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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Obama: I'm With Her; Obama To Campaign With Clinton Next Week; Trump Struggles To Rally GOP; V.P. Biden, Sen. Warren Endorse Clinton, Biden Slams Trump Over Comments On Judge; Final Farewell To Muhammad Ali; Outrage Over Stanford Rape Case; Safety Regulators Looking Into Tesla; Suicide Bombings Rock Baghdad. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired June 10, 2016 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Democrats united behind Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump. President Obama's impassioned endorsement as party leaders unleash their wrath on Donald Trump.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: And Donald Trump campaigning today to bring Republicans back together, rallying with the party's base after private meetings with top donors. Welcome back to EARLY START, I'm Alison Kosik.
ROMANS: It's so nice to have you here this Friday morning.
KOSIK: Happy Friday.
ROMANS: You, too. I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Let's begin with politics. This morning, top Democrats closing ranks behind Hillary Clinton in a highly-choreographed effort to elevate Clinton to the party's presumptive nominee and to disarm her Democratic rival.
President Obama met with Bernie Sanders at the White House. Two hours later the Clinton campaign dropped this web video unveiling the president's long-anticipated endorsement of Sec. Clinton. White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski has the latest for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alison and Christine. Right, to see this play out was truly remarkable. Here we have a presidential endorsement in a video on Twitter that was released by the Hillary Clinton campaign. When has that ever happened?
It was recorded on Tuesday. It was well-produced. You could hear the music behind it there. So it was clear that the White House wanted to let this meeting play out -- a private meeting between the president and Bernie Sanders at the White House yesterday.
It was a lengthy meeting. Let that discussion happen. Let the president hear out Bernie Sanders and then work on a path forward. How will he be engaged? How will he work with the White House and Hillary Clinton? And then, as soon as that meeting was over, bam. Within two hours the endorsement was out and the president wasn't holding back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know how hard this job can be. That's why I know Hillary will be so good at it. In fact, I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office. She's got the courage, the compassion, and the heart to get the job done. And I say that as somebody who had to debate her more than 20 times. I'm with her. I am fired up and I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: And the White House is wasting no time on that, either. Now the president is free, unleashed. He's hitting the campaign trail on Wednesday with Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin.
And for Democrats right now it's all about unity. They want Sanders' many supporters to ultimately support Hillary Clinton. They feel that Sanders' voice will be crucial in that to rally them to ultimately go to her side. As well as the voice of President Obama who is such a powerful influence on the younger voters -- Alison and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOSIK: All right, our thanks to Michelle Kosinski for that. And as Democrats move to unite, Donald Trump has a tough road ahead of him trying to get Republicans to line up behind him. House Speaker Paul Ryan repeating his message that Republicans who support a conservative agenda must back the presumptive nominee, even if they don't agree with everything he says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER: We have a far better chance of putting these better way ideas in place with a Trump presidency than we would with a Hillary Clinton presidency.
GREG NEUMANN, CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF, "27 NEWS WKOW": Do you worry at all that people are going to hear that for the next few weeks and think well, getting your agenda passed into law is more important to you than how our nation looks, how our president acts, over the next four years.
RYAN: Yes. That's a legitimate question, I think. That's why I condemn his comments as clearly as I can and I've spoken to him about it. I've spoken to him about other issues and things he said in the past and I think has to change. He has to fix this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: Today, Trump will work to rally the Republican base, headlining the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference heavily attended by evangelical voters. Then Trump heads to Richmond, Virginia for a rally tonight at 8:00. Two stops on the busy schedule. Trump promised dozens of top party donors on Thursday that he would keep up in order to beat Clinton in November.
So much happening. Joining us to break it all down, let's go to CNN politics reporter, Tal Kopan. She is in our Washington bureau. Good morning to you.
ROMANS: Good morning.
TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Morning.
KOSIK: So we are watching the Hillary Clinton train moving forward with so much support on it. Case in point, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, saying this. Saying, "I'm ready to jump in this fight and make sure that Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States and be sure that Donald Trump gets nowhere near the White House. I'm supporting Hillary Clinton because she's a fighter, a fighter with guts."
And we watched Elizabeth Warren waste little time in eviscerating Donald Trump at a speech in Washington. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: He has personally -- personally directed his army of campaign surrogates to step up their own public attacks on Judge Curiel. Trump is picking on someone who is ethically bound not to defend himself. Exactly what you would expect from a thin-skinned, racist bully.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:35:00] KOSIK: All right, you know what they say. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. She is fighting back and fighting back hard. Is she positioning for a V.P. slot with Hillary Clinton, and is the country ready for two women on the ticket?
KOPAN: Outwardly, it certainly looks she's a bit auditioning for the role of attack dog against Donald Trump, and whether that's what Hillary Clinton wants in her vice president -- the door is being left open in interviews, in speculation, and in trial balloons.
It's definitely something that's being put out there and if you ask several people in Washington, including Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, a two-woman ticket is definitely something that's on the table. Vice presidential speculation can be tricky though, of course.
Sometimes the obvious choice is the last name that actually ends up on the table, so this is something everyone in Washington is going to be watching very carefully, and her name is being pushed by several high- powered Democrats. But the Clinton camp is going to be the one that ultimately makes the decision and they can sometimes surprise us.
ROMANS: You know, the current vice president also speaking out in support of Hillary Clinton yesterday, and against Donald Trump. And again, hitting on this Judge Curiel controversy, a controversy that the Republicans would like to put behind them. They would like to not be talking about the heritage of this judge and the impartiality of this judge. Listen to what Joe Biden said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I find Donald Trump's conduct in this regard reprehensible, evidenced by the bipartisan condemnation of the action for what it is. A dangered attack on a vital pillar of democracy, the independent judiciary by threats of intimidation, and undercutting the legitimacy of a judge by suggesting that because of his heritage he's incapable of being fair. In addition to this, it is racist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So, Joe Biden really clear on his views on this. Do you think Donald Trump is going to be able to put that judge issue behind him if you've got top Democrats saying this is why he's not qualified to be president?
KOPAN: At some point it's pretty likely that Donald Trump will stop giving the Democrats ammunition to keep raising this issue. He's continued to back up these comments every time he's asked, but at some point the media will grow less interested and Democrats will continue to push the topic but it will get stale and the American public will be interested in something else. That's just how the political cycle works.
We may continue to see it in attack ads down the line. It's not going to go away completely, but I highly doubt that for months this is going to be the only thing we talk about. That's just not the way this campaign cycle has worked. We've seen tons of controversies that we've discussed is this going to be the bullet that sinks Donald Trump's campaign, and lo and behold two weeks later we're talking about something completely different.
KOSIK: All right, Tal, I want to go to something that was written today exclusively in "USA Today". I'm going to hold up the headline here.
ROMANS: Better headline, top of the fold.
KOSIK: Trump's up to it here. "Trumps' Trail of Unpaid Bills" -- this is an interesting story that "USA Today" wrote saying that Donald Trump basically stiffed people who worked for him. People like plumbers, and waiter, and painters. "USA Today" interviewed hundreds of people who worked for Donald Trump. Even stiffing attorneys. How damaging can a report like this be?
ROMANS: It's interesting because it's working class voters, the very people who Donald Trump has really inspired. Working class people, who he says he'll protect their jobs. This investigation says no, the way that Donald Trump -- one of the hallmarks of his business is stiffing people.
KOSIK: How damaging do you think this is? KOPAN: It's certainly damaging. It's interesting, this whole campaign has been about who is Donald Trump, and the Republicans are really criticized for not taking him seriously early on and not putting out their opposition research against him and focusing more on each other.
This story reminds me a bit of some of the Trump Tower stories that came out. Marco Rubio really hit him hard for that in the waning days of Rubio's campaign, and it's interesting --
ROMANS: And it didn't matter.
KOPAN: It didn't matter and it's interesting to see Hillary Clinton kind of taking a page from Rubio, trying to paint him as a con man and not a standup guy for the working class. We'll see if she can define him early enough in the general election, or if Trump is sort of defined in people's minds already, coming out of the primary. It may be a little bit too little, too late for the Democrats to make an impact, so we'll see what kind of staying power something like this has. But we've seen it before this campaign cycle.
ROMANS: Donald Trump also made a name for himself on being against international trade deals -- the unfairness of international trade deals he says, and the president slow-jamming on trade last night with Jimmy Fallon -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(OBAMA & FALLON SLOW-JAM THE NEWS ON "THE TONIGHT SHOW")
OBAMA: The American people face an important decision this fall. The entire world is watching and they look to us for stability and leadership. Now, I know some of the presidential candidates have been critical of my foreign policy. I don't want to name any names.
JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": He's talking about Donald Trump.
[05:40:00] OBAMA: Jimmy, the TPP allows American businesses to sell their products, both at home and abroad. The more we sell abroad, the more higher-paying jobs we provide here at home. It's that simple.
FALLON: So what you're saying is this trade deal will help put everyday Americans back to work, work, work, work, work. Put us back to work, work, work, work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: You know what? He managed to make TPP interesting.
KOPAN: Yes, I was going to say I don't know if all the trade nerds out there last year would have ever predicted their topic would be such a focal point of the 2016 campaign, but here we are.
ROMANS: Trade nerds unite -- on Fallon.
KOSIK: Thanks, Tal.
ROMANS: All right, thank you so much, Tal Kopan. Have a great weekend.
KOPAN: Thanks, guys, you, too.
KOSIK: The final farewell to an iconic fighter. Muhammad Ali to be buried after an emotional journey through his hometown. Thousands are expected to attend -- that's next.
[05:41:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:45:00] KOSIK: Welcome back. A final farewell today for the greatest, Muhammad Ali. It begins with a 16 to 18 car procession through the streets of his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. That will be followed by a huge celebration of Ali's life. An interfaith service with Bill Clinton and Billy Crystal, among others, delivering eulogies.
President Obama remembering the champ, reflecting on a pair of Ali boxing gloves he has displayed at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I don't know how good of a boxer I am. I have had to slug it out a little bit here in Washington. And there have been times where I've been the underdog and just like the champ, there have been times where I got beat up a little bit and had to come back, and that says resilience. That's what these boxing gloves represent to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: Join CNN at 1:30 this afternoon for live special coverage of this. "The Greatest: Remembering Muhammad Ali" anchored by Don Lemon. On Thursday, thousands attended a Muslim prayer service where Ali was memorialized as the people's champ.
ROMANS: All right, new outrage this morning over that sentence a former Stanford student-athlete received for raping a woman who was intoxicated and unconscious. More than one million people have now signed online petitions calling for the judge seen here, Aaron Persky, to be removed from the bench.
The vice president, Joe Biden, adding his voice in an open letter published on BuzzFeed. On open letter to the victim expressing his furious anger and thanking her for speaking out. For having the courage to speak out, saying she has already touched and potentially saved countless lives.
Defendant, Brock Turner, got six months in jail. Three felony rape convictions -- just six months in jail. Now it appears he'll spend even less time behind bars. We get more from CNN's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are at the Santa Clara County Jail, where the former Stanford athlete is serving out his short jail term. We are told that Brock Turner is in protective custody, given the high-profile nature of the crime.
He was originally sentenced to six months in jail, but now we know it's just going to be three months. Oftentimes, California inmates are released early as long as there aren't any behavioral problems, and they get released because of jail overcrowding.
As you can imagine, people on the Stanford campus are outraged over this. We talked to several students. Here's a sampling of what some of them had to say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people say it's white privilege, and I would agree. But I also think it has to do with class and money, and the resources that people have here, so I don't think it's fair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After reading the letter from the victim it really sounds that it's not really like giving her justice in that sentence, and that's really sad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think, in general, justice is not served when it comes to this issue. It's just that this is bringing that to the limelight.
SIMON: This is being felt so widely on campus that graduating seniors are planning some sort of demonstration during this weekend's commencement.
