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EARLY START

President Travels to Europe for G20; U.N. Security Council Emergency Meeting Today; Qatar Crisis: Saudi Arabia and Allies Meet in Cairo; Gordon Hayward to Sign with the Celtics. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired July 5, 2017 - 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: Less than three hours from now, President Trump wheels up for a high stakes trip to Europe. The North Korean missile launch, the Vladimir Putin meeting and more on the agenda at a highly anticipated G20 Summit. We are live this morning in London, Poland, Hong Kong and Qatar on the president's trip and more.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

We're going to a few places --

(CROSSTALK)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Amazing just to hear that, yes. That's no ordinary half hour.

I'm Dave Briggs. It's Wednesday, July 5th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And just a few hours from now, President Trump departs on his second international trip, one that is loaded with consequence. After a stop in Poland, the president travels on to the G20 Summit in Germany, and there, he'll sit down with Russian President Vladimir Putin for an official bilateral meeting as we've now learned.

[05:00:02] It will not be an informal pull-aside meeting, the kind that would signal Russia has a ways to go before the U.S. would reward it with a formal sit-down.

ROMANS: This would be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders and the first official bilateral meeting between a U.S. and Russian president in nearly two years. Presidents Trump and Putin also likely to discuss North Korea's test of a probably ICBM. A launch that now has the U.S. and South Korea flexing their military muscle. More on that in a moment.

But our coverage of Mr. Trump's trip begins with Ryan Nobles at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, good morning. President Trump expected to leave here from Washington today for his second foreign trip and this is a crucial one. He'll first head to Poland before heading to Germany for the G20 Summit and there will be a number of big issues on the table. North Korea, of course, a big one after the country firing another test missile this week, but also the meeting with Vladimir Putin and this meeting taking on a much greater focus because both sides have announced that this will be a formal bilateral meeting. That will provide a much more focused to this meeting and it also could be an indication that both sides are open to better diplomatic ties.

There will be a number of topics on the table, even though the agenda hasn't officially been set. U.S. officials are expected to bring up the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. But the president is not expected to talk to Putin about Russia's alleged attempt to meddle in the U.S. election. One thing that both leaders will likely talk about though is North Korea and President Putin at a press conference with President Xi of China on Tuesday where they talked about settling the Korean situation and Putin specifically talked about his concern about the deployment of more U.S. weapons in South Korea -- Dave and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIGGS: Ryan Nobles at the White House, thank you.

The U.N. Security Council set to meet in emergency session today at the request of the United States. The meeting in response to North Korea's launch of what military analysts now think was a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile. Pyongyang claims to have developed a nuclear capable ICBM and tested it as an Independence Day gift to the U.S.

ROMANS: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says he won't negotiate over his nuclear and ballistic missile programs until the U.S. ends what he calls its hostile policy and nuclear threat against the North. In response to the test, the U.S. and South Korea say they conducted a joint ballistic missile drill.

BRIGGS: And Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has released a statement, calling the North Korean test a new escalation of the threat to the U.S. and the world.

Let's turn to CNN's Andrew Stevens monitoring the situation from Hong Kong.

Good morning to you, Andrew.

Where is the story headed from here?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave.

Well, certainly the story is heading into what do we do now? How do we contain the threat from North Korea which has as the U.S. says is an ICBM missile. We know it has a nuclear weapon, what we don't know yet and what hasn't been shown is when or how the North Koreans can put a nuclear payload on an intercontinental missile. That missile now capable of reaching Alaska, not the lower 48 states, but certainly, it has escalated enormously the stakes in the North Korean nuclear program.

So, what we saw today was the South Koreans and the U.S. responding very vigorously. Those missiles being fired into the waters off South Korea, with a very blunt message from South Korea which basically said, we have the precision military hardware to target the enemy leadership. They are the words being used by the South Koreans. Target the enemy leadership.

But that's the hostile policy that Kim Jong-un is talking about, saying that the U.S. must end that before there's any chance of sitting down to talk. So, there doesn't seem to be a deadlock there. Donald Trump has been hinting and the administration has been hinting that China needs to do more. China at this stage is showing no willingness to do that.

It can. It does have economic leverage, a lot of economic leverage. We know that something like 90 percent of North Korea's international trade is actually done with China. China at the moment is saying, we abide by all the U.N. resolutions about sanctions towards North Korea and that's where we are at the moment. We believe in dialogue.

Both Putin -- Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping of China saying in Moscow yesterday that dialogue was the next step forward. For that to happen it says that the U.S. has to stop these military drills with South Korea and that North Korea has to freeze its nuclear programs. Neither of those two things look likely happening certainly at this stage.

BRIGGS: That's right. And as per China's willingness, trade up 37 percent between North Korea and China in the first quarter. Andrew Stevens live for us, thank you.

ROMANS: All right. Helping us break down our top stories this morning, CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

Lovely to have you this morning live from London.

BRIGGS: Good morning.

ROMANS: A very big week ahead for us. Christiane, let's talk more about this North Korea crisis here. Clearly, this will be top of mind for these leaders who are assembling for the G20 this week.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

ROMANS: What are the options for the U.S.? North Korea wants to be accepted as a nuclear power. The United States and the rest of the world don't want to do that. So, where do we go from here?

AMANPOUR: Well, honestly, Christine, that is the huge question, because right now, it does not look like they have the leverage to prevent what North Korea wants because as you have seen and as we've seen over the last several years, North Korea has simply been galloping ahead with its tests, with its missile technology and with its nuclear war head technology. As Andrew said, they still haven't yet shown that they can put a

warhead on an intercontinental ballistic missile, but now, all sides seem to agree that this last test over the last 24 hours is a threat, because it can reach Alaska and it was deliberately sent up in a vertical pattern so that it didn't go overfly Japan, but had it overflown Japan and gone as it's meant to go, horizontally, it would have gone more than the length required for an intercontinental ballistic missile, which is that 5,500 kilometer. It would have made that.

So, we are in a very, very difficult, difficult stage. And as you've seen, President Trump has been counting on President Xi of China. That seems to have come to a screeching halt.

President Trump tweeting not so long ago that they tried but it wasn't working with China and now he's put some sanctions on China. China is responding in a more aggressive way to the United States, verbally anyway. You know, the relationship doesn't look great at the moment.

And the talk between Vladimir Putin and President Xi yesterday basically took the North Korean position that if the United States and the West wants to see a halt in North Korea's nuclear program, then it would have to stop the joint military exercises and also stop the deployment of the THAAD anti-missile defense shield. That is an untenable position so far for the United States and others.

So, perhaps some more sanctions. Perhaps some more deployment of American military power to the region and most certainly people are saying increase the sanctions and the pressure on Chinese companies that do business with North Korea.

BRIGGS: So, that meeting between Putin and President Xi ahead of this meeting, this formal sit-down, bilateral meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin, and we're told, Christiane, that H.R. McMasters says there's no specific agenda from President Trump. It's whatever the president wants to talk about.

Number one, what's the danger in no specific agenda? And what's the likelihood of Putin, himself a former KGB, not having an agenda ahead of this meeting?

AMANPOUR: Absolutely no likelihood whatsoever. Putin has his agenda. He's had his agenda all along.

You know, most analysts believe that President Putin is very smart tactically. Not as successful strategically, and therefore, you know, mistakes have been made, most particularly this interference in the United States election that has sort of backfired against Moscow.

However, it is still a major big deal because it's still a huge political story inside the United States and here I am sitting in Europe and this G20 Summit is happening in Europe, in Germany, over the next couple of days, and the threat of Russia and its expansionist policies is going to be one of the big, big talking points.

So, the question is: for the people at the G20 Summit, the Allies, what will President Trump say to them, you know, and say to President Putin that makes clear where the United States is the main leader of NATO stands when it comes to the threats from Russia?

And, you know, he's coming to Poland. He's leaving the United States as you said today. Poland is the first stop and he's expected -- well, people are thinking that perhaps he might use a speech there to reaffirm in a very strong way what he didn't do at the G7 Summit and that is the Article 5 of the NATO declaration and the fact that, you know, all the NATO countries stick together.

But again, North Korea will be a big part of all of this, because everybody's implicated now. I mean, it's something that the whole of the G20 will need to deal with not just countries in Asia, not just the United States.

And I just spoke yesterday on my program to Bruce Klinger. Now, he is a former CIA or former DIA analyst. He's currently at the Heritage Foundation, but notably, he and a very few other group of Americans have met -- the only people to have met with North Korean diplomats and I asked him, does he think North Korea is open to negotiations about their nuclear program?

The answer is sobering. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUCE KLINGER, FORMER CIA DEPUTY DIVISION CHIEF FOR KOREA: They made very clear, very emphatically clear that denuclearization is totally off the table. There's nothing that the U.S. or Seoul could offer to induce them to abandon their nuclear arsenal.

[05:10:03] They became irritated when we tried various options of suggested things that would get them back to the negotiating table. They said quite simply, accept us as a nuclear state and then we're willing to talk about a peace treaty or fight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: I mean, that is stark, Dave and Christine. Accept us or we're going to fight. I mean, this is a very, very dangerous escalation. People have complained or sort of wondered whether North Korea's been bluffing and what his true intentions are and what his capability is. But it is showing in black and white and technicolor what its increasing capabilities are.

So, this is very, very troubling.

ROMANS: It's a direct challenge to the United States and the Trump administration, no question, because the president said very clearly it's not going to happen, that they will not test an ICBM. It's not going to happen.

And it has now happened, and the policy response is what confuses me a little bit, because I don't know how many new options there really are in dealing with North Korea.

BRIGGS: The regime change?

AMANPOUR: You know, it is incredibly -- don't even say regime change because that involves a whole other set of huge endeavor. Most people believe that a pre-emptive strike which some have bandied about is a recipe for disaster because North Korea could respond in a nonnuclear way very, very heavily to South Korea, to Japan where there are allies and U.S. troops and it's a very, very dangerous situation that nobody wants to see.

And right now, the policy options that are being talked about, publicly anyway, are an increase in sanctions and an increase in the pressure of deployment and potentially a stepped up level of U.S. and other sanctions against Chinese companies that do business with North Korea. But it's very -- it's very worrying because unlike in Iran, guys, North Korea has thrown out the IAEA inspectors. North Korea has withdrawn and this was under the Bush administration when it tried to act heavy with North Korea. It withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, it threw out the IAEA inspectors, the U.N. inspectors, and it has been galloping ahead with its nuclear and ballistic missile program.

BRIGGS: Christiane, I want to ask you, ahead of this G20, you give us this global perspective that we don't often get here. The notion and the practice of American leadership, where is it ahead of the G20 and where do you expect it to be coming out?

AMANPOUR: Well, again, this is a very interesting question. We'll see what speeches, what kind of body language and actual verbal language President Trump takes to the G20 Summit. They were very disappointed at the G7, which was last month in Italy, because of pulling out of the international climate accord, for instance, the Paris accords of not, when he could, actually say that Article 5 meant everyone sticks together, an attack on one is an attack on all, and that the U.S. was committed to Article 5. That line, we understood later was taken out of the speech, that was very, very worrying.

And after that, Chancellor Merkel and indeed the Canadians, very close allies, right next door to you, have said, we are going to have to potentially go it alone.

So, people are concerned about U.S. leadership. Our allies are concerned about whether the United States still wants to lead the post-World War II era that the U.S. has underpinned for those 70 years.

ROMANS: Right.

AMANPOUR: And whether the United States is interested in doing that or not. And if so, if not, how they have to, you know, fill in the gaps.

ROMANS: The foreign minister of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, giving a rousing speech about how the United States doesn't seem to want to wear the mantle anymore of leadership around the world and that other countries will have to figure out how to do that in its stead. Pretty sobering stuff. Christiane Amanpour, nice to see you. I will talk to you again very,

very soon.

BRIGGS: Thank you.

ROMANS: Live from London this morning.

All right. The Trump administration getting tough on America's top trading partners. So, those countries are working out trade deals without the U.S. Japan and the E.U. plan to announce a trade deal tomorrow on the eve of the G20 meeting. That agreement is a clear reaction to the White House's protectionist attitude. In fact, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says this, it's important to wave the flag of free trade in response to global moves toward protectionism.

This deal could be bad news for some U.S. industries like automobiles. That's because it discards high tariffs on Japanese cars and removes obstacles for European automakers in Japan, just as sales for U.S. automakers begin to slow.

The E.U. and Japan would create a free trade bloc to, frankly, rival NAFTA. Speaking of NAFTA, the president often threatens to withdraw from that agreement. So, Mexico is looking for new economic alliances, enter China. China's ambassador to Mexico says it's ready to talk about a free trade agreement. President Trump has targeted both China and Mexico, saying he will put steep tariffs on companies and industries in those countries.

[05:15:03] He'll meet with the leaders of both those countries on Friday.

BRIGGS: And as you say that, a very interesting editorial in "The Washington Post" about just that notion. And they say, when it comes to trade policies, easy to shout America first. But it's harder to define exactly what you mean by America. Talking about the implications of the trade deals the president would like to make.

All right. Ahead, Qatar has now responded to a list of demands from Gulf nations which have broken off ties over a number of concerns. We're live in Doha, Qatar.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: One month after severing ties from Qatar, foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia and three of its Arab allies are meeting Cairo to plan their next move. Qatar has just responded to a list of demands presented to them by those Gulf nations. A deadline to respond has already been extended.

I want to bring in CNN's Jomana Karadsheh. She's live for us this morning in Doha, where we just looked it up, Jomana.

BRIGGS: Wow.

ROMANS: It's like 115 degrees where you are in beautiful Doha, Qatar. Grace under fire. Bring us up to speed.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically, Christine, we do know from the Qataris that on Monday, they did hand over that letter with their response to that list of demands that was presented by the Saudi-led coalition.

Now, what exactly is in that letter, we do not know. The foreign minister here would not go into the details, but giving us hints saying that their response was within the context of preserving Qatar's sovereignty and along the lines of international laws. So, really a hint that they will not be agreeing to that list of demands, something that they have hinted out for quite some time right now, saying that that list of demands was unrealistic and that it is not really about combating terrorism, saying that it was targeting Qatar's foreign policy and trying to strip this country of its sovereignty.

[05:20:01] Now, the list of demands has been received by the Saudi-led alliance. They've confirmed receiving it, saying they're reviewing it and they will respond in a timely manner.

All eyes right now are on Cairo. That is where the foreign ministers of that quartet are meeting today. And we'll have to see what comes out of that meeting and what the next steps are. Qatar reiterating their position, saying they're open for dialogue and negotiations they say is the only way out of this crisis, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Thank you so much for that, Jomana Karadsheh in Doha, where it's just a little bit afternoon there and 100 degrees.

BRIGGS: Yes, 111 degrees. So, not just speaking eloquently but about complex issues where it is burning.

ROMANS: Thank you.

BRIGGS: Wow.

All right. Up next, the gastronomic legend grows, Joey Chestnut.

ROMANS: Can't even watch. It's so gross. Don't you think it's gross?

BRIGGS: Oh, 5:20. Throwing down dogs? Yes.

Chestnut, a record setting chow down at Nathan's hotdog eating contest.

Coy Wire can take them down some hotdogs. He joins us next for the "Bleacher Report".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIGGS: On the Fourth of July, basketball star Gordon Hayward declared his independence from the Utah Jazz.

ROMANS: Coy Wire has more on this morning's "Bleacher Report".

Hey, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Dave.

Gordon Hayward was one of the most highly coveted free agents this off-season, excuse me. Utah fans were so scared that he might leave that they started a Go Fund Me page to put billboards up around the city, stay ward, begging Hayward to stay.

But other teams were rolling out the red carpet, too, as they were courting Hayward. The Miami heat flew huge banners in the city, with his face on them.

[05:25:02] But the all-star forward in the end said this was the toughest decision of his life and he chose the Celtics. A four-year deal with the reported $128 million.

Hayward reuniting with his old coach from Butler, Brad Stevens. He'll also join fellow all star Isaiah Thomas, and he was so happy he was in his kitchen, shirt off, dancing. He was in quite a happy mood.

And as happy as Thomas and Celtics fans were, Jazz fans did not take Hayward's decision very well. Instead of firing up the grill on Fourth of July, they were firing up Hayward's Utah Jazz jersey. My goodness.

Rookie phenom Aaron Judge is breaking records and now, he's breaking Yankee's stadium. This major league-leading 28th home run, hit so hard it went 456 feet in about four seconds and put a dent in the metal plate behind center field. Judge needs one more dinger to tie Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio's club rookie record for most home runs in a season. We're not even at the all star break. That record was set back in 1936.

A controversial crash at the Tour de France sends one of the favorites to the hospital and another rider home. Look closely. Current world champ Peter Sagan appears to shove Mark Cavendish into the barrier near the end of yesterday's stage. Cavendish crashing to the ground, gets run over by another cyclist. Organizers later disqualified Sagan from the rest of the race.

And do not invite Joey Chestnut to your next barbecue. For the tenth time, Jaws won the mustard belt at Nathan's famous hotdog eating contest. He gobbled down 72 hot dogs and buns in just 10 minutes, beating his own record by two. That's about 15 pounds worth of hot dogs, guys, so imagine shoving a Thanksgiving turkey down in your gut.

You stack 72 hotdogs end on end, it would be as tall as a three story building, but this raised an important question. One for you, Christine, is hotdog eating a sport?

ROMANS: It's gross.

WIRE: It is gross.

ROMANS: Is it a sport?

BRIGGS: Absolutely.

WIRE: Absolutely yes. Dave, is a hotdog sandwich?

BRIGGS: Absolutely. Yes. You?

ROMANS: I have never pondered these questions.

(CROSSTALK0

BRIGGS: Is it a bun?

ROMANS: This is just too deep --

BRIGGS: All right. One for you, is Joey Chestnut the fill in the blank of our generation? Serena Williams, Michael Jordan? What?

WIRE: He's the Serena Williams of hotdog eating contest. LeBron James, he's all of them rolled up into one bun.

ROMANS: Ooh, well done, my friend.

BRIGGS: Ten titles LeBron does not have. Joey rules.

All right. Thank you, my friend.

WIRE: You're welcome.

ROMANS: All right. The president's overseas trip begins in less than three hours and the North Korean missile launch has global powers at odds. What will happen when they all converge at the G20?

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