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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Twenty Two Killed In Bangkok Blast; E-mail Issue Plagued Democratic Frontrunner; Criticism Of Trump's Immigration Policy; States Target Planned Parenthood Funding; U.S. And Cuba Working To Resume Travel; Chinese Markets Plunge; Stock Futures Lower; All Victims Located In Trigana Crash; Growing Anger After Terrifying Blasts. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired August 18, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: There is devastation in that city following a blast, a blast that killed 22 people, more than 100 others hurt. A pipe bomb targeted a Hindu shrine in the heart of a Bangkok shopping center popular with tourists.

The explosion shattering windows, creating panic in the streets. We are also getting a look at the very moment of the blast.

(VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The explosion had a jarring impact on those in the area and those who rushed to respond. Listen to how one paramedic described it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via telephone): The people that seemed to survive were the ones that ended up underneath the dead people so I'm guessing that the person in front of the blast took the blast and the person behind were somehow saved.

And so we had to remove dead bodies from the living people underneath. I've never seen injuries this bad before. I've been to a few bomb blasts before. This bomb was particularly, I don't know the word, vicious, obviously designed to cause maximum damage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: CNN's Asia-Pacific editor, Andrew Stevens, live with the latest development in Bangkok. Andrew, what do we know about the man they're now zeroing in on?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: It's significant, Christine, and that they're now calling him a suspect. Before he was just wanted in connection with the bombing, they are now saying he is a suspect.

He was seen very, very close to the actual shrine itself. Close to the roadway wearing this backpack and he was seen later leaving the area without that backpack on.

Importantly though, the Thai officials are not saying what nationality this man is. Is he Thai or is he actually a foreigner, which means that there is still no clear motive for what was behind this horrific blast at one of the most popular and busy parts of Bangkok.

This is known as the Times Square of Bangkok. It was timed to cause maximum impact because it was the busiest time of the day. No motive, but the prime minister, the leader of Bangkok has been on television here talking about the blast.

And he says it is linked to, he thinks, trying to damage the economy. This is what the general said. Remember, this is a military leadership here in Bangkok. This is what he said. I just want to read it to you.

"From this incident it is apparent that there are active individuals or groups that have the intentions to damage Thailand who may be pursuing political gain or other intentions by damaging the economy and tourism."

Tourism is a key part of Thailand's economy. Only recovering after the military coupe and the years and years of street protests and political unrest, just recovering from that, Christine, and this happened. It was all worked to cause maximum human loss of life, maximum damage in Bangkok.

ROMANS: All right, Andrew Stevens for us live in Bangkok this morning. Bring us any new developments we get. Thanks.

All right, new fallout this morning over Hillary Clinton's e-mails, intelligence officials recommending 305 e-mails from her private server be referred to their agencies for further review.

Officials are looking to see if classified information was sent and received. Clinton has long assured the American public that never happened. Only 20 percent of the e-mail on the server has been sampled. Could it get worse for the Democratic frontrunner?

CNN's Pamela Brown has more from Washington.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. The 305 documents from Hillary Clinton's private server have been referred to various intelligence agencies for consultation to determine whether the contents are classified.

That's according to a court filing from the State Department. This is after intelligence community reviewers from five different agencies joined the process of looking at Clinton's e-mails.

And the court filing says, quote, "Out of a sample of approximately 20 percent of Clinton e-mails, the intelligence community reviewers have only recommended 305 documents, approximately 5.1 percent for referral, for their agencies for consultation.

So this filing is an update to a federal judge for review efforts in response to a freedom of information act lawsuit. Basically these intelligence agencies will now have to determine whether or not there is classified information in these documents and whether or not these documents should be released to the public as part of this lawsuit.

Hillary Clinton, as we have heard, repeatedly has denied sending or receiving information marked as classified through her personal server. It's unknown at this point, if any of the 305 flagged e-mails contain classified information, but this does come at a time when the FBI is investigating the security of Clinton's private server -- Christine.

[05:35:01] ROMANS: All right, Pamela Brown, thanks for that, Pamela. Will Joe Biden run for president? Some calls grow louder for him to enter the race, but it's crickets from the White House. A Democratic Party source says support inside the administration is limited.

Many in the White House are already heavily invested in the Hillary Clinton campaign. There's also concern a Biden run would put the president in a tough spot having to choose between supporting Biden or Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump back on the stump today, he wasn't picked to serve on a jury in New York City so it's back to pushing his first major policy proposal on immigration. Some of his GOP rivals pouncing on his plan calling it unworkable. Will it ever have a chance in Congress? CNN's senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny has a look.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Well, it's back on the campaign trail for Donald Trump. He was not picked for jury duty on Monday. After spending several hours there, he was not selected. He was let go. He'll be back out campaigning.

He'll be selling his new immigration plan. It's the first real policy proposals that he has introduced so far in his young campaign. It's drawing some praise for some anti-immigration reform activists, but it's drawing much criticism from some of his Republican rivals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I appreciate the fact that Mr. Trump has a plan if that's what it's called, but I think the better approach is to deal with the 11 million people here illegally in a way that is realistic.

LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump's eight-page plan is absolute gibberish. It is unworkable. Mitt Romney said his biggest mistake as a candidate for president was hurting self- deportation. Donald Trump's plan is force deportation. It's not going to work. It is unworkable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: All of the controversy or most of it centers around the so- called birthright citizenship, a provision in the 14th Amendment that allow U.S. citizens if you were born here the right to citizenship.

Donald Trump says he wants to do away with that. Of course, that takes a lot of work. It would take a 2/3 vote in both the House and the Senate. It would take a ratification of 3/4 of the state legislatures.

But that is one of the key provisions at the center of Donald Trump's immigration proposal. He will be selling that on the road as the week continues. They're all gearing up towards that next presidential debate, the CNN presidential debate in September in California -- Christine.

ROMANS: We're all gearing up for that. All right, thanks, Jeff.

Some of Trump's Republican rivals are touting similar aspects of their own proposals. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal writing on Twitter, "We need to end birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants." Scott Walker also supports ending birthright citizenship. He's also in favor of the wall and against amnesty.

Senator Lindsay Graham telling CNN Monday the birthright policy needs to be changed. He has said in the past, he would consider a constitutional amendment to change the law granting citizenship to any child born in the U.S. Rick Santorum also has said birthright citizenship should end as part of a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

States under Republican control wasting no time targeting funding for Planned Parenthood now that Congress is in recess. At least five states tried to cut off the money. They're looking to end contracts allowing Planned Parenthood to service people with Medicaid.

All this follows those hidden camera videos claiming to show Planned Parenthood discussing and profiting from fetal tissue sales, a charge Planned Parenthood denies.

A hack of the IRS three times as big as first reported. As many as 334,000 taxpayer accounts accessed. The initial estimate in May was only 114,000. Identity thieves used the agency's get transcript program to access personal information. It's unclear whether the data was stolen from everyone.

The White House is working to get air travel up and running to and from Cuba by the end of the year. The hope is to have commercial flights resume by December. It would mark the biggest expansion of economic and tourism ties between the U.S. and Cuba since the 1950s. Technically only Congress can lift the decades' old travel ban to Cuba, but the president has executive authority to grant exceptions.

Time for an EARLY START on your money this Tuesday morning, big, big selloff in China dragging down global markets. Shanghai's benchmark is down more than 6 percent. Many companies listed there fell the maximum daily limit of 10 percent.

The Chinese market began collapsing earlier this summer wiping out trillions of dollars of value. The Chinese government is trying to stop the bubble from popping but not having much success today.

Following the lead, the U.S. stock futures are a bit lower this morning. A lot going this morning to digest for American investors including a look at the books of some of the country's biggest retailers.

Earnings from Walmart, TJ Max, Home Depot, all of them out before the bell. We'll get a pretty good lead on that whether consumers are feeling confident.

A grim discovery for search and rescue crews, they are now reaching the site of a deadly Indonesian plane crash. We're now live with developments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:43:27]

ROMANS: The worst fears confirmed this morning from that missing Indonesian plane. The bodies of all 54 passengers and crew have been located. The wreckage of the Trigana flight was found in a mountainous region of Eastern Indonesia.

The black box is also now in the hands of investigators. Helicopters deployed to begin the recovery process. Now they are facing trouble with the weather.

CNN's Kathy Novak on the phone for us with a very latest this morning. They are trying to get in there, but they just can't yet.

KATHY NOVAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's such an excruciating process for the families of 54 people including five children who were on board this plane. Two days ago villagers said they saw the plane crash into the mountains, but they had to wait until the next day to confirm if there might be any survivors.

Debris was spotted by search planes. That search had to be called off because of weather and then today we had this news that it was confirmed that none of the people on board this flight did survive but, again, these search and recovery teams now cannot retrieve those bodies.

The ground crews are stuck for another night on this very steep mountain in these very treacherous conditions because the weather is just too bad to get out of there -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, keep us up to speed. Keep us posted on the developments as you get them, Kathy. Thanks for that.

It's 44 minutes past the hour. Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY." Alisyn Camerota joins me now. Hi, Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. How are you, Christine. Great to see you. I'll look at you over here. It's easier to see you in this camera.

Good morning, everybody. We will have the search for the suspect in the deadly explosion in Bangkok amid reports of another blast this morning.

[05:45:03] Our terror experts will help us understand who might be behind these explosions. You'll learn more about the groups that operate there.

We'll have brand new CNN/ORC polls giving us insight into the GOP presidential race. There appears to be something of a shakeup. Is Donald Trump still holding strong in the lead? We'll tell you. We'll be joined by two other GOP presidential candidates to discuss it, former Governors George Pataki and Rick Perry.

Plus, we're looking at the scathing article about the workplace culture at Amazon. How much truth is there in this article about the hours that they have to work and the culture and just how punishing it is there? So we'll have all of that and more when we see you in 15 minutes at the top of the hour.

ROMANS: So much to go through this morning, can't wait.

CAMEROTA: Me, too.

ROMANS: See you soon.

Residents demanding answers after that deadly chemical explosion in China, more than a hundred people killed, dozens still missing. We're live with new information after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Growing anger and calls for compensation after those deadly warehouse explosions in Northern China. Some homeowners demanding the government buy back their homes saying chemicals in the air make it unsafe to live there. Investigations into workplace safety and negligence at the warehouse are underway as the number of missing from the explosions climbs.

CNN's Will Ripley live at a rail station severely damaged by those explosions.

[05:50:05] And, Will, behind you along those tracks you've got chemicals all over the place. Some of them sizzling, smoking and popping. It looks like a very difficult situation.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's very terrifying for the people who live around here, Christine, because there are thousands of homes right there. People are supposed to be moving into these apartments under construction in less two months.

Look at what is scattered everywhere. These are barrels obliterated by the explosions late Wednesday then hurled in some cases more than a mile. We are more than a mile from the blast zone. You can see the barrel with the chemicals lying there.

This is indicative of the huge scope of this environmental disaster, 2,700 Chinese troops are on the ground right now working with hundreds of chemical and biological experts. They are trying to clean up contamination. They are trying to identify which chemicals are distributed throughout the area.

But as you mentioned, we saw mounds of chemicals lying out in the open. When they are mixed with water it emits a white, hot steam. It's very scary for families with children who live around here.

They were protesting outside the government buildings saying buy back our homes telling the Chinese government they want to be reimbursed for the cost of their apartments that they saved up in many cases for their lives to buy so they can live somewhere else, somewhere safe.

As you look at the huge scope of this devastation including much of the city's bus fleet with severe damage and, of course, this light rail station that you referenced, it's going to be a lot of repair work, $1.5 billion of insurance claims and now ten executives of the company that own the chemical warehouse have been detained and they are facing criminal charges as well -- Christine.

ROMANS: You know, it's now seven days since that blast. That's an important moment in Chinese tradition to mourn the dead.

RIPLEY: It is. It is. The seventh day is a time when families, they pause to honor those whose lives have been lost and so this morning at seven different locations across Tianjin you had ceremonies that were held where people pay their respects to the at least 114 now confirmed dead along with 57 people who were missing.

Some say their bodies may never be found. Also at the shipping port which, by the way, the shipping port which has normal operations, busier than New York, New Jersey, and Los Angeles ports combined. All the ships, they sounded their horns in unison this morning as well.

It's a very touching moment as families of course grieve, but also want action from the government to ensure that these kinds of industrial accidents don't continue here -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Will Ripley, thank you for that. Will for us this morning in Tianjin, China.

Oil prices plunged 11 percent in just a month. Why is Shell making a big move in the Arctic Ocean? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:56:49]

ROMANS: Welcome back. Nice to see you. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. Stocks sell off in China rattling global markets. Shanghai's benchmark index tumbling 6 percent today.

European shares, U.S. stock futures follow. It is a return to the selling in China stock. We have seen all summer despite government efforts to stop a bubble there from popping. Oil prices also moving lower this morning. Yesterday crude oil hit a new 6-1/2 year low below $42 a barrel.

Shell gets the green light to drill in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska's northwest coast. The government approved a permit allowing Shell to drill below the ocean floor for the first time in decades. Shell is bringing in equipment to prevent a possible oil blowout. Environmental groups opposed offshore drilling there. They say it will harm the wild life already threatened by global warming. The arctic is home to an estimated 20 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.

A college degree is a huge advantage in this job market, but education has not helped everyone equally. In the past 20 years, the median wealth for blacks and Hispanics with college degrees has declined. That's according to a new report from the St. Louis fed.

Researchers there found that at the same time median wealth for whites and Asians grew more than 80 percent. That's because the researchers claim that blacks and Hispanics carried more debt during the great recession and their wealth was more tied to their homes so they suffered unequally.

All right, police in Bangkok have a suspect in the deadly bombing of a crowded Hindu shrine. How can they track him down? "NEW DAY" picking up that story right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A vicious and cruel attack designed to create carnage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were hundreds of medics, police, fire brigade.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bodies everywhere. Cars on fire.

ROMANS: Police have a suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Search teams have found the black box.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are no survivors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They still don't have much of a clue as to why this plane crashed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump leading the Republican pack.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will build a great, great wall.

GRAHAM: Donald Trump's eight-page plan is absolute gibberish.

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is not the negotiation of a real estate deal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The 305 documents have been flagged.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I won't get down in the mud with them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a serious political problem for her.

CLINTON: It's not about e-mails or servers either, it's about politics.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, August 18th, 6:00 in the east.

We do begin with breaking news, a terror attack overnight. Police say an unidentified man threw a small explosive from a bridge to a busy pier in Bangkok. This blast comes less than 24 hours after that deadly bombing at a popular shrine killed 22 people, injured more than 100.

CAMEROTA: This morning investigators working to identify this man captured on surveillance cameras as the horrifying video surfaces of the moment that that first bomb went off.

Let's get right to CNN's Andrew Stevens live for us in Bangkok with all the breaking details. What do we know, Andrew?

STEVENS: Good morning, Alisyn. Significant new developments today with the hunt for that man, police are now calling him a suspect rather than just a person of interest.