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Chicago Police Chief Fired, Investigation Launched; U.S. Sending More Special Ops Forces to Iraq; Trump Rallies Supporters in New Hampshire. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 02, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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


[04:00:13] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Was there a cover-up in a police shooting of a Chicago teenager? New investigation launched into the police department as one of the city's top cop is fired.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. is expanding its role in the fight against ISIS in Iraq. New ground troops heading in as the terrorists make alarming new gains in Libya.

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

ROMANS: Nice to see you this morning. I'm Christine Romans. It's Wednesday, December 2nd. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.

The search is on for a new head of the Chicago Police Department after Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired police superintendent Garry McCarthy. That dismissal comes amid angry protests over a police officer shooting of a black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. After McCarthy's resignation, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan called for a federal civil rights investigation into the Chicago Police Department. Madigan's request to the Justice Department says, "The shocking death of Laquan McDonald is the latest tragedy in our city that highlights serious questions about the use of unlawful and excessive force by Chicago police officers and the lack of accountability for such abuse."

CNN's Ed Lavandera has more for us this morning from Chicago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Alison, activists here in the city of Chicago say that the firing of the city's top cop is just the beginning of the changes they want to see. A great deal of scrutiny swirling around Garry McCarthy, as well as Mayor Rahm Emanuel and just why it took so long for Officer Jason Van Dyke to be charged with murder in the shooting of Laquan McDonald. The actions of both men under a great deal of scrutiny. Rahm Emanuel says there has been too much focus on the superintendent of the police department here in Chicago. And because of that, it was time to make a change in the top position there.

But many of those activists say Rahm Emanuel deals a great deal of responsibility as well with the way the Laquan McDonald case has been handled.

The news of McCarthy's firing came rather suddenly. In fact, Superintendent McCarthy was on a radio station in Chicago on Tuesday morning saying that he still believed that he had the backing of Rahm Emanuel. And then a few hours later, that announcement was made.

Rahm Emanuel insists that he is responsible for the way all of this is handles and he calls for a task force to look at the way these complaints are handled. But that is a task force that has a deadline of March of next year to come back with a final report -- Christine and Alison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: OK, Ed, thanks for that.

And new plans this morning to send additional U.S. commandos to Iraq in the fight against ISIS. Defense Secretary Ash Carter revealing if congressional testimony that the Pentagon is organizing what it is calling a specialized expeditionary targeting force. Carter telling lawmakers the plan, quote, "puts everyone on notice. You don't know at night who's going to be coming into the window."

The latest now from Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Alison, in the face of weathering criticism, the administration making a renewed effort to show progress against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announcing a new effort for U.S. Special Operations forces to be based in Iraq and do raids and missions in Iraq, and even to go into Syria, very dangerous business. They want to build on the intelligence capability already there, have these troops go rescue hostages, gather intelligence, attack ISIS leadership -- all of that.

Now, it's going to be a relatively small number of special operations force, but they will be backed up in a significant manner. They will have their own helicopters, their own rescue forces, if they run into trouble. So, at the end of the day, that could put another 200 troops into the arena, even as an additional 50 special operations forces are scheduled to arrive in northern Syria.

It is a brush-up in the U.S. effort. But officials are telling us, it could still be weeks before troops arrive, a lot of work to be done about what units will go and exactly how they will operate -- Alison, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Barbara, thank you.

There is concern this morning about a new United Nations report, a report warning that ISIS has succeeded in building a substantial presence in Libya. The U.N. report says ISIS has as many as 3,000 fighters in the North African country, describing it as the most promising addition to the terror group's so-called caliphate outside Syria and Iraq. This report likely to increase worry about ISIS' ability to export terror from its base in the coastal city of Sirte, just a few hundred miles from the southernmost islands of Europe.

For the very latest, I want to bring in CNN's Ian Lee.

[04:05:00] And, Ian, this is an alarming report, no question.

IAN LEE, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Christine.

ISIS being able to carve out territory in the central part of Libya on the coastline. We are hearing that the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi has been monitoring the progress more directly in Libya, sending 800 fighters there from Iraq and Syria to provide a back bone to ISIS. Therefore, urban warfare and explosives-making and it also has become a beacon, for one of the fighters if Africa, there are fighters from Egypt, Tunisia and other parts of Africa joining this ISIS affiliate.

We are hearing that they have about 3,000 fighters in total and they have been striking out in neighboring countries as well. Attacks in Tunisia, as well in Egypt and this is very concerning for the European Union as it is less than really from Crete, it's less than 200 miles away from the Libyan coast. So, European officials very worried about the expanding presence of ISIS in Libya -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Ian Lee, thank you for that, Ian.

KOSIK: And alarming report on the rise of ISIS. According to a new study by George Washington University, support for the terror group has reached unprecedented levels in America with several thousand ISIS sympathizers based here.

The report goes on to say there were more terrorism-related arrests in the U.S. in 2015 than any year since 9/11. Researchers identifying at least 300 Americans who actively support ISIS on social media.

ROMANS: A Pentagon plan to close Guantanamo Bay and replace it with a prison here in the U.S. rejected by the White House. According to "The Wall Street Journal," the administration considers the $600 million price tag too expensive. The measure called for $350 million just to construct a new facility in America, with nearly $300 million more in annual Pentagon operating costs. The Defense Department must now come up with a more affordable option.

KOSIK: Congress moving quickly to undercut the president's call for a global climate change agreement. The House passing two measures already approved by the Senate that would scuttle EPA restrictions on carbon emissions from coal fired power plants. Lawmakers taking the action just hours after the president address world leaders at the climate change summit in Paris. President Obama has promised to veto the measures.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning. A good morning for stocks European and Asian shares mostly higher. U.S. stock futures are climbing, too, after a, you know, a strong start to the month yesterday. The Dow up 168 points. December has historically been very good to investors and a good day yesterday for the Dow, even though there was a worrisome report about manufacturing in the U.S.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is celebrating the birth of his daughter by pledging to give away 99 percent of his Facebook shares over his lifetime, those shares currently valued at a cool $45 billion. They will go to charities that focused on curing diseases, personalized learning and community building.

Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, they announced it yesterday to their daughter, Maxima Chan Zuckerberg. They wrote, quote, "We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others."

Congratulations to them and good role models, I think, for giving away their wealth like that.

KOSIK: Oh, yes, especially that young, 30 and 31, giving that much, over your lifetime. It's good for them.

Donald Trump leading in polls and explaining why he thinks his supporters can contrary him to victory, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:12:44] KOSIK: With each passing day, it looks more and more like the path to the presidential Republican nomination will go through Donald Trump. The GOP frontrunner is stepping up his campaigning and standing by his apparently unfounded claim that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the 9/11 attack. Trump, though, struck a different tone Tuesday as he rallied supporters in New Hampshire.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Alison, a much more subdued Donald Trump on Tuesday night in New Hampshire, as he took questions, a rarity for him in this town hall- like setting. For two months out, the first of the 2016 campaign, a very long campaign that is quickly moving into the next phase. But Donald Trump had a more serious tone, several voters told me, and a much more subdued tone as he talked to this crowd.

One thing I was struck by, he says his voters are the most loyal regardless of what he says. Let's take a listen.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, one of the things that comes out in the poll, that I have the most loyal people, that people say he can do anything. He can do anything.

So, I don't know if that's right. But they say I have the most loyal people. Others, if you sneeze, they drop you. Me, I can sneeze, I can say things that I think are right.

Like you notice what's happening in New Jersey? They're now finding a lot of people saying, yes, that did take place in New Jersey, right? I wasn't going to apologize. I wasn't going to apologize.

A lot of things happened today where they were dancing and they were happy. There were a lot of happy people over in New Jersey, and I saw it and a lot of people saw it, and I'm getting hundreds of phone calls and a lot of other people are, too. And things are all of a sudden materializing.

ZELENY: Now, of course, Donald Trump is still doubling down on that comment from 9/11. He said thousands of people were seen cheering on the New Jersey side of the river as the towers fell. No video evidence of that has ever come forward. Donald Trump brought it up again at his rally on Tuesday night. So, that clearly is going to be an issue.

But I can tell you, the voters I talked to said that they are not interested in that. They are much more interested in his economic proposals, his terrorism proposals, his position of strength. The point here is, as he goes forward in this next two months of this campaign, will any other Republican rivals be able to stop him, will they be able to slow him?

At this point, it is Trump largely versus the rest of the Republican field.

[04:15:01] And he is stepping up his campaigning. He has been in Georgia, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina and Iowa by weekend. He is stepping up his campaign. He clearly thinks he could actually win this Republican-nominating contest -- Christine and Alison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Jeff. Thank you for that this morning.

Former first daughter, Chelsea Clinton, plans to host a fundraiser for her mom's presidential campaign later this month. The family holiday celebration will take place in New York December 17th. It's the first Clinton campaign with Chelsea as a headliner. She has had a limited role so far in her mom's campaign. On the same day that Hillary Clinton will host a fundraiser for the DNC featuring her husband.

KOSIK: The first Freddie Gray trial speeding along. The judge expect the jury to be seated this morning and opening statements to begin in the afternoon. Officer William Porter is the first of six Baltimore officers to be tried in connection with the death of Freddie Gray. The 25-year-old Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. Roughly 125 potential jurors have been questioned in the past two days.

ROMANS: We are hearing for the first time from the Cleveland police officer charged in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. In a statement to investigators, Officer Timothy Loehmann says he thought the threat was, quote, "real and active" when he shot the boy outside a recreation center last fall. He says he had a gun and appeared to be over 18-years-old. In fact, Rice had a pellet gun. Loehmann says he believes the pellet gun was real and the person waving it was an adult. A grand jury is investigating.

KOSIK: Robert Dear's ex-wife says the alleged Planned Parenthood shooter targeted the organization before. She tells NBC News that Dear put glue in the locks of another clinic 20 years ago. Her divorce filing described him as violent and isolated. Dear is charged with killing three people and wounding nine others in an hours-long siege of Colorado Springs last week.

ROMANS: The FBI says Black Friday the same day as the Planned Parenthood attack was the biggest day ever for firearms backgrounds checks. The agency processed about 185,000 checks, 5 percent more than the same time last year.

KOSIK: A background check does not necessarily mean a gun is purchased but is used by the gun industry as a rough measure of overall sales.

Looking like a soaking day for the East Coast. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has the forecast.

Good morning.

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

Yes, the soaking rains are expected to continue for much of the Eastern Seaboard. Look at the source region of this moisture, coming in all the way from the Pacific, over portions of the Gulf, we calculate that over a 5,000 mile area of moisture source coming out of the Pacific on into portions of the Northeast.

Notice the showers certainly scattered about, mild temperatures down the South this morning, 63 across portions of Atlanta. The rains certainly associate with this frontal boundary. Northern New England, cold enough for some snow flurries. Nothing really significant. One- to-two inches over the next couple of days, two to four inches, the heaviest pockets going to be on the Florida panhandle, northern Georgia, western North Carolina, that's really what we think some intense rainfall is expected.

But there is cold air, look at the pictures, incredible warmth set to return for the next several weeks. We're talking, climatologically speaking, this is well above the average. In fact, the Climate Prediction Center gives it an 80 percent chance of above normal temperatures for the next couple of weeks around the northern tier of the country. Today, how about 55 in New York? Should be up around 78 in Charleston -- guys.

ROMANS: All right. We'll take 55 in New York.

KOSIK: Absolutely.

ROMANS: All right. Happening now: intense negotiations at the climate change summit in Paris. Can world leaders agree on any substantial change? We are live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:23:09] ROMANS: President Obama back in Washington this morning after laying out his vision for global climate change to world leaders in Paris. The president expressing confidence an agreement will be reaped at the global warming summit. But he is setting a high bar, insisting any deal must contain a legally binding mechanism to make sure every country complies.

I want to go to Paris right now and bring in our Phil Black for the very latest. He has been covering all this president -- the president heading home, but the hard work still happening there behind you.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right, Christine. So, what is being considered and described as one of the biggest ever gathering of world leaders, most of those 150 or so heads of state have left. But they have left behind their ministers, their negotiators to announce in the next ten days or so, thrashing out the details of what looks to be a complex climate change agreement.

The hope is this agreement will last together all the individual pledges and promises that have been made voluntarily by countries to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change. But it's already understood that together these pledges will not add up to the results of this process is aiming for, that is they won't reach the temperature increases within 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit or about 2 degree Celsius by the end of the century.

But the hope is that together over time, these pledges can through this new framework be built upon, become more ambitious and ultimately the goal can be reached. This is the part President Obama says should be legally binding. Not the pledges, themselves, countries wouldn't be punished for not living up to their word. But he wants a regular review, so say every five years, they get together again, assess how they are going, whether or not those pledges can become more ambitious over time.

Other countries, Europe and elsewhere had wanted a full blown enforceable climate change treaty. But that was never likely to happen because for America to sign on, it would require the approval of a hostile Congress.

[04:25:06] So, a lot of details to work out, but there is genuine optimism at the end of this process, that should end of Friday after next, there could be an agreement that does hold some chance of pointing the planet into the direction of a low carbon future -- Christine.

ROMANS: Into the direction of a low carbon future.

All right. Phil Black, thank you for that in Paris for us this morning.

KOSIK: Growing concerns this morning about the polluted waters of Rio de Janeiro, host of next year's summer Olympics. Tests conducted by "The Associated Press" revealing waterways riddled with pathogens caused by raw sewage flows, waterways that will be used by the athletes.

One Olympic sailor from Germany conducted MRSA, a flesh-eating bacteria, after competing in an event in Rio in August.

ROMANS: All right. Did Chicago leaders cover up the police shooting of a black teenager? A federal investigation now launched into police practices as the city's top cop gets the boot.

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