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EARLY START

Matt Whitaker to Testify to Congress; Jeff Bezos Claims He was Blackmailed; Democrats' Resolution Lays Out "Green New Deal"; One-on- One with Hamid Karzai; Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired February 8, 2019 - 04:30   ET

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


[04:30:07] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The acting AG faces Congress today. Matthew Whitaker will field questions about the Russia probe but will he answer them, concerning his conversation with the president?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A salacious story of nude selfies, politics and extortion. The world's richest man turns the tables on the "National Enquirer" revealing a tabloid plot.

BRIGGS: The Supreme Court puts a restrictive Louisiana abortion law on hold at least for now.

ROMANS: One week until the government shuts down, finally some optimism on a deal to fund border security. A key negotiator says he thinks the president would sign a deal.

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

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Happy Friday, everybody. 4:30 Eastern Time. We'll get to Bezos in a minute. And what a story it is.

ROMANS: That story is just a mind blow.

BRIGGS: Yes, indeed. We start, though, with the acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker. He's decided he will testify today before the House Judiciary Committee. The announcement came after days of contentious wrangling as Whitaker threatened not to show up unless the committee promised not to subpoena him. The faceoff a prime example of Democrats asserting their new control of the House for oversight of the Trump administration.

ROMANS: Democrats vowing to press Whitaker on two subjects today. First his decision not to recuse himself from overseeing Robert Mueller's Russia investigation despite his past public criticism of the probe, and second, his conversations with the president about the Russia investigation.

The president recently told the "Daily Caller" there have been no such conversations. Yesterday the president was asked whether he thought Whitaker should testify.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He is an outstanding person. I would say if he did testify, he'd do very well. He's an outstanding person. Very, very fine man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: This may be Whitaker's only congressional testimony as the head of the Justice Department. William Barr is on track to be confirmed as permanent attorney general next week.

New information from partially unsealed court documents giving new insight into the Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen cases. A redacted hearing transcript shows Manafort's meeting with Konstantin Kilimnick during the campaign is at the heart of the Mueller investigation. Kilimnick is an oligarch with ties to Russian intelligence. CNN has reported Manafort tried to pass polling data through Kilimnick during the campaign.

BRIGGS: Meantime a judge in New York says prosecutors are still investigating campaign finance crimes Michael Cohen admitted to and the judge made it clear there are other people being investigated. The judge asked prosecutors to submit a sealed copy of case materials by February 28th. Coincidentally, or not, that is the date for Cohen's testimony to the House Intel Committee.

ROMANS: The world's richest man says he was the victim of an extortion attempt. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of the "Washington Post," the alleged blackmailers, the parent company of the "National Enquirer," AMI. Its links to the president and its role on the political climate are no secret.

Bezos published the shocking details in a blog post, he writes, "I was made an offer I couldn't refuse, or at least that's what the top people at the 'National Enquirer' thought. I'm glad they thought that because it emboldened them to put it all in writing."

BRIGGS: Bezos quotes entire e-mails sent by AMI to his representatives. AMI is the same company former Trump-fixer Michael Cohen had admitted giving money for hush payments to women who claimed they had affairs with Mr. Trump. Bezos' blog also makes a cryptic reference to actions AMI has taken on behalf of Saudi Arabia.

Senior media reporter Oliver Darcy has more.

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: It doesn't get much more explosive than this. In a tell-all blog post published Thursday afternoon, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos accused the "National Enquirer" of, in his words, "extortion and blackmail."

This all goes back to when the "Enquirer" published a story revealing that Jeff Bezos had been having an affair. In that story were text messages the "National Enquirer" obtained between Bezos and his mistress. Bezos has since launched an investigation into how those messages were leaked and whether politics may have been a motivating force. The "National Enquirer" CEO is, of course, David Pecker, a longtime

friend of Donald Trump's. And because Bezos owns the "Washington Post" which covers Trump critically at times, the president is no fan of Bezos. Bezos says he's being blackmailed now for investigating whether there were any politics at play.

According to one of the e-mails Bezos released, the "National Enquirer's" chief content officer, Dylan Howard, threatened that if he did not drop his investigation, the magazine might publish more revealing photos of him among other things. In another e-mail, a lawyer for the "National Enquirer's" parent company suggested an agreement in which Bezos or his spokesperson would say they have no evidence politics was at play. Bezos said he would not capitulate to extortion and blackmail.

He chose instead to publish all the messages online, and they are quite extraordinary. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out moving forward.

[04:35:04] We reached out, of course, to the "National Enquirer" but they have not responded to our request for comment -- Christine, Dave.

ROMANS: Wow. What a remarkable story. I encourage everyone to go read Jeff Bezos' Medium post and just sort of see how this whole thing unfolded.

All right. The Supreme Court taking a big step on the hottest of hot- button issues. The justices blocking a restrictive Louisiana abortion law from taking effect at least for now. The decision was split 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the court's four liberals.

The 2014 law, which would require doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Opponents of the law argue it unduly burdens women's access to abortion and could have left to stay with only one doctor to provide abortions.

BRIGGS: The ruling came hours after the National Prayer Breakfast where the president made some pro-life remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We must build a culture that cherishes the dignity and sanctity of innocent human life. All children born and unborn are made in the holy image of God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The high court is likely to rule eventually on the merits of the Louisiana law which has never been enforced. The court found a nearly identical Texas law unconstitutional in 2016. The topic thrust back into the national conversation last week when Virginia Governor Ralph Northam seemed to suggest a late-term abortion could happen after birth.

ROMANS: All right. Good news on border security talks as the threat of another government shutdown looms in just seven days. A senior White House official tells CNN, quote, "We're in a good place even though there are of course sticking points that could prevent a deal." Right now the White House is hoping a deal will be struck by Sunday. Remember, lawmakers need time to review that agreement.

BRIGGS: A big cloud at this point, the president, no one knows what he will sign. But Republican Senator Richard Shelby who's part of that negotiation team met with the president and said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), CHAIRMAN, SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: If we can work within some of the parameters that we've talked about today, which we'll keep to ourselves right now, I think he would sign it. And I think he's, from my perspective, been quite reasonable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Sources tell CNN there is a consensus a final agreement will need increases in funding for technology, personnel and border barriers.

Today the deadline for the White House to respond to Congress on the murder of "Washington Post" columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The administration expected to double down on defending Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee pushing for President Trump to determine whether the crown prince, also known as MBS, violated Khashoggi's human rights. A source says the White House will likely reiterate there is no smoking gun.

The "New York Times" also reporting that U.S. intelligence intercepts show MBS told aides he would use a bullet on Khashoggi a year before the journalist was killed.

ROMANS: All right. Trouble in the U.S.-China trade sent stocks into retreat. Investors not happy when Larry Kudlow, the director of the White House's National Economic Council, suggested the U.S. and China are not close to a new trade pack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KUDLOW, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL DIRECTOR: The president has indicated that he's optimistic with respect to a potential China trade deal. But, but, but, but, we've got, you know, a pretty sizeable distance to go here, to quote a colleague of mine, we have miles to go before we sleep. That was a joke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Miles and miles apart is what Wilbur Ross said last week about U.S.-China trade talks. Looks like they're not any closer. The Dow fell 221 after those comments, the S&P 500 fell about 1 percent, the Nasdaq closed down 1.2 percent.

We look at futures this morning, you can see they are leaning slightly lower here. Now, a U.S. official also said President Trump not likely to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping before this really important March 1st deadline. U.S. Trade representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, they're going to travel to Beijing for a third round of trade talks. The president has threatened to jack up existing tariffs on Chinese goods if the two sides can't reach a permanent truce in a trade war that's $200 billion worth of goods that are right now taxed at 10 percent. March 1st that goes up to 25 percent if there's no deal.

They've got a lot of structural --

BRIGGS: Will they kick the can on that?

ROMANS: I don't know. I mean, I don't know. But they -- the president has said if President Xi and President Trump, you know, in Buenos Aires said 90 days, they were going to hammer this out. They've got a lot of work to do.

BRIGGS: Watch the stock market.

Next, a CNN exclusive, the former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. What does he think of President Trump's peace efforts and why he says elections in Afghanistan should be delayed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:44:02] ROMANS: Climate change front and center in the new Congress. Democrats in the House and the Senate introducing a joint resolution Thursday laying out the main elements of their plan to address the climate crisis. Expect this to be a major issue on the 2020 campaign trail.

BRIGGS: Four Democratic candidates, Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, and Kirsten Gillibrand, all support it. But many centrist Democrats are wary of taking on so much so fast. Even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had concerns.

Before the measure was introduced, she told Politico, quote, "The green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is." She later walked that back saying she welcomes it and any other climate change proposals.

CNN's Miguel Marquez has more on what's in the plan.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Dave, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the freshman Democrat, is introducing the first piece of legislation that she herself has sponsored. It's a resolution which means it's nonbinding, called the Green New Deal. It calls for a 10-year national mobilization. The goal, in one short decade to bring greenhouse gas emissions to zero, meet 100 percent of energy needs by renewable sources, overhaul transportation systems, creative millions of high paying jobs, bring equality in health care and equal justice for underserved minority and impoverished communities.

[04:45:19] Now this new deal goes beyond climate change. Way beyond.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D), NEW YORK: And so we're here to say that small incremental policy solutions are not enough. They can be part of a solution, but they are not the solution unto itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Ocasio-Cortez was surrounded by veteran lawmakers from both the House and the Senate to introduce this legislation. Ed Markey, the senator from Massachusetts, is introducing a similar measure in the Senate. The resolution views climate change as an existential threat to the entire world, warning that what we see now in terms of wild weather, fires and rising seas is just the beginning if radical change isn't embraced immediately.

The resolution is only 14 pages long, but there are some estimates out there that it could cost trillions of dollars. Members of the House and Senate are now talking about legislation to put some or all the goals of the Green New Deal into effect, and as they say, the devil is in the details -- Dave, Christine.

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

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai tells CNN in an exclusive interview that working alongside Russia, President Trump can be a significant partner in bringing peace to Afghanistan.

Let's go live to Moscow and bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann with the exclusive details.

What did he tell you?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, there are two processes he's running here to try to bring peace to Afghanistan. One here in Moscow which just wrapped up this weekend and one run by the U.S. Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai was complimentary of both of these saying they are both important. Crucially they both include the Taliban, despite the fact that both U.S. and Russia recognize the Taliban as a terrorist organization.

He sees them as his Afghan countrymen and a necessary part of the solution for peace in Afghanistan. But when pushed on who can bring solutions here, he said both, but remained critical of the U.S. role as the continued campaign in Afghanistan brings civilian casualties.

Here is part of that interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Does the U.S. presence in Afghanistan now contribute to peace and security?

HAMID KARZAI, FORMER PRESIDENT OF AFGHANISTAN: It does not, unfortunately, no. And for that reason was my opposition to the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan unless the United States makes sure that peace is returned to Afghanistan. So peace is the precondition for that. It does not contribute to peace right now. No. LIEBERMANN: And how can you change that? How can you make the

American --

KARZAI: By doing exactly what the U.S. is doing now. By working for peace in Afghanistan. By working with dedication for peace in Afghanistan, which is what it is doing now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Both the U.S. and Russian processes will continue over the course of the next few weeks and months. Karzai remains optimistic, though, he knows the challenges ahead. Afghanistan does have elections in July. Karzai called on the country to postpone those elections. He says the peace process is more important to bring all of the parties in Afghanistan into a full democratic election. He said it would now be impossible, meaningless and a sham of an election to hold that election when it's currently scheduled in July.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks so much for that, Oren Liebermann, for us in Moscow this morning.

BRIGGS: In Venezuela, the first shipment of U.S. aid has arrived at the country's border with Colombia. Now Colombian authorities and groups loyal to self-declared interim president Juan Guaido are working on ways to bring the aid in since the government of embattled President Nicolas Maduro is blocking a bridge on the border.

There's growing desperation for basics like food and medicine as Venezuela's monthly inflation reached 191 percent in January.

ROMANS: Wow.

BRIGGS: According to the National Assembly. The U.S. State Department has started revoking the visas of Maduro loyalists and urging Maduro to leave Venezuela.

ROMANS: All right, 48 minutes past the hour. If you like ice cream and you like rum and maybe bourbon, Haagen-Dazs has something new come into the freezer aisle. CNN Business is next.

BRIGGS: I'm in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:53:28] ROMANS: A power outage at a Wells Fargo facility causing major service disruptions for customers trying to access online banking and the mobile app. The system issues were due to a power shutdown Thursday at a Wells Fargo data center when smoke was detected following a routine maintenance. The company says it is working to resolve the problem. The second time in as many weeks that Wells Fargo's online banking and mobile app have gone down.

BRIGGS: Apple fixing the Facetime bug that let people eavesdrop on unanswered video calls. Software updates were rolled out to fix the glitch nine days after videos of the bug were widely shared on social media. The tech company says it will compensate 14-year-old Grant Thompson and his family for flagging the problem.

Meantime, Apple found another security issue, another one, while investigating the Facetime bug. The company did not specify what it was but says the new updates will fix that issue, too.

ROMANS: The New York City Police Department demanding Google stop allowing users to post DUI check point data on its live traffic and navigation app Waze. Authorities say Google is encouraging reckless driving. Waze advertises the feature on its Web site, saying, get alerted before you approach police. A spokesperson for the app says it promotes road safety since it highlights police presence. The NYPD, though, says it will pursue all legal remedies to prevent the what it says irresponsible and dangerous information from being posted.

BRIGGS: Right now a frantic search under way in Culver City, California, for a missing 6 month old boy whose parents were arrested and taken into custody. The infant identified as Jackson Manson was last seen on December 31st after multiple interviews.

[04:55:05] Police say neither of the parents or family members have been able to tell them where Jackson is.

ROMANS: Hacienda Health is shutting down the unit at the Phoenix, Arizona, health care facility where a severely disabled woman was sexually assaulted and later gave birth. Hacienda's board of directors voted last week to close its intermediate care unit for the intellectually disabled. They are now working with state agencies on a transition plan for its 37 patients.

Earlier this week Nathan Sutherland, a former Hacienda nurse, pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the woman. The 36-year-old Sutherland is being held on $500,000 bail.

BRIGGS: Schools in and around Seattle will close early today. There is a threat of a winter storm in the Pacific northwest. Forecasters expect four to six inches of snow. Schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul are also closed because of severe weather. Not as cold as last week but minus 35-degree windchills are expected.

Speaking of extreme cold, this is what a frozen cat looks like. Pluffy here was found by her owners in Montana, buried in the snow. She was brought to an animal clinic unresponsive but after many hours she recovered which brings her down to eight lives.

ROMANS: Facing allegations of plagiarism, former "New York Times" executive editor Jill Abramson concedes some of the passages in her new book too closely mirror work that first appeared elsewhere. Abramson in a statement vowed to correct errors in attribution in the book "Merchants of Truth." The plagiarism claims were first leveled by Michael Moynihan, a "Vice News Tonight" correspondent. On Thursday CNN Business discovered two new examples of apparent plagiarism in the book. Abramson is defending the book as a whole. She says all the ideas are original, all of the opinions are hers.

BRIGGS: We've heard a lot this week about potential rule changes in baseball, but here is one change you never saw coming. The familiar term disabled list is being changed to injury list according to ESPN. Disability advocates asked Major League Baseball to change the name so people wouldn't confuse disabilities and injuries. And further the thinking that disability means someone can't play a sport. The new entry designation will be in effect when the Major League Baseball season opens March 28th.

ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Global stock markets are lower worried that the U.S. and China are not close to a trade deal. You can see Tokyo down, Hong Kong down. London now a little mixed here.

On Wall Street, futures slightly lower in the early going here. Investors were not happy after White House adviser Larry Kudlow said there was a pretty sizable distance between Beijing and Washington in trade negotiations.

The Dow fell 221 points on those comments Thursday, the S&P 500 fell about close to 1 percent, the Nasdaq closed down 1.2 percent. BB and T and SunTrust Banks rose 10 percent and 4 percent respectively after announcing a $66 billion merger forming the sixth largest U.S. bank.

Sears lives to see another day. A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of most of Sears' assets to a hedge fund controlled by Sears chairman Eddie Lampert. The decision will keep 425 stores open, it will save 45,000 jobs.

The 133-year-old retailer was once the largest and most important retailer in the nation. It has struggled for decades losing business to online rivals, losing business to big bucks retailers who offered lower prices and a wider selection of products. It had lost $12 billion since its last profitable year in 2010.

All right. A little bit lighter story. If you like ice cream -- or maybe it's a heavier story. If you like ice cream and you like rum or bourbon, Haagen-Dazs has something new coming to the freezer aisle. Haagen-Dazs is launching a new line of seven alcohol infused ice cream treats. The Spirits collection includes seven new flavors like Bourbon Vanilla Truffle and a Non-Dairy Amaretto Black Cherry Almond Toffee. Each products contains less than half a percent of alcohol per volume.

The ice cream brand isn't the first to add booze to its products. Ben and Jerry's launched a flavored infused with bourbon in 2017 but the alcohol cooked off during manufacturing. Smaller brands like Tipsy Scoop have been selling alcoholic ice cream for years.

The Spirits collection will be available nationwide in April and yes, you must be 21 years or older to buy it.

How much ice cream do you have to eat to get a buzz? That is my question.

(LAUGHTER)

BRIGGS: The whole carton, I suppose. I'm just happy there is no Bloody Mary flavor. You know, that's my favorite drink.

ROMANS: Yes. That's just merging all of your vices into one big --

BRIGGS: Probably wouldn't work. Tequila would be a good flavor, though.

All right. EARLY START continues right now with the mind blowing story of the richest man in the world being blackmailed by the parent company of the "National Enquirer."

The acting AG faces Congress today. Matthew Whitaker will field questions about the Russia probe. Will he answer those questions when it comes to his conversations with the president?.

ROMANS: A salacious story of nude selfies, politics and extortion. The world's richest man turns the tables on the "National Enquirer" revealing a tabloid plot.

(END)