tv Early Start with Christine Romans and Dave Briggs CNN December 12, 2019 1:00am-2:00am PST
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do what you were elected to do. you didn't swear an oath to donald trump. you swore an oath to defend and protect the constitution of the united states. >> house democrats are not clarifying that no one is above the law. they are just declaring that none of them are above partis partisanship and politics. >> they resume their debate about impeachment just hours from now. the republicans are leaning to a short impeachment trial without the witnesses that president trump would want to see called. new video shows the moment two shooters launch their attack on a kosher market in new jersey. two people emerge unhurt after this plane was scene on video crash-landing on a phoenix street. welcome, everyone. to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm amara walker.
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>> i'm dave briggs. we're 53 days from the iowa caucuses and in the middle of impeachment. just a few hours from now, the legislative work on articles of impeachment finally begins after weeks of hearings and many opening statements. tonight, the judiciary committee will hear amendment. the committee will vote, with democrats sending it to the full house. congressional correspondent phil mattingly with more. >> reporter: amara and dave. it was a long straight and a late night, but an important night, for a couple reasons. first off, this was the next step for what is clearly going to lead to the impeachment of president trump. one more step forward for house democrats and their effort. one more step of trying to block the democrats by all of the republicans on the house judiciary committee. there's also the idea of framing, through the 41 members, republicans and democrats on the
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committee, giving the personal statements why they were for or against impeachment. listen to how one democrat and one republican put it. >> i believe that three questions should frame our debate. first, does the evidence show clearly that the president committed these acts. second, do they rise to the level of impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors. third, what are the consequences for our national security, for the integrity of our elections and for our country, if we fail to act? >> this is not about ukraine. the facts are on the president's said. zelensky said he wasn't pressured. ukrainians didn't know aid was held at the time of the call and more importantly, they did nothing to get the aid released. the democrats have never accepted the will of the american people. three weeks ago, nancy pelosi called the president of the united states an imposter and
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the attacks started before the election. >> reporter: there's going to be a lot of back and forth. it will be very long. it will probably be very dense in terms of what they are doing. but bottom line is this -- you're going to see republicans draft and try to propose a number of amendments to change the two articles of impeachment. they will not be looking to defend those articles of impeachment and will keep everything in the same place. whatever republicans propose, democrats can one by one shoot it down. what it's leading to, by the end of the day on thursday, by the end of legislative consideration for the house judiciary committee, the house floor is what's next. the full house vote is what's next. once the judiciary committee is done, there's no more stops, no more hearings, no more closed-door depositions. the house of representatives will impeach president trump next week. we don't have the next day.
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but that's what the judiciary committee final meeting actually means. it means it's on to the house floor and president trump is on his way to being impeached and the senate, not the house, will take up the mantle. the senate trial for president trump, to see if they have the votes to remove him from office. >> phil mattingly, thank you for that. impeachment light. witch hunt. president trump has used a lot of terms to label his impeachment, downplaying it as a stunt by the democrats. the prospect of becoming the third u.s. president ever to be impeached is weighing heavily on mr. trump. more, now, from chief white house correspondent jim acosta. >> reporter: dave and amara, we are hearing that president trump is clogrowing increasingly aggravated. the coverage bugs him. a separate adviser says the president has been preparing for this moment for some time, suspecting for the better part
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of last year that democrats would try to impeeach him after taking control of the house. he believes it's the ukraine scandal. frankly, it's a little surprised that the ukraine thing has done it. mr. trump is irked by the fact that he will join the list of presidents impeached. the president believes he is winning the debate on impeachment. he says that republicans are showing sign they're not going to support impeachment in the house or the senate. we should note, at his rally this week, the president appeared to crow over the fact that he's only facing two articles of impeachment. he has dubbed the process impeachment light. but in the history books, it doesn't say impeachment light. it says impeached. >> jim acosta at the white house. if the president is impeached
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and there is a senate trial, mitch mcconnell is not planning to hold a vote to discuss the articles of impeachment. according to two republican senators he will wait to acquit once the majority of senators feel it has run its course. most republicans want an acquittal to clear the president, more than rely on a procedural motion with a 51-vote threshold. only 34 votes would be acquired for an acquittal. >> some republicans are around a shorter impeachment trial. a short-form trial would not include the whistleblower or hunter biden. those details coming from interviews with republicans in the next few days. the trial is in the planning stages. no final decisions have been made. but gop senators say they are beginning to see the benefit of
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keeping the process short and laying out a presentation by house managers and the white house. the nonpartisan watchdog for the justice department, michael horowitz laying out his finds on crossfire hurricane, which is the investigation. testifying to the judiciary committee, he defended his conclusion, there had been no political bias in launching the fbi probe. but horowitz criticized the fbi's handling of the probe in no uncertain terms, saying he uncovered 17 omissions from adviser carter page. republicans and democrats on the senate committee, both scoring political points. >> so, your report states that you didn't find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation played a role.
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>> that's correct. >> thank you. >> and you didn't find a deep state conspiracy next candidate or president trump? >> as to the opening, we found no bias, no testimony or documentary evidence on that. we found and as we outline here, are deeply concerned that so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three hand-picked teams on one of the most sensitive investigations. >> would you have submitted an investigation? >> i wouldn't have submitted the one they put in. it was misleading to the court. >> horowitz refused to speculate about the motivations of fbi officials who made mistakes applying for a surveillance warrant. hundreds of mourners turn out for the victims of an attack on a kosher market in new jersey. more on them, next.
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and office supplies. according to "the times," he supplemented his argument in a memo from an e-mail address that belonged to ron vera. the alias is quoted in six of navarro's books including the upcoming "china wars." no final decision has been made and president trump has not signed off on the delay. he did sent a memo to "the times." it's not known how widely it was sent out. police officers in new jersey, lining the streets in memory of joseph seals, who was attacked by a pair of gunmen at a market. he was jersey city's officer in charge of trying to get guns off of the street. investigators are trying to
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determine a motive for the attack. but "the new york times" is reporting that one of the two shooters is linked to the black hebrew movement. they have splinter groups but they say they are all united with the belief that african-americans are the true descendants of the jews in the bible. >> reporter: this is the jewish market where this horrific incident took place. you can see it's boarded up, still surrounded by police tape. the mayor of jersey city saying there's no ifs, ands or buts about it, this is a hate crime. >> we have to be aggressive and call it out for what it is. people say we should review things and take our time. if you look at the facts of what transpi transpired, it's difficult to argue anything other than that. >> reporter: the lead investigators circumspect. they are saying the two got out
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of a stolen u-haul vehicle, pulling out belong rifles, goings into this store. it's unclear what their motivation from. not only was there a pipe bomb in the vehicle, in that stolen u-haul, there were also writings in there. anti-semitic and anti-police writings, not only in notes in the vehicle, but also online by these two individuals, killed in that store were mendel ferentz. she was the store owner. and martha and douglas working in the score. a fourth victim was able to escape after being shot. that person is expected to survive. all authorities pointing to the bravery of the jersey city police officers.
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they ran to this location. that's when other officers got injured. we expect to hear information from officials here in new jersey later today. dave? amara? >> miguel, thanks. a small plane crash in phoenix caught on a surveillance camera. look at the aircraft slamming into a utility pole before taking out several vehicles in a used car lot and skidding into the middle of the street. >> he wanted to try to land on 23rd avenue. thank goodness he didn't. he probably would have taken us out. >> they let us on property for maybe two minutes and seen about ten of our cars damaged. >> two people were onboard the plane. a 48-year-old pilot who is a flight instructor. and the passenger were not hurt. the cause of the crash is under investigation. joe biden denying reports that he has a pledge to serve only one term.
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four people who speak regularly with biden say it is virtually inconceivable that he will run for election in 2024. campaigning in las vegas, biden said the story isn't true. >> do you ever talk to any aides about a one-term pledge? >> no. i never have. i don't have plans to. i'm not even there yet. >> in 2024, biden would be the oldest president in u.s. history by more than four years. he says, let's see how i feel. a homeowner hoping to catch a package thief caught something else on his front porch. that story, next.
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a would-be thief picked the wrong time to rob a convenience store in newton, massachusetts. security video shows him thre threatening the store clerk with a knife and forcing him to open the register. what the thief didn't know is an off-duty police officer had entered the store minutes before he did.
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when the thief didn't drop his weapon, the officer tackled him to the ground. >> right place, right time, for the department. wrong place, wrong time for the suspect. he showed great restraint. the suspect was armed, had a knife, and the officer, with the help of the community, was able to subdue the suspect and place him under arrest. >> the suspect was charged in connection with armed robbery. it appears the los angeles angels finally have their man. anthony renndon agreed to a contact with the halos. he helped lead the nationals to the world series this season. it includes a no opt-out clause. a los angeles homeowner can rest easy after learning who was
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stealing packages from his front door. surveillance video caught the sneaky squirrel in the act, grabbing an amazon package and dragging it away. the porch pirate has been active. the owner finds his packages in the bushes around the apartment complex. at least he's able to recover them. >> sneaky little fella. well done. ahead, a marathon two-day debate on the impeachment of president trump resumes again on capitol hill, just hours from now. the latest on that and the next steps, coming up.
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do what you were elected to do. you didn't swear an oath to donald trump. you swore an oath to defend and protect the constitution of the united states. >> house democrats are not clarifying that no one is above the law. they are just declaring that none of them are above partisanship and politics. >> democrats and republicans resume their historic debate about the impeachment, just hours from now. cnn has learned that the republicans are leaning towards a short impeachment trial in the senate, without the witnesses president trump wants to see. new video shows the moment two shooters launch their attack on a kosher market in new jersey. two people emerge unhurt
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after this plane was seen on video crash-landing on a phoenix street. welcome, everyone. papers are here. >> thanks for being with us here in new york. in just a few hours, the actual legendive work on articles of impeachment finally begins. after weeks of hearings and last night's many opening statements, today, the house judiciary committee will debate amendments, possibly a lot of them. by the end of the day, the committee will vote with democrats almost certainly sending the matter to the full house, over republicans' strenuous strenuous objections. phil mattingly with more. >> reporter: amara and dave. it was a long straight and a late night, but an important night, for a couple reasons. first off, this was the next step for what is clearly going to lead to the impeachment of president trump. one more step forward for house democrats and their effort. one more step of trying to block the democrats by all of the republicans on the house judiciary committee. there's also the idea of
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framing, through the 41 members, republicans and democrats on the judiciary committee, giving their personal statements why they were for or against impeachment. listen to how one democrat and one republican put it. >> i believe that three questions should frame our debate. first, does the evidence show clearly that the president committed these acts. second, do they rise to the level of impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors. third, what are the consequences for our national security, for the integrity of our elections and for our country, if we fail to act? >> this is not about ukraine. the facts are on the president's side. zelensky said he wasn't pressured. ukrainians didn't know aid was held at the time of the call and more importantly, they did nothing to get the aid released. this is about one basic fact -- the democrats have never accepted the will of the american people. three weeks ago, nancy pelosi
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called the president of the united states an imposter and the attacks on the president started before the election. >> reporter: if wednesday is the opening statement, thursday is going to be the legislative action. there's going to be a lot of back and forth. it will be very long. it will probably be very dense in terms of what they are doing. but bottom line is this -- you're going to see republicans draft and try to propose a number of amendments to change the two articles of impeachment that have been presented by house democrats. they will not be looking to defend those articles of impeachment and will keep everything in the same place. and they can do that. they have the majority on the committee. whatever republicans propose, democrats can one by one shoot it down. what it's all leading to right now, by the end of the day on thursday, by the end of legislative consideration for the house judiciary committee, the house floor is what's next. the full house vote is what's next. once the judiciary committee is done, there's no more stops, no more hearings, no more closed-door depositions. the house of representatives
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will vote to impeach president trump next week. we don't have the next day. but that's what the judiciary committee final meeting actually means. it means it's on to the house floor and president trump is on his way to being impeached and in short order, the senate, not the house, will take up the mantle. the senate trial for president trump, to see if they have the votes to remove him from office. guys? >> phil mattingly, thank you. impeachment light. witch hunt. president trump has used a lot of slogans for his imminent impeachment, downplaying it as a stunt by the democrats. the prospect of becoming the third u.s. president ever to be impeached is weighing heavily on mr. trump. more, now, from chief white house correspondent jim acosta. >> reporter: dave and amara, we are hearing that president trump is growing increasingly aggravated over the likelihood that he will be impeached. a trump adviser told me
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the coverage bugs him. a separate adviser says the president has been preparing for this moment for some time, suspecting for the better part of last year that democrats would try to impeach him after taking control of the house. this adviser says mr. trump is somewhat taken aback that it's the ukraine scandal that's leading to his impeachment. frankly, it's a little surprised that the ukraine thing has done it. mr. trump is irked by the fact that he will be joining the less than envious list of presidents that have been impeached. the president believes he is winning the debate on impeachment. he's satisfying that republicans are showing not many signs that they will defect in either the house or the senate. polling shows that support for impeachment is steady or beginning to slide to remove him from office. we should note, at his rally this week, the president appeared to crow over the fact that he's only facing two articles of impeachment. he has dubbed the process impeachment light. but in the history books, it doesn't say impeachment light. it says impeached.
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dave and amara? >> jim acosta, thank you. if the president is impeached and there is a senate trial, mitch mcconnell is not planning to hold a vote to quickly dismiss the articles of impeachment. according to two republican senators he will wait to acquit once the majority of senators feel it has run its course. most republicans want an acquittal to clear the president, rather than rely on a procedural motion with a 51-vote threshold. only 34 votes would be required for an acquittal. some republicans are coalescing around a shorter impeachment trial. a short-form trial would not include the whistleblower or hunter biden. those details coming from cnn interviews with republicans in the next few days. the trial is in the planning stages. no final decisions have been
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made. but gop senators say they are beginning to see the benefit of keeping the process short and laying out evidence in a presentation by house managers and the white house. the nonpartisan watchdog for the justice department, michael horowitz standi ining on his findings on crossfire hurricane, which is an investigation. testifying to the judiciary committee, he defended his conclusion, there had been no political bias in launching the fbi probe. but horowitz criticized the fbi's handling of the probe in no uncertain terms, saying he uncovered 17 omissions from adviser carter page. republicans and democrats on the senate judiciary committee, both scoring political points. >> so, your report states that you didn't find documentary or
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testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation played a role. >> that's correct. >> thank you. >> and you didn't find a deep state conspiracy next candidate or president trump? >> as to the opening, we found no bias, no testimony or documentary evidence on that. we found and as we outline here, are deeply concerned that so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three hand-picked teams on one of the most sensitive investigations. >> would you have submitted an investigation? >> i wouldn't have submitted the one they put in. it was misleading to the court. >> horowitz refused to speculate about the motivations of fbi officials who made mistakes applying for a surveillance warrant. >> like most things today, it was a political rorschach test. hundreds of mourners turn out for the victims of an attack on a kosher market in new jersey.
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in about a minute. you can do that? yeah. and with two-hour service appointment windows, it's all on your schedule. awesome. so while moving may still come with its share of headaches... no kidding. we're doing all we can to make moving simple, easy, awesome. go to xfinity.com/moving to get started. checking on cnn business. the federal reserve has made its last interest rate decision of 2019. >> my colleagues and i decided to leave our policy rate unchanged, after lowering a
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total of 0.75 in the previous three meetings. two big threats faison the u.s. economy, slowing global growth and ongoing trade tensions. a new round of hearings on chinese goods is days away. but jerome powell would not speculate on what would happen if talks break down. >> we try to look through the volatility of trade news and trade negotiations. we can't react. monetary policy is not the right tool to react in the short term to volatility. >> powell signaled the fed plans to keep rates changed until 2020 unless there's a material change to the economic outlook. president trump has attacked powell for not lowering rates. stocks closed slightly higher after powell's comments. police officers in jersey
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city, new jersey, lining the streets for joseph sales, who died going after gunmen that attacking a kosher market. he was in charge of trying to get guns off of the street. investigators are trying to determine a motive for the attack. but "the new york times" is reporting that one of the two shooters is linked to the black hebrew movement. the movement has many splinter groups but they say they are all united with the belief that african-americans are the true descendants of the jews in the bible. cnn's miguel marquez has more on the victims and the investigation. >> reporter: this is the jewish market where this horrific incident took place. you can see it's boarded up, still surrounded by police tape. the mayor of jersey city saying there's no ifs, ands or buts about it, this is a hate crime. >> we have to be aggressive and
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call it out for what it is. people say we should review things and take our time. if you look at the facts of what transpired, it's difficult to argue anything other than that. >> reporter: the lead investigators are being more circumspect. they are saying the two got out of a stolen u-haul vehicle, pulling out long rifles, going into this store. it's unclear what their motivation was. cnn is learning from other officials, not only was there a pipe bomb in the vehicle, in that stolen u-haul, there were also writings in there. anti-semitic and anti-police writings, not only in notes in the vehicle, but also online by these two individuals. killed in that store were mindy ferentz. she was the store owner.
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and moshe deutsch, who was shopping in the store, and douglas rodriguez, working in the score. a fourth victim was able to escape after being shot. that person is expected to survive. all authorities pointing to the bravery of the jersey city police officers. when they heard shooting start at this location, they were a couple blocks away. they ran to this location. that's when other officers got injured. we expect to hear information from officials here in new jersey later today. dave? amara? >> miguel marquez in jersey city. a small plane crash in phoenix caught on a surveillance camera. look at the aircraft slamming into a utility pole before taking out several vehicles in a used car lot and skidding into the middle of the street. >> he wanted to try to land on 23rd avenue. thank god he didn't. he probably would have taken us out. >> they let us on property for maybe two minutes and seen about ten of our cars damaged. >> two people were onboard the
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plane. a 48-year-old pilot who is a flight instructor. and the passenger were not hurt. the cause of the crash is under investigation. there's a strong chance new zealand's white island volcano could erupt again. and that warning from scientists is hampering efforts to recover the bodies from eight missing people who were presumably killed in monday's eruption. 47 people were on white island when the volcano blew. six people have been confirmed dead and 24 hoer others are hospitalized in critical condition. will ripley is in new zealand with the latest. can you talk about the recovery efforts? you have to feel for the families who want to get the bodies recovered from that island. like we were saying, this volcano could blow again, at any moment. >> it is going to be a very risky operation for the
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new zealand defense force personnel who will try to get on the island in the early morning hours tomorrow. it's not a guarantee this is going to happen because they have to check a lot of things, such as the geothermal activity and the weather conditions. all of those are factors. we don't know the specifics of the operation. and they might not know if they're going to try to go by boat, because there's a naval frigget just offshore. they believe there are eight people, possibly even one additional person -- we are still trying to confirm all of that. the numbers are fluctuating. they know the location of six of the bodies. that's their first priority. if they can get to where the bodies are and get them quickly, that will provide closure to the families. whether they can find the bodies in time, whether it's safe enough to search, that's the unknown factor at this hour.
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clearly, this will be much-needed closure for the families. many of them are here. on the ground, you know, watching the operation from the mainland, in addition to the families, there will be new zealand police and scientists trying to guide the defense force as they conduct this recovery operation. we are continuing to learn updates about some of the people injured. i just got off of the phone with the mother from a person from virginia that was badly burned on his honeymoon. he just got out of surgery a short time ago. and his mother tells me she expects to be with him in new zealand in the hospital for at least the next month. >> it says a lot about the extent of the injuries when you have new zealand hospitals ordering skin from the united states. will ripley, appreciate your reporting from new zealand. thank you. ahead, a police officer in the right place at just the right time, to stop a robbery.
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voters in the united kingdom are casting votes in their country's third general election in less than five years. max foster is tracking the latest developments live from london. another election over brexit, max. >> yes. there would normally be one election over five years. this is also the first december election in 100 years. the polls were open over 150 constituencies. because of that, that's all i can say. there's strict reporting rules for broadcasters in this country. we can't talk about campaign issues or the polls, any
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political statements or anything the candidates are saying, effecti effectively. anything we're seeing to do to sway the votes could mean one of us ends up in prison. the irony is that the same rules don't apply to newspapers. i have two newspapers here. i can show youpages. i can't show you the front of them because both of them are endorsing one side or the other. the other irony ask that the rules don't apply to social media. we can't show you the tweets because we're broadcasters. >> short and sweet. we don't want you to go to jail. we'll leave it there. max foster, thank you. a would-be thief picked the wrong time to rob a convenient store in newton, massachusetts.
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security video shows him threatening the store clerk with a knife and forcing him to open the register. what the thief didn't know is an off-duty police officer had entered the store minutes before he did. the officer drew his gun when the thief didn't drop his weapon and attempted to flee. the officer tackled him to the ground. >> right place, right time, for the department. wrong place, wrong time for the suspect. he showed great restraint. the suspect was armed, had a knife, and the officer, with the help of the community, was able to subdue the suspect and place him under arrest. >> the suspect was charged in connection with armed robbery. let's get a check on cnn business this morning. first, a look at markets around the world. asian markets closed higher after the federal reserve closed steady. on wall street, futures are a positive open. jerome powell suggested an interest rate pause in 2020. the dow closed up 29 points. the s&p 500 and nasdaq finished
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slightly higher. investors turn their attention back to the u.s./china trade war. new tariffs on chinese goods are just three days away. the boeing 737 max won't be back in the air this year. faa chief steven dixon told cnn there were 11 steps in the certification process that have not been completed yet. dixon declined to give a timeframe for when the plane will be allowed to fly again. the planes have been grounded since march after two fatal crashes that killed 346 people. since then, boeing has lost $29 billion off of its market value. boeing says, quote, we continue to work closely with the faa and global regulators toward certification in the safe return to service of the max. the three airlines that own the plane, southwest, american and united, say they are not scheduling flights on the plane until march. do you have a christmas tree
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yet? if you live in new york city, you might want to get a fake one. real trees in the city are going for as much as $6,500. and they are selling out at that price. why the hefty fee? the national christmas tree association, says the frazier fir is experiencing a shortage because formers didn't plant as many during the recession. it takes about ten years to matu mature. people are not buying real trees as much as they used to. declined dramatically. 47% of people had a real tree in 1989. >> i like the fake ones. >> you're a fake tree? >> don't have to clean up the mess when they die. i don't have to pay $6,500 and i can't afford that. "early start" continues right now.
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