Transcripts For CNNW Early Start With Christine Romans And Dave Briggs 20170323

London on alert after a terrorist tried to storm the houses of parliament, but not before leaving several dead. We go live to london. Good morning. A lot going on. Welcome to early start. Im christine romans. Im dave briggs. We start with history being made today one way or the other. Republicans will take the vote to actually repealing and replacing the Affordable Care act or we could see a staggering blow against obamacare and perhaps the entire trump agenda. The white house deep in a furious to turn no votes by members of the conservative Freedom Caucus into yeses. One point is ending essential Health Benefits that obamacare requires in every insurance policy. More on those central benefits in a moment. First, there is still no deal. Freedom caucus chairman mark meadows is sounding optimistic. Im optimistic we can get there. There are a lot of details, sean. To say we have a deal that wouldnt be accurate. The president and i came to agreement in principle. I think what we are trying to do now is make sure that our agreement is actually something that can be executed in a way that passes the senate. Thats the big question. Meadows, conservatives changing his tune, moderate republicans are sounding alarm. After a late meeting with House Speaker paul ryan, the chairman of the moderate tuesday Group Announced he is opposed to the bill. With all of the give and take, here is where it stands at the moment. On this version, according to cnns count, you have 24 House Republicans said no. Four leaning against. Thats 28 lawmakers in the definitely or likely no column. That could change quickly. Fluctuate wildly if the Freedom Caucus flips to supporting the bill. This is very fluid. It is minute by minute. Hour by hour. As for the president , aides say he is not involved in all of the details of the legislation. He either doesnt know, doesnt care or both. He is deeply into selling the bill. And quote, appears energized by that. He is after all the guy who has a book art of the deal. For the latest on wheeling and dealing on capitol hill, lets bring in phil mattingly. A day of furious lobbying, dave and christine, behind closed doors. Appearing to reach a break through or a step forward between the house Freedom Caucus. Conservatives who said they would not support the health care bill. Leadership Speaker Paul Ryan and white house coming together to agree perhaps changes should be made. Just the fact that leadership is open to changes to the bill is a major, major step forward. President trump has been on the phone with house Freedom Caucus members trying to get them on board. White house staff and Freedom Caucus staff behind closed doors to get this moving forward. Essential Health Benefits that was in obamacare that house leaders could not include, now that is in play. The question is, is that enough to bring conservatives on board or will they ask for more . Dave and christine. Fascinating. Phil, thank you. Just what are the essential Health Benefits that may hold the key to the final repeal and replace deal . There are ten. Obamacare requires part of every insurance policy. Among the things currently must cover maternity, Mental Health and prescription drugs. Republicans argued eliminating that would reduce premiums and give consumers more choice. The wish list item was not in the original repeal bill because Republican Leaders want to get it passed by a simple majority vote. Sorry to get to deep in the woods. Reconciliation is limited to federal budget items. Republicans fear it would be hard to argue Insurance Regulations are a budget matter. How did essential Health Benefits maki s make it to the . It came at the end of the day long stalemate. House conservatives calling it a must have. The white house saying the bill was locked. Something had to give. Now Officials Say white house and Republican Leaders made a big concession in offering up the Health Benefits. Now looking for more concessions. Eliminating another costly requirement. Coverage for preexisting conditions. That is a popular, popular part of obamacare. Deal breaker for many. The moderates. You lose moderates. Running for the exits without question. Promises on the health care bill. The promise is vote yes and ill have your back during reelection. The message from two gop donors vote no and well bank roll. Donors backed by charles and david koch. They will only open it up to gop lawmakers who vote against this bill. The money will fund advertising and field programs and mailings. They say it is worth millions of dollars. This is an explicit warning to republicans on the fence about the vote from one of the most influential players. What is the big issue with the bill . The president for one of the groups says, we want to make certain that lawmakers understand the policy consequences of voting for a law that keeps obamacare in tact. We have a history of holding politicians accountable. We will be there to support and thank the champions who stand strong and keep promise. You wonder, christine, will they take it a step further. Not just promise money to no votes, but promise money against those that vote yes on the bill. The aarp type at this point. It shows you how powerful forces are lining up on each side. Money is a major part. Breaking overnight. Fallout over the investigation into the Trump Campaign ties into russia. The fbi has information indicating associates of President Trump communicated with suspected russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of damaging information about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 president ial campaign. How much evidence does the fbi have . Where did it come from . How much damage could it do to the white house . Cnns pamela brown is part of the team that broke the story. She has more now from washington. Reporter dave and christine, officials tell cnn the fbi has information that indicates associates of President Trump communicated with suspected russian operatives to possibly coordinate release of information damaging to Hillary Clintons campaign. Fbi director james comey as you recall, made his bombshell announcement monday before congress that the fbi is investigating the Trump Campaign ties to russia. The fbi is reviewing that information which includes human intelligence, travel, business and phone records and accounts of inperson meetings. The information is raising suspicions of fbi counterintelligence that the coordination may have taken place, but the information is not conclusive and the investigation is ongoing. There is still more work to be done. The fbi would not comment nor would the white house. Trump officials denied any evidence of collusion. Mostly the fbi is focused on the stolen and published emails by wikilea wikileaks. U. S. Officials said the information was not drawn from the information compiled by the former British Intelligence issue. It suggested coordination with associates and operatives. This investigation is ongoing. This is what we are told in terms of what is going on with the fbi with the Counter Intelligence investigation. Dave and christine. New reporting from the justice team. If you are waking up, new developments in all this. All of this came down as another stunning controversy unfolded on capitol hill. Now questions if the house intelligence probe of the information was compromised. Devin nunes announced conversations may have been incidentally collected by agencies conducting surveillance after the election. Nunes said to be steaming at the intel he read. Personally briefed the president on the Development Without informing his democratic counterparts. We are told nunes ignored pleas to wait to go public before he spoke to democrats. Listen to nunes defend his actions. It concerned me enough to notify the president because it was he and his Transition Team involved in this. He needs to see those reports. Intelligence reports. It is not fair for him not to know what is in the reports while the past administration and many agencies to know. Adam schiff says nunes has cast a profound cloud. He claims evidence of collusion is building. You admit all you have is a circumstantial case. Actually no, chuck. I can tell thank you the case is more than that. And i cant go into the particulars, but there is more than circumstantial evidence. Again, i think you have seen direct evidence of collusion . I dont want to go into specifics. There is evidence that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of investigation. President trump says he feels quote somewhat vindicated by what nunes told him and questions if nunes should have notified the president at all. It was head spinning yesterday. The way the news flow was working here. You heard devin nunes say this does not have to do with russia. That really was after the election. Short game, he gave the president political cover. You wonder if he hurt the president. Now john mccain called for a select committee to investigate collusion and remove nunes from the process. You wonder if he hurt the president in the long run. So many questions. We will continue to probe those in the next hour and 45 minutes. A terror attack in britain striking at the heart of the city at the houses of parliament. The new working theory after antiterror raids overnight. We are live in london. Hey allergy muddlers are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® zyrtec® starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec®. Muddle no more®. Try rhinocort® allergy spray for powerful nasal allergy relief. Parts a and b and want more coverage, guess what . You could apply for a Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan whenever you want. No enrollment window. No waiting to apply. That means now may be a great time to shop for an aarp Medicare Supplement Insurance Plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Medicare doesnt cover everything. And like all standardized Medicare Supplement Insurance Plans, these help cover some of what medicare doesnt pay. So dont wait. Call now to request your free decision guide. It could help you find the aarp Medicare Supplement plan that works for you. These types of plans have no networks, so you get to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. Rates are competitive, and theyre the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. Remember these plans let you apply all year round. So call today. Because nows the perfect time to learn more. Go long. Breaking news. Officials in britain say the working theory about the terror attack in london is isis inspired. Police conducting terror raids. Arresting seven people at six locations. The attack left three People Killed and Dozens Injured when a man plowed his car into the crowd of people before trying to storm the houses of parliament. Cnns nina dos santos is live in london. Reporter some outside the headquarters of the metro police where a press conference has been held. Christine, seven arrests at six raids across the addresses in the cities of london and birmingham and elsewhere in the uk. What they say is they believe this attacker, they know who he is, but not releasing identity. They believe he probably acted alo alone, but you rightfully mentioned he was inspired by International Terrorism events. In the meantime, i can tell you that there has been a revision on the death toll. Revised back down to four people who lost their lives. 29 people to hospital. Seven still remain in five hospitals across the capital in serious condition. One of the police force keith palmer, a 48yearold protection officer. The person killed with a knife by the attacker brought down by an armed Police Officer. We do hear that there are a mix of other nationalities involved in the casualties. It is said a man in his 50s lost his life on the bridge and woman in her 40s also lost her life. From here, officers will piece together through social media and cctv and forensic evidence from the vehicle that crashed into parcel many. They are trying to get a clear picture of the motive of the person. Keep us posted on the investigation. Thank you, nina dos tsantos. Can the republicans get the vote they need to confirm neil gorsuch to the Supreme Court . We will tell you how the second day of questioning went for the nominee. 23 minutes past the hour. After 20 hours of grill over two days, the questioning phase of the confirmation hearing is over now for neil gorsuch. The Senate Committee hears for those for and against him for the Supreme Court. Gorsuch kept refusing to tip his hand on how he might rule in the future. If persons coming to this table, this rather lonely table in this rather big room, have to make promises or hints or previews or nudges and gestures about how they will rule in cases, then i dont know where we are as an independent judiciary. Its like a Campaign Promise for office it seems to me. You know what . It hasnt happened so far. The precedent in the area is strong. The question now can Senate Republicans get eight democrats to support judge gorsuch to reach the 60 votes needed for confirmation. If not, they could invoke the Nuclear Option and change the rules to require 51 votes. Team usa dominating puerto rico. 80 to capture the first world baseball classic title. They never finished better than fourth since 2006. Ian kinsler got it started with the tworun bomb in the third inning. You have to love the crowds on hand throughout the tournament. Passiona passionate. On the other side, marcus strolm strolman of the blue jays to shutdown the puerto rico team. He could have pitched for puerto rico. His mother is puerto rican. She took abuse online when her son decided to pitch for team usa. He gave it a lot of thought as well. She was born and raised there. This is his country. This is an outstanding win for the United States and fantastic tournament from beginning to end. I think a game changer for the sport. You love that. Nice to see a game that can be dull and boring. Can President Trump seal the deal . We are hours from finding out whether republicans can pass a bill to repeal and replace obamacare. If they cant, how big of a blow is it for the trump agenda . D i say s only one special edition . Because, actually theres five. Ooohh aaaahh uh hooooly mackerel. Wow. Nice. Strength and style. Its truck month. Get 0 financing for 60 months plus find your tag and get 5500 on select Chevy Silverado pickups when you finance with gm financial. 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History will be made today. House will take the first vote to repealing and replacing the Affordable Care act or a staggering blow against obamacare. Perhaps to the trump agenda. The white house and Republican Leaders deep into a furious last Ditch Campaign to turn no votes by the Freedom Caucus into yes votes. One critical issue at this point ending socalled essential Health Benefits that require obamacare and every insurance policy. More on that in a moment. Still no deal but mark meadows suddenly sounding up beat that one will be made soon. Im really optimistic we can get there. There is still a lot of details to work out, sean. To say we have a deal would not be accurate. The president and i came to agreement in principle. I think what we are trying to do now is make sure that our agreement is actually something that can be executed in a way that passes the senate. While meadows, a conservative, changing his tune, some moderates are sounding alarm. After a late meeting with paul ryan, charlie dent announced he is opposed to the bill. With all of the give and take, here is where it stands on this version of the bill to repeal obamacare. According to cnns count, 24 House Republicans said they are flat out nos. Four leaning against. 28 lawmakers in the definitely or likely no column. But. This could change quickly. Fluctuate wildly if the Freedom Caucus flips to support the bill. As for the president himself, aides say he is not involved in the details of the legislation. One tells cnn he doesnt know, doesnt care or both. They say he is deeply into selling the bill and quota peers energized by this. For the latest wheeling and dealing, lets bring in phil mattingly. Reporter a day of furious lobbying behind closed doors. Appearing to reach a breakthrough or step forward between the house Freedom Caucus. Conservatives who said they would not support the health care bill. Leadership with paul ryan and the white house coming together to say changes should be made. Just the fact that leadership is open to changes to the bill is a major step forward. President trump on the phone with house Freedom Caucus members trying to get them on board. White house staff and house Freedom Caucus staff working behind closed doors to try to reach a deal going forward. The big issue is central Health Benefits in obamacare. House leaders did not think they could include for reasons, now that is in play. The question is, is that enough to bring conservatives on board . Will they ask for more . Dave and christine. Just what are the essential Health Benefits that may hold the key to final repeal and replace . Ten of them that obamacare requires as part of every insurance policy. Standard of care in every Health Insurance policy. Among the things currently must cover by law, must be able to have maternity. Mental health and prescription drugs. Republicans argued eliminating that essential benefit would reduce premiums and give consumers more choice. Imagine you are in your 50s and you dont need maternity coverage. This was not in the original bill because Republican Leaders cans pass the senate by simple majority vote. Reconciliation limited to budget items. Republicans fear it is harder to argue this as a budget matter. How do the benefits make it to the table . It was a concession from the white house and Republican Leadership at the end of the very long stalemate with the white house and the house Freedom Caucus. Given an inch, caucus members are looking for more. Like eliminating another costly obamacare requirement. Coverage for preexisting conditions. That is what makes obamacare, obamacare. That is a deal breaker. That is what makes Obamacare Popular when you that and staying on your parents insurance. Those seem to be starting points for many on the bill. A new Analysis Shows out of pocket cost cost rise if this gop bill passes. The average deductible would rise to 4,100. This is according to the analysis by the Kaiser Family foundation. Under obamacare, the average is 2,550. The three reasons why this would happen. The republican plan eliminates subsidies. Those helped lower income cover the costs. Second, obamacare forced insu r insurers to offer lower deductibles, but higher premiums. Insurers will offer more plan was higher deductibles. That would drive consumer to the high deductible plans. The tax credits are not as big and people pay more out of pocket. In a cnn town hall last week, tom price criticized rising deductibles under obamacare and said it prices people out of getting health care. You are seeing these health care economists carefully crunching numbers trying to figure out health care and reform what does happen to premiums. Many in the house Freedom Caucus are worriedrocketing in years. So many moving parts. In other news, new fallout in the investigation in the Trump Campaign ties to russia. U. S. Officials tell cnn the fbi has information indicating associates of President Trump communicated with suspected russian operatives to possibly coordinate release of damaging information on Hillary Clinton during the campaign. How much evidence does the fbi have . Where did this come from . How much damage could it do . Cnns pamela brown is part of the team that broke this story. She has more from washington. Reporter dave and christine, officials tell cnn the fbi has information that indicates associates of President Trump communicated with suspected russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clintons campaign. Fbi director james comey as you recall, made his bombshell announcement monday before congress that the fbi is investigating the ties to russia. The fbi is reviewing that information which includes human intelligence and travel and business and phone records and accounts of inperson meetings. The information is raising suspicion of fbi investigators that the coordination may have is taken place. Officials caution this is not conclusive and the investigation is ongoing and more work needs to be done. The fbi would not comment nor the white house. Donald Trump Officials denied collusion. The fbi is focused on the stolen and published emails by wikileaks over john podesta. The information was not drawn from the information compiled by the former British Intelligence official. This suggested coordination with Trump Campaign associates and russian operatives. This investigation is ongoing. This is what we are told in terms of what is going on in the fbi as of now with the Counter Intelligence investigation. Dave and christine. So many developments. Thank you. All of this came down as another controversy on capitol hill. Big questions if the House Intelligence Committee probe of the russian meddling into the election has been compromised because devin nunes announced communications involving President Trump and associates may have been incidentally collected by Agency Social security cagencies conducting surveillance. Nunes claimed to be steaming after reading the information. Were told nunes ignored pleas from other republicans to wait before he spoke to democrats. Listen to nunes. It concerned me enough to notify the president because he is involved and his team is involved in this. This is not fair for him not to know whats in the reports while the past administration and many agencies do know. The Ranking Member of the House Committee adam schiff claims nunes cast a cloud over the issue and claims of collusion during the campaign is building. You admit circumstantial case. Actually no, chuck. I can tell you that the case is more than that. I cant go into the particulars, but there is more than circumstance evidence now. Again, i think you have seencollusion . I dont want to go into specifics. There is evidence that is not circumstantial and very much worthy of investigation. President trump says he feels quote somewhat vindicated by what nunes told him. Questions over whether nunes should have revealed the information to the president at all. It was information under a Foreign Surveillance court warrant. Many suggesting he gave the president political cover or muddied the water here. Now john mccain wants a select committee to investigate collusion. Must have hurt the boss in the long run. A terror attack in britain striking out the capital at the houses of parliament. The new working theory after antiterror raids overnight. We will get the latest live from london. Breaking news. Officials in britain say the working theory about the terror attack in london was it was isis inspired. Terror raids connected to the attack arrested seven people. The attack left three people dead and Dozens Injured when a man plowed his car into the houses of parliament. We have nina dos santos with the latest from london. An ongoing situation. Reporter thats right. The capital is at the moment in the midst of the very significant counterterrorism investigation. One that has seen the london t metro Police Called back from vacation to give security to the streets. And in the investigation in the last hour since the press conference, you mentioned there have been six raids taken place in the capital and birmingham and beyond and several people arrested. Despite that, metro Police Believe the attacker acted alone and was inspired by islamist International Terrorism. At present, it seems police have an idea who the attacker is but are not releasing the identity. They caution the public to not name him. What we know is an updated death toll, dave. Three members of the public, innocent people lost their lives. One member of the police force. The metro police lost a colleague and only that particular person whose identity named. 48yearold keith palmer protecting parliament. He was the Police Officer attacked with the knife and lost his life. We understand a man in his 50s lost his life after struck by the vehicle on the bridge and woman in her 40s. For the most, police are not releasing identified ties becau a mix of nationalities. I should point out messages of condolences for london. Theresa may has been fielding phone calls from many. In paris, the eiffel tower had the lights turned out in solidarity with the people of london. Dave. Noina, thank you. Four Big Companies pulling ads from google platforms. They are very upset and what google is trying to do to win them back. A check on cnn money stream next. All right. After 20 plus hours of grilling over two days, the Senate Committee hears from witnesses for and against neil gorsuch for the Supreme Court. In the final day of testimony, gorsuch kept refusing to tip his hand on how he will rule in the future. If persons coming to the table, this rather lonely table, in this rather big room, have to make promises or hints or previews or nudges and gestures about how they will rule in cases, then i dont know where we ares as an independent judiciary. Its like a Campaign Promise for office. It seems to me. You know what . It hasnt happened so far. The precedent in the area is strong. The question now can Senate Republicans get eight democrats to support gorsuch to reach the. If not, they could invoke the Nuclear Option. Team usa dominating puerto rico to capture the first world baseball classic title. Americans havent finished better than fourth. Ian kinsler got it started for the u. S. With the tworun bomb here in the third inning. The United States was off and running. All they needed as far as offense because Marcus Strolman was unhittable. No hitter into the seventh inning to shutdown the puerto rico lineup. Emotional performance by strolman who could have pitched for puerto rico. His mother is puerto rico. What a dramatic win for him and the country. No matter what happened, this is a win for baseball as a whole. This tournament was so embraced and passionate and wild in the stands. It is just a win for the sport. Ill believe you. You didnt see much. It was late. Baseballs not my sport. Back to neil gorsuch for a moment. We reported gorsuch has been straight laced during two days of questioning except for one moment yesterday. When he was asked by senator ben sasse of the role of the declaration of independence. He responded with a reference to john hancock. Listen carefully. No one remembers who john hancock was, but they know thats his signature. Because he wrote his name so bigly and boldly. You just said bigly. [ laughter ] and i just won 5. You embarrassed me in front of my nephew and he loves it. Hes the one that paid me the 5. Bigly. If you dont know, something many feel that donald trump has said many times over the recent months. Does he say bigly . Big league. It is nice to see lighthearted moments. He talked about mutton busting on tuesday. Bronco busting. Lets get a check on cnn money stream. Stocks are mixed. Investors paused as the vote on health care looms. That is important how tax reform may go. Wall street watching. President trumps pick to lead the s. E. C. Faces lawmakers today. The likely will ask him how he will police the wall street firms he defended as a lawyer. The s. E. C. , the top cop for wall street. Jay clayton advised Goldman Sachs on the bailout. His wife works there. He worked with bear sterns. He worked with Deutsche Bank and valeant pharmaceuticals. It t if he is voted in, he will President Trump deregulate the industry. He will replace mary joe white. She was a superstar lawyer nominated by obama in 2013 after years of representing Big Companies and banks. Google facing a backlash from advertisers after discov discovered ads were placed next to videos next to extremists and hate groups. Verizon and enterprise and Johnson Johnson and at t which entered a deal to buy the Parent Company of cnn. Time warner. It is on certain platforms. It stems from an investigation last week. This is suggesting inappropriate terrorist inspiring content on youtube. Mostly by religious extremists and kkk member. Google is reviewing sources and controlling where ads appear. If you are looking for brand management. That is not something you want. Nice to see they are making the fix. A busy day. Early start continues right now. This is cnn breaking news. Frantic hours here of negotiati negotiation. Seven years after president obama signed his Landmark Health care bill. Republicans are on the verge of repealing it. It is not a done deal yet. Can President Trump strike a deal that satisfies conservatives without sending moderates running for the exits. Thanks for getting an early start with us. Im dave briggs. Im christine romans. It is 5 00 a. M. In the east. History will be made today one way or the other. Either republicans take their first vote toward repealing and replacing the Affordable Care act or we could see a staggering blow against obamacare and perhaps to the entire trump agenda. The white house and Republican Leaders now deep into a furious lastDitch Campaign to turn no votes by members of the ultra conservative Freedom Caucus into yes votes. One critical issue at this point is ending essential Health Benefits that obamacare requires in every insurance policy. More on what those are in a moment. Right now, still no deal. House Freedom Caucus chairman mark meadows is