Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

New Hillary E-Mails Released Overnight; Obama Promises New Action to Fight Global Warming; The Troubling Past of Suspect Who Shot A Sheriff's Deputy; Federal Judge to Decide Tom Brady's Fate. Aired 4- 4:30a ET

Aired September 01, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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


[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New Hillary Clinton e-mails released overnight. More than 7,000 pages revealing her frustration with how the State Department handled secrets. Also Gefilti fish.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama promising new action to fight global warming this morning. The president with harsh words for politicians who deny climate change.

BERMAN: New information of the man accused in the execution-style murder of a sheriff's deputy. His troubling past, that's ahead.

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

ROMANS: My name is Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. How are you?

ROMANS: Nice to meet you. It's Tuesday, September 1st, it's 4:00 A.M. in the east, a new month this morning to begin. And under scrutiny this morning, a new batch of e-mails from Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State released overnight by the State Department. Most of the 7,000 e-mails are mundane. Some are eye catching especially in light of the controversy of Clinton's private e-mail server.

In one exchange, she expresses frustration with the State Department's treatment of a document on the Israeli Palestinian conflicts as it were classified sending it over the classified messaging system. Secretary Clinton wrote to an aid, it's a public statement. Just e- mail it. When she receives the draft remarks via her personal email she responds, sarcastically, well, that's certainly worthy of being top secret.

Another email from Chelsea Clinton blasts the international relief efforts in Haiti as incompetent and urges her mom to quickly change the relief paradigm on the ground. Also worthy of note, more than a 100 emails in the batch that had been marked classified retroactively. CNN's Global Affairs Correspondent Elise Labott has the latest.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Christine, 125 of the 7,000 e-mails released last night have information that has now been upgraded to classified. Percentage wise, that's about double than the previous charge. And it suggests the State Department is erring on the side of classifying more maybe because of the scrutiny they have been under from the intelligence community. Now, the information was not marked classified at the time it was sent. I'm told the vast majority of the emails were upgraded because they were being released to the public. And so they received the lowest level of classification.

But still we see this issue as dogging Clinton's presidential campaign. She is already taking a hit in the polls on honesty and trustworthiness. Her leading rival Bernie Sanders is now gaining on her in Iowa. So leading, but she lost about one-third of her supporters in Iowa since May so that's a troubling trend.

Now, you've seen her change her tone somewhere in the past week or so dogging some members of the public to have some legitimate concerns about her use of a private server. Admitting it wasn't the best decision. But we have a long way to go after yesterday's batch. That is only about 25 percent just a quarter of the 55,000 pages of e-mails have been released. Every month a new batch is going to be released. It is fodder for the Republicans. Every time Clinton is forced to talk about e-mails, she is not talking about issues important to Americans.

John, Christine.

BERMAN: All right. Elise Labott, thank you so much.

A new challenge to Donald Trump's supremacy in Iowa. A surging Ben Carson now tied with Donald Trump at 23 percent in the new Monmouth University poll. This is the first time in a month that Trump has not led the pack of the first four nominated states in the Republican race Carson's gain seems to be Scott Walker's loss. The Wisconsin governor pulling at 7 percent this morning six weeks ago, the same poll had Walker in front in Iowa at 22 percent.

ROMANS: A sharp jab from Donald Trump at Jeb Bush's position on immigration. A new attack ad uses a short clip from -- remarks Bush made last year when he said that some undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. to provide for their families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. They broke the law, but it is not a felony. It's an act of love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: A couple of interesting things about this, number one, Trump posted this on Instagram but it has huge reach because of Trump's massive social media follower. So you can see what he can do without actually spending any money. The second thing is that, critics are saying this ad more than anything looks a lot like the Willie Horton ads from 1988 that were run on behalf of in support of Jeb's father George H.W. Bush. It seems quite intentional in some ways, the framing from the Trump people and scathing.

ROMANS: Early for attack ads in my opinion. I mean, it's pretty -- we have a long way to go.

BERMAN: Trump is going right after Jeb Bush.

[04:05:00] ROMANS: This morning, Bush will be back in his home State of Florida, he's going to tour a high school, he's going to host a town hall in Miami.

BERMAN: Candidates further back in the Republican Pac they are doing what they can to get national attention. Governor Chris Christie who is pulling under 2 percent lately in some polls, he dropped by "The Tonight Show" last night to campaign to Jimmy Fallon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, THE TONIGHT SHOW: Donald Trump is in the lead of all these polls. Is this a surprise to you?

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, no, I completely expected that, didn't you?

FALLON: No.

CHRISTIE: Of course, everything he does is fabulous, spectacular, wonderful, amazing. Life is a strange ride, Jimmy. We'll keep riding it. I'm not worried about Donald or anybody else. I'm worried about me. We will see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The straight talker in the campaign until Donald Trump got involved was Chris Christie. Now he found himself second fiddle or third fiddle to Donald Trump. It is interesting.

BERMAN: Life is an interesting ride. You do have to keep riding it.

BERMAN: It's strange right. Joe Biden set to take place in the labor day parade. Estimated 60,000 union members. This is an effort to gauge support for the democratic nomination.

BERMAN: And President Obama will be in the Alaska wilderness today. He is planning a glacier hike of the bay. He is using the arctic as a backdrop of the climate agenda. He is taking global warming deniers to task at a conference in Anchorage. CNN Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta all the way from Alaska with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, President Obama has arrived in Alaska to deliver what he believes to be an urgent message on climate change. The president is sounding the alarm on global warming calling attention to what Alaskans are already experiencing here. Melting glaciers, record-high temperatures and one of their worst

wildfire seasons in years. The president delivered his speech in conference of arctic nations including address on Monday night, he hinted at republicans in congress who have stood in the way of his climate agenda. Here is more of what the president had to say.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Any so-called leader who does not take this issue seriously or treats it like a joke is not fit to lead. The time to heed the critics and cynics and deniers has past. The time to plead ignorance is surely past. Those who want to ignore the science, they are increasingly alone. They are on their own shrinking island.

ACOSTA: The president started the trip by renaming Mt. McKinley here in Alaska, Denali. In honor of native Alaskans. He will see the effects of climate change first hand. He will tour one of the melting glaciers. He will do that with reality TV Star Bear Grylls who will test the president's survival skills out in the wild as they will talk about global warning. He will become the first president to visit the arctic to hear from fishermen who are threatened by climate change. He is that passionate about this issue.

John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Jim Acosta, for us in Alaska, thanks Jim. The two Ohioan politicians are furious with him renaming Mt. McKinley to Denali. House Speaker John Boehner and Governor John Kasich says the switch disrespects William McKinley.

BERMAN: Do not disrespect William McKinley.

ROMANS: America's 25th president and former governor of Ohio. Neither of those two people there are William McKinley. President Obama wants to change the name of Mt. McKinley to Denali after more than a hundred years. Great insult to Ohio. I will change back.

BERMAN: Someone joked, I was reading overnight and I can't remember who it was are upset it is not named Mt. Trump.

ROMANS: He says do you want it changed to Mt. McKinley?

BERMAN: Interesting what the birth certificate says.

ROMANS: Sizzled.

BERMAN: President Obama three votes short of having the senate blocking the Iran deal. 13 still undecided. We will find out about two key votes on. This democratic senators Ben Carson is set to announce their positions on the deal. Congress will vote on the measure in the coming weeks.

United Nations releasing satellite images confirming that the famous temple bell in Palmyra has been destroyed by ISIS. Look at that. The extremists control the city and new images show the building and alter of the temple of bell obliterated. Last week, the temple has been destroyed as well.

[04:10:00] ROMANS: All right. 10 minutes passed the hour. It is time for an early start on your money. It looks like an ugly start to September for stocks. Picking up where we left off. Asian shares are lower this morning. Disappointing report on Chinese manufacturing. U.S. stock futures are lower. Yesterday was a loss for the Dow 115 points. The biggest drop since May of 2010. Concerns about China, a looming interest rate hike and oil.

Oil prices are falling again down 3 percent. It is just look at that chart. Another big swing in a spiral downward. Oil plummeted below $38 for the first time since 2009. Then prices spiked. A lot of people worried of speculation. It smells like a lot of people thought oil had gone down too much. A fundamental reason. An oil production number was bullish for the market, but not enough to move 30 percent in a week. Buckle up. Crazy market.

BERMAN: Was a Houston Sheriff's deputy killed because of his uniform? As we learn new information about the suspect in this case. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Texas prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for a suspect charged in the execution-style murder of a deputy. Shannon Miles faced murder charges on Monday. Authorities are trying to find out why he shot Darren Goforth 15 times with no apparent provocation. The Harris County sheriff says he was targeted for just being a police officer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:15:00] SHERIFF RON HICKMAN, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: At this juncture we find no other provocation other than he was wearing a uniform.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": This should be labeled a hate crime. Should that be the case?

HICKMAN: If we can demonstrate because he was wearing a uniform, that would qualify.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The suspect has a rap sheet and history of mental illness. CNN's Ed Lavandera has more from Houston.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and John, we have learned in October of 2012, Shannon Miles was arrested and criminally charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Austin, Texas. He never went to trial on that charge. Instead, he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial and was sent to a state mental hospital. We learned that prosecutors issued a subpoena trying to track down mental health records from Houston hospitals. This comes from one of Miles' attorneys. One thing they will do is order a psychological evaluation. That will

be something that prosecutors will be digging deeper into as this case moves along. Here at pump number eight at Chevron gas station where Deputy Sheriff Goforth was shot and killed on Friday night, the outpouring of support continues. Thousands of people leaving flowers and teddy bears and balloons and messages of condolences for the family of Goforth.

Many people had to hear and see the suspect in the case for the first time in court today. Some of the gruesome details of the way the murder unfolded in the parking lot were released. Troubling and powerful and emotional scene in the courtroom. Christine and John.

ROMANS: Thank you, Ed.

A stunning rise in murder rates in major cities across America. These numbers are sobering. Milwaukee with 104 homicides this year. A 76 percent increase over 2014. Cities like St. Louis, Baltimore, Washington, New Orleans, Chicago, also reeling from rising murder rates. Now some officials, some believe intense scrutiny of police departments and their use of force has made officers less aggressive while emboldening criminals.

BERMAN: Family of Kate Steinle will file a lawsuit over the shooting death in July. The suspect is a Mexican national in the U.S. despite being deported five teams. Donald Trump has talked about this case a great deal during his campaign.

ROMANS: The Supreme Court refusing to intervene on behalf of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk, who denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Davis sought a stay from the high court. Her continued refusal now could result in fines or jail time.

BERMAN: The last chance for a Deflategate settlement came and went so quickly. A hearing in New York Monday attended by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and New England patriots quarterback Tom Brady. The two sides were unable to agree. Leaving the matter in the hands of the federal judge who will decide as early as today whether the four-game suspension Brady received will stand. CNN's Rachel Nichols has more.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: If you were hoping for a definitive and peaceful end to the Tom Brady deflategate saga, a federal judge did not have good news. Optimism early. The judge tried to force a settlement meeting with Brady and Goodell and dragged in owner John Mara in court. Mara is one of the powerful owners in the league and perhaps Judge Berman thought if he wasn't getting anywhere with a settlement, call on Goodell's possible like you or I call on a manager in a store.

Unfortunately no agreement was reached. By the end of the day, settlement talks are officially over. That means the judge has to issue a ruling. It will come soon. Probably Tuesday or Wednesday. We're in month eight of the saga. Hearing we could finally get a ruling should be good news, until you consider whichever side loses is likely to appeal and we still may have a way to go in all of this.

ROMANS: Rachel, thank you. When is the start of the season?

BERMAN: Patriots play a week from Thursday. With or without Tom Brady.

ROMANS: Justice needs to move more swiftly.

[04:20:00] BERMAN: Chaos as migrants move across the border and suffering with no place to go. We are live with this crisis as it unfolds next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: New developments in Europe is escalating migrant crisis. Train loads of men, women and children, mostly from Syria flooding into Austria. Angela Merkel says all countries must equally bear the burden.

We have CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen live from Munich this morning. This is meeting difficult political roadblocks in Europe, Fred.

FREDERICK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You are absolutely right. A lot of political chaos in Europe which countries will accept how many people. One of the things, Christine, is what the Germans have done. We can see hundreds of people flooding in. The Germans have said anybody who comes here from Iraq or Syria, no matter which country he has been to before, he will be able to apply for asylum. That's a key thing.

[04:25:00] Normally, in Europe, the first country you go into, that is where you apply for asylum. The Germans are saying everybody can come here and apply for asylum. That is what many people are doing. The folks coming here, many of them, are also Syrians. We spoke to Afghans as well. Many speak of the harrowing journey.

They say it was difficult to get into the European Union. They say it was hard to get across Hungary because they were stopped by the authorities and had very little food and water. Many of them not expecting Europe to be here. I have to say hats off to the German authority. They have been providing medical attention and food and water. They are trying to get the people that come here from the trains and keep them in a holding area and put them on buses to a shelter.

That is sort of working here, but you sense the authorities here like other countries are overwhelmed by this situation. Now we are also hearing that one of the train stations has now been closed in Budapest. We expect the situation to deteriorate. A difficult situation for all of the European countries. We are seeing many families with children very weak and tired.

ROMANS: Harrowing and deadly journey. Leaving their country torn by war and trying to find out where they will land and how they will be treated. A complicated story. Thank you, Frederick Pleitgen in Munich. BERMAN: New e-mails sent by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State

released overnight. What she said about her Department's handling of classified information. This all happened while you were sleeping. It's all coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)