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EARLY START

Senate to Introduce Trump Shutdown Proposal; Giuliani "Clarifies" Comments; Whelan Appears in Moscow Courtroom; Senator Kamala Harris Enters 2020 Presidential Race; NFL Discussing Replay for Pass Interference Plays. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 22, 2019 - 05:00   ET

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


DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Deadlocked on day 32 of the government shutdown. Democrats already rejecting the deal Republicans plan to offer today.

LAURA JARRETT, CN ANCHOR: A new interview with Rudy Giuliani released overnight. The president's lawyer in clean up mood, seemingly contradicting himself once again.

[05:00:00] BRIGGS: Happening right now: a U.S. citizen accused of spying on Russia appeals for his freedom before a Moscow judge.

JARRETT: Plus, how Sunday's blown call in a championship game could lead to new rules in the NFL.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett, in for Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs.

I know you're a lawyer, not a football fan, so in your terms, almost like in 2019, taking DNA evidence and saying you can't use that today. We have evidence that this was the wrong decision made. How can we not use it?

JARRETT: Thank you, that was a great analogy. Yes.

BRIGGS: OK, good. All right.

JARRETT: Thank you for breaking that down.

BRIGGS: Tuesday, January 22nd, it is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

We start with the longest government shutdown in our country's history. President Trump hoping to put the squeeze on Democrats to end the shutdown by offering them a plan that they refuse to accept. That is your state of play on day 32 of the shutdown. It's over 800,000 federal workers prepare to miss a second paycheck on Friday. That is if a deal is not reached tonight at midnight which looks like is no chance.

Ten percent of the nation's TSA agents are calling out sick. The president's new proposal, part of a larger package that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is expected to introduce today that could set up a vote on Thursday. But a Senate Democratic aide tells CNN the measure does not have the 60 votes needed to advance. McConnell moving ahead anyway, hoping to shift blame for the shutdown on to the Democrats.

Here's Phil Mattingly on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Laura and Dave, there will be competing proposals, there will be competing votes. What there won't be is, at least at this point in time, any resolution to a shutdown that has dragged on now more than 30 days. As it stands right now, Senate Republicans will introduce as soon as today a proposal that mirrors what the president outlined on Saturday, a proposal that would have $5.7 billion for the wall and in a tradeoff from the immigration perspective of a three-year temporary reprieve for DACA recipients and three-year temporary reprieve for those with protected temporary status.

Here is the issue right now for both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats have rejected that proposal out of hand. They have said they are more than willing to have negotiations about border security, negotiations about border security, but they will not do so until the government is open. In other words, something clean on the funding side of things needs to be passed before any conversations about the wall, about DACA, about TPS or anything else comes to the table. Right now, it appears Senate Republicans will fall short of the votes to move forward on the president's proposal, a vote that could occur likely on Thursday.

Over on the house side of things, House Democrats will continue doing what they have been doing for weeks, passing proposal after proposal to open up the government without any funding for the wall, proposals that have largely fallen flat because the president opposes them and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made clear he won't bring any of them up so long as the president opposes them.

So, where does that leave things? Well, right now, it appears still very much at an impasse. The big question going into this week is given the Senate is finally taking up some kind of legislation, whether it start to jar some type of bipartisan talks to reach a resolution.

Again, the biggest challenge at this moment guys is the baselines. Democrats have made clear they won't do anything on border security until the government is reopened and president has made clear he won't reopen the government until he gets money for his wall. Until that changes, right now, everybody seems diametrically opposed to anything that would lead to a resolution -- guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Phil Mattingly, thanks so much for that report.

Nearly 300 furloughed workers from the Department of Homeland Security are being called back to work, this time with pay, all of them from the E-Verify division of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but they won't be performing their regular jobs. Instead, they will be asked to take on other responsibilities that are fee-funded at the same pay rate they had before the government shutdown.

BRIGGS: Rudy Giuliani walking back comments and changing his story at warp speed. The president's attorney giving a new interview to "The New Yorker" in which he denies telling "The New York Times" the president admitted having discussions about the Trump Tower Moscow project all the way through the 2016 election. Giuliani claiming he was speaking in the hypothetical, says it wouldn't be a crime even if the president did so. "The New Yorker" asked Mr. Trump's lawyer if he ever worries that his legacy will be telling untruths for the president. He replied, I'm afraid it will be on my gravestone, Rudy Giuliani, he lied for Trump.

JARRETT: Breaking overnight, a judge in Moscow just denied bail to U.S. citizen Paul Whelan. He faces up to 20 years in a Russian jail on espionage charges. His family claims he was only there to attend a wedding when he was arrested in late December.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen joining us by phone outside the courtroom in Moscow.

Fred, update our viewers.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPODENT (via telephone): Hello, Laura.

I got out of the courtroom, I'm going to say, about 3 or 4 minutes ago and Paul Whelan was there, kind of a fish tank type thing behind glass waiting for the judge to tell him his verdict on the bail.

[05:05:05] The judge then came in and just in a short sentence said that the bail has been denied, not naming any reason for that.

Paul Whelan seemed to be in different spirits. He was smiling every once in a while. I tried to ask him how he was being treated, whether he was doing OK. He didn't answer those questions because he is not allowed to talk to journalists when he is inside that court. And therefore didn't answer those questions.

Now, what we heard earlier from Paul Whelan's attorney, that he was apprehended by the Russian police and that he was in possession of what they say constitutes state secrets here of Russia. The defense says that they denied that that is the case, they don't believe that he was in possession of state secrets. So, this is something that now will go to a trial that could last for months here in Russia. Obviously, Paul Whelan is not going to be able to get out of jail while that trial is going on.

So, certainly pretty negative developments for him, however he did seem to be pretty steadfast as he received that news. His lawyer telling us in advance that he didn't believe bail would happen simply because Russian courts are so very strict especially when it comes to espionage cases like this one, despite the fact that, of course, his family says he was just here to attend a friend's wedding.

JARRETT: Such an interesting case. Fred, thank you so much for being there for us in court.

BRIGGS: As U.S. formalizes plans for another summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, a think tank, Center for Strategic and International Studies, claims an undeclared missile base may be operating inside North Korea.

Will Ripley live in Beijing with the very latest.

Will, so here we are, a second summit and still no full accounting of what and where the North Koreans have.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And, you know, some people are accusing President Trump of not going tough enough on Kim Jong-un on this particular issue that North Korea has failed to disclose what is believed to be a network of secret missile bases, 20 of them according to the analysis group Beyond Parallel.

They released these new images that are no secret to U.S. intelligence. The United States military has been aware of this for quite some time. But in the private sector, it takes a bit longer to take a long at imagery like this.

And they talk about this base at Sino-ri which is operating in a location where missiles could be fueled and launched and pose a direct threat to military troops in South Korea and Guam and Japan and elsewhere. Obviously from a strategic standpoint, it is always concerning to know that North Korea has a network of missile bases that are designed to launch attacks in the event of a war. But it's not a surprise and it is something that the United States has known going into negotiations with North Korea and undoubtedly, it will be a major point of discussion at this possible planned second summit that is supposed to happen at the end of February.

We're told that the front running location is Vietnam, but it hasn't been officially announced yet, Dave.

BRIGGS: OK. Will Ripley live, just past 6:00 p.m. there in Beijing, thank you, Will.

A check on CNN Business at 5:08 Eastern Time.

The U.S. expected to make a formal request for the extradition of Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. Canada's ambassador to the United States telling CNN, I have just saw a clarification that this is a legal matter and not a chip in a trade dispute.

Meng Wanzhou's arrest has strained relations between Canada, the U.S., and China. The spokesperson from Canada's Justice Ministry said it hasn't received the full extradition request from the United States. The deadline for filing is January 30th.

Meanwhile, President Trump urging China to stop playing around and make a deal. The president tweeting: China posts slowest economic numbers since 1990 due to the U.S. trade tensions and new policies. Makes so much sense for China to finally do a real deal and stop playing around.

March 1st is the deadline for an agreement. No deal in the U.S. jacks up tariffs from $200 billion in Chinese from 25 percent to 10 percent.

JARRETT: Well, now that Senator Kamala Harris is formally in the race for president, who else is up next? Another Democrat drops a hint, next.

BRIGGS: And Anthony Scaramucci in the "Big Brother" house telling how he got fired from the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:27] BRIGGS: Western avalanches claiming the lives of two more skiers. A man skiing with his family and friends near Aspen, Colorado, was buried by an avalanche on Monday. Authorities in Pitkin County say that the weather delayed a 26-member rescue crew which eventually reached him and attempted to revive him, but it was too late.

Another skier critically injured in an avalanche in Taos, New Mexico, last week died on Monday. Corey Borg-Massanari was 22 years old.

JARRETT: A third woman in the U.S. Senate announcing she intends to run for president in 2020. California Senator Kamala Harris choosing the Martin Luther King holiday to make it official. The first term Democrat touting her experience as a prosecutor and drawing a clear contrast with President Trump.

We get more from CNN's Kyung Lah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Laura, Senator Kamala Harris jumps into the 2020 race. She says she is uniquely poised to take on Trump. She is the daughter of immigrants. She is a woman of color, a former prosecutor who is trained to fight.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are a diverse country, yes. And some people would suggest that in diversity, when there is a diverse population, one cannot the achieve unity. I reject that notion because this is my belief. Yes, we are diverse and we have so much more in common than what separates us. And when we emphasize that commonalty, when we recognize that commonalty, we will achieve greater unity.

LAH: That prosecutorial past does open up Senator Harris to potential attacks, attacks and questions that she's already had to answer.

[05:15:05] The left saying that she is not progressive enough because of her time as attorney general, but Senator Harris has addressed it especially during her book tour saying it is, quote, a false choice to have to pick one over the other -- Dave, Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Kyung, thanks so much for that report.

Senator Harris will join Jake Tapper for a CNN town hall live from Iowa Monday night, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

So, who could be next Democrat to join the 2020 race? New Jersey Senator Cory Booker dropping this not so subtle hint Monday night saying just between you and me, I will let you know soon. Stay tuned.

BRIGGS: Anthony Scaramucci, President Trump's communication director for a hot minute, is trying to survive longer in the "Big Brother" house than he did in the White House. Monday on the season premiere of the celebrity big brother, the Mooch spilled the details of his short stint.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR: I was fighting with Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus. The shootout at the OK Corral started, you know, Priebus and Bannon did not want me in that job. So, they started making up stories.

But I got my ego got involved and I'm a competitive guy, and so, I trusted a reporter, I said something inappropriate to a reporter. He ran to CNN with it, and so, when the new chief of staff came and he fired me.

KATO KAELIN: And who's that?

SCARAMUCCI: That was John Kelly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Asking that question, old friend Kato Kaelin still couch surfing.

The Mooch channeling President Truman by saying, if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog. The question, which is more back stabbing, that White House that mooch was a part of or the "big brother" cast which is all about the conniving back behind the scenes games.

JARRETT: Did you also spot Ryan Lochte in there?

BRIGGS: Ryan Lochte, I forgot to mention him earlier, in addition to former --

JARRETT: And Lindsay Lohan's mom, it's like --

BRIGGS: Lohan's mom, Ricky Williams, a former Heisman Trophy winner, it's an interesting cast.

Can Mooch kind of smooth over the awkward interactions? He's pretty good at it. Don't rule him out. He'll last longer than those 11 days in the White House.

JARRETT: We should hope so.

BRIGGS: That we know.

All right. Ahead, the NFL ready to talk about replay reviews for past interference plays. Andy Scholes has the story for us this morning in the "Bleacher Report".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:21:51] BRIGGS: OK, after the Saints were robbed of appearing in the Super Bowl 53, the NFL now are reportedly looking at making pass interference plays reviewable.

Andy Scholes, we talked about this yesterday. We were begging for it and it looks like possibly some action, huh?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Dave. And, you know, we've seen the NFL reacts like this before after a game changing play in the playoffs. Remember after Tom Brady's fumble against the Raiders in the snow years ago, we got the tuck rule. And then after the non-catch against the Packers, well, they changed the catch rule.

And according to multiple reports, the NFL is now going to look at adding pass interference to plays -- adding those plays to instant replay. Right now it is just at the official's discretion and it can not be reviewed. But the Saints say adding the rule now won't help the fact that they were cheated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRON ARMSTEAD, SAINTS OFFENSIVE TACKLE: If they do add replay to pass interference calls, it doesn't do anything for us right now. It is just tough for us, devastating for us. It's a team that has fought so much, and close, really close. So whether they add replay or not, it doesn't help us at all. It's too late.

JERMON BUSHROD, SAINTS GUARD: You don't get that moment back. You don't get this opportunity back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Saints owner Gayle Benson putting out a statement yesterday saying she has been in touch with the league about changing the rule and that statement read in part: No team should ever be denied the opportunity to reach the title game or simply win a game based on the actions or inactions of those charged with creating a fair and equitable playing field. It is a disservice to our coaches, players, employees and most importantly the fans who make our game possible. The NFL must always commit to providing the most basic of expectations, fairness and integrity.

Now, Saints fans obviously still leaving the loss. And Matt Bowers who owns multiple dealerships in the area, he paid for these billboards to go up around Atlanta. I passed one on my way to work and they read, the NFL blew it. Others also say the Saints got robbed. One is right next to the site of Super Bowl LIII, and those billboards are going to be up through the Super Bowl.

All right. The Warriors' Klay Thompson adding yet another offensive record to his resume last night. Klay hit his first ten threes against the Lakers tying the NBA record. He ended up with 44 points. He missed just three shot the entire game.

Steph Curry had a funny sequence to this, he go a steal, he was going up for the slam, but he slipped, he got up, then tried to shoot a three and air balled it. Warriors had a nice laugh about it as they beat the Lakers 130-111.

Elsewhere in the NBA, the Sixers hosting the Rockets in an epic dance off between these two kids. And both ended up taking their shirts off for some reason to dance. And you might notice that this kid right here, 100 percent of his dances were from "Fortnite".

BRIGGS: Of course, they are.

SCHOLES: And I'm thinking that is where kids are learning how to dance these days.

[05:25:01] It's "Fortnite". I don't know who was the winner. Both of them very impressive though.

BRIGGS: Can you do any "Fortnite" dances?

SCHOLES: No, I don't.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHOLES: I can maybe floss a little bit if I was standing up, but fortunately for you, I'm sitting.

BRIGGS: Unfortunately for me, I cannot do that. I'm standing. But in that game, how about James Harden, 30 plus points in 20 straight games. I know that you are a Houston rockets fan. Almost as impressive as those dances.

SCHOLES: Tying Wilt Chamberlain with one of his records, yes.

BRIGGS: Yes, unbelievable run.

Andy Scholes, thank you, my friend.

SCHOLES: All right.

BRIGGS: Laura, can you dance that well?

JARRETT: I want to see you floss like those kids.

BRIGGS: I can't do it. I can't do it. No one over age 40 can floss. No one.

JARRETT: All right. We'll have (INAUDIBLE) after this.

With federal workers set to miss another paycheck, lawmakers are set to introduce a plan that doesn't have the votes. Top stories next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: Breaking news out of Moscow, bail denied for a U.S. citizen accused of spying on Russia.

BRIGGS: Deadlocked on day 32.