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EARLY START

No Movement On Border Wall Talks As Second Government Shutdown Looms; Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam Says He's Not Going Anywhere; Two More Democrats Enter 2020 Fray; Rap Gets Its Day At 2019 Grammy Awards. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired February 11, 2019 - 05:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:31:25] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Border wall talks break down just four days from the deadline for a new government shutdown.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Virginia's governor digging in during his first T.V. interview, still refusing to quit over that racist yearbook photo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Today on this snowy day, on this island, we say enough is enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The latest Democrat to join the 2020 race uses cold weather to try to get a hot start, right there in Minnesota.

Welcome back to EARLY START.

BRIGGS: Sixteen and snowy.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: A hundred gallons of hot cider, a hundred gallons of hot cocoa for the hearty supporters.

I'm Dave Briggs. Good morning, everyone. Five thirty-one Eastern time.

We start with yet another shutdown looming. With just four days to go until government funding runs out, negotiations to avert another partial shutdown have stalled. Friday's optimism among lawmakers not giving way -- now giving way, excuse me, to some deep concerns.

Sources tell CNN talks broke down over these two points. Democrats -- they want a cap on the number of people ICE can hold in detention in the interior of the country, not at the border. Without the cap, they say they won't give in on more spending for border barriers.

Boris Sanchez has more from the White House. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, sources familiar with ongoing negotiations between Democrats and Republicans to try to keep the government open past Friday's deadline indicate that there is an impasse in negotiations; specifically, over a proposed cap that Democrats brought up that would limit funding for a specific number of beds inside ICE detention centers.

Democrats are arguing that would keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining too many people; specifically, people that are not criminals or felons. Republicans have argued that Democrats are trying to limit the ability of ICE agents to do their work.

The president weighed in on this on Twitter several times on Sunday, accusing Democrats of acting irrationally and suggesting that congressional leadership on the Democratic side was holding back the Democrats that are actually in the committee negotiating.

Meantime, the acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney weighed in.

CHUCK TODD, MODERATOR, NBC "MEET THE PRESS": We cannot definitively rule out a government shutdown at the end of this week?

MICK MULVANEY, WHITE HOUSE ACTING CHIEF OF STAFF: You absolutely cannot and here's why.

TODD: OK.

MULVANEY: Let's say, for sake of this discussion, that the Democrats prevail and the hardcore left-wing Democrats prevail. It was Democratic congresswoman who put out a tweet, I think yesterday, about zero dollars for DHS.

So let's say that the hardcore left-wing of the Democrat Party prevails this negotiation and they put a bill on the president's desk with, say, zero money for the wall or $800 million -- some absurdly low number. How does he sign that? He cannot in good faith sign that.

SANCHEZ: Now, if talks continue to stall, a Democratic aide told CNN that Democrats in the House were prepared to offer up a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security at least through September and keep the federal government open past Friday's deadline. But it's still unclear if the Republican-led Senate would actually take up that bill. And if they did and passed it, there's no certainty that President Trump would actually sign off on it -- Dave and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Boris at the White House. Thanks, Boris.

Dueling rallies at the Mexican border with El Paso in the national spotlight. President Trump and rising Democratic star Beto O'Rourke, both in the West Texas city tonight. O'Rourke plans to lead a one-mile march celebrating the culture,

diversity, and history of the region. His speech afterward timed to coincide with the president's rally at the El Paso County Coliseum. What a split screen that will be. Mr. Trump will, once again, be arguing there is a national security crisis at the border.

On Saturday, dozens of Trump supporters waving American flags and wearing MAGA hats created a human wall at the border to show their support for fencing.

[05:35:05] BRIGGS: Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is refusing to resign. He tells CBS's Gayle King he considered stepping down when a racist photo in his medical school yearbook went public but now, he claims he has to stay in office for the good of the state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RALPH NORTHAM (D), VIRGINIA: Right now, Virginia needs someone that can heal. There's no better person to do that than a doctor. Virginia also needs someone who is strong, who has empathy, who has courage, and who has a moral compass. And that's why I'm not going anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Northam also sparked anger with a comment he made about the first Africans who came to Virginia four centuries ago -- a comment that Gayle King had to fact-check.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORTHAM: If you look at Virginia's history, we are now at the 400- year anniversary. Just 90 miles from here, in 1619, the first indentured servants from Africa landed on our shores in Old Point Comfort -- what we call now, Fort Monroe. And while --

GAYLE KING, HOST, "CBS THIS MORNING": Also known as slavery. Yes, yes.

NORTHAM: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Northam says his lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, must resign if sexual assault allegations against him prove to be true.

Today, Virginia delegate Patrick Hope plans to introduce articles of impeachment against Fairfax. If the resolution passes the House, the Senate will conduct a trial that could lead to his removal.

Fairfax claims his interactions with two female accusers were consensual. He wants the FBI to thoroughly investigate the women's claims.

BRIGGS: Two new candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination declared over the weekend. Now, five women running. Senator Amy Klobuchar launching her bid in the teeth of a blizzard -- 16 and snowy. The Minnesota Democrat highlighted her working-class personal story as the daughter of a teacher, a newspaperman, and vowed to quote "heal the heart of our democracy."

KLOBUCHAR: I am running for every American. I am running for you and I promise you this.

As your president, I will look you in the eye. I will tell you what I think. I will focus on getting things done. That's what I've done my whole life.

And no matter what, I'll lead from the heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: During an after-the-speech, Klobuchar pointed to the rally -- a heavy snowstorm is a measure of her toughness and determination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KLOBUCHAR: What makes me unique is I did this announcement speech in the middle of a blizzard. And I think we need people with grit. I have that grit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: So do her supporters, mind you.

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: Klobuchar promised to take on issues including money in politics and climate change, and also universal background checks -- take on the gun lobby.

That gave President Trump an opening to tweet-mock her campaign launch. He wrote, "Talking proudly of fighting global warming while standing in a virtual blizzard. Bad timing. By the end, she looked like a snowwoman."

Klobuchar did not let the insult pass. She tweeted back, "Science is on my side, Donald Trump. And I wonder how your hair would fare in a blizzard?"

ROMANS: Climate versus --

BRIGGS: Weather.

ROMANS: -- the weather.

BRIGGS: Different things.

ROMANS: Third-grader -- find a third-grader to explain it to the president.

All right. Elizabeth Warren also kicked off her campaign in Massachusetts over the weekend. In Iowa, Sunday, on her first full day of campaigning, the senator said that by Election Day next year, President Trump may be in jail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: By the time we get to 2020, Donald Trump may not even be president.

(APPLAUSE)

WARREN: In fact, he may not even be a free person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you expand on that a little bit more?

WARREN: Well, come on. How many investigations are there now into him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

WARREN: It's no longer just the Mueller investigation, they're everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

WARREN: And these are serious investigations. So, we'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Clearly, a new tactic for Warren.

We'll circle back to 2020.

Joining us this morning, Princeton professor and historian, Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst. He's the author of "Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974", now number nine on Amazon's best-selling history listing. Touche, my sir.

Good to see you. I hope you enjoyed your executive time --

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, AUTHOR, "FAULT LINES: A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1974": Thank you.

BRIGGS: -- over the weekend.

ZELIZER: Yes, lots of it.

BRIGGS: We will get back to 2020.

But let's start with this government shutdown. Do you think another one is looming? Richard Shelby, one of those lawmakers, said a 50-50 chance. And if there is one, do Democrats now risk co-authoring this one by adding new demands?

ZELIZER: It's much more possible than it was last week. This is resolvable. I mean, there are numbers on the table. Each side could concede and send the president a deal very easily.

But, Democrats have now injected themselves, I think more than they had been, into the dynamics by making a request. Before, they were responding to the president. Now, they've inserted something.

[05:40:03] ROMANS: And the request is for a cap on the number of beds -- detention beds, essentially, inside this country. I think a lot of Americans don't even know that we have vast --

ZELIZER: Yes.

ROMANS: -- privately run, right, companies?

ZELIZER: Privately, yes --

ROMANS: Privately run prisons --

ZELIZER: -- by contributors to the administration.

ROMANS: -- essentially.

ZELIZER: Yes.

ROMANS: And I think a lot of people don't understand that.

ZELIZER: Yes, and it's a reasonable demand. Democrats are saying we're giving, we're giving, we're giving. We need one thing.

And this is pretty modest. It's not the Dreamers, it's not a path to citizenship. It's cap the number of people you're going to detain by limiting the beds.

Still, in politics, it's about how things look --

ROMANS: Yes.

ZELIZER: -- and so, the story changes.

ROMANS: The president makes it -- the president posits that as the Democrats want to let criminal elements loose in the country.

ZELIZER: Opposite of.

ROMANS: Right.

ZELIZER: The whole point is to make sure that they just focus on criminal element --

ROMANS: Right.

ZELIZER: -- and not everyone else.

ROMANS: Right.

ZELIZER: But he's twisting it through a tweet.

BRIGGS: Negotiations resume today.

Let's spin forward to 2020. Elizabeth Warren gets in. Amy Klobuchar gets in, in that 16 degrees and snowy backdrop there in Minnesota.

Different tactics. Warren talking about Trump will be in jail in 2020, and Warren (sic) talking about his hair and how it would hold up in a blizzard.

Are they searching for they fight back in this new era --

ZELIZER: They are.

BRIGGS: -- and have they found it?

ZELIZER: Look, part of it's going to be their policies and their ideas and trying to inspire their voters. Both candidates are doing that in different ways. Warren, though economic issues. Klobuchar, by trying to claim the middle.

But at the same time, they realize they're going to need to attack him. They're going to need to jab him and try to define who he is to voters and they're using some Trump tactics. Short tweets --

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: Yes.

ZELIZER: -- that try -- or statements that characterize who he is. Warren suggested he could be a criminal, and Klobuchar suggesting he's not very smart and he's very shallow.

ROMANS: It's so interesting because nobody does this better than he does.

ZELIZER: Right.

ROMANS: And to see the fields get bigger and bigger for the Democrats --

ZELIZER: Yes.

ROMANS: -- and they're all -- each of them, separately, is trying to make noise and rise --

ZELIZER: Yes.

ROMANS: -- above the crowd, and he does that so well.

ZELIZER: He does, but remember, he's also very unpopular. That's like a baseline of what we have to remember.

ROMANS: Right.

ZELIZER: Nationally, he is not a very strong president. He is vulnerable and the right Democrat can defeat him.

ROMANS: Yes.

ZELIZER: And so, even with his ability to tweet and create all kinds of chaos, he's not a strong president politically.

BRIGGS: But he sure likes that all these candidates are signing on to the Green New Deal.

ROMANS: Yes.

BRIGGS: We don't have time to go into it but this may be a huge favor to Donald Trump and the Republicans.

ROMANS: Do you think it's an Achilles' heel -- the Green New Deal?

ZELIZER: I think it can be used effectively.

ROMANS: You do?

ZELIZER: Climate change has a lot of support -- and a lot of the country, including the suburbs -- if it's an idea that inspires a debate about that issue --

BRIGGS: It won't.

ZELIZER: -- and shifts the debate --

ROMANS: You don't think so?

ZELIZER: -- away from the president --

BRIGGS: A 10-year goal, zero emissions. A guaranteed salary and paid time off and retirement security for every American is not realistic.

ROMANS: And rail travel over airplanes. Like --

ZELIZER: Yes.

ROMANS: -- some of these things are getting a lot of attention.

BRIGGS: And they will hammer them for that.

But I want to talk about "Wreck-It Ralph" as the "New York Post" labels him. And the governor of Virginia gives this interview to Gayle King, trying to help stem the tide.

Did he do himself any favors? Can he survive this given the way he's defended himself?

ZELIZER: Everything he does makes things worse. Each time he's out in the public stage he stumbles. He raises more questions about does he understand the history of race relations and where exactly does he stand on this issue?

He can survive. I mean, that's the secret of politics. In the middle of these scandals, if you don't do anything and you just sit tight, sometimes you can continue. And no one's going to --

ROMANS: But it's not a -- he keeps digging the hole deeper.

ZELIZER: But how is going to something?

ROMANS: Right, right.

ZELIZER: I mean, you see what the lieutenant governor -- you're talking about impeachment proceedings. No one's talking about that with the governor.

So if he can withstand this kind of embarrassment, frankly --

BRIGGS: I don't know.

ROMANS: What's ironic to me --

ZELIZER: -- he still can run.

ROMANS: -- is he talks about how he's a doctor and he can help heal these racial divisions -- divisions that he was the one who exposed in the first place, you know, with his comments.

ZELIZER: Yes, and in Virginia, it's a state with a long history of horrible race relations. It's the state with Charlottesville. It's really unacceptable, in many ways, to have a governor raising these questions.

BRIGGS: OK. Quickly, I want to ask you --

ZELIZER: Yes.

BRIGGS: -- about something Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday that didn't get any headlines and should have. The president, in the State of the Union, said you can't have legislation and investigation. Don't investigate me, in a sense.

Mick Mulvaney doubled down on that on "FOX NEWS SUNDAY".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MULVANEY: You have a choice. We can either work together on legislation or we can spend all of our time with you doing these investigations, but you can't do both. It's not reasonable to expect the president to work with you on Monday on a big infrastructure bill and then on Tuesday, have you punch him in the face over 15 different investigations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: It's not just the acting chief of staff, that's a former congressman during the Obama years.

What's your reaction to that? ZELIZER: Right, irony alert. You know, the Tea Party spent a lot of time investigating. They didn't seem to mind when President Obama was in office.

He was able to keep pushing legislation, by the way. So, Mulvaney might be undermining his own argument.

But it is amazing to watch this. It shows the argument the administration, not just Trump, is going to make.

BRIGGS: Yes.

ZELIZER: If you investigate, we won't legislate. It's a threat.

[05:45:00] ROMANS: It also shows words are meaningless. I mean, as Mick Mulvaney and many others said during the Obama administration, we can't have these deficits and running up this national debt.

ZELIZER: Yes.

ROMANS: This is un-American, it's immoral, and now, no one cares.

ZELIZER: Now there's lots of hypocrisy there.

ROMANS: All right.

BRIGGS: Julian, good to see you, sir. Thank you.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

ROMANS: Nice to see you.

All right. For the first time in years, Coke introducing a new flavor in the hopes of keeping customers around. "CNN Business" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIGGS: Thousands of public school teachers in Denver set to walk off the job this morning. Negotiators for the Teachers' Union in Denver schools met for six hours on Saturday, after which union leaders announced they would go through with the strike as planned. The two sides have been negotiating for 14 months on how to improve the current pay scale for teachers, which the union says it tied to the city's teacher turnover rate.

ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on "CNN Business" this morning.

Global stock markets mostly higher right now. You can see Tokyo closing down about two percent but everything else looks like it's higher.

[05:50:01] On Wall Street, we also have futures leaning higher for the week, just about three-tenths, four-tenths of a percent. You know, the Dow fell a little bit on Friday. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both closed slightly higher. So, a mixed end to the week. You know, progress report here for stock market investors. After the worst December since the Great Depression, stocks have staged a 2019 recovery that is pretty impressive. The Dow is up 7 1/2 percent, the S&P 500 up eight percent, the Nasdaq up 9 1/2 percent this year, bouncing back from a terrible December.

For the first time in years, Coca-Cola introducing a new Coke flavor -- orange vanilla. Coke's brand director said the new flavor is its way to encourage customers who are looking for more variety to stick with Coke rather than pick up a different soda or fizzy drink or flavored water.

Coca-Cola has experimented with a lot of flavors for Diet Coke, but this is the first new flavor for Coke since 2007.

Orange vanilla Coke first available for a limited time in Canada last summer. They tested it -- the flavor -- in the U.S. market. It was then well-received. The new flavor will hit shelves later this month.

You're going to try it?

BRIGGS: Oh, I'm a Creamsicle fan. I would definitely try it.

Ahead --

ROMANS: It is a Coke with Creamsicle.

BRIGGS: Yes, yes. I'm skeptical, though.

A shot launched in desperation launches one team to a last-second victory. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:55:45] ROMANS: Cardi B, last night, becoming the first solo woman to win a Best Rap Album Grammy for "Invasion of Privacy".

BRIGGS: Childish Gambino, who did not attend the show, won four awards including Song and Record of the Year for "This is America" -- the first rap song to win those honors.

ROMANS: Wow. Country star --

BRIGGS: Nailed it.

ROMANS: -- Kacey Musgraves took home four Grammys, including Album of the Year for "Golden Hour".

And there was a surprise appearance by former first lady Michelle Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: The first records I wore out from the Motown records, I wore out on the South Side. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Everyone went crazy.

BRIGGS: They didn't let her talk.

ROMANS: I know, they loved her. Mrs. Obama later tweeted that she was thrilled to help celebrate the unifying power of music.

Former Fleetwood Mac singer and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham is recuperating at home after emergency heart surgery that resulted in damage to his vocal cords. Buckingham's wife says it's unclear if the vocal cord damage is permanent.

Last year, he was kicked out of the band without any formal explanation. He's now suing his former bandmates.

BRIGGS: It's already being called the miracle in Missouri.

The Missouri State Bears trailing by two under, under eight seconds to play. Illinois State just has to inbound the ball, but it's intercepted and there was a mad scramble for the ball at center court. And then, this happened. Good luck topping that, March Madness.

After the game, senior Jarred Dixon said as soon as he let it go, he knew it had a chance.

ROMANS: On "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" this weekend, the record number of women in the 2019 congressional class were turned into a number -- a record number of "CHARLIE'S ANGELS".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once upon a time there were women. And then, they became fed up women.

And then they became Congresswomen. They fight crime, they right wrongs. They wear white but they're not all white and we love that there.

The Women of Congress featuring Nancy "Madame Clapback" Pelosi.

KATE MCKINNON, CAST MEMBER, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": I'm so white I can't close my eyes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexandria "I Say What I Meme" Ocasio-Cortez.

MELISSA VILLASENOR, CAST MEMBER, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Ladies, we have a message from President Trump.

ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR: Congratulations, women of Congress. You know, since I've been president, we have more women serving in Congress than ever before.

AIDY BRYANT, CAST MEMBER, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": You don't get to take credit for that. CECILY STRONG, CAST MEMBER, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": That's not because of you, that's --

(CROSSTALK)

LESLIE JONES, CAST MEMBER, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": And that's rich (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are the Women of Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: In case you missed it.

BRIGGS: "Madame Clapback" Pelosi.

ROMANS: Thanks for joining us. I call her Nancy Shark. Nancy --

I'm Christine Romans.

BRIGGS: That's good. I like that.

I'm Dave Briggs. Here's "NEW DAY".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), CHAIRMAN, SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Talks are stalled. We've got some problems with the Democrats dealing with ICE.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want a shutdown. There is a very, very clear path to get this done.

MULVANEY: We'll take as much money as you can give us. The president is going to build the wall.

NORTHAM: I'm not going anywhere. I have learned from this. We are in a unique opportunity now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have, now, more than one credible allegation. He has to resign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope that the Legislature starts impeachment for all three of these folks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Monday, February 11th, 6:00 here in New York.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's you.

CAMEROTA: I'm back. BERMAN: Hi.

CAMEROTA: Hi, how are you?

BERMAN: I'm so much better now. Like, all the plants were dying. I didn't know how to behave anymore.

CAMEROTA: Wow. Well, I'm back and I have forgotten now how to behave, so this is going to be an interesting show.

BERMAN: Fantastic.

CAMEROTA: All right.

So, the possibility of a second government shutdown on Friday starting to feel very real after bipartisan border talks broke down. Negotiators on both sides thought they were on a path to resolving their outstanding issues but sources tell CNN there is now a growing concern that lawmakers may not be able to make a deal.

END