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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Pentagon: Russian Bombs Didn't Target ISIS; Congress Averts Government Shutdown; Duncan: Shift Billions From Prisons To Schools; Trump: Will Send Syrian Refugees Back If He Wins; Afghan Forces Retake Kunduz. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired October 01, 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: The East Coast flooded already, and then, could it happen again? Hurricane Joaquin gains strength nearing the U.S. will this be a one-two punch? We are tracking the storm.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Russia launching new air strikes in Syria, but ISIS does not seem to be the target. We are live. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Boris Sanchez.

ROMANS: It's so great to see you this morning. I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Breaking news this morning, Joaquin a Category 3 hurricane bearing down on the Bahamas as another separate storm system produces record rainfall up and down the east coast.

SANCHEZ: It is causing a lot of problems in Massachusetts. A dry September is ending in dramatic fashion with 4 inches of rain. Just north of Boston, a woman had to be rescued from her car after she got stuck in the flood waters.

Look at this car, plowing through deep water in Worcester, Massachusetts. The driver gets to dry land, opens the car door and gallons pouring out of the car. The weather is also snarling traffic as you can imagine across the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's bad. It's just gridlock everywhere. It's flooded everywhere. I've been on the road for two hours.

ROMANS: In Maine, the National Weather Service says more than 5.5 inches fell on Portland, one of the ten all time wettest days in the city's history. The rains knocked out power, downed trees, flooded roads, only trucks and SUV getting through there.

SANCHEZ: And further south in Maryland, which is west of Baltimore, knee deep flash flood water rushing through the streets. A local YMCA was flooded out with three feet of water and stuff everywhere. Check out the car in this photo. It's totaled. Listen to what the owner says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really did not know that flash flood meant boom, quick rain. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looked like a freaking river. It's what it looked like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: It isn't over. I'm afraid. That heavy rain is one storm system. Then there is Hurricane Joaquin churning over the Bahamas. Where will it hit? Let's get to meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Boris and Christine. Hurricane Joaquin, Category 3, is now sitting across portions of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands. Models indicate this could get to a Category 4.

The latest update brings this up to the portion of the northern portion of the Carolinas, Kill Devil Hills in the early morning hours of Monday and in the southern areas of New Jersey in the early morning hours of Tuesday.

Important to note, you don't want to fall in love with the central track. This can take a westerly track and easterly track and then offshore. You notice the model discrepancy. You notice yesterday, there was more confidence with one model offshore.

Now we have a break apart in the models. We hope that indicates the storm track will shift to the east and become an offshore event and talking about showers in the area. At this point, if it does come close to the coastline, tremendous rainfall possible.

Possibly of 10 plus across Carolinas and to the north with 4 inches to 6 inches in addition to what has come down in the region. We know with 80 million people, this is the time to make precautions.

ROMANS: All right, precautions are really important. Pedram Javaheri, thank you for that.

All right, to Syria now, the U.S. countering Russian claims that its first air strikes in Syria targeted ISIS. Russia's first word to the U.S. about the airstrikes came when a Russian official appeared at the American embassy in Baghdad with a note warning the U.S. to stay out of air space giving one-hour notice that Russia would be bombing inside Syria.

CNN Barbara Starr asked Defense Secretary Ash Carter about this unusual move.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: You have been dealing with the Russians for years. A Russian general shows up at embassy in Baghdad and apparently reads you a note saying air strikes will begin in one hour. What do you make of that?

Is that as secretary of defense, is that accept military to military relations with you and where does this leave you if you sit down and talk to the Russian military about a way ahead? Is this not a little bizarre?

ASH CARTER, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: You are right. I have been dealing with them for a long time. This is not the kind of behavior that we should expect professionally from Russian military professionally. That is one reason why I think it is a good thing to have an avenue of communication that is less unprofessional than a drop-in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A drop-in. The U.S. is also accusing Russia of misleading about the target of the airstrikes. American officials say the war planes, the Russian planes, were not flying in ISIS held regions. "The Washington Post" reports that strikes hit anti-government rebels in Syria.

Some of them backed by the U.S. and trained by the CIA. Defense Secretary Carter is accusing Russia of, quote, "pouring gasoline on the fire of Syria's civil war."

[05:35:09] For the latest, I want to bring in CNN's Matthew Chance, live for us live in Moscow. Pouring gasoline on the fire, at the very least, this is a dangerous new phase in the four-year civil war in Syria -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think the kremlin would probably argue that training rebels in Syria to fight the government would be pouring gasoline on the flames as well, which is why they say they are taking this action.

The western policy has failed. U.S. policy has led to chaos. They are moving in now to back the Syrian government, which they believe is the best force or best hope of stopping ISIS and other fundamentalist groups in their tracks.

There has been some confusion, shall we say, over the targets the Russians have been striking on the first day of their air campaign in Syria. Publicly, they are pretty much emphasizing the Defense Ministry that it was the Islamic State they are targeting.

Saying we hit eight ISIS positions, fuel dumps and ammunition depots and commander and control centers, and things like that. The video emerged from the ground of the province which is not controlled by ISIS indicates otherwise and also U.S. reports that other rebel groups have been struck.

Since then, U.S. officials -- sorry, Russian officials have been slightly nuancing their message saying they were invited by the Syrian government to help them combat ISIS and other terrorist groups as well.

This has been reiterated by the Russian foreign minister after a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry and a few moments ago by the spokesman for the kremlin as well. So they are nuancing their message a little bit saying it's not ISIS they are after, but other groups who were opposed to the Syrian government as well. ROMANS: So Matthew, who takes the lead here then? If you have Russian jets bombing in inside Syria and the U.S. helping and leading bombing raids on ISIS positions, who is in charge here? Is this all about making sure that the Russians and Americans now at this point don't hit each other? There is no accident with the militaries?

CHANCE: This is a conflict of interest between the Russians and the United States. I mean, they are both flying missions in the air space over Syria, but they both appear to have different objectives. They may overlap in targeting of ISIS.

Of course, the Russians are still targeting ISIS, but there are other groups backed by the west and United States that Russia is also striking. Yes, there is a need for what they call de-confliction and so the militaries are planning to speak with each other urgently to make sure they don't shoot each other.

ROMANS: Yes, de-confliction equals don't shoot at each other. That military parlance can sometimes sound more diplomatic than reasonable. All right, thanks so much, Matthew Chance for us this morning.

SANCHEZ: Back to the U.S., no government shutdown at least for now. Breaking overnight, Congress passing a stop-gap measure to keep the government funded through December 11th. That is when Republicans are expected to push hard to defund Planned Parenthood.

President Obama signing the measure as soon as it reached his desk calling it good news and cause to celebrate even if he says the bar for Congress is quote, "somewhat low."

New e-mails released by the State Department show Hillary Clinton staffers were concerned about her use of a private e-mail server worrying that it might invite hackers. E-mails spanning between 2010 and 2011 also revealed five phishing attempts targeting her account while she was secretary of state.

And now it's been revealed that about two months of e-mails from the start of Clinton's tenure at the State Department are missing. Federal officials confirm they have not been able to recover them.

ROMANS: All right, 39 minutes past the hour. A bold idea from the Obama administration, funnel money from prisons to schools, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said if state and local governments can redirect half of those convicted of nonviolent crimes to avoid jail time, it would save $15 billion a year.

That could be used to give every teacher in the poor school districts a 50 percent raise. Arne Duncan says it's by giving students the tools to succeed especially minorities to face staggering incarceration rates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNE DUNCAN, EDUCATION SECRETARY: It is devastating that the odds of young black men going to prison at some point are higher than getting a college degree. We have to change this if we want to have strong families and strong communities and have a strong economy. We have to make a bet on education.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Arne Duncan's proposal part of the administration's whole policy of trying to reform the criminal justice system.

[05:40:04] I also asked Duncan about some good news, fewer graduates are defaulting on their college student loan bills. Still 611,000 borrowers default in the last three years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUNCAN: We are very pleased that the default rates are going down. It is down across every sector. We all have to do better. We have to make sure that young people know about income based repayment plans where they are paying those debts are indexed to how much they make.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Students from for-profit colleges are the most likely to default overall, really interesting stuff. The idea you can use money to fund teachers as part of the whole process to reform the criminal justice system.

SANCHEZ: It should be interesting to see how the fourth quarter of Obama's presidency.

ROMANS: They want to get a lot done.

SANCHEZ: He says send them back. Donald Trump explains what will happen to Syrian refugees if he's elected as Bernie Sanders sets fundraising efforts. Is it enough to beat Hillary?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, butting heads once again on the campaign trail, this time over the subject of refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria. Trump telling a New Hampshire town hall and our own Don Lemon that as president he would send refugees back because he believes they could be ISIS sympathizers in disguise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Why are we accepting all of these thousands? I've heard a number today, 200,000. That's almost like -- are these people ISIS?

[05:45:06] We have no idea where they are or where they come from. I am just telling you right now they may come in through the weakness of Obama, but they are going out if I become president, they will not stay here. They are going back to Syria whether it's safe zones or whatever, but they are going back to Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have a noble tradition of taking care of refugees. We have done it since the beginning of time and I think we need to maintain that. Having said that, we need to make sure we screen people and do things appropriate to make sure that the people coming here are legitimate.

But send them all back to a hellhole? This is the same guy, by the way, that is also advocating exactly what seems to be supportive of Putin and his emergence in Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Also on the Republican ticket, Ben Carson, despite controversial comments about Muslims, he had a big third quarter haul. Campaign announcing it will raise more than $20 million over the last three months.

Carson speaking to a group of fellow physicians in New Hampshire Wednesday sounding a bit like Donald Trump when talking about funding his campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I made it very clear that I'm not going after the billionaires and special interest groups. I'm not licking anybody's boots. I'll not be beholden to any special interest groups. There is only one special interest group that I'm interested in and that's the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Let's turn to the Democrats now. Hillary Clinton's third quarter fundraising take is $28 million, just a few million more than Bernie Sanders. It's also a drop from Clinton's record setting take of $47.5 million in the spring. The pace of donations for Sanders campaign picked up over the summer.

Look at the crowds. He collected $25.5 million in the last three months. His campaign now touting the fact it reached a million online donors faster than any candidate ever.

SANCHEZ: Joe Biden thinking about jumping in. He may have a lot of catching up to do.

Breaking overnight, Afghan forces taking back parts of the town seized by the Taliban, what's next in this fight?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:50:53]

SANCHEZ: Breaking overnight, Afghan Special Forces have retaken the major city of Kunduz days after it was overrun by the Taliban. The operation launching late Wednesday is still ongoing with forces working to clear Taliban fighters from a few districts within that province.

CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, joins us now. Nic, the Taliban was reportedly outnumbered by the Afghan Armed Forces and they still won. What is keeping the Afghans confident they will hold on?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Boris, the more information we get in today, the more we are learning about the situation on the ground. It still seems to be fluid. They believe that they can hold on at the moment because they come back into the city and they have reinforcements into the city.

They outnumber the Taliban. The reality is that the Taliban do have some support in the town. That's why they were able to get in there so quickly because people in the city are disgruntled if you will with the government. That is one of the reasons why the army fell back.

What has turned the situation around is not just the reinforcements. We know there have been six U.S. air strikes helping the Afghan forces advance into the city. What the Interior Ministry tells us is they control the major points in the city.

But they say the Taliban are hiding out in houses and they come across Taliban fighters holed up in the houses in the city, they put up fierce resistance. Rather than the picture we had from the Afghan government a few hours ago which stated they were in control of the city.

It seems they are still fight for control of parts of the city that this is not a done deal yet. They have the force of arms now. They have U.S. military backing. They have their reinforcements there. It is not going to be an easy battle -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Nic, thank you so much. Tough news to stomach not only considering the amount of money the U.S. has spent to build the nation, but loss of life dedicated to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban.

ROMANS: Absolutely. All right, 52 minutes past the hour. Your credit card is getting a security update. That may cause headaches at the checkout. I'll tell you why next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:57:07]

ROMANS: Good Thursday morning. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money. European stocks are higher so are U.S. stock futures suggesting a strong start to the fourth quarter if all of this holds. Stocks climbed yesterday. Dow rose 235 points. Not enough to save the worst quarter in four years.

A lot of uncertainty dragging sentiment from the Federal Reserve when it will raise interest rate, China slowdown and political gridlock, a lot to get through, but it looks like a bounce at least for today.

This is a big day for your credit card. Today is a milestone to the shift to the more secure chip enabled cards. Banks used to cover the transactions for fake transactions. Now today is the shift to less protection. If a chip enabled card is used in a store that has not upgraded the system, the retailer is on the hook for the fake swipes. The cards are more secure, but it will take longer to swipe at the checkout.

That could cause confusion for you. Be prepared. It could take another minute or two to get through with your screaming kids at the checkout lane.

SANCHEZ: I just got mine in the mail. I was thinking somebody hacked by stuff again.

ROMANS: It is supposed to be more secure.

SANCHEZ: Hurricane Joaquin gaining strength overnight. "NEW DAY" starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Joaquin is now a Category 3 hurricane bearing down on the Bahamas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forecast models are not agreeing right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Think ahead. Have a plan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hoping for the best. Prepare for the worst.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Russia launching air strikes in Syria.

STARR: The Russians are not attacking ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This approach is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Russia said it was helps Assad, it meant helping Assad.

BUSH: Donald has a harder time taking criticism. He probably needs to put on his big boy pants, too.

TRUMP: The only time I go after people is when they hit me. I'm a counter-puncher.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, October 1st, 6:00 in the east. Joaquin is a Cat 3 hurricane and heading this way. That means 120-mile-an-hour winds as it bears down on the Bahamas. Joaquin could gain more strength today.

CAMEROTA: Eighty million people on high alert. Flooding is the concern. Virginia is declaring a state of emergency. The question is will it make landfall in the U.S. and where and when?

CNN has the coverage. Let's begin with meteorologist, Chad Myers with the latest forecast models. What are they saying, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They are different than yesterday, which is not exciting. We want them to all agree all the time. That is the way we know they are correct, but 120-mile-an-hour storm.

Hurricane hunters have been flying through the storm all night long. It will hang out in the Bahamas for almost 48 hours. Then it will make a run to the north. It's that hanging out part that has the models confused.