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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
No Powerball Winner, Jackpot To $750 Million; FBI Warns More Devices May Have Been Mailed To Other Locations; National Hunt For More Packages. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 25, 2018 - 5:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: And a rough day for the markets, The Dow and S&P erasing all gains for the year, and the Nasdaq in correction territory.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: And here we go again. No Powerball winner overnight, sending Friday's jackpot to a cool $750 million. I guarantee you most people spent more time thinking about the lottery than about the stock market. But I will tell you what's going ...
BRIGGS: We needed a good news story.
ROMANS: ... wrong in the stock market. Good morning - you're right. And welcome to Early Start. I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. After a very difficult day, it is Thursday, October 25, 5 a.m. in the east. The big question this morning, is it over? A series of mail bombs sent to prominent Democrats and right here to CNN in New York. None exploded, but a source tells CNN the FBI is handling the investigation as domestic terrorism. The bureau itself warns more devices may have been mailed to other locations. The New Police Commissioner echoing that concern.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES P. O'NEILL, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: This is open-ended. Last night we had one and - and - and now we have six. So we have to operate under the assumption that there are more out there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Law enforcement trying to track down a package addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden. That package considered suspicious because of similarities to the others. It was misaddressed and sent back to the same bogus return address printed on the other packages, the Florida Office of Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. And the first package was hand delivered Monday to the New York Estate of Democratic mega-donor George Soros.
BRIGGS: Late Tuesday, another pipe bomb was delivered to Bill and Hillary Clinton at their Chappaqua home. Wednesday, explosive devices were delivered to the Obama's D.C. home, and Representative Maxine Waters' offices, former Attorney General Eric Holder's misaddressed package went to Wasserman Schultz's Florida office. And a package intended for former CIA Chief John Brennan arrived here at CNN. For the record, he actually works for NBC as a national security analyst.
ROMANS: A source says Brennan's package contained a white substance that may be pyrotechnic powder from the bomb itself. For the latest on what officials are looking for, here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Dave, now the biggest concern is are there any more devices either out there or being delivered. A national hunt is now on the way for whoever is responsible for sending these bombs.
Investigators now looking into things, both, looking at videotape here in the New York area and others, the packaging of the bomb to see what they can glean from that, any DNA left, any fingerprints on that bomb, and then the bomb itself - the pipe, the trigger, the glue, the tape, the explosive itself to see if there are signatures that will help them understand who did this.
Several of the bombs had also had stamps placed on them, but then had been hand delivered. And that may be something that also plays into this investigation. But right now a national hunt on for whoever is responsible. And the hope is in releasing that picture, is that no one will be injured by similar packages that are out there. And it may jar someone's memory or give them information on leads that officials are now desperate for, Christine, Dave.
BRIGGS: All right. Miguel Marquez, thank you. The terror threat did not change the President's schedule. He still showed up for the political rally in Wisconsin last night, and clearly had the failed pipe bombings on his mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And by the way, do you see how nice I'm behaving tonight? This is like - have you ever seen this?
(APPLAUSE)
We're all behaving very well. And hopefully we can keep it that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Don't hurt yourself patting yourself on the back there. But after an early call for unity, the President did not acknowledge his own role in this heated political environment. Kaitlan Collins was at the rally.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine and Dave, President Trump brought up those attacks as soon as he got on stage here in Wisconsin. He denounced the attacks. He called for unity. But one thing we did not hear from President Trump were the names of the people that those packages were addressed to. Former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Maxine Waters. Any of the President's, usually, favorite political targets at rallies like this, he did not mention them when he got on stage, nor did he mention CNN, another favorite target of his while he was discussing these attacks today, and calling for unity.
However, he did point to the media at one point saying that they need to be the ones who make sure they are setting a civil tone. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Any acts or threats of political violence are an attack on our democracy itself. Those engaged in the political arena must stop treating political opponents as being morally defective. As part of a larger national effort to bridge our divides and bring people together, the media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone.
[05:05:00]
And to stop the endless hostility, and constant negative and often times, false attacks and stories - have to do it - have to do it.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: For the rest of the night we did see a slightly more subdued tone from President Trump. Now whether or not the President moves forward with this subdued tone, stops calling out Hillary Clinton at the few rallies that he does have before those voters go to the polls in less than two weeks for the midterms, that's an open question, but what we did see tonight was President Trump call for civility, but made no points about anything he said the critics have said was uncivil, Christine and Dave.
ROMANS: Thank you, Kaitlan. White House officials are rejecting calls for the president to tone down his redirect insisting he should not be blamed for crazy things that violent people want to do. That being said, here's what the President has said about the people targeted by those bombs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Fake as hell, CNN, the worst.
(APPLAUSE)
Don't worry, I don't like them either. Hillary is a very dishonest person. If you look at the things she says, I mean, they're so dishonest. I think Brennan is a very bad guy and if you look at it, a lot of things happened under his watch.
I think he's a very bad person. And, of course, the legendary low I.Q. Maxine Waters - a low I.Q. person. It was very polarized under President Obama - unbelievably polarized under President Obama. They'll go to a person holding a sign who gets paid by Soros or somebody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Now, you heard the President refer to John Brennan, the former CIA Director as a very bad person. Last night Brennan had this to say about the pipe bomb addressed to him that was sent here to CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Donald Trump has not helped to encourage the type of civil discourse, and engagement - public engagement. And his redirect, too frequently, I think, fuels these feelings and sentiments that now are bleeding over into potentially acts of violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The White House did not reach out to President Obama, the Clintons, or any of the other officials who received pipe bombs.
ROMANS: In fairness, the President's not the only political using overheated redirect. Conservatives are quick to point to comments like these.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome.
ERIC HOLDER, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: Michelle Woods (ph) says that, you know, when they go low we go high. No. They go low, we kick them.
(APPLAUSE)
HOLDER: That's what this new Democratic Party is about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: In the wake of the pipe bomb attacks you might have expected a softer tone from the right-wing talk show circuit. Instead, you got conspiracy theories, and fear-mongering.
RUSH LIMBAUGH, AMERICAN TALK SHOW HOST: Not one of these bombs went off and if a Democrat operative's purpose here is to make it like, hey, you know there are mobs everywhere. The mobs are not just Democrat mobs.
MICHAEL SAVAGE, AMERICAN TALK SHOW HOST: It's a high probability that the whole thing is set up as a false flag to gain sympathy for the Democrats, number one. And number two, to get our minds off the hordes of illegal aliens approaching our southern border.
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Democrats, after weeks of literally calling for incivility, and kicking, and getting in people's faces and following them, telling them you're wanted anywhere anymore. All of a sudden are pretending to be the party of peace. This is hypocrisy at its worst.
BRIGGS: Two hours after news of the pipe bombings broke, the President's reelection team sent out an email signed by Mr. Trump's daughter-in-law, Laura. It said, quote, I have some breaking news for CNN. That is the real American that exists outside of the liberal bubble. Now the President's campaign manager apologized later claiming the email was preprogrammed, and automated message that was not caught before the news broke.
ROMANS: All right. Late night hosts addressed the pipe bombs.
SETH MEYERS, LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS: The White House issued a statement today condemning the suspicious packages sent to the homes of the Clintons, former President Obama, and CNN's New York City headquarters. Trump has ordered the FBI to look at several suspects including the Clintons, Obama, and CNN.
(LAUGHTER)
STEPHEN COLBERT, THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: CNN evacuated everybody from their offices. I assume Wolf Blitzer did his show from the situation bodega.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: We have to unify. We have to come together.
COLBERT: Both sides must come together with respects, be they Republicans or crooked, lying, Soros-bought Dems working for the enemy of the people, CNN, the caravan news network, and body slam.
(LAUGHTER)
[05:10:00]
ROMANS: Body slam - all right, a body slam on Wall Street actually. Chances are if you bought blue chip stocks this year, you're now losing money.
Look at the DOW, down 608 points. The stock market plunged yesterday wiping out all of the gains for 2018. After the market closed the S&P 500 and DOW are both negative for the year.
The NASDAQ is in what we call a correction, meaning it is 10 percent below the all time high time hit in August. Blue chips are now down six days in a row, there's the damage report, just one day. That's a big move for one day, no question.
All right, this month the NASDAQ is now 11.7 percent, the DOW is down 7.1 percent, the S&P 500 down 8.9 percent. So October has been tough, the big question is why? A major adjustment underway in the broader stock market environment. Investors are coming to grips with something being called peak
earning, that the golden days of a booming economy, rich tax cut's for companies, low interest rates; that great combination is right now and will likely begin to fade next year.
As the big companies report their very big profits, they're beginning to note higher costs from trade disputes and higher wages - higher wages are good for employees, but they're bad for profits.
Here is the tech damage report for the day. Netflix down 9 percent, Facebook dropped 5 percent, and Amazon lost 6 percent.
BRIGGS: Ok, the NEW YORK TIMES reporting Russia and China are listening in on the Presidents private cell phone conversations, raising fresh new security concerns. The TIMES says the Presidents phone is not secure, but he refuses to stop using the device.
Government officials sighted in a report say China is attempting to use Intel from the Presidents call to develop a winning strategy in its trade dispute with the U.S. China's also trying to use tone (ph) business leaders to influence people with connections to the Presidents inner circle.
Mr. Trump told the WALL STREET JOURNAL this week he uses discretion when talking on his cell phone.
ROMANS: All right. Looks like the latest Megyn Kelly controversy may be the last straw for NBC.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:15:00]
ROMANS: President Trump will be briefed today by CIA director Gina Haspel on her trip to Turkey. The WASHINGTON POST reporting Haspel listened to the audio of Jamal Khashoggi's murder during that trip.
Today we may learn more about exactly what happened to the journalist. CNN's Nic Robertson live in Istanbul. So she will come back to the President and report on what she's found from the Turkish authorities?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN EDITOR: Absolutely. We heard the President Erdogan say that the material that's been released is things that have verified, so the Turks seem to have high confidence in whatever it is they've shared with Gina Haspel.
Have they also shared with her other material? There could be a smoking gun linking that so called Saudi hit team with Prince Mohammed bin Salman - the crowned prince in Saudi Arabia. A lot of speculation in Turkey here today, the Turkish investigators may get a second look inside the consuls general resident behind me here.
Why is this such a big issue? Because we're not learning that Saudi officials refuse to let Turkish investigators when they got in here a week ago, refused to allow them to look inside a well - a large, deep well in the basement of the building here and of course the consul generals residence key for investigators because after Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the consulate, that so called hit team dove here, just a couple minutes away, to the consul generals residence. And one vehicle actually went inside the residence and disappeared from view of closed circuit security cameras.
So it would seem, from a Turkish investigators point of view, they're able to get all evidence and material from here, including what is ever inside that well, would be ugly important in there quest to find out just what happened to Jamal Khashoggi's body, Christine.
ROMANS: Every twist and turn, it's just maddening. All right thank you so much for that, Nic Robertson.
BRIGGS: Ok, back here at home. Megyn Kelly will not be appearing live on her NBC show this morning and there is doubt she will ever be back, Kelly in hot water with the network for her controversial comments about black face customers at Halloween.
A source familiar with the situation telling CNN her show will be ending and confirmed she in talks about a new role at NBC. Kelly started her show Wednesday by apologizing for her remarks. NBC NEWS chairman, Andy Lack condemned the racially insensitive comments during a previously scheduled town hall meeting.
Brian Stelter has the latest on all of that on NEW DAY.
ROMANS: No winners in Wednesday's night POWERBALL drawing. That means the estimated jackpot for Saturdays drawing is $750 million. Last nights winning numbers were 3, 21, 45, 53, 56, and the POWERBALL was 22, so far no sign of the $1.6 Billion MEGAMILLIONS jackpot winner.
That ticket was sold in Simpsonville, South Carolina, the owner of the KC MART gets a $50,000 payoff when the winner collects.
BRIGGS: Doesn't seem like much, does it? $50,000 - it's a state - it's a state to state thing.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: But I guess it's...
ROMANS: I mean when you compare it to $1.6...
BRIGGS: Right, exactly.
ROMANS: Yes.
BRIGGS: We can dream (inaudible). Ahead, game two of the WORLD SERIES in the books and the BOSTON RED SOX are now two wins away from yet another WORLD SERIES title. Cory Wire has the highlights in the BLEACHER REPORT next.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:20:00] BRIGGS: The Boston Red Sox half way to another World Series title. Coy Wire has more in the Bleacher Report this morning. Good morning my friend.
(SPORTS)
[05:25:00]
ROMANS: All right, a man hunt for a domestic terrorist after assassination attempts against two former presidents, a vice president, a secretary of state, and attorney general, a CIA director and us at CNN.
Now the presidents says it's up to the media to change.
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