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EARLY START

Trump May Still Declare National Emergency to Fund Border Wall; Trump Claims His Intelligence Chiefs were Taken Out of Context; Super Bowl LIII Kicks Off in Atlanta. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired February 1, 2019 - 04:30   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:30:59] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've set the stage for doing what I'm going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: "I've set the stage." President Trump fed up with negotiations on border security. He hints he'll declare a national emergency.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Those suspicions that Donald Trump, Jr. called his dad after that infamous Trump Tower meeting were wrong. The blocked number Don Jr. called was not his father.

BRIGGS: One more day of brutal cold today before a weekend warm-up, relatively speaking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: After football, I'm going to play baseball. And after baseball, I'm going to play Hamlet. Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: Yes, it's almost time to play football. Excitement building ahead of Super Bowl LIII on Sunday. And guess who is there? Tom Brady and Dave Briggs. You know those two.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. A gutsy performance there by Brady. We're live in Atlanta for Super Bowl LIII just outside this beautiful Mercedes-Benz Stadium here in Atlanta, the jewel of this town and where Super Bowl LIII will be played between the Patriots and Rams Sunday.

While most of you are waking up, fans here are still up because bars are allowed to stay open two hours extra until 4:00 a.m. during Super Bowl week. Undoubtedly a Gronk sighting somewhere in this town. This, though, a very new routine for most of these L.A. players. Only

four have any Super Bowl experience. The Patriots however here for the fourth time in five years and third straight year. And for Tom Brady, a mind-boggling ninth Super Bowl and yet something as you saw just there, something he's never done before, his best Hamlet is coming up.

I also spoke with Super Bowl L MVP Von Miller about how you exactly get to Tom Brady, how do you sack the 41-year-old. And what sack dance of course should you have. We suggest a little Fortnite. Take the L? Who will take the L? He'll give his Super Bowl prediction ahead.

Should be a great game and a fantastic weekend. We have a Super Bowl special here on CNN Saturday at 2:30. It's with Hines Ward, a Super Bowl MVP, and Coy Wire, also the story of the league this year, Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, will join us for that special, as will JJ Watt.

ROMANS: Awesome.

BRIGGS: Christine, back to you.

ROMANS: Awesome. All right. That sounds like a lot of fun, Dave. Thanks. We're back to you in a moment. But President Trump this morning apparently fed up with congressional talks on border security that have hardly begun. The president on Thursday called the bipartisan negotiations to avoid another shutdown, quote, "a waste of time." And he strongly hinted he will simply bypass them to fund his border wall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think I've set the table very nicely. I have set the stage for doing what I'm going to do.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And you'll wait after 21 days before you take any action?

TRUMP: Yes, I'm going to wait until the 15th. I think it's a waste of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president would not directly say he plans to declare a national emergency at the southern border, but he said he is, quote, "not concerned by possible legal challenges." The president also suggested he will no longer work with Nancy Pelosi. He accused the Democratic House speaker of, quote, "doing a tremendous disservice to the country."

Pelosi again declared the House will not put up any wall money but expressed openness to some kind of physical barrier. She was asked about enhanced fencing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), HOUSE SPEAKER: If the president wants to call that a wall, he can call it a wall. He is referencing that we already have almost 700 miles of wall. So again, is there a place for enhanced fencing? Normandy fencing would work. Let them have that discussion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A stopgap funding -- government funding runs out in two weeks. The House and Senate will have to vote on any deal, so that gives negotiators until February 8th or we will see, Dave, shutdown part two.

BRIGGS: Let's hope not.

[04:35:01] A significant development, meanwhile, in the Russian probe involving Donald Trump, Jr. Those mysterious phone calls made by the president's son before and after his 2016 Trump Tower meeting with the Russians were not to his father. Three sources tell CNN records provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee show they were made to two of Don Jr.'s business associates.

That would contradict suspicions by some Democrats that the blocked number at the other end of those calls belonged to then candidate Donald Trump. Investigators have been trying to determine whether Mr. Trump had advanced knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting.

ROMANS: The president also addressed the Russia probe in his "New York Times" interview. He claims he never discussed WikiLeaks with Roger Stone. Stone is charged with lying to Congress about communications with WikiLeaks and coordinating with Trump campaign officials about WikiLeaks' plans to release hacked e-mails.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you ever talk to him about WikiLeaks? Because that seemed to be what --

TRUMP: No. No. I didn't. I never did.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you ever tell him or other people to get in touch with them?

TRUMP: Never did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president also says Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has assured his lawyers he is not a subject or a target of the Mueller investigation but he could not say the same about the federal prosecutor in New York City where Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to paying off two women for their silence during the 2016 campaign.

BRIGGS: After publicly ridiculing his top intelligence chiefs, the president now insists he is on the same page with all of them. On Tuesday the director of National Intelligence and other top security officials directly contradicted Mr. Trump on the threats of North Korea, Russia, and ISIS among others. So the president, he insulted them, calling them naive, and telling them to go back to school. He was asked about that on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you still have confidence in Gina Haspel and Dan Coats to give you good advice?

TRUMP: No, I disagree with certain things that they said. I think I'm right. But time will prove that. Time will prove me right probably.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Despite their disagreements, the president did get his intel briefing yesterday from DNI Coats and Gina Haspel. Then he changed his tune and made this startling claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He has said that they were totally misquoted and they were totally -- it was taken out of context. So what I do is I'd suggest that you call them. They said it was fake news.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Or you can just watch the testimony yourself and read the transcripts. Let's be very clear. The president's intel chiefs were not misquoted. Their entire testimony was public. Judge for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have won against ISIS. We've beaten them and we've beaten them badly.

DAN COATS, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR: ISIS is intent on resurging and still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: On North Korea, on Iran, on a host of other foreign policy issues, a chasm between the president's public statements and what his intel chiefs said there. A source tells CNN Coats and Haspel are not in jeopardy of losing their jobs and aides were able to calm the president down by assuring him the full transcript adds their testimony, add more context to their remarks.

The Trump administration expected to announce today it will suspend participation in a key arms control treaty with Russia. The Intermediate Range Nuclear Force treaty, or INF, has been a center piece of European security since the Cold War. The U.S. and Europe say Moscow has been violating the treaty since 2014.

America's European allies now on edge because the U.S. suspension raises concerns about a renewed arms race with Russia. European countries are within range of the missiles covered by that treaty. Today's expected move starts a 180-day clock to complete withdrawal unless Russia returns to compliance.

ROMANS: All right. President Trump says he's aiming for a, quote, "very big deal" with China to put an end to their trade war, but he said he was prepared to enact new sanctions and increase existing ones if a deal isn't struck.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think we can do it by March 1st. Can you get it down on paper by March 1st? I don't know. I can tell you on March 1st the tariff on China goes to 25 percent and that is a big tariff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president also said the two nations are talking about issues that have been key U.S. complaints about China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going into everything. This isn't going to be a small deal with China. I think that probably the final deal will be made, if it's made it will be made between myself and President Xi, but we're certainly talking about theft, we're talking about every aspect of trade with a country and we're talking about Fentanyl, too.

ROMANS: In a statement posted to Chinese state media, Beijing's negotiators said they had agreed to vigorously increase imports of U.S. agricultural products, energy products, industrial goods and service products. Trade representative Robert Lighthizer said Thursday he believes progress has been made in trade talks and the deal would be worth nothing without enforcement.

[04:40:01] President Trump said U.S. negotiators will travel to China this month to continue the talks.

BRIGGS: All right. We're almost out of that deep freeze, almost. The one that has gripped the upper Midwest, the Great Lakes out to the mid-Atlantic and the northeast. At least 16 deaths have been attributed to the cold and winter storms in Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Indiana.

In Chicago, one hospital has seen nearly 50 frostbite cases along with other injuries like burns and smoke inhalation from space heaters or where people moved grills indoors for warmth.

Here is another sign of how cold it was.

Michigan State police say that light post there shivered all by itself in a snow covered parking lot. Freaky. And this is what a firefighter looks like after battling a blaze in a windchill of 50 below.

ROMANS: Wow. Nearly 7,000 flights canceled in total this week. There is just one more day of bitter cold ahead before the desperately needed warm-up begins.

With more on that, meteorologist Ivan Cabrera is in the CNN Weather Center -- Ivan.

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Christine. Good morning. Yes, we're going to warm up and then some over the next few days. And yes, you bet, when you have to set train tracks on fire to get things sought out, you've got problems. It's exactly what they were doing in Chicago this week. Still this morning unfortunately they're waking up at temperatures anywhere from five to as low as 18 below zero.

So still dangerously cold for a good chunk of the Midwest, the northeast, New York and Boston, into the minus column at this hour because of the winds. So still have windchill advisories 10 to 30 degrees below zero is the way it's going to feel so far this morning. And then we're done. Temperatures are going to warm up over the next few days.

We do have a clipper moving through the Midwest, particularly Ohio Valley right now. I don't think it will accumulate too much here as far as the snowfall, so we have winter weather advisories. So that's about the lowest threshold here so just keep that in mind. It will make for a messy morning commute and then off Lake Ontario, they're going to continue with some heavy snow for western New York.

But there is the batch of snow, anywhere from one to three inches and that ends tonight, by the way, setting us up for a pretty decent weekend. As far as the temperatures they are going to warm up. Look at the 50s all the way, you see that, Rapid City, 58, you drive a few miles to the east, a stay at least, anyway, 18 in Minneapolis. And that warm air is going to continue to push to the north and east.

So we're going to go from that minus 23 that we had on Wednesday morning, the coldest ever since 1994, and we're going to climb 70 degrees to get us to 50 by the time we get into a Monday. And in New York, same deal. Look at this. Highs today in the 20s, how about 30s on Saturday, still cold, but that's about average for this time of year. And then we'll get back into the mid-50s as we head through the day on Monday and Tuesday.

And, no, that is not the global warming some have been asking for. That is climate. This is weather. It goes up and down and it will do so over the next few days -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Ivan. Thank you so much for that.

Dave, just amazing. 50 degrees, 70 degree-spread in Chicago. Wow.

BRIGGS: Yes. Another reason I'm thankful to be here in relatively warm Atlanta. Thank you, Christine.

Ahead, to win or not to win? Not a question for Tom Brady, but the GOAT may have a career after football. We'll explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [04:47:38] BRIGGS: Another live look at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. First opened in 2017, hosting its first Super Bowl, 71,000 seats, retracting roof. We expect it to be closed on Sunday night.

Back here, we talk about this Los Angeles Rams team, Christine Romans, and you talk about a team that's seen some adversity. But more importantly, it's been off the field. They've got some much needed perspective about what football means in the grand scheme of things earlier this season. You all remember back in November when California saw those deadly wildfires rip through the state.

The Camp Fire killing 86 people alone. 20 Los Angeles Rams players and coaches were displaced by that fire. They had practices canceled. Really impacted this team. And all of their staff inside and outside of the organization. They talked about having gone through that and having brought them together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED GOFF, LOS ANGELES RAMS QUARTERBACK: As tragic as it was, and as many people that lost their homes, you know, we tried to use it as a time that could bring us all together. You know, a lot of us were not in our homes.

ANDREW WHITWORTH, LOS ANGELES RAMS LINEMAN: We were pretty drained there, we're pretty good stretched with everything going on, and maybe that's something that's helped us have the resolve that we have and really the toughness that we have at this point. That we've been through something like that, that has helped kind of create the grit that we believe we can, you know, go through anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: And one of the cool things the Rams did after that was they hosted all the first responders to that fire free of charge. Some of them down on the field for a Rams game.

On the lighter side, these players have been asked every imaginable question during Super Bowl week. So they thought, they thought they've heard it all, seen it all, until Stephen Colbert staff, they got their turn to ask questions and that prompted that Hamlet session by Tom Brady.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ever get sick of people asking you to take selfies with them?

NDAMUKONG SUH, LOS ANGELES RAMS DEFENSIVE TACKLE: Not really. It's actually a nice way to --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Great, let's do this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any plans for your life after football? BRADY: Yes, after football I'm going to play baseball. And after

baseball, I'm going to play Hamlet. Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.

[04:50:03] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you worried someone will only love you because you're a famous muscular athlete?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's fine with me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is the hardest part of your job?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to figure out which end of the football is the front and which end is the back. I mean, look at this thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the front.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What makes that the front?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because this is the back.

BRADY: To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing in them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: A passionate performance there by the GOAT, Tom Brady, perhaps another career awaits after football. We'll get more into this game and the match-up ahead on this show and also we have again a Super Bowl special here on CNN, 2:30 on Saturday featuring Super Bowl MVP Hines Ward and Coy Wire, a former NFL'er as well. Patrick Mahomes, the story of this Super Bowl season, joins us as well. The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback as well.

But up next, Uber customers in Denver will be able to use the app to check more than their next car ride. Christine has all your latest business headlines in CNN Biz next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:55:44] ROMANS: Welcome back. Catholic diocese across Texas naming 286 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse dating back as far as 1941. 14 diocese including Dallas and Austin have now released one of the largest collections of names since the Pennsylvania grand jury report last July. Texas bishops released the names to help victims heal and to rebuild trust. Dozens of other diocese are investigating allegations or have promised to release names.

BRIGGS: A Tennessee girl missing for more than two weeks has been found alive. The man who adopted her is under arrest charged with rape. Authorities say the 14-year-old was found in a home in Wisconsin and is, quote, "doing fine." Randall Pruitt who adopted the girl was arrested yesterday in Tennessee. Investigators say it is possible other people were involved and they may also face charges. A San Francisco bay area restaurant owner says customers will not be

served if they are wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. Kenji Lopez-Alt, co-owner of Wursthall Restaurant, tweeted that it would be, quote, "same as if you come in wearing a swastika, white hood or any other symbol of intolerance and hate." He followed up with other similar comments. The original tweet which has since been deleted wasn't to everyone's taste, but the "San Francisco Chronicle" says it racked up 2100 likes and more than 200 re-tweets.

ROMANS: Chicago Police say a letter containing white powder was sent to the set of "Empire" days before one of the show's stars Jussie Smollett says he was attacked by two men earlier this week. Authorities say the powder turned out to be aspirin but declined to give details on the content of the letter. Police have met with a neighbor who says she saw a suspicious man with what appeared to be a rope standing outside the actor's apartment building. Smollett says the attackers put a rope around his neck. Smollett's family is condemning the incident calling it racial and homophobic hate crime.

BRIGGS: An intense prison hostage drama all caught on surveillance video. Take a look at maximum custody inmate Timothy Monk using a prison made blade to take a male librarian hostage. This happened last month at Buckeye Prison in Tucson, Arizona.

After a two-hour standoff, heavily armed corrections officers stormed the library using a stun grenade, pepper balls and bean bags. The librarian made it out safely. Monk already serving 97 years is facing an extension of that sentence.

ROMANS: All right. Let's talk about the stock markets. Global stock markets are up right now on trade optimism. You can see them there. Asia closing out the week mixed, but Tokyo Shanghai higher. And UK markets opening higher. Wall Street futures mostly higher right now as well. And also we're waiting for this January jobs report.

An amazing turnaround for the market considering December, remember, was the worst month for stocks since the Great Depression? The Dow closed slightly lower Thursday, but still achieved its strongest January since 1989. The S&P 500 climbed nearly 1 percent on Thursday lifting its January gain to nearly 8 percent. That's the biggest rally for January since '87. The Nasdaq closed up 1.4 percent.

Amazon had its first $200 billion sales year, but its growth is slowing. Amazon says Thursday its holiday quarter sales hit $72.4 billion. That pushed Amazon's annual revenue to $232.9 billion, but its 20 percent sales growth for the quarter was well below the growth it saw last year. Amazon's total profit for 2018 topped $10 billion for the first time in its history fueled in part by momentum for its cloud computing service and its advertising business.

All right. Uber is expanding its app to include a feature for public transportation. The ride sharing app is adding support for public transportation directly into its app starting with Denver's regional transportation district. Now the updated app allows users to see ETAs for their trips through traditional Uber rides as well as find the fastest route to their destination including trains, buses and subways. Uber plans to roll out Uber Transit over the course of the year in other U.S. cities as well worldwide.

All right. EARLY START continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I've set the stage for doing what I'm going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: "I've set the stage."