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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

NYPD on High Alert After Cop Killings; North Korea Threatens More Cyberattacks; Drives Mows Down Pedestrians in France; Super Saturday to Save Holiday Shopping Season?

Aired December 22, 2014 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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CHRISTIEN ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning: the NYPD on alert, facing a new threat -- a new threat this morning, after two police officers were shot and killed over the weekend. Plus, we are details about the deadly shooting, including what the shooter told passersby.

New threats overnight from North Korea, now warning it will attack the White House and U.S. mainland, saying the cyberattacks on Sony were just the beginning. How the White House is reacting to all of that ahead.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. John Berman is off this morning. It is Monday morning, 28 minutes past the hour.

Here's the breaking news for you this morning: New York City police on high alert facing a new threat. An NYPD spokesperson says a young adult male whom officers are not naming right now, made threats against police on Facebook. The spokesman says that the young man lives in Brooklyn and affiliated with a gang. An investigation is underway. We're going to bring you more details as we get them.

This comes with New York officers and many New Yorkers frankly on edge this morning after the murder of two police officers sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn Saturday night. The NYPD stepping up security at police stations, it is changing protocols and now investigating threats now in an unprecedented way.

President Obama calling New York Police Commissioner William Bratton and the co-chair on the task force on 21 century policing, Charles Ramsey. The president expressing his outrage at these murders.

The mother of Eric Garner speaking out and urging supporters of police reform to reject violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GWEN CARR, MOTHER OF ERIC GARNER: Anyone who is standing with us, we want you to not use Eric Garner's name for violence, because we are not about that. These two police officers lost their lives senselessly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: CNN's Alexandra Field is in Brooklyn with the latest -- Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, people are deeply shaken. This is a city on edge. The men and women who are sworn to protect it are on high alert. Sources telling CNN that extra security is being added at NYPD precincts.

And that various threats being made to the police department on different social media platforms are also being investigated. As many as 15 different threats all needing to be closely looked into by investigators trying to protect the men and women who serve this city.

This as the city grieves the loss of two officers assassinated at gun point in their patrol cars. Officer Wenjin Liu and Officer Rafael Ramos killed in this Brooklyn neighborhood. As the city grieves the loss of these two officers, tensions continue to rise between the mayor and the police officer's union.

Union leaders say that Mayor Bill De Blasio has the blood of these officers on his hands lashing out at the mayor for his support of protests that have unfolded in the city over the last couple of weeks following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

The support of protesters has put officers at risk. The mayor says right now, his focus is not on politics with the union, but the victims. He says he has been spending time with the victims' families and hoping for peace in the city.

At the same time, mayor's office is responding to the comments saying the rhetoric is overheated and it could be divisive and cause people to become angry -- Christine.

ROMANS: Again this new unspecified threat the police are investigating right now, the threat by a gang member made on social media. Dozens of New Yorkers are gathering at vigils around the country last night, lighting candles, singing prayers, and remembering the two slain officers.

The 32-year-old Wenjin Liu, a seven-year veteran, married just two months ago, and 40-year-old Rafael Ramos, two years in the NYPD and father of two young sons, his youngest, 13-year-old, Javen Ramos, posting a heart breaking message on his Facebook page.

"Today, I had to say bye to my father. Everyone says they hate cops, but they are the ones they call for help. I will always love you and I will never forget you. RIP, Dad." He calls that day the worse day of his life.

We have new details for you coming in on the shooting itself. Officials say the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, he told two bystanders, quote, "Watch what I'm going to do" before opening fire.

He was then chased by two utility workers who happened to see the shooting. Brinsley shot himself on the subway platform moments later in pursuit by police. For a closer look at the events leading up to the shooting, here is CNN's Nick Valencia.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, the bloodshed began in Baltimore, Maryland just before 6:00 a.m., when the shooting suspect, Ismaaiyl Brinsley opened fire against his ex-girlfriend seriously wounding here. It was after that shooting, he made his way toward Brooklyn, but not before taking his ex-girlfriend's cell phone.

Police know that because they used it to track his movements and they also say he used that cell phone to post ominous messages on social media towards police officers. Messages like this one.

"I'm putting wings on pigs today," he wrote. "They take ours, let's take two of theirs." Baltimore County Police Department was aware that Brinsley was on his way to the New York area, and they say they tried to notify the local police department.

They sent a fax and also made a phone call about 2:10 p.m., 30 minutes before the shooting. But it was too little, too late. At 2:47, Officer Wenjin Liu and Rafael Ramos were gunned down by Brinsley while sitting in their patrol car.

New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton said that they didn't have a chance to reach their weapons. Now almost immediately after the shooting, local police officers gave chase towards Brinsley following him into a subway platform, where they say he shot himself.

Taking his own life in front of onlookers. Now there is a rush to find out exactly what happened in the hours after the shooting. What was Brinsley's motivation and why would he gun down two of the New York Police Department's finest? -- Christine.

ROMANS: Yes, big questions still unanswered. Thank you so much for that, Nick.

Now New York is not the only city reeling the shooting. In Tarpon Springs, Florida, the 45-year-old Officer Charles Kondek was shot and killed early Sunday morning.

Kondek was a 17-year veteran of the Tampa area department. He served five years in the NYPD before that. A sheriff's office spokesperson said a 23-year-old suspect is in custody.

All right, 34 minutes past the hour. Let's get an early start on your money. Asian and European markets higher so are crude oil prices. Oil up about $4 since last week's low. Oil's $40 price drop has been driven by oversupply.

The oil minister for Saudi Arabia, a major producer, telling CNN Saudi Arabia has no plans to cut production and also, helping global markets, really impressive rally last week. Dow and S&P grew 3 percent. Nasdaq rose 2.4 percent after the fed processed to remain patient about interest rate increases. Right now, the U.S. stock futures are higher.

Just in time for holiday shopping. Staples confirmed Friday hackers stole data for 1.2 million customers credit cards. The breach was made public in October, 115 of 1,400 stores affected.

Banks shield customers from this kind of fraud. Staples joins a long list of companies attacked by hackers in the first 12 months. Home Depot and Michaels and Target, 2014 will go down as the year of the consumer retail hack.

North Korea making new threats against the United States this morning in the wake of that cyberattack on Sony. President Obama saying it is not an act of war, but cyber vandalism. We will break down his words with CNN's Brian Stelter.

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ROMANS: Welcome back to EARLY START this morning. North Korea is warning overnight that the cyberattack on Sony is just the beginning. A new statement from Pyongyang is threatening, quote, "counter action against the White House and the Pentagon and quote, "The whole U.S. mainland."

Now the administration is refusing to comment directly on the North Korean threats at this point. CNN White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski, is traveling with the president on vacation in Hawaii. She has latest for us.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christine, what the president's national security team is saying at this point is they don't want to get into the back and forth with North Korea.

We have seen North Korea put out these outrageous statements, most recently blaming the U.S. government for the movie saying the U.S. government was involved in the making of it and should apologize.

Echoing what the U.S. has said about North Korea responsible and needing to apologize. Also, North Korea though has denied responsibility for the hacking is threatening further and worse attacks by this group.

They are sharpening their bayonets and will do damage a thousand times greater than the Sony hacking. It is interesting to hear the president in the interview with Candy Crowley that he did not consider this a war or act of terrorism, but an act of cyber vandalism, is how he described it.

He is taking some criticism from opponents for putting it that way. The Sony CEO has already weighed in too about the president saying he wished Sony had called him.

The CEO says the president didn't really know fully what was going on that movie theaters have contacted Sony and said that they didn't want to run the film.

But in that same interview, the president explained a little bit further what his meaning was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was pretty sympathetic to the fact they have business considerations they have to make. Had they talked to me directly about this decision, I might have called the movie theater chains and distributors and asked them what the story was. What I was laying out was a principle that I think this country has to abide by.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: So we know that the president has said that the U.S. is going to respond proportionately and in due time to the hacking. The U.S. believes 100 percent came from North Korea.

The White House has been presented with options from advisers and those could include further sanctions against North Korea including to its banking and economic sectors -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Michelle Kosinski in Hawaii, thank you for that, Michelle. Let's break this down with the host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES," our senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter.

This just goes from bad to worse to crazy, quite frankly. When you look at the response from North Korea who says we did not do it, but will do more if you respond in a way we don't like.

The president is using the word cyber vandalism. The president is actually weighing in on how a company is responding. It's remarkable. What do you make of it?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Rarely have we ever seen this. The president saying Sony made a mistake was also remarkably. He is talking one of the biggest media companies in the world although not one that owns a news organization.

I wonder if he would have said that if it was Disney or something like that. I thought it was notable that yesterday with Candy Crowley, he said this was not an act of war. It was an act of cyber vandalism.

He said we can't go changing our behavior and he worried quite openly about the notion of self-censorship. Not just for entertainment, but also for news. He said that about CNN. CNN has covered North Korea critically.

What happens if they try to break into CNN as they tried to break into Sony? We can't go changing our ways because of these hacking

ROMANS: Is Hollywood already changing its ways? Look at some of the scripts not in development now because they had critical positions of North Korea. Is the horse out of the barn? No big company will be taken down like this. Will it cool or chill their behavior?

STELTER: There is already another North Korean film that was in development starring Steve Carell that is now on the back burner or scrapped. There is a lot of concern in Hollywood about a chilling effect. The word precedent is thrown around. Yesterday, on my program "RELIABLE SOURCES," Alan Dershowitz brought that up. Let's see what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF LAW, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: My feeling is unless this film is seen now more widely than it ever would have been seen before, which is the message that has to be sent to North Korea, this is the beginning.

It will continue with Iran. Iran may develop nuclear weapons. They put the fact on Salomon Rushdie. He got together and collectively published his book. Every time they try to censor, it, more people will see it and it will back fire.

It sounds wise to me. If you are a theater owner and Sony is calling you, there is a concern. There are concerns with Sony and potential distributors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Sony has the online video site Crackle. The key here is Sony would like to get paid for people watching this movie.

STELTER: Yes. They came out yesterday and somewhat denied the report that crackle is the distribution of the film. Sony has a $44 million budget they want to recoup. They want it in theaters or cable on demand, maybe in the Apple iTunes store. They need willing partners.

ROMANS: The president is calling it cyber vandalism. It is equal to being bombed or headquarters bombed or computer systems bombed. What is next for Sony? The company is working.

STELTER: This is something that the Sony executives are frustrated. The company is up and running. E-mail servers are still down. There are technical problems. Two e-mails bounced back of mine over the weekend. They are releasing movies and TV shows.

"Annie" opened in theaters over the weekend. It made 17 milli$17 million do. They are still releasing films. The question is how will they release this one? How do they get the interview out there?

David Boyd said it will be released. Will it be in theaters or movie on demand? Sony has the opportunity to seize all of the attention. The attention is going to fade away. It will feel like the hackers won if this is not resolved soon.

ROMANS: I likely would not have seen that film. I likely will see the film when it is available.

STELTER: I would like a communal moment where everybody can watch it on Netflix or YouTube or on television at the same time. It might be fun, might be a social TV moment.

ROMANS: Brian Stelter, thank you so much. Let's take a look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Chris Cuomo joins us. Happy Monday, sir.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Happy Christmas week to you, Christine. Unfortunately we are not talking about happy things today, but we do have to get after the issues surrounding these horrible events that we saw, the shooting of two New York City police officers sitting in their cruiser. They apparently never saw their murderer coming.

Two lives lost. Children left without a father. People left without their spouses. Then what does it mean going forward? We want to take a look at the person who did it because the politics of the animosity that is surrounding the police and the protesters.

And what is going on with race in this country, see to have us ignoring the fact, who this man was that he was deranged and history of problems and his mother was afraid of him.

We will take a look at all of this and most importantly, where do we go from here? This is not what America is about. Not what New York City is about? We will speak with leaders about this.

We have former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, he's been weighing in about this. Former top cop, Ray Kelly, he's been weighing in about this and we will talk to people who are trying to come together to make the best of this situation.

A great line that we heard from one of the local leaders is that there is no question there is pain, Christine. It's about how do we bring some purpose to the pain.

ROMANS: Yes, that is a really good line, a big question that we need to ask and get answered. Thanks so much, Chris.

A top Republican presidential 2016 candidate now speaking out about President Obama's decision to normalize relations with Cuba, we will tell you what Governor Chris Christie is demanding the president do about a fugitive on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list. That is next.

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ROMANS: Breaking overnight. French police arresting a man suspected of driving a vehicle into the crowd of pedestrians Sunday in the city of Dijon. At least 12 people were injured. The suspect was heard yelling Allahu Akbar. That is Arabic for "God is great." A day earlier, French police shot and killed a man who stabbed three police officers.

A critical victory for Kurdish forces against ISIS. Hundreds of citizens in a siege over a month were rescued in the counter attack on Sunday. ISIS positions in the region were the target of 47 U.S. airstrikes last week.

Within days, perhaps even before Christmas, we could learn whether Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl could face court martial. The 28-year-old sergeant was freed as part of the Taliban prisoner swap earlier this year. He spent five years in captivity by the Taliban. Bergdahl walked off his post in 2009. He then faced accusations of desertion.

Florida State University quarterback, Jameis Winston, has been cleared of rape allegations by a student code of conduct hearing. A student claimed two years ago that Winston sexually assaulted her.

He was not arrested, but faced a code of conduct charge. A ruling officer said there is insufficient evidence. Winston could still face legal trouble in a civil case.

Chris Christie is asking President Obama to demand that Cuba turnover convicted cop killer Joann Chesimard. She has been living in asylum since 1984. She is on the FBI most wanted list. Christie said this is an opportunity for the Castro regime to show it is serious about change.

If you are planning to hit the road or take to the skies as Christmas approaches, it could be a rough few days. A huge storm may cause major travel headaches for 2/3 of the U.S.

Let's get to meteorologist, Ivan Cabrera for an early look at your weather -- Ivan.

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Christine, we are tracking a storm by midweek will be bringing severe weather across the southeastern U.S. and snow for the Midwest as the holiday travel season has been just incredible here with all of these travel delays as a result of weather systems that have been timed terribly.

This will not be a snowstorm for the east, but the Midwest, 4 to 6 inches on Tuesday and Wednesday. On the southern branch, a potential for severe weather, frequent lightning and torrential rain that will possibly cause flooding.

It has been raining buckets across Florida, an area of 4 to 6 inches, widespread across the southeastern United States and 6 to 10 across northern Florida in the next 48 hours. Even severe weather as we talk about frequent lightning and torrential rain and potential for rotating thunderstorms.

That is Tuesday heading into Wednesday. Things calm down by Thursday. Forecast highs today, cold across the north as expected, south of the front, temperatures in the 70s and 80s.

ROMANS: All right, Ivan Cabrera, thank you for that. You know Black Friday. You heard about Cyber Monday. OK, here's one. Super Saturday, some are saying it could be bigger than either of those other retail holidays. We will get an early start on your money next.

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ROMANS: All right. Welcome back. Let's get an early start on your money. Monday edition, stocks futures are higher this morning building off last week's impressive weekly gain. The Dow and the S&P 500 gained more than 3 percent. The Nasdaq rose 2.4 percent. The fed reassured that it would remain patient with interest rate increases. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 have had double digit gains. Many analysts expect more gains potentially into the New Year.

Christmas is just days away. Retailers are betting Super Saturday will save the holiday shopping season. Black Friday sales were down 11 percent from last year. Shopping Track predicts sales this past weekend will hit $10 billion, $1 billion more than Black Friday.

A separate survey by America's research group found 44.6 percent of consumers did not buy anything this past weekend, did not go shopping. That is the largest share of American consumers everywhere. The holidays are big time for the box office, of course.

Did you know 2014 was the box office flop? This year, tickets sales $10.5 billion down 4 percent. That is according to box office data. There were successes, "Lego" and "Guardians Of Galaxy."

But the "New York Times" reporting that this is the lowest tally since 2000, in fact, profits for the two biggest theater chains were less than half of what they were last year.

There is so much to cover including the response to the tragic killing of two police officers in Brooklyn in New York on Saturday night, and these new evolving threats against the police and what it means for the relationship with the public and police force. Chris Cuomo will cover that on "NEW DAY."