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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

GOP Competitors Blast Trump; Tennessee Shooter's Friend Speaks Out; Bomb Blast at Rally in Turkey; More Details on New York Prison Escape; Defense Secretary Meets Israeli Leader; Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired July 21, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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


[05:30:01] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: In a new ABC-"Washington Post" poll, look at this, 24 percent of Republican voters, Trump has nearly twice the support of his nearest rival, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Now one potential warning sign for Trump, a plunging support for the billionaire on the last day pollsters were making calls. That was the first day of the McCain controversy that was in the news. Now Trump's competitors for the nomination adding new fire to their criticism of him story. Here's Lindsey Graham speaking to CNN's Kate Bolduan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That he's a jackass.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Really?

GRAHAM: That he's bringing his name down and he's not helping the process and he shouldn't be commander-in-chief. If you want to be commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, you need to understand that John McCain and all like him, not just John, are truly American heroes.

JEB BUSH (R), 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know. I'm not into the process side of this. I know that John McCain is a legitimate hero for this country. He serves with distinction. And Mr. Trump ought to reappraise what his thoughts are on this subject.

The guy -- I mean, the guy was in the POW camp for five years and could have gotten out early, but said that he wanted to stay to show respect for the other POW members. This is -- this is a legitimate hero that has served his country in lots of ways. And Mr. Trump knows that. He should just apologize.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So Donald Trump sort of softened his attack on Bill O'Reilly's show. It wasn't an apology but it was the closest thing to contrition to come from Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: And I want you to be honest, you do think McCain is a hero. I know you do.

DONALD TRUMP (R), 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do. I had -- and by the way, I said it. I actually said it four times. And I said it immediately after I went off stage because I was asked the question.

O'REILLY: Well, because I want everybody to know --

TRUMP: I have respect for Senator McCain. I used to like him a lot. I supported him. I raised a lot of money for his campaign against President Obama. And certainly if there was a misunderstanding, I would take totally that back. But hopefully I said it correctly. And certainly, shortly thereafter, I said it correctly.

I would like him, however, to do something with the 15,000 people that were in Phoenix about illegal, you know, immigration. They are being decimated. These people are being decimated. And I would love to see him do a much better job taking care of the veterans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Today, Trump is back on the campaign trail for the first time since the McCain war hero controversy began. He starts his first visit to South Carolina with a rally at 11:00 a.m. in the city of Bluffton.

This morning, Ohio Governor John Kasich makes official what was already clear. He is running for president. He will be the 16th Republican vying for the party's nomination. The Kasich for America campaign kicks off with a speech at Ohio State University. That's the candidate's alma mater. This is Kasich's second White House bid. He first ran back in 2000.

New details about the Tennessee gunman who killed four Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga. Investigators discovering Mohammad Abdulazeez spent time in Qatar last year during a seven-month trip to visit his family in Jordan. Now it's not clear what he was doing here.

We're also getting new insight into the shooter's state of mind from a friend, a close friend who spent a lot of time with him in his final days.

CNN's special investigations correspondent Drew Griffin has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Christine, more of a confusing picture here in Chattanooga as investigators continue to probe the background of Mohammad Abdulazeez. At the same time, we are hearing about old writings that rail against U.S. policy and possible suicidal thoughts, one friend is coming forward and saying no.

(Voice-over): James Petty considered Mohammad Abdulazeez's spiritual supporter in his recent conversion to Islam, constantly texting each other, they hiked the Appalachian Mountains, played sports, even slept over at Abdulazeez's home. He says he never once saw Abdulazeez angry and the only conversations they had about radical Islam was to oppose it.

JAMES PETTY, ABDULAZEEZ'S FRIEND: ISIS mainly. Like groups, any terror groups kind of like ISIS.

GRIFFIN (on camera): What did he say?

PETTY: Like it was a stupid group and it was completely against Islam, and not to even think about going towards them. And I felt like it wasn't kind of in a sense of I'm with their group so I don't want you to do like me. It was more like, just stay away. This is not where you should be going towards.

GRIFFIN: You felt that he truly believed in his heart at that moment that what ISIS is doing was wrong?

PETTY: Yes, sir.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Petty describes Abdulazeez as more American than he was and the self-described redneck Muslim also liked to shoot guns.

PETTY: One day, he said he had a gun and that he was showing me pictures on his phone. Like, hey, I never shot a gun before. And he's like, do you want to shoot this one? And I said sure. Like I don't see why not? I have never shot one.

[05:35:02] GRIFFIN (on camera): And, Christine, Petty says the Achilles' heel that Mohammad Abdulazeez had was his marijuana use. His family bothered him about it all the time. He was trying apparently to quit. His parents would call him every 30 minutes, according to Petty, just to see where he was, trying to keep tabs on him. But it didn't make him depressed according to James Petty. It made him mellow and happy. In the last week when he saw him, he was the happiest he'd ever seen him -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Drew Griffin, thank you for that, Drew.

This morning, the U.S. is condemning an apparent suicide bombing in Turkey that killed at least 31 people and wounded at least 100 others. The bomb went off in a Turkish town of Suruc, at a rally organized to call for more help rebuilding Kobani, right across the border in Syria, which was the scene of an intense battle to dislodge ISIS.

Senior international correspondent Arwa Damon has the latest from Turkey.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And we are at the spot where the blast took place, Christine. We do have to warn our viewers at this stage that video we're about to show them of the attack is incredibly disturbing. We are however choosing to broadcast it to show just how brutal, merciless and horrific the attack was.

And we are now on the scene about 24 hours later. And this is what it looks like at the spot where we believe the suicide bomber detonated the explosives. There have now been toys placed. And that is because those who had gathered here as part of their Kobani reconstruction effort, they were sending in boxes and boxes of toys, books, pencils to the children. You can also see the damage still that has been done to the building.

People gathering around here to pay their respects, to mourn, even though the country has not officially declared a three-day mourning period. The Turkish authorities have however said that they will be beefing up security along the border. ISIS has not yet claimed responsibility for this attack, but the government does believe that this was the work of ISIS and that it is in retaliation for the government's effort in the war on terror.

Over the last few weeks, having rounded up hundreds of individuals believed to have been affiliated with ISIS. Coming into this location today, people understandably still very shocked, very somber, and everyone being very thoroughly searched. An elderly woman apologizing to us, saying, if only these types of things have been put into place, these measures have been put into place yesterday, perhaps this attack could have been avoided -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Arwa Damon. Thank you for that, Arwa.

History made in Havana and Washington. The Cuban flag is now flying over Cuba's embassy for the first time in 54 years as these two countries formally resume diplomatic relations. The U.S. embassy in Havana also opened on Monday. Secretary of State John Kerry will attend a similar flag raising ceremony in Cuba's capital next month.

The family of a woman fatally shot on the San Francisco pier will be in Washington, D.C. today to push for immigration reform. Kate Steinle's father will testify before a Senate committee as it looks -- takes a closer look at sanctuary city policies. Those policies restrict public employees from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

Five-time deportee, five times he was deported, Francisco Sanchez, he's admitted on camera to firing the shot that killed Steinle, but he says it was an accident. Sanchez was on the street because San Francisco released him from jail after drug charges against him were dropped.

Time for an EARLY START on your money. Stocks looking good so far. U.S. stock futures are barely moving. Nasdaq, though, closed at a record high yesterday driven by strong corporate earnings. We'll hear from Apple after the close today.

Stunning drop in gold price. It's down again this morning. Yesterday, gold plunged to an almost five-year low. There are signs Chinese demand is weaker than expected, plus concerns about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates later this year. Gold is a safe haven for investors. Experts now predict prices could fall even further at least until after a looming interest rate hike.

New information this morning on how two killers broke out of prison. The now captured inmate sharing new details of the escape, next. [05:39:56]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: There are stunning new details this morning about the brazen escape of two inmates from an upstate New York prison last month. The "New York Times" revealing more of what David Sweat told investigators about the months of planning and the keys to their escape. Sweat was caught after three weeks on the run. Fellow escapee Richard Matt was shot and killed by police.

We get more this morning from CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, some really interesting details in this "New York Times" account of how David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped from that maximum security prison, upstate New York, saying that Sweat was free for months unto the tunnels under the Clinton Correctional Facility. At 11:30 p.m., the last headcount of the night, he would go down to the tunnels, he would return by 5:30 a.m., the first headcount of the next morning.

One of the more interesting bits is that once he got down there, he had to figure out how do I get out? He started chipping away at the concrete wall of the prison itself using a sledgehammer and hand tools. Then he caught a lucky break, says "The New York Times". They turned off the steam to the steam pipe that was providing heat to the prison on May 4th. And then he was able to short circuit the process basically by cutting through that steam pipe with a hacksaw. It took him over a month to do it.

Also interesting detail, that they hit a sewer pipe at one point. They thought they could get escape through that ala "Shawshank Redemption". That's how the character in the "Shawshank Redemption" did that. One other detail they have in there is that the two joked about the fact that the "Shawshank Redemption" main character took 20 years to escape from that fictional prison and it only took them 10 to escape from their real one.

There was a big question all away along as to who was the mastermind here. Richard Matt had escaped twice before, one successfully. So it was assumed that he was the mastermind. But investigators telling "The New York Times" that it was in fact David Sweat. That the planning started in earnest in January 2015 when Sweat was moved next to Matt's cell. That he cut a hole in his own cell first and then into Matt's cell.

Another inmate at one point heard the sawing and asked Matt about it. And he said, "I was just stretching canvasses." Matt known to draw pictures and paint pictures and giving them to prison guards -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[05:45:12] ROMANS: All right, Miguel, thank you for that.

Prosecutors say the death of activist Sandra Bland is being treated like a murder investigation. Police claimed the 28-year-old Illinois woman hanged herself with a plastic bag in a Texas jail cell last week after she was arrested for allegedly kicking an officer during a traffic stop. Bland was in Texas to interview for a job at Prairie View A&M University. Her sister insists there is no way she committed suicide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARON COOPER, SANDRA BLAND'S SISTER: Help me understand how her failure to signal a lane change out of a -- out of a courtesy to the state trooper who seemed to zooming up on her caused her to be out of her vehicle, on the ground, in jail over the weekend, and now no longer with us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Bland's supporters claimed she was a victim of police brutality. An independent autopsy ordered by her family was completed Sunday. Those results have not been released. In recent months, Bland had posted videos on her Facebook page

describing her battle with depression and PTSD, calling it a daily test. Bland was also a social media activist who had spoken out against police brutality.

Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY," Alisyn Camerota joins us now.

Good morning.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CO-HOST, CNN'S NEW DAY: Hi, Christine. I don't know if you've heard, but Donald Trump is leading in the polls.

ROMANS: Is he?

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: Yes. So we're going to be talking about that because is it time for the media and the pundits and the GOP establishment to start taking him seriously? We will have conservatives on who say yes, liberals who say no, and then we'll have conservatives who say no. And liberals who say yes. It's that kind of a crazy show.

Also, we'll look at the media's role in this. How are outlets like the "Wall Street Journal" and the Huffington Post covering this and how about that "Des Moines Register" editorial this morning?

Plus, that shocking video that still have people talking. A surfer fighting off a shark. So how do you survive a shark attack? We will speak with a shark expert about what to do if a shark comes after you. So we'll see you at the top of the hour.

ROMANS: They will not come after you if you're just, you know, eating your breakfast on a couch watching "NEW DAY." No shark will come after you. I promise.

CAMEROTA: Great point. And you're right. Great safety tip.

ROMANS: Thanks so much. Talk to you soon.

All right. The Obama administration working overtime to repair a rift with Israel following the Iran nuclear deal. A key meeting happening this morning. We are live there after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Happening right now, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This comes the day after the U.N. Security Council voted to endorse the nuclear deal with Tehran and begin lifting a decade of sanctions against Iran. It's a deal Israel fiercely opposes. That makes Carter's primary mission there to reassure Netanyahu of America's commitment to Israeli security.

Joining us with the latest from Jerusalem this morning, CNN's Erin McLaughlin.

Good morning, Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. That's right, Secretary Carter and Prime Minister Netanyahu briefly shaking hands for the cameras before continuing their meeting behind closed doors. Before embarking on this trip, Secretary Carter was very clear that he's not going to try and sway Israeli opinion on the Iran nuclear issue. His focus was going to be on the joint cooperation, military cooperation between Israel and the United States, and that was, of course, a topic of conversation in the press conference, the joint press conference that he had with his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Ya'alon.

The two stressing that that military cooperation would not be negatively impacted by disagreements over the Iran nuclear deal. And they said that both countries still share the same objectives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: There's no disagreement about the ultimate objective. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And there's no disagreement about the threats Israel sees every day from Iran's destabilizing activities, from terrorists like Hezbollah, Hamas and ISIL.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLAUGHLIN: The question, of course, becomes what are the United States and Israel going to do about the so-called destabilizing activities. U.S. officials have been signaling that they're open to consultations with Israeli officials about potentially increasing the amount of military aid from the United States to Israel. Israeli officials so far saying that those talks, it's too soon for those talks. Their focus is on trying to quash the Iran nuclear deal at the congressional level over the next two months.

Something that Ya'alon did address in that press conference. He said that basically going forward, they are doing an assessment, Israeli officials are assessing Iran's capabilities, the proxy's capabilities, as well as the capabilities of other countries in the region in the wake of the Iran nuclear agreement. And from there, they will be open to consultations. And he said that that assessment should be concluded in the next six months -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Erin, thank you for that. Erin McLaughlin in Jerusalem for us this morning.

America's oldest grocery store chain going belly up. What it means for the future of your grocery shopping. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:57:13] ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning.

U.S. stock futures barely moving. But what a run, folks. The Nasdaq closed at a record high yesterday. It's third in three days driven by strong corporate earnings. Apple reports today.

One stock soaring before the bell. PayPal. Yesterday was its first official day as a public company after it was spun off from eBay. The stock climbed more than 5 percent. PayPal keeps growing as more people move to digital payments.

The search for alien life is getting big funding. Famous physicist Stephen Hawking and a few others are injecting $100 million and a whole lot of brain power. The idea behind this project, bring the Silicon Valley approach to the search for intelligent life. That means collecting a lot more data and then putting it out there, make it all available to the public so anyone can help. Scientists will have access to powerful technology including some of the best telescopes in the world.

Grocery store chain A&P back in bankruptcy. That means America's oldest grocery store chain will either sell or close most of its 300 stores. A&P's troubles highlight a tough market for traditional grocery stores. Their steep competition from big retailers like Wal- Mart and specialty stores like Whole Foods.

Iowa's largest newspaper calling Donald Trump a feckless blowhard, asking him -- telling him to drop out of the presidential race. "NEW DAY" picks up that story now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was very unfair the way the media played. I have respect for Senator McCain. I used to like him a lot.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: John McCain is a legitimate hero. Mr. Trump ought to reappraise what his thoughts are on that subject.

LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think he was offensive, he's becoming a jackass.

ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Donald Trump's worst enemy is Donald Trump's mouth.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Last month's prison escape in upstate New York was far more elaborate than anyone imagined.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The complacency on the part of the guards is just unbelievable to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there anybody inside the prison working with him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you've ever used this Web site to hook up, you might have some explaining to do.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Hackers threatening to expose millions of cheating spouses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only people that aren't freaking out are probably divorce court lawyers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.