House Democrats Dig in to Trump Oversight; Lieutenant Governor's Accuser Releases Graphic Statement about Sexual Harassment Incident
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: The American people have a right to know, indeed have a need to know that their president is acting on their behalf.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's called presidential harassment.</s>DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that unity push did not last long. Democrats defy the president with aggressive new investigations after the president warned against it.</s>REP. MATT GAETZ (R), FLORIDA: We have an immigration system that allows people to come here violently. We engage in --</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A congressman uses a gun violence hearing to push for a border wall. Parents of Parkland shooting victims not having it.</s>BRIGGS: The president touts territorial gains over ISIS but the secretary of State admits threats remain. Live in the Middle East.</s>ROMANS: And the former top editor of the "New York Times" accused of plagiarism Jill Abramson now says she will review passages from her new book. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START bright and early this morning. I'm Christine Romans.</s>BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. Good morning. Almost Friday, February 7th, 4:00 a.m. in the East. We start with these new investigations. House Democrats now starting to flex their new power in earnest. House Intelligence Committee Adam chairman -- Adam Schiff announcing an aggressive investigation into whether President Trump's business and financial interests are driving his decisions. The probe will go beyond contact between Trump's team and Russia, it will include whether foreign interests hold any kind of leverage over the president or anyone in his orbit, whether any of those people is at risk of manipulation from abroad and whether anyone has tried to obstruct the current investigations.</s>SCHIFF: The American people have a right to know, indeed have a need to know that their president is acting on their behalf and not for some pecuniary or other reason that pertains to any credible allegations of leverage by the Russians or the Saudis or anyone else.</s>ROMANS: The president dismissed the new investigations saying Schiff had no basis for it.</s>TRUMP: This is a political hack who's trying to build a name for himself. It's called presidential harassment and it's unfortunate. And it really does hurt our country.</s>ROMANS: The move came less than 24 hours after President Trump warned in his State of the Union against Democratic probes.</s>TRUMP: If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn't work that way.</s>ROMANS: Only about 18 months ago the president gave a similar signal against investigating his finances.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mueller is looking at your finances, your family's finances unrelated to Russia. Is that a red line?</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Would that be a breach of what his actual --</s>TRUMP: I would say yes. Yes. I would say yes.</s>BRIGGS: Worth noting federal prosecutors in Manhattan may pose a bigger threat to the president than Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Southern District of New York specifically looking at Mr. Trump's finances and has already enlisted cooperating witnesses like his former lawyer Michael Cohen and Trump Organization CFO Alan Weisselberg. Democrats circling the president in other ways. House hearings scheduled today on Mr. Trump's tax returns, family separations at the Mexico border, and a session is set for tomorrow to question acting attorney Matthew Whitaker. Democrats will ask about his decision not to recuse himself in the Russia probe among other things.</s>ROMANS: House Judiciary chairman Jerry Nadler says he will have a subpoena in his pocket just in case Whitaker refuses to answer questions. Also House Financial Services chair Maxine Waters says her panel is in talks to bring in Treasury Security Steve Mnuchin. They want to talk to him about the lifting of Russian sanctions on companies connected to oligarch Oleg Deripaska. A bipartisan group of 17 lawmakers is making progress on a deal to head off another government shutdown next week, but a source tells CNN no one is certain what the president will sign. The White House staying out of the talks to this point. The deadline is next Friday but negotiators want a deal done this week to give Congress and the president enough time to process it. Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is scheduled to meet with the group this weekend at Camp David. He is still warning the president could use executive authority.</s>MICK MULVANEY, ACTING CHIEF OF STAFF: If it comes to this, find the money that we can spend with the lowest threat of litigation and then move from that pot of money to the next pot that maybe brings a little bit more threat of litigation and then go through the budget like that.</s>BRIGGS: The 17 lawmakers met with Customs and Border Protection officials on Wednesday. They agree the best way to secure the border is to marry new technologies to additional personnel and new barriers. But they disagree about how to do that. One interesting note, CNN has learned the government shutdown ended after just 10 air traffic controllers stayed home on January 25th, the 35th day of the impasse. The absence of those few workers -- six in northern Virginia, four in Florida -- temporarily shut down travel at New York's LaGuardia Airport while causing delays at other major hubs.</s>ROMANS: All right. Tension at a congressional hearing on preventing gun violence. Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida using the hearing to actively campaign for the president's border wall. This is a hearing about gun violence. And this did not go over well with some in attendance.</s>GAETZ: HR8 would not have stopped many of the circumstances I raised, but a wall, a barrier on the southern border, may have. And that's what we're fighting for.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Chair --</s>GAETZ: We have an immigration system that allows people to come here violently. We engage in --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There will be no comments or demonstrations, please.</s>ROMANS: Gaetz's comments angering the fathers of two of victims in Parkland school massacre, Manuel Oliver and Fred Guttenberg.</s>BRIGGS: At one point, Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline posed this question.</s>REP. DAVID CICILLINE (D), RHODE ISLAND: Is there any committee rule that prevents a member of Congress from reciting false statements in a committee hearing that are unsupported by the evidence? That are unsupported by the evidence or are members of Congress entitled to just make things up?</s>BRIGGS: The House Judiciary Committee has been hearing testimony on a bipartisan measure that would require background checks for all gun sales and most gun transfers.</s>ROMANS: All right. To Virginia now where the political crisis there is taking another ugly twist. Attorney General Mark Herring admitting he appeared in blackface at a party in 1980 dressing up as a rapper when he was 19 years old. He calls it a one-time occurrence caused by a callous and inexcusable lack of awareness. That is three scandals weighing down Democrats in that state now. Governor Ralph Northam refusing to resign over this racist photo on his med school yearbook page. Initially he said it was not him in that picture on the right, he said it was -- first he said it was him, but he wouldn't say which person he was. And now he says it is not him.</s>BRIGGS: Right. All this unfolding as we learn more about sexual assault allegations against Virginia's Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax. His accuser, Vanessa Tyson, claims Fairfax sexually assaulted her at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. She told Virginia's Democratic Congressman Bobby Scott about the allegation a year ago. Aides to Scott tells CNN the congressman did not learn the full scope of the allegation until Wednesday when Tyson released a graphic statement about her encounter with Fairfax. More now from Ryan Nobles.</s>RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, we had thought that things couldn't get much worse here at Virginia state capital, but Wednesday proved us very wrong. The accuser of the lieutenant governor, Dr. Vanessa Tyson, released a very lengthy statement where she talked in specificity about the alleged incident in which she says that the lieutenant governor, who was then an aide to Senator John Edwards, forced her to perform oral sex on him. Now the lieutenant governor says that this is not true and, in fact, we have been told in private meetings he has been vehemently denying these claims and has also launched into an expletive laden attack against Miss Tyson and her supporters. Still, this is something that is rocking the capital. In fact, a very influential Democratic congresswoman, Jennifer Wexton, who was just recently elected in this wave of Democratic women to Congress, she was once a state senator here in Virginia. She served with Justin Fairfax. She tweeted yesterday, "I believe Dr. Vanessa Tyson." Meanwhile, those state lawmakers attempt to find some way to get the business of this government complete -- Dave and Christine.</s>ROMANS: All right, Ryan Nobles. Thank you so much for that, Ryan. If somehow the scandal brings down Virginia's top three government officials, a Republican would take the state's highest office. Virginia House and delegate speaker Kirk Cox is fourth in line for governor.</s>BRIGGS: What a mess. Planet earth just emerged from the fourth hottest year ever recorded. According to the NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that means 18 of the hottest 19 years have occurred since 2001. The warming driven largely by increased carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases caused by human activity. Many countries suffered through extreme weather and climate events in 2018, but the United States was hit particularly hard. There were 14 separate weather and climate disasters that caused $1 billion in damage or more last year.</s>ROMANS: All right. Wall Street waiting for the Federal Reserve to decide when and if it will raise interest rates in 2019. The former Fed chief Janet Yellen told CNBC yesterday the Federal Reserve could decide to cut rates next.</s>JANET YELLEN, FORMER FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: If global growth really weakens and that spills over to the United States or financial conditions tighten more and we do see a weakening in the U.S. economy, it's certainly possible that the next move is a cut.</s>ROMANS: That got a lot of attention yesterday. Her remarks come after the Fed kept interest rates steady and floated the idea it might be done considering any rate hikes this year. A few weeks ago it had suggested as many as two rate hikes this year were on the table. So what does that say about the American economy and the global economy, right, if they're not -- because they can't keep raising rates? Yellen mentioned several risks that could affect the U.S. including weak economic data from China and Europe, as well as uncertainties about trade policy and Brexit. Current Fed chief Jerome Powell recently said the decision on rates requires patience and he denounced any idea the Fed was caving to political pressure by taking the more dovish approach to rates. And by political pressure, there is pressure from the president of the United States. There is also pressure from the markets.</s>BRIGGS: Right.</s>ROMANS: There are those who said the markets with that -- with that, you know, hissy fit in December where selling off and pressuring the Fed to not keep rates always raised.</s>BRIGGS: Are there widespread fears that the president did bully his way to exactly what he wanted with interest rates?</s>ROMANS: I think that the Fed chief -- look, the Fed is an independent body and you -- if you're appointed by Donald Trump, you have to know that there's going to be --</s>BRIGGS: Right.</s>ROMANS: Twitter, you know, tirades about it. So from all -- from all appearances, the Fed is going to wait to see what the data looks like before it decides to raise rates.</s>BRIGGS: Let's hope. Ahead it looks like a serial killer in Toronto is nabbed with his next victim already tied up in his home. The stunning twist ahead.