16 States Sue to Block National Emergency; Pragmatic Klobuchar Makes Pitch for Democratic Nomination
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Sixteen states sue to stop the president's national emergency declaration. From coast to coast, Presidents Day protests against this president's border move.</s>SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The actual legislation you do, we know there's going to be compromises. I am not for free four-year college for all, no.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Amy Klobuchar is willing to say no. It may anger progressives but can it win over centrist Democrats?</s>SANCHEZ: Plus, screen time for infants has more than doubled. But what device they're watching may surprise you.</s>ROMANS: Just a year after walking off the job, West Virginia teachers hit the picket lines again. Why the union says it had no other choice. All right. Good morning, and welcome to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.</s>SANCHEZ: Presidents Day's protest -- that was a tough one.</s>ROMANS: I'm sorry, I put that in, I read it and I'm sorry.</s>SANCHEZ: Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Boris Sanchez, in for Dave Briggs. It's Tuesday, February 19th, 5:00 on the East Coast. And we begin with the escalating challenges to President Trump's national emergency declaration. Protesters took to the streets coast to coast Monday, rallying against the plan to use billions from federal programs mostly from the Department of Defense to build his border wall. And last night, 16 states filed a lawsuit seeking to block the emergency declaration.</s>ROMANS: Led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the states argue the president is using the pretext of a manufactured crisis.</s>XAVIER BECERRA, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, it's pretty clear that the president is trying to usurp Congress' authority. The president does not have the power of the purse. The president can't decide to shuffle money around once Congress has allocated it. That's only for Congress to do. Otherwise, presidents for the last 240 years would have been doing the same thing, when they don't like where Congress puts the money. Simply because Donald Trump fabricated a crisis and called it a national emergency doesn't mean that he can violate the separation of powers of the Constitution.</s>ROMANS: The suit specifically addresses this remark by the president on Friday where he all but admitted the situation at the border is not exactly an emergency.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On the wall, they skimped, so I did -- I was successful in that sense, but I wanted to do it faster. I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn't need to do this, but I'd rather do it much faster.</s>ROMANS: This is the latest in a wave of expected litigation, though fighting it in court will likely be difficult and time consuming. The president has broad discretion over what constitutes a national emergency.</s>SANCHEZ: And challenges are also expected from Capitol Hill. A resolution of disapproval to block the emergency declaration is expected in the House, it could even pass the Senate, though if the resolution passes the president is expected to veto it. There's also still no word from the pentagon on an important detail, exactly what military funding sources are going to be diverted to build the wall.</s>ROMANS: All right. Amy Klobuchar is making her pitch as a pragmatist in the 2020 Democratic field. The Minnesota senator appeared in a live CNN town hall in New Hampshire last night on topics for Medicare- for-All, to a Green New Deal, to free college. Klobuchar separated herself from her party's progressives offering no sugarcoated promises. Instead, she struck a practical tone.</s>DON LEMON, CNN HOST: What's your reservation about supporting Medicare-for-All?</s>KLOBUCHAR: Well, I think it's something that we can look to for the future, but I want to get action now. And I think the best way we do is something we actually wanted to do back when we were looking at the Affordable Care Act and we were stopped was trying to get a public option in there.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you were asked about the Green New Deal, you were quoted as saying it's an aspiration.</s>KLOBUCHAR: The actual legislation you do, we know there's going to be compromises. It's not going to be exactly like that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you be to say to my generation and end the student debt crisis by supporting free college for all?</s>KLOBUCHAR: My idea is to make it easier to refinance, to start with your two-year degrees, the community colleges being free. I am not for free four-year college for all, no. If I was a magic genie and could give that to everyone and we could afford it, I would.</s>SANCHEZ: She got several rounds of applause. That kid looked disappointed, though. Senator Klobuchar was also asked to respond to allegations that she mistreats her staff.</s>KLOBUCHAR: Am I tough a boss sometimes? Yes. Have I pushed people too hard? Yes. But I have kept expectations for myself that are very high. I've asked my staff to meet those same expectations. And that the big point for me is I want the country to meet high expectations. We don't have going now.</s>ROMANS: Not the first time she has had to address this. I cannot recall any other candidate, male candidate, ever having been asked about what kind of a boss he is.</s>SANCHEZ: Especially one who is so renowned for his ability to fire people in a boisterous way.</s>ROMANS: No, but I'm just saying. Anyway, another Democratic contender set to release a sweeping universal child care plan today, Senator Elizabeth Warren says her idea guarantees child care from birth until the time a child enters school.</s>SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The costs of child care are just crushing families. Families are just buckling under the weight of it. It holds people back. They decide that they can't work because they're worried about the cost of child care.</s>ROMANS: How does she propose paying for it? From the wealth tax plan she rolled out last month, targeting Americans whose network exceeds $50 million.</s>SANCHEZ: The child care proposal calls for a network of public and family run centers. Care would be free for families of incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level. That's about $51,000 for a family of four. Those earning more would pay a subsidized fee that's based on income. And get this -- all signs pointing to a big announcement today from Bernie Sanders. CBS says it has a revealing interview with the Vermont senator this morning, the big question, of course, will he run in 2020?</s>ROMANS: Will he run? CNN has learned that the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is set to leave the Department of Justice in mid-March. Now, we previously reported that Rosenstein planned to step down after the Senate confirmed Bill Barr as attorney general. A justice official who confirmed the more precise timing disputed the idea that it had anything to do with the latest revelations from Andrew McCabe.</s>SANCHEZ: Now, the former acting FBI director claims that Rosenstein suggested wearing a wire to secretly record President Trump and that he talked about a strategy for ousting the president under the 25th Amendment. Yesterday, Mr. Trump shared his feelings about McCabe and Rosenstein, saying that they were planning a very illegal act in a, quote, illegal and treasonous insurance policy. Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham says that his panel will investigate those comments from McCabe regarding the 25th Amendment.</s>ROMANS: All right. Big questions swirling in Washington this morning, is the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, the next top administration official to go? Long time Trump ally Chris Ruddy, the CEO of the conservative news site Newsmax, he says he spoke to the president and other officials personally this weekend at Mar-a-Lago. This was his impression.</s>CHRIS RUDDY, NEWSMAX MEDIA CEO: I think you have a classic example here where Director Coats is trying to make policy and not inform policy. I'm hearing from sources around the White House there's just general disappointment of the president with Director Coats. There's a feeling that maybe there needs to be a change of leadership in that position.</s>ROMANS: At a hearing last month, Director Coats contradicted President Trump on U.S. intelligence involving North Korea, ISIS and more.</s>SANCHEZ: Long time Trump confidant Roger Stone breaking one of his own rules, formally apologizing to the judge overseeing his criminal case over controversial Instagram posts. Now, this photo posted and then deleted from Stone's Instagram account showed Judge Amy Berman Jackson next to crosshairs mimicking the scoop of a rifle. The same photo was later posted again without the cross hairs and that was deleted as well. Stone tells CNN a volunteer who works on his social media campaign made the post. He also denied that those were actual crosshairs. He says the photos were not meant to threaten the judge. The post, though, will likely not sit well with Jackson who last week imposed a partial gag order in Stone's case.</s>ROMANS: Yes, his motto is never apologize.</s>SANCHEZ: Right.</s>ROMANS: And that's an apology. All right. A White House source tells CNN the president views former Michigan candidate John James as the leading contender for the job of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Republican Iraq War vet lost to Senator Debbie Stabenow in November. The source says Trump sees James as a rising star and asked trusted advisers what they thought about James at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert withdrew from consideration over the job over a tax issue with a nanny whose visa did not allow her to work in the</s>U.S. SANCHEZ: New overnight, a dangling rescue, crews rushing to rescue 16 people trapped on a gondola ride at SeaWorld in San Diego. Harnesses and lifeguard boats were brought in to pull the passengers to safety. An infant was among those on board along with a partially paralyzed passenger. Officials say the attraction "Bayside Skyride" stopped running over Mission Bay after a big gust of wind tripped a circuit breaker. Fortunately is looks like everyone is OK on the "Bayside Skyride". I've been riding the urge to not make a joke about David Hasselhoff this morning, but I've lost that battle so that's over with and we can move on. On a more serious news, not racist, not homophobic. Two brothers speaking out after being cleared in the alleged Jussie Smollett attack. When will the actor speak to police again?