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Sixteen Arrested in New Terrorism Raids in Belgium; Brussels on Highest Terror Threat Alert; French President Hollande Meets with World Leaders; Trump Continues Controversial Campaign, Leads New Poll; Cardinals Beat Bengals 34-31. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 23, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: New terrorism raids in Belgium. Sixteen people arrested. What we're now learning ahead.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: New information on the getaway of one of the Paris attackers as we get a first look at this identified suicide bomber. We are live.

KOSIK: President Obama vowing to defeat ISIS and preparing to meet with the French president.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. John Berman has the morning off.

It is Monday, November 23rd. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East. We welcome all of our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world.

Let's begin in Belgium. Maximum terror alert right now. Officials fear attacks in Brussels just like those in Paris. Those attacks, nine days ago, were carried out by ISIS terrorists, several of whom lived in Brussels.

[05:00:00]

Officials in the Belgian capital extending partial lockdown of the city. They're warning against large gatherings. They have closed the schools. They have closed the subway. On Sunday, some twenty raids yielded 16 arrests. Belgian prime minister warning that officials have intelligence about attacks, quote, "with weapons and explosives, maybe even in several places at once."

Joining with the very latest, senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen in Brussels. Fred, it's almost eerie, the street scenes behind you. A busy Monday morning in the Christmas holiday season, so quiet. People staying home. Do we know exactly what Belgian authorities think might happen or are they -- do they have specific information? What do we know?

FREDERIK PLETIGEN, CNN SNEIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're speaking about a clear and imminent threat, and that's one of the reasons, Christine, why the terror threat level here in Brussels is actually higher than even the rest of the country. It is at the highest level, which is level four.

Now, what they say they fear is that there could be a Paris-style attack, as they say, which of course would involve several people walking around the city on a rampage with arms, possibly AK-47s and other weapons as well. And as a result of that, as you've said, there have been raids going on to try to find some of the people who might be plotting some of this. But also, quite frankly, to try and cordon off some areas.

I was here last night. We're at the main square here in Brussels. As you can see, there's a military vehicle behind me. And that's just what's going on here in the city right now. This entire area was cordoned off last night. And I can tell you, the security forces were very, very edgy when we spoke to them. At the same time, all of this of course very concerning to people who live here. You mentioned, the subways are closed. The schools are closed. Many people aren't going to work. Quite frankly, a lot of the shops aren't open at all today. And people that we've been speaking to say they're absolutely frightened about this situation.

Now, there are some people who are coming out here. There are still some tourists here in town. However, compared to what a Monday morning would normally be like in Brussels, and it is a city that attracts a lot of tourists, but also one that has a lot of European politicians and bureaucrats here that all come in Monday morning, it is extremely quiet here, Christine.

ROMANS: Extremely quiet. And tell me, why Brussels? Why Belgium? Why do we keep hearing from counter terrorism folks that Belgium is the weak leak in Europe?

PLEITGEN: Well, one of the reasons, though there's several reasons that people are saying. One reason is they do have a lot of extremists from Belgium that have made their way to Syria and then have come back. There is that one area here in Brussels called Molenbeek, and that's also where a lot of the raids have been taking place. And that's one place where they say a lot of people have been going to Syria, coming back. And of course several of the plotters of the Paris attacks were from right here in Belgium, from Brussels as well.

And then you have the second strand, Christine, where that it's extremely easy to get weapons here in this country. It has been that way for a very long time. Things like AK-47s are available on the black market here in the city. And that of course is that deadly mix where you have the availability of weapons and you have a large number of extremists, and you had a lot of the Paris attackers who came from right here. And of course the main suspect, who is still at large, Salah Abdeslam, they believe he could very well be hiding out in the Brussels area as well. Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Fred, keep us up to date. Any developments this morning. Thanks, Fred.

KOSIK: And we now have new information on the Paris attackers. French national police posting the picture of a man they say is one of the Paris attackers who blew himself up, appealing to the public for more information about him.

We're also learning more about how and why the one attacker who survived got away. Sources close to the investigation telling CNN that Salah Abdeslam abandoned his car and called two acquaintances in Brussels to come get him. The lawyer for one of those men says here client thought Salah Abdeslam may have been planning to, quote, "blow himself up". Which leaves the myster, what was Abdeslam's real role in the attacks?

Let's bring in CNN's Max Foster, live in Paris with the latest on this. Meantime, we've got everyone in the background pontificating what Abdeslam's his role was in the Paris attack. Meantime, no one can find him.

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and all we're getting is some information. So the drivers, the people who took him from Paris to Brussels, are under arrest. We heard from one of the lawyers of one of those drivers, describing how he had a jacket on and he appeared to have something underneath it which could have been a suicide belt, they said.

But he was emotional. They feel they could have set it off. If that's the case, then he could potentially be in Brussels with a suicide belt. He's been there for the last few days. That'd be frightening. Also his brother has been on Belgian TV saying that he thinks Abdeslam actually pulled out at last minute from these attacks. That's his feeling. We haven't had any confirmation about that of course from the authorities.

[05:05:05] The Belgian authorities being very tight-lipped because they have a live investigation there in Brussels, as Fred has been describing.

Separately, a photo of what the authorities say is the third attacker, the Stade de France attack. We don't have his name, don't know anything about him. They just put this picture out, Alison, hoping that the public, their eyes and ears, possibly know something about him because they can't locate him. So there's two people that they're desperately trying to find in relation to the Paris attacks. And it's the public really that can help here, which is why they are appealing for help.

KOSIK: OK, meantime you've got a show of force between France's Britain, Britain's prime minister. They met just a short time ago. What came out of this meeting?

FOSTER: Well, interesting. It was for David Cameron, the British prime minister, it was a show of solidarity with the French. But President Hollande, actually, this is a first, in what's being described as a diplomatic dash this week. So he's meeting key allies to try to form an international coalition in this war, as he described it, against ISIS. He wants to be the middleman on this because he feels it's not coordinated properly internationally.

So he's got David Cameron today. He's got President Obama in Washington tomorrow. Angela Merkel, the French (sic) Chancellor back in Paris on Wednesday. Then he's going to Moscow to meet the Russian president as well, try to bring everyone's efforts against ISIS together in Syria. He wants them all to come together in a military action against them.

Of course, President Obama and President Putin have this fundamental difference, which is the future of President Assad in Syria. But perhaps President Hollande can bring them together and carve up ISIS territory, saying the American coalition attacks there, the Russian coalition attacks to this separate part. It'll be very interesting to see what President Hollande achieves in bringing the U.S. and Russia closer together on this. But he's empowered by this huge outpouring of sympathy for him and his country after the attacks here ten days ago.

KOSIK: Absolutely. All right, Max Foster, live from Paris, thanks so much.

ROMANS: President Obama has returned to Washington, back from a nine- day trip abroad. The president toughening his rhetoric against ISIS at a weekend news conference in Malaysia. But he also vowed to stick to the long term U.S. strategy for fighting the terrorist group.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They can't beat us on the battlefield so they try to terrorize us into being afraid, into changing our patterns of behavior, into panicking, into abandoning our allies and partners, into retreating from the world. As president, I will not let that happen. Destroying ISIL is not only a realistic goal: we're going to get it done and we're going to pursue it with every aspect of American power and with all the coalition partners that we've assembled. It's going to get done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: French President Hollande arrives in Washington Tuesday. He and President Obama will meet to discuss the international fight against ISIS.

KOSIK: Donald Trump creating new controversy in the race for president. From supporting fans who kicked and punched an anti-Trump protester to bringing back waterboarding. Next.

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[05:12:32]

KOSIK: Donald Trump leading the presidential pack in a new poll. This as Trump stirs controversy over the rough treatment of a protester at a weekend rally. The latest now from CNN's Chris Frates in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alison and Christine. A new ABC/"Washington Post" poll out Sunday shows that Donald Trump continues to lead the GOP field and he has a double-digit lead with 32 percent support. Ben Carson, he's running in second behind Trump with 22 percent. And the only other Republican with double digit support is Marco Rubio; he's coming in at 11 percent.

Now, this poll comes after a week of heated rhetoric on the campaign trail over whether to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States amid the fears that ISIS terrorists could be among them. Carson compared refugees to rabid dogs and Trump said he'd consider shutting down mosques and endorsed tracking U.S. Muslims in a database, an idea he doubled down on Sunday.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRSIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want a database for the refugees that, if they come into the country, we have no idea who these people are. When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we don't know if they're ISIS, we don't know if it's a Trojan horse. And I definitely want a database and other checks and balances.

FRATES: The controversial comments haven't seemed to hurt Trump or Carson's standing. In fact, more than half of those surveyed oppose taking in refugees from Syria. And despite the Paris attacks, the economy still tops the list of issues most important to voters, followed closely by terrorism. And among Republicans polled, the most important attribute they want in a candidate is someone who can change Washington. And that's a measure where Trump dominates.

At a rump rally in Alabama on Sunday, at least a half dozen white attendees shoved, tackled, punched and kicked a black protester, who disrupted Trump's speech. On Sunday, Trump suggested the violence was justified.

TRUMP: Maybe he should've been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting, what he was doing.

FRATES: Police told CNN that three people were asked to leave the event. No arrests were made and the protesters did not require medical attention. Christine, Alison, back to you guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Chris, thanks for that. Joining us now to discuss the latest in the 2016 race, live in our Washington bureau bright and early this Monday morning, CNN politics reporter Tal Kopan. Good morning, nice to see you.

TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

ROMANS: Let's stay on Donald Trump here, because yesterday he was on with George Stephanopoulos talking about what he says he witnessed, what he saw, after 9/11, and it sort of feeds into kind of the tone I think you've been seeing on that campaign over the last week or so. Listen.

[05:15:12]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people were cheering as that building came down, as those buildings came down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: George Stephanopoulos pressing him, saying, you know, authorities say that did not happen. Donald Trump saying, no, it was widely reported. It was on the news. And George Stephanopoulos saying, no, that did not happen. The "Washington Post" giving that four Pinocchios, calling it outrageous. George Pataki, the governor New York at the time, saying "not sure what luxury spider hole Donald Trump was hiding in on September 11, but I saw Americans come together that day." And the Paterrson, New Jersey, the police chief, where there's a second largest Muslim population in the U.S. by the way -- "That is totally false. That is patently false. That never happened. There were no flags burning. No one was dancing."

Is Donald Trump speaking right to the heart of his popularity on the campaign trail? What's this about?

KOPAN: Well, it's really interesting, right? We keep seeing his support sustain if not grow throughout this campaign, which is a little surprising sometimes. The comments he has made along the way, consistently there have been several moments where the political pundit class had said, surely, this is the one that is going to doom his campaign. And his support has only grown. Comments he's made about veterans and John McCain seem to be definitely a death knell for his campaign, and sure enough, his momentum only increased.

So there's certainly a population he's speaking to. His brashness, his forthrightness, his say whatever is going on in his mind -- that is part of his appeal. Now, what will that mean for a general election if he were to continue this momentum in the primary, that remains a big, open question.

KOSIK: You know, you talk about the empowerment with each controversial bit that Trump comes out with. You know, he came out with mosque surveillance, the idea that he wants a database, a tracking system, not only on what's going on in mosques for them to be surveilled, but also Syrian refugees that may come into the U.S. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, I don't want to close mosques, I want to surveil mosques. I want mosques surveilled. And let me tell you, the people that are involved in those mosques, they know who the bad ones are and they know who the good ones are. But they don't talk. And we have to surveil the mosques. And we were doing it!

(END VIDEO CLIP) KOSIK: So this goes along with his comments about Syrian refugees coming into this country. But as much as a lot of what he is saying is just not PC, there was a new poll from Bloomberg Politics showing what Americans think of Syrian refugees. And the majority polled say they don't want the U.S. to accept any. So is he speaking to what voters want to hear anyway?

KOPAN: Well, it certainly seems like it if they're responding the way they are and it reflects the poll numbers. Keep in mind, there is a lot of fear right now out there and there is a lot of concern and the threat of terrorism is very great to people. They -- you know, we went through 9/11 as a country. And, since then, things have been different and you see terrorism popping up all over the world and it's scary. And so it's kind of easy in some ways to speak to that fear in people and really respond to it.

Now, you also see that people are not necessarily responding to what President Obama was doing, which is speaking in a little bit more nuance, asking people to put aside their fear. Remember, George W. Bush really appealed to people in the way that he was a decider and the way he had a firm commitment and a confidence. And that's what you see from Donald Trump too. Even when he's saying that the fact -- you know, facticians say not true, four Pinocchios, he says it with such confidence, people want to believe him. And they sort of like that compass that they can set themselves against.

ROMANS: All right, Tal Kopan. So interesting. So much to talk about. A big week ahead. Thank you for getting up early for us.

KOPAN: Thanks for having me.

ROMANS: All right, now, time for an EARLY START on your money this morning. Stocks are down around the world. European Asian shares are lower. U.S. stock futures down a bit. Commodities getting pummeled. Oil prices sinking. And copper is at a six-year low.

Set to be announced this morning, the second largest merger of all time. A very big deal here. American drug company Pfizer wants to combine with Irish drugmaker Allergan. The deal is worth more than $150 billion. This would create the world's biggest drugmaker. It would also move Pfizer's headquarters overseas and cut its U.S. tax bill through a controversial move called inversion. It is legal. But the White House is trying to make it more difficult so that companies can't take advantage of this tax dodge, as many see it. You can expect outrage on the campaign trail.

KOSIK: But the thinking is this deal could still go through anyway.

[05:20:03]

All right, the Cincinnati Bengals suddenly slumping. Bengals and Cardinals were tied with a minute to go, but a big penalty proves costly. Coy Wire has this morning's Bleacher Report coming up next.

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KOSIK: Did you go to bed early? Well, if you did, you missed another fantastic finish in the NFL.

ROMANS: Coy Wire has more on last night's nail biter in this morning's Bleacher Report. Hey, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Alison. Yes, that duel in the desert between the Cardinals and Bengals had it all last night. Impressive offense, dominant defense, and a little bit of controversy. Arizona quarterback Carson Palmer, 13-year vet, still has it.

[05:25:02]

He throws four touchdown passes in the game, three in the third quarter alone. But then, late in the fourth quarter, score's tied at 31 and Cincinnati's Domata Peko, he's called for unsportsmanlike conduct. Officials said he was yelling fake quarterback calls to try to confuse the Cardinals as they were lining up to run a play that would set up the game-winning field goal. Cardinals kicker Chandler Catanzaro booted the 32 yarder through the uprights with two seconds remaining. Cardinals escape with a 34-31 victory and move to 8-2.

All right, no drama for Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. They just keep smoking. Like Stanley Ipkiss. Newton, he threw a career high five touchdowns. Not bad for a guy who never threw more than three more in a game. The Panthers improve to a perfect 10-0, routing the Redskins 44-16. Water cooler knowledge nugget for you, only 15 teams have started in 10-0 in the last half century and nine of them have made it to the Super Bowl. Six have won it all.

Now, speaking of perfect, in NBA action, Golden State looking good, looking great. Now 15-0, tying the record for the best start to an NBA season ever. Denver held Steph Curry to season-low 19 points, but teamwork makes the dream work as five Warriors score in the double digits. Warriors win 118-105. And tomorrow night, at home against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, they can break that record.

Finally, the NASCAR season wrapped up yesterday with Kyle Busch winning his first Sprint Cup championship. Quite the feat considering he missed the first 11 races after breaking his leg and foot. But all eyes on the guy who finished in sixth place. Jeff Gordon retiring, 23 seasons behind the wheel, four championships. He'll be driving the famous 24 car off into the sunset.

And, guys, we got no love for our hometown teams yesterday. Alison, your Dolphins lost to Dallas. Christines, your Bears were beat by the Broncos. I have a chance to get it right though tonight. My former team the Bills taking on the Patriots, undefeated Patriots, on Monday Night Football.

ROMANS: Calling John Berman.

All right, thanks so much, Coy Wire.

WIRE: You're welcome.

KOSIK: New terrorism raids in Belgium as we learn new information about the terrorist behind the attacks in Paris. That's next.

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