Democrats Happy To Pivot From Russia to Health Care; Chicago Officials Outraged by Smollett Dismissal; Emergency Landing for Boeing 737 MAX
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Former First Lady Michelle Obama's memoir is now breaking records. "Becoming" has sold nearly 10 million copies. It is one of the most popular books of the decade. A publisher recently told "Wall Street Journal," we believe it could be the best memoir in history. It's really the bestselling I think in four decades. It could be the best memoir in history.</s>DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: That's incredible, and an era where every book seems to be about President Trump.</s>ROMANS: And she's going around the country, really the world, being interviewed by her friends and social associates and selling out audiences.</s>BRIGGS: Yes. EARLY START continues right now.</s>MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: At this moment when they were going to take a victory lap, suddenly, they're reminding us why so many of us are Democrats.</s>ROMANS: Democrats happy to oblige after the president shifts the focus from Russia to health care.</s>RAHM EMANUEL, MAYOR, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: This is a whitewash of justice.</s>EDDIE JOHNSON, SUPERINTENDENT, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Do I think justice was served? No.</s>BRIGGS: Police want prosecutors investigated after they drop all charges against Jussie Smollett.</s>ROMANS: The FAA coming to Capitol Hill today, the day after an emergency landing for a Boeing 737 MAX plane being moved into storage.</s>BRIGGS: And the NFL makes the move it had to make after the Saints got robbed, calls including pass interference can now be reviewed. Now, they got the call right, yes. Good morning, welcome to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.</s>ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, March 27th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East. Good morning, get up, there's a lot of news this morning. Democrats moving fast to shift from Russia to health care, after the president gave them an opening, a big one. Leadership was looking to focus on issues that helped Democrats take back the house in midterms. They got their chance when the Justice Department set it back to judge's ruling calling Obamacare unconstitutional. Hours later, Democrats including 2020 hopefuls pounced.</s>REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The GOP will never stop trying to destroy the affordable health care of America's families.</s>SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The idea that people are playing politics, yet again, with the Affordable Care Act is the height of irresponsibility.</s>JULIAN CASTRO (D), 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This administration and the Republican Party want to go back to the bad old days where people couldn't get health insurance if they had a preexisting condition.</s>JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D), FORMER GOVERNOR OF COLORADO, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you start taking health care away from people who have preexisting conditions it upsets whole family structures. And then look at the 20 million people that are suddenly going to be without health care. Is anybody thinking about what that -- what that does to their lives?</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), (D) 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nothing Trump and his friends do surprises me. The idea, however, that they would ask the courts to say that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional -- I mean, it's an outrage, but we've seen this movie before.</s>BUTTIGIEG: As a matter of policy, I'm not surprised because this seems to be the position they hold deep down. Just take this health care coverage away from millions of Americans. As a matter of political strategy, I'm a little bit surprised because most Americans want this. And so, at this moment when they were going to take a victory lap around what was happening in Washington, suddenly they're reminding us why so many of us are Democrats.</s>BRIGGS: A White House official tells CNN there has been a heated debate inside the administration on whether the DOJ should support a ruling fully invalidating the Affordable Care Act. President Trump making the final call.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me just tell you exactly what my message is. The Republican Party will soon be known as the party of health care -- you watch.</s>ROMANS: Now, "Politico" Attorney General Bill Barr and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, they argued against scrapping Obamacare because Republicans don't have an alternative plan. Now, this battle will play out in Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. The Fifth Circuit is regarded as very conservative. The case may well wind up before the Supreme Court.</s>BRIGGS: Questions mounting this morning over why Chicago prosecutors dropped the charges against Jussie Smollett. A grand jury indicted the "Empire" actor, accusing him of staging a hoax hate crime against himself and then filing a false police report about it.</s>ROMANS: The city's police union calling for an investigation of the involvement of Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx in this case. And this may be why. Text messages obtained by CNN through an open records request shows that Smollett family friend Tina Tchen reached out to Foxx on February 1st. Foxx later recused herself.</s>BRIGGS: The head of the police union said if Smollett wanted to clear himself, he should have had his day in court. The deputy prosecutor who took over the case straddling the line.</s>JOSEPH MAGATS, FIRST ASSISTANT COOK COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY: The only reason that it's getting the scrutiny that it is is because of who got the disposition. There are plenty of other cases, like I said -- over 5,700 -- that have gotten some type of alternative or deferred type of prosecution.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think Mr. Smollett did what he was charged with doing?</s>MAGATS: Yes. We stand behind the CPD's investigation in this case -- the great work -- the tremendous work that they did in investigating this case.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you consider him innocent?</s>MAGATS: No.</s>ROMANS: So a couple days of community service and they dispose of the case. New overnight, the lawyer for the Osundairo brothers say they were fully prepared to testify. Smollett was accused of paying them to stage the attack. They were captured on surveillance video buying the materials used. City officials, frankly, this morning are fuming about this. CNN's Ryan Young has the latest.</s>RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a shocking reversal, Chicago prosecutors, on Tuesday, dropped all charges against actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused last month of staging a hate crime against himself and filing a false police report about it. His attorney insisted he was, indeed, attacked and that the misinformation led to a rush to judgment against him. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel blasted the prosecutor's decision. Just watch and listen to how angry he was.</s>EMANUEL: This is a whitewash of justice. A grand jury could not have been clearer. This is without a doubt a whitewash of justice and sends a clear message that if you're in a position of influence and power you'll get treated one way; other people will be treated another way. There is no accountability than in the system. It is wrong, full stop.</s>JOHNSON: Do I think justice was served? No. Where do I think justice is? I think this city is still owed an apology. It's Mr. Smollett who committed this hoax, period. If he wanted to clear his name, the way to do that was in a court of law so that everyone could see the evidence.</s>YOUNG: The Cook County State's Attorney's Office didn't immediately explain why the 16 counts of felony disorderly conduct were dropped, except to say the decision came after reviewing the case facts and in the view of Smollett's willingness to forfeit his $10,000 bond. After a brief appearance in a courtroom, Smollett told reporters he was grateful to those who stood by him.</s>JUSSIE SMOLLETT, ACTOR: I've been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one. I would not be my mother's son if I was capable of one drop of what I have been accused of.</s>YOUNG: And, Christine and Dave, we may never know what was in that court file because it was sealed by the judge. Just a lot of questions still remain in this case.</s>ROMANS: All right. Ryan, thank you for that. A Boeing 737 MAX 8 forced to make an emergency landing in Florida.</s>PILOT: Tower, Southwest 8701, we just lost our right engine, need to declare emergency. Fly heading 020.</s>ROMANS: Now, of course, there were month passengers on the Southwest flight. The plane was being ferried from Orlando to California for short-term storage. The global fleet of these jets was grounded indefinitely two weeks ago, following crashes in October and earlier this month killing 346 people.</s>BRIGGS: Transportation officials will be on Capitol Hill today. The acting FAA administrator expected to tell senators the agency's oversight approach needs to evolve. He also plans to defend the FAA's initial decision not to ground the 737 MAX fleet even after regulators worldwide did so. This week, Boeing will make its final submission to the FAA for proposed software update to the 737 MAX jets. Officials from the aviation industry convened and at Boeing's facility outside of Seattle today as the company tries to restore confidence in its safety protocols.</s>ROMANS: As he considers a 20 run for president, former Vice President Joe Biden is addressing one of the most challenging parts of his legacy, Anita Hill. He says Hill paid a terrible price when testified in 1991 that she had been sexually harassed by now Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. At the time, Biden chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. Biden now says Anita Hill deserves the committee's respect but never got it.</s>JOSEPH BIDEN (D), FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: When Anita Hill came to testify, she faced a committee that didn't fully understand what the hell it was all about. And to this day, I regret I couldn't come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved.</s>ROMANS: Biden has twice publicly apologized to Anita Hill. The Biden team has not said if they've spoken in person.</s>BRIGGS: The drugmaker Purdue Pharma has agreed to pay $270 million to settle an opioid lawsuit brought by the state of Oklahoma. The suit alleged Purdue helped to create the nation's opioid crisis. It claimed aggressive marketing of OxyContin led to thousands of deaths in the state and that Purdue's deceptive claims downplayed the dangers of addiction. Nearly $200 million of the settlement will go towards establishing an addiction treatment and research center in Oklahoma State University. Oklahoma is one of the 36 states to file lawsuits against Purdue and other opioid drugmakers in connection with the growing national crisis.</s>ROMANS: A decades-old North Carolina law banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy is unconstitutional. The 1973 statute made some allowances for medical concerns but a 2015 amendment narrowed those exemptions, prompting abortion rights groups to file suit. The judge in siding with the advocacy group says courts across the country have struck down weak or event- specific abortion bans and North Carolina is no different. The ruling will take in effect in 60 days pending an appeal from the state or revised legislation.</s>BRIGGS: Unvaccinated children are banned from certain public spaces in New York's Rockland County. A severe measles outbreak triggering a state of emergency there. Officials say the ban will remain in place for 30 days until unvaccinated children get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, the MMR. Worth nothing, outer spaces such as playgrounds are not part of this ban. Rockland County ban, rather. Rockland County is about 40 miles from Manhattan. It has seen more than 150 confirmed measles cases.</s>ROMAMS: The state has allowed to tighten up on the exemptions because of the risk to the public, the growing risk to the public. Eleven minutes past the hour. What do babies, Aquaman and a space lizard and Ronald Reagan on a velociraptor have in common? Hear why one senator thinks the Green New Deal is a very bad idea.