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EARLY START

Trump Heads To Europe On Second International Trip; U.N. Security Council Emergency Meeting Today; President Beings Europe Visit In Poland; Saudi Arabia And Arab Allies Meet In Cairo. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired July 5, 2017 - 05:30   ET

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


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[05:31:00] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump getting ready to head to Europe for his first G20. He and Vladimir Putin already have plenty to discuss. Now, their different takes on North Korea's missile launch will add to a very complicated mix.

Welcome back to EARLY START, I'm Dave Briggs.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. Nice to see you all this morning bright and early, 5:31 in the east.

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.

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There, he will sit down with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is an official bilateral meeting. This is not an informer -- informal pull-aside meeting, the kind that would signal Russia has a bit to go before the U.S. would reward it with a formal sit-down.

BRIGGS: This is thought to 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 probable ICBM, a launch that now has the U.S. and South Korea flexing their military muscle. More on that in just a moment.

First, our coverage begins with Ryan Nobles at the White House.

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RYAN NOBLES, CNN 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 former bilateral meeting. That will provide much more public focus 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.

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ROMANS: All right. Ryan Nobles at the White House. Thanks, Ryan.

The U.N. Security Council set to meet in emergency session today at the request of the United States. The meeting, a 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 United States.

BRIGGS: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says he won't negotiate over his nuclear program 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.

ROMANS: 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.

We want to turn to CNN's Andrew Stevens monitoring the situation from Hong Kong. You know, a suite of options, I guess, to deal with this threat but it's the same set of options we've always had essentially.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, pretty much so, and interestingly, Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, is showing every sign of repeating more tests, both missile and nuclear, Christine.

You said there that he called that missile test a gift package to America. Well, he went on to say that he wants his scientists to send many more gift packages to the Yankees, as he described them, both large and small. So certainly, the program of perfecting an ICBM and perfecting a nuclear warhead that fits on to that ICBM is continuing in North Korea.

[05:35:05] And the options, as you point out, they have been around for a while. They are limited. They could do more sanctions. They could bring more economic pressure to bear -- particularly, China could.

Sanctions have had, obviously, a very limited effect so far and they have to be careful with sanctions because they've got to be tied to the right people. Remember, North Korea is 25 million, most of them dirt poor, so they've got to be very careful those people don't get caught up in all this.

As far as economic leverage goes, China has economic leverage. Ninety percent of its international trade is done with China and the Chinese have said that at this stage they're not -- they're doing everything they should be doing and can do.

They're complying with all the U.N. Security resolutions against North Korea. They've banned coal imports from North Korea and those coal imports are actually North Korea's biggest earner of foreign currency, so China says it's doing what it can.

The other option is negotiation. We heard the French -- excuse me -- we heard the Russian and the Chinese leaders both calling for talks. That would be preempted, though, by the Americans and the South Koreas stopping their joint drills, which we've just seen just a couple of hours ago, and the North Koreans stopping their system plans -- their development of their missiles -- neither of which has happened and neither of which looks like it's happening.

So, Christine, we're caught in this situation where there's nothing new on the table at the moment and the old options -- really, many of them don't seem to be feasible at this stage. Certainly, the other one you mentioned, of course, there's a military response --

ROMANS: Of course.

STEVENS: -- which seems to have been ruled out by just about everyone.

ROMANS: Well, we'll see if there can be some sort of agreement in G20 later this week as all of those world leaders try to decide what to do about this issue.

All right, thanks so much. Andrew Stevens in Hong Kong for us.

BRIGGS: And on that, earlier this hour we spoke with our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. We asked her how this North Korea issue will play at the G20 this week. North Korea wants its nuclear program to be accepted, the U.S. and most of the world disagree -- listen.

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 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 warhead technology. As Andrew said, you know, 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 over -- 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 kilometers. 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 those joint military exercises and also stop the deployment of the THAAD anti-missile defense shield. That is an untellable proposition so far for the United States and others.

So it's, you know, 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.

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BRIGGS: Will any of this be effective? Christiane also spoke with Bruce Klingner, who's former CIA, now with The Heritage Foundation, who actually sat down with North Korean diplomats and he told them, quote, "A denuclearized North Korea is totally off the table" and that they would accept -- "the world would accept a nuclear North Korea or fight."

That was how these North Korean diplomats phrased that to Bruce Klingner --

ROMANS: It certainly --

BRIGGS: -- former CIA.

ROMANS: It's certainly --

BRIGGS: So really, what are the options? None.

All right. White House officials have reason to hope President Trump's second European trip will be smoother than his rocky European debut in May.

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That visit marked by this awkward body language. The president scolding world leaders for not meeting their NATO obligations.

[05:40:00] ROMANS: This time, the president starts his trip in Poland where the populist government there is expected to roll out the red carpet.

CNN's Melissa Bell joins us from Warsaw where President Trump lands later today. In fact, it's wheels up in just less than two hours. The president faces, at least in this first -- this first stop on his trip, he has a welcome audience.

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And a friendly government looking forward to welcoming him. Already, the leader of the party that's in power has described this as a great success for Poland, and the fact that Donald Trump, the American president, should be visiting Warsaw before London or Paris or Berlin is seen here in Poland as something of a coup. And all over city you see these signs urging people to come out to hear the American president.

It is a populist government that is in power here -- a populist government whose policies in regard to the free press and to the independent judiciary have been worrying Brussels a great deal. But there are many things in common between the American -- the current American administration and the government her in Poland. Concern about immigration, for instance, and concerns about super-national organizations like the European Union.

So, Donald Trump has chosen this country. He will get a warmer reception than he's likely to receive in Warsaw and yet, Christine, his words -- those words he will deliver here tomorrow will be extremely closely watched by his hosts who want to hear from him a clear commitment to the article within the NATO treaty that promises mutual protection in case of foreign aggression, something that Donald Trump, you mentioned a moment ago there, had failed to do in Brussels at NATO headquarters.

And those very words will also be watched very closely by Russians. We know Donald Trump will be meeting his Russian counterpart in Hamburg just afterwards so his words will have to be extremely carefully chosen. And the world, really, perhaps, more importantly Christine, will be watching to hear precisely what role the United States --

ROMANS: Right.

BELL: -- wants to play on the international stage. It is one of the big questions and, in many respects, one that Donald Trump is simply going to have to answer here tomorrow in the very choice of his words -- those words that will be delivered here in Warsaw.

ROMANS: What is the America First doctrine? What does it exactly look like on the world stage?

All right, Melissa Bell. Nice to see you this morning in Warsaw for us. Thank you.

BRIGGS: That will be an interesting optics. What is American leadership there at the G20?

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

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[05:46:05] BRIGGS: All right. Some breaking news this morning. A 12-year veteran of the New York City Police Department has died after being shot in the Bronx overnight. Forty-eight-year-old Miosotis Familia died a few hours after the shooting.

Police are calling it an unprovoked attack. The officer was shot while sitting in her car. The gunman was killed by responding officers.

ROMANS: All right, 46 minutes past the hour this morning -- this Wednesday morning.

The Federal Reserve releases the minutes of its June meeting today and it may signal it will start shedding that $4 trillion balance sheet early. Why early? Well, the uncertain future of the Fed chief Janet Yellen.

The Fed intends to sell off the trillions of dollars it bought up during the recession to prop up the economy and plan to begin at the end of the year. But Yellen's term is up in February and President Trump has not said whether he would nominate her for a second term, so the Central Bank doesn't want to start its plan right before a new Fed chair steps in. That's the thinking.

The minutes may also show if the Fed will hike raise again this year. So far, it has raised rates twice in 2017. Interest rates affect borrowing costs, raising rates on things like credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, and savings accounts. So we get a look at all of that -- a sneak peek of that later today.

BRIGGS: All right, time for a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY." Chris Cuomo joining us this morning.

ROMANS: Good morning.

BRIGGS: Good morning to you, sir.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hello. Any good traditions in your homes for the Fourth?

BRIGGS: Go to sleep. It's a new tradition. I just started it the past few months. It's a real hoot. I really light up the fireworks going to sleep at eight. How about you?

ROMANS: We do a little bit of fireworks. We do a little bit of fireworks. We always like to do that.

CUOMO: What is your favorite pyrotechnic?

ROMANS: See, I like the -- I just like the good old-fashioned bottle rockets, you know?

BRIGGS: Oh, yes. I'm a --

CUOMO: Do you hold it in your hand?

ROMANS: I -- of course not.

BRIGGS: But we know -- we know Cuomo does.

ROMANS: Do you, Cuomo?

BRIGGS: There's no question about it.

CUOMO: I hold it in my hand and I aim it at my face.

ROMANS: That's what happens?

CUOMO: I'm a self-loader. Yes, a couple of times it's happened. Thank you, Christine Romans.

All right, so here's what we're going to be doing today. We have the advance on the president's second foreign trip. International relationships are getting more complicated so you want to focus on this.

What do they say the White House agenda is, who are they meeting with, how's it going to go? Obviously, the headline there is that at the G20 in Germany we expect the president to meet with the Russian president.

So we're going to bring in former State Department spokesperson John Kirby and former deputy commanding general in Afghanistan, Anthony Tata for their kind of take on what do you want to do in a meeting like this. What should be on the agenda? How should it be approached?

We also have the former NATO supreme allied commander, General Wesley Clark, to talk about some of the emerging issues where Russia's involved.

Plus, there's a domestic situation that you need to pay attention to. So, the president, as we know, was very hung up on the idea that if we're going to talk about the election being messed with, don't talk about Russia, talk about the election integrity commission that he's set up.

Three million illegal votes -- you remember that -- could not be substantiated. People have looked at this. They've looked at it for a long time. They've looked at it intensively. Do we have problems, of course. Is there widespread fraud, zero proof.

So you have these states now refusing to give their voter information to the commission. Why? Is this just politics? We'll take it up. We'll give you the arguments on both sides so you can make an informed decision.

BRIGGS: Yes. People thought this would be viewed through a partisan lens. Not so much because Republican secretaries of state --

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- across the country are saying no sir, Mr. President.

CUOMO: Yes, but why matters because I have to tell you, on the outside trying this out with, you know, the people with regular jobs in my life, it seems like a no-brainer where you want all of your systems to have as much integrity as possible.

ROMANS: Right.

CUOMO: You want as little cheating.

BRIGGS: Yes.

CUOMO: You want as little variability as you can have, so why wouldn't you do this? There are actually some good reasons. We'll go through them.

ROMANS: All right.

BRIGGS: The fears of putting this all in one public place, needless to say, justified.

[05:50:03] Chris Cuomo, we'll be watching. Thank you.

CUOMO: Thank you.

BRIGGS: All right. Also thismorning, the Kremlin spokesman said the Trump-Putin meeting will be limited in time and Putin won't be able to talk about Ukraine, so this is the first of the whispers --

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- they're putting out there about them setting the agenda. H.R. McMaster said President Trump has no agenda.

ROMANS: Interesting. We'll see how that's going to turn out.

All right, could this be the beginning of the end for the gas engine? The first major automaker is going all electric. We'll tell you who on "CNN Money Stream," next.

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

Let's bring in CNN's Jomana Karadsheh live from Doha where it is 12:53 and it is 111 degrees. Doing a tremendous job, Jomana. Good morning to you.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave, and the Qataris would not really tell us what is in that letter. They basically responded to that list of demands in a letter they handed over to Kuwait, the mediator, and we've heard from the Saudi-led alliance saying they have received Qatar's response. They are reviewingthis and they will respond in a, quote, "timely fashion."

We've gotten some hints from Qatari officials here saying that their response was within the context of international laws and preserving the sovereignty of Qatar. All indications are they will not be agreeing to that list of sweeping demands that the foreign minister here is still calling unrealistic, still saying this has nothing to do with combating terrorism and that this is going after Qatar's foreign policy.

Qatar is saying they have done their part, now the ball is in the court of the Saudi-led quartet. Their foreign ministers are meeting in Cairo, as you mentioned. All eyes on that meeting to see what comes out of it and what the next steps will be in this crisis, Dave.

[05:55:12] BRIGGS: Jomana Karadsheh live for us in Qatar. Thank you.

ROMANS: All right.

BRIGGS: They say it's a dry heat, yes.

ROMANS: Oh, yes, it is. It is hot. It is hot.

Let's get a check on "CNN Money Stream" this morning, folks.

Global markets are mixed. U.S. futures pointing to what looks like a flat open after being closed for the July Fourth holiday. Investors today waiting on the meetings -- the minutes of the Fed's June meeting. They're looking for timing on the next rate hike and the details of its balance sheet reduction.

Today is also the first full trading day of the second half of the year. It has been a great year so far for Wall Street. The Dow and the S&P 500 both up eight percent this year. The Nasdaq up 14 percent.

All right. Volvo is saying goodbye to gas engines. Starting in 2019, all new Volvos will be electric. The company plans to launch five fully-electric cars. The rest of the fleet of motors will be hybrids.

Volvo is the first major automaker to abandon the internal combustion engine. That's because automakers say electric is the future of the industry.

Sales are slowing and automakers face increasing competition from companies like Tesla. In fact, Tesla's market value is now bigger than Ford, General Motors or BMW.

BRIGGS: Isn't that interesting that with gas prices at this time of year, at a low since 2005 --

ROMANS: I know, yes.

BRIGGS: -- a surge in electric cars.

ROMANS: They're looking longer-term.

All right, ending on a very happy note this morning. Welcome to the world, Wesley James Tarson. He is the baby son of our business producer Mike Tarson and his wife Allyson Valentine. Tarson recently left our overnight shift but now he'll be up overnights anyway for a while.

Wes was born Friday. Six pounds, five ounces, 19 inches long, three weeks early, beating his deadline. We're told everyone is happy and healthy. Congratulations, Tarson family.

BRIGGS: Just like Tarson, always on time. In fact, a little bit early. Perfect peanut there, Wes.

ROMANS: Love you, guys.

BRIGGS: Oh, congratulations guys.

ROMANS: Thanks for joining us this morning. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. "NEW DAY" starts right now. We'll see you tomorrow.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Together, we are facing the threat of the reckless and brutal regime in North Korea.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: U.S. officials calculate this is likely an ICBM.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to know what the strategy is of how we're going to deal with this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president may be realizing that his options in this world are very limited.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to take a worldwide effort to get North Korea to stop what they're doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any patriot ought to care about the foreign interference. It is very conspicuous that this president has chosen to deny it and not to discuss it with Russian officials.

H.R. MCMASTER, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Our relationship with Russia is not different from any other country.

REP. ADAM SMITH (D), WASHINGTON: I guess I wished he treated Vladimir Putin more like he treats CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

CUOMO: All right. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, July 5th, 6:00 here in New York.

And on "The Starting Line," North Korea releasing new video appearing to show the successful launch of its first intercontinental ballistic missile.

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The Pentagon confirming it was an ICBM. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson saying the U.S. will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea amid calls for global action. The question is what will the U.S. do to make good on that commitment? The immediate answer, the U.S. and South Korea conducting joint military exercises.

The U.N. Security Council is convening an emergency session today at the request of the U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley in response to the regime's most alarming provocation to date.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All this as President Trump heads to Europe in roughly two hours for the second foreign trip of his presidency.

It's the G20 summit and all eyes will be on his first face-to-face encounter with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. This is an official bilateral meeting, it is not an information pull-aside. The president also expecting to face tough questions with some of the U.S.'s closest allies.

So we have all of this covered for you starting with CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon. What's the latest, Barbara?

STARR: Good morning.

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Well, North Korea now issuing more video of that intercontinental ballistic launch, showing the world more of what it's got and it may have caught the U.S. just a little bit by surprise.

The initial U.S. announcement was it was a shorter-range missile. Then they went back and looked at all the data and spent most of July Fourth trying to figure out exactly what had happened. Then, issuing a statement, yes, this was a North Korean ICBM, a missile capable of hitting the United States. This is exactly what the Pentagon Secretary of Defense James Mattis said North Korea would not be allowed to have.

So what happens now? Well, late yesterday the Pentagon came back with its own video showing U.S. and South Korean weapon systems firing off the east coast of South Korea.