Mourning. Lawmakers are seething. How will the white house respond . Senate democrats vowing to bring business to a crawl. This is over the republican secrecy on health care. Now gop leadership demanding a vote by late next week. And a big special election in georgia today. Polls open in two hours. This is seen as a referendum on the first months of the trump presidency. Can democrats nab a seat thats been reliably republican since 1979 . Tape players the last time there was a democrat in office there. Dont remember those all that well. Polls open in two hours. Good morning, everyone, welcome to early start. Im christine romans. Nice to see you, tuesday, june 20th, 5 00 a. M. In the east. First, north korea facing outrage over the death of Otto Warmbier. The American College student has died less than a week after his release by pyongyang. His family believes he was tortured into a coma while being held in captivity for 17 months. Warmbiers passing quickly sparking anger in washington. Senator john mccain, a former prisoner himself, making his anger very clear saying, let us state the facts plainly. Otto warmbier, an american citizen, was murdered by the kim jongun regime. Highlevel talks between the u. S. And china begin tomorrow in washington. And there is growing pressure on President Trump to take a harder line with beijing to rein in north korea. Listen to the president s reaction to warmbiers death. Otto warmbier has just passed away. He spent a year in north korea. A lot of bad things happened. At least at least we got him home to be with his parents where they were so happy to see him even though he was in tough condition. He passed away a while ago. Thats a brutal regime, and well be able to handle it. What does the president mean by well be able to handle it . Paula hancocks is on the other side of the world, the other side of the clock for us this morning. Let me ask you this succesuccess other administrationses have tried for years to isolated north korea. We have an american citizen, a 22yearold student, who is dead after being held for a really stupid, unfair reason by the regime. This is a new low. It puts pressure on this administration to try to find a new way to deal with north korea, doesnt it . Reporter the problem is, christine, that there is no new way to deal with north korea. The options that are available to President Trump now are the exact same options that were available to him yesterday before this news came. Of course there are sanctions. As you said, theres going to be highlevel talks between the u. S. And china in washington. And when it comes to sanctions, they cant work without chinas cooperation. Without china pushing north korea and trying to isolate them as well as the rest of the world. Chinas the main ally. The main trading partner. That certainly is an option. Could washington decide to have a more hardline approach and try and put more pressure on china to put more pressure on north korea. Its still a tricky situation for china when you learn there are three american detainees in north korea. Two academics, one businessman whos accused of being a spy. Hes already been convicted and sentenced to many years hard labor. And of course, washington does not have diplomatic relations with pyongyang. It relies on the Swedish Embassy to try to gain any access to those prisoners and to have any kind of chance of being able to negotiate their release. That clearly is going to be one of the crucial factors now Going Forward. Just last week, in fact, the u. S. Secretary of state tillerson saying its a delicate situation. We are working on it. When asked about what would happen to the three americans detained in north korea. When it comes to the tour groups, the one group that Otto Warmbier was traveling with has now said it will no longer accept u. S. Citizens when going to north korea. The state department advises against traveling to north korea for american citizens, right . Reporter thats right. There are more calls for a full ban. Paula hancocks for us in seoul. Thank you very much. The family of Otto Warmbier releasing a statement in the hours after their sons passing which reads, it would be easy at a moment like this to focus on all that we lost, future time that wont be spent with warm, engage, brilliant young man whose curiosity and enthusiasm for life knew no bounds. We choose to focus on the time we were given to be with this remarkable person. When otto returned to cincinnati late on june 13th, he was unable to speak, unable to see, unable to react to verbal commands. He looked very uncomfortable, almost anguished. Although we would never hear his voice again, within a day, the countenance of his face changed. He was at peace. He was home, and we believe he could sense that. Funeral arrangements for warmbier have not been announced. Look, this is an outrageous issue. Marco rubio echoing the words of john mccain saying north korea murdered this young man. Options arent many, unfortunately, for the president. And the president says we will handle it. We will have to see what that exactly means and what kind of pressure he can put on beijing. Want to turn to our cnn politics reporter live in washington. And to say on the subject here the president is really faced with an International Crisis here. An american dead after 17 months of captivity in north korea. How much pressure is he under to do something . Theres certainly a tremendous amount of pressure. I mean, as weve been talking about, a terribly tragic story. This administration was able to bring Otto Warmbier home. I think that that is something that they feel good about, but you know, keep in mind, President Trump really made being harsh on north korea part of his campaign. He made being harsh on china part of his campaign. Certainly we have not seen the level of aggressiveness toward china that he pledged now that hes in office because as weve been discussing, the situation is incredibly delicate. Its not that straightforward. Theres a lot going on both between our relations with china and threats from north korea that go beyond this one young man. And so i think were seeing the Trump Administration realizing how complex this issue is. He made a pledge to get hard on china in order for china to crack down on north korea, and this puts extra pressure for him to live up to that pledge. Youre hear something in the house talking about a travel ban. Would that have much impact . Its not clear. Lets turn now to the polls in georgia. In about two hours, opening for this huge congressional race. Its the most expensive house race in u. S. History. Whether its ossoff or handel, who needs a win in this special election more . Reporter i feel like were in a sports segment. Its such a difficult question, right . You know, democrats really need this win in the sense that they have brought a few elections very close. The pouring of fundraising into this election, the hopes that have been placed on ossoff. If democrats dont come away with a win here, its hard for them to argue that theyre going to make any sort of dent in the house this, you know, this next election cycle. At the same time, for republicans, even though they are sort of defending a seat you would expect them to win, if they lose the seat its going to be a tremendous shockwave for republicans. Theyre going to be extremely concerned about midterms. Both sides need this a whole lot is the answer. I wonder, though, is it really that much of a proxy for antitrump sentiment . Are we all putting way too much into one race here . Reporter you know, i think thats always a risk. And certainly every election is a local election. Certainly we tend to gloss over that sometimes when we talk about. It you know, i dont know that its necessarily a proxy barometer for exactly whats going to happen in november, 2018. At the same time, this is the only bellwether we have at the moment. Right. So you know, it is going to have an impact on the tone, the fundraising, the momentum, all those factors. Its going to have an impact going into midterms. Even if its not necessarily a perfect indicator, its not something that has no bearing at all. In a sense, this district has ruled on their feelings toward trump because romney won in 2012 by 23. Tom price won in november by 23. Trump won by just over 1 . In is not a trump district by any means, though it is reliably republican. I want to shift now to the Health Care Battle going on right now in the senate. Its one we dont know much about. Everything has been held in secret. No public hearings on this. Democrats are trying to gum up the works by taking to the senate floor and speaking until midnight last night. Heres chuck schumer. When you do a bill in the dark of night, things happen that no one knows about. There are unintended consequences that only a thorough vetting can reveal. When you do things in the dark of night, there are individual accommodations that are made that are going to look ugly when they become public. So the only consolation we on this side have, small consolation that it is, is the political blunder that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are making. One could argue in this environment, this highly political, flammable environment, this is the only way to get health care done. Anything that leaks out, Interest Groups explode, democrats ramp up the rhetoric. The question is, can they possibly do all this in secret and then get a vote and pass it through in a weeks time . Reporter in a weeks time is the key there. There is sort of a selfimposed july 4th deadline by mitch mcconnell. Certainly a study in contrasts, right . The senate runs a tight ship. The leaders there have a little more control over their party. Whereas when this was under development in the house, we got updates regularly from members who were talking about it. And it definitely added more hurdles in the process, as you mentioned, every time something would leak. People would react. You know, this is a bit of an exercise in playing to the base. Democrats can speak into midnight all they want. Its not actually slowing the bill. Its sort of putting extra pressure on the republican colleagues and speaking directly to their democratic base, showing that theyre doing something. Its little bit for show. Certainly it puts them on the record complaining about the process, making these statements, accusing the republican colleagues of doing it in the dead of night. And thats going to hang over their heads. Meanwhile, paul ryan saying that transformative tax reform could happen this year. Has to happen this year he says. Has to happen this year. Theres a lot of work happening apparently behind the scenes. All right. Thank you very much for that. Hes the president s secretary of everything. The secretary of everything. And now we know what his voice sounds like. For the first time. We are here to improve the daytoday lives of the average citizen. Thats a core promise, and we are keeping it. Thats Jared Kushner with his voice right let it. What he told Technology Leaders next. Once upon a time hansel and gretel came upon a house made out of gingerbread. Being quite hungry, they started eating the roof. The homeowner was outraged. Luckily the Geico Insurance agency had helped her with homeowners insurance. She got all her shingles replaced. Hansel and gretel were last seen eating their way through the candy cane forest. 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At t Network Security helps protect business, from the largest Financial Markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyberattacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. Keeping the world of business connected and protected. Thats the power of and. Present. Youre always itthinking about it. S always what if my cancer comes back . Ive been working on this therapy for 5 years now and weve getting ready to go to the clinic. My son definitely keeps me fighting. I want to the there for him when he needs me. Thats what motivates me. I want to see patients have gray hair. I see myself growing old with my pink hair. That to me, is enough to keep going. What does life look like during your period . With tampax pearl. You get ultimate protection on your heaviest days and smooth removal for your lightest. Tampax pearl and pocket pearl for on the go. And its also a story mail aabout people and while we make more ecommerce deliveries to homes than anyone else in the country, we never forget. That your business is our business the United States postal service. Priority you but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. Thats why i have the spark cash card from capital one. With it, i earn unlimited 2 cash back on all of my purchasing. And that unlimited 2 cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business. Which adds fuel to my bottom line. Whats in your wallet . Silicon valley may clash with the president over Climate Change and immigration, but ceos agree that the Governments Technology needs modernizing. Many of our agencies rely on painfully outdate technology. Yet, we have the greatest people in technology that the world has ever seen right with us in this room. A confounding disconnect. The American Tech Council met for the first time including the heads of apple, ibm, alphabet. The agenda was upgrading tech infrastructure. Many saw the meeting as an opportunity to broach more sensitive subjects. Silicon valley has been a vocal critic of the president s travel bans and decision to leave the paris climate deal. Most Tech Companies cant afford to sever government ties and. And stand to reap billions from tax reforms. They want to be a voice at the table. Also the socalled secretary of everything, Jared Kushner, there explaining how business will modernize government. We are here to improve the daytoday lives of the average citizen. Thats a core promise, and we are keeping it. Together we will unleash the creativity in the private sector to use Citizen Services in a way thats never been used before. Thats the first time ive heard his voice. You want to hear like James Earl Jones when you havent heard a voice forever. There he is. You see his picture always, standing behind the president. Hes ubiquitous. But you should have to speak out if you have such a central role in the administration. Shouldnt you have to voice exactly what youre doing . Hes headed to the middle east. Russia threatening to treat american fighter jets as targets after the u. S. Shot down a syrian warplane over rack arch the white house says it is working to keep the lines of communication open with the kremlin. The president s spokesman said the escalation among many factions in the region is not helping. Well go live to moscow and bring in Jim Dougherty jill dougherty, former cnn Moscow Bureau chief. We understand australia has now temporarily suspended air strikes in syria. Why . Reporter theyre concerned as everybody else is, dave, about whats going to happen. Right now the situation that you have is that russia is saying that any plane or droep ne or anything that comes into the airspace west of the Euphrates River could conceivably will be tracked as a target, and then the implied threat is that it could be shot down. Theyre not saying specifically that, but the threat is out there. Its a very unstable situation. Thats why the australians dont want to go now into the space. We a few minutes ago, by the way, got to ask a ask for a spokesperson to ask a question fof Vladimir Putins advocacypers advocacy spokesperson. He says this raises serious concerns. No question that it does. At the same time that theres a threat about tracking and potentially shooting down, theres also the russian government saying that it is no longer going to have the deconfliction, communication between the u. S. And russia, which is specifically there to make sure there are no collisions in the air. There is high concern. Thank you so much for the thawing of u. S. russia relations under the Trump Administration. Not the case. 20 minutes past the hour. The Cleveland Cavaliers parting ways with their manager. Could it affect lebron james future with the cavs . Coy wire knows in the bleacher report, next. Not a marathon. Its a series of smart choices. And when you replace one meal or snack a day with glucerna made with carbsteady to help minimize blood sugar spikes you can really feel it. Glucerna. Everyday progress. Garden weeds are scoundrels. With roundup precision gel®, you can banish them without harming plants nearby. So draw the line. Give the stick one click, touch the leaves and the gel stays put killing garden weeds to the root. Draw the line with roundup precision gel®. America by simon and is that good . Strumental yeah its perfect. Bees bees go go go [ girl catching her breath } [ bees buzzing inside vehicle ] the allnew volkswagen atlas. With easyaccess 3rd row. Lifes as big as you make it. 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