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NEW DAY

U.S. Ambassador Visits American Detained in Russia; China Lands on Moon; Democratic Presidential Contenders; Past Democratic Nominee Polls; New Year's Resolutions; Apple Loses Billions; Icy Ran Makes Roads Dangerously Slick. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 3, 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] A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR AND COLUMNIST, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Is the departure of Mattis, the Syria policy, and who the next secretary of defense is. This is a very bad time for us to not have stability at the Pentagon. James Mattis, as you know, was beloved -- is beloved by the entire rank and file in the military, every single service branch, and this is an incredible loss. And for the president, who knows how beloved James Mattis is, to not be able to contain himself before his acting cabinet at the table and to trash him that way is simply astonishing. And there are Republicans we know across town today just dismayed that he would speak this way. And we haven't heard from any of them.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A.B., Jackie, Seung Min, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

Again, stick around with CNN all day to see this historic day in Congress as the new House and the new Senate begins their new work.

Also ahead on NEW DAY, we're going to speak with Senate minority whip, the number two Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin. He was in the Situation Room meeting with President Trump.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That will be fascinating to hear what actually went on inside there.

So, history has also been made in space. Not just earth, space. The mysterious far side of the moon has been reached. We'll tell you who won the latest space race and what they saw over there.

BERMAN: And just stunning video of a college basketball player -- oh.

CAMEROTA: Oh, I don't like that.

BERMAN: Slamming his head into the backboard.

CAMEROTA: Oh.

BERMAN: I'm going to give you a teaser here, he's OK.

CAMEROTA: He doesn't look OK.

BERMAN: He's OK. We'll show it to you again multiple times.

CAMEROTA: Oh, boy.

BERMAN: Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:07] BERMAN: All right, we do have some breaking news.

Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia are seeking the death penalty for at least five people linked to the murder of "Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The announcement comes as 11 unnamed suspects in Khashoggi's death attend their first court hearing. Prosecutors have also sent a request to Turkey for evidence that they have collected after Khashoggi was killed last October inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

CAMEROTA: The U.S. ambassador to Russia met with an American detained in Moscow on allegations of espionage. No further details of Paul Whelan's arrest have been released by the Kremlin, but we are learning more about his background.

CNN's Matthew Chance is live in Moscow with more.

What you have learned, Matthew?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, thanks very much.

Well, quite a bit in terms of the background of Paul Whelan from his social media sites. For many years he's had a close relationship with Russia in the sense he's been traveling here for business and pleasure for the past 12 or 13 years it seems. And over that time he's accumulated some contacts on his social media page, 70 of them at least, many of them seem to be members or former members of the Russian military, the Russian security services. And that may have been one of the things that highlighted his presence to the Russian security services.

There has been this consulate visit finally that took place, being led by Jon Huntsman, who's the U.S. ambassador to Russia. Mr. Huntsman issued a statement afterwards saying that he visited Mr. Whelan at the Lefortovo Detention Facility, which is one of the main prisons, former KGB prison, in fact, on the outskirts of Moscow. The ambassador expressed support for Paul Whelan and offered the embassy's assistant. He also then subsequently called the Whelan family and spoke to them about Mr. Whelan's condition, but no details have been given to us about that. Nor have any details actually been given to us at this stage by the Russians about the circumstances of this arrest. They just say that he was caught spying, basically implying he was caught red-handed in the act of espionage, but no further detail has been given about that.

Now, one of the interesting things that's being counted on is the fact that the ambassador himself went to the prison and inspected and interviewed Mr. Whelan. That shows, I think, just how important this case is being taken by the United States.

Back to you.

BERMAN: All right, Matthew Chance, thanks for staying on that for us. Really appreciate it.

A huge development in space. China has successfully landed a rover on the far side of the moon. That's the side that never actually faces the earth. And this has never has happened before. This morning, we're getting our first, close-up images.

Matt Rivers live in Beijing with this huge moment in science, national security, every which way you want to look at it.

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a huge deal, John, especially for China's space program. We can show you the first image -- the first close-up image ever taken of the far side of the moon that was transmitted via relay satellite that the Chinese launched from where that lunar rover landed and it was met with huge acclaim here in China. This is a major accomplishment and it really puts China's space program in the history books.

This lunar rover is going to conduct a number of experiments. Everything from actually experimenting to see if plants like even potatoes can be planted, believe it or not, in certain specialized containers that could help with developing lunar bases in the future. They're going to explore for resources in the both north and south lunar poles. And they're also going to listen to frequencies coming from deep space, which is easier to do from that side of the moon because there's no interference from signals coming from earth. A lot on that to-do list.

But, really, it's also a signal to the rest of the world that China is going to become a space power, if they're not one already. They've got a series of other initiatives coming down the line, a probe set to go to Mars in 2020. An international space station they want to launch in 2022. They are here to stay. Far be it for me to say if there's a new space race in the making. But if there is one between China and the U.S., China seems to be game to run in that race.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Very cool stuff, Matt, thank you.

Has Pink Floyd weighed in yet?

BERMAN: We're trying to get comment from Pink Floyd.

CAMEROTA: Any comment from Mr. Floyd?

BERMAN: Mr. Floyd is on the other line for us.

CAMEROTA: OK, fantastic.

Now to this sad news. Grammy winning musician Daryl Dragon has died. The world new him as the captain -- one-half of the popular '70s singing duo the Captain and Tennille.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN AND TENNILLE (singing): Love, love will keep us together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: How great is that song?

BERMAN: Written by?

CAMEROTA: Oh, Harry Enten's uncle. That's how I know him.

BERMAN: A member of the NEW DAY family.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERMAN: Neil Sedaka.

CAMEROTA: Neil Sedaka. "Love Will Keep Us Together" was their biggest hit. Not "Muskrat Love"? Hmm. Daryl Dragon died Wednesday in Arizona. He was 76. His publicist says Toni Tennille was at the captain's side when he passed.

BERMAN: It's interesting because they were divorced a couple years ago but they remained friends after that.

[06:40:02] CAMEROTA: You can't break up that duo.

BERMAN: No, you can't. And "Muskrat Love" was the most important song. Maybe not their biggest hit.

CAMEROTA: I don't even know what that was about. Was that about Muskrats?

BERMAN: In love. Because that's important.

CAMEROTA: God, the '70s were weird.

BERMAN: Another fun fact. He wasn't actually a captain.

CAMEROTA: He wasn't?

BERMAN: No.

CAMEROTA: Because he had the hat.

BERMAN: He was not a captain. He actually got -- he played for The Beach Boys. He played backup for the Beach Boys and I guess Mike Love, who was a singer there, called him the captain of the keyboards.

CAMEROTA: You know a lot about the captain.

BERMAN: Captain and Tennille, very important to me.

CAMEROTA: I can see that. BERMAN: Very important to me.

CAMEROTA: Luckily we'll have Harry Enten on to weigh in on all of this.

BERMAN: Absolutely.

All right, I want you to show -- show you some amazing video from a basketball game.

CAMEROTA: I'm not watching this.

BERMAN: North Central's Blaise Meredith, just look at that --

CAMEROTA: oh, God.

BERMAN: Slammed his head into the backboard --

CAMEROTA: Oh, my God.

BERMAN: Full speed while blocking a shot in a game on Wednesday. He did appear to be unharmed despite the blow. The good news really is he managed to get up and walk off the court. Somehow he returned to the game.

CAMEROTA: Oh, goodness gracious.

BERMAN: I'm not quite sure how he was cleared from any kind of concussion protocol after he hit the backboard that heart. That's stunning video. One more time. One more time.

CAMEROTA: OK, no, no, no.

BERMAN: Oh. He's OK. He's OK.

CAMEROTA: Is it over?

BERMAN: He's OK.

CAMEROTA: All right.

As more Democrats prepare to enter the 2020 presidential race, which one is the most electable? Our Harry Enten breaks it down.

BERMAN: Love will keep us together.

CAMEROTA: And more.

BERMAN: Do it to me one more time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I never thought I was going to get in politics. Never in a million years. But I got in this because I believe this is the fight that we must fight. And I can't tell others to go fight it. I have to be in there right alongside them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, that was Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren explaining why she is exploring a 2020 presidential run. She is the first major candidate to dip her toe in the water. So, is she the most electable?

There's something about Harry, so let's discuss with CNN's senior politics writer and analyst, Harry Enten.

[06:45:02] Harry, great to see you.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: Shalom.

CAMEROTA: Gosh. We're off --

ENTEN: Happy New Year.

CAMEROTA: We're off to a good start.

And to you.

OK, so new year, new candidates. Let's talk about electability. It's still -- we're still many days out, honestly.

ENTEN: More than a year out.

CAMEROTA: OK. But this is a snapshot --

ENTEN: Right.

CAMEROTA: Of where we are. And some of these people, obviously, haven't announced even an exploratory committee. However, you have the potential 2020 contenders. Show us what we should -- we're looking at.

ENTEN: Right. So essentially what we're looking at here is, these are the candidates who are in the United States Senate or ran for the United States Senate in 2018, looking at their margin and comparing it to how House Democrats did in that exact same state. And what we saw in Massachusetts, for example, is Elizabeth Warren won her race by 24 points, but House Democrats in that state won their races cumulatively by 36 points.

CAMEROTA: And what does that tell you, she doesn't have as much momentum as you'd think?

ENTEN: I think it suggests that voters in those states were pulling the levers for Democrats in the House races weren't as willing to pull the lever for her in the Senate race, which suggests perhaps some sort of likeability factor, perhaps going against her versus say Amy Klobuchar, Sherrod Brown, where they did much better than the House Democrats did in their states.

BERMAN: They are not as liked as the average Democrat in their state.

ENTEN: That's a great way of putting it.

BERMAN: Which is -- which is interesting to see. If Elizabeth Warren is going to be some liberal icon, what's interesting is in Massachusetts she's not even as well liked as the average Democrat would be.

ENTEN: Exactly. And one thing I should point out is, you know, Sherrod Brown's a very well-known progressive, a very -- a voice to the left, and he actually outperformed. So I don't just think it's about ideology. You know, you could claim it's about gender. But, look, Amy Klobuchar is at the top of that list as well. It suggests something particular to Elizabeth Warren.

BERMAN: And Beto O'Rourke, just for those following Beto-mania, the daily update, he looks average.

ENTEN: Right. I think that's one of the more interesting things in this chart, right, people saying, oh, wow, Beto O'Rourke did very, very well in Texas, which is this long-time Republican state. Well, one thing that should be pointed out, it could just be that Texas is changing because Texas Democrats actually didn't do that poorly in the House races there.

BERMAN: Unless it was Beto who inflated their numbers.

ENTEN: It could be the case. I think that's one of those things that we're definitely going to discuss as the days and months go by and Beto decides to get into the race.

CAMEROTA: Let's look at where past Democratic nominees have been at this point for some context.

ENTEN: Yes, I think that this is, to me, a fascinating table because we're going to be talking about the polls now -- from now all the way up to the primary. And what we see here is actually most of the time the polls, at least in the recent history, have done a pretty good job of getting who the nominee was going to be, whether it be Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry, Al Gore. All of them were right near the top of the field at this particular time. So, you know, if Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders or Beto O'Rourke became the nominee, it shouldn't be surprising given where they're polling. However, I should point out, Michael Dukakis was only polling at 1 percent at this point in 1988 --

CAMEROTA: Wowie.

ENTEN: And he obviously went on and won that nomination.

BERMAN: But, by and large, it's good to be first or second in the polls.

ENTEN: I would rather be at the top of the polls than the bottom of the polls.

BERMAN: All right.

CAMEROTA: Deep.

BERMAN: Let's talk about New Year's resolutions. You've got some important numbers.

ENTEN: These are the most important numbers that I have here. We spoke about it a little bit last week. A lot of people have been making those resolutions. About 44 percent of the public, in fact, said that they were going to make their -- a New Year's resolution. But whether or not that they keep it, we can look back to last year and we can see of that 44 percent, 68 percent said they were going -- they kept at least part of it, but 32 percent didn't keep their resolution at all, which, if you were to multiply it out, only 30 percent of people actually make a resolution and keep it.

I, of course, did not make a New Year's resolution. If I were to make one, though, maybe my diet. Maybe, you know, I could cut back on the Popeye's.

CAMEROTA: That would be a good place to start.

ENTEN: You know, that would be a good place. Maybe exercising a little bit more. You know, as I shared on the weekend program last week, I had some shin splints running for a bus. So, you know, I think for a man my age, getting shin splints running for a bus, not a particularly good sign. So maybe some more exercise for me.

BERMAN: How about less sleeping in the office?

ENTEN: Oh, come on, you like coming in and seeing me sleeping on that thing. Everyone from the NEW DAY crew gets their pictures of me. I like Avlon has one where he's smiling at me going like this. I mean, you know, look, I like to be a little bit of a clown, a serious clown though.

BERMAN: I don't mind you sleeping in the office, but you actually change into sleepwear when you're sleeping --

CAMEROTA: And then trapes around the office in the sleepwear.

BERMAN: And then trapes around the office.

ENTEN: Look, there's nothing wrong with wearing sweat pants in the office occasionally just to keep things a little bit light.

BERMAN: I know. People think we're kidding. We're not. We're not.

ENTEN: But it's the love that does keep us together.

BERMAN: It's true.

CAMEROTA: OK, a sad day in the Sedaka house.

ENTEN: It is. And that was a great song for him. And, remember, my uncle had, you know, a lot of hits in the late '50s and early '60s. Kind of had this gap when The Beatles came in, in the mid-'60s and late-'60s. And "Love Will Keep Us Together" was one of those songs that helped put him back on the map.

BERMAN: Noted.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

BERMAN: Noted that he just went negative on The Beatles.

Harry Enten, great to have you here.

ENTEN: Ah, The Beatles are OK.

BERMAN: Apple's CEO is blaming President Trump's trade war with China on a slump in iPhone sales. This is a big deal sending shivers through the markets this morning. Christine Romans here to explain it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:31] BERMAN: Apple stock took a dive after the company revealed iPhone sales have taken a hit in China. The company's CEO is blaming President Trump's trade war.

CNN's chief business correspondent, star of "EARLY START," Christine Romans.

The markets watching this very closely today.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes, John, this came as a shock. This is a rare warning from Apple. China's slowing economy is hurting iPhone sales and the U.S./China trade war is making it worse.

In a letter to shareholders, Apple's CEO Tim Cook warned of lower sales from the holiday quarter. He blamed that disappointing outlook on the ongoing U.S./China trade war, adding to a slowing Chinese economy. And he mentioned a number of other factors, including Apple offering cheaper iPhone batter replacements.

Now, Apple expects revenue for the three months ending in December to be about $84 billion. That's down from an early range of $89 billion to $93 billion. Cook told CNBC, tensions between the U.S. and Chinese put additional pressure on the Chinese economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM COOK, CEO, APPLE: If you look at our results, our shortfall is over 100 percent from iPhone and it's primarily in greater China. And so as we look at what's going on in China, the -- it's clear that the economy began to slow there for the second half. And what I believe to be the case is the trade tensions between the United States and China put additional pressure on their economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: About 15 percent of its global revenues for Apple. Apple's stock is down big in pre-market training on this news, John.

[06:55:04] It unnerving markets around the world and it really just sort of underlines China's slowing economy. And the feeling out there, Alisyn, is Apple won't be the last American company to say that this rapid slowdown in the Chinese economy is hurting their bottom line.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Really striking what we saw there yesterday.

Christine, thank you very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

CAMEROTA: All right, now to weather.

Freezing rain in Oklahoma making roads dangerously slick. It caused a number of accidents, including what you're seeing here. This car flipped on its side. The same storms rare expected to drench the southeast and then send an icy mix northeast.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has our forecast.

It all sounds bad, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's bad just about everywhere except in the Midwest, where you'd expect snow, there's no snow at all. Nothing, Not even a -- not even a drop of rain or not even a cloud.

So a lot of people will be traveling here in the next couple of days. Snow, upstate New York and also into New England right now, but the big problem really is over Oklahoma City, where it is raining and it is 30. I mean you don't get worse than that. And then the rain moves to the east, where it's already flooding. We're going to see two to four more inches on top of places that have been saturated all year long.

Here comes the rain. It will get to Atlanta for tomorrow. Slow day traveling through Atlanta and then finally the rain gets to New York by Saturday.

Guys, back to you.

BERMAN: All right, Chad, thank you very much.

An historic, new Congress set to gavel in, in just a couple hours with big jobs and big conflict ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a new sheriff in town, it's called Democratic oversight.

[07:00:01] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This has been a long time coming historically.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A government that looks like America. More women in leadership roles.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), MINORITY LEADER: I said, give me one good reason