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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
North Korea Goes to "Wartime State"; Jeb Bush Taking Trump On Directly; President Obama Campaigns for Iran Nuke Deal; How Katrina Changed Special Education; Woman Sought in Bangkok Bombing. Aired 4- 4:30a ET
Aired August 21, 2015 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:44] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: North Korea threatening war. Exchanging fire with South Korea. Ordering its troops to be ready. We are live.
Jeb Bush hits back at Donald Trump, leveling new attacks against the Republican frontrunner in the race for president.
And President Obama laying out his case for the Iran nuclear deal in the letter to Congress and a new op-ed this morning.
Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday, August 21st. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. Nice to see you this morning.
Breaking news this morning. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his frontline military units into what the state-run news agency calls a wartime state. This follows an exchange of fire with South Korea across the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone.
Turning now to CNN's Kathy Novak in South Korea.
Kathy, what's the latest here?
KATHY NOVAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, according to the state news agency, KCNA, Kim Jong-un called an emergency meeting of his central military commission and he told the army to be fully battle ready and to be prepared to launch surprise operations anytime from around about now, Christine. South Korea is on high alert. The president has been visiting a military base and getting an update on the latest situation in the South Korean Defense Ministry is promising to fully retaliate to any further provocation from North Korea.
It is particularly preparing for tomorrow. That is because North Korea set a deadline. It issues an ultimatum to South Korea. It said South Korea must stop broadcasting propaganda messages using loud speakers along the border on the DMZ into North Korea by 5:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon or North Korea will launch military action -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Kathy Novak, thanks for that. Keep us posted this morning as tensions rise there on the border.
Two minutes past the hour, Jeb Bush -- Jeb Bush switching tactics this morning aiming his fire directly at Donald Trump who has been slamming him for weeks. Both men on the campaign trail today. Tens of thousands of people set to hear Trump at the football stadium in Alabama. Bush is speaking at an event in Ohio this afternoon.
Will he keep to his new line of attack blasting Trump as more Democrat than Republican?
With the latest on the new more aggressive Jeb Bush on the campaign trail, CNN's Athena Jones in New Hampshire.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.
Up until the last couple of days, Bush has seemed hesitant to really engage Trump. But that's changing in the face of his sagging poll numbers. Now the gloves are finally coming off.
Take a listen to how he tried to draw a contrast with Trump at a town hall event here in New Hampshire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got to win. And I think you win with a broader -- you win when you campaign like this. You don't win when you're campaigning like this. You don't win when you're the large, you know, dog in the room where it's all about you. You win when you connect with people about their aspirations. Not about how, you know, great you are, how rich you are or how this you are or how that you are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: After the event, I asked Bush to respond to Trump's criticism that he isn't engaging voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: There's a big difference between Donald Trump and me. I'm a proven conservative with a record. He isn't. He's been a Democrat longer than being a Republican. I have fought for Republican and conservative causes all of my adult life. And I just think when people get this narrative, whatever the new term is, compare and contrast narrative, then they're going to find that I'm going to be the guy that they're going to vote for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Strong words from Bush as he tries to convince voters he's going to be the one to beat -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Athena Jones. Thanks for that, Athena.
Bush is one of five Republican presidential candidates appearing at an Americans for Prosperity event in Columbus, Ohio. Bush and Bobby Jindal speaking at Defending the Dream today. Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Ted Cruz tomorrow. Also today Ted Cruz takes his turn on the Iowa State Fair soapbox.
Following that is what's built as rally for religious liberty in Des Moines.
For the Democrats, Bernie Sanders starts a two-day swing through South Carolina with events in Greenville and Columbia. Hillary Clinton has no scheduled events today.
A federal judge says Hillary Clinton did not comply with government policies when she used a private e-mail server as secretary of state. The remark came as Judge Emmett Sullivan was ruling in a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the conservative group the Judicial Watch. The judge ordering the State Department to ask the FBI for anything found on Clinton's private server that may be relevant to that suit.
[04:05:05] The government has been arguing that the Freedom of Information Act searches don't usually involve federal employees' private e-mails. The judge apparently rejecting that argument with his ruling.
The lawyer for Bowe Bergdahl says Donald Trump's remarks about the army sergeant will threaten his right to a fair trial on desertion charges. Bergdahl was released by the Taliban last spring after five years in captivity. At Trump's town hall this week, he said Bergdahl is, quote, "a dirty, rotten traitor." Bergdahl's attorney says those words are a call for mob justice. The attorney calling them contemptible and un-American.
New efforts by President Obama to shore up wavering support for the Iran nuclear deal among Democratic lawmakers, the president sending a letter to Congress reassuring nervous Democrats that a military option is definitely still on the table if Iran cheats on this deal.
President Obama also turning up the pressure with an op-ed that appears in newspapers across the country. In it he writes, "If Iran does not abide by this deal, it's possible that we won't have any other option than to act militarily. But we cannot in good conscience justify a march toward war before we've exhausted diplomacy."
One possible reason for the president's ramped-up campaign, polls showing a growing majority opposed to the nuclear deal with Iran.
More on that from CNN's Sunlen Serfaty.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, this is not good news for the Obama administration as they try to get this deal with Iran through Congress.
Americans, they're just not embracing it. This new CNN-ORC poll shows that support for the deal is actually declining. The poll shows a majority, 56 percent, are calling for Congress to reject the deal. And that is up from 52 percent just last month. Many do seem to be blaming President Obama for their disapproval. Six
in 10 people disapprove of how the president is handling the U.S. relationship with Iran.
Now this comes as lawmakers head into the final stretch of August recess where they've been holding town halls and hearing from their constituents and their concerns about the deal. Republicans need 11 more Democrats to oppose the deal if they hope to override a presidential veto when Congress comes back to D.C. in September.
And the White House, they say that President Obama remains engaged on the selling of this plan while he continues the last part of his summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard. Today in about 30 newspapers across the country, the president has written an op-ed, making the case directly to Americans about the deal. And the White House has said that they are confident they will get the support.
But very clear here, Christine, that they still do have a lot of convincing -- Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Yes, they do. Sunlen Serfaty, thanks for that.
Former president Jimmy Carter taking his cancer diagnosis in stride, saying his future is in God's hands. At a news conference Thursday Carter calmly revealed that melanoma first discovered in his liver has now spread to his brain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: You know, I've had a wonderful life. I've had thousands of friends. And I've had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence. So I was surprisingly at ease, much more so than my wife was. But now I feel, you know, it's in the hands of God whom I worship, and I'll be prepared for anything that comes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Carter began receiving radiation and other treatment on Thursday.
Time for an EARLY START on your money. A brutal day for stocks. Stocks tanking in Asia right now. Weak manufacturing data from China adding to worries about the economy. Stocks also lower, much lower in Europe.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is stepping down. He has called for early elections and says he will run again.
Stock futures are down right now. Yesterday look at that. Dow down more than 350 points. Oil at a six-year low. Global slowdown fears growing and concerns about the looming Fed interest rate hike adding to all these fears. Roll it all together, big trouble for stocks. Yesterday, media shares tanked. Disney and Viacom down 6 percent.
Time Warner, the parent of CNN, down 5 percent. Part of a selloff on worries about the future business model. And Twitter shares below their IPO price, tumbling to a record low on growth worries.
We'll have all more of this, follow this all morning for you.
New accusations against Bill Cosby. More women claiming the comedian sexually assaulted them. They're speaking out next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:12:36] ROMANS: Two new Bill Cosby accusers are speaking out bringing the number of women who claim the comedian sexual assaulted them, now to more than 50. They appeared at a news conference Thursday alongside attorney Gloria Allred. Both claimed that Cosby drugged them and had sex with them against their will in the 1970s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLOTTE FOX, CLAIMS COSBY SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER: The next thing I remember was sort of -- I was sort of awake in a bed with no clothes and there was Mr. Cosby in a robe crawling from the bottom of the bed. I was incapacitated and couldn't say no. He engaged in sexual activity with me. It was not consensual.
ELIZABETH, CLAIMS COSBY SEXUALLY ASSAULTED HER: No one would have ever believed me in 1976. I would have been told I put myself in a vulnerable situation and it was my fault. I've lived with this shame and this guilt of thinking it was somehow my fault. But it wasn't, because if I hadn't been drugged, I would have never ended up in a hotel room with him ever and he knew that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Cosby has never been charged. He is expected to testify under oath in October in a lawsuit brought by another accuser.
Defense lawyers grilling the teenage accuser during cross examination at a prep school rape trial. The alleged victim says she was raped last year by fellow St. Paul's student, Owen Labrie. Both sides acknowledge the encounter stemmed from a school tradition known as the Senior Salute. An apparent competition involving sex-related conquests of younger students. Labrie has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and other charges.
Officials are trying to determine what caused a gas explosion at the New York City high school. Three people were injured, one of them critically in this blast Thursday night during construction at JFK High School.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL NIGRO, FDNY COMMISSIONER: Many people in this neighborhood heard the serious explosion and we responded our full collapse assignment came here to this, we found these three contractors seriously injured. This building has been seriously damaged.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Fire officials say structural damage to the school building itself is limited.
Convicted murderer David Sweat who spent 22 days on the run after breaking out of a New York prison, he was indicted Thursday on escape charges and for promoting prison contraband. The judge entered a not guilty plea for Sweat. If convicted, he could get an extra seven years in prison. He is already serving life without parole.
[04:15:00] And an alderman in St. Louis says violent protests after a police shooting Wednesday were fueled partly by rumors the victim was on 13. It turns out the man was 18 years old. Police say he pointed a gun at police while trying to run from a home where officers were executing a search warrant. Police say drugs and stolen guns were recovered.
We now know the names of the three firefighters killed while battling a wildfire in northern Washington state. They've been identified as 20-year-old Tom Zbyszewski, 26-year-old Andrew Zajac and 31-year-old Richard Wheeler. They died after their vehicle crashed while pulling out -- putting out flames near the town of Twisp. The governor hailing the victims as heroes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAY INSLEE (D), WASHINGTON: With the loss of these three firefighters, we know the smoke is still there and it's thick, but it is not going to obscure their incredible act of courage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So sad. It's just one of 100 wildfires blazing across Washington state.
So will the weather cooperate? And efforts to get these wildfires under control. Let's get to meteorologist Allison Chinchar for the forecast.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Christine, unfortunately the fire threat is going to continue. We take a look at the fire threat with the red-flag warning continuing throughout much of the day. Wind gusts, however, that's going to be the big impact for today.
We're expecting a lot of them to get up around the 40-mile-per-hour range. And unfortunately, that is going to cause several issues for a lot of the firefighters. The heat again continues across much of the southeast. 87 for the high today in Atlanta. 93 in Charleston. We top out at 83 degrees in New York.
Another thing we're keeping an eye on is the active tropics. Right now you are taking a look at Hurricane Danny. Again, now it is expected to decrease a little bit over the next couple of days. It likely will not make landfall over the Leeward Island until we get closer into Sunday. But at that point in time, it is expected to weaken down to tropical storm status. That is some good news. As it continues off towards the north and west, it will eventually make its way over towards Puerto Rico and then eventually up towards the Dominican Republic -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Allison. Thank you for that.
Ten years ago, it was 10 years ago now that Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. And that included the New Orleans school system. As the city rebuilds, parents of special needs students felt left behind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JACQUELINE CASE, FOUNDER, RAPHAEL ACADEMY: Case was 8 years old at the time of Katrina. When we came home six weeks after the hurricane and he would look and he would say they broke the house. They broke the house. Even if it was a big building.
ROMANS (voice-over): Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans in ruins. Jackie Case wanted to help rebuild. Since the storm, New Orleans practices open enrollment. But no seats are set aside for special needs children like Jackie's son who has autism.
CASE: After Katrina, the school system had to be reborn. And it's done a great job of rebuilding the public school system. It however has not changed enough when it comes to educating people with special needs. There isn't one public school that I know of that I can refer and say this one's got it right.
When you receive a diagnosis of autism or any disability for your child, it can become a burden or it can become a gift.
ROMANS: In 2012, Jackie opened the Raphael Academy for students with autism, down syndrome and other cognitive disabilities.
CASE: They are not broken and they don't need to be fixed. They just need to be challenged to the best of their ability to express themselves however they can. We spend a lot of time on safety skills, life skills, vocational skills. How they're going to be independent or as independent as they can be.
No longer are the days where you take students and people with disabilities and put them in an institution or separate them from the family. There are so many people with special needs now that the world is going to have to change to embrace them in every factor of life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Ten years.
All right. The manhunt widening in the deadly Bangkok bombing. Police searching for new suspects in that case. Who they're now looking for next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:23:03] ROMANS: Police say they are now looking for a woman wearing a black shirt in connection with this week's deadly Bangkok shrine bombing. Thai authorities say at least 10 people may have taken part in that bombing but the attack they say is not likely to be linked to international terrorist groups.
CNN's Andrew Stevens, he is in Bangkok for us with the very latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR: Police in Bangkok now say they think at least 10 people were involved. And what they say is a well-organized team that executed the attack on Erawan Shrine on Monday evening. They say they've obtained evidence to suggest that several people were involved in plotting the attack and also acquiring the materials, as well as building the bomb. All done under the radar, of course. They haven't shared what that evidence is at the moment.
At this stage, they also are pulling back on making any link with international terrorism. They say they've been talking to Interpol. They've also been sharing information with security agencies in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, and the consensus opinion is that it is not an international conspiracy which brings the focus at least somewhat back on to domestic issues. And they say they're not ruling anything out at this stage.
They've meanwhile increased the reward for any information leading to the arrest of the man in the yellow shirt. The man they say they are now very sure is the bomber. Apart from the early breakthrough when they identified the man they think as the bomber, there's been very little else solid and concrete. They've actually ruled out two other suspects they thought were initially accomplices. And they are now saying that the network that was used may be more than 10 people.
Very frustrating for the police, but also very frustrating and also very worrying for the people of Bangkok.
Andrew Stevens, CNN, Bangkok.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Thank you, Andrew, for that.
[04:25:00] Breaking overnight. Emergency workers in China racing to put out four new fires at the site of last week's deadly chemical warehouse blast in the northern city of Tianjin. China state run news agency says one ignition point came from within an auto distribution point near the blast site.
Look at those photos. This as investigators say high levels of dangerous chemicals remain on the site. Water tests also show high levels of sodium cyanide, an extremely toxic chemical that can kill humans rapidly. The contaminated water is being contained in a warning zone around the blast zone. The explosion killed more than 100 people.
Breaking overnight. North Korea, North Korea readying its troops, threatening war after exchanging fire with South Korea. We are live with these new threats and these new tensions ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Breaking news this morning. North Korea threatening war. Readying its troops for an attack after exchanging fire with South Korea. We are live on the border.
Jeb Bush takes on Donald Trump, launching new attacks against the Republican frontrunner in the race for president. Both candidates now on the campaign trail today. Details ahead.
President Obama's new push for the Iran nuclear deal laying out his argument in a new letter to Congress and a new op-ed this morning.
Welcome back to EARLY START. It is Friday. I'm Christine Romans. It is 29, almost 30 minutes past the hour.
Breaking news this morning. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his frontline military units into what the state-run news agency calls a wartime state. This follows an exchange of fire with South Korea across the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone.
Turning now to CNN's Kathy Novak. She is in South Korea for us.
Kathy, tensions running high.
