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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Second New York Escapee Captured; Greece Nears Default on Huge Debt; Iranian Nuclear Talks Extended; Same-Sex Marriage Fallout; ISIS Claims Tunisia Hotel Attack; LeBron Becomes a Free Agent; Mets Rookie Steven Matz Debuts with a Record; Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired June 29, 2015 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:03] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: One nation on the brink of financial collapse. Holding the entire world marketplace hostage this morning. Why what happens in Greece will affect you. Could be affecting your 401(k) already. We're going to go live to the ground there for a live report.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The security of the world is at stake. An ominous warning from world leaders as time ticks down to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran. Can Iran and the West seal a deal? We're live.
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. A very busy morning, everybody. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. It is Monday, June 29th. 5:00 a.m. in the East.
Happening now, New York prison escapee David Sweat is in critical condition after being shot by police. The huge manhunt that lasted more than three weeks, it is now over. The other convicted killer who escaped with Sweat, Richard Matt, he was shot and killed on Friday. A crowd cheered New York Governor Andrew Cuomo -- you can hear the cheering right there -- as he announces the nightmare is finally over.
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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: Today ends with good news. These were really dangerous, dangerous men, both Matt and Sweat. They were killers. Mr. Matt killed at least two people. Mr. Sweat killed the -- a sheriff's deputy in Broom County in a savage, savage way. So these were dangerous people. They -- we could not tolerate them being on the loose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: It was fortunate that no one was injured during the three- week manhunt.
CNN's Alexandra Field is near the scene of the capture with the very latest.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, John, a single New York state trooper being hailed as a hero by Governor Andrew Cuomo. He made the capture solo of David Sweat, the fugitive who's been on the run for more than three weeks after breaking out of that maximum security prison.
Sergeant Jay Cook was alone on a roving patrol when he spotted someone walking down a road in the town of Constable just under two miles south of the Canadian border. Cook approached Sweat who fled, took off running, toward the tree line. At that point, Sergeant Cook fired twice striking Sweat two times in the torso.
David Sweat has now been taken to Albany Medical Center for treatment. New York State Police say that he was unarmed at the time that Sergeant Cook confronted him. He was found in a spot some 16 miles north of a place where Richard Matt was killed by a tactical team two days earlier.
Still no word yet from investigators on when Sweat and Matt may have broken apart and whether or not Sweat was with Richard Matt at the time that he was shot and killed -- John, Christine.
BERMAN: All right, Alexandra. Thanks so much.
So in Dannemora, New York, residents cheered. That of course is the town that houses the maximum security prison where Matt and Sweat escaped. They also breathed sighs of relief. For three weeks they were triple-checking their locks. Many of them slept with guns just to be safe. As for David Sweat, if he survives, officials say his life will change permanently.
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ANDREW WYLIE, CLINTON COUNTY, NEW YORK DISTRICT ATTORNEY: His privileges will be extremely limited. No more honor block. No more, you know, freedom of working in a tailor shop. He will be basically in 24/7 lockdown for the rest of his life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: And what about some of the others involved here? Prison guard Gene Palmer, he appears in court later today. He has been charged with official misconduct and destroying evidence after admitting to unintentionally helping Matt and Sweat escape. Palmer says he provided them with tools in exchange for information.
That apparently cozy relationship between inmates and corrections officers is now the subject of a state inspector general's investigation. A person briefed on the inquiry tells CNN that investigators think Sweat and Matt have been gathering information on cabins and fields around the prison for almost a year before they broke out.
ROMANS: All right. Breaking news this morning. Stocks tumbling around the world because Greece is on the verge of collapse. Asian and European shares down sharply. Look at Paris, down about 3 percent right now. That's off its worst levels of the morning. U.S. stock futures are down about 1 percent here. Greece's stock exchange is closed. The country closing its banks, its
banks for six days. The Greek banks are closed. Greek citizens can only withdraw about 60 euros a day from the ATM machines. That's about 67 bucks. Drastic measures leading to long lines at cash machines.
Greece spiraling toward default on its huge debt. This has been five years in the making. And it could come as soon as tomorrow. Greece could be forced to leave the euro. Something no country has ever done.
For the very latest on efforts to keep that from happening, let's turn to CNN's Isa Soares live in Athens for us.
Good morning. Bring us up to speed, Isa.
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Good morning, John. Greeks waking up to a harsh new reality. We are expecting some time in the next few minutes, the shops behind me, and one of the most popular banks that we have seen queues. We have been expecting them to open soon. It's midday, that hasn't happened yet. The people who have been hovering around were waiting really for those ATMs to open.
Banks are closed until next Monday. That's the day after the referendum that's being called by Alexis Tsipras. They can take 60 euros a day, $67 roughly. And that is it.
[05:05:10] Tourists, though, they can take as much money as they want. There is no limit there. No capital controls are being imposed on their withdrawals. But there is, though, I've noticed a state of some confusion and some defiance as well, Christine. People were saying, you know, 60 euros won't be enough. And for those in more remote parts, it's very difficult to take money out. A lot of people saying we've been -- coming past us and saying we are voting no against those proposals. And when asked, they said well, we don't want any more austerity.
Surely more austerity leaving euro will be just as punishment -- as punishing as staying with these conditions that have been proposed by the European Union, Christine.
ROMANS: But it's as if the country really -- I mean, people are saying no, no to more austerity. They don't have any -- they don't have a choice. The choice is between a terrible, really bad and really terrible. They don't really have a choice. Do they?
SOARES: No, they don't. Exactly. Yesterday, we heard from the Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis saying he doesn't -- he didn't want any of the capital controls to be put in. Well, he doesn't really have a choice because after the ECB said the they won't be putting any more money into the ELA, the Emergency Liquidity Assistance, that government had no other choice but to put those capital controls in.
And the same thing with the Greek people. This is the way things that's deteriorating so quickly. They can vote against these proposals, they can say no to austerity, but the reality is, the country is going to go deeper into recession. It's already shrunk 25 percent, the economy, here. So things are going to get worst. But people got this weary resignation about them, saying, surely, it can't -- it can't get any worse.
I think it hasn't yet hit home, Christine. And perhaps by the end of the week, as we go towards that referendum, the reality will -- you know, will shock them slightly and perhaps that may affect the vote on Sunday -- Christine.
ROMANS: Isa Soares, for us, thank you so much.
And, John, as we're looking at these pictures, we should point, you know, this is a country that for five years has been going down this road. I mean, it has made promises to its citizens that it can't keep, it doesn't have the revenue to keep. Too much debt. The tax base is very, very small. There's sort of like a culture of non-tax payment among the citizens. I mean, it is an economy that really is in a shamble.
BERMAN: It is. And the people there feel like the rest of Europe hasn't given them a way out of that crisis but they're also not fulfilling their obligations right now.
ROMANS: Look, the ECB has been giving a lifeline. I mean, there's -- the money that's flowing there. It is on life support from the ECB. The ECB, the European Central Bank, says we're not going to give you more money or we're not going to increase that liquidity, as you pointed out, until we see some real signs toward -- you know, being able to make your payment on Tuesday.
BERMAN: In the meantime, 60 bucks a day from the ATM, and nothing more. That is a crisis.
All right. Happening right now, deadline extended. Iran, the United States and other world powers working on the assumption that nuclear talks will go beyond the official deadline of June 30th. Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Iranian Foreign minister, both Saturday and Sunday. Kerry says he is hopeful that there will be an agreement but that there is still work to do. A senior American official says that any extension of talks will last only a few days.
Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is at the talks in Vienna.
Good morning, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John. That really is the question of the moment. How long is that extension going to be? Is it going to be days as U.S. officials hope or could it drag out even longer?
What we saw over the weekend here, Secretary Kerry meeting with the Iranian Foreign minister, Mohammed Javid Zarif. They had four meetings, those meetings lasted for about five hours. But we also saw the British Foreign secretary come here to join the talks. The French Foreign minister, the German Foreign minister, the head of Foreign Policy of the European Union, the deputies from the Foreign Ministries of both China and Russia.
So there was pretty much a full-court press on with the -- with the Iranian delegation. And what it amount -- what it came to was the Iranian delegation, Mr. Zarif, heading back to Tehran. He's due back here tomorrow.
What seems to be the difference-- the differences and what appears to be the gaps here that we're hearing from all these different diplomats is that Iran's supreme leader in the past week set out new conditions, new redlines that he said Iran wasn't willing to accept. However, these seemed to roll back agreements that were made in talks three months ago in Switzerland.
What he is saying now is that the International Atomic Energy Agency, this is the international nuclear watchdog, shouldn't have access to all of Iran's sites to verify the agreement. That he wants U.S. and U.N. sanctions to be lifted immediately. That he doesn't limits or long limits on Iran's nuclear research and development capability.
[05:10:01] So this is where the setback appears to be. So the question now is, when the Iranian Foreign minister comes back from Tehran, what's he going to come back with? A changed set of red lines? Or those same red lines? Because if they're the same, that seems to speak to an impasse coming up -- John.
BERMAN: An impasse coming up on the top of the impasse that already exists.
Nic Robertson for us in Vienna, thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. The Supreme Court set to issue more opinions just days after that landmark ruling made same-sex marriage the law of the land. Some of the most vocal conservative fallout coming from the crowded field of candidates vying for the Republican nomination for president.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has more this morning from the White House.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine. All of the Republican candidates are opposed to the ruling, but there's a big divide over how to proceed. Some want to push for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. And others say instead let's basically move on and are pushing the idea of protecting religious liberty instead.
Now there has been some legal limbo in the day since Friday's ruling. Some states really halting and holding off issuing marriage license. And we saw former governor Mike Huckabee on Sunday call for states to continue to resist the ruling.
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