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EARLY START

Republicans Delay On Health Care; Global Cyberattack; Trump Warns Syria. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 28, 2017 - 05:30   ET

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


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[05:30:50] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This will be great if we get it done. And if we don't get it done it's just going to be something that we're not going to like, and that's OK and I understand that very well.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump makes his personal pitch to Republican senators to get health care done. It worked in the House but will it work in the Senate as they try to get a deal done this week after delaying a vote? Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: And those are some inspiring words from the president. Pardon me, I'm Dave Briggs. It is 31 minutes past the hour.

A new game plan on health care for Senate Republicans. They'll try to hammer out a new version of repeal and replace by the end of this week to let members consider the bill during the upcoming recess. This comes after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to mounting opposition in his own party and delayed the vote he said would happen this week.

KOSIK: So, senators would now vote when they return to Washington. This is going to happen the week of July 10th. Lawmakers who hold town halls during recess would also have to answer to their constituents before they put in their votes.

After Senator McConnell announced the delay, President Trump hosted Senate Republicans for a frank discussion at the White House. Several senators called the meeting positive, constructive, and not tense.

BRIGGS: Despite the holdup, don't assume the Senate bill is dead yet. After all, the House did manage to pull back from the brink, rally, and pass their health bill back in May.

KOSIK: All right, let's bring back CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer and from Washington, Zach Wolf. He's the digital director for CNN Politics.

Julian, let me start with you because there's no sugarcoating this. This bill is in trouble. There's a delay on this vote. This is not what Mitch McConnell wanted. And how much of this have to do with messaging? We know that the process has been cloaked in secrecy and the messaging has been all over the place. And then, all of these senators take a field trip to the White House for President Trump to give his thoughts. Listen to what he said.

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TRUMP: We're getting very close but for the country we have to have health care and it can't be Obamacare, which is melting down. The other side is saying all sorts of things before they even knew what the bill was. This will be great if we get it done. And if we don't get it done it's just going to be something that we're not going to like, and that's OK and I understand that very well.

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KOSIK: OK. So what -- that's OK? What is a senator -- a Republican senator expected to think when he hears the president say oh, that's OK? And you've got these senators grappling with what is my -- how should I vote? I've got constituents to answer to.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It frightens them. Look, Senate Republicans are going back now for July Fourth and they're trying to saying do I vote for a bill that most people at this point know is a bill that will cut insurance coverage for millions of Americans and make it harder to obtain good insurance.

And at the same time, they're listening to the president, as they make this decision, saying well, it's OK if it fails, calling the House bill a mean bill, saying everything that their opponents would usually say. So it undermines their confidence. It's not an example of strong presidential leadership.

This is not Ronald Reagan saying if you vote for this then I'll have your back. It's, in fact, the opposite.

BRIGGS: You wonder how much that four-letter word 'mean' sticks with Senate Republicans wonder what to do with their political faith.

Zach, let's go to you on Susan Collins, one of the nine senators who appears opposed at this point to the Senate bill as it stands, talking about what she might need to be in favor of it, yesterday -- listen.

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SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: I think the bill would have to be fundamentally changed, and tinkering around the edges is not going to be sufficient to secure my vote. Now, if there's going to be a major rewrite of the bill then, obviously, I'm open to taking a look at that.

For my part, however, it's hard for me to see how the president and his team are going to come up with a bill that can gather enough Republican support given the objections from senators who are more conservative and those of us who are more moderate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:35:18] BRIGGS: Painting a pretty accurate picture of the difficult road ahead, Zach. Medicaid expansion, of course, at the core of Obamacare, something conservatives say is unsustainable. Do they take this bill in the recess towards that conservative Lee, Paul, Cruz wing or towards the Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Shelley Moore Capito -- I could go on and on -- Dean Heller? Which direction do you think this heads?

ZACHARY WOLF, CNN POLITICS DIGITAL DIRECTOR: Well, if you looked at that photo op with President Trump last night he was surrounded by Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, so I thought that was pretty interesting. But let's just look at what Susan Collins just said there. She said she needs a fundamental change of the bill. That you have to essentially totally rewrite it. This is something the leadership has been trying to do behind closed doors without all the pressure and the T.V. lights on them for months now, trying to get something that the entire caucus could support.

So if what they come up with is something that Susan Collins needs fundamentally rewritten it's -- you know, that sounded like a no from her. I'm not sure how you get there. She's probably right.You know, it could happen certainly but those were pretty remarkable words from her just now.

BRIGGS: It sounds like Collins and Rand Paul at both ends of this are looking like no's, no matter what.

KOSIK: You know, Julian, you wrote a great opinion piece on cnn.com about Mitch McConnell and about the likelihood that he can -- he can get this bill on a clear path. He still sounds like he can do it. Let's go to what he said yesterday and then we'll talk after it.

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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: I think everybody around the table is interested in getting to yes -- interested in getting an outcome because we know the status quo is simply unacceptable. It's a very complicated subject. I had hoped, as you know, that we could have gotten to the floor this week but we're not quite there, but I think we've got a really good chance of getting there.

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KOSIK: You call him a modern-day Lyndon Johnson in your -- in your opinion piece, but the reality is there's a huge ideological divide going on with this bill. How does Mitch McConnell bridge this gap and what is it about his reputation that everybody is still pretty confident -- not everybody, but many people are still pretty confident that he can -- he can get this senators in line?

ZELIZER: Yes. Look, Lyndon Johnson -- his majority leader actually spent most of his time in the majority trying to get legislation through. McConnell has never really done that. He has been someone who has spent his entire career as a leader, obstructing. This is a very different task. This is about stitching together

different factions of your party to do something rather than to say no, and it also entails having some kind of public role as an advocate for the bill. So that little moment you just played is exactly the problem.

He's not saying why this legislation is good, why Americans will benefit from it. He's saying health care is complicated. We'll try to figure out the votes. That's not very compelling when on the other side they're saying 22 million people are about to lose their health care coverage.

So I'm not convinced yet that he has the skills that it takes to be something beyond an obstructionist, and that's what the upcoming test is about.

BRIGGS: Yes. The messaging -- the selling of this bill has been lacking.

And, Zach, let's talk about an exchange that happened in this meeting when someone said Mr. President -- this is according to "The New York Times" -- what do we do with the optics of the fact that we have a massive tax cut for the rich and a massive health care cut for the poor? And he said we'll move on to tax reform later, clearly missing the core of what's in this Senate bill.

Where does it end up, in your estimation? George Will writes this morning, repeal and replace will end up as tweak and move on. Where do you think it ends up?

WOLF: I think it ends up with them moving on to tax reform. If you look at what Mitch McConnell was saying about a month ago, it's going to be hard to get to votes for health reform. If you look at President Trump last night it sounded almost like he'd moved on already. It's OK, we'll go on to something else.

I think that next thing is going to be tax reform. A lot of Republicans see more chance for that, including McConnell, so if they can find a way to move on and save face that's probably a good prediction for what happens here.

BRIGGS: It should be an interesting couple of weeks.

Zach Wolf, Julian Zelizer, thank you both. Appreciate it.

KOSIK: Thanks so much.

WOLF: Thank you.

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BRIGGS: All right. It's only been a month since the WannaCry virus hit computers in 150 countries but cyberattacks are, once again, wreaking havoc across the globe. We'll tell you who's affected and who could be behind it, next on EARLY START.

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[05:43:58] KOSIK: Welcome back. Big companies and government agencies across the U.S., Europe, and Russia struggling to recover from another huge malware attack. They include companies like Merck, Mondelez, and Russian oil giant Rosneft. Ukrainian firms and government agencies, they've been hit particularly hard.

This virus, dubbed Petya, is similar to WannaCry. It's only been a month since the WannaCry virus hit computers in 150 countries. Ransomware infects and locks a computer and then it demands $300 in Bitcoin to open it up.

Petya also spread through a similar flaw in Microsoft Windows. Microsoft did release a security patch in March, however the virus targets anyone who hasn't up (audio gap).

BRIGGS: Cybersecurity and law enforcement are investigating.

For more, let's bring in CNN's Nina Dos Santos, live from London. Good morning to you, Nina. Several companies were hit. What do we know about who might be behind this attack?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's the multi- million-dollar question at this point, Dave. And remember that a month or so after that WannaCry virus attack that was so devastating, striking 200,000 computers in 150 countries, people are still debating who exactly was behind that particular attack as well.

[05:45:13] Some people have said that WannaCry was something that was launched by the North Koreans but, at the moment, people are still saying that it could well just as easily have been a bedroom hacker.

What we know here at this stage is that this particular virus attack started in Ukraine. The Ukrainians because of, of course, their difficult relationship with Russia over the last few years, were very quick to blame Russian hackers. But then, Russian companies like Rosneft, the state-owned oil and gas company, were also hit themselves and that, again, lends less credence to the fact that this could potentially have been a state-sponsored hack by a country like, for instance, Russia.

And what it is similar to in terms of the WannaCry hack attack that we saw a month or so ago is it does use the same exploit -- this EternalBlue exploit that was released by hackers from a trove of NSA cyber tools back in March.

Now, as you quite rightfully pointed out, Windows has come up with a patch. Some people have updated their software but what's really interesting about this particular attack is that it seems as though a number of companies hadn't actually updated all of their software. This has netted huge names like Mondelez, that makes Oreo cookies and WPP, the world's biggest advertising company.

So these companies are not just facing a shutdown of some of their data, they're going to be facing some difficult conversations with their clients who are going to ask, you know, why didn't you manage to update all of your softwares because we know that these kind of devastating hack attacks are happening on a month-by-month basis, Dave.

And for the moment, by the way, there is no kill switch for this one that has been found.

BRIGGS: Frightening. It is amazing companies did not update after WannaCry. Nina Dos Santos live for us in London, thanks.

KOSIK: A new milestone for Facebook. The number of monthly users now more than 50 times the population of the state of California. CNN Money Stream coming up next.

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[05:51:13] KOSIK: In just a few hours, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She's sure to face questions over President Trump's public warning to Syrian President Assad about ordering another chemical attack.While the statement caught some off guard, the White House says top intel and defense officials were part of the process. Now we're getting a better idea what led to the warning.

CNN's Barbara Starr has more from the Pentagon.

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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Dave, Alison, U.S. military officials have been watching this airbase in Syria for some days. It was the same airbase that the Syrians used to launch their last chemical attack back in April.

But over the last couple of days they grew concerned about what they were seeing there, and what they were seeing was a Syrian aircraft move into a shelter with chemical weapons capability nearby. So the obvious concern was were the Syrians getting ready to launch another chemical attack against civilians.

That is what led to the White House warning that caught a lot of people by surprise. Not top cabinet officials, but within the State Department, within the Pentagon, a lot of people didn't know that warning from the White House was coming.

The real goal is to avoid, officials tell us, avoid any additional U.S. airstrikes. What they are hoping is that the Russians will work to influence Assad and get him to back off and not launch another airstrike. But if he doesn't back off, if he were to proceed, U.S. military officials are letting it be known they have everything in place to strike again -- Dave, Alison.

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BRIGGS: Barbara Starr, thank you.

The White House says its warning the Assad regime was the equivalent of quote "putting someone on notice." Let's bring in CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson. Nic, can and might the Russians actually choose to influence Assad to prevent another chemical attack?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, for sure, Assad's use of chemical weapons is a concern for Russia because they know that can bring a greater U.S. engagement, a greater international engagement. And what's happening in Syria, that could upset their plans, their strategy in Syria and the Middle East.

They also know that Assad doesn't, you know, feel particularly aligned. He's supported, yes, by Russia but aligned with Russia. He's concerned about the way Russia may handle him in the future. Will they -- will they ultimately push him out of power. So his real ally in the region is perhaps Iran.

So is there an opportunity here for Russia to listen to what -- listen to what the White House has said and convey that warning to Assad? That seems to have happened yesterday. Assad met with Russia's top military official, General Valery Gerasimov. He's the chief of general staff.

He went to an airbase -- a Russian airbase inside Syria and met with Assad and showed him some aircraft. But what the Kremlin said that they discussed was the cooperation and coordination between Syrian and Russian forces, so the potential would have been there.

There's been a lot of bluster, of course, coming from the Kremlin. The White House has said, you know, it is against the leadership, is wrong. That, you know, that the United States is essentially out of order on this, demanding this of Assad.

But the bottom line is they've also said that chemical weapons should not be used, so they do appear sensitiveon this. So that message does seem to have had at least a good chance of getting across to Assad, Dave.

BRIGGS: And a potential Putin-Trump meeting just over a week away at the G20.

Nic Robertson, thank you.

KOSIK: OK, let's get a check on CNN Money Stream this morning.

[05:55:00] Global stocks and U.S. futures are in the red this morning after U.S. stocks fell yesterday. Wall Street sliding lower when the Senate delayed its health care vote and that's because it raises questions about the future of President Trump's economic agenda. The president has said he wants to tackle health care first but investors, they want him to move on to tax reform.

The S&P 500 had its biggest one-day loss in six weeks, while the Nasdaq fell 1.6 percent. We did see both of those indices being weighed down by tech stocks.

Google parent Alphabet sparking the sector's decline. We saw shares drop 2.5 percent after E.U. antitrust regulators hit the company with a record $2.7 billion fine.

For the first time ever, gas prices will be lower on the July Fourth holiday than New Year's Day. That's according to GasBuddy. It projected an average of $2.21 a gallon. That's down 12 cents from January. Typically, you see prices are 47 cents higher.

We usually see gas prices spike in the summer months because people drive more, stations use a more expensive blend of gas. But we're seeing crude oil drop and we're seeing oil down more than 20 percent this year.

Facebook just hit two billion monthly users, and that's with a 'b.' That's equivalent to more than 50 times the population of the state of California and it makes Facebook the biggest social app in terms of users. That's more than YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg celebrated this milestone in a post, saying this. "We're making progress connecting the world, and now let's bring the world closer together."

That statement echoes Facebook's new mission after facing a lot of criticism for dividing people by creating partisan echo chambers. The company says it's now focusing on connecting communities, not individuals.

Maybe I'll get back on Facebook soon when all of that --

BRIGGS: What a task he has.

KOSIK: -- when all that noise kind of dies down.

BRIGGS: Good luck with that.

KOSIK: Yes, right. All right, thanks for joining us. I'm Alison Kosik. It's been fun to be on for a few days.

BRIGGS: It has.

KOSIK: Christine is back tomorrow.

BRIGGS: Thank you for filling in for Christine.

KOSIK: Happy to be here.

BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. "NEW DAY" has a couple of key senators in this health care debate. Shelley Moore Capito and Ron Johnson both cannot support this current bill. It should be a great show. We'll see you tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCONNELL: It's a big complicated subject. We feel optimistic.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: This was a disaster and I'm glad the American people were able to defeat him.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: The bill, overall, needs to look more like a repeal bill.

TRUMP: We have a chance to do something very, very important.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: No matter how the bill changes around the edges it is fundamentally flawed at the center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Several days before the exposure of John Podesta's e-mails, Roger Stone seemed to note.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His testimony is going to be extremely important.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's happy to cooperate in their investigation of Russian interference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The one person that still denies this intervention seems to be the President of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, June 28th, 6:00 here in New York. Alisyn is off and I am joined by one our best, Clarissa Ward. It is good to have you --

CLARISSA WARD, CNN ANCHOR: It's great to be here.

CUOMO: -- and we're going to need you today. There's news that is in your wheelhouse.

Here's our starting line. For seven years, Republicans have been united by a simple battle cry, repeal and replace Obamacare. Well, the troubling realities of that same pledge now has Senate Republicans divided.

Mitch McConnell, the famed tactician, dealt a blow, forced to delay a vote on Trumpcare as they try to rework their plan.

That setback putting President Trump's dealmaking skills to the test again. There are now nine Republican senators against this GOP bill. Can the president, a self-described master negotiator, win over votes?

WARD: Meanwhile, longtime Trump associate Roger Stone agreeing to testify next month before a House panel on Russia's election interference. Stone is expected to challenge testimony of former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta who met with investigators on Tuesday.

And, of course, we'll talk, as Chris said, about President Trump's warning to the Syrian regime about chemical weapons. A top aide to President Trump says Assad should not test the president.

We have it all covered, but let's begin with CNN's Suzanne Malveaux live on Capitol Hill -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Clarissa.

Well, the future of the Senate health care bill is really uncertain this morning. Senate leaders are still trying to get some sort of agreement this week -- senate leaders. Despite that hopeful talk, however, really seeing the same hurdles that they are facing -- they've faced for the last couple of months.

Now, in terms of the House, they were able to resurrect their own bill in the spring and the real question this morning is can the Senate do the same?

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TRUMP: And if we don't get it done it's just going to be something that we're not going to like, and that's OK and I understand that very well.

MALVEAUX (voice-over): Senate Republicans again reworking their health care bill after another stinging setback to the GOP's seven- year effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.