulled that out of the hat was Abraham Lincoln, and I wouldn't necessarily say that's a typical path to the presidency. But he's shown a lot of momentum.
The question is one of experience, right? You've got a broad field, but a relatively weak bench on the Democrat's side. And if you typically say that one of the things we've seen in presidential races is, who's the corrective? Who's the opposite of the last guy? It's reasonable to say people are going to look to someone who's a little more experienced in office with an ability to not only unite the party but unite the country, you know --
[06:40:05] CAMEROTA: Maybe, I mean unless Donald Trump has broken the mold.
HENDERSON: Maybe, yes.
AVLON: I'm always reluctant to go with this time it's different permanently, but last time definitely broke all the rules.
BERMAN: David, Nia, John, thank you all very much.
CAMEROTA: Happy New Year, guys.
GREGORY: Happy New Year.
AVLON: Happy New Year.
CAMEROTA: OK, it is a new year and if there is one area of your life to revamp in 2019, it could be your finances. So Christine Romans has what we all need to know, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: December was a rough month for stocks. So what could that tell us about how the economy is looking for this year? Let's bring in chief business correspondent, "EARLY START" anchor, Christine Romans.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we ended 2018 with some anxiety about your 401(k), right, and your stock market. So let's talk about stocks here just real quickly and show you where we've come from, John.
Here's seven of the past nine years before 2018 with double digit gains. Remember 2008, that was a horrible year. By 2013 we were really singing with a 32 percent gain in --
BERMAN: I like that one.
ROMANS: Yes, and if you hit 2017, that was a 22 percent gain.
But last year, the first step backwards in a long time. So investors are really reevaluating, I think, where they need to be for 2019. If there's going to be a trade war that continues. If you're going to have higher interest rates this year, slowing global growth. So I would really encourage everyone to please take a look at your 401(k) and how you're allocating. If you've been riding the stock market up for ten years and haven't been adjusting your asset allocation, now is the time to do that.
BERMAN: The stock market sometimes goes down.
ROMANS: It does.
BERMAN: You know, it's not all green like this for ten years running usually.
ROMANS: It does.
BERMAN: All right, I've done all my financial planning over the last five years based on your advice, which is why I'm going to have to work until I'm 130. But, besides that, you know, talk about new year's resolutions.
ROMANS: OK.
BERMAN: People always make financial resolutions.
ROMANS: They do. And so I think new year's is a good time to take a look at it but also you should reevaluate around your birthday or halfway through the year. You don't just want to look at your money, set it one time a year and figure it out. You need to be on a budget.
[06:45:01] And, you know, every year we say this and people are like, oh, I don't know. The software is there. Make a budget and make sure you're living below your means. I know it's hard on New Year's Day to sit here and listen to me, live below your means, but it's like being on a diet, you have to be on a little bit of a financial diet to build more money to live to 130 on.
Manage your debt. You know, you want to pay down the debt. That's really incredibly important. Optimize your portfolio. Again, take a look at stocks, bonds, cash, where you are for your age. If you need money, by the way, in the next six to nine months and you're 100 percent in stocks, you're doing the wrong thing. You need to have six to nine months' expenses put away. Protect your estate. And I guess, for most people, the most important advice from Charles Schwab on this is, make sure that your beneficiaries are up to date, make sure you've talked about your insurance, what kinds of -- maybe a living trust and also your healthcare proxy and living will types of issues. Yes, on the first day of the year, after you've had a great night last night, I'm telling you to check on your living will, but all of this stuff is super important.
BERMAN: This is like the human bummer, Christine Romans --
ROMANS: I know I am --
BERMAN: Happy New Year, let me depress the heck out of you.
ROMANS: Happy New Year.
Look, this is what most popular are saying, the most popular financial resolutions, save more, pay down debt, spend less. It sounds easy, but it's always a really important time of the year to kind of gut check on that.
BERMAN: Christine Romans, thanks so much. Happy New Year to you.
ROMANS: Happy New Year. Do you have your living will, right?
BERMAN: Yes, (INAUDIBLE) my living will. Thank you.
Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: We'll do it in the commercial.
BERMAN: Yes.
CAMEROTA: We'll get that squared away.
All right, thank you guys.
Late night comedy was laser focused on politics. So we'll take a look at how comedians took on President Trump and how he felt about it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:50:07] CAMEROTA: Late night comics spent 2018 poking fun at the Trump administration and their jokes caught the president's attention. Joining us now to relive some of these we have CNN chief media correspondent and anchor of "Reliable Sources," Brian Stelter, and CNN media analyst Bill Carter.
Wow, "SNL" was really in its prime, right? I mean, well, you tell me, Bill, because a lot of people have said, is this the best -- is this one of its best seasons ever?
BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, I think it's been on the Trump thing now for two and a half years because they started with the campaign. And I think they've actually made a little adjustment because they -- I think they used Alec Baldwin a lot and decided to back off a little bit on that one.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
CARTER: So they're using other characters. You're noticing more Rudy Giuliani and (INAUDIBLE) and all that.
CAMEROTA: I couldn't tell if that was their decision or Alec Baldwin was just tiring of doing this every weekend. CARTER: I think that -- I think -- my own impression is that that is
getting to be more of a cartoon and they -- and they -- there's more satire going into this stuff when you bring in Mueller and Cohen and all that. And I think they're using him less for that reason. But, obviously, the target -- I mean Matt Damon as Brett Kavanaugh was the highlight of the season in my opinion.
BERMAN: Well, on that note, let's play it, shall we?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT DAMON, ACTOR, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Judge Kavanaugh, are you ready to begin?
DAMON: Oh, hell, yes. Let me tell you this, I'm going to start at an 11. I'm going to take it to about a 15 real quick. First of all, I showed this speech to almost no one. Not my family. Not my friends. Not even P.J. or Tobin (ph) or Squi (ph). This is my speech.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: I submit, Brian Stelter, that this performance will be not unlike Tina Fay doing Sarah Palin, which is to say that it will be indistinguishable from the real Brett Kavanaugh because, you know what, we're not going to actually hear from Brett Kavanaugh in public very much as Supreme Court justice now, but this is what we will have in our memory.
STELTER: Right. That's why this Matt Damon impersonation will stick in people's minds, because we won't really ever hear Kavanaugh, we won't hear from him much now that he's on the bench. I thought it was notable Damon came back. He was hosting at the end of the year. And they brought the Kavanaugh impression back because, John, they know they've got something special there.
I also remember that weekend, though, there were headlines about, you know, is "SNL" going to sink Kavanaugh? Is the nomination dead now?
CAMEROTA: Right.
BERMAN: Yes.
STELTER: You know, and obviously so much of that.
CARTER: No.
CAMEROTA: Yes, and, you know, what, I think that's really interesting because it didn't change the course of history, unlike Melissa McCarthy playing Sean Spicer, which may have. I mean that one may have --
CARTER: Well, it surely changed the -- Sean Spicer's history.
CAMEROTA: That's my point. CARTER: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Is that --
CARTER: It definitely affected his career. I --
CAMEROTA: Is that some things do end up affecting their career, but it did not happen in the Brett Kavanaugh.
So let's watch another "SNL" moment. So this is, to your point, more of the ensemble of Michael Cohen. So you can see some of that with Rudy Giuliani.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN STILLER, ACTOR, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Rudy, is that you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Yes, that's right. It's me. Rudy -- Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer and his worst nightmare.
STILLER: Rudy, can we speak freely? Are you alone?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, I'm pretty much alone. This is a commercial break, right, toots?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, ACTOR, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARTER: Right, tots?
CAMEROTA: He's live on Fox. That's so clever.
CARTER: Well, the other thing is they're getting -- they get Ben Stiller. They get Matt Damon. They get Robert de Niro. They're getting really giant people playing --
STELTER: They got de Niro playing Mueller.
CARTER: Robert de Niro's playing Mueller. They're getting really giant performers to take these roles.
BERMAN: And they have a big audience that reaches all the way to executive time inside the residence at the White House.
CARTER: It does.
BERMAN: The president is pissed. I think we can say that, it's New Year's Day.
CAMEROTA: OK. Go ahead.
BERMAN: The kids aren't awake yet. CAMEROTA: People are still drunk.
CARTER: Yes.
BERMAN: He doesn't like what's happening on "Saturday Night Live." He reacted to the final one of 2018, the one where it's "A Wonderful Life" spoof. We're not going to play that now, but this is what the president wrote. A real scandal is the one-sided coverage hour by hour of networks like NBC and Democrat spin machines like "Saturday Night Live." It's all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts. Can't be legal. Only defame and belittle. Collusion?
Now --
STELTER: Courts.
BERMAN: I've seen Alisyn Camerota upset. I have never seen you more upset than when your comedy shows were threatened.
CAMEROTA: Right.
STELTER: Oh, I love the way you reacted to this.
CATER: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Well, thank you, because I feel that it is such a part of the First Amendment, it's such a part of the foundation of our country. We are allowed to satirize our politicians. That makes me so patriotic. What a great country --
CARTER: Yes.
CAMEROTA: That we can satirize our politicians and that President Trump is thinking about taking -- trying to find some way to take that away. Imagine a world without our late night comics and "Saturday Night Live."
STELTER: Yes, I mean, tested in courts is nonsensical, but maybe in 2019 the president will learn about the First Amendment. Maybe he'll understand finally what it means. I'm not going to hold out a lot of hope for that, but let's be hopeful on the first day of the year.
[06:55:02] CARTER: I think he's particularly offended by "Saturday Night Live" because he feels -- he's been the host of that show.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
CARTER: He shows up when they have anniversary shows. He feels connected to that show and he probably thinks he has a relationship with that show.
CAMEROTA: He does. In his past, he did.
CARTER: He did.
CAMEROTA: He was a part of that and had fun with it. But things have changed.
CARTER: That's right. So he feels hurt. I think he feels more hurt by that, you know.
BERMAN: Now the joke's on him.
We have time for one final clip. Can we just see Stephen Colbert very quickly?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON: Hey, low life.
STEPHEN COLBERT: Hey, lost soul. What are you up to?
FALLON: Nothing (ph).
COLBERT: Be a man.
FALLON: I'll try. What are you up to?
COLBERT: Oh, I'm busy having no talent.
FALLON: Did you see Trump's rally last night?
COLBERT: Nope.
FALLON: Me, either. I heard he said some pretty bad stuff about us.
COLBERT: Really? That doesn't sound like him.
FALLON: I heard he said we're all no talent, low life, lost souls.
COLBERT: Well, that's not right. That's Conan.
Hold on, I'll get him.
CONAN O'BRIEN: Oh, hey, guys, what's up?
FALLON: We were just talking about what President Trump said.
O'BRIEN: President who?
COLBERT: Trump.
O'BRIEN: Donald Trump? The real estate guy who sells steaks? He's president?
FALLON: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Wow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So, obviously --
CAMEROTA: Wow.
BERMAN: That was after Donald Trump had complained about the late night comics.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
CARTER: Yes, he did.
BERMAN: I guess, Bill, my question, as we close this segment is, can this keep going for all them? I mean, Stephen Colbert, this is it. I mean this is his show every night. Another two years?
CARTER: This has been the question, when will the audience get tired of it? Will they get exhausted of the jokes? Trump is supplying the material. As long as he continues to supply new material, and he does it all the time, I think it will continue to work. (INAUDIBLE).
STELTER: But you know what Colbert is doing now, he's auditioning 2020 candidates on his show. He's booking a lot of politicians.
CARTER: He is.
STELTER: I think "The Late Show" is going to be a key spot for all the Dems that want to beat Trump.
BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE).
CAMEROTA: Really interesting. And was Conan naked? I mean --
BERMAN: From the waist up.
CAMEROTA: Well --
STELTER: He usually is.
BERMAN: From the waist up.
CAMEROTA: Are we sure it was -- OK.
Thank you, guys. Happy New Year. Great to talk to you.
CARTER: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: All right, it may be 2019, but we are already looking ahead to 2020. Who is emerging as a potential challenger for President Trump? That's ahead on this special New Year's Day edition of NEW DAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
