Transcripts For CNNW Early Start With Christine Romans And Dave Briggs 20170511

Alison, is a political backfire along the lines of trump vodka, trump steaks, not going well for the white house this morning, because we have new details this morning which paint a startling picture of a scorned President Trump increasingly consumed by a nowformer fbi director whose russia investigation was simply picking up too much steam for the president s comfort. A source close to comey telling cnns jake tapper, james comey was fired for two reasons now. Okay, here come the two reasons. First, comey never gave the personal loyalty. Urance of and second, the fbi investigation into possible collusion by team trump with russia, that was accelerating, so that may explain the timing of all this. Sources are telling cnn that comey was fired just a week after asking for more resources to investigate the russia connection. The white house for its part denies comey made that request. Regardless, there is progress reported in that probe. A Senate Committee issuing a subpoena to former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. More on that in a moment. First, the white house doggedly defending its rationale for comeys firing. Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckaby sanders using blunt language to describe the investigators handling into the investigation into Hillary Clintons email. I think one of the big catalysts that we saw was last week. On wednesday, director comey made a pretty startling revelation that he had essentially taken a stick of dynamite and thrown it into the department of justice by going around the chain of command. Having a letter like the one that he received and having that conversation that outlined the basic, just atrocities in circumventing the chain of command in the department of justice. There are signs that that rationale may not hold up. The Washington Post reporting the justice official who wrote the memo justifying comeys firing thats Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein threatened to resign after the white house leaned heavily on him as the reason comey was fired. Today the new acting director of the fbi, andrew mccabe, is set to testify at a Senate Committee after meeting facetoface with the president on wednesday. Its likely hell face questions about comeys firing as the white house intensifies its search for a new fbi director. Our coverage begins now with cnn White House Correspondent athena jones. Reporter good morning, alison and dave. The white houses explanation of the comey firing has been evolving over the last couple of days. Now were learning the white house says that the president was considering letting comey go starting from the day he was elected to the office. And so, Late Wednesday afternoon, the white house put out a timeline trying to clarify how this all went down, starting with the president losing confidence in the director over the last several months, then being angered by the directors testimony last wednesday on capitol hill, and then the president having a conversation, having a meeting with the attorney general, jeff sessions, and the Deputy Attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, to talk about reasons for removing director comey. Now, thats a little more information than we had before. Before, the white house wasnt really answering the question whether the president had asked rosenstein to write up that memo that he wrote in the end. One thing, of course, the white house not eager to address, certainly not in this timeline, is the issue of the attorney general having recused himself, having played a role in the firing of the man in charge of the russia investigation. So, theres still a lot more explaining to do. Alison, dave . Athena, thank you. James comey refusing to dwell on his dismissal in a farewell letter to his former colleagues at the fbi, comey writing i have long believed that a president can fire an fbi director for any reason or for no reason at all. Im not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you wont either. It is done and i will be fine, although i will miss you and the mission deeply. Sources inside the white house tell cnn President Trump kept his decision to fire comey very close to the vest in the 48 hours before he dropped the bombshell. It did not seek he did not seek a wide range of viewpoints and he grew increasingly angry with the fbi director after reaching the conclusion comey was his own man and could not be trusted. A longtime friend who spoke to the president over the weekend described him as white hot and complaining repeatedly about russia, russia, trump and russia. That friend says the president has regularly expressed frustration that they cant make this all go away, apparently referring to comey and his staff, among others. The president also particularly angry with comey for testifying he was mildly nauseous about the possibility that he himself influenced the president ial election. The president also upset that comey was not putting enough emphasis on investigating the leaks. Also developing at the white house, closely monitoring the performance of Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders. Shes been filling in this week for sean spicer, who has navy reserve week. Multiple Administration Sources say spicer has been benched, though, and could actually be replaced. All right, there is new intense reaction to comeys firing this morning from both sides of the aisle. Some criticism from republicans, including congressman jason chaffetz, a trump supporter, calling on the Justice Department Inspector General to review the firing. Chaffetz says in a statement, previously, i asked Inspector General horowitz to review the fbis actions in advance of the 2016 election. Today i sent a letter urging ig horowitz to expand the scope of his review to include the decision to fire director comey. I look forward to receiving the igs findings. Other Top Republicans coming to the president s defense, like House Speaker paul ryan in his first comments since the firing of james comey. James comey, who is a worthwhile and dedicated public servant, i think he had basically just lost the confidence of a lot of republicans and a lot of democrats based on his conduct, his actions, and some of the comments that he had made. And most importantly, he lost the confidence of the president , and it is entirely within the president s role and authority to relieve him, and thats what he did. Democratic senator richard blumenthal, who trump personally targeted on twitter yesterday, suggesting this could become a crisis along the lines of watergate. It is a looming constitutional crisis because it involves a potential confrontation, as did watergate, between the president and other branches of government. It may well produce impeachment proceedings, although were very far from that possibility. President trump himself still hanging tough on his decision, taking to twitter last night to post a video of democrats who have been critical of comey. He tweeted this democrats should be ashamed. This is a disgrace. Draintheswamp. While director comeys firing was dominating the headlines, former National Security adviser Michael Flynn was being subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence committee. Lawmakers demanding all documents related to his interactions with russian officials. The subpoena was issued once flynns lawyer informed the senators he would not be voluntarily turning over any of the information they requested in late april. Now, several of flynns associates were subpoenaed earlier this week. We get more on this now from cnns manu raju. Reporter good morning, alison and dave. Now, the Senate Intelligence committees investigation into the russia meddling and any of those ties that exist with Trump Associates starting to ramp up now that the Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Michael Flynn, the former National Security adviser, for documents related to any of his ties to russia. This is because flynn apparently did not abide by the committees request for records. Now, i am told that, really, the committee has only gotten a handful of requests back from those Trump Associates, and some of them have not even satisfied what the committee is looking for, including carter page, that former trump adviser, Foreign Policy adviser, not giving details that the committee wants. So, expect some more subpoenas, potentially, in the coming days. Now, this comes as later today a major hearing happening in the Senate Intelligence committee where National Security leaders will come and testify about concerns they have worldwide. One person who will not be there, james comey. Now, he was scheduled to testify there. Also next week, comey invited to testify before the Senate Intelligence committee, but one catch, this is going to happen in a closeddoor session and will not be open to the public, so we may not know what questions comey is presented with and what answers he gives, particularly behind why he was fired by President Trump. Guys . All right, manu. Thanks very much. And the first meeting between President Trump and russian president putin, thats apparently set after a facetoface sitdown between the president and russias top diplomat, who had a bizarre reaction to the firing of james comey. Were live in moscow, next. voiceover if your child is suffering due to their lack of reading skills, if youve tried tutors, learning centers, or expensive programs, and seen little improvement, then its time to call the usa reading clinic. Its effectiveness has amazed both parents and teachers. Traditionally, students are taught letters then words, but they arent trained in the mechanics of reading. The usa reading clinic system is a Personalized Software technology accessed right from your home computer that can help develop your childs proper neural pathways so they can finally understand and comprehend what they are reading with excellent fluency. Many students start seeing improvements almost immediately. 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Add to that credit card balances and final medical bills, and youve got plenty of reasons to call for free information about this valuable coverage. Its easy and affordable to help cover your final expenses through the Colonial Penn program. As long as youre 50 to 85 you cannot be turned down because of your health. Your premium never goes up and your benefit never goes down due to age. Plus, your coverage builds cash value over time, money you can borrow against. So dont wait, call now for free information and a free gift. All i did was make a phone call and all of my questions about the Colonial Penn program were answered. It couldnt have been any easier and we both got the coverage we should have had for years now. Mmhm, with change to spare. laughing Colonial Penn jingle did the comey firing cast a shadow was he fired . [ inaudible ] geez despite all the upheaval in the white house, its business as usual in the oval office for the russians. President trump hosting Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador sergey kislyak. Remember, it was Michael Flynns meetings with kislyak that led to the downfall of the former National Security adviser, and bizarre optics there, knowing a day after holy cow, are you kidding . Firing comey, he hosts a highlevel russian official and one that is said to have talked with campaign officials. Kislyak is considered a top russian spy, but that didnt stop a warm welcome from President Trump. Unlike the greeting he had for german chancellor angela merkel, a key u. S. Ally. Just saying. Those are some optics for you. The u. S. Press pool was not allowed into the white house for the meetings with the russians. Russian state media was permitted inside, and these photos were taken by them. And just this morning, russian state media announced President Trump will meet with russian president Vladimir Putin in july. So, lets go live to moscow and bring in cnns diana magnay. Diana, we know that putin was even stopped at a hockey game yesterday to talk about all of this and the absurd world of u. S. Politics right now. Whats the reaction in moscow to all of this . Reporter well, president putin acted surprised when he was asked about this, said it has nothing to do with us, its completely within the president s competence to fire whoever he wants. And of course, you heard from Sergey Lavrov, the sarcastic tone which he batted off questions about this. So, to a certain extent, i think russia feels superior, a certain scorn for the chaos theyre seeing in the united states. It makes the u. S. Look bad. In russia, thats not necessarily a bad thing here. But at the same time, dmitry peskov, the kremlin spokesman, said we hope that this doesnt affect u. S. russia relations, and i think thats very important. Russia does want a partner in the white house who is predictable on issues like syria, on issues like the fight against International Terrorism, and that is something that President Trump at this stage does not appear to be. As you said, there is now talk that they will be meeting, President Trump and president putin, on the sidelines of the g20 summit in hamburg in july, and presumably, Sergey Lavrov and Rex Tillerson will be having to discuss how to make that meeting work, and syria and the fight against terrorism will be top of that agenda. We know they spoke about syria and russias proposed plans for socalled deescalation zones last night, but there are blocks in the way, certainly from the u. S. Side, namely iran, iranian proxies in syria and the role of assad. Back to you. Diana magnay live for us in moscow. Great reporting. Look at that, alison. The russians, they wanted someone predictable in the oval office. You talk about backfires. Yeah, that is absolutely not what theyre getting not delivered. Education secretary betsy devos getting quite a reception at a commencement speech in florida. Were going to explain that reaction and what devos says about it. Thats next. Wifi. We literally cannot live without it. And if we cant live without it, maybe its time to reimagine it and make it even better. So its awesomely fast. No. Still nope. Now were talking. So it works here and here and here. And so you can even take the occasional time out. Nooooooo yes yes, indeed. Speed, coverage, control. Introducing xfinity xfi. Find your awesome and change the way you wifi. Etna is saying goodbye to obamacare. The insurance giant is pulling out of its last two remaining exchanges, delaware and nebraska, in 2018. Etna originally was in 15 states. Its just the latest insurer to abandon obamacare. Humana and United Health have also left most markets. The companies blame costs. For example, aetna has lost millions since 2014 because policyholders rack up bigger bills than premiums cover, and insurers dont know if the government will continue to share the cost under the gop replacement bill. So, the uncertainty is adding to this as well. However, what we will know is how the new bill impacts the deficit, and soon, because the Congressional Budget Office says it will have its estimate in less than two weeks. The house has changed several things since the last report and passed the bill without a score. The recent reviews say it reduces the deficit by 150 billion by 2026, however, leaves 24 million more people uninsured. Betsy devos, the secretary of education, hoping her next commencement speech goes better than her first. Devos addressing a hostile crowd of graduates at bethunecookman university, a historically black school in florida. Listen. Jackson, board of trustees, thank you so very, very much for this great honor and privilege. [ booing ] i am honored to [ inaudible ] the graduates booed, standing and turning their backs on devos as she spoke, drowning out some of her remarks. Very uncomfortable to watch. The rude reception prompting the University President to intervene. If this behavior continues, your degrees will be mailedto you. Choose which way you want to go. All right. Students had petitioned School Officials to choose another commencement speaker. A primary reason for protesting devos appearance is her statement which she later recanted that founders of historically black colleges and universities were real pioneers of school choice. After the speech, devos tweeted this, saying i have respect for all of those who attended bethunecookman, including those who demonstrated their disagreement with me today. So, she took it on the chin. All right, the department of Homeland Security appears close to an expanded ban on laptops and other large electronics, which could include all flights from europe to the u. S. Officials are meeting today with representatives of the Airline Industry to discuss security issues. The initial ban on laptops and tablet devices applied only to u. S. Bound flights from ten airports in the middle east and north africa. It was based on fears the terrorists have found a way to convert laptops into bombs capable of bringing down a commercial airliner. Ahead, james comey reportedly told associates the president was outside the realm of normal, even crazy in recent months. So, if that was comeys mindset of the president , what was the president s mindset leading up to his firing of james comey . 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®. Suffering due to their lacks of reading skills, if youve tried tutors, learning centers, or expensive programs, and seen little improvement, then its time to call the usa reading clinic. Its effectiveness has amazed both parents and teachers. Traditionally, students are taught letters then words, but they arent trained in the mechanics of reading. The usa reading clinic system is a Personalized Software technology accessed right from your home computer that can help develop your childs proper neural pathways so they can finally understand and comprehend what they are reading with excellent fluency. Many students start seeing improvements almost immediately. Call now to find out how the usa reading clinic can skyrocket your childs reading ability and grades. Quickly and easily. Based on brain science, this is a proven and guaranteed solution. The sooner you call, the sooner you can eliminate your childs pain and frustration. Dont wait, call the number below right now. ive done every night isince i was a kid,hing empty my pocket change into this old jar. Its never much, just whats left after i break a dollar. And i never thought i could get quality Life Insurance with my spare change. Neither did i. Until i saw a commercial for the Colonial Penn program. Imagine people our age getting Life Insurance at such an affordable rate. Its true. If youre 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance Life Insurance through the Colonial Penn program for less than 35 cents a day, just 9. 95 a month. Theres no medical exam and no health questions. You know, the average cost of a funeral is over 8,300. Now thats a big burden to leave your loved ones. Add to that credit card balances and final medical bills, and youve got plenty of reasons to call for free information about this valuable coverage. Its easy and affordable to help cover your final expenses through the Colonial Penn program. As long as youre 50 to 85 you cannot be turned down because of your health. Your premium never goes up and your benefit never goes down due to age. Plus, your coverage builds cash value over time, money you can borrow against. So dont wait, call now for free information and a free gift. All i did was make a phone call and all of my questions about the Colonial Penn program were answered. It couldnt have been any easier and we both got the coverage we should have had for years now. Mmhm, with change to spare. laughing Colonial Penn jingle why did you fire director comey . Because he wasnt doing a good job, very simply. He was not doing a good job. Okay, thats what the president says, but we have new insight into what he was really thinking, and it wasnt because of Hillary Clintons emails. Plus, Michael Flynn told to hand over documents to the senate. Will he respond to the subpoena, and how will it change this russia investigation . Welcome back to early start. Im dave briggs on a very busy news day on capitol hill. It really is, absolutely. Im alison kosik, good morning. Its 30 minutes past the hour. New details this morning painting a startling picture of a scorned President Trump increasingly consumed by a nowformer fbi director whose russia investigation was picking up too much steam for the president s comfort. A source close to comey telling cnns jake tapper james comey was fired for two reasons. First, comey never gave the president any assurance of personal loyalty. Second, the fbi investigation into possible collusion by team trump with russia was accelerating. That may explain the timing here. Sources tell cnn that comey was fired just a week after asking for more resources to investigate this russia connection. The white house for its part denies comey made that request. Regardless, theres progress reported in that probe. A Senate Committee issuing a subpoena to former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. More on that in a moment. Okay, first, the white house doggedly defending its rationale for comeys firing. Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders using blunt language to describe the fbi directors handling of the investigation into Hillary Clintons emails. I think one of the big catalysts that we saw was last week. On wednesday, director comey made a pretty startling revelation that he had essentially taken a stick of dynamite and thrown it into the department of justice by going around the chain of command. Having a letter like the one that he received and having that conversation that outlined the basic just atrocities in circumventing the chain of command in the department of justice. Today the new acting director of the fbi, andrew mccabe, is set to testify to a Senate Committee after meeting facetoface with the president on wednesday. Its likely hell face questions about comeys firing as the white house intensifies its search for a new fbi director. Our coverage begins now with cnn White House Correspondent athena jones. Reporter good morning, alison and dave. The white houses explanation of the comey firing has been evolving over the last couple of days. Now were learning the white house says that the president was considering letting comey go starting from the day he was elected to the office. And so, Late Wednesday afternoon, the white house put out a timeline trying to clarify how this all went down, starting with the president losing confidence in the director over the last several months, then being angered by the directors testimony last wednesday on capitol hill, and then the president having a conversation, having a meeting with the attorney general, jeff sessions, and the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein, to talk about reasons for removing director comey. Now, thats a little more information than we had before. Before, the white house wasnt really answering the question of whether the president had asked rosenstein to write up that memo that he wrote in the end. One thing, of course, the white house not eager to address, certainly not in this timeline, is the issue of the attorney general having recused himself, having played a role in the firing of the man in charge of the russia investigation. So, theres still a lot more explaining to do. Alison, dave . Okay, athena, thanks very much. And james comey refusing to dwell on his dismissal in a farewell letter to his colleagues at the fbi, writing i have long believed that a president can fire an fbi director for any reason or for no reason aall. Im not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you wont either. It is done and i will be fine, although i will miss you and the mission deeply. Sources inside the white house tell cnn President Trump kept his decision to fire comey very close to the vest in the 48 hours before dropping this bombshell. He did not seek a wide range of viewpoints and grew increasingly angry with the fbi director after reaching the conclusion comey was his own man and could not be trusted. A longtime friend who spoke to the president over the weekend described him as whitehot angry and complaining repeatedly about russia, russia, trump and russia. That friend says the president has regularly expressed frustration that they cant make this all go away, apparently referring to comey and his staff, among others. The president also particularly angry with comey for testifying he was mildly nauseous about the possibility that he himself influenced the president ial election. The president also upset that comey was not putting enough emphasis on investigating leaks. Also developing, the white house closely monitoring the performance of Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders. Shes been filling in this week for sean spicer, who is out for Naval Reserve duty, but multiple Administration Sources say spicer has been benched and could be replaced. Theres also new, intense reaction to comeys firing this morning from both sides of the aisle. Some criticism from republicans, including congressman jason chaffetz, a trump supporter, calling on the Justice Department Inspector General to review the firing. Chaffetz says in a statement, previously, i asked Inspector General horowitz to review the fbis actions in advance of the 2016 elections. Today i sent a letter urging ig horowitz to expand the scope of his review to include the decision to fire director comey. I look forward to receiving the igs findings. Other Top Republicans coming to the president s defense, like House Speaker paul ryan, in his first comments since the firing. Listen. James comey, who is a worthwhile and dedicated public servant, i think he had just basically lost the confidence of a lot of republicans and a lot of democrats based upon his conduct, his actions, and some of the comments that he had made. And most importantly, he lost the confidence of the president , and it is entirely within the president s role and authority to relieve him, and thats what he did. And democratic senator richard blumenthal, who trump personally targeted on twitter, suggesting this could become a crisis along the lines of watergate. It is a looming constitutional crisis because it involves a potential confrontation, as did watergate, between the president and other brac branches of government. It may well produce impeachment proceedings, although were very far from that possibility. Meantime, President Trump still hanging tough on his decision, taking to twitter last night to post a video of democrats who have been critical of comey, tweeting this the democrats should be ashamed. This is a disgrace. Draintheswamp. While director comeys firing was dominating the headlines, former National Security adviser Michael Flynn was being subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence committee. Lawmakers demanding all documents related to his interactions with russian officials. The subpoena was issued once flynns lawyer informed the senators he would not be voluntarily turning over any of the information they requested in late april. On tuesday, cnn learned several of flynns associates had been previously subpoenaed. We get more now from cnns manu raju. Reporter good morning, alison and dave. Now, the Senate Intelligence committees investigation into the russia meddling and any ties that exist with Trump Associates starting to ramp up now that the Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Michael Flynn, the former National Security adviser, for documents related to anything, any of his ties to russia. This is because flynn apparently did not abide by the committees request for records. Now, i am told that, really, the committee has only gotten a handful of requests back from those Trump Associates, and some of them have not even satisfied what the committee is looking for, including carter page, that former trump adviser, Foreign Policy adviser, not giving details that the committee wants, so expect some more subpoenas potentially in the coming days. Now, this comes as later today a major hearing happening in the Senate Intelligence committee where National Security leaders will come and testify about concerns they have worldwide. One person who will not be there, james comey. He was scheduled to testify there. Also next week, comey invited to testify before the Senate Intelligence committee, but one catch, this is going to happen in a closeddoor session and will not be open to the public, so we may not know what questions comey is presented with and what answers he gives, particularly behind why he was fired by President Trump. Guys . All right. Our thanks to manu raju for that. And the big question on wall street what does comeys firing mean for the trump rally . The socalled trump bump is essentially a bet that the white house will pass pro business policies, especially tax reform, but the thing is, investors see the current turmoil in washington as just another distraction. After a historic run since the election, stocks have barely budged since april 26th, and thats the day the administration released its tax outline. Investors want to know more details. They want a guarantee the white house will work with lawmakers to pass reform, and the president s commerce secretary is blaming congress for the holdup. He said this speaking to reuters. Wilbur ross says 3 growth wont happen this year because congress has been slowwalking everything. Ross added that target growth could happen next year, if the administrations policies get passed. But we got an indication with this whole comey mess that youre seeing Senate Democrats saying, listen, were going to stall legislation put the brakes on everything. Were going to put the brakes on any nominees that need confirmation. So, you are going to see kind of this slowing of course, they cant stop health care at this point. That looks like theyre going to do that with just republican support. Yeah, but theyre looking to slow things down, unless the president agrees to have a special prosecutor. I think senates going to slow things down on their own. The Senate Republicans want to take their time with this health care bill, and until it gets through, they cant do tax reform because they need the savings. They need the money, yep. So, it looks like a slow slog. Coming up, President Trump meeting russian president putin in just a few months, after a private sitdown between the president and russias top diplomat. The Foreign Ministers bizarre reaction to the firing of james comey, just ahead. If youre searching for something that finally relieves your pain, icyhot lidocaine. Desensitizes aggravated nerves with the max strength lidocaine available. Icyhot lidocaine. Did the comey fire cast a shadow was he fired . Youre kidding youre kidding [ laughter ] oh, surreal day at the white house once again. It was kind of the cherry on top of it all, wasnt it . Yes, it was. Despite all the upheaval in the office, it is business as usual in the oval office for the russians. The president trusting Sergey Lavrov and ambassador sergey kislyak. Remember, it is t was Michael Flynns meetings with kislyak that led to the downfall of the former National Security adviser. U. S. Intelligence officials consider kislyak a top russian spy, but that didnt stop a warm welcome from President Trump, unlike the greeting he had for german chancellor ainngela merk, a key u. S. Ally. How about them for some optics . The u. S. Press pool was not allowed into the white house for the meetings with the russians. Russian state media was permitted inside, and these photos were taken by them and released by them. And just this morning, russian state media announced President Trump will meet with russian president Vladimir Putin in july. So, lets go live to moscow and bring in cnns diana magnay. Diana, good morning to you. What is the reaction to all of this in moscow . Reporter hi, dave. Well, president putin was asked about it on his way to a hockey match, and he acted as though it was a real surprise that he should be asked. He said this has nothing to do with us, and its entirely within the president s competency to fire who he wants. But you could hear the tone that Sergey Lavrov dismissed all of these allegations, batting off the u. S. Press corps as though they were irritants, gives you a sense of the scorn that russia has to a certain extent for the political chaos that theyre seeing in the u. S. But i think theres also a note of concern there. Dmitry peskov, the kremlins spokesman, said that he hoped that this doesnt affect russian u. S. Relations. And i think that russia with its Foreign Policy concerns being syria and the fight against International Terrorism needs a cooperation from the u. S. And needs in that case a reliable partner who it knows how it will respond, and President Trump, certainly as we saw from the u. S. Missile strike, is entirely unpredictable on those sorts of issues. Were now hearing that they will be meeting, president s trump and president putin, on the sidelines of the g20 summit in july in germany. They will clearly be discussing syria, the fight against terrorism. We know that Rex Tillerson and Sergey Lavrov discussed that, that russia brought up its proposal of deescalation zones, but theres a lot of details still to be worked out on that matter, and there are major issues that the americans are concerned with, namely the role of iran and the role of assad. Diana magnay, great reporting live from moscow. Thank you. Oh, snap i had to say it that way. Snapchat. Its first Earnings Report not good. Well show you just how bad it is on cnn money stream, 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®. ive done every night isince i was a kid,hing empty my pocket change into this old jar. Its never much, just whats left after i break a dollar. And i never thought i could get quality Life Insurance with my spare change. Neither did i. Until i saw a commercial for the Colonial Penn program. Imagine people our age getting Life Insurance at such an affordable rate. Its true. If youre 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance Life Insurance through the Colonial Penn program for less than 35 cents a day, just 9. 95 a month. Theres no medical exam and no health questions. You know, the average cost of a funeral is over 8,300. Now thats a big burden to leave your loved ones. Add to that credit card balances and final medical bills, and youve got plenty of reasons to call for free information about this valuable coverage. Its easy and affordable to help cover your final expenses through the Colonial Penn program. As long as youre 50 to 85 you cannot be turned down because of your health. Your premium never goes up and your benefit never goes down due to age. Plus, your coverage builds cash value over time, money you can borrow against. So dont wait, call now for free information and a free gift. All i did was make a phone call and all of my questions about the Colonial Penn program were answered. It couldnt have been any easier and we both got the coverage we should have had for years now. Mmhm, with change to spare. laughing Colonial Penn jingle the shlike a bald penguin. How do i look . [ laughing ] show me the Billboard Music awards. Show me top artist. Show me the top hot 100 artist. They give awards for being hot and 100 years old . Well take 2 [ laughing ] xfinity x1 gives you exclusive access to the best of the Billboard Music awards just by using your voice. The Billboard Music awards. Sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. Welcome back. Betsy devos, no doubt, hoping her next commencement speech goes better than her first as secretary of education. Devos addressing a hostile crowd of graduates at bethunecookman university. Thats a historically black school in florida. Dr. Jackson, board of trustees, thank you so very, very much for this great honor and privilege. [ booing ] i am honored as you can hear there, the graduates booed, they stood up, they turned their backs on her as she spoke, drowning out some of her remarks. The rude reception prompting the University President to intervene. If this behavior continues, your degrees will be mailed to you. Choose which way you want to go. Students had petitioned School Officials to choose another commencement speaker. The primary reason for protesting devos appearance is her statement which she later recanted, that founders of historically black colleges and universities were real pioneers of school choice, which they certainly were not. After the speech, devos tweeted i have respect for all those who attended bethunecookman, including those who demonstrated their disagreement with me today. So, take the high road, huh . Hopefully. The department of Homeland Security appears close to announcing an expanded ban on laptops and other large electronics, which could include all flights from europe to the u. S. Officials are meeting today with representatives of the Airline Industry to discuss security issues. The initial ban on laptops and tablet devices applied only to u. S. Bound flights from ten airports in the mideast and north africa. It was based on fears that terrorists have found a way to convert laptops into bombs capable of bringing down a commercial airliner. The aclu protesting the arrest of a reporter in West Virginia who shouted questions at Health Secretary tom price, calling it a direct assault on the first amendment. Public news Service Reporter dan hayman tried to get a comment from price on the effort to replace obamacare. After persistent questioning and reaching over secret Service Agents with his recorder, he was charged with willful disruption of government processes. Heyman spent eight hours behind bars before being released on bond. He could face up to six months in jail, if found guilty of the misdemeanor. Heyman says he was just doing his job. Secretary price commended the police for doing what they felt was appropriate. Hmm. Likely have not heard the last of that story. I think youre right. All right, a risk of severe storms today in the central u. S. Lets get the latest from meteorologist derek van dam. Good morning. Good morning, alison and dave. Wednesday was yet another busy day for Severe Weather across the central parts of the u. S. Nine confirmed tornado reports from oklahoma to texas, parts of illinois and iowa. Look at the hail and wind reports as well. Now, that chance of Severe Weather slowly shifting to the east. Heres our threat today. Anywhere from dallas to little rock, louisville, and into parts of the midatlantic, large hail, damaging winds the primary concern, but we cant rule out the potential for an isolated tornado. Look at the showers and storms erupting across this region. Again, the ohio river valley into the plains. But as we head through the course of the weekend, we really start to see the rain shift to the new england coast, 2 to 4 inches, perhaps locally higher amounts from the Nations Capital through the big apple. And look how this impacts our temperatures as well. Lower 50s as we head into saturday. Starting to rebound as we reach mothers day by the end of the weekend, but its not only the big apple that cools down. Were staying well below average for washington and we cool down even into atlanta. Back to you. Derek, no, no cooldown. Were ready for a real spring. Absolutely. All right, well, it appears dwayne the rock johnson has something cooking for 2020. The wrestlerturnedactor tells gq magazine hes been asked quite a bit over the last year about a run for the white house. His response i think thats a real possibility. Whoa thats right, folks. It comes after the Washington Post wrote an op ed last year calling the worlds highest paid movie star a viable candidate. How would the action hero do in the rough and tumble of a president ial campaign . Well, one producer calls his smile a weapon. I would agree. Ann canny ability to make audiences feel safe. Got to agree with the rock. I love the smile. He was in a movie called central intelligence, so that totally qualifies this day in age, right . It does . Today . Oh all bets are off. I think that will do it. The rock, this guy can do anything, i do believe. His success in several different rell ames, dont count him out. All right, lets get a check on cnn money stream this morning. U. S. Futures down this morning, Global Markets mostly lower after wall street finished mixed. The s p and nasdaq closing at records, the fourth in a row while the dow clipping lower as investors digest the firing of fbi director james comey. So, investors want the white house to focus on passing policy, not politics. Good luck with that. And the market is essentially waiting to make a move until that happens. On deck today, more earnings as wall street gets close to the end of a strong earnings season, in fact, the best since 2007. Oh, snap snapchats Parent Company there you go. Losing 2. 2 billion last quarter. Thats a lot of money. Investors are not happy. In its first report as a public company, snap announcing that staggering loss and weak user growth, its worst in two years, although my daughter is always on it, so i dont get it. My, too. Always, all day. We saw shares yesterday plummet as much as 25 overnight, erasing all stock gains since it went public in march. Ugh tesla, its got a new product. Its not an electric car. The company is now accepting deposits for solar panels. Founder eli musks latest plan for clean energy is in your home. So, unlike most solar panels, teslas looks no different from normal roof tiling, and musk says it will be cheaper than traditional roofing, eventually. Because get this, sticker shock here, some roofs will cost you more than 75,000. Now, you get tax credits here and there. Youve got to put out a lot of money up front. Hopefully, sthav on the back end. Tesla and amazon continuing to take over the world. Yeah, the world. World domination in sights. All right, early start all right, early start continues right now. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com why did you fire director comey . Because he wasnt doing a good job, very simply. He was not doing a good job. The roping, hm, sounds simple enough. New details this morning about the president s rationale for firing james comey and it has nothing to do with hillary clinton. Plus Michael Flynn subpoenaed by congress. Well he finally hand over documents to his lawyers who declined to provide. What does that mean for this russia vest sghags wow, it is coming out as fast and furious, getting back to the rock. Welcome to early start. Im dave briggs. So many developments. Its alison companikosic. A stunning picture of a scorned President Trump increasingly consumed by a nowformer fbi director whose russia investigation was picking up too much steam nor for the president s comfort. A source close to comey telling jake tapper comey was