Transcripts For CNNW Early Start With Christine Romans And Dave Briggs 20170412

On early start. Eye christine romans. It is 4 00 a. M. In the east, 11 00 a. M. In moscow where secretary of state Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign minister is getting underway. It comes as u. S. Officials are accusing russia of trying to cover up syrian leader Bashar Alassads use of chemical weapons against his own people. Warns of backing assad in this new interview. Frankly, putin is backing a person thats truly an evil person, and i think its very bad for russia. I think its very bad for man kind. Its very bad for this world. But when you drop gas or bombs or barrel bombs they have these massive barrels with dynamite and they drop it in the middle of a group of people. In all fairness, you see kids no arms, no legs, no face. This is an animal. The latest, lets go live to cnns paula newton in moscow. Is secretary tillersons meeting underway yet . What do we expect to come out of this . Reporter not as of yet, but we do expect it to start at any moment, christine. And if we take ourselves away from the punching and the counter punching weve been hearing for days now, Rex Tillerson at that table with Sergey Lavrov to understand what russia is up for. At this point in time, tillerson wanting to examine two things, whether or not the russians have the unconditionally support assad, if they will back away even so slightly from the regime and perhaps get to a point inside syria where they will help administer humanitarian corridors. From russias point of view, Vladimir Putin coming out hard again with another russian tv interview saying that the nato allies were nodding like bobble heads to all of this cover up allegations from secretary mattis that we heard yesterday. But also saying quite clearly that now at the table there are two things that russia is looking for. One is they want some maneuver ability with their own sanctions that have been imposed on them since the conflict in ukraine. Look, this has not been an easy conflict for russia. They have been in the field in syria for more than 18 months. There is some fatigue there. So, some signs that some progress can be made at the table, but i wouldnt expect too much at this point in time. Also, another thing i want to keep an eye on, cant say for sure Vladimir Putin will not meet with Rex Tillerson. Its still not on the schedule. Christine . Still not on the schedule. Paula newton, keep us posted when that meeting begins and any developments. Thanks. Topping the agenda for that meeting today between secretary tillerson and foreign minister sergey slrks avrov is the squthn on the ground in syria. 59 tomahawk cruise missiles, they will not ends up with boots on the ground. Listen to what he said. Were not going into syria. But when i see people using horrible, horrible chemical weapons, which they agreed not to use under the Obama Administration. But they violated it. What i did should have been done by the Obama Administration a long time before i did it. And you would have had a much better i think syria would be a lot better off right now than it has been. Lets bring in Senior International correspondent clarissa ward. Shes live on turkeys border live for us this morning. What impact are you expecting these meetings might have on the situation in syria now . Reporter well, boris, i think its tough to tell. I think secretary of state Rex Tillerson really has his work cut out for him. He is going to moscow essentially trying to ask the russians to disengage from the regime of Bashar Alassad, to stop propping them up, and thats a very big ask because the relationship between russia and the assad family goes back decades. Russia has spent hundreds of millions if not billions propping up the regime, selling them weaponry, helping them financially, not to mention its own military intervention. So, it is going to take a lot of persuasion to tell them that they should suddenly reverse course. Its important to remember that syria is really russias only major ally or toe hold in the entire middle east. It has given them access to the mediterranean. And beyond all that, forest, it has really become their geopolitical trump card. It has given them an enormous amount of leverage and geopolitical importance trying to persuade them to play that trump cards is not going to be easy. But nonetheless, that is the situation that secretary of state Rex Tillerson finds himself on in. Meanwhile on the ground inside syria, it is business as usual. There are airstrikes that continue day in, day out, no sign that they are abating. I guess we will have to see what happens in this crucial meeting between tillerson and lavrov. Boris . Well be waiting for the details of that meeting. It is set to get underway in just a few minutes. Clarissa ward, thank you so much. And then there is this, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer repeatedly in damage repair mode. Comparing Bashar Alassad to adolf hitler. Arguing that hitler did not use chemical weapons on his own people. Something that is not even factually correct since hitler had millions of people mostly jews murdered in gas chambers. Then as reporters pressed him, actually even sort of threw him a life line one point. His successive attempts only got more baffling. You know, you had a someone as despicable as hitler who didnt even sink to using chemical weapons. I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that assad is doing there was not he brought him into the holocaust center. I understand that. Im saying in the way that assad used them where he went into town, dropped them down into the middle of towns. It was brought to the use of it okay. It was the whole thing was baffling. For more lets turn to senior White House Correspondent jeff zeleny. Reporter christine and boris, the Trump Administration doing something it rarely has done, that is apologizing. White House Press Secretary sean spicer giving an extraordinary apology for comments he made on tuesday equating the holocaust and chemical weapons attacks to what is going on in syria, saying indeed Bashar Alassad is worse than hitler because hitler didnt use chemical weapons. Of course that is incorrect. That touched off a fire storm of criticism throughout the day. So, finally late on tuesday sean spicer came on cnn to apologize directly to wolf blitzer. I was obviously trying to make a point about the heinous acts that assad had made against his own people last week using chemical weapons and gas. I mistakenly used an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the holocaust for which frankly there is no comparison, and for that i apologize. It was a mistake to do that. And that apology was a direct message from the president as well as other Senior Administration officials telling spicer to try and clean this up immediately. But without question, it is the biggest apology directly this administration has made, trying to move on beyond this. The question is what is the credibility of sean spicer, the White House Press secretary, stand this morning as we begin the third day of this very busy week. The president today will be holding his own press Conference Meeting with the nato secretary general here. Hell be able to answer his own questions about syria here at the white house. Christine and boris . Jeff, thanks for that. A former Trump Campaign advisor says a secret intelligence Court Warrant allowing the fbi to monitor his communications was unjustified. The Washington Post reporting that the fbi got a warrant on carter page after convincing a fisa court judge that there was probable cause to believe that he was knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence work on behalf of moscow. In other words, that he was acting as a foreign agent, a spy. Page calls himself a Junior Member of the Trump Foreign Policy Team and says that he never actually met with the candidate. All right. President trump raising eyebrows and new questions this morning about Steve Bannons future. With comments he made about his chief strategist, when asked by the New York Post about the tense relationship between bannon and his soninlaw Jared Kushner who is also a top aide, the president said this. Quote, i like steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late. I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors and i didnt know steve. Im my own strategist. Steve is a good guy, but i told them to straighten it out or i will. All right. Almost ten minutes past the hour. Time for early start on the money this morning. Set to inform federal agents the federal ban on hiring is over. They expect agencies to carry out more targeted and surgical cuts to agency staffing. This is an attempt by the Trump Administration to make good on that promise to drain the swamp. A slogan from his 2016 campaign. Just days after he became President Trump signed a president ial memorandum imposing a hiring freeze on the federal government. Office of management budget director Nick Mulvaney isnt providing figures on job cuts but says the Trump Administration can run the government more efficiently than the Obama Administration could. This comes a day after President Trump met with top ceos at the white house on how to make some of those cuts. We watched this have i yo nonstop is yesterday, the video of the passenger on the United Airlines flight getting dragged out. Apparently the ceo has now watched it well enough times. United apologizing for the third time after dragging this passenger off the plane. New details on this next. Butu continuous pain relief spray, i can box out any muscle or joint pain immediately. Blueemu continuous pain relief spray, it works fast and you wont stink. The more mysterious they sound, the more. Powerful youll think they are. Its time to see what power really looks like. New neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair with accelerated retinol sa. Clinically proven to reduce wrinkles in just one week. Wrinkles . Your time is up rapid wrinkle repair. And for dark spots. Rapid tone repair. Neutrogena® see whats possible. 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. United airlines cannot seem to wake up from its Public Relations nightmare. The airlines ceo has apologized yet again for a passenger getting dragged off an overbooked flight. Actually it wasnt overbooked. They just had to get some pilots on board and so they asked folks to get off. No one would, and this is the consequence. Chief executive oscar munoz saying, quote, i continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and i deeply apologize to the customer that was forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right. That passenger has been identified as dr. David dao. He is being treated right now at a chicago hospital. His Attorney Says that dao appreciates the outpouring of support from the world a video has been played more than 100 million times online. More now from cnns rene marsh. Reporter christine and boris, united ceo sent out his third message and oscar munoz finally got his tone right. But it took two days, a viral video, and fierce outrage from just about everyone who saw that video before. The airline made a direct apology to the passenger who was dragged off of that oversold United Airlines flight on sunday. He called it truly horrific, and pledged a thorough review of how the airline handles oversold flights and how it works with law enforcement. He said the review would be completed by april 30th. Now, this new statement comes after munoz doubled down in an email sent to employees actually defending the flight crew and calling the passenger disruptive and belligerent. And in munozs first statement, he only apologized for having to reaccommodate passengers. This has been a disaster for the airline. The press office has not really been responsive and today lawmakers are demanding the department of transportation launch an investigation. We know that the agency said that it was reviewing the incident to determine if the passengers rights were violated. Back to you. All right, rene, thank you so much. You know that p. R. Nightmare for united has a price tag. A quarter of a billion dollars. Thats the hit to the value of the company in the stock market yesterday. The Airlines Stock was at about 4 during trading. It could have been worse for us. Earlier in the day a billion dollars was knocked off the companys market cap. It recovered from the worst loss, shares down 4 10 of a percent in the premarket. This will be a case study and ceos never want your p. R. Mess up to be a Business School case study. Thats what it was. Oscar munoz, the third time was the charm. That was the response that should have come. He was watching the stock price if this doesnt follow your policies, you should have different policies. I highly recommend you watch Jimmy Kimmels play. An streakist link between explosion hitting a bus carrying a German Football Team on tuesday. One player was injured when at least three devices hit the bus with 50 people aboard. People Say Police Police say one of the devices failed to go off. It happened as the team was heading to a championship match. Investigators found a handwritten letter claiming responsibility for the attack nearby, and they say it referenced the deadly berlin market attack in december. The match has been rescheduled for tonight. All right. It is a war of words between President Trump and north korea. The president issuing a stark warning to kim jongun. Well go to seoul next. Hey allergy muddlers are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. So yourhow nice. A party . Ill be right there. And the butchery begins. What am i gonna wear . This party is super fancy. Lets go. Im ready. Are you my uber . [ horn honks ] hold on. Dont wait for watchathon week to return. [ doorbell rings ] whos that . Show me netflix. Sign up for netflix on x1 today and keep watching all year long. President trump sending a warning to nuke after pyonyang threatened a Nuclear Attack on the u. S. For any, quote, reckless acts of aggression. We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the Aircraft Carrier. That i can tell you. And we have the best military people on earth, and i will say this. He is doing the wrong thing. Lets go to cnn National Correspondent Paula Hancock in seoul. These provocative statements going back and forth between President Trump and north korea, whats the response where you are . Reporter well, christine, when you look on the streets of seoul its remarkable. You wouldnt even know this is going on. The south Korean People are incredibly resilient and they have been in this position for many decades, still technically at war with their northern neighbor. From an official point of view, south korean officials and japanese officials are very heartened at the fact that the u. S. Is sending more military hardware to the region. We know that the u. S. S. Carl vinson will be heading back into korean waters at some point this wednesday and that, of course, a show of force against north korea. But this increase in rhetoric from both sides at this point, from President Trump and also from north korea, is, of course, going to concern officials, but it is what we often see in this situation. I just spoke to a National Security advisor for the former south korean president and he said that its not something that most people would be concerned about. But the fact that all military and all options on the table according to washington is important. It is an important to have that military hardware behind those threats so the threats have credibility. And hes hoping that that might prevent future missile or Nuclear Tests from north korea. Christine . Paula hancock, thank you so much for that in seoul. Commentary from experts armada isnt a word you hear very much. The strike group is heading there. Armada sounds a little 20th century. Spanish inquisition. The secretary of state Rex Tillerson is meeting with russias foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. The Deputy Foreign minister saying moments ago the u. S. Position on syria remains a mystery to them. Well take you there next. Pain used to shut me down during pickup games. But with odor free blueemu continuous pain relief spray, i can box out any muscle or joint pain immediately. Blueemu continuous pain relief spray, it works fast and you wont stink. You wont see these folks they have businesses to run. They have passions to pursue. How do they avoid trips to the post office . Stamps. Com mail letters, ship packages, all the services of the post office right on your computer. Get a 4 week trial, plus 100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. Go to stamps. Com tv and never go to the post office again. The more mysterious they sound, the more. Powerful youll think they are. Its time to see what power really looks like. New neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair with accelerated retinol sa. Clinically proven to reduce wrinkles in just one week. Wrinkles . Your time is up rapid wrinkle repair. And for dark spots. Rapid tone repair. Neutrogena® see whats possible. Happening right now, live pictures from russia where secretary of state Rex Tillerson is meeting with russias foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, the visit coming at a crucial time as u. S. Officials accuse russia of a cover up of syrias use of chemical weapons. Very tense. The Trump Administration issuing a rare apology after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer made some shocking and wrong comparisons between adolf hitler and Bashar Alassad. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to early start. Im christine romans. Im boris sanchez. It is wednesday april 12th. Half past 4 00 a. M. On the east coast and it is 11 30 a. M. In moscow where a meeting between secretary of state Rex Tillerson and a Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is just getting underway. These are live images from that meeting. Tillersons visit comes as u. S. Officials are accusing russia of trying to cover up syrians leader Bashar Alassad using chemical weapons against his own people. President trump warning putin against backing assad in a new interview. Listen. Frankly, putin is backing a person thats truly an evil person, and i think its very bad for russia. I think its very bad for mankind. Its very bad for this world. But when you drop gas or bombs or barrel bombs they have these massive barrels with dynamite and they drop it in the middle of a group of people. In all fairness, you see kids with no arms, no legs, no face. This is an animal. For the latest lets go live to cnns paula newton in moscow. Paula, those are the strongest words that weve heard from this administration on Bashar Alassad in syria. But yet we just heard a few moments ago that a Russian Foreign minister says that the white houses position on syria is a mystery to the russians. What do we expect to come out of this meeting . Reporter well, at this point when they say a mystery, theyre saying, look, whats the end game for you in syria . Theyre saying that you have had really, except for trying to fight isis in syria, youve had no skin in this game and they want to know at this point with just one targeted u. S. Airstrike, where is your bottom line . Boris, this meeting is just started. Its just underway. I can see that the reporters in the room are now straining to see some opening comments. Right now Rex Tillerson looking for some wiggle room with russia. Not just on whether or not his support, Bashar Alassad russias support for Bashar Alassad is unconditional, whether or not they might move away from that regime,but also if they are willing to put their own credibility and leverage against some peace momentum, how would that start, boris . Perhaps it might start with humanitarian corridors, no fly zones. These have been issues another any table, any negotiation table to discuss syria in the last few years. Its been impossible to get to that point. Some people are hoping that all of this heated rhetoric from both sides will actually be able to spark something at this negotiating table. Boris, as the two of them sit down, Sergey Lavrov and Rex Tillerson, still no word whether Rex Tillerson will get that face to face with Vladimir Putin. If he doesnt, it will be quite a snub and perhaps throw negotiations back a bit because Vladimir Putin and Rex Tillerson know each other fairly well, and they would likely be able to get to some understanding of each others position if they had that facetoface meeting. Yes, certainly, one of the Silver Linings in the tension between russia and the u. S. Is Rex Tillerson has that relationship with Vladimir Putin. He was given the russian order of friendship medal just a few years ago. The eyes of the world on this meeting, paula, we thank you for keeping us updated. Topping the agenda today for the secretary and the foreign minister, the situation on the ground in syria. Just days after the u. S. Hit a Syrian Air Base with 59 tomahawk cruise missiles, President Trump is promising america will not end up with boots on the ground there. Listen. But when i see people using horrible, horrible chemical weapons which they agreed not to use under the Obama Administration, but they violated it. What i did should have been done by the Obama Administration a long time before i did it. And you would have had a much better i think syria would be a lot better off right now than it thats been. Lets bring in Senior International correspondent clarissa ward. In syria this morning. You have to wonder what effect these meetings will have on syrias war. Not to mention the relation between u. S. And russia. The contours of discussion here, a nofly zone, humanitarian corridors, north korea, ukraine, a lot on the table. Reporter there is a lot on the table. And Rex Tillerson has a very long wish list, and it remains to be seen whether he will be able to push any of those wishes through because the reality is that president Vladimir Putin and russia have been supporting the regime of Bashar Alassad for decades now while before assad, his father was also supported by the russians. This is a very old, deep relationship. The russians have said for a while now its not so much that theyre attached to Bashar Alassad as much as they are attached to the importance of sovereignty and respecting the sovereignty of syria. But it will be very difficult to persuade them after all the money that they have spent supporting assad, after all the weaponry that they have poured in there, after all the power on the geopolitical stage that they have been given by having this prominent seat in this conflict. It will be very difficult to persuade them, i think, to play that trump card, to essentially agree to renounce Bashar Alassad, to distance themselves from his regime. It will take some fancy footwork for Rex Tillerson to be able to pull Something Like that off. In the meantime, of course, the situation on the ground in syria looks much the same as it has now for months. There are airstrikes and barrel bombs taking place on a daily basis. There has not been any real shift since the u. S. Strike. But the u. S. Strike even was in its purpose, according to the pentagon, was not intended to take out all the barrel bombs and all sort of strikes in the future. The intention of this strike was to prevent another chemical attack from taking place. So, a lot of questions to be answered at those meetings in moscow and as yet to be seen what will come of them. Christine . Those meetings underway right now and were monitoring those for you. Clarissa ward, thank you so much for that. Back in the states, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer in damage control mode today, repeatedly apologizing for comments he made tuesday comparing Bashar Alassad to adolf hitler. Spicer argued that at least hitler did not use chemical weapons, something that is not even factually correct, and offensive since hitler in fact had millions of people, mostly jews, murdered in gas chambers. Then as reporters pressed him, spicers successive attempts to clarify only got more baffling. You know, you had a someone as despicable as hitler who didnt sink to using chemical weapons. I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that assad is doing there was not he brought them into the holocaust center, i understand that. But im saying in the way that assad used them where he went into town, dropped them down into the middle of towns. It was brought to the use of it certainly some baffling cringe worthy statements. For more lets turn to senior White House Correspondent jeff zeleny. Jeff . Christine and boris, good morning. The Trump Administration doing something it rarely has done. That is, apologizing. White House Press Secretary sean spicer giving an extraordinary apology for comments he made on tuesday equating the holocaust and chemical weapons attacks to whats going on in syria, saying indeed that Bashar Alassad is worse than hitler because hitler didnt use chemical weapons. Of course that is incorrect. That touched off a fire storm of criticism throughout the day. So, finally late on tuesday sean spicer came on cnn to apologize directly to wolf blitzer. I was obviously trying to make a point about the heinous acts that assad had made against his own people last week using chemical weapons and gas. I mistakenly used an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the holocaust for which there is no, there is no comparison. And for that i apologize. It was a mistake to do that. And that apology was a direct message from the president as well as other Senior Administration officials telling spicer to try and clean this up immediately. But without question, it is the biggest apology directly this administration has made. Trying to move on beyond this, the question is what is the credibility of sean spicer, the White House Press secretary stand this morning as we begin the third day of this very busy week. The president today will be holding his own press Conference Meeting with the nato secretary general here. Hell be able to answer his own questions about syria here at the white house. Christine and boris . Certainly a puzzling afternoon. All right, thank you so much for that, jeff zeleny. A former Trump Campaign advisor says a secret intelligence Court Warrant allowing the fbi to monitor his communications was unjustified. The Washington Post is reporting the fbi got a warrant on carter page after convincing a fisa court judge there was probable cause to believe he was knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence work on behalf of moscow. In other words, that he was acting as a foreign agent. Page calls himself a Junior Member of the Trump Foreign Policy Team and says he never actually met with the candidate. Attorney general Jeff Sessions on the u. S. Mexico border announcing a new crackdown by the Trump Administration on undocument the immigrants and a visit to the border town of nogales, arizona, he pledged to step up prosecutions. For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned. This is a new era. This is the trump era. The lawlessness, the abdication of duty to enforce our laws and the catch and release policies of the past are over. The attorney general calling it the administrations first stand against, quote, filth like gangs and criminal aliens. Sessions says the Justice Department is placing two Immigration Judges and Detention Centers along the southern border. Time for an early start on the money. Informing federal agencies today the ban on hiring is over but the office of management and budget expects agencies to be carrying out more targeted is surgical cuts to agencies and staffing. This is an attempt by the Trump Administration to drain the swamp. Thats the sloegts an from his campaign. Just days after he became president , trump signed a president ial memorandum imposing a hiring freeze on the federal government. Office of management and budget director Nick Mulvaney is not providing figures on job cuts, but says the Trump Administration can run the government more efficiently than the Obama Administration did. That means fewer people. This comes just a day after President Trump met with top ceos at the white house on how to make some of those cuts. If at first you dont succeed, you try again and again, especially as you watch your stock price plummet. United airlines apologizing for the third time after this video emerged of a passenger being violently dragged off one of their planes. New details on this story next. United airlines cannot seem to wake up from its Public Relations nightmare. The airlines ceo has apologized yet again. This is now the third iteration of a response from the company. Apologizing for a passenger being dragged off the soldout united flight so crew members could make the trip from chicago to louisville. Chief executive officer munoz saying i continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight. I want you to know we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right. Now, that is exactly what he should have said yesterday in the morning. The passenger identified as dr. David dao is being treated at a chicago hospital. His Attorney Says dao appreciates the outpouring of support. Lets archipelago get more on this story from cnns rene marsh. Reporter christine and boris, United Airlines ceo sent out his third message and oscar munoz finally got his tone right. It took two days, a viral video and fierce outrage from just about everyone who saw that video before the airline made a direct apology to the passenger who was dragged off of that oversold United Airlines flight on sunday. He called it truly horrific and pledged a thorough review of how the airline handles oversold flights and how it works with law enforcement. He said the review would be completed by april 30th. Now, this new statement comes after munoz doubled down in an email sent to employees actually defending the flight crew and calling the passenger disruptive and belligerent. And in munozs first statement, he only apologized for having to reaccommodate passengers. This has been a disaster for the airline. The press office has not really been responsive and today lawmakers are demanding the department of transportation launch an investigation. We know that the agency said that it was reviewing the incident to determine if the passengers rights were violated. Back to you. It is interesting. Last month he received an award from p. R. Magazine for best ceo communicator. That was not a great p. R. Response, and that p. R. Nightmare for united has a price tag of a quarter of a billion dollars. The Airline Stock down 4 during trading. It could have been worse, boris. Earlier in the day a billion dollars was knocked off the market cap. By Late Afternoon the stock had recovered from the worst losses. Shares now looking to see if there is going to be any more fall out. Theyre down 4 10 of a percent in premarket trading. Well see it stabilize. In markets you dont have a lot of choice. United and most, i think most passengers will choose the right airfare. You made the point a moment ago which is united is trying to break into the Chinese Market and that is where this video has really caught fire. 100 million views by midday yesterday in the Chinese Market. And thats where united is trying to make a lot of headway. This is an International Problem for them. Yikes. Speaking of International Problems, President Trump issuing a stark warning to north korea that the u. S. Is sending an armada to the region. Well go live to seoul next. Hey allergy muddlers are you one sneeze away from being voted out of the carpool . Try zyrtec® its starts working hard at hour one and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. So yourhow nice. A party . Ill be right there. And the butchery begins. What am i gonna wear . This party is super fancy. Lets go. Im ready. Are you my uber . [ horn honks ] hold on. Dont wait for watchathon week to return. [ doorbell rings ] whos that . Show me netflix. Sign up for netflix on x1 today and keep watching all year long. President trump sending a stern warning to north korea after pyonyang threatened a Nuclear Attack on the u. S. For any reckless acts of aggression. Listen. Sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the Aircraft Carrier, that i can tell you. And we have the best military people on earth, and i will say this, he is doing the wrong thing. Lets go to cnn International Correspondent Paula Hancocks in seoul. Paula, weve been hearing this rhetoric escalate over the past few months. The United States saying that all options are on the table when it comes to north korea this week, north korea saying they wont bat an eyelash to respond. How are people in seoul in the center of responding to these comments . Reporter well, you know, boris, the people who live here in south korea have been dealing with this for decades. They are still technically at war with their northern neighbors. There was never a peace treaty signed with north korea. Only an armistice. South korean officials are pleased to see there is more u. S. Military hardware coming to south korea. They are pleased the uss carl vinson and Aircraft Carrier everything coming with it is coming into kraen waters as early as this wednesday. Certainly that is welcome for the people here. We also note that president xi jinping of china did discuss north korea. China still wants the u. S. And north korea to be negotiating. They want the peaceful solution to be sought and they want that to come through talks. This is not what were hearing from washington, though, clearly at this point President Trump and Rex Tillerson and also james mattis, all the ministers saying that they want all options on the table. So, of course, were hearing from National Security advisors here in south korea as well that they are happy that at the same time having this discussion all options on the table, you are seeing the military hardware arrive here as well. It gives those threats credibility. Boris . Paula hancocks, thank you for the update from seoul. All right. A big legislative save. Cnn projecting state treasurer ron estes has won a special election for the congressional seat vacated by mike pompeo. Jim thompson in kansass fourth congressional district. That district has been in republican hands more than two decades. Republicans much North Carolina still reeling from the bathroom bill controversy are now jumping into another political fire storm. Three republican lawmakers have filed house bill 78. Also called the uphold historical marriage act in an effort to somehow outlaw same sex marriage. They claim the Supreme Court overstepped its bound by ruling those marriages legal nationwide. The lawmakers say that if their bill passes, same sex marriages whether officiated in or out of the state would be in invalidated. The jay giles band was so big in the 80s, it included the eagles, billy joel. The founder has died. He was found unresponsive in his home in massachusetts on monday. The cause of death is not yet known. But police say foul play is not suspected. He was 71 years old. And when david letter man was king of late night, his mother was a fan favorite. Now daves mom dorothy has passed away at the age of 95. She was a popular frequent guest on the late show often doing the knightley top 10 list. I remember that. 56 minutes past the hour. Cooler temperatures from the from the northeast. Just in time for the weekend. Lets get to meteorologist. Good morning, boris and christine. Pretty widespread coverage 70s and 830, still well above the norm for this time of year. St. Louis with 75 degrees. High pressure is building right there over the next couple of days. There is a front skirting across the northeast all around parts of the mid atlantic into the northeast. With it showers and the big difference here going to be the cooler temperatures from the 80s to the 70s for new york city from the mid80s to the 60s in boston. Even washington made it up to 84, 77 today, so still above normal. Still very comfortable. But could include some clouds and some showers with this later this afternoon as the front comes by. But again, really not a wash out. The best were seeing here, generally about a quarter of an inch to half an inch as far as rainfall is concerned. Again, a light go around of rainfall but notice 19 record temperatures either tied or set yesterday across the northeast. Again, no such in the way of records for this afternoon. You notice we cool it off again into the 70s for new york city and eventually by this sunday we get one more rebound back into the 80s here before cooler weather, but still above normal returns for monday afternoon next week in new york. Guys . All right. That is your weather. Here is your money this morning. Lets get a check on money stream. Stock futures pointing higher. Investors awaiting the start of reports. The banks today, stock markets in europe and asia are mixed. President trump says he has created 600,000 jobs. Those numbers dont add up. According to cnn money trump jobs tracker we have that, we have a trump jobs tracker. 317,000 jobs have been created since trump took office. The president is trying to take credit for nearly double that number of jobs. Cnns money figure includes how many jobs the Labor Department created in february and march. The white house says trump is including all the jobs added in january as well. Trump what was only in office 11. 5 days that month. Even if you add all those, still dont quite get to 600,000, but we will keep track of that. You can follow that job tracker if you like on cnn money. Com. Ride share and company lyft flying high. The company has raised a fresh 600 million from investors. New funding bumps up valuation to 7 pts 5 billion. Still short of ubers worth of 68 billion. The news comes as ubers ethics and Company Culture are being sharply criticized. Lyft says its 60 increase in new passenger sign ups the week after the hashtag delete uber debacle. Check out the new cnn money stream video personalized. All in one feed. Download it now in the app store or google play. And you can download if as you wait and watch. Another edition of early start starts right now. Happening right now secretary of state Rex Tillerson is meeting with Sergei Lavrov. The visit comes at a critical time as u. S. Officials have a coverup of chemical weapons. Sean spicer made a comparison between Adolph Hitler and bashar al assad. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to early start. Im christine romans. Great to be here with you, im boris sanchez. 5 00 a. M. On the east coast and it is noon in moscow. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is now underway. Syria is in the spotlight. Lavrov denounced the u. S. Missile strikes. Lavrov calling it fundamentally important that there be no more u. S. Strikes on sir yeah they warned Vladimir Putin against backing assad