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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Promises Specific Soon; Clinton to Give Her Private Email Server to DOJ; Top GOP Leader Meets Israeli President; EPA Blamed for Toxic Mine Spill; China Devalues Currency for 2nd Day; Jets' Geno Smith Punched by Teammate, Out 6-10 Weeks. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired August 12, 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: Hillary Clinton handing over her private e-mail server to the Justice Department. And as she faces new criticism from her opponents in the race for president, the new bad news she faces this morning.
[05:00:03] Good morning. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, August 12th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East. Nice to see you.
Let's start in Michigan and Donald Trump, where nearly 3,000 people cheered him Tuesday night as his first campaign event since last Tuesday's debate. The billionaire presidential candidate giving the keynote address at a Republican fund-raiser in Birch Run, Michigan, basking a new poll numbers that show him maintaining his lead in Iowa at 17 percent, followed by Scott Walker and Marco Rubio. Jeb Bush came in number seventh in this Suffolk University poll at 5 percent, behind Ben Carson and Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina with 7 percent there.
At the Michigan event, Trump declared he can win, despite recent controversies, even with women and Hispanics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to do very well with the Hispanic vote. We're going to do great with the women vote. If you look at in Nevada, they did the poll, and I'm leading in the Hispanic vote, because I create jobs. And I'm going to go -- I will be creating tremendous numbers of jobs. So, I think we are going to do great.
And then the women's health issues, I'm for that. I watched Jeb Bush give the worst answer the other day. I think that is going to be his 47 percent. Now, he then went and he said, he misspoke. How do you misspeak about that?
I will be great on women's health issues. I cherish women. And I will be great on women's health issues. Believe me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: CNN politics reporter Sara Murray was at the Trump campaign event last night, she has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Christine.
For Donald Trump, it was a warm and raucous welcome here in Michigan yesterday. He took the stage and it seems like immediately, the crowd was on their feet, cheering about his plans to secure the border, cheering about the idea of Donald Trump as the next president.
TRUMP: We are going to get the wall built and it's going to be built right. And Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Mexico is make ago fortune off the United States. Mexico -- excuse me. Mexico is going to pay for the wall. And they are going to be happy about it.
MURRAY: Now, when I talked to voters here, not everyone was sure he could actually win the Republican nomination, but they said they liked the way he talked -- not sounding like a politician and they said it was refreshing.
As for his recent fiery exchange with Megyn Kelly, a lot of the women I talked to here dismissed the idea it could hurt him with female voters. They said it's just politics as usual. They are over it and it's time for the rest of us to get over it too.
Now, for those voters who are hoping that Donald Trump would offer some specifics, today was not the day for him to do it. He did tell the media that he would have some more plans coming within the next two weeks, with specific numbers in terms of job creation, but we are still waiting to see when they are going to come out.
But for now, it seemed like the crowd was perfectly pleased to hear Donald Trump's normal stump speech with a little bit of an edge. Not your normal political event and I think the Trump campaign is perfectly happy to have a campaign event that does not look like your typical political rally.
Back to you, Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Thanks for that, Sarah.
New trouble for Hillary Clinton this morning. For the first time, a new poll of New Hampshire Democrats shows the former secretary of state is trailing. Likely voters there picked Clinton second after Bernie Sanders, 37 percent to 44 percent. Sanders, of course, is the senator from the neighboring state of Vermont. Vice President Biden came in third at 9 percent. He is not even officially running, by the way.
On another front, Clinton has now agreed to turn over her private e-mail server to authorities. That decision came the same day as inspector general for the intelligence community told lawmakers at least five e-mails on that server contained information that later turned out to be classified.
Senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.
This is a significant development in the ongoing questions over Hillary Clinton and her decision to use that private e-mail during her time as secretary of state. Now, the new information is this. She has instructed her attorney to hand over that private e-mail server and a thumb drive of all of her work-related e-mails to the Justice Department. This is the biggest acknowledgment yet that the Clinton campaign believes this is a significant issue that has taken a toll on her credibility.
Her campaign spokesman Nick Merrill told CNN, quote, "She pledged to cooperate with the government's security inquiry, and if there are more questions, we will continue to address them."
He also said, quote, "The e-mails have been stored in a safe and secure manner."
But, Christine, this comes only a week after the FBI said they wanted to look into the security of the e-mail to see whether any classified information could have been contained on that server. By turning over this to the Justice Department, this almost ensures the fact that this story will follow her for the rest of the campaign this fall, and into next year -- Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Jeff. Thank you for that.
Jeb Bush blaming the White House and Hillary Clinton for the chaos in the Middle East. In a foreign policy speech at the Reagan library, Bush targeted Clinton's tenure at secretary of state insisting she and the president made the world less safe with their decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[05:05:08] JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That premature withdrawal was the fatal error, creating the void that ISIS moved in to fill, and that Iran has exploited to the full as well. ISIS grew while the United States disengaged from the Middle East and ignored the threat.
And where was secretary of state? Where was Secretary of State Clinton in all of this? Like the president, himself, she had opposed the surge and then joined and claiming credit for its success, then stood by as that hard won victory by American and allied forces was thrown away.
In all of her record setting travels, she stopped by Iraq exactly once.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Bush will be in Las Vegas tonight to host a town hall and his campaign confirms he will be a guest on Stephen Colbert's late show debut next month.
Ohio Governor Kasich has signed Thomas Rath to head up his campaign in New Hampshire. It's a move many political insiders are calling a blow to Jeb Bush. Rath is a former attorney of New Hampshire, a long time fixture in the critical primary state. He has served as a senior adviser to Mitt Romney, Bob Dole and George W. Bush. Rath says he took on Kasich because the country needs him.
A delegation of three dozen GOP congressmen set to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. This group is trying to build momentum against the Iran nuclear deal, ahead of an expected vote in Congress next month. A top House Republican leader also sitting down with Israeli's president and talking with CNN about that Iran deal.
CNN's Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem this morning with the very latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, Christine. Not too much of a surprise when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the 36 Republicans here he should have a very sympathetic year as he lobbies against this deal since many of those Republicans are lining up to vote against the deal when it comes to Congress next month.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has been perhaps this deal's most outspoken critic, lobbying against the framework deal, the final deal, and now seeing how many congressmen he can convince. The Republicans met yesterday with President Reuven Rivlin, who also lobbied against this deal, painting it not only as an issue for Israeli security and regional security, but also as a threat to American security.
Before the Republicans here, there were 22 Democrats on their own trip who sat down with the leader of that delegation and asked him what did you hear? And he said, what Netanyahu said to him wasn't in any way surprising but some of his own concerns about the deal, the congressman's concerns about the snapback of sanctions, about inspections, they resonated with what he heard from the prime minister.
We asked the congressman how will you vote? How will the other Democrats vote? And he hedged there. He said they are all going to take their time and think about it and see what they are hearing from the administration, see what their constituency before deciding which way to vote.
On the other hand, the Republicans are coming out against this deal. The question in the end will be how many, if any, of those Democrats were the president and prime minister of Israeli here able to convince -- Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Oren, thank you for that.
Iraqi forces may be on the verge of retaking Ramadi from ISIS. According to the U.S. military officials, the Iraqis have the city surrounded. They are preparing for a final assault to recapture Ramadi. About 10,000 Iraqi troops in position for this offensive, about a third of them trained by U.S. advisers. ISIS took control of Ramadi back in May.
Time for an early start of your money. A very big, dramatic day around the world. Stocks sinking right now. Asian shares are down. China devaluing its currency the second day in a row and driving down stock futures here.
Now, China Central Bank is billing this as free market reform, but experts say, no. It's probably about making exports from China cheaper and helping its flagging economy. A weaker yuan means a stronger dollar, which hurts U.S. exports and hurts European exports as well, and you got market moving around the world out of commodities and out of stocks and into bonds and interest rates moving down.
International hacking ring made more than a hundred million dollars from insider trading, hacking to do insider trading. Since 2010, federal investigators say more than 30 hackers coordinated press releases early and advanced details performance and mergers from dozens of companies.
The team made quick trades with that early information that wasn't public. They funneled the money through shell companies and offshore bank accounts and criminal charges have been filed against the hackers and arrests started on Tuesday.
Stunning allegations of abuse at a New York prison after two dangerous killers escaped. Details after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:12:50] ROMANS: This morning, inmates from a New York prison where two murderers escaped, they claimed guards beat them and treated them harshly, taking out their frustrations as the search for Richard Matt and David Sweat dragged on. A lawyer for the prisoner's legal services tells CNN his group received more than 60 complaints from inmates. They include allegations inmates were physically abused, their property was destroyed and they were held in solitary, some for weeks.
CNN cannot independently confirm those claims, but a reporter for "The New York Times" which first reported the story told Anderson Cooper about one inmate who guards repeatedly question about hearing Matt and Sweat hacksawing their way out of prison.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL SCHMIDT, NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER: This inmate, Patrick Alexander, who was a neighbor of Richard Matt, said he heard nothing and was sort of baffled by all of this. Nevertheless, he was taken and interrogated several times and one time taken to a broom closet and beaten up fairly badly. This is one of the individuals who had a plastic bag over his head, he claims, and was beaten to get information out of him. And when he didn't provide the information or didn't provide the information that correction officers wanted, he said the beating got more severe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: New York prison officials say the statement to CNN that complaints are being investigated by the state inspector general. They say any misconduct or abuse of inmates, quote, "will be punished to the full extent of the law." The corrections officers union blasted reports of inmate complaints as one-sided and inaccurate.
A Dallas area police officer who killed unarmed college football player Christian Taylor during a suspected burglary at a car dealership, that police officer has been fired. Arlington's police chief saying 49-year-old Brad Miller made mistakes leading to a deadly confrontation that put him and other officers in danger. He says Miller did not alert his supervising officer or help set up a perimeter.
Taylor's brothers telling CNN's Ed Lavandera that they don't see how Officer Miller could have thought their 5-foot 7-inch tall brother was even a threat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADRIAN AND JOSH TAYLOR, BROTHERS CHRISTIAN TAYLOR: Knowing my brother, he wouldn't dare. I mean, would never hurt anybody ever. Never, ever, every, actually, would harm anybody.
[05:15:02] I just fail to see the immediate threat they would have had if he is unarmed, to feel like that was the best option and the best route to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Officials say Officer Miller could also face criminal charges once and investigation is complete.
Police in St. Louis County, Missouri, releasing surveillance video they say shows a teen pulling a gun from his waistband just before officers shot him. Police say 18-year-old Tyrone Harris began firing at an unmarked car carrying detectives near protests marking the anniversary of Michael Brown's death. Harris was critically wound inside the gun battle and faces a number of charges.
New details emerging this morning in the crash that killed comedian James McNair and left actor Tracy Morgan severely injure. The National Transportation Safety Board says Kevin Roper, the driver of the Walmart truck that rear-ended Morgan's limo van, he had not slept for 28 hours. They also say McNair, Morgan and others in the limo were not wearing seat belts. The deadly crash happened last June shortly before 1:00 a.m. on the New Jersey turnpike.
Officials in New Mexico and Arizona are furious with the EPA for failing to warn them about an incoming rush of contaminated water. They say no one informed them about an EPA blunder that released 3 million gallon of toxic mine waste into Colorado's Animas River. They claimed they learned about it from a local newspaper.
Meanwhile, Colorado residents are demanding answers about a pristine tributary that's tainted orange with waste water, dangerous waste water full of heavy metals and chemicals.
We get more from CNN's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, there's really no way for the EPA to sugar coat this. This was their deal. This was their fault. But the agency says it has committed to making things right for the community.
In the meantime, the river is still closed and you can see the sign right there. And we'll show you why. We first want to point out that the water color has basically returned to normal, but there are still remnants of the toxic sludge. You can see it right here.
And we actually took some water out of the river and it looks pretty much like orange juice but I tell you what, you don't want to drink it. There is some nasty stuff in here.
Now, this all happened when the EPA was trying to clean out this abandoned gold mine but it basically backfired and you had 3 million gallons of this water spilled into the Animas River.
But officials here in Colorado are now sounding optimistic. They took some measurements of the water and they basically say that the water chemistry has returned to its normal condition. So, they are optimistic the public threat may be waning.
But you take a look at the sludge here. Residents are still worried about it and they feel like the EPA still has a lot of explaining to do -- Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Dan Simon, thank you for that.
More than a thousand firefighters battling a massive wildfire in northern California. These flames ignited Sunday. a hundred miles north of San Francisco, almost doubled in size overnight, despite cooler temperatures and higher humidity. The blaze forcing some people to evacuate for the second time, the second time in recent weeks.
So far, it scorched 22 acres of land and is only 5 percent contained.
Strong thunderstorms ahead today again. Let's turn to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for the forecast.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, Christine.
Yes, a severe thunderstorms, at least a possibility of some of those strong storms popping up later this afternoon over the southwest. We know the fire threat is extremely high. In fact, looking in the past 24 hours, in a one-hour period, we saw strikes on the order of 3,000 lightning strikes over the southwestern United States.
But take you back towards the Northeast. Look at the mild temperatures this morning. Not too bad. In fact, warmer in New York City this morning than Atlanta for a brief period there, 73 across the morning hours in New York. Washington sits at 77. Boston right around 70 degrees.
And the humidity is also dropping a little bit by this afternoon. The dew points right around the upper 50s so going to feel a little drier across the Northeast. Temps at least the next couple of days remaining into the low to mid-80s before a warming trend as we head into your weekend.
So, high temps today. Dallas right around 100. Houston 102 and heat indices close to 108 but temperatures in the mid-80s and remains dry after the morning showers they had yesterday. The forecast comparing it to yesterday, Boston warms up to 84 degrees after a high yesterday of only 72 -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Pedram, thank you for that.
Defying death at the Wisconsin State Fair. Daredevil Nick Wallenda completed its longest tight rope walk ever over the Milwaukee speedway Tuesday night, taking nearly 40 minutes to make the trek, over 5,176 feet of wire.
The 36-year-old astounded, nervous fair goers carrying a 45- pound bar for stability on a strand only as thick as a nickel. I can't even watch. I'm so afraid of heights. Oh, my gosh. And he made it, 40 minutes. Harrowing.
All right. Twenty minutes past the hour.
[05:20:01] The New York Jets will begin the season without their starting quarterback. Geno Smith is sidelined up to ten weeks with a broken jaw. An injury he suffered inside the locker room at the hands of an angry, now fired, teammate. Andy Scholes has the details in the bleacher report next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: New York Jets will be without quarterback Geno Smith for at least six weeks after one of his teammates punched him in the face, breaking his jaw.
Andy Scholes has more in this morning's bleacher report.
An injury suffered inside the locker room.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, not good, Christine. Leave it to the Jets to have something like this happen in their locker room.
Geno Smith was in line to be the team's starting quarterback, but now he is going to be sidelined for six to ten weeks with a broken jaw, thanks to linebacker IK Enemkpali. The two players were having a personal dispute unrelated to football and Enemkpali sucker-punched Smith, breaking his jaw. After learning what happened, head coach Todd Bowles cut Enemkpali from the team.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD BOWLES, JETS HEAD COADCH: We're not going to tolerate anything like that from anybody. I told the team that, I address them. I don't care who you are, you know, as far as them in the locker room, they have to take care of themselves and police the locker room. But when somebody walks up to you and just takes a shot, you know, that can't be warranted nowhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Enemkpali apologized for his actions. Smith meanwhile posted this pic on Instagram, saying he hopes to be back as soon as possible.
[05:25:04] Ryan Fitzpatrick will now be the Jets starting quarterback.
Ray Rice may soon get a second chance in the NFL. According to "Sports Illustrated", the Cleveland Browns have discussed signing rice. The Browns running back coach is Wilbert Montgomery who was Rice's position coach with the Baltimore Ravens in 2008 to 2013. Rice was cut by the Ravens after video surfaced striking his then-fiancee in a casino elevator.
The Deflategate saga maybe nearing its end. Yesterday, U.S. district court judge Rich Berman ordered Tom Brady and Roger Goodell to start talking before they get to the settlement conference which is scheduled for later this morning in New York. Judge Berman said he will meet with the two parties briefly to get an update on their discussions. Brady and the NFL players association are suing the NFL to get his four-game suspension reduced.
Indians and Yankees in Cleveland last night, if you stayed up late for this one you're tired this morning probably. Bottom of the 16th, Michael Brantley's shot gets past Mark Teixeira for the walk off single and Indians lead it and Yankees lead over the Blue Jays in the NL East, their lead is down to a half game.
You can see, we got an amazing stat for you. Every home team in the Bigs won last night. First time in Major League history that has happened on a night when there is at least 15 games. A lot of happy fans leaving the ballparks last night around the country.
ROMANS: Home field advantage, wow. Very cool. OK, thanks. A nice state. Thanks, Andy.
Donald Trump is leading in the polls. Why he says his controversial comments about women and minorities is not going to hurt him at all, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
