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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Georgia Executes Female Inmate; Kentucky Marriage Clerk: I Met Pope; U.S. Withdrawing Spies from China; Taliban Repels Afghan Forces. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 30, 2015 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:30:52] ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, Georgia executes its first woman in 70 years, a punishment even the pope couldn't stop.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: More breaking news this morning: Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk once jailed for refusing marriage licenses to gay couple, says she met the pope.

KOSIK: Breaking overnight, the U.S. pulling its sides from China. Their identities in a hack attack. We're live.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.

So nice to see you all this morning. I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour.

We begin this morning with breaking news. Just a few hours ago, the state of Georgia executed female death row inmate Kelly Gissendaner for orchestrating the 1997 murder of her husband. Her death by lethal injection followed three unsuccessful appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court and pleas for mercy from Gissendaner's children and from Pope Francis.

CNN's Martin Savidge has more from Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The effort to spare Kelly Gissendaner's life went well beyond the time when she should have been dead. Prison officials put the 47-year-old convicted murderer's execution on hold to let the legal process run its course.

MARCUS EASLEY, A RETIRED CHATTANOOGA POLICE OFFICER: She was very strong and she was very assured in whatever the process was going to be and she handled herself with poise that was just beyond belief.

SAVIDGE: But when the last court turned her down, time and hope ran out.

Gissendaner's attorneys weren't the only once fighting on her behalf. Her grown children begged a parole board to commute her life in prison. KAYLA GISSENDANER, DAUGHTER: She is so supportive of me. I can talk

to her about anything, any troubles I have or anything that not only celebrate. I know that she's my biggest cheerleader.

My brothers and I really want my mom to live. She is all that we have left.

SAVIDGE: Even the Vatican weighed in with a letter from the emissary of the pope, quote, "Please be assured of my prayers as you consider this request by Pope Francis for what I believe would be a just act of clemency," it read.

But others felt that her sentence for the 1977 murder of her husband was just. Doug Gissendaner's parents said in a statement, quote, "As the murderer, she's been given more rights and opportunity over the last 18 years than she ever afforded Doug, who, again, is the victim here. She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life."

Kelly Gissendaner planned her husband's murder but did not do it. The beating and stabbing death was committed by her boyfriend, Gregory Owen. In a separate trial, Owen actually got a lesser sentence of life with the possibility of parole.

The disparity between his sentence and hers was a point attorneys and death penalty opponents focused on as evidence of a flawed judicial system.

There was also Gissendaner's life after her conviction, in which she turned to her faith, studied theology and counseled fellow prisoners.

In a strange twist, two previous execution dates were postponed, once by a winter storm. Another the expert said the chemicals that made up her lethal injection looked cloudy.

With her execution, Gissendaner earns two very different distinctions, the first woman executed in Georgia in 70 years and the last woman on Georgia's death row.

Martin Savidge, CNN Center, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: All right, Martin, thanks, for that.

And more breaking news: the Kentucky County clerk jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples met privately with the pope last week during his U.S. visit. That's the word coming from the lawyers for Kim Davis who say she and her husband spent 20 minutes with Pope Francis at the Vatican embassy in Washington.

Now, Davis says in a statement, "I was humbled to meet Pope Francis. He even asked me to pray for him. Pope Francis thanked me for my courage and told me to stay strong."

Davis' lawyer Matt Staver says pictures were taken of the meeting and will be released at some point. The Vatican releasing a statement a short time ago that it will neither confirm nor deny the report.

The U.S. is pulling sides out of China, worried this morning their cover has been blown by that huge hack of government employee records.

[04:35:07] The U.S. believes Chinese hackers were behind the cyber attack on the Office of Personnel Management that exposed the personal data of 21.5 million federal workers.

For the latest on this, let's bring in Saima Mohsin live for us from Beijing.

Saima, you know, U.S. intelligence gathering in China really taking a hit with this hack.

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. Far reaching and goes really deep into intelligence agencies, you say 21.5 million government employees, 5.6 million fingerprints. And the huge concern is that this simply exposes people working for the CIA, the NSA or defense intelligence agency here in China right now.

And so, the U.S. official that spoke to CNN said they are trying to get them out of the country for fear that Chinese intelligence agencies now have all of their information. It's a huge concern. It's way bigger than we first thought when this personnel management office hack first took place. At the time, they thought it was 1.1 fingerprints. Look at the huge hike that's taken place.

Now the problem with this kind of espionage is that it's traditional to spy on one another. Countries have been doing it for hundreds, if not many, many centuries. So, this is something that is just a new arena as far as cyber espionage is concerned.

And President Obama has really tried to draw a line and say, look, we know that cyber espionage for national security purposes is OK. So let's not go beyond that. It would be interesting to see whether there will be any reaction to this from the White House later on today.

China, itself, of course, has always denied being behind this hack and many others, saying the state does not sponsor these Chinese hackers, and a short while ago, Alison, there was a statement in the regular foreign ministry briefing. Now they said to a question that CNN asked about our reporting on this, "The Chinese government firmly opposes any form of hacking. China and the us are the top two big Internet using countries. We both face the same challenges and we'll gain mutual benefits in protecting cyber security.

Well, that, of course, is the official line, but the U.S. is not mincing its words as far as Chinese hacking is concerned. It really does believe China is behind this huge Internet hack -- Alison.

KOSIK: All right. And this hack certainly bigger than everybody thought and having huge implications on intel gathering for the U.S. and China.

Saima Mohsin, live from Beijing -- thanks, for that. ROMANS: All right. Back home the head of Planned Parenthood facing

heated questioning from congressional Republicans in an emotional Capitol Hill hearing that lasted nearly five hours. Five hours. Cecile Richards defending the organization against charges of lavish spending and questions raised by undercover videos from an anti- abortion group.

The latest now from CNN's Tom Foreman in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alison, hey, Christine.

The head of Planned Parenthood came to Capitol Hill with one clear message that she wanted to get across about these undercover videotapes that supposedly show her people selling fetal body parts. She wanted to say it is absolutely not true, no laws have been broken, and that she took great exception to the way these videotapes have been taken. In fact, she suggested that if there are any investigations, it should be about the filmmaker.

CECILE RICHARDS, PLANNED PARENTHOOD PRESIDENT: The latest smear campaign is based on efforts by our opponents to entrap our doctors and clinicians into breaking the law and, once again, our opponents failed.

FOREMAN: Democrats rushed to her side, said this is protected behavior in these clinics. It should not be under attack this way.

Republicans completely the opposite. They essentially pushed the videotapes aside pretty soon and said this is about funding for your agency. They question how much money is being used for other women's health service, and if not enough, why not enough. How much is being used for lobbying, how much is being used for her salary, how much is being used for other perks for the agency.

They really went after the money in all of this, basically trying to suggest, look, whatever the purpose, if the money is not being used right, what right do you have to public money?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do you need federal dollars, you are making a ton of dough?

RICHARDS: I don't get -- we don't make any profit off federal money. And if I could just have a moment to explain.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But you're using federal dollars --

RICHARDS: One-point-six million --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- you are displacing money that could go to the 13,000 health care clinics.

RICHARDS: But I do think it's really important that you understand that 60 percent of our patients are receiving either -- they're either Medicaid patients or Title X patients. Seventy-eight percent of our patients live at 150 percent of poverty or below.

[04:40:01] And for many of them, Planned Parenthood is the only family planning provider that will see them in their area.

FOREMAN: Bottom line is, this is a fight that both sides have been spoiling for for sometime and both sides are very, very passionate about it because they feel like they're speaking about basic human rights, and it is not going to die down as a fight any time soon -- Alison, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: OK, Tom Foreman, thanks, for that.

Odds of a government shutdown over funding for Planned Parenthood now receding, at least from the short term. A stopgap funding bill is expected to get through Congress today, shepherded by John Boehner. The House speaker no longer worried about keeping his job now he's decided to step down.

Longer term negotiations are set to begin on the federal budget with Republican leaders calling for a two-year spending plan to avoid a budget fight during an election year. But whether Speaker Boehner's replacement will be onboard with a plan that averts a government shutdown, that's an open question.

The front runner for the job, California Congressman Kevin McCarthy defending the extended grilling of Planned Parenthood's president.

McCarthy telling CNN's Jake Tapper the hearing Saying the hearing is a part of a larger plan, much like earlier House hearings aimed against Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), CALIFORNIA: When you look at the poll numbers of Hillary Clinton, they've dropped.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

MCCARTHY: Unfavorables is pretty high, because people say they don't trust her. They don't trust her because of what they found about the server and everything else. Would you have ever found that out? Had you had not gathered the information for the Benghazi Select Committee?

So, if we want to able to show what this Planned Parenthood has done. We see a few videos. So, there's a real question. Have the select committee get all the information, all the hearings, so the public can see that, so you win the argument to win the vote.

TAPPER: Speaking of votes, do you have the votes? Will you be the next speaker and have you locked it up?

MCCARTHY: I feel very good about where I'm at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. Time an early start on your money this morning. A big rebound for stocks around the world on the last day of a terrible quarter. Automakers and commodities are moving higher here. If sentiment holds, stocks in the U.S. will rise to close out September.

OK, let's talk about that quarter. The worst quarter for stocks in four years. Investors say good riddance, they wonder now, at least this morning, they're wondering if now is the time to get back in for the end of the year. Perhaps has been factored into the commodity and stocks, so goes the story line this morning.

But still, plenty of reason for caution. When will the Feds raise interest rates? Will there be a soft landing in China's economy or something more bumpy? Will commodities prices find the floor and will a looming debt ceiling deadline usher in a political fight in Washington?

The big corporate story this morning, Ralph Lauren is stepping down as CEO. Former Old Navy head Stefan Larsson will take over his fashion empire in November. Lauren will stay on as executive chairman and chief creative officer. The brand has seen slowing growth and falling revenue. Shares are up before the bell.

Ralph Lauren, of course, the company is 76-years-old, the company bears his name, and bears his vision, interesting change of management there.

KOSIK: I wonder if the new CEO is going to will bring in a little of that Old Navy.

ROMANS: We'll see.

KOSIK: A massive storm threatening 20 million on the East Coast, flooding in some states has already begun. What you could expect today next.

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[04:46:52] KOSIK: The U.S. coast deluge by record rain and there's more on the way. The downpour is triggering flash floods like this one that turned a tunnel on the campus of James Madison University Virginia into a raging river. The rising water was waist deep in the West Virginia town of Petersburg.

And the Carolinas have been inundated. Storms there causing street and highway flooding, stranding scores of vehicles.

ROMANS: So let's get more on the rain that won't go. How long will this last? Here's meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Alison and Christine, good morning, guys.

You know, it's incredible to think we have a seven inch deficit in the rainfall department for New York and Boston. I think that's all about to change very quickly.

Big time storm system, some tropical moisture associated with it from the gulf that has soaked the Southern U.S., avoids the Northeast later on this afternoon, on the order of two to four inches, north of New York City, work into Southern Maine, a possibility of six-plus inches of rainfall in the next 24 to 36 hours.

Of course, the concern is we have a tropical storm in the way of Joaquin sitting out there near the Bahamas at this hour. Forecast takes us up to a category 1 hurricane, potentially a hurricane 2. The official track of the National Hurricane Center. I notice it meanders with the eastern seaboard sometime Saturday night. Heavy rainfall a possibility.

Look at the vast variety of the model now indicating a lot of discrepancy where it will make landfall, but certainly plenty of support for it to come in somewhere around the eastern seaboard. If this is the case, what we do know we have another storm system parked off the southern United States, sometime Friday night.

Here is what would be Hurricane Joaquin in place. Notice what happens as they merge from Saturday into Sunday, bringing that tropical moisture with a potent low by itself into this region.

Guys, this verifies, we are talking some areas getting excess of ten inches of rainfall inside the next areas we are following. We will keep you up to date.

ROMANS: All right. That's a lot of water. Thanks, Pedram, for that.

Forty-eight minutes past the hour.

Happening now, Afghan forces fighting to take back a town seized by the Taliban. Real trouble here in Kunduz. We got that for you, next.

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[04:52:38] KOSIK: The crisis in Afghan failing by the hour Afghan forces failing in their attempt to take back the city of Kunduz. Taliban fighters not only repealing the offensive but also advancing on the local airport. Thousands of civilians now fleeing that city.

CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins us with more on the sudden resurgence of the Taliban -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, and it's not easy for the government to push them out of the city at the moment. The Taliban have cut the road to the South, which is where the government would like to bring army reinforcements from. The Taliban say they have the government forces surrounded at the airport.

The U.N. says more than 100 civilians have been injured or killed in all of this. The U.N. says that there are summary executions going on. Medical staff are being summarily killed. Six thousand people have tried to flee the city that the roads leading to and from the city are cut as well. The picture at the moment is a very confusing one. The government

says the Taliban are hiding behind the civilians in the city for the fighting. The government says they killed over 100 Taliban, including the Taliban commander saying that's not true. The small gains the government made yesterday, those gains have been reversed by the Taliban.

So, at the moment, the picture appears to be a confusing one, with a growing civilian death toll. And that at the moment is what has everyone worried, Alison.

KOSIK: The Obama administration looking to take most of U.S. force out of Afghanistan next year. It will be interesting, Nic, to see if there is a rethinking of that strategy.

Nic Robertson, thanks for that.

ROMANS: All right. Brands new this morning, Russian lawmakers authorizing the use of military force in Syria. Russian senators vote unanimously to allow the Russian warplanes. The Kremlin chief of staff telling the state news agency, the resolution complies with international law. It says it comes in response to a request from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for support in his fight against ISIS.

The White House has said it wants Assad to go. The White House expressed reservations about Russia deploying tanks and war planes in Syria. And now, Vladimir Putin moving ahead with his government to make that happen.

All right. Fifty-four minutes past the hour.

Tesla's new all electric SUV is here. There it is. You will not believe some of the futuristic features. We have an inside look, next.

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[04:58:59] ROMANS: Good morning. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an early start on your money this morning.

Big rebounds for stocks around the world on the last day of a terrible quarter. If sentiment holds, stocks in the U.S. will rise today to close out September. It was the worst quarter in four years. Investors say good riddance, some at least the story line this morning are wondering if now is the best time to get in at the end of the year. Perhaps the worst has been factoring in commodities and stocks.

But plenty of reasons for caution. When will the Fed raise interest rates? Will there be a soft landing in Chinese economy or something more bumpy? Will commodities prices find a floor and will a looming debt ceiling deadline assure in a political fight in Washington?

Looking for a bunch this morning, but what a terrible quarter. It's nice to put that one in the books. The Tesla Model X SUV is finally here. CEO Elon Musk handed over the

keys to the first six owners of this new all electric SUV to cheers, you can see. Musk said the company got carried away with adding features, which delayed its release. It has falcon wing doors that hinge at the top and open wards. They open for the approaching driver without even a touch.

KOSIK: That's cool?

ROMANS: The Model X air-conditioning system has a bio-weapon defense mode that prevents bacteria and viruses from entering. And Musk expects it to get 5-star NHTSA crash safety ratings.