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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Blasts Media for Reporting on Fundraiser; Clinton Returns to California to Fight Sanders; Pitcher Says He Contracted Zika in Offseason. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 01, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think the political press is among the most dishonest people that I've ever met. You're a sleaze because you know the facts and you know the facts well.

[05:00:01] I've watched you on television. You're a real beauty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump unleashed with a new stinging attack on the media as we learn new information this morning on the fraud case leveled against his university.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton campaigning against Donald Trump. But Bernie Sanders says he can still win the nomination. He's promising to take his fight all the way to the convention. This complicates the Democratic race for president.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, the first day of June. It is 5:00 on the nose in the East. Good morning, everyone.

This morning, Donald Trump says everything is our fault, the media. The presumptive Republican nominee lashed out at reporters who were asking basic questions, lashing out at them for most of the 40-minute news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower.

Now, the event had officially been called to unveil a list of veterans groups that benefitted from a Trump fundraiser in January. Now, instead, Trump devoted most of the time to attacking the assembled journalists.

CNN's Jim Acosta has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Donald Trump will be in California later today after a fiery news conference that was supposed to be about the millions of dollars he raised for veterans causes. Instead, Trump lashed out at the news media for asking questions about his fundraising efforts, which generated $5.6 million for charity organizations that assist veterans.

Trump said the scrutiny was another example of the media trying to derail his campaign. Here's what he had to say.

TRUMP: I will say that the press should be ashamed of themselves. On behalf of the vets, the press should be ashamed of themselves. They're calling me and they are furious because I sent people checks of a lot of money. We're going to give you the names right now, which is what you want.

And instead of being like, thank you very much, Mr. Trump, or, Trump did a good job, everyone says, who got it, who got it, who got it? And you make me look very bad.

I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job.

ACOSTA: The presumptive GOP nominee also took questions about Trump University, a real estate school he founded that is now embroiled in a legal battle, facing accusations of defrauding students.

Just days ago, Trump noted the Hispanic heritage of the judge handling the case. But when asked about that at his news conference, Trump did not answer the question -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks so much.

By the way, Donald Trump called Jim Acosta a real beauty.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is in New Jersey today. That state votes next Tuesday as well. She will be joined by the Garden State's own Jon Bon Jovi, who's going to travel with Hillary Clinton to Boston to do a fundraiser there as well. Clinton adopting some of Donald Trump's tactics in her campaign to beat him.

The latest now from CNN's Brianna Keilar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

The Clinton campaign is feeling pretty good about New Jersey. California is a tighter race, but her campaign thinks she's leading there too. They are, though, emphasizing that she doesn't need to win California or even New Jersey to be the nominee.

But make no mistake: the campaign knows it's very important that she projects strength going into the general election. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton continuing her recent Trump-style practice of call-in interviews, this one with CNN as she promised she'll do everything she can to unify the Democratic Party and said her campaign is talking to the Sanders campaign.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): Once the primaries are over as of next Tuesday, we will begin talking in more detail about what we can do to unify the party because as I've said many times and as Senator Sanders has said, we both are going to do everything we can to prevent Donald Trump from getting anywhere near the White House.

KEILAR: So, what about the ultimate unification of the party, a Clinton/Sanders ticket? Bernie Sanders wouldn't dismiss that idea when asked. He has said should he not be the nominee, Clinton needs to pick a liberal running mate, not a moderate, trying to influence the ticket as well as the party platform.

Hillary Clinton recently told CNN that talk of a Clinton/Sanders pairing is something down the road -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

Let's talk this morning and break down the battle on both sides with CNN politics reporter Eric Bradner. He's in our Washington bureau.

Good morning.

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning.

ROMANS: Let's talk about David French, this potential third-party candidate here. Who is David French?

David French is a conservative writer for "The National Review." He is an Iraq War veteran, and frankly, he's someone who no one has ever heard of. But Bill Kristol is really excited about the prospect of having him run as an independent challenger to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

The idea is David French is someone who could really espouse conservative point of view and has been a critic of Donald Trump from the very beginning.

So, Bill Kristol, the editor of "The Weekly Standard" and a conservative big wig in Washington, is among the people who have been looking for a candidate to take on Trump and Clinton.

[05:05:02] He's part of the Never Trump movement. So, David French is the name that we've learned as of last night he's settled on. So, this is a guy we could all be learning a lot more about here in the coming days.

BERMAN: It's interesting. I mean, David French is a social conservative. Very conservative on social issues, written extensively about that. But again, also, he won a Bronze Star for is service, awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Iraq.

Well-known in conservative academic circles, I think, but again, his position, as you look at his position on the right of social issues on that party, it would be interesting to see. You could see not just people like Bill Kristol supporting him but Erick Erickson, who used to work for redstate.com, who's a Never Trumper. You could see Erick Erickson getting behind him and getting at least some support from thinkers on that side of the party.

BRADNER : That's right. Absolutely. Now, the challenge is broadening yond that sort of group of, you know, 500, 1,000 really influential Republicans in Washington, people who are part of these think tanks and whatnot and actually getting his name in front of Americans more broadly. It's tough because filing deadlines are already looming.

In Texas, it's too late to get him on the ballot unless his backers were successfully to sue or something like that. So, it's the kind of thing they're going to have to do really quickly.

And David French is not someone with any national name ID. So, he's going to need some supporters like perhaps Mitt Romney, another member of this Never Trump movement, or others who can really help him with things like fundraising because he's not going to just need to build name ID. He's going to need legal support, that sort of thing, to actually get on the ballot in every state.

ROMANS: Let's talk about California. Coming up here, big primary, incredibly important next week for Bernie Sanders to keep the hope arrive for him, for Hillary Clinton to get over that hump and move into the general election. Jerry Brown, the governor of California, officially endorsing Hillary Clinton. This is what he said.

He said, "The stakes couldn't be higher. This is no time for Democrats to keep fighting each other. The general election has already begun. Hillary Clinton with her long experience, especially as secretary of state, has a firm grasp on the issues and will be prepared to lead our country on day one. A lot has been mad, about Jerry Brown challenging her husband, the former president, in 1992 and how back then he was more like the Bernie Sanders type candidate than a centrist Democrat, but he's going for Hillary Clinton."

BRADNER: Yes, absolutely. The Bill Clinton thing is sort of remarkable. This is the clearest evidence yet that the hatchets are buried and Democrats are really rallying.

ROMANS: And not in each other's backs.

BRADNER: Right, exactly. Jerry Brown said things about Bill Clinton in 1992 that were almost as if he was Donald Trump talking to a political reporter. So, Jerry Brown is a big, important choice. He's someone who if you were a few years younger, we could have seen playing a big role in this presidential election, perhaps yet, he's endorsing a few days before this key California primary, where Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are locked in this really tight race.

There aren't many endorsements that matter, but Jerry Brown is one that could help Hillary Clinton a little bit.

BERMAN: So, Eric Bradner, turns out Donald Trump doesn't like the media. He doesn't like reporters asking questions. There was this event here in New York City at Trump Tower, where Trump released where the money from his veterans fundraiser all went to, but he lashed out at the media for asking questions.

Let me play you one clip where he goes after our friend Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: You keep calling us the dishonest press, the disgusting --

TRUMP: Well, generally speaking, that's 100 percent true. Go ahead.

ACOSTA: I disagree with that, sir. If I can ask you this question, it seems as though you're resistant to scrutiny, the kind of scrutiny that comes with running for the president of the United States.

TRUMP: I like scrutiny, but --

ACOSTA: You're raising money for veterans --

TRUMP: Excuse me. I've watched you on television. You're a real beauty.

What I don't want is when I've raised millions of dollars have people say, like this sleazy guy right over here from ABC, he's a sleaze in my book. You're a sleaze because you know the facts and you know the facts well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So this -- he says by the way, this is what he'll do a president, this kind of posture. It's pretty revealing press conference yesterday, Eric.

BRADNER: Absolutely. Yes, he did say nothing is going to change. He was very clear about that.

Look, this is an effort to discredit journalists who ask tough questions of him and who demand accountability, right? Donald Trump has a history now of deflecting scrutiny over things like where did the money actually go that he said he raised for veterans charities?

By discrediting the reporters and argue in to his supporters that these questions, the scrutiny has no merit.

[05:10:02] It's sort of a shrewd effort to inoculate himself against tough questions. Frankly, the political press is not popular with Americans generally but especially Republican voters. So this is the kind of easy target that he can really attack without paying much of a price for it.

BERMAN: The only disagreement I have is they weren't tough questions. They were actually easy questions. These were softballs that he got all ticked over.

But, Eric Bradner, good points there. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: Typical scrutiny. It was typical scrutiny where you follow through and you ask a question. All right. Thanks so much for that.

New this morning, Jeff Bezos fighting back against Donald Trump's attacks on the media. Bezos owns "The Washington Post". He is the CEO of Amazon.

At a conference last night, Bezos said it's inappropriate for Trump to try to freeze or chill the media that are examining him. And he says presidential candidates should be doing the opposite.

Quote, "They should say, I'm running for president of the most important country in the world. I expect to be scrutinized. Please examine me. That's very important cultural norm. Without the cultural norms, the Constitution is just a piece of paper," end quote.

Trump has been critical of the "Washington Post", Amazon and Bezos personally and all of the media, frankly. Bezos deflected questions on whether he would donate money or take other options to stop Trump from winning the November election.

BERMAN: All right. The gorilla that was killed after a small child entered its enclosure, new controversy as we get new details about how this happened. More luminaries weighing in.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

[05:15:39] BERMAN: Authorities are investigating the family of the 3- year-old boy who fell into a gorilla habitat at the Cincinnati Zoo. There's growing outrage over the decision to shot and kill the silverback gorilla Harambe in order to save the child's life. Though many others do feel differently about this. Animal rights activists and others are calling for criminal charges against the little boy's mother.

Let's get more now from CNN's Jessica Schneider.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Cincinnati police are delving into the details about what transpired on Saturday, specifically they say they're investigating the parents and the mother to find out what happened in the minutes before that 4-year-old came face to face with that gorilla.

The mother in particular has come under intense scrutiny on the Internet. Twitter abound with her criticisms about her, saying she should have kept a closer watch on her son. There's also a petition circulating online that garnered more than 400,000 signatures, people saying she should be investigated.

Now, at this point, we don't know a lot about the family. They've only released a statement saying that their child is safe and that they're grateful to the zoo. We also know that the mother works at a day care right here in Cincinnati.

Now, as for the zoo itself, police say they're not investigating it because it falls into the purview of the USDA. The zoo was last looked at and inspected by the USDA in April. They did have a citation in March for leaving a door open where a polar bear then got out, and went into an employee room, but there's never been a citation against the zoo concerning that gorilla enclosure -- Christine and John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

Doctors in New Jersey confirmed the birth of a baby girl suffering from microcephaly caused by the Zika virus. The unidentified 31-year- old mother came down with a virus at her home country of Honduras. Doctors say she came to the U.S. in hopes of getting better medical care for the baby. She was taken at an emergency at Hackensack University Medical Center on Friday, while vacationing in the United States.

Now, the child is the first to be born in the New York tri-state area with the Zika-linked brain disorder.

BERMAN: The Transportation Safety Administration has been taken to task over potential security flaws at U.S. airports. TSA data shows an average of 2,500 security breaches a year at airport perimeters and key access points. The government accountability office blames the TSA for failing to update security standards for the airports to follow.

ROMANS: Mandatory evacuations under way this morning as seven people are killed in record-breaking floods that have hit parts of Texas. Look at this video, rain coming down in sheets here. Local authorities in San Antonio say the storm system dumped up to 22 inches of rain in just a few hours. You can see what that means for the streets, submerged.

The swollen Brazos River in Richmond rising to levels not seen since 1913.

BERMAN: 1913.

ROMANS: Meantime, officials in Ft. Bend County just southwest of Houston, they said they've made more than 120 water rescues.

I think if you look at that picture right there, there are horses on the veranda of that home, finding the only safe place there right on the front porch of somebody's house.

BERMAN: Wow. Amazing pictures.

A star closer in the big leagues confirms he caught the Zika virus while visiting Venezuela. How is he dealing with that on the field? Coy Wire with the bleacher report, next.

(CXOMMERICAL BREAK)

[05:23:14] BERMAN: As the Zika virus makes headlines ahead of the Summer Olympics in Brazil, Major League Baseball player has revealed he came down with the Zika virus before the season started.

ROMANS: Coy Wire has more in this morning's bleacher report.

Hey, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Christine and John.

Detroit Tigers closer Francisco Rodriguez says he has firsthand experience with Zika. Says he was laid up in bed for two weeks with joint aches, body aches, headaches. According to ESPN.com, the 34- year-old says he contracted Zika in his native Venezuela. That's where he spent most of his off season.

He reportedly had blood work done, which determined he had the disease. On the field, he's continued to do well. He has 14 saves with the Tigers and recently became the sixth pitcher in history to record 400 saves.

Cleveland Cavaliers getting ready for their rematch of last year's NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors. Oddsmakers have Golden State as two-to-one favorites, to repeat as champs.

So, LeBron James, what do you have to say about you and your boys being underdogs?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, CAVALIERS FORWARD: I don't get involved in all that underdog, overdog, whatever the case may be. It's stupidity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All righty then. The Cavs looking to bring Cleveland its first pro sports championship in 52 years. Game one tomorrow night, 9:00 Eastern.

Finally, "Free Tom Brady". That's been the rallying cry of Patriots fans for more than a year now. Just ask John Berman. People have made t-shirts, hats, signs. They've had rallies.

Now, there's a Free Tom Brady theme night. Red Sox Minor League team, the Pawtucket Red Sox, are holding Free Brady Friday, June 10th. Anybody named Tom or Brady gets into the ballpark for free.

[05:25:00] If your name is something like John or Berman, it's all good. They're going to drop your ticket price to just 12 bucks -- 12 in honor of Brady's jersey number.

Now, the Pawtucket Red Sox are in last place in their division. Not doing well. But John, you're Boston Red Sox are first place in their division. That's 32 and 20. Almost as good as Christine's Cubs who were first at 32 and 15 in the season.

ROMANS: Whoa.

BERMAN: He's just trying to get in good with everyone right now. Coy is trying to spread the love right now.

All I can say is, go Paw Sox. Free Tom Brady.

ROMANS: Tom Brady, John Berman. Same number of syllables.

WIRE: John, do you have a t-shirt or a hat "Free Brady"?

BERMAN: I can't say, because I'm an objective member of the media covering Tom Brady developments.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: All right. Coy Wire, thanks so much.

WIRE: You're welcome.

BERMAN: All right. Donald Trump on the attack, hurling insults at the media and the judge overseeing the fraud case brought against his university. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think the political press is among the most dishonest people that I've ever met. This sleazy guy right over here from ABC, he's a sleaze in my book. You think I'm going to change? I'm not changing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)