allegations of sexual misconduct. first fortune 500 ceo in the me too era. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> good morning. i'm dave briggs. it is monday, september 10th. 4:00 in the east. we look for the author of the op-ed. appearing on the sunday talk shows supporting the president's claims saying whoever wrote it is guilty of criminal behavior. mike pence denying any involvement and calling on the one to come forward. >> i'm 100% confident that no one on the president's staff was involved in the editorial. i know my people, margaret. they get up every day and they are dedicated as much as i am as supporting the president's agenda and supporting the president for the country. whoever this was, they should do the honorable thing and resign. >> the author claims white house aides discussed trying to remove the president from aoffice. the vice president was asked about that. >> one of the claims made in the op-ed is discussion of invoking the 25th amendment to remove the president from office. have you ever been part of a cancco conversation about that? >> no, why we would? >> a source close to the white house tells cnn aides believe they narrowed down the search for the author to just a few individuals. we get more from ryan nobles. >> reporter: hello from the white house, dave and christine. no doubt it is driving the administration crazy. kellyanne conway, one of the senior advisers, was on the sunday morning talk shows attempting to spin and destroy the creditbility of the individual before the identity is revealed. she took it a step further when she suggested perhaps the media may be partially to blame for the problem. >> what does concern me, jake, apart from everything others have said, for a media consta constantly talking about facts and accuracy and transparency, the authority was viewed as long as the message is anti-trump, it is believed to be credible. the person should resign if the person truly is an appointee and taken an oath to the constituti constitution. >> reporter: the question is this week is how far will the president and administration go in attempting to find out who this person is. vice president mike pence suggesting perhaps a crime may have been committed. if that is the case, does the department of justice get involved? if that is the case, he believes attorney general jeff sessions should get involved. at this point, the justice department will not comment. dave. thank you. the white house is bracing for the bob woodward book which is due to be released tomorrow. here is how the author sees it. >> you look at the operation of this white house and you have to say let's hope to god we don't have a crisis. >> in his book, he describes a white house where top advisers removed documents from the president's desk to prevent him from enacting dangerous policies. >> woodward claiming he would not use the author's claims if they were presented to him. >> if there was a person in the white house or administration who wanted to tell me what's in that op-ed piece, i would say okay name me who was there, what is the specific incident as you know from having read my book. their dates and times and participants. i wouldn't have used it. it doesn't have the standards of specific incidents which are the building blocks of journalism as you know. >> president trump calling woodward's book a con on the public and accuses the author of being a democratic operative. barack obama on the campaign trail. former president heads to ohio this week after a stop in california. mr. obama calling the mid-term elections a critical moment in american history. >> where there's a vacuum in our democracy, when we are not paying attention or stepping up, other voices fill the void. the good news is in two months, we have a chance to restore some sanity in our politics. >> some republicans believe mr. obama's reemergence will fire up gop voters. the president and vice president pence are trying to neutralize the impact. >> i was very disappointed to see president obama break with tradition of former presidents and become some political and roll out the same tired arguments that he and liberals have made over the last eight years. >> i'm sorry i watched it, but i fell asleep. i found he's very good, very good for sleeping [ laughter ] >> i think he was trying to take credit. take credit for this incredible thing that's happening to our country. >> president trump heads to missouri and mississippi to campaign for republicans this week. george papadopoulos insists the trump campaign was fully aware to set up a meeting with trump and vladimir putin. he claims jeff sessions was enthusiastic about pursuing it. papadopoulos is the first trump aide to be sentenced in the mueller investigation. receiving 14 days in jail for lying to the fbi. listen to the meeting he described in 2014 with trump and sessions in attendance. >> candidate trump at the time nodded at me. i don't think he was committed either way. he was open to the idea. he deferred, of course, to senior senator jeff sessions who i remember being enthusiastic. >> sessions testified under oath he pushed back of the trump/putin meeting. as part of the sentence, he has 12 months of supervised release. and florence bearing down on the east coast and it could make landfall thursday night or friday morning as a strong category three hurricane or worse. florence is expected to intensify over the next few days and forecasters fear it could stall bringing catastrophic harvey like flooding. meteorologist pedram javaheri tracking it for us. >> good morning, dave and christine. we are watching florence. still looking at a strong category one at this hour. an eye trying to form that sits 1,500 miles away from land. the steering environment and the atmosphere is such little deviation is expected with the forecast going toward the west and you follow this here. we are going over warm waters. low 80s to the mid-80s and upper 80s and the gulfstream. it will make landfall thursday night and friday from north carolina to the south carolina region. that is the likelihood at this point. the steering environment with the high pressure north and east guides this right into the carolinas. doesn't give us that escape route we see with tropical systems that curve back out to sea. that is most concerning with the feature. look at the spaghetti model guidance. all of it taking it to north carolina. some on into the delmarva region as a major category four. the last time the carolinas were impacted by a major hurricane was hugo in south carolina in 1989. certainly this would be a storm here to be reckoned with. you notice coming into the afternoon and evening hours of thursday and notice how slowly it progresses to the west by friday. very little movement. that is concerning with the tremendous rainfall in the forecast with 15 or more for friday afternoon. guys. pedram, thank you. state of emergency has been declared in north and south carolina as well as virginia. residents in all three states urged to prepare for the possibility of a natural disast disaster. kaylee hartung has more from north carolina. >> reporter: dave and christine, the sentiment in carolina beach is described as cautious optimism. you see store shelves emptying. water, bread, milk, batteries. storm essentials. you are not seeing anybody boarding up windows yet. people are waiting for more information. states of north carolina, south carolina and virginia getting farther ahead in their preparations declaring states of emergency. dave and christine. >> okay. thanks. dallas police officer charged with manslaughter for the fatal shooting of the unarmed man in his own apartment. police say amber guyger was off duty when she shot botham jean at his apartment in the building where she lived. she was released from jail on sunday after posting $300,000 bond. at this point, it doesn't appear the pair had a relationship. an investigation is under way. time for an early start on your money. ford will not move the production to the u.s. despipita tweet from president trump. it would not be profitable because sales were fewer than 50,000 units. ford was responding to the president's tweet over the weekend with the import of chinese production would be moved to america. he said this can be built in the usa and now ford will pay no tariffs. president trump has imposed tariffs on billions of dollars of chinese goods, including automobiles. he says the tariffs are necessary to punish china for unfair trade practices. all right. major business news ahead. ceo of cbs is out. his stunning downfall after 20 years at the top and the face of new sexual misconduct allegations. 4:16 eastern time. cbs chief executive les moonves stepping down in the face of new sexual misconduct allegations. his forced departure ends a 20-year tenure at the network. it includes a months long battle for control of cbs for the shareholders. in a statement, moonves claims there are untrue allegations made against him and he is deeply saddened to leave the company. here is cnn's brian stelter with more. >> reporter: of all the me too cases in the last year, there is not one like this. les moonves is the first fortune 500 ceo to leave his post amid harassment allegations in the year of me too. it is remarkable turn of events given six weeks ago when the first harassment allegations came out, he vowed to fight on. when ronan farrow's reporting came out, the cbs board stood by moonves. he wasn't suspended for forced to step down. two law firms were hired to investigate. all of this was going on amid a corporate tug-of-war with moonves and shareholder of cbs. now fast forward six weeks. farrow heard from more women who were concerned that cbs was not taking action. not holding moonves accountable. farrow published a new story on "the new yorker" web site. within a few hours, moonves was out. the caveat here is that negotiations for him to leave were already under way at that point. it seems clear the new harassment allegations which included allegations of assault, which were more disturbing than the first set of allegations. all of that is a major factor in the sunday night announcement. moonves is one of the most powerful men in tv. one of the highest paid executives in the media business. this is leaving a lot of aftershocks. there will be developments for days to come. including about how much moonves will be paid on the way out the door. normally he would be paid over $100 million if he just been forced out one day. because of the allegations against him, it is a more complicated and legal conversation. moonves has admitted to mistakes in his past, but denies abusing his power and appalling allegations of assault of forcible sex that were detailed in the story on sunday. all of this happening at a time of dramatic change in the broadcast business and now cbs moves into a new era without moonves in charge of the company. more to come on this story, but it is a climactic moment in the me too moment. thank you, brian. president trump praising north korea for the lack of missiles in the parade on sunday. he said this is a big and positive statement from north korea. thank you, chairman kim. there is nothing like good dialogue from two people who like each other. in case of military might with the intercontinental ballistic missile, the north's 70th celebration focused on development and future of the people. cnn's will ripley is live in pyongyang. you are live there. tell us what you have been seeing. >> reporter: it is like living in an alternate dimension, christine, compared to a year ago when i watched intercontinental ballistic missile rolling through the square here in pyongyang. president trump was tweeting threats of fire and fury. this reporting out by bob woodward in the book claiming that president trump drafted a tweet about pulling out the 20,000 u.s. troops on the korean peninsula, but the u.s. got a back channel that north korea would have viewed that as a threat. we have come here to this parade over the weekend to no intercontinental ballistic missiles, but the theme is about international diplomacy and friendship. they held the first games in five years at the mayday stadium here. north korea uses students to send the propaganda message. they showed moon jae-in hugging kim jong-un. the audience erupted in applause. that is extraordinary. it has never happened before. the north koreans want to open up and make friends with the south koreans. we need to keep in mind, christine, they have nstated thy are denuclearization. christine. >> thank you, will. >> we better hope there is not a crisis. there was one averted clearly with the tweet that will mentioned. coming up, dozens killed in syria. regime attempting to end a seven hea seven-year civil war. we are live in damascus with the latest. customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again! this wi-fi is fast. i know! i know! i know! i know! when did brian move back in? brian's back? he doesn't get my room. he's only going to be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's. 27 people killed. more than 60 others injured in the air strikes and shelling in the idlib province since tuesday. that is according to the white helmets. the ongoing air strikes were conducted by russian and syrian forces. the official claiming they were surgical. cnn's fred pleitgen has more from damascus. fred, a gas attack could be imminent there as well? >> reporter: that's what the u.s. seems to feel. it was interesting over the course of the weekend, vice president mike pence said if there is a gas attack, the u.s. will respond accordingly. that continues to be in the news. while on the other side, russians going out and saying they believe the rebels are finding a false flag gas attack to draw the united states in the conflict. a ton of escalation on that front. you have the air strikes you were talking about. it was remarkable to see over the weekend. you had that summit in tehran on friday that we covered in the show trying to find a way out of the crisis there in idlib province. on saturday, air strikes just started extremely escalating in idlib province. then conducted by the syrian government forces. syrians saying they were surgical air strikes. some civilian targets were hit and several people killed in the air strikes. whether or not the strikes were prelude to offensive is unclear at this at that time. the syrian government is saying the offensive has not started yet. they are telling us, dave, they are ready to go anytime. we have been saying the syrian military has surrounded idlib province with the most battle hardened fighters. the concern on the u.s. part and international part, there are still 3 million civilians trapped inside the area with nowhere to go. obviously they would be very vulnerable. >> they could, indeed. fred, thank you. back in the u.s., interstate 5, one of the busy roadways from mexico to canada closed for a 45--mile stretch through california. the delta fire is hard to control. the flames have scorched 41,000 acres. we are told 5% contained currently. 2,400 crews are working to gain ground on the fire. a louisiana mayor with backlash seeking a boycott. the mayor signed a memo banning all booster clubs from ordering nike products at the recreational centers. the city council member will meet with the mayor and others to rescind the directive. the mayor has not stopped. hurricane florence bearing down on south carolina and north carolina. residents preparing for a major hurricane. the latest next. new family connections, every day.llion that's more ways to discover new relatives. people who share your dna. and maybe a whole lot more. order your kit at ancestrydna.com know about cognitive performance? as you'd probably guess, a lot. that's why a new brain health supplement called forebrain from the harvard-educated experts at force factor is flying off the shelves at gnc. forebrain's key ingredients have been clinically shown to help enhance sharpness and clarity, improve memory, and promote learning ability. and now every man and woman in america can claim a complimentary bottle. just use your smartphone to text the keyword on the screen to 20-20-20. scientific research on cognigrape, a sicilian red wine extract in forebrain's memorysafe blend, suggests not only sharper recall, but also improved executive function and faster information processing. your opportunity to 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president's claims saying whoever wrote it is guilty of criminal behavior. vice president mike pence is denying any involvement and calling on the one to come forward. >> i'm 100% confident that no one on the president's staff was involved in the editorial. i know my people, margaret. they get up every day and they are dedicated as much as i am as advancing the president's agenda and doing everything for the people of this country. whoever this was, they should do the honorable thing and resign. >> the author claims white house aides discussed trying to remove the president from office. the vice president was asked about that. >> one of the claims made in the op-ed is discussion of invoking the 25th amendment to remove the president from office. have you ever been part of a conversation about that? >> no, why we would? >> a source close to the white house tells cnn aides believe they narrowed down the search for the author to just a few individuals. we get more from ryan nobles. >> reporter: dave and christine, hello from the white house. no doubt it is driving the administration crazy. kellyanne conway, one of president trump's senior advisers, on the sunday morning talk shows attempting to spin and destroy the credibility of the individual before the identity is revealed. she took it a step further when she suggested perhaps the media may be partially to blame for the problem. >> what does concern me, jake, apart from everything others have said, for a media constantly talking about facts and accuracy and transparency, the authority was viewed as long as the message is anti-trump, it is believed to be credible. that should concern everyone. i'm with the vice president on this. the person should resign if the person truly is an appointee and taken an oath to the constitution. >> reporter: the question is this week is how far will the president and administration go in attempting to find out who this person is. vice president mike pence suggesting over the weekend that perhaps a crime may have been committed. if that is the case, does the department of justice get involved? if that is the case, he believes attorney general jeff sessions should get involved. at this point, the justice department will not comment. dave. thank you. the white house is bracing for the bob woodward book which is due to be released tomorrow. the early ex- -- excerpts have been released already. here is how the author sees it. >> you look at the operation of this white house and you have to say let's hope to god we don't have a crisis. >> in his book, he describes a white house where top advisers removed documents from the president's desk to prevent him from enacting dangerous policies. >> he is also weighing in on the anonymous "new york times" op-ed saying he would not have used the claims if they were presented to him. >> if there was a person in the white house or administration who wanted to tell me what's in that op-ed piece, i would say okay name me who was there, what is the specific incident as you know from having read my book. their dates and times and participants. i wouldn't have used it. it doesn't have the standards of describing specific incidents. specific incidents which are the building blocks of journalism as you know. >> president trump calling woodward's book a con on the public and accuses the author of being a democratic operative. barack obama on the campaign trail. former president heads to ohio this week after a stop in california. over the weekend, mr. obama calling the midte-term electiona critical moment in our american history. >> where there's a vacuum in our democracy, when we are not paying attention or stepping up, other voices fill the void. the good news is in two months, we have a chance to restore some sanity in our politics. >> some republicans believe mr. obama's reemergence will fire up gop voters. the president and vice president pence are trying to neutralize the impact. >> i was very disappointed to see president obama break with tradition of former presidents and become so political and roll out the same tired arguments that he and liberals have made over the last eight years. >> i'm sorry i watched it, but i fell asleep. i found he's very good, very good for sleeping [ laughter ] >> i think he was trying to take credit. take credit for this incredible thing that's happening to our country. >> president trump heads to missouri and mississippi to campaign for republicans this week. a check on the weather. florence bearing down on the east coast and there are growing concerns it could make landfall on thursday night or friday morning as a category three hurricane or worse. florence is expected to rapidly inten intense -- intensifntensify. we have meteorologist pedram javaheri tracking the storm. >> dave and christine, we are watching hurricane florence. strengthening is possible over the next few hours. still looking at a strong category one at this hour. notice an eye trying to form with the feature that sits 1,500 miles away from land. unfortunately, the steering environment in the atmosphere that little deviation is expected at this point with the steering to the west. you follow this and we are going over warm waters from the low 80s to the mid-80s and upper 80s and potential landfall thursday afternoon or thursday night. some areas around north carolina and south carolina region. that is the highest likelihood at this point. the steering environment with the high pressure shifting north and east guides this to the carolinas. it doesn't give us that escape route we often see with tropical systems that curve back out to sea. that is most concerning with this feature. look at the spaghetti model guidance. all of it taking it to north carolina and some on into the delmarva region as a major category four. the last time the carolinas were impacted by a major hurricane was hugo in south carolina back in 1989. certainly this would be a storm here to be reckoned with. you notice coming into the afternoon and evening hours of thursday and notice how slowly it progresses to the west by friday with very little movement. that is concerning with the tremendous rainfall in the forecast with 15 or more inches for friday afternoon. guys. >> that is scary. pedram, thanks. state of emergency declared in north carolina and south carolina and virginia. all residents are urged to prepare for mass vac situations. kaylee hartung -- evacuations. we hahave kaylee hartung with more. >> reporter: dave and christine, the sentiment in carolina beach is described as cautious optimism. you see store shelves emptying. water, bread, milk, batteries. storm essentials. you are not seeing anybody boarding up windows yet. people are waiting for more information before they go to those lengths. states of north carolina, south carolina and virginia getting farther ahead in their preparations declaring states of emergency. dave and christine. >> okay. thanks. time for an early start on your money. president trump warning of additional tariffs on chinese goods. widening a trade war. mr. trump said he is ready to impose $267 billion on chinese goods with tariffs. the president says the tariffs are necessary to punish china for unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft. apple says it would make products more expensive for american consumers. it did not mention the iphone. china has matched the u.s. tariffs dollar for dollar. talks have failed to show signs of progress. coming up, president trump praising and thanking north korean dictator kim jong-un. cnn is littve in pyongyang next. are you a christian author with a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! president trump praising north korea for the lack of nuclear missiles in the military parade sunday. the president tweeting this is a big and very positive statement from north korea. thank you to chairman kim. we will both prove everyone wrong. much better than before i took office. instead of showcasing military might with the show of intercontinental ballistic missiles, the north's 70th anniversary celebration focused on economic development and future of its people. cnn's will ripley is live in pyongyang with more. you have been watching the festivities and seeing what the president is tweeting. what have you been seeing? >> reporter: it is just -- i keep thinking, christine, what it was like as recently as a year ago. think about last april. i watched the previous parade in the square where they unveiled new intercontinental ballistic missile. president trump was tweeting insu insults. bob woodward stated that president trump would pull out all of the soldiers from north korea. kim would have seen that as an attack. to think we came to military conflict to what we have seen over the wieeekend. a parade without missiles. the military componented scaled back. people were talking about the economy. they were talking about north korean history with pride. the issue at the mayday stadium where the screen from the summit in april where appeared moon jae-in and kim jong-un and the crowd erupted in applause. now people are not talking about nuclear weapons, but talking about the leader kim jong-un's move to grow the economy. it is like the weapons don't exist. there is no other country where a leader could snap his fingers from one day to the next and everything changes. it is remarkable and a lot of people will take this over the extreme tension we saw a matter of months ago. >> will ripley, thank you. watching history unfold. two british tourists among seven wounded sunday night in a knife attack on the streets of central paris. four injured are in critical condition. alleged attacker was reportedly armed with a knife and metal bar. he was taken into custody. a source tells cnn the attack does not appear to be terrorism related. the suspect's motives are not clear. local media reports he attacked three near a movie theater before 11:00. he was confronted and continued down the side street and attacked more victims. things going from bad to worse in syria. 27 people killed. more than 60 others injured in air strikes and shelling in the idlib province since tuesday. according to the spokesperson for the group white helmets. the senior government official telling cnn the ongoing air strikes on the province conducted by russian and syrian forces. official claiming the strikes are surgical targeting a group affiliated with al qaeda. fred pleitgen is live in flor a damascus with more. >> reporter: good morning, dave. so much happening over the weekend. as pertaining to the possible offensive in idlib and the complex of offenses here. the president warning the russians and syrian government that if chemicals weapons are used on their part, the u.s. would retaliate. the russians are coming out and saying rebels are planting false flag rebel attacks to draw the u.s. in the conflict again. as far as the air strikes are concerned, it is remarkable. on friday, we covered that summit with the russians and turks and iranians to come to some cease-fire agreement. once that failed on saturday morning we heard a big expansion of the air strikes. you mentioned the syrians are saying the air strikes are what they call surgical. they say they are attacking a group affiliated with al qaeda in idlib province. there is video indicating civilian areas were hit as well. obviously killing and wounding people there. as far as the offensive, the syrian government telling us it hasn't started yet, but they are saying they are ready. idlib province is surrounded by the syrian military. battle hardened fighters on that side. the issue for the u. is the fate of 3 -- the issue for the u.s. is the fate of 3 million civilians who are vulnerable with violence kicks off. >> thank you, fred. 53 minutes past the hour. affordable care act is getting a clean bill of health for 2019. how the law appears to be stabilizes. we get a check on cnn money next. us better understand what drives each person's cancer. like christine bray. after battling ovarian cancer for several years, her test results revealed a drug therapy that targeted her tumor. today, christine's metastatic cancer is in remission. we're not just fighting cancer. we're outsmarting it. visit cancercenter.com. appointments available now. they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again! this wi-fi is fast. i know! i know! i know! i know! when did brian move back in? brian's back? he doesn't get my room. he's only going to be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome. in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's. the 92nd miss america was crowned last night. >> first runner up is connecticut. which means nia imani franklin, you are miss america 2019. congratulations. >> franklin crowned by 2018 winner cara mund. they have had issues over the last year of trying to silence her. a scandal forced the then ceo to resign after e-mails revealedco. this year's program got rid of the swim suit portion of the program for red carpet portion of the program. the idea was mostly panned on social media. a win for nbc's live version of "jesus christ superstar" men three got their egot. john legend and andrew lloyd webber and tim rice gets oscar tony and grammy. and serena williams got three code violations on saturday. it started when the umpire warned of the coaching from the box. and then got a violation for smashing her racket. and ramos issued a full one-game penalty for calling him a thief. players are calling it sexism. >> for me to say thief and for him to take a game. it made me feel like it was a sexist remark. he never has taken a game from a man because they said thief. it blows my mind. >> williams