Puerto Rico Gov. Won't Run Again; Democrats Raise The Stakes; Tensions Mounting With Iran; Deal On Budget Debt Ceiling Taking Shape; Trump White House; Severe Weather
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: A scandal plagued governor of Puerto Rico will not seek another term, but millions are demanding he leave sooner.</s>REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): The report presents very substantial evidence that the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: Democrats raise the stakes ahead of Robert Mueller's testimony this week. Will the testimony help or hurt the push for impeachment?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you obey. You will be saved. If you obey, you will be safe. Alter your course.</s>BRIGGS: A British vessel seized after being warned by Iran to change course. The U.K. is vowing a robust response.</s>ROMANS: And power still out for thousands in New York and Detroit. No air conditioning on one of the hottest, most unbearable weekends in memory comes to a close. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world, this is "Early Start." I'm Christine Romans.</s>BRIGGS: Welcome back my friend.</s>ROMANS: Thank you.</s>BRIGGS: It was a hot and wicked Sunday.</s>ROMANS: Yes, it was.</s>BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Happy Monday everybody, July 22, 4:00 a.m. here in New York, noon in the</s>UAE, 9: 00 a.m. in the U.K. Live reports ahead. We start this morning in Puerto Rico where a major change is coming, but not just yet. Embattled Governor Ricardo Rossello announcing he will not run for reelection next year.</s>RICARDO ROSSELLO, PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR (through translator): I have listened to every Puerto Rican and I listen to you today. I've made mistakes and I've apologized. I admit that apologizing is not enough. Only my work will help restore the confidence of these sectors and lead to a true reconciliation.</s>BRIGGS: In response to a huge week now of huge protests, Rossello is resigning as president of the new Progressive Party.</s>ROMANS: Many Puerto Ricans had been calling for him to step down entirely after the leak of sex's and homophobic private chat messages with his inner circle. Protesters also say government corruption is undermining efforts to deal with high poverty rates, crushing debt and the aftermath of hurricane Maria. CNN's Nick Payton Walsh is in San Juan for us with the latest.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave, Christine. A bizarre statement really from Governor Rossello. On (inaudible) really that he would step forward on Facebook, at 5:45, the day before a massive protests against him Monday, where organizers hope they get a million people out of the streets and saying he is not resigning. Now there was a minor concession in his Facebook broadcast in which he said, he was not going to be contesting the election next year. But all honesty he was very unlikely to win those in the first place. So, essentially, many are reading this behind me as the governor digging in his heels. They want him gone immediately, there are actions from people behind me wants to say, listen, this man has to get out. They think this will boost the numbers on the streets on Monday. One of the key goals is to lock down a major expressway into San Juan. The mall around are closed. Federal government offices are closed. The Justice Department is telling local employees still to come into work, but there's a real sense now that Governor Rossello is perhaps blind to call some Democratic candidacy. He should leave, even the message possibly a (inaudible) from his press secretary, she stepped down. Nowhere to be associated with the corruption allegations like (Inaudible), in front of her sons, she said in a lengthy letter. But it hasn't changed his mind. Well, the protest on Monday will do so, we will have to see. Dave, Christine?</s>BRIGGS: All right. Nick Payton Walsh there in Puerto Rico. Some dramatic new audio capturing communications between Iranian and British ships in the Persian Gulf moments before the Iranians seized the British tanker.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you obey, you will be save. If you obey, you will be save. Alter your course.</s>BRIGGS: A royal navy warship in the region to protect British vessels telling the crew aboard the Stena Impero that the Iranian revolutionary guard crew had no business telling them what to do.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I reiterate that as you are conducting transit passage in a recognize international strait, under international law your passage must not be impaired.</s>BRIGGS: Iran for its part said it detained the British tanker for unspecified violations of maritime law. The crew of 23 are still being held, this is just the latest escalations in the Strait of Hormuz. A critical waterway for trade, oil and gas. Senior International Correspondent, Matthew Chance is in the UAE along the Strait and joins us with the latest. Matthew, good morning.</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All right. Good morning, Dave. We're just a short distance from the exact spot where that British flag oil tanker was taken into Iranian custody and seized in a dramatic scenes that actually Iranian state television broadcast all over its country showing Iranians Special Forces Revolutionary Guards boarding the ship wearing black (inaudible) descending from the helicopter hovering above it while fast patrol boats circled the British flag oil tanker. Also those dramatic radio communications that are intercepted that show a confrontation, at least on the air waves, between a British military war ship and the Iranian navy. They can't do anything though the British to stop that oil tanker being taken into Iranian custody. The British promised robust responses to this Iranian action. What exactly that will be, we are not clear yet, it's going to be meetings later on today in London among British high officials to discuss what measures they're going to take. The possibility of sanctions is there, of course, as is the possibility of some kind of international effort to protect shipping in this Persian Gulf region with assets, including assets from the United States. So, that is something that is being actively discussed as well. In the meantime, the Iranian Foreign Minister has accused the United States of trying to draw Britain into a conflict in the region. This latest incident, of course, you got to set it against the backdrop of escalating tensions between the United States and Iran which has seen growing military pressure in the region. Including the downing of drones by both countries of either side. And so this is a very dangerous moment. The tensions in the Persian Gulf region really start to ratchet up to dangerous levels, Dave.</s>BRIGGS: So, we shall see what robust means. Matthew Chance live there in the UAE this morning. Thank you.</s>ROMANS: All right. The Democrats who want to launch impeachment proceedings against the president, this could be a make or break week. Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies before Congress on Wednesday. And Democrats, they've struggle to effectively used his reports to make their case. Mueller made it clear in May that charging President Trump was never an option he could consider, but he refused to exonerate him.</s>ROBERT MUELLER, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL: If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.</s>BRIGGS: Mueller will appear before the House Intel and Judiciary Committee. Here's what the two chair men are hoping to achieve.</s>NADLER: The report presents very substantial evidence that the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanor. And we have to present or that Mueller present those facts to the American people and then see where we go from there.</s>REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Since most Americans are -- you know, in their busy lives haven't had the opportunity to read that report and it's a pretty dry prosecutorial work product. We want Bob Mueller to bring it to life. Who better to bring them to life than the man who did the investigations himself? We want the people to hear it directly from him, not filtered through Bill Barr who had his own misleading characterization of it.</s>BRIGGS: More than 80 House Democrats have called for an impeachment inquiry of the president, but the American people may not have the stomach for it, according to a new NBC News Wall Street Journal poll, half of registered voters say forget the hearings and let the president finish his term.</s>ROMANS: All right. A deal on the budget on the debt ceiling appears to be taking shape, but still needs President Trump's approval. The Washington Post reporting this morning that pending deal would extend the debt ceiling and set new spending levels for two years. Now instead of the $150 billion in new spending cuts, recently demanded by the White House this agreement would include fewer reductions but and an exact figure could not be learned. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke several times over the weekend as that August recess looms. Here's what Senator Chuck Schumer said about the negotiations.</s>SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: We're willing to go a good ways, but the bottom line is the administration has to compromise as well. It seems when Mr. Mulvaney gets involved, they ask for things that are outlandish. He was one of five congressmen who wanted to shut down the government a few years ago. I'm hopeful that (inaudible) can prevail and we can come together. We are making progress, but we are not there yet.</s>ROMANS: The bottom-line simple here, every day there is less time in getting a deal locked in becomes more essential. The U.S. Government could default on its debt in early September if the debt ceiling is not raise. A default would of course risk the position of U.S. debt as a global safe haven investment and could rattle markets.</s>BRIGGS: All right. A brutal heat wave, straining the power grids over the weekend. Overnight, up to 53,000 customers in New York City were without lights or air conditioning at one point. That number is now cut by about a half. Con Ed said it took about 33,000 customers in Brooklyn off the grid deliberately to protect vital equipment. Meanwhile in Detroit severe storms left damage and 290,000 customers without power. The high temps blamed for two deaths. Heatstroke failed former NFL player Mitch Petras in Arkansas and an unidentified woman hiking in Maryland. For a look of the week ahead, let's bring in meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri.</s>PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, guys. Finally getting a break in that forecast over the next couple of days after the upper 90's and low 100's across the Northeast, LaGuardia, Atlantic City, in and across places such as Bridgeport, Connecticut, temps climbing up to even 99 or 100 degrees across portions of town. All of these either setting or tying records, climatologically speaking, it is that latter portion of July into early August where we see the hottest temperatures of the year. In fact, first time ever we've seen Boston have two days that failed to see temps dip below 80 degrees into the overnight hours. That was Saturday and Sunday morning. Low on Sunday morning in Boston, an incredible 83 degree afternoon. What if I tell you we don't make it there by this afternoon? High's only expected to 81, upper 90's. What we saw yesterday and of course, you factor in the humidity yesterday felt well warmer in that as well. New York City is 100 gives way to 84 today, but notice we do have a few active areas of thunderstorms forecast to move in later on this afternoon and this evening. So, that will help keep your temperatures at bay. Throughout the next couple of days we will see a gradual warming trend, but really, the highest we get is about 87 degrees by late week, guys.</s>ROMANS: Eight seven, I can take -- I can handle that.</s>BRIGGS: Its' a little bit more.</s>ROMANS: All right, 11 minutes past the hour here. A big transition coming in the U.K. It looks like the Donald Trump Britain is now about to be Prime Minister. What it means for Brexit and relations with the United Kingdom.