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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Hillary Clinton Now Says She Opposes Trade Deal She Once Pushed For as Secretary of State; Sanders will Take Clinton on Head-to-Head for First Time Next Week at Democratic Presidential Debate; Syrian Military Launching What it Calls Wide-Scale Offensive Against ISIS. Aired 5:30-6p ET

Aired October 08, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00] MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN ANCHOR: ...White House coming against the trade deal that she, herself has pushed for dozens of times before. The impact on the 2016 race ahead.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ben Carson says he would charge a mass shooter. He would try for a counterattack there. But, what did he actually do when faced with the criminals with a gun? You might be surprised.

Welcome back to "Early Start". I'm John Berman.

KOSINSKI: I'm Michelle Kosinski. It's half past the hour.

BERMAN: All right, this morning a big split between Hillary Clinton and the White House on a big issue when the president wants to be a cornerstone of his legacy. Hillary Clinton now says she opposes a trade deal that she once pushed for as secretary of state.

She's now come out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership as a huge 12 nation deal known as TPP for short. President Obama, he has been aggressively pushing for working for this deal for years. Clinton, when she was secretary of state call it the gold standard of trade deals. But, that was before it was finalized.

Now, she's a candidate for president. Now, she tells Judy Woodruff of PBS, it does not meet the high bar she had sought which would be creating American jobs lifting wages and advancing national security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've learned about trade agreements in the past for years. Sometimes they look great on paper. I know when President Obama came into office, he inherited a trade agreement with South Korea. I, along with other members of the cabinet, pushed hard to get a better agreement. We think we made improvements.

Now, looking back on it, it doesn't have the results we thought it would have in terms of access to the markets, more exports, et cetera.

JUDY WOODRUFF, PBS: So, are you saying that, as of today, this is not something you could support? CLINTON: What I know about it as of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Hillary Clinton is in Washington for a Congressional Hispanic Caucus event tonight. President Obama speaking at the same dinner could be an interesting moment if they cross paths.

KOSINSKI: Well, Clinton joins most Democrats in Congress and most every Democratic rivals for president in opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Bernie Sanders welcomed her change of heart, calling the TPP, "A continuation of disastrous trade policies that have led to the loss of millions of decent paying jobs."

Sanders will take Clinton on head-to-head for the next first time next week at the Democratic presidential debate here on CNN. It will be a crucial moment for Sanders as he tries to move up from second place in the polls. He's been edging up on Hillary Clinton at an event in Washington. Sanders explains how he plans to approach that debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You are looking at the candidate who does not go about attacking people personally. I just don't do that. But what I think democracy is about and what I think debates are about is, in fact, differentiating the differences of opinions that we have. That's full democracy. That's a good thing. And I look forward to a vigorous debate on the most important issues facing this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It is all about the CNN presidential debate the first time the Democrats face-off. Here to discuss this, Hadas Gold, reporter for POLITICO. Her first "Early Start" appearance. Thank you so much for being with us this morning.

KOSINSKI: Welcome.

HADAS GOLD, POLITICO REPORTER: Good morning.

BERMAN: Look, this is a big move from Hillary Clinton leading up to this first Democratic debate. Hillary Clinton decided it was better to split with the White House risk being called a flip whopper rather than a potential taking incoming fire from the left from Bernie Sanders, perhaps, in this debate Tuesday night. Is that a risk?

GOLD: It's definitely a risk, again, but its part of her goal is to try to differentiate herself from the Obama administration. A lot of people would say she is running for a third term and she is trying to say, "No, I'm not. I worked to the administration, but I'm a different candidate."

And this is part of actually a line of positions that she is taking where she is trying to really get ahead of the Obama administration. She's done the same thing on immigration. She's saying that is going to go further. So, this is next in line of those things.

But, like you said, it does risk. People will call her flip whopper. We've seen her opponents already come out and say, "Hey, you fought for this, so why are you changing your position now?"

KOSINSKI: We've seen two Republican or it has been three Republicans are based already, two ...

BERMAN: Two.

KOSINSKI: Two. And so many people look at these things now with having so much entertainment value. What do you think in this upcoming debate is going to -- I don't know, be the kind of wildcard that people are going to be looking out for? Was its going to make people laugh or cry? What do you think?

GOLD: It's definitely going to be a much different debate than the Republicans debate. You know, you have fewer candidates on stage and there it seem to be committed to being a lot more reserved. Although, we do have to keep in mind, Bernie Sanders has been called a pit-bull before on the debate stage and he is somebody that you can't really discount in terms of though, he won't necessarily attacks somebody personally. He definitely has a lot of conviction which you will see on stage.

[05:35:01] You also have to keep in mind that there is three other candidates on the stage as well, and Martin O'Malley and Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb are going to do everything they can to get there name I.D. up there, to get their face in front of the camera and that might involve a few antics that might be more reminiscent of the Republican debate.

BERMAN: You know, there's a risk, right, for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in this case because of those three other candidates who aren't registering in the polls really at all. They have nothing to lose. What's to keep them from doing something outrageous? What's to keep them in trying to embarrass Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders right there? It's and interesting thing and it's got to be factor into the debate threats ...

KOSINSKI: Yeah, that's true.

BERMAN: ... for Hillary Clinton, Hadas.

GOLD: Exactly. And, you know, we have heard a little bit about Hillary Clinton's debate. Perhaps, she is working with her longtime lawyer and one of her policy advisor, Jake Sullivan who are taking the roles of Sanders and Martin O'Malley. We haven't really heard of anybody preparing, like you said for this other two candidates, which you have to keep in mind because despite the fact that they're not registering in the polls, a debate can change everything.

We saw that with Carly Fiorina. She was registering in the 1 to 2 percents and if these people, of these candidates who are, you know, they're former politicians. They know what they are doing and if they do really won in the debate stage that can really change the race. KOSINSKI: Yeah, I mean, are you expecting anyone to sort of -- I don't know, really take a stand here because in the prior debates there was all the speculation that, John Kasich for example, was really going to, you know, come out as a strong force that many people hadn't heard from as much before.

What do you think about this one? Are we really going to see somebody come out fighting that we haven't heard from as much over the past couple of weeks?

GOLD: I think governor, former Governor Martin O'Malley is really chomping at the bit to get in front of people and see himself as somebody who is in the top tier despite what his poll numbers might say. And he has been preparing for this and he is ready to take them -- to take both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton had on.

His line is always, you know, I was first, you know, I was the first one to come out against this, like everybody else is kind of late behind me to come out against TPP or one of these other issues.

BERMAN: I want to shift gears to the Republican side of the race right now. Ben Carson raised a lot of the eyebrows earlier this week when he said, had he been in that room during the mass shooting in Oregon what he would have done, he would have tried to rush the shooter, get a group of people to try to tackle him that that's the way you could prevent mass shootings.

Well, late yesterday, he did this radio interview, Hadas, where he talked about being actually there for an armed robbery. Listen to what he says he did this time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The guy comes in and puts the gun on my ribs and I just said I believe that you want the guy behind the counter.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a calm way?

CARSON: In a calm way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a calm way, OK.

CARSON: He said, "Oh OK."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So in that case, he didn't tackle the guy. He said go after a different guy rather than me. You know, it's interesting because every time Ben Carson runs in to a little bit he -- a little bit of controversy he says, "You know, I don't deal with political correctness. It's the media that's twisting all of my words here." Would it ever catch up to him? GOLD: It is always our thoughts, right, you know, the media. But, you know, this is like you said, this is something that Ben Carson has found himself and before but he is really, you know, strident supporters like we saw even Rupert Murdoch was tweeting about ...

KOSINSKI: Right.

GOLD: ... Mr. Carson. So, there is a lot of support behind him and I think a lot of people, a lot of his supporters the same way that supportive of Donald Trump, you know, don't see him doing any wrong. They are looking at Mr. Carson, Dr. Carson, excuse me and he'll they say, "You know what, that is one of the ways that you should, you know, when you maybe attack a gunman." And perhaps, the delivery wasn't as smooth that they -- as some people would want it to be. But, I don't think that it will harm Dr. Carson too much in the future. But, you'll never know these gaps can come up behind you and really sneak up.

KOSINSKI: Hadas, what do you think about the speaker's race now and support for Daniel Webster from Florida. What do you think is going to happen with this?

GOLD: You know, that's really -- I think it's really indicative of what we see in the Republicans in Congress right now. They are pretty fractured and there is definitely a desire amongst many of the Republicans on the conservative side not to have another John Boehner and they see McCarthy as kind of the next John Boehner.

So, supporting Webster by the House Freedom Caucus is really a way for them to kind of force McCarthy to agree to some of their terms that they would like in terms of what the next speakership will look like. You know, I don't think that Webster will be, you know, an any type of leadership position anytime soon. But it's definitely going to probably force the current leadership of the House to reconsider and work with the House Freedom Caucus a little bit more.

KOSINSKI: Strategery.

BERMAN: Yeah.

KOSINSKI: Hadas Gold, thank you so much. Great job. Thanks for joining us.

GOLD: Thank you.

KOSINSKI: And all of these, of course, leading up to Tuesday's first Democratic debate, hosted by CNN and Facebook. Coverage from Las Vegas begins at 8:30 Eastern.

Time for an "Early Start" on your money, Alison Kosik is back. So it's time to get more of it.

BERMAN: Yeah, I know.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, again. I'm watching stocks around the world. [05:40:00] Asian shares fell this morning. Stocks in China where the exception though, Shanghai's benchmark index climbing 3 percent after it was closed for a week-long holiday, so kind of catch-up rally there.

European shares, U.S. stock features they are down at the moment. An exception to that, shares to Georgia Bank falling right now. The bank warned its bracing for $7 billion loss in a third quarter and that's because of a big write down at its investment bank.

U.S. stock features once, again, lower at the moment. But stocks have actually been on a great run over the past week. Yesterday, the Dow had another triple digit rally closing up 122 points and look what's happened over the past four trading days, the Dow has actually gained 600 points of what control range in that earning season kicking out for day after the bar set for the low thought, profits overall are expected to evolve.

Plus, you've got concerns about China. You got concerns about what the Fed is going to do with interest rates, all that can cause more volatility but an upside surprise with earnings, oh, that can cause a relief really.

BERMAN: Let's hope. All right, Alison, thank you so much.

All right, there is international concern right now about what's going on in Syria. Russia now launching cruise missiles thousand miles in the Caspian Sea that as a Syrian military claims that it's launched the wide-scale ground offensive with new details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSINSKI: Developing this morning, the Syrian military launching what it calls a wide-scale offensive against ISIS and other terrorist groups. This is after Russia's Defense Ministry claimed overnight to hit ISIS infrastructure targets in Syria using cruise missiles.

[05:45:06] Meantime, the Pentagon now confirms that two U.S. military aircraft had to be diverted from their missions in Syria in the last few days to keep a safe distance from Russian fighter jets.

Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon is monitoring the latest developments for us live from Istanbul. Arwa, I've been wanting to know, I mean what evidence if any is there that Russia is actually hitting ISIS targets and if any, what kind of damage are they doing?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the problem, is that they are claiming to be mostly going after ISIS and other terrorist organizations, but according to NATO, Turkey, the United States, rebel fighters and activists, we've been talking to the vast majority of those targets are in fact other anti Assad units.

But remember, the Russians are there at the request of the Assad government and the Assad government does consider most if not all of these rebel groups to be terrorist organizations. We do know, however, that the devastation has been fairly wide spread. The most recent targets were in Raqqah. Yes, that is an ISIS stronghold, Idlib and Aleppo as well. Not necessarily areas where ISIS is known to have a very solidified presence. Russia launching these strikes by air, but also from the Caspian Sea 8,000 miles away.

An activist we've been talking to have been saying that these strikes are fairly inaccurate. There are number of heartbreaking videos on YouTube showing the civil -- Syrian Civil Defense teams, otherwise known as the White Helmets trying to scramble through the rubble of what they are saying are civilian homes that were brought down flat and due to the strikes.

And another video that I just watched showing a little child covered drenched in blood as a result according to this video posted to YouTube because of the strikes. So, while we're talking about strategic moves on the part of the Syrians, the Russians, the (inaudible) coalition that's not really being impacted by all of these. It's the civilians. It's the Syrian population over half of which has already been displaced or become refugees. They are the people whose lives are really the ones that are being impacted in the most horrendous way possible by all of these war moves.

KOSINSKI: Wow, just getting to be an even bigger tragedy. Thanks a lot, Arwa.

BERMAN: Right. The FAA now taking steps to try to keep rogue drones, rogue drones away from commercial jets. What they're going to do to prevent potential disaster? Up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:51:20] BERMAN: All right, the FAA is testing new technology to detect rogue drone flights near U.S. airports and other public events. The system designed to track the drones force them to land if needed. No timeline yet for any sort of broad rollout. Officials say the growing number of unauthorized drones in the air poses a potential safety risk, also security risk in places like airports.

KOSINSKI: What are you going to do with your, you know, your extensive ...

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: How do you enforce now the drone? I mean, how like other drone shooting down drones?

KOSINSKI: Could, could. Well, (inaudible) FIFA President Sepp Blatter is facing a 90-day suspension following an internal ethics investigation. A final decision could be announced today. Blatter is being investigated for selling World Cup T.V. rights to a FIFA colleague at a reduced price. Blatter denies any wrongdoing.

BERMAN: All right, the Cubs doing with the Yankees could not. Moving on in the playoffs, scoring at least one run, they beat this for four zip in the nationally wildcard game behind ace Jake Arrieta. He threw a wonderful game. Complete game shut at 11 strikeouts just four hits. There was plenty of tension, though overnight. Check this out.

The benches clear after Arrieta was plugged. He's going to leave a mark. He actually hit two Pirates early in the game, so that was clearly retaliation. This is the Cubs first post season win since 2003. They now move on to face Arch Rivals to the St. Louis Cardinals to the divisional series that begins on Friday.

KOSINSKI: OK. Did you guy hear new chip enabled credit card in the mail? Why these new cards might not be enough though to protect you from hackers? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:56:54] KOSIK: Good morning. I'm Alison Kosik. Let's get an "Early Start" on your money. We are watching stocks around the world here in the U.S. though (ph), U.S. features are down right now. But over the past weeks, Dow have actually have been on a great run.

Yesterday, the Dow had another triple digit rally closing up 120 points. And the Dow has actually gained more than 600 points over the past four trading days. But, looking for a range in that, what else but third quarter earning season kicking up today up to the closing bill, earnings are expected to fall.

Also today, we're getting to look at the minutes of last month's Fed meeting, so we'd be looking for any insights into what the plans are for interest rates as far as the Fed knows.

Lumber Liquidators will pay $10 million to settle criminal charges with the Department of Justice. The company will plead guilty to making false claims about where the timber used in its hardware flooring came from. This is yet another hit for the struggling company. Lumber Liquidators also faces allegations, some of its flooring contained toxic chemicals including cancer-causing formaldehyde. The stock has plunged 80 percent this year.

New chip enabled credit cards are not enough to protect consumers. That's the message coming from the world's biggest retail trade group to Congress. They're saying the new cards that had been mailed to us in the mail, they will protect for some breaches, but not all and there will force businesses to spent $35 billion on new technology.

Chip enabled cards are safer than those with just the magnetic strip because they do generate a unique code for each transaction. But here is the rub (ph), the use of a PIN instead of a signature that would actually be more secure. Problem is, it's not required as it is in Europe. So we're not getting that extra added security, it's not air tight.

KOSINSKI: Yeah.

BERMAN: All right, there is new controversy this morning surrounding Ben Carson. He says he would fight back, he faced the mass shooter but you might be surprised what he did when he did face a man with a gun. "New Day" picks up that story right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSON: The shooter can only shoot one person at a time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Carson himself is taking new hit over his claim that he would try to fight back against the mass shooter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frankly, I thought it was shooting. It's very unclear.

CARSON: I want to plant in people's minds what to do in a situation like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: Breaking with President Obama, opposing his signature trade agreement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I am not in favor of what I have learned about it.

SANDERS: I look forward to a vigorous debate on the most important issues facing this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Cruise missiles, fired from a warship light up the night sky.

KOSINSKI: Russia forcing a U.S. plane to divert from a mission in Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is no agreement with the Russians on how both countries pilots will operate in the sky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a "New Day" with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, "NEW DAY" CO-ANCHOR: Alisyn is very ticklish, but in other news. Good morning, welcome to your "New Day." This Thursday, October 8th, 6:00 in the East.

Here's the situation, Dr. Ben Carson says everyone should have attacked the shooter instead of sitting back and getting killed ...