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EARLY START

A Pregnant Woman Is Being Charged With Manslaughter In The Death Of Her Unborn Child After Being Shot In The Stomach; President Trump Insists He Is In No Rush To Find A Resolution For Tensions With Iran. Aired 3:30-4a ET

Aired June 28, 2019 - 03:30   ET

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


[03:30:00]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I certainly apologize for not understanding that history, told critics point out de Blasio studied Latin American politics, supported the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and honeymooned in Cuba.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: A pregnant woman was shot in the stomach and suffered a miscarriage and is now being charged with manslaughter in the death of her unborn child.

An Alabama Grand Jury indicted 27 year old Marshae Jones for her alleged role in starting a fight with another woman that led to the gun fire. This happened back in December. The Grand Jury indictment says Jones quote, "intentionally caused the death of her unborn baby by initiating a fight knowing she was five months pregnant."

The case has drawn outrage from abortion rights advocates who say losing a pregnancy is not a crime. Alabama recently passed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation.

ROMANS: That is certainly quite a story.

All right, one chance to make a first impression, Kamala Harris made the most of it, a standout performance taking Joe Biden and the rest of the field to school.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:35:00]

BRIGGS: All right, debate number two. Welcome back to Early Start. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans, a very early addition of Early Start because the democratic debate round two happened last night and it belonged to Kamala Harris.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Harris.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Harris, I'm so sorry. We will let all of you peak.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Harris--

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Harris--

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will let you all speak. Senator Harris--

(CROSSTALK)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D- CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hey, guys. You know what? America does not want to witness a food fight; they want to know how we're going to put food on their table.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ROMANS: The California senator taking command of the debate stage more than once. Most memorable confronting former Vice President Joe Biden about working with segregationists and his record apposing some aspects of school busing back in the 1970s, which had a dramatic impact on her life.

BRIGGS: Before the debate, the Biden camp said he was ready to defend his record. When faced with the reality, this happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: In this campaign, we've also heard -- and I'm going to now direct this at Vice President Biden. I do not believe you are racist. And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground.

But I also believe -- and it is personal, and I was actually very -- it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two who build their reputations ad career on the segregation of race in this country.

And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to appose busing. And there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools. And she was bused to school everyday. And that little girl was me.

So, I will tell you that on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among democrats; we have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly. As attorney general of California, I was very proud to put in place a requirement that all my special agents would wear body cameras and keep those cameras on.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator Harris, thank you. Vice President Biden, you have been evoked. We are going to give you a chance to respond. Vice President Biden.

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRES. OF THE U.S.: It's a mischaracterization. My position across the board, I did not praise racists. That is not true, number one. Number two, if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I'm happy to do that.

I was a public defender. I didn't become a prosecutor. I came out; I left a good law firm to become a public defender. In terms of busing, the busing, I never -- you would've been able to go to school the same exact way because it was a local decision made by your city counsel. That's fine.

That's one of the things I argued for, that we should not be -- we should be breaking down these lines.

But so the bottom line here is look, everything I have done in my career, I ran because of civil rights, I continue to think we have to make fundamental changes in civil rights. And those civil rights by the way include not just some African Americans but the LGBT community.

HARRIS: But Vice President Biden, do you agree today--

(APPLAUSE)

Do you agree today, that you were wrong to appose busing in America then--

BIDEN: No.

HARRIS: Do you agree?

BIDEN: I did not appose busing in America. What I apposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That's what I apposed. I did not appose--

HARRIS: Well, there was a failure of states to integrate--

BIDEN: No. But--

HARRIS: -- public schools in America. I was part of the second class to integrate Berkeley, California public schools almost two decades after Brown (ph) the Board of Education.

BIDEN: Because your city counsel made that decision. It was a local decision--

HARRIS: So that's where the federal government must step in. That's why we have the Voting Rights Act, and the Civil Rights Act.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIGGS: Quite a moment. Fact check, Biden was a vocal opponent of federally mandated busing. He argued at the time busing programs were bad for local communities.

He did say he would allow busing under certain circumstances like when a school system has been racially segregated by jury maundered district lines. We should note Biden speaks today at the Jesse Jackson Rainbow Push conference in Chicago. He will certainly have to address this issue.

ROMANS: Yes, he will. All right, let's bring in Zachary Wolf, CNN Politics digital director. And on that issue of busing, I mean I think this really highlights a couple of things, how long Joe Biden's been around.

I mean he's been around since these big, very painful debates during -- in the early days of civil rights. And I think it kind of highlights maybe a part of his track record that maybe some liberals don't know about.

[03:40:00]

ZACHARY WOLF, CNN POLITICS DIGITAL DIRECTOR: Sure. And I think a lot of people were shocked not only to learn that Kamala Harris was bused but that she could bring that personal story and direct it so effectively at Joe Biden to really show people. I think a lot of democrats had no idea that he once held that position about busing, first of all.

And it wasn't the only thing he was challenged on. He was challenged on his Iraq War vote. He was challenged on deals that he's made with Mitch McConnell. There are all these different things in Joe Biden's past.

His support for the 1994 crime bill which he basically helped write parts of it, Anita Hill, it all -- he's been in Washington for so long and some of these things that you do in D.C., they age really well and others just stink after a while. And Biden's going to have to answer for a lot of stuff I think as this process plays out.

BRIGGS: He certainly is. Kamala Harris, how did she change her standing in this race with a terrific debate performance?

WOLF: It was a terrific debate performance for her because she seemed like the adult in the room in that with the food fight line was key and then even after that it got even better for her when she was able to have that really powerful exchange with Biden.

I think -- I'm not sure ultimately is this going to turn her in to the front runner? Probably not. Is it going to give her some buzz with the party? Definitely. And I think that's exactly what somebody like Kamala Harris needed.

ROMANS: How badly did she wound Joe Biden in your view?

WOLF: I'm not sure. I think we have a tendency to overplay these things, to think--

ROMANS: Yes.

WOLF: -- oh my gosh, this amazing thing happened and he's over. No, that's not true. Joe Biden's been around a long time. Former vice president, he was in the senate for a really long time.

This is not something he can't recover from. But it is something he's going to have to pivot. He's going to have to go back to the tape and figure out how to do better.

BRIGGS: Zach, when you look at this debate stage it is remarkable. You have three women on the stage. You have a very diverse field. You have a 40 year age gap between Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, how about that, just optically.

But Pete Buttigieg has spent the last couple of weeks trying to calm the situation in South Bend where a white police officer shot a black citizen of South Bend. Here's how we defended his handling of that situation last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your community of South Bend, Indiana has recently been in uproar over and officer involved shooting. The police force in Southbend is now 6 percent black in a city that is 26 percent black. Why has that not improved over your two terms as mayor?

PETE BUTTIGIEG, MAYOR OF SOUTH BEND, IN. (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because I couldn't get it done. My community is in anguish right now. I could walk you through all of the things that we have done as a community. But it didn't save the life of Eric Logan.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BRIGGS: Humility, yes. Solutions, no. How'd he do, Zach?

WOLF: I think people respect candor and I think they like it. But I think that the sound bite of I couldn't get it done might be what sticks with people and that's probably not ultimately at the end of the day what Pete Buttigieg wanted out of that.

ROMANS: Right.

WOLF: And that's putting a political sheen on something that they're really dealing with there. And he has -- to his credit, he left the campaign trail and he's been trying to deal with that in real-time now. So not to totally politicize something but--

BRIGGS: Well no--

WOLF: -- he's running, so you kind of have to. BRIGGS: Yes, and it's an issue across this country, not just in South Bend, Indiana. That's why it matters because everywhere we are seeing this issue coast to coast.

ROMANS: All right, come back in a half hour. We'll talk more about the best moments, the breakouts and what happened to Bernie Sanders? It was going to be the Bernie -- the Bernie and Biden night--

BRIGGS: Right, second in this race.

ROMANS: -- and it became--

BRIGGS: Not talking about him.

ROMANS: Kamala Harris. All right, Zach.

WOLF: Got a lot to say on that.

ROMANS: Yes, hanks. All right, talk to you soon.

BRIGGS: OK, the geopolitical threat from China was addressed at the second democratic debate.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

BUTTIGIEG: If you look at what China is doing, they're using technology for the perfection of dictatorship. But their fundamental economic model isn't going to change because it's in tariffs. Tariffs are taxes and Americans are going to pay on average $800 more a year because of these tariffs.

Meanwhile, China is investing so that they could soon be able to run circles around us in artificial intelligence. In a moment when their authorial model is being held up as an alternative to ours because ours looks to chaotic compared to theirs right now because of our divisions.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BRIGGS: CNN's Chief National Security correspondent Jim Sciutto has reported extensively on China's use of technology to gain a global advantage. He's in Osaka for us with the G20 summit and joining us live. Jim, put all of this in context for us.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It was good to hear a candidate on the stage talk about China in those terms. The trade issue certainly has made its way in to the conversation., but listen. China's a very powerful country.

[03:45:00]

They use technology at home to monitor their people, what they search on the Internet. They use facial recognition to create a modern, 21st century police state. I mean, that is a concern. That's a threat by itself, but it also uses technology to steal technology from the U.S. via cyber attack by both public sector, national security secrets, but also secrets, intellectual property from private sector companies.

And that's been going on for decades and China's had enormous success in doing that. They do it to catch up to and surpass the U.S. It's something that, of course, this president - President Trump has made a priority of in the trade negotiations. To his credit, frankly, it's good frankly to see it become part of the debate on the democratic side as well. And the way Buttigieg put it in those terms that you really do have a kind of global competition of these two very different systems here.

BRIGGS: We'd like to hear Joe Biden, you know, reconcile his past stance (ph) on China, but the president there at the G20 counter- programming in perhaps the worst way imaginable. Seemed to make light here of Russia's election interference right to Vladimir Putin's face. Here's that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you tell Russia not to meddle in the 2020 election?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes. Of course I will. Don't meddle in the election, please. Don't - don't meddle in the election.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BRIGGS: Jim, it feels like he's making light of it. Is that the way you saw it, and how important is that moment?

SCIUTTO: Well, he is. He's clearly making light of it. He said it with a smile. You know, this is their first public appearance next to each other since that moment in Helsinki last year when the president explicitly took the Russian president's word over the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia had interfered in the election, that that was a moment, as you know, that was derided by Democrats and Republican lawmakers.

Really a low point, but to see the president here with a clear opportunity as the U.S. president to say in clear terms, "listen, we're not going to stand to this. This is an attack on our system," he makes a joke about it. Then of course followed - he was asked about it - this on his way out to Japan by reporters as he left the White House, and the president at the time said it's none of your business as to whether I'm going to bring that up, you know, as an actual subject to this conversation with the Russian president.

And a short time ago we got a read out from the White House as to what they discussed in this meeting - a number of regional issue, Ukraine, Syria, Venezuela. Those discussed. No mention of a serious discussion of election interference, so it appears that the president's one mention to the Russian president of election interference was an aside - a joking aside, and it's - listen, it certainly does not match the seriousness with which U.S. national security officials as well as Republicans and Democrats on the Hill who've been briefed on these issues. It certainly does not approach the seriousness with which they're taking this issue.

BRIGGS: Stunning development. Excellent reporting. Jim Sciutto live for us at the G20 in Osaka. Thank you, sir.

ROMANS: And the president over the past few days has slammed, slammed China, Japan, Europe, Canada, Vietnam, and a host of other countries, but who has he not criticized? Vladimir Putin.

BRIGGS: It's impossible to reconcile his stance on interference in our elections.

ROMANS: 48 minutes past the hour. Jurassic Park it is not, but a new species of dinosaurs discovered in Brazil.

[03:50:00] (COMMERICAL BREAK)

ROMANS: President Trump addressing reporters at the G20 summit overnight insisting he is in no rush to find a solution, a resolution for tensions with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

TRUMP: We have a lot of time. There's no rush. They can take their time. There's absolutely no time pressure.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ROMANS: But to hear Iran's Foreign Minister tell us the two nations are already at war. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is live in Tehran with the latest. Hi there, Fred.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Christine. Yes, you're absolutely right. It's something that Javad Zarif tweeted yesterday. It seems as though this kind of war of words or war of Twitter words is going - continuing between Javad Zarif and the U.S. president.

This time it seems as though the Iranian Foreign Minister believes there's a sort of disconnect between President Trump and certain members of his candidate, certain Iran hawks there like, for instance, National Security Advisor, John Bolton.

So one of the things that Javad Zarif tweeted directly at President Trump was, "sanctions aren't alternative to war. They are war." And the other thing that he tweeted that I think is really important, he said, "negotiations and threats are mutually exclusive." So essentially what the Iranians are saying is that as long as these sanctions are in place, as long as President Trump threatens Iran, there is not going to be any sort of talks with Iran.

Of course, one of the things that the Iranians are demanding is they want the U.S. at least in part to return to the nuclear agreement, but that itself seems to be on the verge of falling apart. Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister coming out overnight and saying that Iran's strategic patience was running out. Right now or today there's going to be negotiations in Europe between the remaining parties of the nuclear agreement where they're going to try to save it, but the Iranians are saying if they don't get sanctions relief soon then they are going to continue to increase their production of low, enriched uranium. Christine -

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Fred Pleitgen for us in Tehran. Thank you so much, Fred. It is 54 minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.

[03:55:00]

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right, we now know what a newly discovered dinosaur species looked like. This is animation of Vespersaurus paranaensis - a small, desert-dwelling, carnivorous predator with unique claws. Scientists found fossils of it in Southern Brazil. They say even though it's just five-feet long, it was related to the T-Rex and walked the Earth about 90 million years ago.

BRIGGS: At Wrigley Field, the C on their hat is, of course, for Cubbies, but on Thursday it stood mostly for cookies.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

COOKIE MONSTER: One, two, three. Take me out to the ball game. Take me out to the crowd.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ROMANS: Very cool.

BRIGGS: OK, now I thought it was pretty obvious that he should have sang, "root, root for the cookies," but he went with Cubbies.

ROMANS: I think it was definitely Cubbies. Everyone was singing with him. You know, that's a really cool job when you get asked to sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

BRIGGS: Is that your dream?

ROMANS: Yes, actually.

BRIGGS: You're a Cubs fan.

ROMANS: I'm a big Cubs fan.

BRIGGS: It's just one of the great tradition in all of sports. That we can agree.

ROMANS: A day at Wrigley's is a great day.

BRIGGS: It is. ROMANS: Nothing bad can happen at Wrigely. All right, let's get a check on CNN business this morning. First, a look at markets around the world. Investors paying pretty close attention to this G20 summit, so waiting for any kind of resolution on the U.S.-China trade war.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended Thursday down about 10 points. I mean, I would call that, you know, directionalist. The problem there Boeing. Boeing is one of the Dow components and it closed almost 3 percent lower after reports that a new flaw has been discovered on the 737 MAX while that new system is being tested in simulator flights.

Today is the final trading day of the month, so let me give you some perspective here. June has been fantastic for investors. The Dow at 6.9 percent. Look at the S&P at more than 6 percent. NASDAQ up almost 7 percent. I think this is the strongest June since 1955.

For the year, the Dow is up 14 percent, the S&P up 17 percent. Look at the NASDAQ. 20 percent rally here. So for the S&P 500 June, again, best June in more than 60 years. That's something.

BRIGGS: Remarkable. All right, the Kamala Harris-Joe Biden faceoff on civil rights stole the spotlight at the second democratic debate. The Daily Show's Trevor Noah took notice. Here now your late night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school ever day, and that little girl was me.

TREVOR NOAH, THE DAILY SHOW HOST: Holy (CENSORED). She just pulled an M. Night Shyamalan.

(LAUGHTER)

She was black the whole movie!

(LAUGHTER)

I didn't see that coming. Did you see that coming? That moment was so brutal on Joe Biden. For the first time, I wanted to give him a massage.

(LAUGHTER)

See Biden hasn't had such and intense standoff with a black woman since Michelle caught him sneaking a Big Mac to Barak. This hasn't happened to him

[04:00:00]