President Trump's Decision To Order A Full And Rapid Withdrawal Of U.S. Troops From Syria Is Running Into Fierce Resistance; North Korea Says It Will Not Denuclearize Until The U.S. Eliminates Its Own "Nuclear Threat; " The Senate Has Passed A Stopgap Spending Bill To Prevent A Partial Government Shutdown At Midnight Friday; A Newly-Released Memo Could Really Complicate William Barr's Nomination For Attorney General; The Catholic Church Abuse Scandal Appears To Be Widening In Illinois.
LINDSEY GRAHAM, U.S. SENATOR, SOUTH CAROLINA, REPUBLICAN: This is a stain on the honor of the United States.</s>ALISON KOSIK, ANCHOR, EARLY START: Even the President's closest allies slamming the move to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. Russia, Iran and the Assad regime all in line to benefit.</s>DAVE BRIGGS, ANCHOR, EARLY START: A bill to fund the government until February passes the Senate but did it deal a death blow to the President's border wall?</s>KOSIK: "Fatally misconceived." The man poised to oversee the Mueller probe had harsh words for the investigation just a few months ago.</s>BRIGGS: And the Dow now at its lowest point of the entire year. Investors spooked after another rate hike from the Fed, a wild swing in the markets yesterday. Welcome back to "Early Start." I'm Dave Briggs.</s>KOSIK: It was. Good morning, I'm Alison Kosik. I'm sitting in for Christine Romans at 30 minutes past the hour and President Trump's decision to order a full and rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria is running into fierce resistance this morning. In the words of one senior administration official, "The decision by tweet will recklessly put American and allied lives in danger around the world. A mistake of colossal proportions." A U.S. Defense official tells CNN planning for the pullout is already underway. Reactions to the President's move ranging from shock to outrage.</s>BRIGGS: A group of bipartisan senators firing off a letter to Mr. Trump urging him to reconsider. They believe if there is a pullout, "any remnants of ISIS in Syria will surely renew and embolden their efforts in the region." Top Republican senators not pleased about getting blindsided.</s>GRAHAM: Now we're dramatically less safe. This is an Obama-like move.</s>MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SENATOR, FLORIDA, REPUBLICAN: It's a terrible mistake and unfortunately, I think we're going to pay a price for it if it's not reversed.</s>BOB CORKER, U.S. SENATOR, TENNESSEE, REPUBLICAN: It's hard to imagine that any President would wake up and make this kind of decision with this little communication, with this little preparation.</s>JOHN CORNYN, U.S. SENATOR, TEXAS, REPUBLICAN: Pulling the plug on these troops without giving due consideration to the consequences, I think is something that I don't think any of us what to do.</s>GRAHAM: To say they're defeated is an overstatement and is fake news. We have been dishonorable. This is a stain on the honor of the United States.</s>KOSIK: The President did not make himself available for questions about Syria on Wednesday. Instead, the White House released a video of Mr. Trump explaining why he made the move.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we have won against ISIS. We've beaten them and we've beaten them badly. We've taken back the land and now it's time for our troops to come back home.</s>KOSIK: One big problem in all of this, the Defense Department disagrees. They released this statement. "The coalition has liberated the ISIS-held territory, but the campaign against ISIS is not over."</s>BRIGGS: The White House struggling to articulate the President's full Syria withdrawal plan. They can't say how many troops have come home, what the timeline is, or when other personnel will leave. The administration official referring questions to the Pentagon. The Pentagon referred them back to the White House.</s>KOSIK: The President's order to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria is being met with universal condemnation and there are a lot of reasons why. Nima Elbagir joins us now live from London. You know, members of the President's party, members of the President's administration, they are all giving reasons why we should stay and not go. Foremost, this could put the U.S. in danger.</s>NIMA ELBAGIR, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Absolutely, and tellingly, it's not just within the U.S. that people are disagreeing with President Trump's logic. Key members of the anti- ISIS global coalition are disagreeing with him. First, the U.K. and now France just came out and said, this fight is not over and it makes the world measurably less safe. The Secretary of Defense, General Mattis has consistently argued that this fight is in the U.S. national interest. This is about an enduring victory and that word is really key, Alison, enduring. It's not just about defeating ISIS territorially, it is about defeating the ideology, not allowing it to reconstitute in the way that we saw Al-Qaeda in Iraq reconstitute to become ISIS eventually, but it is also about putting in place systems that allow local groups, local security officials to be able to fight against ISIS should it rear its head again. And that campaign is only 20% done.</s>ELBAGIR: By the Pentagon's own statistics, only released back in August, there are 14.5 thousand remaining ISIS fighters in Syria and the concern is that without a U.S. defense, without a U.S. bull-work to that presence in Syria, that they will be able to start looking again to operations abroad.</s>KOSIK: All right, Nima Elbagir, live for us from London. Thanks for your reporting.</s>BRIGGS: All right, it could be just a coincidence, but President Trump is giving Russia two big gifts in the same day. Pulling U.S. troops out of Syria and lifting sanctions on major Russian firms controlled by friends of Vladimir Putin. The United States is also sanctioning 15 Russian intelligence agents and four entities for interfering in the 2016 election. Now this morning, President Putin holding his annual end of the year news conference about the state of his domestic and his foreign policy. Let's go live to Moscow and bring in CNN Moscow Bureau Chief, Nathan Hodge. Nathan, these things have known to go several hours. Any expectation that Putin will comment about the U.S. decision on Syria?</s>NATHAN HODGE, MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF, CNN: Dave, we've been watching Putin in the very beginning of his marathon press conference, thus far, Syria has not come up, but it's certainly going to be a topic for discussion. Putin's press conferences are usually very wide ranging. They cover everything from domestic issues and the economy to Russia's standing in the world. So we'll be certainly watching for that. And as you had said, this is - it's like an early Christmas present for Putin in many ways. While President Trump's move caused a lot of consternation in Washington and in other capitals, it can be nothing but welcome news for the Kremlin. Just last night, we saw comments from Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who had described this as a very - a real, real prospect for a political settlement, and President Putin as you know intervened on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad back in 2015. They are back to the regime and they have been saying for months that they think the United States has no legal standing to stay in Syria. So this is certainly going to be welcome news. We will be waiting for comment from that, Dave.</s>BRIGGS: It will be hard to imagine Putin not commenting about the U.S. decision. Nathan Hodge, we'll check back you in the next hour. Breaking overnight. North Korea says it will not denuclearize until the U.S. eliminates its own, quote, "nuclear threat." That's from commentary published by state media, which suggests one of the obstacles could be the U.S. military assets in South Korea. All of this will pose another big obstacle for the U.S. and Pyongyang. They've been deadlocked in talks about denuclearizing in exchange for sanctions relief. Another summit between the President and Kim Jong- un has been rumored for early next year.</s>KOSIK: The Senate has passed a stopgap spending bill to prevent a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday. The measure to fund the government through early February, it still needs House approval, it also needs the President's signature. The deal kicks the can down the road on critical issues like funding for the President's border wall, so that's going to be a tougher task for Republicans once Democrats take over the House next month. Any funding for a wall would have to go through Nancy Pelosi. The White House suggesting it could get creative to find the money. Instead of the budget route, they could get funding from other departments or carve out money for border security rather than a wall specifically. The Dow tumbled to the lowest level of the year after the Federal Reserve voted to raise interest rates despite new signs of economic softening and weeks of market volatility. What a day it was yesterday. The Dow tumbled 352 points or 1.5%, Wednesday. The sell-off left the Dow at its lowest level in 13 months and wiped out a 382-point rally that actually happened before the Fed made its decision. The S&P 500 fell 1.5%, the NASDAQ lost more than 2%. Central Bankers unanimously agreed to lift the Federal funds rate to a range of 2.25% and 2.5%. Interest rates have increased seven times since President Trump took office. Four of those increases have been under Fed chair Jay Powell. The President though has repeatedly attacked Powell and blames these rate hikes for some of the market's recent drops. Now when asked about pressure from the White House, Powell said this. "We're going to do our job the way we've always done them." Stressing the importance of the Fed's independence from political pressure, "Nothing will cause us to deviate from that." Now what rattled the market here is that while the Fed sent a dovish signal to investors, it just wasn't dovish enough. The Central Bank now appears to be eyeing at least two more rate hikes in 2019. But investors were actually expecting an even slower pace of rate increases.</s>BRIGGS: A newly-released memo could complicate William Barr's nomination for Attorney General. In a memo from June of this year to senior Justice officials, Barr writes Special Counsel Robert Mueller's obstruction investigation is, quote, "fatally misconceived."</s>BRIGGS: And that President Trump's interactions with ex-FBI director James Comey do not constitute obstruction of justice. The fact that Barr weighed in on such a sensitive issue and would be poised to oversee Mueller's work could put his nomination in peril.</s>KOSIK: Barr who was once a AG for George H.W. Bush also wrote that Trump asking Comey to let go of the Michael Flynn investigation and then firing Comey were within his powers as head of the Executive Branch. According to a Justice Department official, Barr's memo was unsolicited. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said this on Wednesday, many people offer unsolicited advice and Barr's memo has quote, "no impact" on the investigation.</s>BRIGGS: South Carolina Republicans could forego their Presidential primary in 2020 to show their support for President Trump. The move would be designed to frustrate the efforts of potential GOP challengers to the President. The states GOP Chairman asking why of taxpayers pay for a primary when the party totally supports Mr. Trump? A decision is expected by next summer. This would not be the first time Republicans nixed the first in the state primary. They did for President Reagan in 1984 and again in 2004 for President George W. Bush - one key difference back then, the party paid for primaries, now taxpayers do and you wonder, Alison, if this could give a challenger an even bigger megaphone in 2020 because they'd have all the press asking them questions for that entire time. They'd have the national stage virtually to themselves.</s>KOSIK: Well, we'll know soon enough. 2020 around the corner.</s>BRIGGS: Yes, that's an interesting development.</s>KOSIK: The Catholic Church abuse scandal appears to be widening in Illinois. New accusations that diocese failed to report accusations against 500 priests.</s>KOSIK: The Illinois Attorney General says the state's six diocese have failed to disclose accusations of sexual abuse against at least 500 priests and clergy members. Illinois diocese have publicly identified 185 clergy members who are credibly accused. But State Attorney General Lisa Madigan says the accusations have not been adequately investigated. She says, the Church failed in its moral obligation to provide survivors, parishioners and the public a complete accounting. In a statement, the head of the Illinois archdiocese, says since 2002, all allegations have been reported.</s>BRIGGS: Disgraced movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein set to appear in the New York Supreme Court to learn whether criminal rape and sex charges against him will be dismissed. Weinstein faces five felony counts. He is accused of raping a woman in a New York hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman in 2006. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty. The prosecution's case has not gone smoothly. In October, one of Weinstein's six felony charges was dismissed after an NYPD officer was found to have mishandled evidence.</s>KOSIK: Actress, Eliza Dushku is breaking her silence after it was revealed she received a $9.5 million settlement from CBS. She accused star, Michael Weatherly of making repeated remarks about her appearance, a comment about a threesome and rape joke. She confronted Weatherly and reported the harassment and then she was fired. In a new "Boston Globe" op-ed, Dushku writes this, "In explaining his bad behavior, Weatherly who plays Dr. Bull claimed I didn't get his attempt at humor. I did not overreact. I took a job and because I did not want to be harassed, I was fired." CNN reached out to CBS and Weatherly's representatives for comment. When contacted by "The Times" last week, Weatherly said he was mortified to have offended Dushku and claims, he immediately apologized.</s>BRIGGS: Shipping is usually about weather or the economy, so what does it say that a trade war has FedEx concerned about business in 2019? CNN business is next.</s>KOSIK: Would you look at that? A bright light that lit up the internet of the skies above Northern California last night. It was most likely a meteor. That's according to the National Weather service. An unusually bright smoke like trail was spotted over the Lake Tahoe area. It raised speculation that the cloud-like formations were related to a planned rocket launch at an Air Force base near Santa Barbara. However, the launch was scrubbed because of signs of booster complications.</s>BRIGGS: An outbreak of hepatitis A is being investigated in Louisiana. The disease causes a highly contagious liver infection. There are now 24 known cases. Most are in Morehouse parish. But there are reports of cases in other parts of the state. Health officials hopes declaring an outbreak will raise the public's awareness and convince those who are at risk to get vaccinated. Transmission seems to be through direct person-to-person contact and drug use.</s>KOSIK: Heavy rain and storms from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. The system is heading east just in time to impact holiday travel plans for millions. Here is Pedram Javaheri.</s>PEDRAM JAVAHERI, METEOROLOGIST, CNN: David, Alison, good morning. Yes, the Gulf Coast here really, the home for severe weather, some strong thunderstorms, some activity here pushing it farther towards the East, as well as we head in of course towards a very busy Friday for travelers across the region. You take a look at the wet weather is going to be the story from Thursday and to at least, Friday morning across the Gulf Coast and then we get a surge of warm air to the north as well. But put all of this together at least, over the next few hours here and then going into this afternoon, severe weather threat has returned once again to the forecast. Portions of Central and even South Florida, on a scale of one to five, a two and a three, they are for severe weather, which includes some strong winds and also damaging hail and maybe even a few isolated tornadoes possible with this, but notice, it will quickly ride up the eastern seaboard and by Friday afternoon, we are talking about very warm temperatures pushing in across the northeast. So with that said, expect all of this to come down in the form of rain, not snow on the first day of winter, which at least is one piece of good news for the travelers out there. We're not going to have snow fall to go around, but back behind us, just like that, we drop in some seriously cold air. So a quick warm up for the next couple of days across the northeast and then, once again we come back down to reality, upper 40s on Saturday.</s>BRIGGS: All right, Pedram, thanks. SNL's Pete Ddavidson getting support from the Congressman-elect he once mocked on national television. Soon to be Representative Dan Crenshaw reaching out to Davidson after the comic appeared to be suicidal in a post on Instagram. Davidson had to apologize to Crenshaw after joking about his appearance on "Saturday Night Live." Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who lost an eye in Afghanistan, he just reached out to the struggling comic to offer words of advice.</s>DAN CRENSHAW, REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT, TEXAS, REPUBLICAN: What I told him was this. Everybody has a purpose in this world. God put you here for a reason. But it is your job to find that purpose and know you have value and that you maybe do more good than you realize for people, especially a guy like that. He makes people laugh. Sometimes he makes people mad. But he also makes people laugh a lot and that's what we talked about. It was a good conversation.</s>BRIGGS: Very nice. Davidson expected to be back with the rest of the SNL cast when the show returns in January. Elf on a Shelf - a great holiday tradition, but Jimmy Kimmel had a new invention for this Christmas.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From creators of Elf on a Shelf comes the toughest investigator of all. Mueller on a Cruller. This holiday season, he knows you've been naughty because he subpoenaed your diary and made all your friends talk. He grilled your G.I. Joe. Flipped your Furby, and threatened Barbie with a big house. Mueller on a Cruller knows about the magazines under your mattress.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to see my lawyer.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your lawyer has been sentenced to three years in time out.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything I do is legal.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mueller on a Cruller. From the maker of Elf on a Shelf. Trump on a Stump, Pence on a Fence, Huckabee in a Tree, and Kellyanne in a Trash can. Comey on Pony sold separately.</s>KOSIK: Where can I get one of those? All right, let's get a check on CNN business this morning. Global markets are lower after the Federal Reserve voted to raise interest rates for the fourth time this year. In Asia markets closed in the red, the Nikkei fell close to 3%. The Shanghai fell 0.5% and the Hang Seng fell 1%. We are looking at European markets opening lower as trading begins there. On Wall Street, we are looking at red arrows as well. The Dow tumbled to the lowest level of the year yesterday after the Fed's decision. The Dow declined 352 points or 1.5%. The selloff left the Dow at a 13-month low wiping out a 382-point rally that happened before the Fed made its decision midday. The S&P 500 fell 1.5%. We saw the NASDAQ lose more than 2%. FedEx is worried trade tensions with the U.S. and China could severely hurt its business next year. The company dramatically cut its profit outlook for the full fiscal year lowering it to 10%. Because FedEx ships goods for consumers and businesses all over the world, it is often looked to by investors as a bellwether of global economic activity. However, it says international business especially in Europe has weakened significantly over the past three months. To control cost, FedEx announced it will offer buyouts to its U.S. employees and to scale back hiring plans. It also is considering a buyout offer for international staff. FedEx did not say how many jobs it expects to eliminate. America's prominent cigarette company looking beyond tobacco for growth. Altria is reportedly interested in buying a huge stake in e- cigarette maker, Juul. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, Altria is seeking a 35% stake in Juul, that's worth almost $13 billion. The investment gives Juul access to Altria's massive distribution network which is international. Juul has come under intense regulatory scrutiny after teenagers become addicted to its products. According to the National Youth Tobacco survey, more than 75% of high school aged children they say, they have used e-cigarettes. Altria recently invested $1.8 billion in Canadian cannabis company, Cronos Group. And actually, the legal cannabis space, that's actually seen as a huge growth area in decades to come.</s>BRIGGS: Well, a big nicotine entering, Juul, that's a scary thing for parents that have no idea how to contain this issue. All right, "Early Start" continues right now.</s>GRAHAM: This is a stain on the honor of the United States.</s>KOSIK: Even the President's closest allies are slamming the move to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria. Russia, Iran and the Assad regime all in line to benefit.</s>BRIGGS: A bill to fund the government until February passes the Senate, but did it also deal a death blow to the President's border wall?</s>KOSIK: "Fatally misconceived," the man poised to oversee the Mueller probe had harsh words for the investigation just a few months ago.</s>BRIGGS: And the Dow now at its lowest point of the entire year. Investors