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EARLY START

Insults in Iowa; Reports: Second Suspect Arrested; Jon Stewart Rips Congress Over 9/11 Funding; What's the Big Secret?; Hong Kong Extradition Bill Sparks Massive Protests; Team USA Off to Record- Setting Start. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 12, 2019 - 05:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sleepy Joe. He's a sleepy guy.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Only I can fix it. Fix yourself first, Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump and Democratic front- runner Joe Biden trading insults in Iowa.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, reports of a second arrest in the David Ortiz shooting case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, FORMER HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": They did their jobs. Eighteen years later, do yours!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Jon Stewart outraged at lawmakers who stood up 9/11 first responders.

[05:00:03] BRIGGS: Happening right now, police using tear gas on protesters trying to storm a government building in Hong Kong. We are live on the scene.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It's Wednesday, June 12th. It's 5:00 a.m. in the East.

Let's just look at these pictures as they're developing here. We've had kind of a spotty feed. There you go, case in point. But we're watching this protest police moving down, moving down, I guess, a walkway, trying to clear out the protesters who had encircled essentially city hall.

BRIGGS: These people don't want suspects extradited to mainland China. And the protests really escalated over the weekend with a million people turning out. Some thought that might be it. It is clearly not. They have postponed debate on this bill.

Now, you are looking at confrontation between the riot police in Hong Kong and tens of thousands of protesters out there on the streets. There was teargas earlier mentioned. But it looks like some physical altercation could be on the way. And Ivan Watson will join us shortly.

ROMANS: Yes, we will get back him as his feed is up and running.

BRIGGS: Wow.

ROMANS: Let's begin here in Iowa. There's Ivan there.

Let's begin here in Iowa.

President Trump and Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden both in the Hawkeye State. Although they were never in the same city at the same time, each focused a lot of attention on the other. It felt a little like a general election preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Sleepy Joe. He's a sleepy guy.

BIDEN: I believe that the president is literally an existential threat to America.

TRUMP: I think he's the weakest mentally. Obama took him off the trash heap.

BIDEN: He's really fascinated with me. I find it fascinating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Keenly aware that Iowa takes its role as first to vote very seriously, the candidates also focused on policy. Here's Biden at an evening event in Davenport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Tax cutting passed for multimillionaires and billionaires. Guess where our own (ph) president? He's gone, he's gone.

You know, I don't think the president really gets the basic stuff. He thinks these tariffs are being paid by China. It's like Mexico is doing the work.

And what about health care? Trying to have the Justice Department to declare the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, and he saw how well trying to take away people's health care worked in 2018. And yet they were trying like the devil to eliminate the Affordable Care Act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president tried to tie Biden to Democrats in Congress, labeling them radical socialists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: With Biden, we would never be treated with respect because people don't respect him. More than 100 Democrats in Congress have signed up for the Bernie Sanders government take over of health care. Democrats also support the $100 trillion Green New Deal. How about that beauty, the Green New Deal?

(BOOS)

The Democrat Party is really now the socialist party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president's attacks so far, they're not registering in the polls. The latest Quinnipiac survey, Biden beats Trump by 13 points. The rest of the top Democrats also lead Trump although by single digits.

BRIGGS: An angry, emotional Jon Stewart ripping into Congress over health care for 9/11 first responders. The former late night host testified Tuesday to a House Judiciary Committee hearing on re- authorizing the September 11th victim compensation fund. And he was clearly irritated by the number of lawmakers who chose not to show up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Behind me, a filled room of 9/11 first responders. And in front of me, a nearly empty Congress.

Sick and dying, they brought themselves down here to speak to no one. Shameful. It's an embarrassment to the country and it is a stain on this institution.

There is not a person here -- there is not an empty chair on that stage that didn't tweet out: never forget the heroes of 9/11. Never forget their bravery. Never forget what they did, what they gave to this country.

Well, here they are!

Your indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity -- time. It's the one thing they're running out of.

They did their jobs with courage, grace, tenacity, humility.

[05:05:05] Eighteen years later, do yours!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Passionate speech there.

Lawmakers from both parties insist no disrespect was intended. They claim they were monitoring the hearing while conducting other congressional business. The committee's ranking member, Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana, predicts the bill will pass with overwhelming support.

ROMANS: Breaking overnight from the Dominican Republic, "The Boston globe" reporting a second suspect has been arrested in connection with the weekend shooting of Red Sox legend David Ortiz. Now, the report says the suspect was taken into custody Tuesday night. It comes as the first suspect was arrested as an accomplice to attempted murder.

In the meantime, Big Papi is taking his first steps Tuesday, following a second surgery to treat his gunshot wounds. Ortiz's wife says he is stable and resting comfortably in a Boston hospital.

Let's get more from CNN's Alexandra Field.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, David Ortiz is expected to spend at least the next few days in the intensive care unit at Massachusetts General Hospital here in Boston. But his wife says he's in stable condition and recovering after doctors in Boston performed a second surgery on Big Papi. He was flown here Monday night.

The first surgery performed in the Dominican Republic hours after he was shot in the back Sunday evening. Doctors down there saying it was an extensive surgery. That they did work to repair his intestines, his colon and his gallbladder.

They say he woke up asking to see with his family. We now understand he was able to exchange a few words with his father, his sister before he was put on an air ambulance and taken to Boston. That flight arranged by his former team, the Boston Red Sox.

Ortiz was met here by both his wife and his daughter. He is, again, expected to stay in that intensive care unit for the next couple of days. But certainly the word coming from his wife is that he is beginning to recover -- Christine, Dave.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

In New York, the pilot who crash-landed and died on a roof on a New York City high-rise was lost and trying to return to the heliport he had just left. That's according to "The New York Times".

Timothy McCormick took off in a dense fog along Manhattan's East River. In his last communication, he told the heliport he did not know where he was. According to the FAA, McCormick was not rated to fly by instruments alone, a requirement for low visibility conditions.

BRIGGS: Nancy Pelosi is not ruling out the possibility of impeaching President Trump, but in an interview with CNN's Manu Raju, the House speaker made it clear she still opposes the idea, even though a growing number of Democrats have come onboard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): It's not off the table. I don't think you should impeach for political reasons. And I don't think you should not impeach for political reasons. It's not about politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Last week, President Trump called Pelosi a, quote, nasty, vindictive, horrible person while he sat on the hollowed grounds of the U.S. war cemetery in France.

The speaker was asked what she thought about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: First rule of our CODEL is we never criticize a president of the United States when we are overseas. The president took a different tact. I don't think -- I'm done with him. I don't even want to talk about him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Right now, about 60 House Democrats support the idea of starting a presidential impeachment inquiry. Among them, New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): What is the line that we're waiting to be crossed for an impeachment inquiry? And so far, it doesn't seem like there is one. And so, without a clear boundary, it seems as though we're kind of sitting on our hands. So, if now isn't the time, then, I think, a lot of folks would like to know when is the time?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: CNN recently reached out to 41 freshman Democrats who flipped GOP seats last year and asked them whether they support starting impeachment. Twenty did not respond. Of those who did a vast majority were either a no or undecided.

ROMANS: All right. A source tells CNN Donald Trump, Jr. will appear before a Senate Intelligence Committee today behind closed doors. It comes after a long and contentious fight over Trump returning for more testimony. The president's eldest son was subpoenaed by the committee back in April. Trump Jr. agreed to testify for two to four hours on roughly a half-dozen topics, including questions about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting and the Trump Tower Moscow project.

BRIGGS: President Trump insists he has a, quote, very long and very good, secret agreement with Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: That's the agreement that everybody says I don't have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: And to back up the claim, he waved a folded piece of paper in the air as he spoke to reporters on Tuesday. The president described it as one page of a larger deal that Mexico will be announcing after it receives legislative approval.

Mexico's foreign minister says that's news to him. Marcelo Ebrard says there's no agreement beyond what was announced by both countries last week. Whatever is on that piece of paper, President Trump says it would not have been possible without his threat to impose tariffs on Mexico.

[05:10:06] ROMANS: All right. Two of the largest wireless carriers have been trying to merge for years and now they face a major roadblock. Sprint and T-Mobile were hit by a lawsuit filed by New York and California's state attorneys general Tuesday, alleging the $26 billion merger would drive up the cost of cellphone services. New York Attorney General Letitia James tweeted: When it comes to corporate power, bigger isn't always better. The lawsuit also claims the deal would cost consumers $4.5 billion a year.

Both T-Mobile and Sprint have said the merger would allow them to better serve customers. The companies agreed to their latest deal last April. As part of that deal, Sprint said it will divest its low cost Boost Mobile Company, and both promised to build 5G network that would include coverage for rural Americans. Now, the lawsuit argues the rollout of 5G will happen even with or without this merger and divesting Boost Mobile will not be enough to address the harms to competition potentially caused by that deal.

Now, Sprint and T-Mobile did not respond to CNN Business' request for comment.

BRIGGS: All right. We are following breaking news here. Enormous protests in the street of Hong Kong. Police firing tear gas. We're live on the scene, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:00] BRIGGS: Breaking news right now in Hong Kong. Huge protests have forced postponement of debate over a controversial Chinese extradition bill. Police now are calling the protests a riot. A short time ago, officers fired teargas on protesters trying to storm Hong Kong's government building and police say they are ready to deploy water cannons if necessary.

Ivan Watson joining us now live from Hong Kong with the latest.

Ivan, what's happening now?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave.

The riot police in this part of the downtown, the center of the city, they have just moved in force and have pushed protesters off of this traffic flyover, one of the many roadways and arteries here that have been blocked off by the demonstrators who have achieved one short term goal, which is postponing the reading of this controversial piece of draft legislation. So, they're out there. They have fired dozens of volleys of teargas at the demonstrators, and we've seen some protesters come out, hurling abuse and swearing at the riot police.

I'm very struck by the fact that this is a repeat -- we're going to look over here. It is a fluid situation. There's somebody with oxygen there, being taken out by the emergency services. Don't know if this was a protester or a member of the security forces or simply a bystander.

I have not seen blows being exchanged here thus yet. But it is striking because it's so similar to the scenes I've saw in the very same headquarters of the city government five years ago during an occupy sit-in that lasted nearly 80 days. And all of this because a significant chunk of Hong Kong society, on Sunday, estimated more than 1 million protesters, one in seven Hong Kongers came out saying, they did not want this piece of draft legislation.

The government said we're going to move forward with it. And now, after those peaceful protests, we've seen a much more radical tactics used by demonstrators to try to stop what they fear would give the communist party in Central China authority to pluck people that it considers to be criminals out of this semi-autonomous city to face China's much more opaque and capricious judicial system -- Dave.

BRIGGS: OK. So, things have quieted down a bit.

Ivan Watson, thanks so much. We'll check back with you in a just couple of minutes to see where we go.

Romans --

ROMANS: You know, Hong Kong is, really, you know, one of Asia's big financial centers. And there's concern among business groups that passing this law could allow, for example, an international business travelers passing through Hong Kong's airport to be picked up and sent to mainland China. So, you have business groups that are also concerned -- have expressed concern about this law.

BRIGGS: And, clearly, the people there see this as a defining moment where they draw the line. We'll check back with that scene shortly.

ROMANS: All right. The women's national team smashed four World Cup records. Andy Scholes has this morning's 'Bleacher Report", next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:24:00] BRIGGS: OK. Team USA off to a record-setting start to the women's World Cup. Are they bad sports or just a really good soccer team? It's the latter.

Andy Scholes has more on the "Bleacher Report".

Good morning, my friend.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Dave.

Yes, the United States showing just no mercy in their opening game against Thailand. The team setting a World Cup record, men's or women's, scoring 13 goals. It was only 3-0 at halftime. Team USA pouring it on in the second half, scoring a record ten goals.

Alex Morgan etching her name into the record books as well, scoring five goals herself. Seven different players for Team USA finding the back of the net.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX MORGAN, TEAM USA SOCCER TEAM: We really just came into this game, you know, really wanted to showcase ourselves and what we've been preparing for and what we've been working on. And I think we did that. But every goal matters in this tournament, and so, that's what we're working on in this game. We got a lot of attacks and I think that we were clinical in the number of attacks that we did get.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, next up for Team USA, another easy one.

[05:25:02] They play Chile at noon Eastern on Sunday.

All right. Tiger Woods hitting the range yesterday at Pebble Beach. He prepares to tee off at the U.S. Open tomorrow. Tiger, great history at the course. He won the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15 strokes.

But Tiger noted things are a little different for him these days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIGER WOODS, PRO GOLFER: It's not the same body that I had back in 2000. I mean, I don't think any of us have the same body we did 19 years ago. So, that is -- as athletically, that's one of the challenges. You know, how do you compete against kids that were born in the 2000? They were born after I won the damn tournament.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Tiger tees off late tomorrow, a little after 5:00 Eastern.

All right. This year's "Hard Knocks" has the potential to be the best ever. HBO is making it official yesterday. The Oakland Raiders will be featured this year, you know, between Jon Gruden and Antonio Brown, team playing its last year in Oakland before moving to Vegas. So many storylines.

"Hard Knocks" will debut August 6th.

All right. Tonight, we get one of the best things in all of sports. Game seven of the Stanley Cup Final. Blues and Bruins are going to play in Boston. Now, the Bruins have an 11-year-old super fan named Laila Anderson.

Laila battling a rare life-threatening immune disease. Well, ahead of game seven, Laila got a big surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What if I told you the Blues called and they want you at the game?

LAILA ANDERSON, 11-YEAR-OLD: What? How?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Doctors said it's OK.

ANDERSON: No, he didn't. No, he didn't. Oh, my god. I'm going to Boston. I love you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: So awesome. I don't know about you, Dave. I wasn't rooting for anyone going into the game tonight. But now, I'm rooting for the Blues.

BRIGGS: Yes, got me there. Got Romans, as well.

It will be an emotional night on the other side, too. One would imagine they will mention David Ortiz and try to rally the team and the crowd to support him, as well. So, it's going to be a big night there in Boston.

Andy, thank you.

Romans?

ROMANS: I hope she has a great time with her blue fingernail polish with her mom. Awesome.

All right. President Trump and Joe Biden, stumping in Iowa and slamming each other. Are we seeing a preview of the 2020 election?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END