Transcripts For CNNW Early Start With John Berman And Christine Romans 20170220

Immigrants ahead. Welcome to early start. Im miguel marquez. Im ana cabrera. It is 4 00 a. M. In the east on this president s day. Lets start with the comment made by the president at the rally in tampa where the president slammed the media for falsehoods. He made a comment on where he gets his facts and how he forms his world view. President trump was trying to back up a claim that unchecked immigration poses a threat and listen to what he said here. You look at whats happening last night in sweden. Sweden who would believe this . Sweden took in large numbers and theyre having problems they never thought possible. The problem with that claim, ana, there was no attack friday in sweden. Mr. Trump and his remarks mentioned germany and nice and brussels and paris. This came one day after fox news interviewed a filmmaker who is trying to tie the refugees to the violence there. The white house is trying to clean up the mess and sweden is trying to contradict the president s claim. We have athena jones traveling with the president. She has more from palm beach. Reporter good morning, ana and boris. The president s comments on the melbourne rally on saturday suggest there may be a terror incident on friday night. Left a lot of people around the world scratching their heads. The president was rifeferring ta fox news report on friday night. More committed to accepting more migrants than sweden. 2016 alone, the country accepted 160,000 asylum seekers. Despite a population of 10 million people. Only 500 were able to get jobs in sweden. If these arrivals are not able to work, they are able to commit crimes. A surge in gun violence and rape in sweden once they started the open door policy. They know this crime is happening. They can feel it. The statistics are clear. They would refer to the root cause and say it is just happening. It is men raping people. Not the refugee refugees. The government is trying to cover up the problems. Reporter what is clear is the president is an avid watcher of cable news. Where he gets information from. The lack of precision, the fact he said something that made it sound like he was referring to a terror incident left a lot of people scratching their heads. The former Prime Minister to sweden taking to twitter saying sweden. Terror attack . What has he been smoking . The presideresident often repea things he heard or read without checking. This has become a problem. It shows that the president s words matter and a lot of people around the world are listening closely to what the president says. Boris, ana. Athena, thank you. It is worth noting the overall crime rate changed very little over the last ten years. Something that stockholm had in mind. We look forward to informing the u. S. Administration about immigration policies. Meantime, Holding Nothing back in the effort of ending questions home and abroad about the stance toward russia. Mike pence telling leaders it will hold russia accountable. This as the white house chief of staff geeoes on the talk shows sunday to talk about the contact last year with russia and the trump campaign. Top levels of the Intelligence Community assured me that story is not only inaccurate, but grossly overstated and it was wrong. That story in the New York Times is garbage. Frankly, they used different words than that. It is clear the white house wont get the final say on this. The Senate Committee suggests it will conduct a deep dive investigation into the trump and russia connection. Ryan nobles has more. Reporter good morning. This is a significant development. The Senate Intelligence committee sending a dozen letters to agencies and individuals connected to the Trump Administration telling them to preserve records related to russia. It is a clear sign there will be a bipartisan investigation into the russian government attempt to interfere in the election. The move comes after a private briefing by fbi director james comey. It was after that meeting which remains a secret which marco rubio tweeted about the issue. And up until now, they had been reluctant to take that step despite the ranking member. Pushed back on the idea of a records request doesnt mean they will reveal anything. The president has defended the validity of the election win and worked hard to downplay any suggestion that there was an attempt by russia to intervene on his behalf. Boris and ana. Thank you. The white house is not backing down after the Senior Security advisor was reassigned following a disagreement with President Trump. Officials have confirmed he was removed from his role as the security adviser and sent back to his Defense Department job. Craig deare had been assigned by the administration. Political reports during a speech he slammed the president. Steve bannon and what deare saw as dysfunction in the white house. Following reassignment, a spokeswoman siaid people who dont agree with the president should not have a job with the white house. And new National Security advisor candidates at maralago. Among those interviewed is john bolton and keith kellogg. This comes among the Michael Flynn regular isignation leaves white house unprepared. Bob harward turned down the job last week. A new executive order on immigration this week and we are getting a small glimpse into what it could contain. We have memos from the department of Homeland Security which show the order could send undocumented immigrants across the border to mexico while they awa await. It strengtgives broader authori immigration officers. This new executive order could come today. Appeals court suspended the proceedings on the original travel ban. President trumps attacks on the media are coming under fire from senator john mccain. This came friday when the president tweeted the fake news failing New York Times and abc and nbc is not my enemy, but the enemy of the american people. John mccain joked with his contentious issues with the media. He said dictators get started by attacking the press. I hate the press. I hate you, especially. The fact is we need you. We need a free press. If you want to preserve democrat ty as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. Without it, im afraid we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. Thats how dictators get started. The cnn reporter who won for his reporting on watergate. And a pillar of the republican tax plan may be dead in the water. With President Trump promising pro pose al in the next few weeks, what does this mean for tax reform . A central part of the gop plan is a tax on imports into the u. S. Opens oppose this. Including the big retailers. Reports of just Many Republican lawmakers dont want it either. This import tax would pay for the tax cutlering the rate from 25 . The import tax would offset that cost by 1. 2 trillion and republicans have no back up plan to try to balance this budget. So donald trump has not said if he will include the import tax in the plan. However, his previous tax proposal did not contain it. Experts estimated the tax proposal would cost the u. S. 7 trillion. One of many battles ahead. Great to finally work with you on the desk. I know. Our colorado connection. Boris and i both worked in denver for a while. Now in new york. The secretary of defense lands in baghdad for the first role in the administration. How will he ease concerns after the president said we would take iraqi oil. The live report from the middle east next. This morning, secretary of Defense James Mattis had landed in baghdad as forces launch offense to capture mosul. This is after the gain of mosul in a months long battle. We have ben wedeman with more. Ben, this is the last major holdout in iraq. How much significant progress is there . Reporter quite significant. This is the second largest city in iraq. For the iraqis to drive isis out of western mosul will be a final chapter in the war that has been going on for two and a half years. With secretary mattis, under scoring the role the United States plays in that fight. There were around 5,000 u. S. Military personnel supporting iraqi forces in the battle in addition to the involvement of the u. S. Led coalition with aircraft bombing targets as well. Before secretary mattis arrived in baghdad, he made an interesting statement. Contradicting what we heard from President Trump the day after inauguration at cia headquarters. Where he said that we may have a chance in the future to seize iraqi oil. Secretary mattis directly contradicted that before he arrived in baghdad. All of us in america generally paid for our gas and oil all along and im sure we will continue to do so in the future. Were not in iraq to seize anybodys oil. Reporter of course, this comes as something as a reassurance to the iraqis who are also upset by the fact that iraq was included in the list of seven countries in the executive order on the travel ban. Boris. Ben wedeman live in istanbul. Thank you. The u. S. Is making its presence felt in the waters of the south china sea. They deployed an Aircraft Carrier as part of routine maritime operations. This comes among the tension with the u. S. And china over territory and trade. China warning the Trump Administration against challenging its sovereignty after learning about this deployment. This bizarre case started last week. The death of the half brother of north korea president. Now more suspects sought in the death of kim jonguns half brother. Now officials are calling it an act of terrorism. We are live in kuala lumpur 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. Today, unlimited gets the netwverizon. Eserves. mic thuds uh, sorry. Its unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america. thud uh. Sorry, last thing. Its just 45 per line. Forty. Five. cheering and applause and that is all the microphones that i have. vo not just unlimited. Verizon unlimited. North korea now accusing malaysia and south korea of collusion in the investigation in the death of kim jonguns half brother. There is a search for four more suspects in the death of kim jongnam. Police say he was poisoned at kuala lumpur airport last week. The government is latching up the pressure on the search for answers. Cnns saima mohsin is live in kuala lumpur. Saima, south korea is calling the death of kim jongnam a terror attack . Reporter yeah, absolutely. They did not stop there. They have said, ana, this is undoubtedly according without a doubt north koreas doing. They believe pyongyang is behind the murder of kim jongnam. This is a Murder Investigation as i confirmed with police over the weekend. South korea, as you say, calling it terrorism. That has been met with a lot of anger from the north koreans. Im outside the dprk embassy to kuala lumpur and just a short while ago, the ambassador here in an incredibly unprecedented way came out of the embassy and spoke to the press and read out quite a long statement to us. In which he said the malaysian authorities are coulluding with the south koreans. The ambassador came to the mortuary after midnight and criticized the handling of the case so far. That was responded by early monday morning local time by the Malaysian Foreign ministry calling the ambassador to the ministry for discussions on the situation. An unprecedented diplomatic move. They also recalled malaysias ambassador to north korea to pyongyang. This back and worth has culminated into a climatic point of the north korea ambassador statement in which he said they do not trust Malaysian Authority investigation and the embassy identified, this is crucial, they have identified the dead man as kim cho. According to his passport. You will remember the deputy Prime Minister of malaysia held a press conference telling us this was indeed kim jongnam as identified by north korean officials. This is getting more and more complicated. Saima mohsin in kuala lumpur, thank you. Now to the west coast of the United States. More storms headed to water logged Northern California after five people died over the weekend. Power knocked out and cars submerged in Southern California as the region experienced one of the most drenching storms in recent years. Forecasters expect heavy rain and another storm expected to hit the region mid week. To sports now. A blockbuster trade overshadowed the allstar game. Demarcus cousins to the pelicans for a package of three players. Cousins stirs up controversy off and on the court that made him a lightning rod. This pairs him with Anthony Davis who store tle the show on allstar game. He set a record of 52 points and winning the mvp as the west beat the east in the low scoring affair. 192182. They dont play much defense. It is fun to watch. They make it look effortless. Big questions for President Trump after suggesting to thousands of supporters a terror attack happened in sweden. Only problem . It didnt happen. How is the president defending his actions . Approaching medicare eligibility . You may think you can put off checking out your Medicare Options until youre sixtyfive, but now is a good time to get the ball rolling. Keep in mind, medicare only covers about eighty percent of part b medical costs. The rest is up to you. 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These are the only Medicare Supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an Organization Serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. Plus, nine out of ten plan members surveyed say they would recommend their plan to a friend. Remember, medicare doesnt cover everything. The rest is up to you. Call now, request your free decision guide and start gathering the information you need to help you keep rolling with confidence. Go long™. The suggestion of a terror attack that never happened prompting new questions for President Trump. Why did he tell supporters about an attack in sweden that never took place. A warning from the Senate Intelligence committee. If you have papers related to russian interference in the election, hold on to them. They are wanted as part of a probe into moscow. New executive order on immigration be expeexpected thi. But first who is impacted the move and how Law Enforcement deals with it. Im ana cabrera. Great to see you. Im boris sanchez. Lets start with the surprising comment made by the president at the campaign rally. He made a comment that is drawing questions about where he gets his facts and how he forms his world view. President trump backing up a claim that unchecked immigration poses a threat and then said this. You look at whatsweden. Sweden. Who would believe this . Sweden. They took in large numbers. They are having problems like they never thought possible. Main problem with that comment is there was no attack friday in sweden. He mentioned germany and brussels and nice. The context was clear. The remark claim one day after the interview with a filmmaker on fox news who is trying to tie sweden taking in refugee to violence. Mr. Donald trump is trying to clarify his point. The white house is trying to clean up the mess and sweed ide trying to contradict the claim. We have athena jones with more from florida. Reporter good morning, ana and boris. The president s comments at the melbourne rally on saturday suggesting there may have been a terror incident in sweden on friday night left a lot of people all around the world scratching their heads. The president later sunday tweeting he was referring to a fox news report that aired on friday night. Here is what some of that report had to say. Perhaps no nation on earth more committed than sweden in accepting refugee. In 2016, the country accepted more than 160,000 asylum seekers. Only 500 of the migrants were able to get jobs. If these arrivals are not able to work, they are able to commit crimes. There was a surge in gun violence and rape in sweden with the open door policy. They know that this crime is happening. They can feel it. The information is clear. They would refer to what is the root cause and say it is just more violence. It is men raping people. Not the refugees. They make excuses. That is what they are referring to. The government has gone out of its way to cover up the problems. Reporter what is clear here is the president is an avid watcher of cable news. Where he gets information from. And this lack of precision. The fact he said something that made it sound like he was referring to a terror incident left people scratching their heads. You had the former swedish Prime Minister saying sweden. Terror attack . What has he been smoking . The president often repeats things he heard or read without checking. This has become a problem. It shows that the president s words matter and that a lot of people all around the world are listening very closely to what the president said. Boris, ana. Athena jones reporting. Quick fact check here. Swedish government figures show the overall crime rate has changed over the last ten years. Something stockholm had in mind as it tweeted out this. Saying we look forward to informing the u. S. Administration about swedish immigration policies. The Trump Administration Holding Nothing back in an effort aimed at ending questions at home and abroad about the stance toward russia. Vice president mike pence in germany told World Leaders the u. S. Will hold russia accountab accountable. The white house chief of staff went on the sunday talk thoushoo deny the ties between russia and the campaign. Top levels of the taem Intelligence Community assured me that story is inaccurate and grossly overstated and wrong. That story is garbage. They used different words than that. It is clear the white house will not get the final say on this. Senate Committee Suggests it will conduct a deep dive investigation into the trump and russia connection. We have ryan nobles with more from washington. Reporter good morning. This is a significant development. The Senate Intelligence committee sending more than a dozen letters to agencies and individuals connected to the Trump Administration telling them to preserve records related to russia. It is a clear sign there will be a bipartisan investigation into the russian government attempt to interfere in the election. The move comes after a private briefing of republican and democratic members of congress by fbi director james comey. It was after that meeting that republican senator rubio tweeted there would be a bipartisan probe into the issue. Up until now, the Senate Intelligence chair had been reluctant to take that step despite pushed by the ranking democrat of virginia. The white house did not deny the letters had been sent, but push back on the idea it was a big deal. Just because records were requested doesnt mean they will reveal anything. The president has forcefully defended the election win and worked hard to downplay any suggestion that there was an attempt by russia to intervene on his behalf. Boris and ana. Thank you. The white house is not backing down after a senior National Security adviser was reassigned following disagreement with President Trump. White house officials confirmed craig deare was removed from the National Security adviser and sent back to the original Defense Department job. Deare assigned to the nse by the Trump Administration, but political reports that during a speech on thursday, he slammed the president. Following his reassignment, the Administration Spokesperson said that people who dont agree with President Trump should not have a job be in his white house. Donald trump is trying to narrow the field of candidates for the National Security adviser position. On sunday, the president interviewed several at maralago. Among them, former u. S. Ambassador john bolton as well as keith kellogg. This comes among concerns that Michael Flynns resignation leaves the white house unprepared. Bob harward was considered a front runner for the job, but took his name out of the running last week. The department of Homeland Security memos shows Trump Administration could send mexicans back across the border while they await proceedings. It is toughening the law on asylum seekers. An Appeals Court has suspended proceedings on the original travel ban. The President Trumps attacks on the media is coming under fire from senator john mccain. The Fake News Media failing New York Times and nbc and abc is not my enemy, but the enemy of the american people. John mccain says he was not calling the president a dictator, but dictators get started by attacking the press. I hate the press. I hate you, especially. The fact is we need you. We need a free press. If you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversary press. Without it, im afraid we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That is how dictators get started. Amen, brother. Carl wol steen calls the attacks more treacherous than nixons. Lets get a start on your money. Even ve investors keep a close eye on your money after the proposal to tax imports. The last Major Companies to report are walmart, macys and home depot. And Retail Executives who met with President Trump last week oppose a retail tax. Many argue a tax will raise prices and hurt business. Donald trump has not said if he will include this import tax in his plan. However, the revenue raised by it is to help pay for tax cuts in the current gop proposal. You got to rob peter to pay paul. Even with the original plan. It is interesting to see how they move forward. The secretary of defense lands in baghdad to assess the situation. It comes as iraqis try to reclaim mosul from isis. A report from the middle east next. This morning, secretary of Defense James Mattis landed in baghdad as iraqi forces launch offensive to recapture the western part of mosul. The move comes after iraq regained control of eastern mosul in a months long battle. We have cnns ben wedeman live with the latest. Ben, what are we expecting from the visit from secretary mattis . Reporter basically he wants to go and see whats going on and meet with iraqi officials. Keep in mind, boris, he is no stranger to iraq. He served in the first gulf war and during the american occupation. He knows the country well and the challenges well. This is a battle thats in addition involving more than 100,000 iraqi troops. There are more than 5,000 u. S. Military personnel on the ground providing vital assistance and backing for the effort to drive isis out of western mosul. There are u. S. War planes and other Coalition War planes hitting isis targets on the ground. The u. S. Has a large role in whats going on in northern iraq. Secretary before arriving in iraq took the opportunity to, in a sense, contradict President Trump, to say the United States is not interested in iraqs oil. This is what he said. All of us in america generally paid for our gas and oil all along. Im sure we will continue to do so in the future. Were not in iraq to seize anybodys oil. Reporter of course, it is important to reassure the iraqis that indeed the United States is not interested in the iraq oil. Also keep in mind that the iraqis were upset their country was included in the seven countries covered by the executive order relating to the travel ban. Boris. Ben wedeman, thank you. The u. S. Is making presence felt in the disputed waters of the south china sea. They deployed an Aircraft Carrier as part of routine maritime operations. It comes among growing tension over growing territory and trade. After learning about it. Biggest brand mash up is no more. Kraft heinz walking away from the bid for unile vrver. We will tell you why next. Today, unlimited gets the network it deserves. Verizon. mic thuds uh, sorry. Its unlimited without compromising reliability, on the largest, most advanced 4g lte network in america. thud uh. Sorry, last thing. Its just 45 per line. Forty. Five. cheering and applause and that is all the microphones that i have. vo not just unlimited. Verizon unlimited. Youre a funny guy. Best of the oscars. Funny how . How am i funny . Scorsese finally wins. Could you double check the envelope . Show me best picture. Whats the difference . Show me best actor. I do not take tonight for granted. Thank you so very much. Get all the greatest scripted and unscripted oscar moments on xfinity x1. The oscars, live sunday, february 26th 7ea4p on abc. North korea is now accusing malaysia and south korea of collusion in the investigation into the death of kim jonguns half brother. Kim jongnam was poisoned at kuala lumpur airport last week. Now ratcheting up diplomatic pressure for answers. We have saima mohsin with the latest. Saima, this is a bizarre story. Any evidence of the collusion they are accusing south korea and malaysia of . Reporter well, they certainly didnt come forward with any evidence. What they say, though, is they are basing this on the sequence of events. Let me tell you the north Korean Ambassador and another unprecedented statement here outside the north Korean Embassy in kuala lumpur said. He said because there is a delay in the announcement of the cause of death and because there is no criminal evidence brought forward, referring to the Police Investigation and suspects arrested, they believe this is suspicious and we cannot trust the investigation. He also crucially pointed out that the north Korean Embassy, now, never identified the dead man as kim jongnam. Kim jonguns half brother. They identified him as kim cho. The passport he was carrying. If we find back to last week, the deputy Prime Minister of malaysia held a press conference saying the north korea officials at the mortuary on wednesday, they had identified him as kim jongnam at the time. A lot of claims and counterclaims. This has become an extraordinary investigation and extraordinary diplomatic row. Culminating in the climatic statement here today and then the malaysians recalling their ambassador to pyongyang for and i quote, consultation. They have an embassy in pyongyang. Normally amicable relations. They are continuing with the Police Investigation. Four new suspects police say are wanted in connection to the death of the north korean man. Three people wanted to assist in the investigation and four already in custody since last week. Their remand is up tomorrow. We will see if the malaysians decide to hold them longer. Saima, this is bizarre. One suspect thought she was on a game show when she sprayed that poison on kim jongnam. Thank you for following it for us. The powerful storm swept through texas overnight leaving tens of thousands in the dark and knocking out power to 40,000 customers in san antonio. More than 100 homes were hit by what may have been a tornado. The storm causing a partial Train Derailment outside of austin. We will have more details as it becomes available. Northern california keeps getting slammed. Five people died in the state over the weekend with the rush of water knocking out power and cars submerged. Sadly, its not over yet. Theres always too much of a good thing is never a good thing. Especially after so much drought. They needed rain. Now they are getting too much. Lets get the forecast with meteorologist derek van dam. Good morning, boris and ana. We focus attention across the northern and central portions of the state. The National Weather Service Using Strong Language today where residents need to prepare to evacuate within 15 minutes or less due to the potential of flooding across the part of the state. We have a series of storm systems lining up. Another Atmospheric River event potentially taking place. Look out San Francisco and sacramento. We will measure snowfall in feet across the sierra nevada. Then rainfall across the lower elevations. Anywhere between 3 to 5 inches. Locally higher amounts. The potential exists. Elsewhere across the u. S. , a weak system bringing showers across the Northern Plains and the midwest. Thunderstorms for eastern texas and louisiana. Check out temperatures off the warm weekend. You will not believe this. We have the potential to break upwards of 25 record highs today alone. Back to you. 65 degrees in new york yesterday. Beautiful. Lets get an early start on your money. Global markets higher after another record close on friday for the dow. Markets are closed for president s day. Biggest brand mash up is nowhere. Kraft heinz withdrew the takeover bid for unilever. It was turned down saying it under valued the company. This merger would have been the largest in the food and beverage industry. Trumping the 125 billion for anheuserbusch back in 2016. The ceo of uber is vowing to fire employees who mistreat women. Calling for an urgent investigation into sexism at the company. This is after a blog post describing Sexual Harassment at uber. The account is against everything uber believes in. Spacex back in action. The company launching successfully a rocket on sunday after delay over minor concerns. The launch went smoothly. The First Successful spacex launch since explosion destroyed the launch last september. It takes a couple of days to get to the International Space station. They have cargo on board. Always fun to watch. What they do up there is way over my head. It would be cool to be an astronaut. Intense. My son, i think, is going to go in that scientific way of pursuing career. He is thinking astronaut is cool. Pretty cool. Early start continues right now. The terror attack that wasnt. Prompting new questions about the commander in chief. What led President Trump to tell supporters about an attack in sweden that never took place. The top Senate Committee preparing to investigate russian interference in the election. Officials are warning interested parties do not toss out documents related to the issue. With the new executive order on immigration, Homeland Security is outlining changes of how it will be carried out. The impact this could have on undocumented immigrants. Thanks for being with us on early start. Im ana cabrera with my friend boris sanchez. Real life here on the desk. Im boris sanchez. It is monday, february 20th. 5 00 a. M. On the east coast. We start with a surprising comment made by the president over the weekend. The president slammed the media for spreading falsehoods. He made a common that is drawing questions about where he gets his facts and how he forms his world view. President trump was trying to back up a claim that unchecked immigration poses a threat and then just watch. You look at whats happening last night in sweden. Sweden. Who would believe this . Sweden. They took in large numbers. They are having problems like they never thought possible. The main problem with that claim is that there was no attack friday in sweden. Mr. Donald trump and his remarks