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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Netanyahu Warns Congress on Nuclear Deal with Iran; Iran Reacts to Netanyahu's Speech; Clinton's Camp Fires Back at NYT; Justice Dept: Racial Bias in Ferguson PD; Iraqi Military Campaign to Take Back Tikrit

Aired March 04, 2015 - 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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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Israel's prime minister warns Congress that any nuclear deal with Iran is a bad one. The speech from Benjamin Netanyahu creating new controversy this morning in Washington and around the world. Could it cause the nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran to simply implode? Live team coverage breaking down this big story begins right now.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday. It's 30 minutes past the hour.

Reaction developing this morning across Washington to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu's Capitol Hill speech blasting a nuclear deal with Iran. The prime minister holding nothing back in an address to joint session of Congress that drew repeated standing ovations. The speech also drawing full-throttle criticism from the White House and the president himself.

For more this morning, I want to bring in CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John and Christine.

I think it's safe to say that Prime Minister Netanyahu did not disappoint. For many of those who wanted to go there and hear him speak. This was an impassioned speech, drawing thunderous applause from the U.S. Congress, especially those Republicans who invited him there without the White House even knowing about it.

Netanyahu laid out first of all that the U.S. is great, standing with Israel, that Iran is bad, calling it a dark and murderous regime. And then, he ripped to shreds this potential deal that the U.S. and its allies are trying to work out with Iran over its nuclear program by the end of this month.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: That deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them. That's why this deal is so bad. It doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb. It paves Iran's path to the bomb.

KOSINSKI: The White House tried to downplay this, of course, saying this isn't anything we haven't heard before, that the prime minister presented no viable alternative. Even though President Obama did not watch this speech, he did spend it nearly 15 minutes responding to it.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The alternative that the prime minister offers is no deal, in which case Iran will immediately begin once again pursuing its nuclear program, accelerate its nuclear program, without us having any insight into what they're doing and without constraint.

KOSINSKI: So, now that we've heard Netanyahu, we can see how over the past couple of days, the White House really tried to steal his thunder and preempt virtually everything he said and make an argument against it, saying that if you add more restrictions on to Iran now, more sanctions, or trying to get it to entirely dismantle its nuclear program or set an indefinite time frame on the deal, then Iran just won't take it -- tantamount to no deal at all and in stark contrast to the Israelis, this administration feels that no deal would be way worse than this one.

But keep in mind, Obama did say that at this point, it is more likely than not that Iran rejects this deal -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE

BERMAN: Our thanks to Michelle Kosinski at the White House.

Now, this morning the key audience for the speech is 6,000 miles away in Israel. The Israeli prime minister is facing an election in less than two weeks. Many people there believe this speech was basically a campaign event.

Let's bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann live in Jerusalem this morning. Good morning, Oren.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, John. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has just returned to what was perhaps the primary audience all along, about one hour ago he landed in Israel, and wasted no time in responding to president Barack Obama's accusation perhaps that Netanyahu offers no alternative.

His office put out this statement. And I'm reading a part of it here. "I presented a practical alternative which would impose tougher restrictions on Iran's nuclear program, extending Iran's breakout time for years."

Now, from the very beginning, Netanyahu said this was not a political event, but certainly at least it's now being viewed as one. One of his fellow Likud Party members, Yuval Steinitz is the intelligence minister, came to Netanyahu's defense, saying this was a very important perhaps even critical chance to warn the world about the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to Israel. Meanwhile, Isaac Herzog, viewed as Netanyahu's biggest rival for prime minister in these upcoming elections now less than two weeks away, immediately fired back right after Netanyahu's speech, saying the speech was a mistake and it puts a strain on the crucial U.S.-Israel relations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISAAC HERZOG, CHAIRMAN, ISRAELI LABOR PARTY ZIONIST UNION (through translator): The painful truth is that after the applause Netanyahu remained alone, Israel remained isolated, and negotiations with Iran will continue without the involvement of Israel. This speech, therefore, greatly undermined the relationship between Israel and the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog polling very closely in elections and that means the biggest question is -- whose opinion changed because of Netanyahu's speech? Those who liked him viewed this as a very charismatic, an important speech, and they'll still vote for him. Meanwhile, those who don't like him viewed this as purely a political move, and their minds certainly didn't change because of this speech. John?

BERMAN: Election day less than two weeks away. Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem. Thanks so much, Oren.

ROMANS: The furious controversy in Washington and Israel not appearing to slow down those ongoing nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran. The Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif noting the Israeli prime minister is, quote, "trying to disrupt a deal" but telling CNN the negotiations are starting to move forward. Secretary of State John Kerry still in Switzerland for those talks. He heads to Saudi Arabia later this week to reassure King Salman that any agreement with Iran would also be in Saudi interests.

Senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen following developments for us in Tehran, where he is live this morning. Good morning, Fred. A lot of interested parties in these discussions between the U.S. and Iran. And these discussions are not guaranteed to produce a deal.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, you're absolutely right. And it's really interesting, Christine, because there's obviously various parties in the U.S. There's various parties in Israel. But there's also various different thoughts of opinions here in Iran as well.

And one of the interesting things is that the reaction to the Netanyahu speech has somewhat shifted here in Tehran overnight. In the beginning, you had full-on criticism where members of the Iranian government were coming out saying that they found the speech sickening, they felt that Iran was being unfairly criticized. They, of course, maintain that their nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. Well, this morning, there was a press conference by the Foreign

Ministry which struck somewhat of a different tone. And in that press conference, they were saying that they didn't care at all about Benjamin Netanyahu's speech. They said that it wouldn't slow down the negotiations, and they said what they were aiming for was a nuclear deal that was good for Iran.

Now, of course, what they're doing also is they're catering to a domestic audience, because one of the things we have to keep in mind is that there are those varying thoughts of opinion here in Iran as well. On the one hand, you have those who want a deal. You have the moderates, those around President Hassan Rouhani. But you also have a lot of hard-liners here in Iran, who feel that Iran should have walked away from the negotiating table a long time ago, rather than strike a deal with the West. And that's in spite of sanctions. And then you have the ultimate authority here in this country, which is, of course, the Supreme Leader, Ali Khomeini, and he has been sort of sitting on the fence watching all this. On the one hand, he also says he's skeptical that a deal with a come through, but he also says he supports the negotiations, but also says he would only sign a deal into law that is good for the Iranians.

ROMANS: All right. We've lost his satellite feed, obviously. That was Frederick Pleitgen for us in Tehran this morning.

BERMAN: He was noting that there are domestic political considerations, too, where there are people inside Iran who don't want any kind of a nuclear deal. just as in Israel and the United States, opinion is split on whether a deal is advisable.

ROMANS: It's like a chess board under water.

BERMAN: Indeed. Good way to put it.

All right, 38 minutes after the hour. New this morning, Hillary Clinton's camp, not her campaign but her camp, is firing back at "The New York Times" report about her personal use of e-mails at the State Department. Now, it appears she only used her personal account or accounts there. One of her aides tells CNN that nothing shady was going on, that her actions were in keeping with what former secretaries had done. Mrs. Clinton made no mention of all this during a 30-minute speech Tuesday night.

CNN's Brianna Keilar has the latest, including the Republican reaction. Brianna.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

While heading the State Department, Hillary Clinton relied solely on a personal e-mail account. It's not that strange for a secretary to have a personal account, but only a personal account, this is out of the norm. And while Clinton may not have broken the law by doing this, she

certainly broke with the spirit of the law. Clinton released 55,000 pages of her e-mails to the State Department recently, but she has unilateral control over this account, and Republicans are hammering her for it.

REP. TREY GOWDY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The State Department does not have all of Secretary Clinton's e-mails on its servers. Only she has a complete record. And the committee is going to have to go to her and her attorneys and her e-mail providers to ensure we have access to everything the American people are entitled to know.

KEILAR: A Clinton aide tells me her use of just a personal account was nothing nefarious. She had a BlackBerry before she became secretary, he tells me, and she kept using it after she entered the Obama administration.

But security experts warn there are huge security risks using just a private account. There's no backup system to keep e-mails if they are deleted. Since Clinton left office, the National Archive Laws have changed. Private accounts are only to be used for official government business in the case of emergencies now -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Thanks to Brianna.

A pivotal day at the Supreme Court today. The Court takes up a new legal challenge to Obamacare. This is the third time the nation's highest court has been asked to rule on Obamacare. This lawsuit, the new one, claims that the wording of the Affordable Care Act makes it illegal for the government to offer insurance tax credits, subsidies, in more than 30 states. This could affect more than 7.5 million people who get these subsidies. They would lose them and effectively lose their insurance if this challenge at the court is successful.

ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money this Wednesday morning. U.S. stock futures are down following yesterday's lead (ph). The Nasdaq pulled back from 5,000. It crossed that number Monday for the first time in 15 years. The Dow and the S&P 500 also pulled back from Monday records.

The iPhone once again the world's top-selling smartphone. Samsung has been outselling Apple for years. But in the fourth quarter, Apple sold 75 million iPhones. That was about 20 percent of the global market, just enough to inch ahead of Samsung. It was the iPhone's best quarter ever. Big demand in the U.S., major inroads in China. Sales in China surged 70 percent last quarter. And any of you who own shares of Apple stock, a decade ago it was $5. It's now $130.

BERMAN: Who's the most famous Apple stockholder? It's Forrest Gump, right? Undoubtedly Forrest Gump.

ROMANS: You're probably right. You're right.

BERMAN: All right. A troubling new report on racism in Ferguson, Missouri. What

investors (sic) found out about justice in the town where unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was killed. That's next.

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ROMANS: This morning the Justice Department will release a report detailing a widespread pattern of racial bias within the Ferguson, Missouri, police department. This federal investigation was prompted by the shooting of an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, by a Ferguson police officer last summer. We get more this morning from CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and John, the report expected to be released by the Justice Department today confirms what many residents here in Ferguson say that they have known for quite some time -- the accusations that the Ferguson police department has been involved in widespread racial bias for years.

Some of the statistics expected to be released in this report include showing that during a two-year period, even though the city of Ferguson is 67 percent black, it found -- the report found that 93 percent of all arrests involved African-Americans, 90 percent of traffic citations were issued by police officers were given to African-Americans, 85 percent of all vehicle stops involved African- Americans. And at any time a Ferguson police officer used force, 88 percent of those times, it involved African-Americans.

And many leaders here say that what they hope this will do is send a message throughout St. Louis County and other cities like Ferguson here in the area. Many community leaders here say that this is not just confined to Ferguson, that it happens throughout the area. City officials here in Ferguson have not commented publicly on this report yet.

They say they are reviewing it. And on Wednesday, later today, are expected to have some sort of press conference, some sort of comments after they review all of the report -- Christine and John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Ed, thank you for that this morning.

BERMAN: Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Chris Cuomo joins us now. Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": How are you, my friends, John and Christine? So the big question for us when it comes to the Israeli prime minister and Iran is so now what? Congress got to hear what Netanyahu thinks about what's going on in Iran and about Iran. He said that he proposed an alternative. The President of the United States says no, he did not. So the question becomes, for all the hype, will anything change in what the United States is doing with Iran? We have insight for you on that today. Also, we have an exclusive for you. For all the negativity in and

about politics, the race for president matters. You know that. We know that. And we're going to test all those who decide to enter the race. Today, that is Dr. Ben Carson. He's formed an exploratory committee, you know that step just before the main step. And we go through the issues of the day. What would you do about Iran? What would you do about ISIS? This man has a lot of momentum around him, especially from the faith community. And we talk to him about matters of faith. And he made some statements about how he feels about people who are gay and same-sex marriage that you are going to want to hear and think about.

Another thing to think about. Remember Curt Schilling? I know John Berman does. What a titan as a pitcher. He was an amazing baseball player; also turns out he's an amazing father and he's nobody to mess with on or off the diamond. This is his beautiful daughter. She is more than how she looks; she's an amazing student, she's an amazing athlete. He goes on to brag as a daddy about her big deal to go to college and play softball, and the ugliness that followed. John and Christine, the ugliness that followed on social media, the dynamic that we are all too familiar with in this business ,sickened him to the point that he is speaking out to parents and to the people out there who take it upon themselves to be the biggest asses that they can on social media at all times. He is on today with his daughter. It is a conversation that must be had. We will have it on "NEW DAY".

BERMAN: I know from people who are close to the family, they are excited to come talk to you this morning, Chris. I look forward to seeing that today.

All right, we have a new plan to tell you about to take back a captured Iraqi city from ISIS. That's next.

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BERMAN: The Iraqi military says it is launching an offensive to retake the city of Tikrit from ISIS. 30,000 troops are attacking near the birthplace of Saddam Hussein. This is a big operation that we're now hearing caught the U.S. completely by surprise, the Iraqis instead turning to Iran for help.

I want to go to Baghdad and bring in our senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman. Ben, what's really going on here? Are they really seizing this city as we speak?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're trying to. They're approaching, we're told, from five different directions on the city. But it's hard going at the moment. There's one word (ph) in the Iraqi media that in an eight-kilometer stretch of road, just five miles, the Iraqi army and associated militias encountered 100 IEDs left behind by ISIS. Now, ISIS, of course, they are the masters at IEDs, a skill they mastered during the American presence here, and that's really one weapon that they use quite often. And certainly we've seen in much smaller towns and villages where the Iraqis have gone in that progress has always been seriously slowed down by these IEDs. So definitely they're moving forward, but progress isn't quite as fast as the Iraqi army was hoping. John?

BERMAN: They seem to be doing with the patronage of Iran, not the United States. If they can't get help from the U.S., they say they will turn to Iran. Our thanks to Ben Wedeman for that.

ROMANS: All right, 54 minutes past the hour. An EARLY START on Your Money is next.

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ROMANS: All right. Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. Being nice is more important than having an MBA. You heard me right. Well, that's at least according to Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman. It's not what you typically hear about Wall Street, but Schwarzman says the smart, fast-moving environment doesn't work if employees aren't nice to each other. An MBA, he says, is less essential. Schwarzman does, in fact, have an MBA from Harvard Business School, maybe one of the most elite degrees there is where students are told to budget $100,000 a year for tuition, room and board, and other expenses. But he is a bigwig on Wall Street saying be nice to each other, folks. He needs to hire people who are nice, not necessarily your MBA.

BERMAN: I'm not -- I'm not --

ROMANS: You don't buy it.

BERMAN: I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced. In my experience, I can't see that nice makes you --

ROMANS: What a mean analysis from you, John Berman.

BERMAN: No, it's because I would rather be rich. I'm saying I'm nice and losing.

Israel's prime minister warns the U.S. of the consequences of having a nuclear Iran. We have new reaction from around the world when "NEW DAY" starts right now.