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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump "Regrets Saying the Wrong Thing"; U.S. Olympic Committee Apologizes to Rio; State Dept.: Iran Cash Was "Leverage" Not Ransom. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired August 19, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He sounded more presidential. He had more substance. Another man telling me he seemed to speak from the heart.

[05:00:01] One point that seemed to strike a number of people in the room was when Donald Trump, now it wasn't an apology, but he did says that he had regrets about some of the things that he has said in the past.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Sometimes in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that.

And believe it or not, I regret it.

(CROWD CHANTING)

And I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues.

CARROLL: At the top of his speech, Donald Trump also talked about the heartbreak and devastation affecting the people of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We are now hearing that Donald Trump and running mate Mike Pence will be visiting the region later today. Trump saying of what's going on in Baton Rouge, "We are one nation. When one state hurts, we all hurt. We must all work together" -- Christine, George.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISINE ROMANS CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you for that.

Let's talk politics with CNN politics reporter Eugene Scott to help us figure out the new Donald Trump.

You know, here you have a scripted moment from Donald Trump where he says there are things that he regrets. Six months ago, we never would have seen. But at the same time, he is still hitting the other note. Hillary is dishonest, Hillary is dishonest. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: While sometimes I can be too honest. Hillary Clinton is the exact opposite. She never tells the truth, one lie after another, and getting worse with each passing day. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The headline this morning, the new Trump. The admission that there are things he regrets, but h, also is on the attack here.

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes. No, this is not insignificant. I remember last summer writing the story about Donald Trump admitting he doesn't seek forgiveness from God. So, him saying I have regrets and using language saying, "I have said the wrong things" is significant.

But, Kellyanne Conway, the new campaign manager, gave us a hint yesterday on NEW DAY that we would be seeing some shifts and we would see some changes.

ROMANS: You see her fingerprints all

SCOTT: Yes. I mean, I don't think we would have seen this Monday. I don't think we would have seen this Monday.

Where it goes from here will be interesting to pay attention to, and whether or not the people who have backed Trump to help him get to this place who like the fact he says these things from the heart, that his critics do not like. Whether they stay on board with him as much will be interesting.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: So, the word "regrets", you know, opening the door and pivot, you could say, toward the general, toward women and other groups that may see this as a softer Donald Trump. The question does this open the door now for a long line of people who will want to know, well, what do you regret? Do you regret retweeting the tweets of extremists, do you regret the controversy sparking from the Ted Cruz and his wife or the highly criticized back and forth with the Gold Star family. Where do you start?

SCOTT: Yes, very much so. So, he said I realize some of my words have caused people pain. But as you mentioned, people want to know what you will change on because there are issues you would like to see him speak to with more depth. They want to know what exactly, will he be able to win women voters, Hispanic voters, black voters, millennials, all these groups that he is losing. So, if he doesn't change and get specifics and people see how that manifests and see how he campaigns from this point forward, I don't know what impact it's going to have.

ROMANS: But if he backtracks from his very strong positions, do his core supporters say, you're just like all the other ones.

SCOTT: Right. So, that's the trick of it all. So, he needs to not just win independent votes, but Republican votes, Republican establishment votes if he's going to win this whole thing. Right now, he has just his base. So, he has to figure out how can I win my base and win more Republicans and win independents.

ROMANS: All right. Eugene Scott --

HOWELL: Eugene, thank you.

SCOTT: Thank you, guys.

ROMANS: Thank you, sir.

New this morning, Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence submitting his financial disclosure form to the election. Just ten little pages. It has a few simple entries. It's a stark contrast from the 92 pages, hundreds of companies, tens of millions of dollars on Donald Trump's disclosure.

Here is what we know about Mike Pence. He made $173,000 as governor of Indiana from the start of 2015 to the summer. He also has pension accounts with the state government, and between $1,000 and $15,000 right now in his bank account. He also took out several parent plus student loans from between $95,000 to $280,000, 6 percent plus interest.

[05:05:07] Rules allow candidates to give a range on their accounts. We don't know exactly what it is. It's the only financial document president and vice presidential candidates legally must submit. But Pence also said he will release his tax returns.

HOWELL: The head of the U.S. Olympic Committee is apologizing to the city of Rio for the swimmers who said they were robbed at gunpoint. The USOC chairman Scott Blackman says the swimmers face potential consequences. He tells Rio officials, quote, "The behavior of these athletes is not acceptable, nor does it represent the values of Team USA or the conduct of the vast majority of its members. We apologize to our hosts in Rio and the people of Brazil for this distracting ordeal in the midst of what should rightly be a celebration of excellence."

Two of the U.S. swimmers, Gunner Bentz and Jack Conger, have now left Rio. They are headed back home after speaking with Brazilian authorities. They were pulled off their flight 24 hours earlier and there is new video of that incident.

You see the police accusing the Americans of vandalizing a gas station. The two sides offering very different accounts of what happened next.

We get more now from CNN's senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, George, here is the scene of the crime or maybe the not crime, unclear at this stage. You recognize from the CCTV video, this alleyway down which you see the men walk. This is where they are alleged to have torn the poster off the wall and there where they were alleged to have urinated after a long night of celebrating.

Now, the question is what happened after that? They seem to emerge from here on the CCTV that we see, out into the court of the gas station after a night of celebration, partying should we say. They get the wrong taxi, first of all, then move on to the right taxi over here on this side of the gas station.

Then, a man it seemed bending down into the car. He's dressed in black. Now, this is where the story diverges.

Brazilian police say that this begun a conversation in which all sides work out and out to recompense the gas station for the damage done here. And when the police arrived everything was calm.

Sources close to the four swimmers who said he's spoken to all men say, no, this actually marks a point in which there is a drop in the

footage of three minutes during which the man leaning in, according to the swimmers, made out like he was a police officer pointing a badge, pointing the firearm at them and said, 'Give me money", making this particular gesture.

We don't know how to reconcile the counts. We know that Brazilian suspicions were necessarily aroused by these members turning home with substantial amounts of high value items. That was shown at CNN from their village.

But the sources close accept that yes, they did pee behind this building, maybe they did the posters, but outright flat say the CCTV corroborates Ryan Lochte's original story. There was an armed robbery here by people who they thought were police.

These two very different accounts are very hard to reconcile now -- Christine, George.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Thanks to that.

The swimmers claim there are three minutes of missing footage. There was a gap and initial video released. But then the video released later by the civil police and screened by CNN, there wasn't a gap in that footage. We'll have more on the Olympic Games themselves, including another gold medal for Usain Bolt. That's later this half hour.

HOWELL: So, many call it ransom. The State Department now calling it leverage, admitting hundreds of millions of dollars was held from Iran until Americans were released. We will hear how the State Department justifies that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:11] HOWELL: Welcome back.

The White House is insisting it did not pay ransom to Iran for release of U.S. prisoners even though the State Department now confirms a plane with $400 million cash was on board and it was, quote, "held up" and used as leverage to make sure the Americans were set free first. The State Department denying any quid pro quo existed, linking the payment to the prisoner release.

The spokesman claims the Iranians would have gotten the money anyway, since it did belong to them. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: It would have been foolish, imprudent, and irresponsible for us not to try and maintain maximum leverage. So, if you are asking me, was there a connection in that regard at the end game, I'm not gong to not deny that.

REPORTER: In basic English, you are saying you would not give them the $400 million in cash until the prisoners were released, correct?

KIRBY: That's correct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: House Speaker Paul Ryan says President Obama owes the American people, quote, "a full accounting of his actions, accusing the White House of paying ransom and trying to, quote, "mislead the public about it."

ROMANS: A close call for U.S. military advisers in northern Syria. They were nearby when Syrian war planes launched an attack on the main U.S. ally in the region, the Kurdish YPG. It's the first time the Kurds have been targeted by the Assad regime and the Hasakah province, which is under Kurdish control. About 300 U.S. military advisers are stationed in that area.

HOWELL: Twitter says it has suspended 235,000 accounts in the last six months for promoting extremism or terrorism. That brings the total now in the last year to 360,000 accounts. The company is expanding the department that reviews reports of questionable accounts. Twitter has been widely used by extremist groups. The company says daily account suspensions are up over 80 percent last year.

[05:15:01] ROMANS: All right. The Justice Department plans to stop using private prisons. A government review found they are not safer, they are not cheaper than facilities run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Right now, only 13 out of 146 federal prisons are privately run. They will be phased out, fewer than 200,000 of America's 2.2 million adult inmates are in federal reason. The vast majority are held in state prisons.

HOWELL: In the city of Chicago, the police superintendent there plans to fire seven officers accused of lying about the shooting death of an unarmed teenager two years ago. The officers filed reports that were contradicted by dash cam video from the night Laquan McDonald was killed. That video shows McDonald walking away from police with a knife in his hand, not lounging toward officers. Among those reportedly facing termination, the partner of the officer who pulled the trigger. That officer already facing murder charges in the case.

ROMANS: All right. Fast moving developments in that American swimmer controversy in Brazil. We're going to give the reaction after these robbery allegations from Ryan Lochte and three others apparently debunked here. We are live at the Olympics next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:52] ROMANS: Pretty damning evidence in the last 24 hours that four American swimmers were not innocent victims of an armed robbery, but rather, they were caught up in an altercation with officers after vandalizing a gas station.

So, what's the reaction in Rio as the game begins to draw to a close?

I want to bring in CNN's Coy Wire with the very latest.

Boy, oh, boy.

COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Exactly, Christine.

I was at a function last night and "The New York Post" front cover pretty sums up the general thoughts and feeling of many in Rio, including those of the U.S. athletes and families with whom I had interaction. It says, "Liar, liar, Speedo on fire. The Ugly American".

Strong evidence in a highly anticipated and attended press conference held by the Brazilian chief of civil police sent Rio into an absolute frenzy yesterday. Both Ryan Lochte's reputation and the validity of his account of what happened blasted, so much so that both the United States Olympic Committee and USA Swimming offering public apologies for the actions of the four involved.

And the executive director of USA Swimming blasting the lapses in judgment, saying that "it was upsetting that the four swimmers drawn attention away from Team USA's incredible accomplishments in the water and other athletes across the Olympic Games", unquote.

I hate having to report on what has become the biggest talker of the games when there are some incredible performances going on.

Let's check them out. Usain Bolt winning his eighth career gold medal yesterday, absolutely obliterating the field in the 200-meter dash, winning a second gold. If he and his teammates win the 4x100 meter final today, that would give Bolt the unprecedented triple-triple, winning 100, 200, and 4x100 meter events in three consecutive Olympic Games.

Team USA's Ashton Eaton is the world's greatest athlete. Gold in the decathlon for a second Olympic Games.

Talk about power couple. Ashton's wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton competes for Canada, she took bronze in the heptathlon here in Rio. Ashton says he gets way more nervous watching her compete than he competes himself.

And the USA women's 4x100 relay team, getting a chance, running away with it. They dropped the baton in the morning heat yesterday, got disqualified. But they appealed after being bumped by Brazilian athlete, allowed to run again, this time all alone in the track. They qualified for today's final.

Now, the USA added to their heaping mound of medals yesterday, hitting the 100 mark in overall medals. China and Great Britain and second and third respectively. A couple of things to look forward to today, U.S. men's basketball could have their hands full in the semis with a tough Spain team. And, Christine, we have that 4x100 relay which will be Bolt's final race in Olympic Games.

ROMANS: All right. We've got to watch.

HOWELL: I think he's going to will do well. We'll see.

ROMANS: Coy, thanks.

HOWELL: Coy, thanks.

The latest reboot for Donald Trump off to a surprising start. Trump admitting he's got some regrets. More on that as EARLY START continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:28:05] ROMANS: A stunner from Donald Trump as he gets back on the campaign trail after repeated controversies. Trump admitting he has regrets about some of the words he used and about some of his actions on the stump, and if he's caused any pain. What he is referring to and what's Trump's next move.

HOWELL: Not regrets, but an actual apology from the U.S. Olympic Committee to the city of Rio. Video showing an altercation between four swimmers and Brazilian police appear to show the claims of armed robbery were false. What is the next move for the embattled quartet of swimmers?

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm George Howell.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday. That's the most important news of the morning.

HOWELL: Friday.

ROMANS: It is Friday. It is 28 minutes past the hour.

Here is the big political news. Donald Trump like we have never seen him before. The Republican nominee in North Carolina last night making his first appearance since the campaign reboot.

His speech did unveil a new Trump, but not the way many people expected. Instead, after hiring executives famous for being combative, Trump came as close as he ever has to an apology, also making news with the last-minute scheduling change, they are adding a stop in Louisiana to tour areas devastated by flooding. This as Republicans try to paint President Obama as out of touch for sticking to his golf vacation on Martha's Vineyard and they say neglecting Louisiana.

More now from CNN's Jason Carroll. He is with the Trump campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: Christine and George, this was a very different Donald Trump that we heard in Charlotte when he gave his rally speech. You know, after it was over, I spoke to a number of people who were here.

One woman told me Donald Trump in her words was not just running his mouth. He sounded more presidential. He had more substance.

Another man telling me he seemed to speak from the heart.

One point that struck a number of people in the room was when Donald Trump, now, it wasn't an apology, but he said he had regrets about some of the things that he has said in the past.

TRUMP: Sometimes in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that.