a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! president trump at the g20 in argentina after pulling the plug on his meeting with russia's vladimir putin. we'll continue to cooperate. >> trump's former personal lawyer pleading guilty telling robert mueller he lied to protect the president. and overnight, the u.s. marshal killed in the line of duty in arizona. and dramatic new body cam video of a sheriff's officer narrowly escaping the deadly

wildfire. happy friday. welcome to "early start." i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. 4:00 a.m. in the east. 6:00 a.m. in buen os ares. a source tells us the president is in a quote terrible mood and distract distracted. his former lawyer michael cohen pleaded guilty to lying to congress. the president canceled a sit-down with vladimir putin following russia seizure of the ukrainian ships from russia. we have the latest from abby phillip with the latest. abby, take it away. >> reporter: good morning, christine. president trump arrived undercover of darkness last night. and a cloud of controversy

overshaove overshadowing the trip to the g20. the president talked to reporters about the guilty plea his former attorney michael cohen announced yesterday. the president seemed visibly agitated by that news. he is coming into g20 in a terrible mood distracted by the controversies and cancelling some meetings on the agenda. one of which would be the meeting with vladimir putin scheduled for saturday morning. that was supposed to be two hours long. now it has been scrapped. that could be because of the controversy in ukraine as the president said, but also an effort by the president to change the subject from controversy back home which has threatened to overshadow the visit. the president and white house announcing he has made some of his meetings with foreign leaders public rather than former sit-downs.

he has really important things still on the agenda. with china, he has a major meeting on trade scheduled. dinner and bilateral meeting in an effort to settle the brewing trade dispute with china. the president has truncated the visit to south america. we know he is not looking forward to the visit with the g20. there are tensions not only with leaders like russian president vladimir putin and european allies who he has plans to meet with on the ground. the meetings with g20 leaders with trump can be controversial. i think, christine, over the next couple days, we will see exactly how donald trump carries himself with all of the controversies distracting him on the world stage as he is here down in argentina. >> all right. just getting under way. abby phillip, thank you.

fascinating couple of days ahead. more details about president trump's former lawyer and fixer turning on him. michael cohen pleading guilty to lying to congress. cohen admitting he misled lawmakers about the moscow project during the 2016 campaign to protect mr. trump. more now from cnn's evan perez. >> reporter: dave and christine, the former fixer michael cohen, pleaded dpiguilty to congress o how much you knew about the moscow project and when it was terminated. telling the court he lied out of loyalty to the president. the man who once said he would take a bullet for the president, gave information to special counsel robert mueller during more than 70 hours of questioning between august and november. the deal to build a trump tower in moscow was one of the many topics discussed according to a source. the court documents revealed that quote cohen discussed the status and progress of the

moscow project with trump. referred to as individual one on more than three occasions. while cohen told congress last fall that the moscow project ended in january of 2016, he now admits the discussions lasted until june of 2016. cohen now admits he made the false statements to protect donald trump and give the false impression that the project ended before the iowa caucus in hopes of limiting the investigation. trump discussed traveling to moscow ahead of the convention in cleveland. the documents say the work is -- the documents indicate this issue is not done yet. dave and christine. >> thank you, evan. one issue on the moscow project was to give a $50 million penthouse unit to putin as a

gift. the plan was to place the russian president in the building to enhance the value and prestige to would-be buyers. cohen discussed the idea with a putin representative. it is not clear if then candidate trump was informed of the putin plan. special counsel robert mueller looking into the role of the president's children in the trump tower moscow project. ivanka trump and donald trump jr. worked independently on the project. the attorney for ivanka trump refused to speak on the record. president trump immediately on offense reacting to news of cohen's plea. his go-to attack of his former trusted attorney is weak and a liar. trying to save his own skin. >> he's a weak person and by being weak, unlike other people you watch, he is a weak person

and what he's trying to do is get a reduced sentence. he is lying about a project that everybody knew about it. he's a weak person and not a very smart person. >> that's tight. i like it. >> quick fact check. everybody did not know about the trump tower moscow project. the proposal came to light long after it was canceled and after president trump took office. leaving the white house for argentina yesterday, the president expanded on the view of cohen's motives and made the remarkable claim he could do anything he wanted before taking office. >> it's very simple. he's got himself a big prison sentence and he's trying to get a lesser prison sentence by making up a story. here's the thing. even if he was right, it doesn't matter. i was allowed to do whatever i wanted to do during the campaign. >> the ranking democrats on the house senate intelligence

committee which cohen admits he lied to wanted to bring the fixer back for this time what they hope would be truthful answers. >> he had no business interests in russia and that wasn't true. >> if anything the president has said is true and there is no "there" there, why are all of his closest allies lying about russia? >> cohen is scheduled to be sentenced on december 12th. and james comey is looking to quash testimony for the house over his subpoena. they want to grill him on the issues that happened before the election.

former trump white house lawyer has emerged as contender for attorney general. sources tell cnn he is one of several people under consideration for the job. delrahim was the top anti-trust cop and blocked the at&t takeover of cnn. and the north american free trade agreement is expected to be signed this morning at the g20 summit. trump announced the deal as the united states, mexico, canada agreement. there's a joke in there. after it is signed, the deal needs to be approved by lawma r lawmakers in all three countries. it is unlikely it will come to agreement before the end of the year. the new trade agreement is different from the 1990 agreement. the most notable change?

cars and vehicles. more of the parts have to be made in north america and workers earning $16 an hour. no deadline for ratification. congress will likely wait to vote until the report is released on the impact of the deal. the commission has until mid-march to deliver that to congress. breaking news. a u.s. deputy marshal shot and killed in the line of duty overnight. it happened in tucson. the marshal and team of officers delivering a felony warrant to a suspect who had allegedly stalking a law enforcement officer. the police surrounded the home until ryan schlessinger surrendered to police. life or death drama on a body camera. his escape through wildfire flames next.

help from above for a man desperately trying to survive in a rain-swollen river. m thder on. before shipstation it was crazy. it's great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize i've got a hundred orders i have to ship out. shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everything's pretty much done. it's so much easier so now, we're ready, bring on t. shipstation. the number one ch of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/tv and get two months free.

president trump says he canceled the g20 meeting with vladimir putin over the tensions in ukraine. tweeting based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned, i decided it is best for all parties concerned to cancel the meeting with putin. the ukraine president praising the move as the act of a great leader and urging nato to send more ships to the region to counter the aggression. we have nick paton walsh with more. >> reporter: we just heard from the ukrainian government. citing over what happened in 2014 and 2015 that russians came

in and acted like a private army in those areas in crimea which is now part of russia. the rest of the world says is now a separate enclave. now in the city of mariupol, the sailors have taken to port in the heightened state of readiness because they don't want to provoke any further clashes with the russians. they believe the goal of the russian navy and the clash in the kerch strait was to gain access to the whole sea. people cannot guarantee coming in and out which is affecting trade. this town is economically crippled by the elect of the war. it is a thriving industrial down, but now a ghost of a city. and looking to see what the kremlin's end game is now.

now why contemplating meeting any way when there were sanctions brought on russia when obama was in office. dave. >> nick paton walsh, thank you. a dramatic chopper rescue with the los angeles river swollen and it was all caught on camera. the official locates the victim, a 50-year-old man, police suspect is homeless. they got him just in time because he was suffering from hypotherm hypothermia. he is recovering in a local hospital. heavy downpours trapped people in homes and vehicles and forced evacuations. elsewhere in california, floo flash flooding in creeks and

canyons. this is in orange county which was charred by the holy fire in august. this is river side county where people were evacuated on wednesday ahead of the storm. in northern california, heavy do downpours caused heavy flooding. just released, new body cam video of the officer escape from the deadly camp fire. listen to this from the officer's camera as he tried to evacuate four nurses when he was at the hospital. >> are they coming for us?

>> watch out. watch out! >> can we get in? >> the bulldozer took the deputy and nurses to safety. the death toll from the camp fire currently stands at 88. wow. ahead, basketball star steph curry just made a fan for life. more on the heartwarming way he helped a 9-year-old girl next. ♪ bum bum bum bum bum t-mobile believes it's better to give than to receive. some may disagree. seriously...no...no...no... others won't believe it.

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simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. the dallas cowboys cooling off the sizzling saints last night. a low scoring affair. 13-10. dak prescott is 24 of 28 passing with the touchdown pass to ezekiel elliott. the saints had a chance, but drew brees was picked off and the cowboys run out the clock. new orleans had its ten-game winning streak snapped. steph curry says he is making things right after a young fan asked why his under armour shoes are not made in girl sizes. a young girl with the name riley, the same name as his

daughter, asked why there are no girls shoes on the web site. he wrote back saying they are working to fix the issue. she said she had mights she -- she said she admits she did not see that coming. >> he is such a busy person. i did not expect anything from that. i expected under armour to see it and not fix it. i wasn't expecting him to say he would give me the curry 5 and curry 6. >> dealmaker. >> he also invited reiley to jon him on international women's day. it is the right thing to do. come on. what a market! sell more shoes. >> was it just an oversight or marketing? glad they fixed it. ahead, we expect to hear from president trump in buenos aires this morning as the dark cloud of the russia

investigation grows here at home. the latest live from argentina ahead.

president trump at the g20 in argentina after pulling the plug on his meeting with russia's vladimir putin. mr. cohen will continue to cooperate. >> trump's former personal lawyer pleading guilty telling robert mueller he lied to protect the president. and overnight, the u.s. marshal killed in the line of duty in arizona. and dramatic new body cam video of a sheriff's officer narrowly escaping the deadly

california wildfire. harrowing. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. the president is at the g20. he will have a meeting in a half hour. headlines back home threatening to overshadow his visit is former lawyer michael cohen pleading guilty over a trump tower project in russia. he canceled a sit-down with vladimir putin over the seizure of the ukrainian ships from russia. we now have abby philip with us live with more. abby, good morning. >> reporter: there is so much on the agenda for president trump. he arrived late last night to a full agenda at the g20, but to a lot of controversy backs home. this case -- back home.

the case involving michael cohen has put him in a bad mood. he has a lot on the agenda. trade with china and tensions with russia over ukraine. the president is coming into the meetings not looking forward to the sit-downs with the world leaders. he is at odds with many people who should be his allies. europe and canada and others. the president has high stakes meetings scheduled with china on trade. already we are seeing some of these meetings are truncated or canceled all together. the first of which is the meeting with vladimir putin scheduled for saturday morning. president trump had been scheduled to be in a room with vladimir putin for two hours. that meeting was scrapped, the president said, because of the situation with ukraine. it also could be an effort to change the subject away from the michael cohen news that broke hours after that announcement. president trump didn't have much condemnation for russia, but he

said he looked forward to meeting with putin in the future. it remains to be seen if we will get more from him in terms of the united states expects so do anything to pressure russia into cooperating with the rest of the world who is urging them to return the sailors after they were seized in ukraine. the president trying to change the subject over what is going on at home. he made some of his meetings with south korea and turkey. he has this sit-down with china which is consequential on the issue of trade. then he will leave the g20 after cancelling a planned trip to colombia. this president is trying to get this g20 over with. we will see him interacting with the world leaders, many of whom he has criticized publicly on twitter and elsewhere, over the last several months. christine and dave. >> abby phillip live in buenos

aires. thank you. more details about trump's former lawyer and fixer turning on him. michael cohen pleading guilty to lying to congress. cohen admitting he misled lawmakers about the trump tower moscow project during the 2016 campaign to protect mr. 2ru7tru. we have more from evan perez. >> reporter: dave and christine, the former fixer michael cohen, pleaded guilty to congress over how much you knew about the moscow project and when it was terminated. telling the court he lied out of loyalty to the president. the plea agreement says the man who once said he would take a bullet for the president, gave information to special counsel robert mueller during more than 70 hours of questioning between august and november. the deal to build a trump tower in moscow was one of the many topics discussed according to a source. the court documents revealed that quote cohen discussed the status and progress of the moscow project with trump. referred to as individual one on

more than three occasions. while cohen told congress last fall that the moscow project ended in january of 2016, he now admits the discussions lasted as late as approximately june of 2016. cohen now admits he made the false statements to protect donald trump and give the false impression that the project ended before the iowa caucus in -- and the very first primary in hopes of limiting the investigation. trump discussed traveling to moscow ahead of the convention in cleveland. the documents indicate this work is not done yet. cohen will continue to cooperate with prosecutors. dave and christine. >> evan perez, thank you. one issue on the moscow project was to give a $50 million penthouse unit to putin as a gift. a former trump associate who worked on the deal with cohen

says the plan was to place the russian president in the building to enhance the value and prestige to would-be buyers. according to a report by buzzfeed, cohen discussed the idea with a putin representative. it is not clear if then candidate trump was informed of the putin plan. special counsel robert mueller looking into the role of the president's children in the trump tower moscow project. ivanka trump and donald trump jr. worked independently on the project. they were aware of cohen's efforts. cnn reached out to don junior for a comment and the attorney for ivanka trump refused to speak on the record. president trump immediately on offense reacting to news of cohen's plea. his go-to attack of his former trusted attorney is weak and a liar. trying to save his own skin. >> he's a weak person and by being weak, unlike other people you watch, he is a weak person and what he's trying to do is get a reduced sentence. he is lying about a project that

everybody knew about it. we were very open with it. he's a weak person and not a very smart person. >> quick fact check. everybody did not know about the trump tower moscow project. the proposal came to light long after it was canceled and after president trump took office. leaving the white house for argentina yesterday, the president expanded on the view of cohen's motives and made the remarkable claim he could do anything he wanted before taking office. >> it's very simple. he's got himself a big prison sentence and he's trying to get a lesser prison sentence by making up a story. here's the thing. even if he was right, it doesn't matter. i was allowed to do whatever i wanted to do during the campaign. >> the ranking democrats on the house senate intelligence committee which cohen admits he lied to wanted to bring the fixer back for this time what they hope would be truthful answers.

>> it means when he was representing the president during the campaign and he said he had no interests in russia, that wasn't true. >> if anything the president has said is true and there is no "there" there, why are all of his closest allies lying about russia? >> it remains to be seen if they will get a chance. con cohen is scheduled to be sentenced on december 12th. >> joining us live is fred pleitgen. fred, good morning. what is the latest? >> reporter: dave, there is a lot of response coming from the kremlin. overnight as the russians were traveling to buenos aires. the kremlin issued the statement saying they regret the fact that president trump canceled the meeting. they may meet at some other point. russians still looking to do

that. it was interesting because i managed to get in touch with the spokesman for vladimir putin as he was on the plane flying to buenos aires. at that point, he told us he read the tweet about the cancellation. he said he hadn't heard anything official yet. he said if that is the case, they have time for more meetings. the russians not happy with that situation. during that communication as he was on the plane, he also confirmed to me that michael cohen had gotten in touch with him in 2016. yes, his office had actually also gotten in touch with michael cohen to tell them the russians could not help them to build the trump tower in moscow. there was a lot of information coming from the kremlin on the issues last night. the russians not happy about the cancellation. meanwhile, the situation where i am with the standoff with the

ukrainians and russians shows no sign of deescalating. dave. >> thank you, fred. the president's favorite central bank paved the way for the fourth rate hike next month. the fed sent a signal it would be flexible to raise rates next year. we are talking about minutes from the november meeting. it showed another rate hike would be necessary fairly soon. officials raised the possibility to slow plans to raise rates next year and signal investors they would stay flexible in changing economic circumstances. the speech from jerome powell sent stocks soaring more than 400 points wednesday. powell said they were just below the neutral range. it was a subtle shift from the comments he made in october suggesting interest rates are a long way from neutral. president trump has attacked powell over rate increases

calling him a threat and crazy and loco. the strength of the economy indicates the fed will stick to its plan to raise rates in december. breaking overnight. a u.s. deputy marshal killed in the line of duty overnight in tucson, arizona. a marshal and team of officers were delivering a felony warrant to a suspect who had opinion stalking a hoinz -- who had been stalking a law enforcement officer. the marshal's name has not been released. it was a tragic night for law enforcement. life or death drama caught on a sheriff deputy's body cam. his escape through wildfire flames next. and help from above from a man desperately trying to survive in a rain-swollen river. so this christmas,

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president trump says he canceled the g20 meeting with vladimir putin over the escalating tensions with ukraine. tweeting based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned, i decided it is best for all parties concerned to cancel the meeting with putin. the ukraine president praising the move as the act of a great leader and urging nato to send more ships to the sea of azov to counter the aggression. we have nick paton walsh with more from the city of mariupol. now the president of the united states cancelling the meeting. what is the response? >> reporter: really ukraine to some degree is on its own an aside from the rhetoric of russia so far. we have seen no palpable measures of a move after sunday and the issue with the azov sea

behind me. now restricting pass saage thro the kerch strait. actually it is strange given how barack obama led sanctions in 2014 after they invaded crimea. to see donald trump contemplating a meeting with putin at that late stage. now banning all residents from int entering ukrainian territory. now with historical precedent that he doesn't want to let the russians in to create private armies after the takeover the crimea in the east of the country. also behind me, i think a sense of concern about where this leads next. ukraine has not got the international support after the annexation of crimea. it is concerned that maybe

russia is trying to impose the military control of the whole of the azov sea and staying in the port. the concern that moscow has its eye on controlling the coastline. that runs down russia main and the crimea peninsula which they annexed in 2014. they can only reach that through a precarious bridge. does moscow want a bridge between russia and crimea? we will see. many are wondering the long-term strategic game that has risked international condemnation in the kerch strait. back to you. >> nick, the president of the united states, donald trump, squarely blamed president obama for weakness of leadership when the russians seized crimea. you don't get the sense from the united states, i don't think, nick, this president is taking responsibility for what's happening there now.

>> reporter: certainly. this has been going on for four years. you can argue much as you like was it too much american pressure on moscow when putin took a backseat and let medvedev in? and then moscow thinks america was tired of military intervention and did that get them involved in crimea or was it really they saw ukraine as moscow lurched to the eu and nato. it is still playing out. >> thank you, nick. back here in california, a flash flood roaring through creeks and canyons down stream from the wildfire burn area. this is in butte county which was charred in august.

this is riverside county where people were evacuated on wednesday ahead of the storm. in northern california, flash plo flood beiing in and around the fire. just released body cam video of the deputy's narrow escape from the california deadly camp fire. deputy drove into the fire early this month to find and evacuate four engineers from the river hospital in paradise. he had to walk through the gl s flames when the car was disabled and he activated his camera when he believed he was dealing with his final moments. >> are they coming for snus. >> -- are they coming for us? >> watch out!

>> can we get in? >> yeah, come on. >> wow. that bulldozer took the deputy and the nurses to safety. the death toll from the camp fire currently stands at 88. >> harrowing. would you be willing to pay upwards of $500 for payless shoes? >> no. >> some social media influenc is in los angeles did. we will get a check on cnn money next. selection of audiobooks on audible. and now, get more. for just $14.95 a month, you'll get a credit a month good for any audiobook, plus two audible originals

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...well almost anything. leave no room behind with xfi pods. simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. ♪ this is the greatest show ♪ fans of the hugh jackman film "the greatest showman" are getting something more interactive than a sequel. the soundtrack is continuing on charts. now he is going on tour. and other broadway favorites accompanied by a live orchestra. the traveling production is making 12 stops in europe next

spring. more stops are planned in north america in the summer. >> he is terrific live. >> you need a few screenings of "the greatest showman." >> i have not seen movie yet. let's get a check of cnn business. the global stocks are mixed. all eye on the g20 summit. in asia, stocks higher as investors w s wait on the meeti with president trump and xi jinping. hang seng and nikkei and shanghai are all up. you can show me that screen. the dax and ftse all down. on wall street, the futures are down. stocks closed lower on thursday snapping a three-day winning streak. the s&p 500 and nasdaq down a

little bit. u.s. crude oil fell below $50 a barrel for the first time in more than a year. it rebounded on the report that russia may be willing to cut output. crud fell to as low as $49.41 a barrel. the last time it fell below $50 was october of 2017. u.s. gas prices are declining. aaa reports gas fell 30 cents a gallon on average. would you pay $500 for p payless shoes? payless known for budget friendsly styles opened -- friendly styles opened a pop-up mall. the store was stocked with payless shoes in disguise. about 80 influencers shelled out $3,000 over two nights. payless has been struggling

against amazon owned zappos last year. payless said the experiments w to remind shoppers of the values. >> how would you feel if you paid $500 for payless shoes? "early start" continues right now with the latest from the 20s. -- the g20. president trump at the g20 right now. we expect to hear from him any moment. mr. cohen will continue to cooperate. >> trump's former personal lawyer pleading guilty telling robert mueller he lied to protect the president. and overnight, the u.s. marshal killed in the line of

duty in arizona. and dramatic new body cam video of a sheriff's officer narrowly escaping the deadly california wildfire. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. it's friday. >> we made it. i'm dave briggs. november 30th. 5:00 a.m. in the east. 7:00 a.m. in buenos aires. the president in argentina this morning for the g20 summit. the first meeting with argentina's president which is set to start any minute. we will take it live as it begins. headlines back home threatening to overshadow the president's visit. former lawyer michael cohen pleading guilty over a trump tower project in russia. he canceled a sit-down with vladimir putin over the seizure of the ukrainian ships from russia. we now have abby philip with us live from the g20. abby, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, dave. we are minutes