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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Hillary Clinton Diagnosed with Pneumoniz; More Violence in Syria Ahead of Brokered Ceasefire; NFL Call on Two Presidents to Commemorate 9/11. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired September 12, 2016 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton has pneumonia. And this morning, there are questions about why the Clinton campaign did not make that clear, not even right after this. Stumbling as Hillary Clinton leaves the 9/11 ceremony early. Now she has canceled two days of campaign trips. We will discuss the impact on the campaign going forward.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, ANCHOR: More violence in Syria ahead of the cease- fire agreement brokered between U.S. and Russian officials, set to begin today. But some are warning the truce has no chance to hold.
BERMAN: Is North Korea prepared to set off another nuclear test. Why North Korea's neighbors are preparing for a worst case scenario.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: Very busy morning folks. I'm Christine Romans, 31 minutes past the hour. Let's begin here with the big political story. Hillary Clinton's health scare. The former secretary of state forced to cancel a two-day trip to California. Instead she is at home. She is suffering from pneumonia. Her campaign confirmed that diagnosis last night after she stumbled while leaving a 9/11 ground zero ceremony. She left that ceremony early -- you can see that video there that shows her being helped into the van.
This incident shaking up the race for the White House. Many Clinton critics were already questioning her stamina. They were asking big questions about transparency about her health. Her doctor insists she is now recovering nicely.
Let's get more in all this from CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, late Sunday, the Clinton campaign canceled that multi-day West Coast trip. She was scheduled to leave this morning. This capped a day of intense scrutiny for the Democratic nominee after questions were raised when a video emerged showing her stumbling and unsteady with Secret Service agents having to help her into the van and her motorcade leaving Sunday's 9/11 memorial ceremony early. The campaign had earlier said she left the event after becoming
overheated. Clinton then went to her daughter's apartment in New York. When leaving there, she told reporters she was feeling great, waved to supporters, and even signed an autograph for a young girl. The campaign told us Mrs. Clinton was later examined at her home in Chappaqua. The doctor said she was overheated, dehydrated and the campaign also revealed on Sunday that Friday she had been diagnosed with pneumonia, had been put on antibiotics and advised to rest and modify her schedule.
The campaign has not said why it did not disclose the illness before Sunday's incident. Friday, by the way, was a long day for Mrs. Clinton. It was packed with events and activity. The day included a meeting with a bipartisan group of national security experts, a brief statement in which she took a few questions. She did an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo. She did a fund-raiser.
And we don't have an answer to why she didn't start cutting back given the diagnosis other than what we know, that this is a presidential campaign, a close race. And having covered her for a couple decades off and on, she has a tendency to try to keep going almost no matter what. Now, the campaign definitely has more questions to answer as its clear her health has become a major campaign issue, John and Christine.
BERMAN: They have questions to answer -- the Clinton campaign does about how she was diagnosed on Friday with pneumonia and how they did not announce it until Sunday. It makes you wonder, would they have disclosed the information at all had she not stumbled at the September 11th event. Now, one person who has not commented on this latest health episode, not out loud on or Twitter is Donald Trump.
Sources within Donald Trump's campaign are making it clear they say they want to be respectful. Staffers have allegedly been ordered not to post anything on social media, and we are told they want us to say that any violation of that order could be grounds for termination. Let's get the latest from CNN's Scott McLean in Washington.
[04:35:03] SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, like Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump pledged to pause his campaigning for the 9/11 anniversary. What he did do was attend a memorial ceremony for the victims of the attack at ground zero in the morning. He was there with his close advisers, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and New Jersey governor Chris Christie. Now after that ceremony, Trump visited a New York firehouse. He did not have formal remarks, but as he was leaving, he was asked about Hillary Clinton's health, though he didn't have much to say, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Trump, a quick question about Hillary Clinton's health incident this morning -- her health incident this morning.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't know anything about it. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLEAN: Now Trump did put out a written statement marking the 9/11 anniversary that read in part, "Our solemn duty on behalf of all those who perished that September day, 15 years ago, is to work together as one nation to keep all of our people safe from an enemy that seeks nothing less but to destroy our way of life." Now, today, Trump will resume campaigning just as four new NBC, "Wall Street Journal," Marist Polls show tight races in the reliably Republican states of Arizona and Georgia, but also have Trump neck in neck in battle grounds states, New Hampshire and Nevada, two states that President Obama won the last two elections.
Now, Trump will start his day in Baltimore with a speech at the National Guard Association before heading to Asheville, North Carolina for a campaign rally. John and Christine.
ROMANS: All right Scott, thanks for that. Before her Sunday morning health scare, Hillary Clinton on Friday sat down with CNN's Chris Cuomo for an exclusive interview to air this weekend. So, Friday she sat down Chris Cuomo. Friday, the very same day she was we now diagnosed with pneumonia, but she kept the schedule up for the weekend. Now, Clinton was a junior senator from New York when those planes hit the World Trade Center towers. That was the subject of the interview with Chris Cuomo, and she describes this experience as sickening and says she coped with the tragedy by getting right to work.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I went the next day -- Chuck Schumer and I -- we were one of the very few planes in the sky that day, the 12th. And we landed at LaGuardia. We're in a FEMA plane. Then we took a helicopter then we went over, circled the burning pile and then we landed, we met up with governor and mayor and went walking toward ground zero.
And as we moved further south and we saw this curtain of black smoke that was stretched across the island, basically. Occasionally it would be broken by a firefighter coming out. I remember one image someone indelibly dragging his axe. And it was as close to a depiction of hell that I've ever personally seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: You can see more of Chris's interview with Hillary Clinton later this morning on "New Day." And of course that interview now so timely because it was done the very day that she was diagnosed with pneumonia, but it took two days for the public to know, raising questions of transparency. And I would say this is a moment to talk about transparency in both campaigns -- health records and tax records. This is the biggest job in the world. You know, give the voter everything out there, right, to make that decision.
BERMAN: Look, we don't even know what kind of pneumonia Hillary Clinton has. Is it bacterial? Is it viral? That matters, you know, how serious is it? That matters what drugs is she taking? That matters. I mean, the Clinton campaign can afford to be way more transparent about this. The Trump campaign, you know, released even less health information than Hillary Clinton and of course no tax information whatsoever. Transparency is not a big winner in the campaign so far.
ROMANS: No.
BERMAN: Not even close and we deserve -- the voters deserve more of it. Now, health is not the only political problem Hillary Clinton is dealing with this morning. She's backing off comments she made about Trump supporters during a fundraiser Friday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: To just be grossly generalistic, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic (ph), you name it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Hillary Clinton went on to say that the other half of Donald Trump supporters deserve empathy because they are experiencing economic anxiety and seeking change. Now, Donald Trump jumped all over this. He put out a tweet saying, "Her true feelings came out showing bigotry and hatred for millions of Americans." The next morning, Hillary Clinton admitted she was wrong to put half of Trump's backers in that now famous phrase, "in the basket of deplorable" but she did vow to continue calling out bigotry in Trump's campaign.
ROMANS: Her clarification was how many -- how big is the deplorable basket, not that there is a deplorable basket.
[04:40:03] BERMAN: Exactly, but you know, either way she phrased it, it sounds like she is going after voters. Whether or not they're Trump voters, you know, something that you rarely want to do as a candidate criticizing voters themselves and not the candidate. Thirty-nine minutes after the hour. President Obama meets with top congressional leaders this afternoon to discuss funding the federal government in the final months of his presidency.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan will represent the Republicans. For the Democrats, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will be there. The 27th to the fiscal year starts October 1st and lawmakers have not agreed on a spending bill.
ROMAN: Business as usual. Wells Fargo insists it has made changes at the bank following its revelations that employees secretly created millions of unauthorized accounts. More than a dozen former employees tells CNN Money they were under relentless pressure to meet sales target. Some say management turned a blind eye when ethical and legal lines were crossed. In response, the bank tells CNN Money it has made "fundamental changes to help ensure our team members are not being pressured to sell products." For Wells Fargo, two big questions remain. What about the culture --
promoted cheating and has that culture changed? And, will any executives lose their jobs or maybe give up their bonuses? A quick check on futures as Wall Street bracing for more selling on Friday. The major averages lost more than two percent. It was an ugly day guys. The worst session since late June.
Investors are worried that the spigot might be turned off. Global central banks are pulling back on stimulus and a fed rate hike is looking more likely. I got to tell you, it's has been two days since that Wells Fargo -- the first Wells Fargo had lied about them, you know, creating phony accounts and then people getting all these fees and fines. You know, customers are still really mad. They are hopping mad about that.
BERMAN: Sometimes actually one of those things that I think heals.
ROMANS: No, and I don't think you can just fire 5,300 people and say it's over. I mean, the big question is that the business model of that bank built on selling you a lot of stuff. You open a bank account, they try to sell you mortgage. You get a mortgage, they try to sell you some other stuff. So, if that was the kind of culture, how do you know that that'sw over and what does it say about the business model.
BERMAN: At 41 minutes after the hour right now, in just hours, a cease-fire is set to begin in Syria but there has been a surge of violence this weekend. More bombs dropped already today. We're going live to the Turkish/Syrian border next.
[04:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Just a few hours from now, a cease-fire is scheduled to go into effect in Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, they reached the agreement last week. But inside Syria, the Free Syrian Army is warning the U.S. it has serious reservations about this truce, this after at least 90 people were killed over the weekend in a wave of devastating air strikes.
And to our understanding, as the attacks are continuing right now, I want to go to CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon live along the Turkish/Syrian border. Arwa, a few hours away from what's supposed to be a cease-fire, but it's been a very violent lead up.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It really has and the sad reality is that in the past, historically speaking, prior to the cease-fire or cessation of hostilities we have seen on intensification in bombardment. The deadliest of the attacks that happened over the weekend took place in the province in there (ph) according to activist and rescuers on the ground. The target was a marketplace where at least 60 people were killed and they had gone out to go shopping ahead of the eid (ph) holiday, that Muslim holiday that began today.
The reservations that these rebel groups have are on a number of fronts, John, when it comes to that agreement between the U.S. and Russia. They feel as if the agreement, in fact, does give the regime the upper hand to a certain degree. They are concerned about the fact that the U.S. and Russia would potentially be cooperating, not when it comes to the targeting of ISIS, but when it comes to targeting the group that is now known as Fateh al-Sham formerly known as the Nusra Front, the Al Qaeda affiliate.
Of course, they broke from Al Qaeda but the U.S. still deems them to be a terrorist organization. And because in a number of areas, the frontlines aren't clearly defined, they are concerned that they themselves could be targeted, and that the targeting of this particular group could give the regime a battle line advantage. But they haven't come out and flat out rejected it just yet. And of course most crucial at this point, John, is the fact humanitarian aid do reach those who are most in need.
BERMAN: People need so much in that country right now. Hope they get it. Arwa Damon for us on the border. Thank you so much.
ROMAN: All right, in South Korea, defense officials there fear North Korea may be preparing to conduct another nuclear test. They say they're getting ready for the "worst-case scenario." This is just days after Pyongyang claims it tested a nuclear warhead. World leaders condemning that test with U.S. calling for tough new sanctions -- North Korea calling that threat laughable.
CNN's Will Ripley is tracking all of this for us. He is live from Tokyo where clearly there are big concerns about the capabilities that North Korea claims it is making here, Will?
[04:50:00] WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Christine. In fact, during the overnight hours, the Japanese prime minister here in Tokyo met with his senior military officials with the Japanese self-defense forces and he called this an unprecedented situation. He says, the fact that these missiles from North Korea have reached Japan's exclusive economic zone -- these are waters around the Japanese mainland. Too close for comfort really for not only Japanese officials but also for the U.S. military, which has 50,000 troops stationed here.
In South Korea, similar language throughout the weekend coming from authorities there with one of the top diplomats saying -- in South Korea, they are essentially now preparing for a worst-case scenario. The worst case being of course some sort of a nuclear strike by North Korea. The United States and South Korea are working to install the THAAD Missile Defense system. These are missiles that would shoot down any incoming attack and we've even heard some rhetoric from North Korean officials saying that they're developing weapon system that could specifically strike North Korean leadership implying that they could target Kim Jong-Un himself.
So, that is only likely to accelerate the war of words that have gone back and forth, propaganda broadcast could soon resume at the border between North and South Korea, the de-militarized zone when it grasp over loud speakers K-POP and South Korean news along with messages to the North Korean troops that life is better on the south side of the border. So you can see how all of these continue to escalate much to the chagrin of the United States. And it looks like there is not going to be much more help coming from
China because today, their ministry of foreign affairs, Christine, said that this whole situation, the nuclear tension is the fault of the United States. So, while they're maybe enforcing sanctions, they may not take any more stuff to try to deescalate this escalating situation.
ROMANS: Well that certainly is an interesting wrinkle in the diplomacy -- the complicated diplomacy of isolating and dealing with North Korea. Will Ripley, in Tokyo. Thank you so much Will. Fifty minutes past the hour. Tesla's self driving software is getting a major update, one that might have prevented a fatal crash. We'll get an EARLY START on your money, next.
[04:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right, an emotional day as Americans remember the thousands of lives lost on September 11th 15 years ago. Ceremonies were held at ground zero and the pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. So many of them (inaudible) echoing the same theme, never forget.
ROMANS: The National Football League called on two presidents to help commemorate the 15th anniversary of 9/11. President Obama and former President George W. Bush recorded video messages, touching on resiliency and hope. They aired before the national anthem during the afternoon games. And there was also a joint appearance after last night's primetime matchup between the New England Patriots and the Arizona Cardinals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On this solemn anniversary, we remember the innocent souls that boarded flights and showed up for work at the World Trade Center, reported for duty at Pentagon and started their shifts at police and fire stations. Today, we honor them and salute their families especially their children whose lives have come to embody America's resilience and hopefulness of compassion and our light.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is up to all of us to carry forward their legacy. Whenever confronted by cowards who seek to destroy, America chooses to be strong and build a better future. It is why so many of our fellow citizens spend this national day of service and remembrance by giving back to their communities or paying forward a simple good deed. That's the spirit we saw after those terrible attacks. That is how we build an America that reflects our values.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: To see those pictures of those kids grown up really gets you. Former President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush led the coin toss before the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys game in Texas. They were joined by two NYPD officers who raced to ground zero 15 years ago.
BERMAN: Right, also before kickoff, a number of NFL players staged protests that happened during the national anthem. They did this to highlight the problem of racial injustice in policing. Four Miami players took a knee. The Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs locked arms in solidarity and three other players raised their fist after the national anthem was played.
ROMANS: All right, Monday morning, 57 minutes past the hour. The easy summer is over on Wall Street. Folks, global markets under pressure. U.S Futures indicate more selling today. On Friday, stocks woke up from a sleepy July and August. The Dow tumbled 394 points. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 also lost more than 2 percent. Investors worried here of global central banks are finally pulling back on stimulus. And a fed rate hike is looking more likely by the end of the year. The S&P 500 still up 4 percent for the year. The Dow and Nasdaq are higher year to date as well. But folks, this is a reminder that stocks just don't only go up.
Tesla will update auto pilot software in the next couple of weeks following safety questions. The driver assistance technology is blamed for a fatal accident in May. The new version of the autopilot will use radar not just a camera to identify objects. The electric carmaker says that would have prevented May's fatal crash when auto pilot didn't see a white truck against a bright sky. Two federal agencies began investigating TESLA following that accident.
Finally, some clarity for you users of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Finally, we know what you're supposed to with the darn thing. The company says you should turn it off and bring it in for a replacement. Turn it off, power it completely down. There's been a lot of confusion since Samsung warned two weeks ago the phone can catch fire because of the battery problem. Samsung shares hit a two-month low in South Korea this morning.
Analyst says the recall will cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars. They are not calling it a recall, they're calling it replacement process but don't turn -- I think the FFA doesn't want you to have this thing on and airplane so, please take it back.
BERMAN: Well, what do you do if you have your life on the phone, I mean, if you feel good life on your new phone and you have to turn it off all of a sudden?
ROMANS: No conversation is that...
BERMAN: EARLY START continues right now.
All right, breaking overnight, Hillary Clinton canceled two days on the campaign trail. Diagnosed with pneumonia after this, stumbling after she left the September 11th commemoration. The campaign now figures out how to move forward.
ROMANS: A cease-fire in Syria is set to begin just hours from now. But a bloody weekend in the region, warnings from the U.S. allies could damage that truce.
Good Monday morning everybody. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. [05:00:00] BERMAN: I'm John Berman, nice to see you. It is Monday,
September 12th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the east.
And we do begin with Hillary Clinton. The breaking news overnight, she canceled a two-day trip to California because of her health situation. The secretary was supposed to leave this morning on this two-day trip. It included interviews with Ellen DeGeneres, fundraisers, policies speeches.
