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Winter Storm Dumps Snow, Ice and Rain; Markets Rattled by Arrest; Army versus Navy Game; Hart Steps Down. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired December 7, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:45] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A powerful winter storm will affect a large swath of the country today from the southern plains to the southeast, dumping heavy snow, ice and rain.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has our forecast.

Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John, lots of rain on the south side. Flooding going on there where it's warm, and snow and ice in the Carolinas for sure. This is where the storm is now, just now, into Texas.

This weather is brought to you by Jared Jewelers, dare to be devoted.

Now, we will see significant storm surge here across parts of the Carolinas and into Texas. I know that's a weird thing, but there's going to be so much wind, we'll have some flooding here, coastal flooding into Texas and then the heavy rain moves off to the east and turns into snow.

Snow into really Amarillo and also even into parts of Oklahoma City could see some snow. But really believe this will be a heavy rain event. Significant, heavy rain for flooding across parts of Texas and Louisiana, and then the snow moves into the Carolinas. And also, as that moves closer to the Carolinas, we will see wind blow water into the Carolina coastal areas. Could even see some flooding there.

These numbers are snow. I know you've seen higher numbers across the Carolinas maybe this week, but I believe there will be a lot of sleet mixing in and sleet doesn't pileup nearly as fast as snow. So at least, though, 18 inches of snow in some spots. That will cripple travel across parts of the Carolinas.

[06:35:06] Erica, it has been a pleasure watching you on NEW DAY this week. Thanks for joining us.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Awe, thanks, Chad. Always nice to be with you guys. Have a great weekend.

BERMAN: Just -- just Erica?

HILL: Yes, just Erica. MYERS: Yes, just Erica.

BERMAN: OK.

HILL: Chad Myers, I love you, my friend.

BERMAN: Noted. Thanks, Chad.

HILL: It's OK, John Berman, I still love you.

BERMAN: That's all right.

MYERS: It's OK, Berm.

BERMAN: OK.

HILL: U.S. stock futures, meantime, are down again ahead of the market open. Thursday, another roller coaster day on Wall Street. The volatility comes amid strained U.S.-China trade talks and, of course, the arrest of a Chinese tech giant's CFO. CNN's Christine Romans is here now joining us with more on that.

Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Erica.

And that executive is expected to appear in a Vancouver court at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time today for a bail hearing. That's where we hope to get more information on the still unspecified charges and why the U.S. wants to extradite her. Markets hate uncertainty and her arrest complicates a 90-day trade negotiation between the U.S. and China. And this, right there on your screen, is what a trade war looks like. The stock market fell 785 points before then this dramatic comeback and it closed down just 79 points. The Nasdaq actually ended the day higher. The S&P 500 also bounced back to close down just a fraction.

That morning selling frenzy, even though Beijing confirmed President Xi Jinping tends to move ahead with trade talks with the U.S. as planned. But the market turned around really, came off those lows when "The Wall Street Journal" reported the Federal Reserve is considering slowing down the pace of rate hikes next year. "The Journal" reports Fed officials are weighing whether to signal a new waiting and see approach after a likely interest rate hike at the Fed's meeting this month.

President Trump, as you know, has repeatedly criticized the Fed chair and the Fed for raising rates this year.

The futures, right now, down by triple digits, John, so anything could happen this morning. And then the job report at 8:30. So a lot of headliners here.

BERMAN: Oh, good, another crazy day coming.

ROMANS: You're welcome. You're welcome.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, thank you for that. Appreciate it.

Former President George H.W. Bush now at his final resting place, buried at his presidential library in Texas.

America's 41st president carried off his funeral train in College Station, Texas, and Bush family looked on with their hands over their hearts. The late president's grandson, George P. Bush, read a note his gampy (ph), as he called him, once sent to all of his grandchildren at the end of his public service.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE P. BUSH, GRANDSON OF GEORGE H.W. BUSH: I think of you all an awful lot. I just wonder how each of you is doing in school and in life. If you need me, I'm here for you because I love you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: And that is so much we heard -- I mean we heard about, obviously, George H.W. Bush's service to the nation, but what we really saw, and I know you talked about it earlier this week, was what a complete picture we got this week of who he was as a man and what he meant to his family, an example that he set for all of them.

BERMAN: And the relationship he had with each one of his grandchildren. It was great to hear from George P. there, the land commissioner of Texas.

HILL: The storied Army-Navy game getting a very important visitor this weekend. We've got details ahead in the "Bleacher Report."

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[06:42:04] HILL: It is a college football rivalry like no other, Army verses Navy. Coy Wire has more on tomorrow's big game. He's there in Philadelphia in advance, here with the "Bleacher Report."

Good morning.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Erica.

Since 1890, the pageantry and tradition make this Army-Navy game perhaps the greatest sporting spectacle in the world. Nine sitting U.S. presidents have attended this game. The first was Teddy Roosevelt back in 1901. President Donald Trump will become the tenth tomorrow. He attended this game in 2016 as then president-elect. Now it's tradition for the commander in chief to sit on one side for a half and then switch sides so as not to show any favorites.

When you watch this game, it's like a grand salute to our service members. These are folks who are dedicated to their studies, committed to service and willing to sacrifice their lives for us and for the betterment of our nation. They're exactly the type of athletes we need to celebrate more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BRYCE HOLLAND, ARMY CENTER: I think the quote, it's the only game where those playing are willing to die for those that are watching, I think that's so true. And, I mean, I've had tears in my eyes when we came on the field last year.

Anthony GARGIULO, NAVY FULLBACK: It's been awesome to have success and play a game that we love. But, at the end of the day, it's about service to country and protecting the American people and the American way of life.

You know, the guys at Navy, the guys at Army, you know, we're all willing to die for our nation.

HOLLAND: You know, everybody else, they have the shot at the NFL. They get to go, you know, do whatever they want after school. But, you know, these guys, Army and us, we both know that, yes, we're going to hate each other on the field and try to beat the heck out of each other. But, you know, at the end of it, you know, we're fighting together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: If only we could all have the perspective of these young service members. They fight for their own team, challenge opposition intensely, but afterwards they walk across the field and embrace one another because they know they're part of a much bigger team, America's game. The Army-Navy game is tomorrow and we're here with honor with live coverage all weekend long.

BERMAN: You're always with honor, Coy Wire. It's a great rivalry, a great game filled with great human beings. Appreciate it.

All right, so the late night comics, they are having a field day with President Trump this week. Here are your late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON: Today was the official White House Hanukkah party. It was going well until President Trump made a wish and blew out the Menorah.

JAMES CORDEN, HOST, "THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN": The White House has confirmed that this Saturday President Trump will travel to Philadelphia to attend the Army versus Navy college football game. Now you already know Trump 100 percent considers this visiting the troops.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, COMEDIAN, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH": Breaking news from President Trump's New Jersey golf club where he -- we just found out that his housekeeper is an illegal immigrant. So I guess Trump told us he would build a wall but he never said there would be a service entrance.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Trump is likely to appoint as his attorney general William P. Barr. Barr already knows his way around the joint because he served as attorney general from 1991 to 1993 under then President George H.W. Bush. Wait a second, did Trump only go to the funeral to look for an attorney general?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:45:22] BERMAN: Very interesting. Look, I don't think it's a coincidence --

HILL: No.

BERMAN: That this nomination comes up this week.

So, a stunning announcement out of Hollywood. Kevin Hart says he is stepping down as host of the Oscars, just two days after it was announced he was going to host the gig. So, what happened here? We'll tell you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Excuse me, choking on the news here.

Days after calling it the opportunity of a lifetime, actor/comedian Kevin Hart has withdrawn from hosting next year's Oscars after homophobic tweets that he made resurfaced. Overnight Hart tweeted he made the choice to step down because he didn't want to be a distraction. He apologized to the LGBT community for his, quote, insensitive words that he had written between 2009 and 2011 and says he is now evolving. Hart ended his tweets by telling the Academy, quote, I hope we can meet again.

I[06:50:09] I want to talk about this with CNN's Brian Stelter and "Entertainment Tonight" host and by friend whom I miss terribly, Nischelle Turner.

Brian, I want to start with you. I don't get this, what happened here, because Kevin Hart has said all this stuff out loud, so why is scouring the tweets even an issue?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Right, this was all online. A lot of it was still on his Twitter feed.

BERMAN: Yes.

STELTER: And he had talked about some of this in the past. But I think what happened here, John and Erica, is that these tweets resurfaced on Twitter. They started going viral again even though they're almost a decade old. And instead of apologizing right away, realizing this was a problem, instead of trying to take action against it, Hart was pretty dismissive on Instagram and Twitter. He was saying -- I've talked about this in the past. I don't want to go there again. I'm a different man now.

He could have, perhaps this time yesterday, said, wow, I really screwed up. I sincerely apologize. I have a lot to learn. He could have given that kind of apology and didn't early in the day. And, thus, by the end of the day, the Academy is furious, the Academy is demanding an apology, and he came out and said, sorry, I'm not, you know, I'm not going to host the Oscars and I am sorry. I think if that apology had come 12 hours earlier, maybe we wouldn't

be here.

HILL: We might not, but Nischelle, I know you were getting a ton of reaction, even just since he was nominated as host. And then as everything was unfolding overnight, people reaching out to you really from both camps saying --

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely.

HILL: You know, how did we get here?

So what was it -- more of some of what you're hearing, because there were two people who were saying this is kind of ridiculous.

TURNER: Yes, there are. I mean there are definitely people who are supporting Kevin Hart. A lot of members of the Hollywood community are saying we stand with you. You don't have to keep addressing this over and over again. Stand your ground. There's a lot of celebrities that are friends of him that have come out and said that whether it be on social media or whatnot.

But there are folks who have said, no, hold on a second, this is offensive. We need some answers. Billy Eichner, Jamie Lee Curtis, two of them in particular on the celebrity side that have come out and said, no, this is not right, we need more clarity here.

But I think, you know, Brian -- Brian talked about it and a simple apology goes a long way sometimes. And what Kevin said at the end of the night, the tweet that he put up at the end of the night, you know, and I have it, I don't have it memorized but I have it in front of me where he said he's sorry that he hurt people, that he's evolving, that he's trying to get better and that he apologizes to the LGBTQ community. I think that if that's what we would have seen from the beginning, we could have gone a long way in the conversation to healing things.

STELTER: Yes, he --

TURNER: But I also think that the Academy takes some responsibility here.

HILL: Yes.

TURNER: Because like you all said --

STELTER: They hired him.

TURNER: Kevin -- he -- Kevin doesn't hid behind anything. He said it. He said these things in routines in the past. They're out there on the Internet. And the Academy still brought him on as host. So if -- you have to your due diligence on that side too and know what you're bringing in.

STELTER: Right. Here's the difference I think. He had said things in the past like, I don't want my child, I don't want my son to be gay. TURNER: Right.

STELTER: Which these are hurtful comments.

BERMAN: Which is horribly offensive.

STELTER: And it's one thing, you know, he says he'd addressed it in the past. He had talks about this in some ways in the past. It's different if you halfway address it as a comedian verses when you're being given one of the biggest jobs in Hollywood, hosting the biggest night in Hollywood in front of 40 to 50 million viewers. When you're given that platform, then you probably owe people more than whatever you said years ago trying to address this in the past. I think that might be part of the difference.

But, look, you know, three days ago he said this was the dream of his life. He can't wait for this. The Academy was so thrilled to hire him. It is embarrassing for the Academy, as well as for Hart, and I wonder if they're going to end up having a host at all. Maybe the won't even have a host for the Oscars.

HILL: Who knows? But it's interesting, you bring up him. You know, Kevin Hart saying he's addressed this in the past. But, Nischelle, even in some of that, you know, sort of addressing it in the past, as recently as interviews I think even just in the last three years or so, he didn't fully step back from some of those statements that we saw, specifically about what he would do if his son was gay or ways he would address certain situations that are, to John's point, horribly offensive. And those are not just offensive if you're a member of the LGBTQ community. If you're a human, they're offensive.

TURNER: Yes, and they should be offensive to everyone. I'm not defending those words. There's no way that I could defend what he said.

When he was talking to "Rolling Stone" about specifically the routine in his act where he says that he doesn't want his son to be gay, he tried to explain it as these were fears of mine and so I'm talking in my comedy routine about my fears. I'm talking about my life experiences and I'm talking about my fears. These are my fears. He says now, I am working to be a better person. I've evolved from that person and now that is not who I am.

So, yes, he never said I'm sorry for what he said. Maybe he wasn't sorry for how he felt. Maybe he just said, this is how I felt, this is what I'm working through, this is the space I'm in, in trying to get to a different space. So, you know, it's -- it's a lot.

[06:55:01] I know Kevin a little bit. And I did speak with folks close to him after all of this happened last night and they did tell me he is hurt, he is disappointed, but in true Kevin Hart fashion, he's just going to keep moving forward. And he always has dreamed about hosting the Oscars. He did a show called "Real Husbands of Hollywood," about -- you know, years ago on BET and in season two of that show he did a skit about being named host of the Oscars and that was his life dream. BERMAN: Look, Nischelle, Brian, thanks so much for being here. But as

you both said I -- this is a Kevin Hart issue but it's just as much to me an Academy issue.

HILL: Absolutely.

BERMAN: It's not like 1960 when he said this. It was 2010. I mean it's not that long ago.

HILL: Right.

BERMAN: Everyone knew it. The Academy had to know or should have known or I will send them my Google account. All right, Brian, Nischelle, appreciate it.

HILL: You're a giver.

BERMAN: I'm a giver.

HILL: Is it just because it's the holiday season? I think it's in general.

BERMAN: Yes, only. Only.

HILL: No, I think it's in general.

All right, still to come, major revelation are expected today in the Mueller investigation, and the president clearly rattled. He is up and tweeting this morning. Those tweets are on fire. We've got it all covered, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: We could learn an enormous amount, particularly from the Manafort filings.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: He is driving this train. He wants to be sentenced and he wants to get it over with.

[07:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Andrew McCabe decided to open an obstruction of justice investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like they were trying to prevent a five alarm fire from turning into a six alarm fire.