Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Police Officer Killed: Manhunt Underway; Bush & Trump Launch Attack Ads; Wall Street Plunge; Chaos in Hungary. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired September 02, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:16] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now: a manhunt for three people wanted in the murder of a police officer. New information overnight.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dramatic developments in the race for president. The Jeb Bush and Donald Trump feud intensifies. New attack ads online, you've got to see it.

ROMANS: U.S. stocks plummet. The Dow drops nearly 500 points. We'll tell you what's behind the turbulence behind Wall Street and what's happening right now.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: Nice to see you. I'm John Berman. It is Wednesday, September 2nd, 4:00 a.m. in the East.

And we do begin with breaking news. A manhunt is under way this morning in Fox Lake, Illinois, about an hour north of Chicago. Police, federal agents, canine units and choppers and horseback officers all out overnight, all looking for three men suspected of shooting a Fox Lake officer to death.

Officials say the officer radioed that he was pursuing three suspects on foot. Dispatchers lost contact and backup officers found Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz dead, stripped of his gun and other gear. He leaves behind a community already in mourning. This was a guy with 30-plus years experience on the force.

This is Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR DONNY SCHMIT, FOX LAKE: Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz was a 30-year veteran, a decorated police officer, a family man and a dear friend of the entire village of Fox Lake. Not only did Fox Lake, he was a family member, I lost a very dear friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: His nickname was G.I. Joe.

CNN's Ryan Young is in Fox Lake with the very latest on this search. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This manhunt has been going on for more than 12 hours. You can see behind me, the command center police have been using for several hours as they look for these suspects. We are about a mile and a half from where the officer was shot.

Officer Joseph Gliniewicz, who was a father of four, was shot and killed, a 32-year veteran of the police officer here. Officers had been manning this area before spreading out to find the three suspects which would white males and one black male. That's the only description they have been given so far of the men they have been looking for.

This is an exhaustive where we see the ATF, the FBI, all bringing their SWAT teams into the area to look for these suspects.

Now, this 32-year-old -- 32-year vet of the police department was trying to answer a suspicious persons call when they encountered these there people, shots were fired, he was killed in the line of duty. Since then, people electric this community have been coming out and very upset about what happened and, in fact, lining the streets here with signs and having people with their support for the officer who are involved in this.

Imagine, the hundreds of officers who are now in this area looking for three suspects who have been involved in a murder of one of their own and something that we continue to follow. As we get more information, of course, we'll bring it to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Ryan Young, reporting for Fox Lake, Illinois, at least seven school districts in the area have cancelled classes today because of this manhunt.

ROMANS: All right. New escalation this morning in the feud between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush. Now, each of the Republican candidate launching new social media attacks aimed at the other. A new Bush web video assails Trump as a late convert to conservatism and Trump responds in kind slamming Jeb Bush as a dynasty candidate, not unlike Hillary Clinton.

CNN political reporter Sara Murray has the latest for us from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Christine and John. The attacks are really heating up now between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush. Jeb Bush really kicking it off yesterday when he released a video using Donald Trump's own words to paint the front-runner as a liberal.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you like representing the United States in a deal with Iran, with this regime? DONALD TRUMP, REAL ESTATE MOGUL: Well, I think Hillary would do a

good job. Hillary Clinton, I think is a terrific woman. I mean, I'm a little biased because I've known hors for years. I know her very well. She is very talented.

MURRAY: Now, Trump fired back on Twitter and in his own Instagram video.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We recognize the commitment of someone who has devoted her life to public service. I want to say thank you to both Secretary Clinton and to President Clinton.

MURRAY: Trump even did an interview with CNN where he explained that he used to be a Democrat.

TRUMP: You know, one other thing I'll say, because he mentions the fact that I was, at one point, a Democrat. Well, in New York City, everybody was a Democrat practically. If you run for city council, if you run for political office, if you -- whoever wins the Democrat primary is automatically, that is, you know, there was almost no election because the Republicans hardly exist in New York City.

Me, more than anybody else, I'll cross -- I'll go across lines. I think I'll have a lot of Democrats. You know, Reagan had Democrats for Reagan. It's a very big group of people and a very big bloc.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: The Reagan Democrats --

TRUMP: I think I will have a lot of Democrats for Trump. I think I will have a lot of Democrats voting for me, far more than any Republican for the last long period of time.

[04:05:05] I will say this and I will say this, you know, very strongly -- the Republican conservatives were not energized in the last election. Had they opinion energized and had they voted, you would have seen victory for Mitt Romney.

MURRAY: The big question now where do these attacks go next? Right now, we are seeing sort of an exchange on social media, on Twitter, on YouTube and Instagram. Not a lot of money behind these ads. The big question is whether we will see Jeb Bush's super PAC, which has a hundred million dollars weigh in on this fight and actually running ads against Donald Trump.

For now, the answer to that looks like it's no, but stay tuned.

Back to you, John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Sara, thank you so much.

More big political news this morning, a change in debate rules that will most likely benefit Carly Fiorina. That debate comes up September 16th here on CNN. CNN announced any candidate who polls in the top ten between the first debates on August 10th and September 6th, the cutoff, they will be included in on the 16th, that is in addition to any candidate qualified by the previous criteria, top ten place between July 16th and September 10th.

What all this basically means is if you did well in the first debate and your poll numbers increase, you could very likely be included in the second debate and this, of course, means that Carly Fiorina, who did very well, people thought, in the happy hour debate, she will almost definitely be on the main stage. She praised this decision when she heard about it on Meghan McCain's radio show.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They have said that the cause was a lack of national public polling data following the August 6th. And that is the truth. You know, there were so many polls prior to august 6th and there have been very few since August 6th. If you just average polls, you come up with an answer that doesn't reflect current reality.

So, you know what? Good for CNN and I am so appreciative for all of the support and the pressure that our grassroots supporters put on CNN because I'm quite sure it's made a difference.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. President Obama preparing for his final day in Alaska. Right now, he visits with fisherman this afternoon and takes in a cultural performance at a local middle school before coming back to Washington. It was a boat trip yesterday he took that had him sounding the alarm about global warming and a boat trip that brought him face-to-face with a rapidly melting glacier.

We get more from CNN's chief White House Jim Acosta in Anchorage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, we witnessed what will likely go down as one of the lasting images of the Obama presidency. The president was out on a boat of Seward Bay here in Alaska, taking a look at the glaciers that are melting rapidly in this state. We also saw some of the stunning wildlife that inhabit this majestic corner of the world. Mr. Obama spoke again on the issue of global warming, urging countries across the globe to change course before it's too late. Here is more of what the president had to say.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is one of the most studied glaciers because it's so easily accessible. But what indicated because of the changing patterns of winners, with less snow, longer and hotter summers is how rapidly the glacier is receding.

And, you know, it sends a message about the urgency that we are going to need to have when it comes to dealing with this because, obviously, when the glaciers erode, that is also a sign of the amount of water that is being introduced into the oceans, rising sea levels, and the warming generally is having an impact on the flora and fauna of this national park. ACOSTA: President Obama also hiked up to a melting glacier to get a

first hand look at the effects of climate change here in Alaska. It's called exit glacier for a reason as it's melted a thousand feet in just the last ten years. He also taped that special with survivalist Bear Grylls. No word whether they got up and close and personal with any wildlife.

Later on today, the president heads to the arctic and he will hear from fishermen who are seeing their livelihoods threatened and he also talk to folks about nearby communities that are actually relocating because of the rapid melting in the Arctic -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Picturesque Jim Acosta and a picturesque setting right there. Thanks, Jim.

Secretary of State John Kerry will deliver a major speech in Philadelphia today in support of the Iran nuclear deal, this is part of the Obama administration's full-court press to push the agreement through Congress and, right now, the prospects look pretty good. Democratic Senators Chris Coons of Delaware and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, they came out in support of the deal. The president needs just one more vote to be confident that the Senate will not be able to block the agreement.

ROMANS: New revelations this morning, the U.S. has launched a secret drone campaign to hunt down ISIS operatives in Syria. According to "The Washington Post", the CIA and joint special operations command are involved in a clandestine targeted killing program and have already conducted several deadly strikes.

[04:10:07] One of them killing a British extremist who helped ISIS designed a social media campaign to incite a tax against the U.S. The secret drone program marks a significant escalation of the CIA's involvement in Syria's civil war.

BERMAN: The top Republican in Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, concedes that his party does not have the votes to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. The Kentucky senator says the fight will have to wait until Barack Obama leaves the White House. This angered some in his party. They had a one prominent conservative group called McConnell useless and a whiner.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money.

Stocks had a brutal start yesterday, looking to make a --

BERMAN: So bad, you added a syllable.

ROMANS: Yes, brutal, horrible, horrible.

The trend may come back this morning. I want to show where Asian stocks are now. They closed lower. More wild swings in China stocks. The Shanghai composite plunged more than 4 percent, John, and it recovered and I think they are closed now four days. Is there a big military parade to celebrate the end of World War II, so markets will be closed.

You can see that Europe has been open for just over an hour now. They are lower. They just turned lower. U.S. stock futures are still bouncing. They're up right now.

Here is the damage report from yesterday. The Dow plunged 470 points. It is now down 12.5 percent from its high. The S&P 500 fell 3 percent back into correction territory and ominous start to September which is historically the worse months for stock. The problem here is same old problem, fresh worries about China's economy.

The IMF warns China's slowdown will drag the rest of the global economy and that developing nations should be prepared. Another worry, sinking oil prices spiked on oil on Monday, we told you, but yesterday, they tumbled 7 percent, and they're falling further this morning because of concerns about global growth. And I can tell you, one after another, we have been hearing from these big energy companies that they are cutting jobs and more on that later in the program.

But you've been seeing a lot of job cuts in Houston. A lot of job cuts in the energy patch because of tumbling oil prices.

BERMAN: They have more coming. All right, Christine.

ROMANS: That's right.

BERMAN: A pivotal day in Baltimore. Protests planned. A judge hears the case of six police officers accused in Freddie Gray's death. This is the first court appearance in sometime.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:23] ROMANS: The city of Baltimore on edge this morning. Police bracing for potential unrest as the Freddie Gray case enters the pretrial stage. Six Baltimore officers are charged in connection with the death of Freddie gray who suffered fatal injuries while in police custody. Several key issues expected to be raised at today's court proceeding.

Let's get more from CNN's Jean Casarez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, today's pretrial hearing is extremely important for these six police officer defendants. They are asking first of all, for the judge to dismiss all of the charges. They are also asking that the state attorney's office be recused. And a special proper be brought in, and they are also asking for defendants to be severed or be tried together, another big issue today.

Now because of that, the Baltimore police department wants to be sure that they have their staffing so they have told the officers they cannot take leave today. So all officers have to be in place within the department, they cannot be off at all. And we have spoken to some businesses in the area that have alerted their employees to be on the lookout for traffic disruptions because community activists are actually asking for demonstrations because of all of this because of the importance of this hearing. And so, we really don't know what is going to happen as the day goes on today.

We believe, though, there will be some protests, there will be some demonstrations. One of the big issues here, the defense is asking that the judge dismiss all of the charges, based on timing. They say that when the police department finished their investigation on May 1st, that they took it to the commissioner of courts with their statement asking for conceivably charges. Thirteen minutes later was the first arrest.

So, they say that the prosecutor's office just was too quick on all of this and, therefore, the charges should be dismissed. They say that the state attorney has so many conflicts of interest in this case that the entire state attorney's office should be recused. Special prosecutor brought in.

And, lastly, the question of whether six defendants should be tried together or separately. Those arguments may take the longest of all today and we don't know if the judge is going to rule from the bench or if the judge will take this under advisement and those rulings will come at a later date. But all critical issues and, John and Christine, next week, change of venue on the table -- another pretrial hearing, another critical issue.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Jean Casarez in Baltimore, some key legal days there.

Authorities in San Antonio investigating a fatal police shooting that was captured on camera. The video appears to show officers responding to go a domestic violence call and shooting a man Gilbert Flores after he had raised his hands in the air. This disturbing video, take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bro, they just shot that (EXPLETIVE DELETED), bro.

MICHAEL THOMAS, TOOK VIDEO OF POLICE SHOOTING: How come at the time they were going back and forth so long with the guns pointed at him some him kind of pointing his arms toward him and backing up towards him. No shots made and no one had tasers out there, and then as soon as he backs up and puts his hands up, he was shot. I don't understand why he was shot there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: According to police, Flores had a knife and was resisting arrest when they arrived. They say there is a second video of the shooting closer and from a different angle.

ROMANS: You can't see his left hand there.

BERMAN: No, in this video, you cannot see his other hand but apparently there is another video that gives a different angle. So maybe we will get a look at that.

ROMANS: Yes.

All right. Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis says it's a heaven or hell decision and continues to deny marriage licenses to gay couples on religious grounds in defiance of a court order. Davis was confronted at the Rowan County courthouse after a court refused to intervene on her behalf and she, again, turned couples away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM DAVIS, COUNTY CLERK STILL REFUSES TO ISSUE GAY MARRIAGE LICENSES: We are not issuing marriage license today.

REPORTER: Based on what? Why are you mot issuing marriage licenses today?

DAVIS: Because I'm not.

REPORTER: Why?

REPORTER: Under who's authority?

DAVIS: Under God's authority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Under God's authority.

Davis has been ordered to appear in federal court Thursday. She faces fine and the possibility of jail time.

BERMAN: Right now, thousands of migrants stranded in Hungary and waiting at a train station to get out. This is one of the crisis exploding in Europe. We are live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:23:30] ROMANS: Migrant crisis in Europe intensifying, chaos erupts in Hungary where police were forced to clear hundreds of men, women, and children from Budapest train station. A seemingly never ending wave of migrants and refuges, mostly from Iraq and Syria, desperate to reach Germany anyway they can.

Let's go live to Budapest and bring in Arwa Damon. Just a desperate situation for the people there at the train stations who are trying to get to Germany, or trying to get to some sort of normalcy in Europe.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are, Christine. Just look at this situation that they have been left in. The train station did allow them to board the trains finally. And that created a sense of optimism so people cued for hours to buy train tickets, up to 10 hours in some case.

On Tuesday, all of a sudden, they were no longer allowed to board the trains. Exactly why? It isn't clear. Whatever regulations were benched for the migrants and refuges on Monday that opportunity has been lost and we are seeing their numbers that are continuing to swell and grow. They have been demonstrating in front of the main train stations entrance just behind me. Police presence throughout all of this.

And it's really hard, Christine, for the parents who try to save their children from the war zones that are in Syria and Iraq and also Afghanistan.

[04:25:06] You have these different groups of migrants and refuges who all kind of collect together. Now it seems like the Afghans also wanting to bring attention to their plight because they also are living in a war zone.

But as I was saying, in all of this, Christine, it's been so hard for the parents, because they try to save their children from almost certain death back in their homelands. They drag them on this treacherous journey across the sea and the ocean and now, they've been left to live in the streets here. People demonstrating, similar to the one now ongoing behind us, happening throughout the entire day because all these people just want someone in power to hear them and to empathize with them for a little bit.

The E.U. laws and regulations that govern asylum applications, they are old, they're outdated and they most certainly cannot be applied to a crisis of this proportion. At this stage, all these people want is to be able to get out of Hungary, a country that is fairly hostile toward the migrants and refuges and get somewhere where they can begin to build a life with just a little bit of dignity.

ROMANS: Arwa Damon, thank you for that.

Trying in many cases to get to Germany why the German chancellor has said, get here and we will help you. Frederik Pleitgen was reporting yesterday from Munich, pretty organized once they get to Munich, once they get off those trains and buses in Germany, the German government is saying we want to help you from Syria and Iraq in particular but, boy, until you get there, very difficult going.

BERMAN: Moving pictures around right there.

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: Happening right now, a huge manhunt to find three suspected killers. Killers who shot dead a police officer. New information overnight right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)