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EARLY START

Trump Ratchets Up Migrant Demonizing; Roger Stone Releases Exchange with Steve Bannon About Julian Assange; Sections of Doomed Lion Air Flight Found; Iran Readies for New Round of U.S. Sanctions. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 2, 2018 - 04:30   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:31:03] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They want to throw rocks at our military. Our military fights back. We're going to consider it and I tell them consider it a rifle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. Consider a rock a rifle. The president's stark warning to migrants toward our southern border still weeks away.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: The oldest victim of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre will be laid to rest today. The first Sabbath since the attack begins at sundown.

ROMANS: The president reportedly asking aides to draft a trade deal with China. He wants the package finished at the G-20 this month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: And how would you react if your parents said they ate your candy? Jimmy Kimmel back with another year of his Halloween challenge.

Christine Romans does not like being mean to our children.

ROMANS: Because it's so mean.

BRIGGS: I fully support it. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Dave Briggs. Anything to keep us entertained.

ROMANS: All right. I'm Christine Romans. It is 32 minutes past the hour. Entertained with four short days now until midterms.

The president is all-in on a single strategy. Scare voters about the southern border. The president claiming at a White House event that he will sign an executive order next week tightening U.S. asylum rules. The commander-in-chief also had this stark warning regarding our rules of engagement at the border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They want to throw rocks at our military. Our military fights back. We're going to consider and I tell them consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks like they did at the Mexico military and police, I say consider it a rifle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Quick fact check. CNN has reported clashes between one group of migrants and Mexican troops on Sunday but the caravan has not generally been violent. A U.S. Defense official tells CNN the troops will be operating under standard rules and will only use force in self-defense.

The president took his midterms pitch to Missouri again attacking birthright citizenship.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This crazy, lunatic policy that we can end. That we can end. It's called, you know, birth tourism, where pregnant mothers from all over the world travel to America to make their children instant life- long citizens with guaranteed everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Department of Homeland Security has put out a fact sheet on the caravan that was a little light on facts. Now DHS claims without evidence that more than 270 of the migrants have criminal histories. Hours earlier, the president himself said we have no idea who is in the caravan.

BRIGGS: Former Defense secretary Chuck Hagel slamming the president's plan to deploy as many as 15,000 troops to the southern border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Taking thousands of American troops who are trained on the cutting edge all the time and sending them down to a border where there is no need, there's no threat to an invasion of the hordes coming in from Latin America which is a joke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Hagel calls the president's threat to shoot migrants who throw rocks at our military a wanton incitement of unnecessary violence.

BRIGGS: Democrats are deploying some serious star power to get out the vote in Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY, TV HOST: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god.

WINFREY: Hi, Denise.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Oprah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: That of course is Oprah Winfrey knocking on doors in support of Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor, making impassioned plea for Georgians to vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINFREY: For anybody here who has an ancestor who didn't have the right to vote and you are choosing not to vote wherever you are in this state, in this country, you are dishonoring your family.

So honor your legacy. Honor your legacy. Honor your right to citizenship in this which is the greatest country in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:35:08] ROMANS: Vice President Mike Pence also in Georgia campaigning for Republican Brian Kemp. He had a message for Stacey Abrams and her high-profile backers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'd like to remind Stacey and Oprah and Will Ferrell, I'm kind of a big deal, too.

I got a message for all Stacey Abrams' liberal Hollywood friends. This ain't Hollywood. This is Georgia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Today President Obama campaigns in Georgia for Stacey Abrams and in Florida for Democratic candidates Andrew Gillum and Bill Nelson.

All right. Funeral services today for the oldest of the 11 victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, 97-year-old Rose Mallinger. Yesterday, husband and wife Sylvan and Bernice Simon were laid to rest. They were married at the Tree of Life Synagogue 62 years ago. Another victim, Richard Gottfried, also buried on Thursday.

BRIGGS: Tonight marks the first Shabbat since the massacre beginning at sundown. A new campaign called #showupforshabbat is encouraging Americans of all faiths to visit synagogues for services Friday and Saturday as a show of strength and love against hate.

Meantime, synagogue massacre suspect Robert Bowers pleaded not guilty in court Thursday. Bowers was arraigned a day after a grand jury indicted him on 44 federal charges, 32 of which carry the death penalty.

ROMANS: President Trump asking officials to begin drafting a potential trade deal with China. That's according to Bloomberg News. The report follows a phone call between Trump and his Chinese counterpart President Xi on Thursday. The president said he had a, quote, "good conversation" with President Xi, tweeting, "We talked about many subjects with the heavy emphasis on trade. Those discussions are moving along nicely with meetings being scheduled at the G-20 in Argentina."

That summit is later this month. The potential deal would hopefully end the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China. In a statement from China's Foreign Ministry President Xi says economic teams from both countries should find a mutually acceptable trade deal.

I mean, they're talking again, or talking about talking, and that's the news here. CNN seeking reaction from both the White House and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Just yesterday the Trump administration announced a new initiative to combat trade theft. The Department of Justice alleges a state-backed Chinese firm along with Taiwanese actors committed conspiracy to steal trade secrets from memory chip maker Micron.

BRIGGS: All right. Ahead, thousands of Google employees walk off the job to protest sexual harassment. Hear from their CEO, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:41:47] ROMANS: Roger Stone admitting for the first time he did communicate with the Trump campaign about upcoming disclosures from WikiLeaks during the run-up to the 2016 election. Stone's admission designed to preempt a "New York Times" report detailing his efforts to pitch himself to campaign officials as a WikiLeaks insider.

We get more this morning from Sara Murray in Washington.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Dave. New e-mails revealed that Roger Stone was in touch with a senior member of Donald Trump's presidential campaign about WikiLeaks.

Now Roger Stone decided to release part of these e-mails himself in a column for the right-wing Web site, "The Daily Caller." And in them in October of 2016, Steve Bannon, who was then one of the heads of the Trump campaign, writes to Roger Stone and says, "What was that this morning?"

Now what's Steve Bannon is referring to is that Julian Assange was supposed to hold this press conference. He said it was going to be a big October surprise and many of Trump supporters thought that many was going to be a bombshell potentially about Hillary Clinton. But that's not what happened. Instead Assange released no new information.

Now in Roger Stone's e-mail reply to Steve Bannon, he says that there were some security concerns that Assange has. And then he says, "However, a load every week going forward." This is another one of those instances where Roger Stone seems to be predicting what "WikiLeaks" is about to do. And that's what really drawn the scrutiny of investigators.

Now Stone says he was just repeating things that Assange had said publicly. And Assange in that event did say that there was going to be more information that he was going to release. And sure enough, a few days later, he did.

But this really gets to the crux at what investigators are looking at right now with Roger Stone. They are trying to figure out if he did have some kind of inside track to "WikiLeaks." and if he did have any information, if he shared it with any members of Donald Trump's presidential campaign or Donald Trump himself.

Back to you, guys.

BRIGGS: Sara Murray, thank you.

Google employees around the world staging a walkout Thursday to protest a workplace culture they say has turned a blind eye on sexual harassment and discrimination. Thousands in California, Massachusetts, New York, Ireland, Zurich, among those taking part in the protests.

ROMANS: The Google walkout followed a "New York Times" investigation that detailed years of sexual harassment allegations and payouts to top executives. The company's CEO supported the walkout.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUNDAR PICHAI, GOOGLE CEO: We set a very, very high bar and we clearly didn't live up to our expectations and which is why we felt it was important to express our support for the employees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Among the demands by Google employees, ending forced arbitration in harassment cases and a commitment to end pay and opportunity inequities.

BRIGGS: Please be careful driving near school bus stops. There have now been five incidents in three days involving kids getting injured or killed. On Thursday, seven people were rushed to the hospital after students were run over at a bus stop in Tampa, Florida. Police say it's not clear whether the driver was speeding. One child is in critical condition.

Also Thursday, a 7-year-old boy was found dead at a bus stop in central Pennsylvania. According to police, the child was run over at a slow speed and the driver has been interviewed.

ROMANS: On Wednesday in Tallahassee, Florida, a kindergartner was hit while crossing the street to board a school bus. The teenage driver was issued two traffic citations and the boy we are told is at home recovering. [04:45:08] In Marietta, Mississippi, a 22-year-old man faces charges

after fatally striking a 9-year-old child who was crossing the street to board a bus. On Tuesday, a driver killed a 9-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brothers who are crossing the street to catch a school bus in rural Indiana. The driver was charged with felony reckless homicide.

BRIGGS: Police are urging parents in Marshfield, Massachusetts, to be on the lookout for needles found inside candy. Sewing needles were found inside two packages of Twizzlers. Parents are being advised to throw away all Twizzlers and closely inspect all of the Halloween candy their children received while trick-or-treating.

ROMANS: A cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers appearing to take a knee during the national anthem before the game against the Oakland Raiders last night. It's believed she is the first cheerleader to protest during the national anthem. The 49ers is the team once home to Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback who launched the kneeling movement to bring attention to racial inequality and injustice in the U.S.

BRIGGS: The Niners, by the way, crushed the raiders in the Bay Area match up last night.

All right. For the eighth straight year, Jimmy Kimmel reminds us that children's pain can be their adults' pleasure. Here's Kimmel taking away Halloween candy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. So sad. No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ate all your sweets when you were in the bath.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mommy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's some broccoli in the fridge. You want broccoli?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't like them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want carrots?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not mad at all. I would never be mad at you because you're my mom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We ate all of your Halloween candy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no. This is fake. I know this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But where is all your candy then?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't believe that I ate it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Because you have showed us the videos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Because you showed us the video.

BRIGGS: Don't fool that young man. He's a Jimmy Kimmel fan. He's seen it on YouTube.

ROMANS: Cute. I think it's mean. I'm on the record. It's mean. It's mean.

BRIGGS: It is mean, but it's also funny.

ROMANS: All right. Well, you're just a mean parent. And I'm a --

BRIGGS: Let us know what you think @earlystart on Twitter.

ROMANS: Starbucks has plans to open up more stores around the world after a strong earnings report. Plus its new holiday cups designs have been revealed.

BRIGGS: Oh, I'm on --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: I mean, how can you get through without waiting three more minutes to find out what it looks like. We get a check on CNN Business, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:53:38] ROMANS: Part of the main fuselage and landing gear have been found from the doomed Lion Air flight. The crash off Indonesia's coast killed all 189 people aboard.

Our senior international correspondent Ivan Watson is live in Jakarta.

And I think, Ivan, from the way you explain it, the condition of the pieces they are finding suggest this plane went very, very rapidly and aggressively into the ocean.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. 350 miles an hour. And some aviation experts who've looked at the open source data suggest not only was the plane out of control, apparently, and plummeting towards the Java Sea, but it also appears as if the engines were thrusting at that time aiming towards the sea. So it was moving at very high speed. To try to figure out why this happened and how, the Indonesian investigators have been complimented now by representatives from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, representatives from Boeing, the manufacturers of this brand new Boeing 737 Max 8 and General Electric, who were involved in a consortium that helps build the plane's engines as well. As far as the salvage operation goes, we've seen images of the Navy

pulling up what looked like wheels from the landing gear of the plane. And I've also just looked at some Indonesian Navy footage of divers on the seabed wrapping a rope around what looks like perhaps one of the engine turbines and on the seabed, and we're talking about 100 feet below the surface of the sea, the bed is just littered with wreckage which from what aviation experts say from the speed which the aircraft impacted, it looked like it smashed this plane to pieces.

So a very difficult salvage effort and hopefully the investigation will be helped by the discovery yesterday of the data flight recorder -- Christine.

ROMANS: All of the technical experts from GE which made the engines and Boeing, and all that expertise to try to figure out what happened to a new airplane essentially.

Ivan, thank you for that.

BRIGGS: OK. A second round of U.S. sanctions against Iran set to take effect on Monday. The Trump administration targeting Tehran's oil, gas and financial sectors.

[04:55:02] Fred Pleitgen joins us live from Tehran where evening prayers are just getting underway.

Fred, good morning.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Dave. And of course a lot of anger here at the United States as the U.S. is imposing that second round of sanctions. And these are the really big ones because of course Iran's oil and gas sector is such a big part of this economy.

Now the Iranians are already battening down the hatches. They want to try to make their economy more self-reliant than it was before. But of course with oil and gas being such a big factor in the economy, that's going to be very difficult to do.

One of the things that I picked up on the streets here, we've been hearing, it really seems as though a lot of the rhetoric that's coming out of the Trump administration and President Trump has done absolutely nothing to weaken the Iranian government. In fact there's a lot of people who say they believe that their president, President Hassan Rouhani is being treated with disrespect by President Trump. You can see it more actually shore up the things about this government that actually weaken the Rouhani administration.

Nevertheless, of course a lot of people here very much fearing when those sanctions are going to kick in. One of the things that the Iranians say that they are hoping for is they're hoping that the U.S. might give some exemptions to at least some of the larger fires of Iranian oil. Talking about China, talking about India, talking about South Korea as well -- Dave.

BRIGGS: Yes. Some Republican senators, Cruz, Cotton and Rubio, expected to introduce legislation to encourage the administration to be tougher on those Iranian banks after the midterms.

Fred Pleitgen live for us in Tehran, thank you.

ROMANS: All right. The fiancee of murdered "Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi penning an op-ed in today's "Washington Post." Hatice Cengiz describing Khashoggi as a man of kindness, compassion, and love. She calls on the international community and the U.S. in particular to hold his killers accountable, writing this, "The Trump administration has taken a position that is devoid of moral foundation. Some have approached this through the cynical prism of self-interest, statements framed by fear and cowardice, by the fear of upsetting deals or economic ties."

BRIGGS: She continues, "I know that governments operate not on feelings, but on mutual interest. However, they must all ask themselves the fundamental question if the democracies of the world do not take genuine steps to bring to justice the perpetrators of this brazen callous act, what moral authority are they left with?"

ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Asian stocks surged Friday, and optimism about a potential end to the trade war between the U.S. and China. Bloomberg reported earlier this morning that President Trump has asked officials to draft a trade deal with China. The Nikkei is up about 3 percent. Shanghai as well. The Hang Seng up 4.2 percent.

Economists expect a positive October jobs report from the Labor Department later today. They estimate the economy added 190,000 net new jobs in October. Strong jobs number could give President Trump a potential boost heading into the last weekend before the midterm election. On

On Wall Street, stocks rose again. The Dow closed 1 percent bringing a three-day gain to more than 900 points in three days. The S&P 500 closed up 1 percent, the Nasdaq closed up just shy of 2 percent. That October jobs report will be released at 8:30 Eastern this morning.

All right. Getting a ride in a self-driving car may be here faster than you expect. General Motors CEO Mary Barra says it is on track to roll out a ride-sharing service in 2019 that would rely on self- driving cars. The conference yesterday, Barra said we're on track with our rate of learning to be able to do that next year. The vehicles can currently run safely at speeds of up to about 30 miles an hour. And the service will be limited to a small geographical area. Barra said -- she did not say where the service would operate but said GM has been testing in San Francisco.

All right. Dave, here is the news you've been waiting for all morning.

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: Starbucks announcing plans to open up more stores around the world after a strong earnings report. It plans to open 2100 new stores globally next year. Starbucks laid out the plan on its fourth quarter earnings release on Thursday. Revenue grew to $6.3 billion in the quarter, up 11 percent from the same time last year.

More stores mean more cups and Starbucks unveiled the new holiday designs.

BRIGGS: There we go.

ROMANS: Here they are. The four new festive designs revealed yesterday, although that looks exactly the same. There they are. OK. Starbucks giving people what they want. Lots of red and green. Starbucks has been introducing new holiday cups each fall since 1997.

BRIGGS: That's glorious.

(LAUGHTER)

BRIGGS: There are new -- the holiday lattes I am excited for. Chestnut brule, eggnog, the gingerbread lattes.

ROMANS: The fact that you know this.

BRIGGS: Yes.

ROMANS: The fact that you know this, you are such a renaissance man.

BRIGGS: Sign me up for some fancy lattes.

EARLY START continues right now on a Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They want to throw rocks at our military. Our military fights back. We're going to consider it and I tell them consider it a rifle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Throw a rock, risk being shot? The president's stark warning to migrants heading toward the southern border still weeks away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WINFREY: Honor your legacy. Honor your right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Oprah Winfrey trying to get out the Democratic vote. She went knocking on doors in Georgia.