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EARLY START

Trump Targets Ford; Kavanaugh Probe Expands; New York Times: Trump Family Tax Scheme?; Tropical Depression Rosa Floods Arizona; Rockies Outlast Cubs In National League Wild Card Game. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired October 3, 2018 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[05:30:00] DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: But the Rockies are headed to Milwaukee and the Cubs to the golf course. It was the longest post- season game in Wrigley Field history and Wrigley's been around awhile -- more than 100 years.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, yes.

BRIGGS: Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour.

Let's begin with this, the Kavanaugh investigation. As soon as today, the FBI will deliver a report on Brett Kavanaugh to the White House and Capitol Hill.

Sources tell CNN the Bureau is expanding its inquiry into sexual assault allegations against the Supreme Court nominee. Sources say the FBI is now focusing on other high school friends of Kavanaugh. He's listed them attending a July 1, 1982 party on the calendar he provided to the Judiciary Committee.

Now, it's not clear if the additional interviews will prolong the investigation or provide a breakthrough.

BRIGGS: Kavanaugh has vehemently denied allegations by Christine Blasey Ford that he assaulted her at a high school party. She said she does not remember some of the details and the president seized on that admission at a rally last night in Mississippi, going further than ever before, mocking her.

Senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny was there and he filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, President Trump in Southaven, Mississippi on Tuesday night for a campaign rally -- the second campaign rally in as many days. And, of course, we're five weeks before the critical midterm elections.

The president talking about Judge Kavanaugh -- the brutal confirmation process. But he did something that he has not yet done during the course of all

of this. He mocked Christine Blasey Ford, the California research psychologist who accused Judge Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her some 36 years ago.

This is what he said.

TRUMP: I had one beer. Well, you think it -- nope, it was one beer. Oh, good.

How did you get home? I don't remember. How'd you get there? I don't remember.

Where is the place? I don't remember. How many years ago was it? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

What neighborhood was it in? I don't know. Where's the house? I don't know.

Upstairs, downstairs -- where was it? I don't know.

But I had one beer. That's the only thing I remember.

ZELENY: Now, that comment was met with laughter and applause from the audience of loyal Trump supporters.

The president went on to essentially warn mothers in this crowd that their sons and husbands could also be falsely accused.

One thing not said at all was any mention about women who have come forward to make credible allegations about sexual assault or misconduct -- of course, the very force of the #MeToo movement.

So clearly, the president believes that this is a rallying point some five weeks before the midterm elections. He believes it's unifying Republicans.

The open question, though, is what it's doing to Independent voters and Democrats who are so inspired and infuriated by this same movement -- Dave and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIGGS: Jeff, thanks.

Christine Blasey Ford's lawyer outraged by the president's comments. Michael Bromwich accusing Mr. Trump of a, quote, "vicious, vile and soulless attack on his client." He went on to call the president a "profile in cowardice."

ROMANS: In a 1983 letter written by Kavanaugh and obtained by "The New York Times," the future judge describes himself and his friends as "loud, obnoxious drunks with prolific pukers among us." This is not the image Kavanaugh tried to project in his Senate testimony.

BRIGGS: Of note, Kavanaugh signed the letter "Bart." You may remember a book written by Kavanaugh's former classmate Mark Judge features a character named "Bart O'Kavanaugh." The nominee refused to answer last week when Sen. Patrick Leahy asked him about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT), MEMBER, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Are you Bart Kavanaugh that he's referring to? Yes or no? That's the --

BRETT KAVANAUGH, NOMINEE, U.S. SUPREME COURT: You'd have to ask him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That character in the book, Bart O'Kavanaugh -- or Bart O'Kavanaugh in one of the books was quoted as vomiting in a car and passing out.

All right. So let's bring in "CN POLITICS" director Zach Wolf live --

BRIGGS: On that note.

ROMANS: -- in Washington. Good morning -- 5:33 in the east -- vomiting and passing out in the car.

BRIGGS: Yes, it's 5:30 -- it's time.

ROMANS: What could -- what in this FBI endeavor could change the minds of Sen. Flake, Sen. Collins, and Sen. Murkowski?

ZACHARY WOLF, DIGITAL DIRECTOR, CNN POLITICS: You know, we heard Flake earlier this week saying it would be something definitively lying if he had misled the Senate Judiciary Committee -- that that might be something that disqualified him. But I think that we need to see just how far Flake will go.

Is it lying about his drinking that would -- that would -- that would change Flake's mind? Is it more specifically lying about assault? I mean, those are very sort of different things.

There's Brett Kavanaugh's character, there's whether or not he lied about things to the -- to the committee, and then there's the actual act of assaulting a woman. And will Republicans be looking for a difference there? I think that's possible.

But ultimately, we'll just have to see what the FBI comes up with or what senators tell us the FBI comes up with --

ROMANS: Right.

WOLF: -- because it's not clear at all that we -- the general public or the media are going to get to see that.

[05:35:03] BRIGGS: Yes, hard to imagine Flake, Murkowski or Collins getting to no on Brett Kavanaugh because of drinking semantics -- whether or not he blacked out.

But the president did add yesterday, from the White House, "I don't think you should lie to Congress. That, to me, would be unacceptable." So we'll see if he can back that up.

But an interesting narrative emerged last night at this rally in Mississippi where the president talked about the #MeToo era which he calls a very scary time for young men in America.

He added this in a bizarre rant in Mississippi -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This is a time when your father, when your husband, when your brother, when your son could do great.

Mom, a terrible thing just happened. A person who I've never met said that I did things that were horrible and they're firing me from my job, mom.

I don't know what to do. Mom, what do I do? What do I do, mom? What do I do, mom?

It's a damn sad situation, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Listen to the crowd.

BRIGGS: "A damn sad situation," Zach.

Are we looking at a new narrative less than five weeks out from the midterms?

WOLF: You know, it's interesting you played that clip. He tried this material out -- and I'm going to call it material because it's essentially part of an activist point.

BRIGGS: It's a performance, yes.

WOLF: Yes, he tried it out at his press conference, he tried it out talking to reporters a little bit later in the day, and then he had it perfected in time for this -- you know, the rally there with his supporters and they were lapping it up.

I think we can definitively say now that that line is going to be part of the -- is essentially a GOP --

ROMANS: Yes.

WOLF: -- or a Trump talking point heading in 2018. Anti-#MeToo -- backlash to the #MeToo movement has become one of his main talking points.

ROMANS: He has never said anything like it's so unfortunate that for 30 years women have felt like they couldn't come forward or we need to cultivate an environment where women and men are both respected. Nothing like that.

It goes straight to the guy is -- BRIGGS: But you wonder. That type of line could work for the president.

Could it work for Senate Republicans -- Congressional Republicans across the country, though, in vulnerable elections?

ROMANS: Right.

WOLF: No, I don't think so. And let's also remember he's been accused by 15 women in 2016, himself --

BRIGGS: Yes.

WOLF: -- so he's speaking from some experience there.

ROMANS: And he was still elected. I mean, and it didn't matter.

BRIGGS: Right, yes. The voters weighed in.

ROMANS: I mean, he was still -- he was still elected.

Let's talk about this blockbuster expose in "The New York Times" -- full top of the fold here. I think some eight pages inside. It is a tax expose that found that the president took part in his suspect schemes to evade tax bills.

Among these things, that Trump's dad gave him $413 million over the years. The gifts began at the age of three. He was a millionaire by the age of eight.

He -- the children in the Trump family hid their parent's money in a sham corporation to avoid taxes, and they helped cut the tax bill by lowballing real estate there.

This is -- this is unbelievable -- about $200,000 a year in today's dollars of his father's empire by the time he was -- by the time he was three years old.

This is counter to the narrative carefully crafted the myth of a self- made tycoon.

WOLF: Yes, Trump's myth of himself.

ROMANS: Yes, listen for a second. I want to play some sound. We're going to hear Trump say it out of his own -- his own words, Zach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars. I came into Manhattan. And I had to pay him back, and I had to pay him back with interest.

I started with a million-dollar loan. I built a $10 billion company.

My father gave me a very small loan in 1975 and I built it into a company that's worth many, many billions of dollars. I built that into a massive empire and I paid my father back that loan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Does it matter? I mean, he resonates -- like, with the people last night in Mississippi, he resonates so well with the working man and woman. Does this -- does this matter to them?

WOLF: You know, I don't think it matters with the people last night. They stood out in line for hours to see him speak. They were cheering about the #MeToo movement -- all of that.

It could matter with some Independent voters out there. Maybe more in 2020 when he's actually on the ballot it could matter a lot more. But it certainly does undercut this carefully crafted narrative.

And it also makes you wonder what is in his own tax returns that he won't release that involve a lot more money, theoretically. Although, part of the point of this story is that Fred Trump's fortune was much larger than the government knew about.

ROMANS: Yes, and more recently -- I mean, I would like to see the tax returns because I'd like to see more recently how the president --

BRIGGS: Sure.

ROMANS: -- managed to raise money and what kinds of loans -- who --

BRIGGS: Starting in 2006 is really the --

ROMANS: -- he could be beholden to around the --

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- around the country.

BRIGGS: All right, Zach Wolf. Great to have you here. Thank you, my friend.

WOLF: Thanks.

[05:40:00] ROMANS: Nice to see you, Zach, Wednesday -- it's only Wednesday -- wow.

Law enforcement officials are scrutinizing a letter addressed to President Trump that contained a substance suspected to be the deadly poison Ricin. They say it appears to be connected to similar envelopes delivered to the Pentagon.

The envelope addressed to the president was not received at the White House and did not enter the building.

All mail received at the Pentagon screening facility Monday is now under quarantine. A spokesman says it poses no threat to Pentagon personnel. BRIGGS: Be prepared to receive a presidential alert on your cell phone today. The government conducting its first test of a new system designed to push an emergency message to nearly all cell phones in the U.S. The alert will be sent out starting at 2:18 eastern time this afternoon.

You cannot opt out but, of course, you could turn your phone off, as many are.

This test was originally scheduled for mid-September but was postponed because FEMA was responding to Hurricane Florence.

ROMANS: A rising star in the Democratic Party ending his campaign for Kansas City mayor. He will seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jason Kander served as an Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan. He returned home 11 years ago.

He says he appreciates all the support he's received.

But he says, quote, "I'm done hiding this from myself and from the world. When I wrote in my book that I was lucky to not have PTSD, I was just trying to convince myself and I wasn't sharing the full picture. I still have nightmares."

Kander says he visited the V.A. in Kansas City on Monday and intends to start getting help there regularly.

BRIGGS: All right, some live pictures now of the first lady on her first solo international trip. She's in Africa. This is video coming in from the Cape Coast in Ghana.

This trip just started yesterday. They are four hours ahead of us.

This is a big trip for Melania --

ROMANS: Yes.

TRUMP: -- to kind of rebrand herself.

ROMANS: I think so, too. And also, the location of the trip is so fascinating because her husband has been critical of African countries, calling them s-hole countries. She chose -- we're told she chose this --

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- location, herself.

BRIGGS: And she was welcomed with open arms --

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- yesterday. Very eager to have the first lady there.

All right, Kate Bennett will have more on that throughout the day here on CNN.

Up next, a megastar Chinese actress missing since June now apologizing and vowing to pay off after being ordered to pay $130 million in back taxes.

ROMANS: And steep declines in auto sales last month. How the trade war may be hitting home. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:46:37] BRIGGS: Missing megastar Chinese actress Fan Bingbing ordered to pay nearly $130 million in back taxes and fines.

China's state media reports Fan, China's most famous actress, is being investigated for tax evasion for misreporting earnings from various film projects. Tax authorities say they will not file criminal charges against her if she makes the payments.

The actress has not been seen since June.

Overnight, she posted an apology letter on social media, saying she will pay the taxes and fines. Unclear if she was forced to write that by the Chinese government.

ROMANS: The death toll from Indonesia's earthquake and tsunami disaster has now jumped to 1,407.

President Joko Widodo is meeting with survivors and visiting some of the most devastated areas, including a hospital and a hotel in Palu.

Indonesian authorities say heavy equipment is still needed for the final days of search and rescue operations.

And as Indonesia deals with the aftermath here there are now reports of volcanic eruptions in northern Sulawesi and Java.

Let's get a quick check on "CNN Money" this morning.

Trade tensions translating into the automakers here. Car sales saw a steep drop as a threat of auto tariffs loom. Overall, car sales fell seven percent in September. Ford, Toyota, and Nissan all down at least 10 percent.

One reason, demand for new cars is lower than last year. That's when Americans rushed out to replace cars destroyed in Hurricane Harvey.

The fear of tariffs on car imports also prompted many shoppers to buy cars earlier in the year to get ahead of potential tariffs.

Car companies face slowing sales just as costs start to rise. Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are raising those prices.

And the new NAFTA, now called the USMCA, will create higher labor and environmental standards for the industry. That likely means higher costs. Rising interest rates also slowing sales. Interest rates affect

borrowing costs like auto loans, so auto loans get a little more expensive.

Global stocks, right now, mixed. On Wall Street, the Dow jumped more than 100 points to an all-time high. You can thank optimism over trade.

This week, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico agreed to replace NAFTA. The biggest gains were from Boeing, Caterpillar, 3M. Those are manufacturers that rely on trade.

Tech stocks drove the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq lower.

Amazon lost 1.6 percent after that big news that it will raise its minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour for all employees.

Facebook shares fell 1.9 percent. Again, trouble there because on Friday, Facebook disclosed its largest data breach ever.

All right, to Tesla. It has been a tumultuous quarter for Tesla but in the end, it delivered on a promise.

Tesla delivered 50 percent more vehicles than last quarter -- 83,500. Fifty-six grand of those were its low-priced Model 3. Tesla has struggled to get the Model 3 into the hands of consumers.

So this should calm investor fears just as Tesla was in the need of good news.

Its CEO, Elon Musk, agreed to pay $20 million and step down as Tesla's chairman, settling SEC claims that he misled investors by tweeting that he had secured funding to take Tesla private.

In an interview with "VICE News," Apple CEO Tim Cook says you should not believe tech companies when they tell you this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM COOK, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, APPLE: The narrative that some companies will try to get you to believe is I've got to take all of your data to make my service better. Well, don't believe that. Whoever is telling you that, it's a bunch of bonk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Cook did not name names but he likely means Facebook and Google. Both rely on data sharing with third parties. They face criticism for how they handle user data.

[05:50:05] Cook added that he was not pro-regulation but that some level of regulation is important, something we've heard from him before.

A lot of these tech --

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: -- CEOs don't really trust Washington to be able to do it right and they know they have to have a seat at the table.

BRIGGS: Hard to imagine --

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- trusting Congress to regulate --

ROMANS: Right.

BRIGGS: -- this.

All right. Ahead, a woman finds a burglar in her garage. Wait until you see what she does to protect her kids and nab the suspect in the process.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:55:20] ROMANS: Inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration seizing thousands of documents from the San Francisco headquarters of e-cigarette manufacturer Juul. The surprise inspection last Friday focusing on the company's sales and marketing.

The FDA calls it part of an ongoing effort to keep tobacco products out of the hands of kids. Last month, the FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb called teen use of e-cigarettes an epidemic.

BRIGGS: Police in San Jose, California using a murdered woman's Fitbit to track down her alleged killer. Ninety-year-old Anthony Aiello was arrested for the murder of his 67-year-old stepdaughter Karen Navarra last month.

Navarra's Fitbit recorded a significant spike in her heart rate before a sudden drop off to nothing. The data helped police construct a time line and arrest the stepfather.

Aiello being held without bail, due in court tomorrow.

ROMANS: Some beaches in Palm County, Florida are set to reopen today after test results showed a reduction in levels of red tide. Testing by the Florida Fish and Wildlife officials showed very low to medium concentrations at 11 sites.

But some nearby beaches from Lake Worth north to the Martin County Line will remain closed. Lifeguards and staff at those locations are reporting continued irritation.

Red Tide is the overabundance of algae. It makes it harder to breathe and can affect seafood and make it dangerous to consume.

BRIGGS: Some 400 guns stolen from a UPS facility in Memphis over the weekend have been recovered. The Chicago office of the ATF says the weapons cache was found in Midlothian, Illinois, about 20 miles south of Chicago. Two suspects have been charged -- one is in custody. Authorities, though, still looking for the other suspect, 24-year-old Roland Jackson of Chicago.

ROMANS: In Arizona, millions of people drenched by the remnants of tropical depression Rosa. Firefighters rescued at least eight drivers from flooded vehicles.

North Phoenix hit hard by flooding. People going to work had a hard time getting around. This baseball field in Phoenix's Sereno Park submerged.

Just two days -- two full days into the month, it is already the fourth-wettest October on record for Phoenix with 29 days to go.

BRIGGS: A brave mom in California holds a burglar at gunpoint until police arrive and it's all caught on surveillance video.

The 25-year-old suspect caught here stealing a laptop in Brittany Morse's home. Her young daughter found the suspect in the family's garage.

Morse quickly shuttled her kids into a room and grabbed the gun she just bought two weeks ago. She cornered the suspect and called 911.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRITTANY MORSE, HELD BURGLAR AT GUNPOINT: I had told the dispatch, I believe he has a knife on him. And I told him, you come near me -- you take one step towards me, I will shoot you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: You can still hear the fear like catching in her voice.

BRIGGS: Strong.

ROMANS: But how -- but how strong? Right.

Taft city police showed up in two minutes and arrested the suspect. He'd been in the garage for several hours. He was booked on first- degree burglary charges.

BRIGGS: Wow.

It took five hours to decide, but the Colorado Rockies outlasted the Chicago Cubs to win the National League wild card game 2-1 in 13 innings. An unlikely hero for the Rockies, third-string catcher Tony Wolters delivering the game-winning hit there.

Colorado now will play the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Division Series starting tomorrow night.

The Yankees host the Oakland A's in the American League's wild card game.

What a night.

ROMANS: How are you feeling? How are you feeling?

BRIGGS: Well, it was about one hour between the end of that game and my alarm going off. I need a nap.

ROMANS: You did well.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. "NEW DAY" starts right now. We'll see you tomorrow.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, October third, 6:00 here in New York.

And breaking overnight, the President of the United States attacked an alleged victim of sexual assault. Really, there's no other way to say it. He outright mocked Christine Blasey Ford for her testimony that Brett Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed, tried to take her clothes off, and put his hand over her mouth some 36 years ago.

Now, before we play this for you it is important to note whether you believe Ford or not, we do know that victims often don't tell their stories for years and we know their memories of specific events following the assault sometimes vary. So keep that in mind as you listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Thirty-six years ago this happened. I had one beer, right? I had one beer.

Well, do you think it was -- nope, it was one beer. Oh, good.

How did you get home? I don't remember. How'd you get there? I don't remember.

Where is the place? I don't remember. How many years ago was it? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

What neighborhood was it in? I don't know. Where's the house? I don't know.

Upstairs, downstairs -- where was it? I don't know.

But I had one beer. That's the only thing I remember.

And a man's life is in tatters.