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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Goes to War Against New York Times; Kentucky and Oregon Primaries Today; NTSB Blames Train Crash on Engineer Distraction; Syria Peace Talks Resuming. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 17, 2016 - 04:30   ET

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


[04:30:40] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump on the war path against the "New York Times," blasting the paper for an article and its depiction of how Donald Trump treats women. This as a former primary rival John Kasich tells CNN he can't now endorse the presumptive nominee because of how his wife and daughters would feel.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: In just hours Democrats in two states head to the polls to pick their presidential candidate. Can Hillary Clinton end Bernie Sanders' winning streak?

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Nice to see you. 31 minutes after the hour.

Breaking overnight a lawyer for Donald Trump suggests Trump might sue the "New York Times" over its article portraying his treatment of many women as sexist and unsettling. Trump's fury over the story extended late into last night with a series of tweets. One said, "No wonder the 'Times' is failing. Who can believe what they write after the false, malicious and libelous story they did on me?"

CNN's Erin Burnett asked Trump Organization attorney Jill Martin about the chance of a lawsuit against the "Times." Martin responded that it is a distinct possibility. All this as the "Times" is defending the piece. Michael Barbaro told me yesterday that none of the facts of the piece are in dispute.

One of the women quoted in the story told CNN last night that her portrayal was factual.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA RES, FORMER ENGINEER ON TRUMP CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS: The article has pretty much quoted me the way I spoke it.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Did you think it was negative? Do you think there was an agenda attached to it?

RES: It's hard to say. You know, I -- I think that you would probably come away with a negative feeling about Trump, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there was an agenda to make it that way.

I would say good luck with life, Donald. But I don't think that you, you know, should be president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Now but not all the women depicted in the piece like how they were portrayed. CNN's Sara Murray has more.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine. Donald Trump kicked off his week by going to war with the media. He took aim at the "New York Times" for a report they had in which they interviewed dozens of women who were in Donald Trump's orbit who said he seemed to objectify them. He seemed to make unwelcomed advances toward them. One woman who was a contestant in his pageant even said she received an unwanted kiss on the lips from Donald Trump.

But there was one of the women who was prominently featured in the story who came out. She was on CNN and said she felt misrepresented by her portrayal in the "New York Times." She said she never felt uncomfortable around Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROWANNE BREWER LANE, FORMER DONALD TRUMP GIRLFRIEND: I asked them several times if it was a negative piece they were writing on him in general because I didn't have anything negative to say with my experience with Donald. And I was actually warned by some people that it can tend to be spun negative. And I said that's impossible because I'm not giving them a negative story.

He was a gentleman. He was thoughtful. He was kind. He was generous. He was a gentleman.

LEMON: Yes.

LANE: You know, and he and I had a lot of fun together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: And that sent Donald Trump off on Twitter. He raised the alarm with CNN's own control room when this women originally appeared on FOX News to make sure that there were people disputing the story. He took to Twitter to say that the story was false, to say it was malicious

Now all of this just builds into a broader narrative when it comes to Donald Trump, and that is the issue of how he deals with women, how he's dealt with women in the past. One thing we still haven't seen from the campaign is a cohesive attempt to try to improve Donald Trump's favorability numbers with women in the broader electorate, and he does have an issue on that front. Many of those women do have an unfavorable view of him and that's something the campaign is going to have to deal with if they hope to win in November.

Back to you, John and Christine.

BERMAN: All right, Sara Murray, thanks so much. Now almost on cue overnight, Priorities USA, a Hillary Clinton super

PAC or pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC, announced it is releasing its first commercial of the campaign targeting Trump. It hits him for past comments he's made about women. It's part of a $6 million buy in the battleground states of Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Nevada. Priorities USA plans to spend well over $100 million by the time this campaign is done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, you can see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of here wherever. Does she have a good body? No. Does she have a fat ass? Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Also new overnight, John Kasich says that unless Donald Trump changes all his views and becomes a more unifying candidate, the Ohio governor would be hard pressed to endorse him. And Kasich says he is even less inclined to become Trump's running mate.

[04:35:06] Speaking exclusively to Anderson Cooper, Kasich said that even though he has deep reservations about Trump, he will not mount a third party bid. In Kasich's words, it just doesn't feel right. But even as Kasich portrayed himself as a local Republican, he told Anderson he has not made up his mind about backing the party's presumptive nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, AC 360: So just for the record, you're undecided about whether or not you would endorse Donald Trump.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I am, right. Right. I'm undecided.

COOPER: Are you undecided about whether you'd actually vote for him?

KASICH: You know, at the end of the day endorsing is going to mean a lot and, frankly, my wife and my daughters have watched this. And if I were to turn around today and endorse him they'd be like, why, dad, and that matters to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with former secretary of state Henry Kissinger tomorrow here in New York. Dr. Kissinger is widely considered the Republican Party's elder statesman on global affairs. And Trump looking to develop his foreign policy acumen according to the report in the "Washington Post." The 92-year-old Kissinger was a top adviser to Presidents Nixon and Ford.

ROMANS: In just hours, Hillary Clinton hopes to bounce back in at least one state after losses to Bernie Sanders in Indiana and West Virginia. Both campaigns thinks Sanders has the edge in Oregon today but Secretary Clinton has been investing a lot of time and money in Kentucky, which her campaign thinks has a better chance to win.

The latest now from senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, another election day today, Kentucky and Oregon. The Clinton campaign is really looking to a win in Kentucky as one of the states they believe they could possibly use to break Bernie Sanders' recent winning streak.

Hillary Clinton campaigning across the state of Kentucky, making some 11 stops in her last series of visits over the last couple of weeks. But yesterday, she campaigned aggressively across Kentucky. She of course had Donald Trump in her main focus here even as she tries to outrun Bernie Sanders. But she took on a bit of Donald Trump's own words as she imagined what a debate against him would be like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's just imagine I'm on a debate stage with Donald Trump. Now personally I am really looking forward to it.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: And so let's suppose here's the question. So what is your plan to create jobs? His answer is I'm going to create them. They're going to be great. I know how to do it. But I'm not telling you what it is I'm going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So even as Hillary Clinton keeps her eye on Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders has his eye on Hillary Clinton. That's why he is coming here to Los Angeles to have a campaign rally tonight. He believes those 475 delegates in the state of California on June 7th could be at least a moral victory for him, even if it's not enough to put him over the top. But he'll be campaigning aggressively here in California for the final three weeks until the June 7th primary here and this long Democratic fight finally wraps up -- John and Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Jeff, thank you for that.

President Obama is defending his order to the nation's public schools allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity. In his first public comments since issuing the directive, the president said his administration used its best judgment to help schools that are struggling with the issue. Even more important, say the president, the children it might help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Anybody who has been in school, been in high school, who has been a parent, I think should realize that kids who are sometimes in the minority, kids who, you know, have a different sexual orientation or transgender, are subject to a lot of bullying, potentially. You know, they're vulnerable. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Many Republican lawmakers have condemned the federal transgender bathroom order to the nation's public schools. They call it presidential overreach.

BERMAN: The Supreme Court chose not to resolve the dispute between religious employers and the White House over the contraception coverage mandate in Obamacare. The justices sent the matter back to lower courts hoping the two sides can reach a compromise in the four- year legal battle.

They actually had both sides present briefs to discuss where compromise was possible. This could be a new example of how Justice Scalia's death has affected how the court approaches contentious cases.

ROMANS: All right, time for an EARLY START on your money this Tuesday morning. This is what a jump of $18 billion in market value looks like. Apple stock popped 4 percent yesterday after Warren Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway revealed it bought 9.8 million shares of Apple in the first quarter.

Buffet is known for his aversion to the tech sector but with Apple's recent drop this year, the price could have been too good to pass up. Berkshire also brought on some new fund managers in the past two years which reportedly influenced the buy.

[04:40:02] That jump from Apple helped the Dow gained 175 points yesterday. All three major averages adding around 1 percent. Bit of relief rally to start the week as the market has dropped for the past three weeks. As for today Dow futures up. Stock markets in Europe are up. Europe up. Shares in Asia finishing up. Oil reaching above $48 a barrel overnight.

All right. Air travelers. Missing flights across the country. Long TSA lines leaving passengers stranded, frustrated. The expensive solutions and how long this problem could last. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: A loss of focus by an Amtrak engineer is expected to be blamed when the NTSB issues its findings today on the derailment last year near Philadelphia that killed eight people. Investigators say the deadly crash happened after someone threw a rock at a commuter train nearby.

[04:45:02] The agency says the distraction from radio traffic caused the engineer to take a 50-mile-an-hour curve at more than 100 miles an hour.

CNN's Rene Marsh has the latest.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Christine, a source tells CNN an NTSB investigation into the Amtrak 188 derailment that killed eight and injured more than 200 people in Philadelphia last year has concluded that the train's engineer, Brandon Bostian, was distracted prior to the crash. Specifically he was distracted by radio conversations between other trains and dispatchers about other trains being hit with projectiles.

The NTSB will announce this morning at a public meeting their conclusion. Investigators say they found no evidence that the Amtrak engineer was using alcohol, drugs or a cell phone.

We do know that the ride from the train station in Philadelphia to the site of the derailment was 11 minutes. And investigators say seven to nine of the minutes, the engineer was listening and participating in the radio conversations regarding other trains being hit with a projectile. Bostian approached a 50-mile-per-hour curve at 106 miles per hour last May -- John, Christine.

BERMAN: All right, Rene Marsh.

A federal judge is ordering that the names of the so-called unindicted co-conspirators in the New Jersey bridgegate scandal be made public by noon today. We could learn if anyone else in Governor Chris Christie's inner circle or Christie himself was involved in a 2013 the decision to close lanes at the George Washington Bridge, as accused, as being an act of political retribution. One person has already pleaded guilty and two others are going to trial in connection with the bridgegate scandal.

ROMANS: Defense testimony resumes this morning in the trial of the Baltimore Police Officer Edward Nero, one of the six officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray last year while in police custody. Before the prosecution rested its case yesterday, Officer Garrett Miller testified he alone took Gray into custody after a chase. Nero contends he had just a minor role in the arrest. Miller is one of two officers who were compelled to testify at Nero's trial despite their own pending charges.

BERMAN: This morning, the gun that George Zimmerman used to kill unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012 goes back on the auction block. Zimmerman will try again to sell the 9 millimeter handgun after a failed attempt last week. He says a new online auction will begin on the United Gun Group site at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. The starting bid for the firearm, which Zimmerman calls a piece of American history, is $100,000.

ROMANS: All right. If you happen to be flying this morning, get to the airport early. Lines at security check points are longer than ever. Many passengers reporting wait times of two to three hours and that means a lot of frustrated travelers are missing their connections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were just in security for almost two hours and ran to our gate and it was three minutes shy of the door closing, so we got a hotel and are back and hopefully I'll make this one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got here about three -- two and one-half hours early and it still wasn't enough time. I had to go back to my friend's place and try it again this morning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Two and a half early and he could not get his flight. So when will the crash at the security checkpoints ease? Well, sometime this summer, the TSA hopes. The Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson says it's a matter of money.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We're working with Congress to get TSA more funding. Congress last week approved a reprogramming of $34 million for more overtime and to expedite the hiring of more TSOs. And with OMB, we are evaluating whether more will be necessary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Secretary Johnson is hoping to have 768 new TSA security officers in place by mid-June. But in the meantime the advice is pack a patience and plan a lot of time at the airport.

BERMAN: I still can't believe it. That kid said he got there two and a half to three hours early.

ROMANS: I know.

BERMAN: He still didn't make his flight.

ROMANS: I know. There are some airports that lawmakers and a couple of different places around the country are talking about kicking TSA out. They want to take over this security themselves so that's a real problem.

BERMAN: Severe thunderstorms in the forecast for a big part of Texas. Let's bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

(WEATHER REPORT)

[04:50:37] ROMANS: All right, Pedram, thank you for that.

All right. Stocks jumped to start the week. Is the market ready to break out of its recent slump or is this just a short rally? We're going to get an EARLY START on your money next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Talks aimed at resolving the civil war in Syria resume today.

[04:55:02] The International Syria Support Group led by the U.S. and Russia will meet in Vienna. Secretary of State John Kerry says they hope to build on efforts to restore a nationwide ceasefire. This comes as the Assad regime claims local reconciliation efforts are in fact working.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is following developments. He is live in Damascus.

Fred, what can you tell us?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John. And you know, those local reconciliation efforts that the Syrian government says is making. It's something that the U.S. certainly is very, very skeptical of. They say yes, it could work in some towns and villages, but they also say that in the end, it needs to be a reconciliation process for the entire country. Because otherwise all you're doing is dividing the rebel factions here. And of course they also have political qualms that they want to see solved as well.

But at the same you look at the Vienna summit that's happening today. And the goals for that summit certainly are more than humble. At this point in time, they're not even talking about a political transition process. What they're talking about right now is trying to get a ceasefire that's already supposed to be in place for the entire country to get back to work again because up in the Aleppo region in the north of the country, it's falling apart.

There's a lot of fighting going on here. Actually here in the Damascus region, it's holding a lot better. And the other goal that they have is simply trying to get people to stop dying, to get the fighting to stop here in Syria, but also to get people to stop starving to death because there are a lot of besieged areas here in this country where people are not getting medical aid. They're not getting food aid.

And I spoke to the Red Cross just a couple of days ago. And they said they recently tried to deliver aid to a district here in Damascus that is under siege. They were held at a government checkpoint for seven hours and then turned back. And there's many other districts on both sides of the equation where that is happening, where people are in danger of starving to death because the humanitarian situation is still bad so that certainly is going to be at the top of the agenda of those talks going on today -- John.

BERMAN: And I think it's been going on for five years. And the millions and millions of people caught in the middle there.

Frederik Pleitgen in Damascus, great reporting there. Fred, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right, 57 minutes past t hour. Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. Dow futures are higher after some strong gains yesterday. A nice rally yesterday. Investors gained some confidence about upcoming retail earnings and oil prices are at the highest of the year. Crude up again today. Now trading above $48 a barrel. Stock markets in Europe and Asia rising as well.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is making the most of his trip to Asia. Cook will stop in India today. Sources telling CNN Money that will mark his first trip as CEO to that nation. He is expected to meet with the prime minister who has been trying to invigorate India's manufacturing sector and develop the country's ties to Silicon Valley. Cook was in China solidifying Apple's $1 billion investment in that's country's version of Uber. He also visited an Apple store in Beijing.

The region is important to Apple sales and India offers a big growth opportunity with its population of 1.2 billion people. At the end of March, combined sales in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India accounted for 23 percent of Apple's total. Shares in China and Taiwan totals 25 percent.

Central banks around the world are dumping U.S. debt at a record pace. In all banks sold $17 billion worth of treasury bonds in March. China, Russia and Brazil all sold off more than $1 billion each in treasuries. That brings the total so far this year to a staggering $123 billion in sales. The fastest pace of U.S. debt selloff, John, since 1978.

Here is the interesting part. It's not because the countries are worried about the U.S. economy. It is because their own economies are struggling with low oil prices, slower growth, falling currency values. U.S. treasury bonds have long been considered one of the safest investments in the world. The year on a -- yield on the 10- year treasury bond is 1.77 percent, which shows it's still in high demand even with that recent selloff.

More reflection of what's happening in those countries. Less was happening here.

BERMAN: It's really interesting to see.

ROMANS: Isn't it? In 1978, when you see a move that dramatic it's always interesting to take a risk in your life.

BERMAN: All right. EARLY START continues right now.

Donald Trump taking on the "New York Times" over their article about how he treats, how he approaches women. His attorney overnight suggests a lawsuit might be in the works. This as one of his former opponents suggests that he may not even be ready to endorse Donald Trump based on what his wife and daughters think.

ROMANS: In just hours, Hillary Clinton hoping to bounce back after a series of stinging primary losses against Bernie Sanders. Two states voting today. Can Clinton pull off a comeback?

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: Great to see you today. I'm John Berman. It is Tuesday, May 17th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And breaking overnight. The lawyer for Donald Trump suggests that Trump might sue the "New York Times" over its article portraying his treatment of many women. Trump's fury over the story extended late into last night with a series of tweets, one said, ""No wonder the 'Times' is failing. Who can believe what they write after the false, malicious and libelous story they did on me?"

CNN's Erin Burnett asked Trump Organization attorney Jill Martin about the chance of a lawsuit against the "Times."