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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Democratic Presidential Debate Tonight; GOP Presidential Battlefield Moves to South Carolina; Can World Powers Negotiate Syria Cease-Fire?; Russian Airstrikes Hit Close to Turkey. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 11, 2016 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:30:17] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A critical night for Democrats in the race for president. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on the debate stage. Their first since Sanders' landslide New Hampshire primary win. What you can expect, ahead.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: South Carolina -- love is a battle field or no love is a battlefield in South Carolina. The Republicans hit that state going after each other hard.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour.
We are hours away now from a new showdown on the race for president. PBS Democratic debate, it will air right here on CNN tonight. And it is crystal where Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are drawing new battle lines for this face-off: minority voters.
After a high profile meeting with Al Sharpton in Harlem, Bernie Sanders hit the late show with Stephen Colbert. He repeatedly brought up the issue of racial oppression and addressed whether the political revolution he is calling for could end in violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable, is what John Kennedy said. If your answer is not the answer, is violent revolution inevitable?
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I wouldn't -- I certainly hope not. But I hope and what the goal of this campaign is about is to look at the civil rights movement, look at the women's movement, look at the gay movement -- understand that when people come together, we can accomplish enormous things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So that debate tonight takes place in Milwaukee at 9:00 p.m. You can watch it here and local PBS station. Senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, this morning, the focus is turning to Milwaukee and pivotal debate there tonight between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. It's so important because the former secretary of state lost momentum in the drubbing she took in New Hampshire, she is already trying to make changes to her campaign to appeal to younger voters.
Bernie Sanders is going to try to build on his fund raising success, as well as the big win in New Hampshire to show he is not a one-state wonder.
So, a lot riding on the debate. At the same time, the candidates are looking toward the next time the voters actually go to the polls. The pivot to South Carolina is a challenge for these candidates because of the demographics. African-American voters with big influence there.
But interesting Bernie Sanders didn't just fly to South Carolina after his big win. He went to Harlem to meet with Reverend Al Sharpton. And Sharpton wasn't issuing any endorsements at least at this point. He is waiting to meet with Hillary Clinton.
In talking with someone familiar with Sharpton's thinking, he has apparently got concerns about both candidates. There continue to be questions about whether Sanders can actually do the things he's talked about on the campaign trail. My understanding is while it all sounds good, there is skepticism about whether Sanders can deliver.
And also misgivings about Hillary Clinton, too. Though she polls well with minorities, there are questions about things Bill Clinton did as president that could affect Hillary's campaign. The wounds have not healed over the rhetoric and that sometimes divisive battle in the South Carolina primary in 2008. Bill Clinton seen as going a little too far at times.
There is also his signing of the welfare reform bill while he was president and crime bill that led to higher rates of incarceration. Bill Clinton has said he regrets that, but the source said the question is whether the African-American community is going to take "oops, I'm sorry" for an answer.
But today, the focus on Milwaukee and the latest face-off between the candidates and that debate -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: And that debate, that Democratic presidential sponsored by PBS airs tonight here on CNN and on your local PBS station live, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
BERMAN: All right. So, the Republican presidential field is smaller by two this morning. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina both dropped out of the race. More Republicans have quit the field. Ten folks have quit. There are seven left, including Jim Gilmore.
Today, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, they are all stumping in South Carolina, scene of the next primary on February 20th. Following Donald Trump's big win in New Hampshire, his rivals have nine days to bring him down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump who is an extraordinary politician, apparently, and a great actor and entertainer. It is entertaining until you get, you know, insulted. Not so entertaining if you are a disabled person. That's a sign of weakness in my mind or if you disparage women or Hispanics.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We cannot nominate the candidate who has the same health care plan of socialized medicine as Ben Sanders.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we still need to remember -- 75 percent of the voters yesterday in New Hampshire chose someone -- 65 percent chose someone other than Donald Trump.
[04:35:06] And the question is, how long will it take before, you know, we've got to a narrow enough field for that voter to consolidate?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Trump is only major Republican candidate not in South Carolina today. He is heading to Louisiana tonight for a rally in Baton Rouge.
Jim Acosta along for the ride.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Donald Trump literally took a victory lap on the stage behind me as he was savoring his landslide win in the New Hampshire primary. Trump tipped his hat to Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie who dropped out of the race.
And even though Trump has been attacked by nearly all of his rivals, the real estate tycoon rarely talked about his GOP candidates at this event here in South Carolina. Just a couple of lines on Jeb Bush, that's it.
But he did spend sometime sounding like a general election candidate, hitting Hillary Clinton as somebody who can't even beat Bernie Sanders. Here is how Trump put it here in South Carolina.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's got to get through this wacky socialist guy, Bernie. I -- listen, no, no, last night, last night, before I made my speech, I said I don't want to make it while he is making it. I let him go. He went on forever. He wants to give the country away.
ACOSTA: The Trump campaign is planning to stick with its strategy, holding big arena style rallies up and down the campaign calendar. Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told me he believes his candidate has a major advantage over the other GOP contenders in this field. Lewandowski said the campaign has staff and volunteers in 20 states. And Trump will not just be in South Carolina in the coming days, he'll be in Louisiana and Florida heading into the weekend -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks.
Breaking overnight, the State Department says it could release 550 remaining e-mails on Saturday after a judge scolded officials for continuing delays. About 3,700 of the emails remained out of the tens of thousands that Clinton kept on a private email server, creating, of course, a controversy that has dogged her presidential campaign. The government's original timeline would have had it releasing the e-mails the day before Super Tuesday.
BERMAN: The state of Ohio is poised to cut off $1.3 million in public funding for Planned Parenthood. The Governor John Kasich, who is running for president, is promising to sign the measure which already passed the state's house and senate. He calls the bill fiscally responsible. The measure will not force any Planned Parenthood centers in Ohio to close, but officials with the group say the cuts will harm many poor women in need of health services.
The nation's top health officials testify today at a Senate hearing where lawmakers are considering a request from President for $1.8 billion in funding to fast track a vaccine for the Zika virus. The Centers for Disease Control now confirming it has identified the virus in the tissue of two babies who died in Brazil from microcephaly. It's the strongest link yet between Zika and these birth defects we're seeing.
ROMANS: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour. Time for an early start on your money this morning. The Dow suffering through a four-day losing streaks. Futures suggest it will be five, thanks to the drop in oil prices overnight. Huge losses in stock markets in Europe and Asia right now.
Drivers, though, will save hundreds of dollars at the gas pump thanks to the crash in oil. Now travelers are finally seeing lower rates in the air as well. That's right, finally. Airfares dropped 6.2 percent in the third quarter of last year. The average ticket 372 bucks, the cheapest since 2010.
Experts say increased competition from low cost carriers like Spirit and Frontier have the major airlines dropping prices to stay competitive. Of course, the cost of jet fuel has dropped $1 a gallon in the past year. That allows for more flexibility in ticket prices.
BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, the FBI moving in on those remaining protesters, those occupiers, those folks who took over an Oregon wildlife refuge. And new arrest is made. We have some new details, next.
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[04:42:26] BERMAN: The FBI is closing in on the four remaining anti- government activists who occupied the Oregon wildlife refuge since January 2nd. No shots have been fired. Negotiations are ongoing. They surrounded the refuge. One of protesters rode outside of the barricades in an ATV. When agents approached him, he sped back inside.
Cliven Bundy, the father of the protest leader, was arrested at an airport. We don't know what the charges are. The Facebook post for the Nevada ranch says the older Bundy was on the way to the scene in Oregon.
ROMANS: Police in Maryland say they believe the suspects who gunned two sheriff deputies Monday was targeting police officers. Two deputies were killed in a shootout at a busy shopping center in Abingdon, Maryland, about 30 miles from Baltimore. The alleged shooter is a 68-year-old man described by police as a vagrant was also killed.
The federal government is suing Ferguson, Missouri, in an effort to force reforms in the police department and court system. It comes in response to city officials' rejection of the deal with the Justice Department, a deal negotiated after a report found widespread racial discrimination throughout Ferguson's law enforcement. The city became a symbol of problems after the shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown back in 2014. The officer involved was not charged.
BERMAN: City officials in Cleveland want the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy killed by police, to pay for the ambulance ride after he was fatally shot in 2014. The city filed a claim Wednesday against the estate asking for a $500 reimbursement. The attorney for the Rice family says they are disturbed by the city's actions.
ROMANS: The Flint water crisis is front and center on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers holding a second hearing Wednesday, but the governor of Michigan, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder declined to testify. He asked for another $195 million in funding for Flint from the state legislature. The city of Flint is under a boil water advisory following a water main break that officials say may have allowed bacterial contaminants to enter the water system.
BERMAN: Free at last. That is how one passenger put it as he disembarked from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship forced to return to a port in New Jersey. The Anthem of the Seas was battered by a storm in the Atlantic with 30-foot waves. Hurricane-force winds, some 6,000 passengers on board. This is bigger than the town I grew up in, by the way. For them, it is good to be back on dry land.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seventeen hours. It is like a roller coaster you cannot get off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scary, but the crew and captain were great.
[04:45:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just like the movie. The captain and crew, it all worked out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So glad to be home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The captain is a liar, liar. He lies. All lies.
REPORTER: What was lying? What were they lying about?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wind speeds. Everything. He said twelve hours. It was 12 hours of sheer torture.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The passengers were told to go to the cabins and stay there and they could look out and sea the waves above them, above them. Unbelievable.
BERMAN: Not fun. Not fun at all. Royal Caribbean apologized saying the storm far exceeded the forecast, but admitted it must do better to avoid situations. I get sea sick looking at these pictures.
ROMANS: I don't like a lot of people. That's a problem on a cruise ship of 6,000 people, bigger than your hometown and mine.
All right. An arctic freeze is on its way. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has more.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John and Christine, yes, the arctic air ahead of us the next couple days.
You really want to look at temperatures this morning where it feels like about 18 degrees in New York, 14 in Philly, 7 in Cincinnati. You see the numbers. You think it's cold, but the next couple days potentially with the wind chills at least could be some 20 to 30 degrees colder than that in some spots. Wind chills, if you take a look around parts of the Midwest and International Falls at 30 below zero. This is on Friday morning.
Chicago sits at a comfortable 10 degrees for a wind chill. And then notice what happens on Saturday. It really gives you an idea for what we are tracking on Sunday across the northeast, 14 below is what it feels like in Chicago. The Arctic air locked in place. The dip in the jet stream that brings the cold in by Saturday and Sunday.
That's when we think the coldest weather since January of 1994 could pop across parts of the Northeast. We are getting light snow showers this morning with a trough in place. Nothing significant, some flurries in Boston and New York. The biggest accumulation will be on the Great Lakes shores, the favorable lake-effect snow areas. The temperatures in Boston, down to minus 3 on Saturday night. High
temperature at 14 degrees. Look what happens. We do warm up Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. Some hope in recovery in the forecast and for New York as well.
A big time warming trend after the historic cooling trend, guys.
ROMANS: All right, Pedram.
BERMAN: President Obama back in the White House after revisiting the city where he launched his first presidential campaign nine years ago, in Springfield, Illinois. Pretty reflective there.
Listen to what the president acknowledge what he considers to be one of the biggest failures of his time in office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It has been noted, often, by pundits, that the tone of our politics hasn't gotten better since I was inaugurated. In fact, it's gotten worse, that there's still this yawning gap with the magnitude of our challenges and smallness of our politics, which is why in my final State of the Union Address and in the one before that, I had to acknowledge one of my few regrets is my inability to reduce the polarization and meanness in our politics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Interesting he brought that up. Saying he acknowledges that things are worse off in terms of tone and discourse than when he took office. He wishes that were not the case.
ROMANS: All right. Forty-eight minutes past hour.
Global selloff is happening right now around the world. How bad will it be when the market opens in the U.S. We're going to get an early check on your money, next.
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[04:51:42] ROMANS: Secretary of State John Kerry is calling for immediate cease-fire in Syria. He is in Germany right now for a meeting of major world powers. There is growing concern on two fronts -- over Russia's full throttle air support for the Syrian regime's offensive against rebel forces. Not only is it threatening the peace process. It's also triggering a refugee crisis of overwhelming proportions.
CNN has live coverage of both of these developing stories, these developing angles, starting with Nic Robertson in Munich -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, good morning, Christine.
The talks that will get under way here later today really critical for the peace process. If they can't hammer something out here, those talks that got off the ground a couple weeks ago in Geneva and the pause button hit because the Russian air strikes and the Syrian government ground forces campaign around Aleppo got to such a momentum, the U.N. felt all they could do is pause the talks rather than break them up completely.
The meetings here today, if they can't break that log jam, then the hopes for the meaningful peace process will breakdown. That will happen here. What we are hearing from the Russians right now is they are proposing a cease-fire the 1st of March.
This is what the ambassador to the United Nations said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VITALY CHURKIN, RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: We have a number of discussions with the United States, including the possibility of a cease-fire and also some humanitarian discussions. Very important discussions too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: The reality here is though that Russian credibility is at a low. They are regarded by the 18 nations and country groups meeting here today as the one single country along with Iran and, of course, the Syrian government that are causing the casualties in the conflict to escalate seriously at the moment.
So, right now, it does seem to be a hard sell. What we know the opposition is looking for here is to see humanitarian access across the country. That is going to be key for them.
However, the test is really going to come. Will the Russians compromise and move up this cease-fire to something meaningful and can they be trusted on it?
ROMANS: All right. Nic, thank you.
BERMAN: All right. Of course, there is the human toll to what is going on. Russian air strikes in Syria now coming dangerously close to the Turkish border. This is shifting the dynamic, the battle on the ground while destroying or uprooting the lives of so many civilians.
For more on that part of the story, we turn to CNN international correspondent Arwa Damon in southeastern Turkey, where you can see the impact of that refugee flow -- Arwa.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. If you will remember when the Russian air strikes allowed the Syrian regime to cut off a vital supply line from Turkey to rebel held areas of Aleppo, they not only hampered supply routes for rebel fighters, they also caused a massive humanitarian crisis when it comes to trying to get much-needed food supplies in, but also causing tens of thousands to flee toward Turkey's borders. And since the regime managed to take over and cut off that supply route, they cut rebel held areas in half and they have been moving closer toward Turkey's borders.
[04:55:07] In the last 24 to 48 hours, air strikes happening about a ten minute drive away from the Turkey border, causing tens of thousands more to flee as well. Meanwhile, Turkey says it has an open-door policy, but its gates do remain closed. In the aftermath of these airstrikes, I mean, it is absolutely devastating and heartbreaking and violence that is only too familiar in Syria's war zone.
One video posted to YouTube showed a little girl in complete shock. She was bloodied. She had shrapnel in her head that doctors were trying to remove. She was trying to speak but she quite simply couldn't. And this is just one example of the countless lives that this ongoing fighting has been claiming.
Meanwhile, not many are really putting a lot of hope in the fact that the cease-fire talks will actually amount to anything. The opposition fighters say they have been betrayed too many times by the international community, while the Syrian regime for its part has massive support from Russia, but also from numerous other actors on the ground to include Iraqi militias and, of course, vital support that it does get from Iran.
BERMAN: Why should they hope there would be success in the peace negotiations after all they have seen over the last several years?
Arwa Damon for us in Turkey, thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. Fifty-six minutes past the hour. Let's get an early start on your money this morning.
It's drop -- big drop in oil prices is sending global stock markets tumbling. Crude now below $27 a barrel. The Dow futures, John, down almost 300 points. Europe is sinking as well. Stocks in Hong Kong plummeting after the holiday break.
In the midst of that emergency water crisis, Flint, Michigan, also has a major housing problem now. Look at this, the average vacancy rate in Flint is 7.5 percent. That's nearly five times higher than the nationwide average of 1.6 percent. These are new numbers crunched from RealtyTrac. One in 14 houses in Flint are vacant. The five zip codes close to the city center, one in five homes is empty. Wow.
The city's housing market was hit hard during the great recession. Prices were up last year. Now, there are signs that the water crisis is straining Flint's housing recovery. The median home price fell by 8 percent in December alone, 8 percent. The biggest drop in the country.
A Twitter shares taking a nose dive. The company lost 2 million users in the fourth quarter of last year, breaking the total to $350 million. Compare that to Instagram, which has more than 400 million, and the king of social networking, Facebook, 1.6 billion active users. Twitter stock getting crushed. It is down 67 percent over the past
year. Shares down another 3 percent pre-market trading. It's going to get nailed this morning.
What is behind the drop? Ad sales not growing quickly enough. Rumors of sales have been swirling around the tech community for months. It turns out some people are addicted to Twitter but --
BERMAN: Don't look at me.
ROMANS: But investors are not addicted to Twitter at the moment.
BERMAN: No, that's the last thing you want if you're a social media company and you're not growing, it's really awful.
ROMANS: And making money from what you're offering and getting buy-in on the things you are offering to users. Yes.
BERMAN: All right. EARLY START continues right now.
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ROMANS: In just hours, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton face-off on the debate stage in what could be a pivotal moment in the Democratic race for president. The new strategies going into tonight.
BERMAN: Republicans, they take the race to South Carolina where bare- knuckle politics is a national past time. Frontrunner Donald Trump with a big event overnight. What he said and how his opponents plan to take him down, that's coming up.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Thursday, it's February 11th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.
We are just now hours away from the showdown in the race for president. PBS Democratic debate will air right here on CNN tonight. And it's crystal clear where Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are drawing new battle lines for this face-off, minority voters. After a high profile meeting with Al Sharpton in Harlem, Bernie Sander hit "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert".
He repeatedly addressed the issue of racial oppression. He addressed whether his political revolution he's calling for could end in violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable, is what John Kennedy said. If your answer is not the answer, is violent revolution inevitable?
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I wouldn't -- I certainly hope not. But I hope and what the goal of this campaign is about is to look at the civil rights movement, look at the women's movement, look at the gay movement -- understand that when people come together, we can accomplish enormous things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: That debate tonight takes place in Milwaukee. It's at 9:00 p.m.
Senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns has the latest for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: John and Christine, this morning, the focus is turning to Milwaukee and pivotal debate there tonight between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. It's so important because the former secretary of state lost momentum in the drubbing she took in New Hampshire, she is already trying to make changes to her campaign to appeal to younger voters.
