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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Report: Arrested Deputy's Training was Falsified; Aaron Hernandez's Fall From Grace: Guilty of Murder; Capitol Hill Security Scare: Aircraft Lands on Lawn; ISIS Advances in Iraq: Inside the Attack; Wild Finish to NBA Regular Season, Playoff Set. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired April 16, 2015 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Rhea said, for the first time since she lost her dad, she can look forward now, get her finances together to invested. She wants to buy a house someday. The program TAPS, it believes no child of a veteran should have the cloud of student debt hanging over them. The debt, they say we owe her, she doesn't owe her college education.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's a nice outcome.
ROMANS: It really is. You see the whole story on CNN Money this morning.
BERMAN: EARLY START continues right now.
(MUSIC)
ROMANS: Shocking new allegations about the volunteer Oklahoma deputy who shot and killed an unarmed man on camera. Reports this morning, a report claiming he did not earn that job. We'll explain.
BERMAN: New information about the man who put all of Washington on edge, landing his aircraft right on the Capitol lawn. Why he did it? In his own words.
ROMANS: ISIS making advances in Iraq. CNN is there with an inside look. We are live this morning.
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: Good to see you today. I'm John Berman. Thursday, April 16th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.
ROMANS: Explosive allegations about the Oklahoma volunteer deputy who shot and killed an unarmed man on camera.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OTHER OFFICER: Roll on your stomach now.
(GUNSHOT)
OFFICER BATES: Oh, I shot him. I'm sorry.
OTHER OFFICER: Oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED). He shot me. He shot me.
OTHER OFFICER: Stop fighting. Stop fighting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: "The Tulsa World" is reporting Deputy Robert Bates did not earn his job on the police force. Sources tell that paper that supervisors in the sheriff's office were ordered to falsify Bates records giving him credit for field training he never took and firearms certifications he never earned.
Now, questions have been raised about whether Bates paid to play deputy on the force. He's a wealthy insurance CEO who donated money to the sheriff's reelection campaign. He donated equipment to the department. CNN has not been able to independently verify these claims. But the Tulsa sheriff's department is strongly denying "The Tulsa World" report, that newspaper report, casting out on an anonymous source, the anonymous sources, in an e-mail to CNN.
"The Tulsa World" reporters who broke the story, they're going to get a chance to defend it. They'll be on "NEW DAY" at 6:00 a.m.
BERMAN: You got to learn more about this obviously. But, you know, if true, you know, it casts it on a much different light, raises issues of liability, culpability and what happened before, during and after this incident, what was controversial to begin with.
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: All right. Developing this morning, a steep plunge from grace for former NFL star Aaron Hernandez. He was once under a $40 million contract with the New England Patriots. Now he is convicted of murder. Convicted by a jury in the 2013 slaying of Odin Lloyd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What say you, Madam Foreperson, is the defendant not guilty, guilty of murder in the first degree, or guilty of murder in the second degree?
FOREPERSON: Guilty of murder in the first degree.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: You can hear the emotion in that courtroom. Judge Susan Garsh sentenced Hernandez to live in prison without parole.
Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti was in the courtroom. She has more for us this morning -- Susan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine and John, good morning.
Aaron Hernandez showed little emotion when the guilty verdict was read. He did lick his lips and rub his chin, something we often saw him do during the trial when things got tense. At this moment, he turned to see his mother and his fiancee in each other's arms weeping. He told them, "Be strong", and appeared to mouth of words "they're wrong".
And then we looked across the aisle to the mother of the victim Odin Lloyd. She pumped her fist in the air as if a sign of relief. Just before Aaron Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison, she addressed the court and said she forgave the people who are responsible and played a role in the death of her only son.
Afterwards, the jurors were asked, why did they take seven days to reach a verdict? Was that a long time? They said not in their opinion. They took a long time because they said they were very careful about all of the evidence they had to consider.
And then there was this from the jurors. They said that they only found out from the judge after the trial that Aaron Hernandez also faces a double murder case in Boston that has yet to come. He is also facing an accusation that he shot someone in the face. Someone they heard testimony from during this trial.
After the verdict was over and Aaron Hernandez was led from the courtroom to his prison, a source tells me that he told his jailors this, he said, "I didn't do it. They got it wrong."
[05:05:02] Evidently, the jury disagreed -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right. Susan Candiotti for us this morning.
A May 28th start date for Hernandez's trial on the double murder has been canceled. The trial expected to be rescheduled soon now the first case is over. Members of the jury in that Odin Lloyd trial say when the judge told them that Hernandez faces more serious charges, they knew they delivered the right verdict.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: When you found out these things, the double murder, and the (INAUDIBLE) what was -- what was your reaction after going all this and you hear all that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We made the right decision.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
REPORTER: Pardon?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That we did the right thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Outside the courthouse, Odin Lloyd's mother remembers him as the backbone of the family. The man of the house she will never forget.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
URSULA WARD, ODIN LLOYD'S MOTHER: Just like God has left his footprint in the sand --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take your time, Ursula, take your time.
WARD: -- my baby's footprints is in my heart forever. He was my strength. I love him dearly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Now it is interesting. Remember, Ursula Ward was told by the judge during the trial not to show any emotion on the witness stand. Now she can as any parent should be able to do, to cry and mourn over the loss of a child.
It's interesting. During her victim impact statement, she went out of her way to say she forgives those who had a hand in her son's murder.
ROMANS: All right. New this morning, we are learning new information about a Florida man who flew a small aircraft, a gyrocopter, on to the U.S. Capitol lawn.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not good, people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: No, you are not supposed to do that.
Sixty-one-year-old letter carrier Doug Hughes landed in front of the capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NORA NEUS, WITNESS: I saw out of nowhere a machine that locked like something from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" coming straight at the Capitol building. It flew straight in towards the west face of the Capitol building, bounced once and just landed right there on the grass.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: He was promptly arrested. The gyrocopter was examined by the bomb squad and carted away. Law enforcement sources say the aircraft did not show up on radar, but homeland security officials said Hughes -- he would have been shot down if he'd come any closer to the Capitol building. The Secret Service has interviewed back in 2013 and was deemed not a threat.
He told the "Tampa Bay Times" about his plans. He let the paper shoot a video in which he admits it is a crazy stunt. But he said -- he said he was willing to risk his life to protest what he called the corrupting power of money in politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG HUGHES, FLEW GYROCOPTER ONTO CAPITOL LAWN: I'm going to violate the no-fly zone, nonviolently. I intend for nobody to get hurt and I will land on the Capitol Mall in front of the Capitol building. I'm going to have 535 letters strapped to the landing gear in boxes. And those letters are going to be addressed to every member of Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: You see the Post Office emblem on the back there. He is not using the Post Office. He is using his own copter. He has been transferred to D.C. central jail awaiting federal charges.
BERMAN: I think the U.S. Postal Service probably as happy about this as they are about Lance Armstrong.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: A problem for them right now.
ISIS on the rampage in Iraq's Anbar province. The militants have advanced into the city of Ramadi, which is located just 70 miles from Baghdad. Officials say ISIS fighters have killed a number of Iraqi troops. Officials say the need for reinforcements is critical and that troops remaining in the city will not be able to hold the lines really any longer at all.
I want to bring in senior international correspondent Arwa Damon who is very close by, had an exclusive look inside these attacks, and really, at this point, Ramadi on the edge or even past the edge, Arwa.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. And this is something that Faleh al-Essawi, the deputy provincial counsel, had been warning about since yesterday, begging, pleading for additional troops and for Iraqi and coalition air strikes.
Now, he is saying that ISIS fighters are advancing toward the government complex. He says they tried to launch an assault on the complex, being backed by the time being by the Iraqi force that is fighting inside Ramadi. But this force is outgunned and outmanned. If they do not get assistance, they will not hold out much longer. Essawi warning which would make them withdraw and allow for ISIS free rein in Ramadi.
[05:10:03] And that would be absolutely devastating for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it would be a significant blow to the Iraqi government, but perhaps an even more difficult blow and situation to the residents that are still stuck there. Upwards of 150,000 have fled, but many more remain behind.
And the battle to take back Ramadi, if there are additional troops, will be devastating. We are talking about street-to-street combat. We're talking potentially about air strikes inside the city in and of itself.
We spoke to a number of people fleeing the violence yesterday as the ISIS onslaught began into the eastern part of the city. An old woman burst into tears as we approached her.
She was sitting inside a metal cart to be pushed across a bridge surrounded by children, many of those fleeing, piling their belongings, elderly, children, too tired or too weak to go across this bridge -- a great source of frustration to the lack of response. Officials have been asking for reinforcements for weeks now. None have come despite the fact the Iraqi government claims to have sent an additional army brigades.
People, too, failing to understand why there haven't been additional airstrikes in the area well before ISIS was able to breach the outskirts of Ramadi. This is, to say the least, is most definitely a desperate and dire situation, John.
BERMAN: Arwa Damon for us in Baghdad -- thanks so much, Arwa.
ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning. Stock futures barely moving. The Dow yesterday up 75 points. NASDAQ closed above 5,000.
To give you some perspective, very close to record highs. The Dow about 1 percent away. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 even less than that. So, a one -- couple of days of good moves and you see records.
The big winner is energy stocks. Crude oil bounced, I would say surged, 6 percent, closing above 56 bucks a barrel for the first time this year. The price of oil has been falling since last summer because of the global supply glut.
For Wall Street, it is about expectations. A report said U.S. supply didn't grow as much as expected. So, that big supply move in the United States not as big as they thought.
Now, this morning, the big story Citigroup and Goldman earnings out later.
BERMAN: Let's hear for the little guys.
ROMANS: Yes, Bank of America and JPMorgan both did well. Earnings expected overall to fall by 3 percent. For the overall S&P 500, this quarter. As you know, when profits decline, that tends to be a tough thing for stocks to weather. So, we'll see if they can over it.
BERMAN: Twelve minutes after the hour right now.
Hillary Clinton, the low key listening tour with the high profile edge to it. That happening as the Republican side Chris Christie in New Hampshire doing his "Tell It Like It Is" tour. How is it for him? That's next.
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[05:16:11] BERMAN: This week, Iowa, next week, New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton is wrapping up the high profile, she would call low key kickoff to the 2016 presidential campaign. She met with more voters in small settings, also met with some key Democratic officials.
Let's get the inside look now from CNN's Jeff Zeleny.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.
Now, Hillary Clinton is waking up for a third straight morning in Iowa. Her first trip as a 2016 presidential candidate there is coming to an end. She is planning to return to her home base to New York later today. This time, by plane, not a road trip.
But this first campaign stop there was more than simply a drive- by visit. She intentionally lingered with voters and key elected officials to show she is serious about fighting for the Democratic nomination.
When she walked into the Iowa statehouse on Wednesday afternoon for a closed-door meeting, people lined up to see her. The Clinton campaign believes this trip was a successful one. But it's only the beginning of a long campaign.
She is expected to travel to New Hampshire early next week, the state that holds the first primary of the 2016 fight. Of course, unlike Iowa, she won that state during her first presidential campaign.
As she begins to layout the principles of her candidacy, she intentionally did so before scripted and friendly crowds. Of course, the real test of this candidacy will come when she starts taking tough and unscripted questions from those discerning voters in both states -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thanks for that, Jeff.
New this morning, the Clinton Foundation is announcing plans to change its policy on accepting foreign donations. A spokesman says, going forward, the foundation will accept large money donations from a limited number of foreign governments.
The family foundation has been criticized for its vast donor network which includes some countries considered hostile to the U.S. Hillary Clinton has resigned from the board of directors while she runs for president.
BERMAN: So he is not an official candidate as of yet. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in New Hampshire with his Tell It Like It Is town hall tour. At an event in the town of Londonderry on Wednesday, the governor addressed the issues and also indeed his political future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: When anybody is asking to be considered for high office, whether it's the governor of New Jersey or an even bigger job, issues will change and move over time. What you need to know more than anything else is who is that person?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Jeb Bush, Rick Perry, two other undeclared but probably Republicans in the field, they also make stops in New Hampshire today.
The NBA's regular season is on the books. There were some last- minute entries into the playoffs. Who is going and who is going home? Coy Wire has the details in the bleacher report, next.
ROMANS: We're digging into travel numbers in the CNN Money away. Uber appears to be raking in a big chunk of business travel dollars. Uber share of the transportation market tripled in the last year, jumping from 15 percent to 46 percent. That is according to a report released by Certify, which tracks business spending. Uber rides tend to be $4 cheaper than taxi fares.
And the flight delays? The culprit is not weather. Now, the U.S. Department of Transportation found, about 72 percent of all flights are on time, but when flights are delayed, it is related to factors within an airline's control like crew and maintenance issues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Celtics are going to the playoffs. I just want to tell you that.
A ton of other spots up for grabs last night. It was the last night of the regular.
ROMANS: Coy Wire has more of the wild nights of hoops in this morning's bleacher report.
Hey, Coy.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: Good morning, John and Christine.
This was one of the crazy finishes to the NBA regular season in quite some time, going into last night's games, we knew of one playoff match up that was set. That was Cavs and Celtics.
Now, Pelicans, they're trying to end their spot, but they had to deal with the defending champ Spurs to make it happen. That's a tough task. But all star Anthony Davis brought his lunch pail and hard hat and went to work. His nickname, they called this kid "you know wow". He scored 31 points, sending New Orleans to the first playoff appearance in four years. Fear the brow. Wow.
All right. The Brooklyn Nets not only need to win against the Magic, they needed the Pacers to lose to earn a playoff spot in the east. They got what they need. Thanks in part to rookie Bogdonavich who scored a career high 28, helping to give the Nets enough to win. They go toe-to-toe with the top seed in the East, the Atlanta Hawks.
Here is a look at the Eastern match ups. I like the Celtics versus LeBron and Cavs. That will be a fun series to watch. On the West side, that was loaded. You got great match ups including the Spurs and Clippers who are both on fire right now.
All right, let's take a dip in the pool, shall we?
[05:25:00] Michael Phelps announced publicly for the first time that he is making a run for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. He was back in action yesterday at the Arena Pro Swim Series at Mesa. After spending 45 days in an alcohol abuse treatment facility and serving a six-month suspension from USA Swimming after a DUI arrest in October. That was the second in 2014.
That's humbled him a bit, and he talked about that. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL PHELPS, OLYMPIC SWIMMER: I, of course, would like to show everybody in the world that I am in a different place and I am much better than I ever have been. You know, I understand that it will take a lot of time for me to prove to whoever I need to prove to that I am different and I am changed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: John, Christine, now he also said he has done more growing up in the past eight months than he'd done in the rest of his life. Let's hope so, because this guy has a great platform to be an inspiration to a lot of people and make the U.S. proud in the next Olympic Games -- guys.
BERMAN: You know, I was reading that he actually has a chance, a good chance, considered to be a favorite perhaps for two more gold medals. He has like 80 already. He has to find a place for the new ones.
All right. Coy Wire, thanks so much.
ROMANS: Thanks, Coy.
WIRE: You're welcome, guys.
ROMANS: All right. The rise and fall of NFL star Aaron Hernandez, found guilty of murder. His troubles don't stop there. The fall and further fall of Aaron Hernandez, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Shocking new allegations about the volunteer Oklahoma deputy who shot and killed an unarmed on camera.
