20 Killed In Limo Crash; Kavanaugh Fallout For Midterms; China, Interpol Chief Under Investigation
JOE JOHNS, EARLY START SHOW GUEST CO-HOST: The deadliest transportation accident in the U.S. in a decade. What caused a limo to crash in New York killing 20?</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, EARLY START SHOW CO-HOST: Democrats are a mob? Republicans angered women. Both sides are now trying to spin the Brett Kavanaugh debacle for the gain in the midterms.</s>JOHNS: China says the missing head of Interpol is under investigation for corruption. He has been missing for days. His last contact a text message with a knife emoji.</s>ROMANS: And tropical storm Michael headed for the Florida Panhandle. Hurricane-force impact expected Wednesday. An update in less than 30 minutes away. Welcome back everybody to "Early Start." I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday morning.</s>JOHNS: And I'm Joe Johns. It is 31 minutes past the hour. State and Federal investigators on scene in upstate New York following the deadliest transportation accident in the U.S. since 2009. 20 people died when a limousine carrying several couples to a birthday party plowed through an intersection and crashed into a parked SUV about 40 miles from Albany. State police say all 18 people in the limousine were killed, including the driver. Two pedestrians near the SUV also died. Among the several victims, married couples and four sisters, here is their aunt.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were fun loving, they were wonderful girls. They would do anything for you. And they were very close to each other and they love their families and they loved their parents. They had one -- one has two little children and one has one child. And they now have no home or no parents.</s>ROMANS: So far, officials have not been able to answer some crucial questions about the limo and its safety record. But one woman says her niece who died in the crash was uneasy about riding in it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My niece said before she got in the vehicle, she texted a friend of hers and said, oh my gosh, you would not believe what they just said. And she says the vehicle is a little sketchy, because it made a lot of noise. It didn't look good. She says I don't know if we're going to survive this and 20 minutes later she died.</s>ROMANS: Officials have not yet identified the company that owned the limo. It is also unclear whether if the passengers were wearing seatbelts or the brakes working or if the driver was speeding.</s>JOHNS: The Supreme Court nomination fight is now over. Now both sides digging in trying to use the fallout from the bruising battle for gain in the midterms. President Trump and Republicans are defiant branding Democrats as a mob for the way they attack Brett Kavanaugh.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In their quest for power, the radical Democrats have turned into an angry mob.</s>SEN MITCH MCCONNEL, (R) MAJORITY LEADER: We refuse to be intimidated by the mob of people that were coming after Republican members at their homes and in the halls.</s>CHUCK GRASSLEY CHAIRMAN SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: What we have learned is the resistance that has existed since the day after the November 2016 election is right here on Capitol Hill. They have encouraged mob rule.</s>JOHNS: Senate Democrats arguing that many voters, women especially, are still furious. Hawaii Senator Maize Hirono says Democratic voters will be highly motivated to punish Republicans in November.</s>MAZIE HIRONO DEMOCRAT HAWAII: He is going to be on the Supreme Court with a huge taint and a big asterisk after his name. The partisanship that he showed was astounding. The conspiracy theory that he accused us of was bizarre.</s>ROMANS: Senator Susan Collins, one of the crucial swing votes is defending her decision to back Kavanaugh. She said she thought he stepped over the line during the confirmation process, but he had some justification.</s>SEN SUSAN COLLINS, (D) MAINE: I put myself in his shoes. He is coming forward and answering an allegation that includes that he was involved in gang raping and doping girls. I mean that is so devastating. And I think he reacted with anger and anguish as a father of two young girls.</s>ROMANS: Senator Collins says she believes Christine Blasey Ford was assaulted, but she does not believe that Brett Kavanaugh was her assailant.</s>JOHNS: In a move generously described as hypocritical, Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell, is leaving the door open to confirming the Supreme Court nominee in 2020. During the last Presidential election in 2016, Republicans refused even to hold hearings for President Obama's nominee Merrick Garland. They said the next president should choose the next Supreme Court Justice.</s>ROMANS: But Sunday, McConnell argued that if the White House and Senate are controlled by the same party, the nomination can proceed.</s>MCCONNEL: We simply followed the tradition in America which is if you have a Party of a different Senate of a different Party than the President, you don't fill the vacancy created of a Presidential year. That went all the way back to 1888. The answer to your question is we will see if there is a vacancy in 2020.</s>ROMANS: Last week, Senator Lindsey Graham says if a vacancy does comes up in 2020, the Garland standard applies and the nomination should be put on hold.</s>JOHNS: Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, tells CNN Fareed Zakaria, he does not believe President Trump can be a moral leader. During a rare interview with CNN Powell, pointed to Trump attacks on the press and his tendency to insult his opponents.</s>COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: My favorite three words in our constitution is the first three words. We the people. We, the people. But recently, it has become me, the President as opposed to we, the people. And you see things that should not be happening.</s>JOHNS: Powell spoke alongside former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, she said despite the president's claims, the U.S. is not being taken advantage of and we have the strongest country in the world.</s>ROMANS: After days of mystery surrounding the disappearance of the head of Interpol, the International Police Agency, the Chinese government admits Meng Hongwei is under investigation for alleged corruption. Chines officials say, Meng insisted on taking a wrong path and had only himself to blame. Chinese authorities have been tight-lipped about his sudden disappearance late last month. Now, his last message to his wife, is under the microscope. CNN's Sam Kiley monitoring the situation from us, joins us live from Hong Kong with the latest. Sam, he sent his wife a message of what show of a knife.</s>SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just before the four minutes before that, the message was wait for my call and then that knife emoji indicating perhaps that he felt some kind of danger was imminent. He has now been confirmed as being in detention by none other than the ministry for public security which is the ministry that he was the vice minister of while he was simultaneously the President of Interpol. The International policing organization that links 190 countries police forces together to fight crimes internationally. Now, his wife, Grace, is being given protection by the police in France, because she has had threats that they consider sufficiently credible. Both on social media and over the telephone. But at least, his whereabouts is now known. He is in custody in China facing an investigation for alleged corruption. Corruption of course being in China is a crime that can carry the capital punishment. There have been some executions of fairly low level officials in China in the past. And there is an ongoing campaign by the Chinese communist Party to round up officials and business men accused of corruption wherever they may be.</s>ROMANS: Fascinating, Sam Kiley in Beijing for us. Thank you so much, Sam.</s>JOHNS: Dire warning this morning from the United Nations science board. They say the world has barely ten years to get climate change under control or the results could be catastrophic. A new report says the planet is already 2/3 of the way to the climate tipping point. The panel says if we don't reduce greenhouse gases, the earth will reach that critical threshold as early as 2030.</s>ROMANS: Sea levels would rise to an extra four inches and extreme heat and weather events would be much worse and more frequent. Holding global warming below these limit would require, what the panel calls, rapid for reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. The U.S. is the world's second largest emitter of carbon dioxide and the Trump administration has rolled back Obama era, climate measures. All right. The President pledged trillion dollars towards U.S. infrastructure. But despite with little progress on that promise, investment is actually is booming. Private equity firms are set to race a record amount of infrastructure investment this year $68.2 billion during the first three quarters. That is 18 percent more than last year and higher than all of 2016. But money managers are not necessarily investing in roads and bridges. Instead, they are putting money to things like, natural gas pipelines and data centers. Why? Energy and telecom are booming industries in the U.S. and they don't require working with local government like the roads and airports. This fund raising comes despite little help from Washington. President Trump introduced a proposal earlier this year to spur a trillion dollars in infrastructure spending. A campaign promise. The plan faced tough opposition. It relies on states to put up most of the money.</s>JOHNS: A journalist for the Washington Post goes to get a marriage license and hasn't been heard from since. Are his harsh words about the Saudi crown prince the reason why? We are going to be live in Istanbul.