Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

New Clinton Emails Released; Obama's New Global Warming Fight; Deputy Killed: Suspect's Past Revealed; Deflategate Ruling Expected Soon. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired September 01, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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


CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Mayer once again says, for her, the answer is as little as possible.

[05:00:00] While you were sleeping, Mayer announced she is expecting identical twin girls in December. Congratulations, she has a three year old little boy. She will be taking, quote, "limited time away and working throughout", those are her words. During her last pregnancy, critics slammed her for setting a bad precedent for working moms and working moms at Yahoo who see their boss working through it.

She, you know -- she went back to the office just two weeks after giving birth and worked from home during her two-week maternity leave the last time.

Twins, oh, boy, twins are different --

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The headline there is twins. Good luck with that. I have a little experience there.

EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC)

ROMANS: New Hillary Clinton e-mails released overnight. More than 7,000 pages revealing her frustration with how the State Department handles secret, ahead.

BERMAN: President Obama promising new action to fight global warming. This morning, he has some harsh words for politicians who deny climate change.

ROMANS: New information on the man accused in execution-style murder of a sheriff's deputy. His troubling past revealed.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Great to see you. It's September, all of a sudden, 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And while were you sleeping, the State Department released a new batch of e-mails from Hillary Clinton's time as secretary of state, more than 7,000 pages of e-mails in the set. Many routine, but some, they do catch the eye, especially in light of the controversy over Clinton's private e-mail server.

In one exchange, she expresses frustration with the State Department's of a document on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as if it were classified, sending it over the classified messaging system. Secretary Clinton wrote to an aide, "It's a public statement. Just e- mail it." I think it was something Tony Blair actually said.

When she receives the draft remarks, she responds sarcastically, well, that is certainly worthy of being top secret. Another e-mail from Chelsea blasts the international relief efforts in Haiti as incompetent, urging some other to quickly change the relief paradigm on the ground. Also worthy of note, more than 100 e-mails in the batch marked classified retroactively.

CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott with the latest -- Elise.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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 the previous charge. It suggests the State Department is erring on the classified 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 received the lowest level of classification. But still, we see this issue is dogging Clinton's presidential campaign. She is already taking a hit on the polls on honesty and trustworthiness. Her leading rival, Bernie Sanders, is now gaining on her in Iowa.

Clinton is still leading, but she's lost about a third of her supporters in Iowa since May. So, that's a troubling trend. Now, you have seen her change her tone somewhat in the past week or so acknowledging some members of the public do have legitimate concerns about her use of a private server and 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's fodder for the Republicans and every time Clinton is forced to talk about the e-mails, she isn't talking about issues that are important to Americans -- John, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Elise Labott, thank you for that, Elise.

There's a new challenge to Donald Trump's supremacy in Iowa. The New York billionaire now tied, he is tied for first place with a surging Ben Carson at 23 percent. This is a new Monmouth University poll. This is the first time in a month that Trump has not led the pack in the first four nominating states in a Republican primary. Carson's gain seems to be Scott Walker's loss. The Wisconsin governor polling at 7 percent this morning.

Look at Carly Fiorina, up in the top three people on that poll are no politician, have never been elected to anything. Six weeks ago, the same poll had Walker in front in Iowa at 22 percent. Republican voters are rejecting the status quo here.

BERMAN: Sure, the top 53 percent of voters say they want someone who has never served in office before.

Donald Trump going after Jeb Bush specifically on immigration. Look at what Donald Trump posted on his Instagram account. A short clip from remarks that Bush made last year when he said that some undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. to provide for their families. Well, Donald Trump has issue with that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:05:03] BERMAN: Trump has so many followers on Instagram and Twitter, he can get a huge reach just by posting something like this. A lot of people noting, this is reminiscent of the Willie Horton ads put out in 1988.

ROMANS: Effective.

BERMAN: Effective Willie Horton ads against Mike Dukakis put out in support of George H.W. Bush, interesting to see.

ROMANS: This morning, Bush is going to be back in his home state of Florida. He's going to tour a high school and host a town hall in Miami and then there's the candidates further back in the Republican field. They're to do what they can to get some national attention. Like Governor Christie polling under 2 percent lately.

He dropped by "The Tonight Show" last night to trade quips with Jimmy Fallon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, THE TONIGHT SHOW: Donald Trump is in the lead of the polls. Is this a surprise to you? Do you know anything --

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

FALLON: No.

CHRISTIE: Of course. Everything he does is fabulous, spectacular, wonderful, amazing.

FALLON: Yes, fantastic. Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

CHRISTIE: It's the best. Life is a strange ride, Jimmy. We'll just keep riding it.

I mean, the fact is, it doesn't really matter. I'm not worried about Donald or anybody else. I got to be worried about me. I got to be myself. I got to do what I do and we'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Life is in fact a strange, strange ride. You have to keep on riding, as Chris Christie likes to say.

Joe Biden is set to join the Labor Day parade this weekend. The vice president will march in Pittsburgh, Monday, alongside an estimated 60,000 union members. This comes in the middle of Joe Biden considering whether he will jump in to the presidential race.

The president was born in Pennsylvania. The vice president was born in Pennsylvania. So, he likes to spend some time there, has some support there. It will be interesting to see.

ROMANS: The president in the Alaskan wilderness today. President Obama planning a glacier hike and boat tour of the Seward Bay. It's all part of the White House plan to use the arctic as a backdrop to the president's high priority climate agenda. Now, already, he has taken global warming deniers to ask, in an unusually blunt speech at a diplomatic conference in Anchorage.

Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is there with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, President Obama has arrived here 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 and record high temperatures and one of their worst wildfire seasons in years. The president delivered a speech to the conference of arctic nations, including Russia on Monday night. In his address, 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 the cynics and the deniers is passed. The time to plead ignorance is surely passed. Those who want to ignore the science, they are increasingly alone. They are on their own shrinking island.

ACOSTA: The president started the trip renaming Mt. McKinley here in Alaska, Denali, in honor of native Alaskans. Next, he will be seeing some of the effects of climate thing first hand. He plans to tour of the state's melting glaciers.

He will do that reality TV star Bear Grylls, who will test the president's survival skills out in the wild as they talk about global warming and then later on this week, he will travel to northern Alaska where he'll become the first president to visit the Arctic to hear from fishermen who were seeing their livelihood threaten by climate change, and a White House official described this journey to me, John and Christine, as a signature trip of the Obama presidency. He is that passionate about this issue -- John and Christine.

BERMAN: Beautiful pictures there to be sure -- Jim Acosta, thank you so much.

Two of Ohio's most prominent politicians furious with President Obama for renaming Mt. McKinley back to Mt. Denali. Denali, the original native American name for North America's tallest peak. House Speaker John Boehner and Governor Kasich say the switch disrespects William McKinley.

America's 25 president, former governor of Ohio, civil war hero as well.

Donald Trump, though, he goes to a whole new level. He says when he becomes president, he will change the name of McKinley to Denali, he will make that switch back. He says this is a great insult to Ohio, says Donald Trump.

Someone was joking on Twitter that Trump is just really upset that he did not change it the name Donald Trump, Mt. Trump.

ROMANS: He does not have a mountain named after him. Many, many tall peaks in Manhattan.

President Obama now just three votes short of veto proof support for the Iran nuclear deal in the Senate, folks. Thirty-one senators favor the agreement, 13 Democrats still undecided.

Later today, we'll find out how two key swing votes will play out. Democrats Senators Ben Cardin of Maryland and Chris Coons of Delaware, they are set to announce their positions on that deal. Congress votes on the measure September 17th.

BERMAN: The United Nations release satellite images confirming the famous Temple of Bel in Palmyra has destroyed by ISIS. The extremists control the ancient Syrian city. New images show the main building in the altar of the Temple of Bel, you can see right there, just been obliterated.

[05:10:00] Just last week, ISIS blew up the Temple of Baalshamin, another treasured site within the 2,000 year old city.

ROMANS: All right. Ten minutes past the hour. Time for an early start on your money this morning. An ugly start to September, I'm sorry to say. Asian shares down sharply after a disappointing report on Chinese manufacturing. European shares, U.S. stock futures down sharply. Dow futures down 2 percent, that's a big move for a morning.

Yesterday, the Dow fell 115 points, plunged more than 1,100 points. The biggest drop since May of 2010. It was really an awful August. Why? Concerns about China, a looming interest rate hike, and indecision when that could happen and oil.

And, of course, oil. Look at this crazy chart, Berman. Oil just logged its biggest three-day rally since 1990s, when Iraq invaded the oil fields of Kuwait. Two reasons here, hints from OPEC that it may consider cutting production and the U.S. government cut estimates for U.S. oil production. And maybe a third reason, speculators after that three day run.

Oil is down almost 4 percent right now.

BERMAN: I'm picking option three. That is not the kind of move that happens because of a little bit of news of oil supply.

ROMANS: I'm predicting one, two and a lot of three. But all three of those together, as soon as a hint of not a glut of production going on indefinitely. That's when you saw a lot of people changing their bets.

BERMAN: Someone's making money.

ROMANS: Someone's losing money.

Was a Houston sheriff deputy killed because of his uniform? What investors are now saying as we learn new information about the suspect in this case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Texas prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for a suspect charged in the execution-style killing of the sheriff's deputy. Shannon Miles made his first appearance in court Monday to face capital murder charges. Authorities are trying to determine why he allegedly shot deputy Darren Goforth 15 times with no apparent provocation.

The Harris County sheriff talking to CNN's Anderson Cooper is convinced his deputy was targeted for being a cop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF RON HICKMAN, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: At this juncture, we find no other motivation other than the fact that he was wearing a uniform, which makes it a random issue.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The president of the Fraternal Order of Police has said he believes this should be labeled a hate crime. Do you think that should be the case? HICKMAN: I think if we can demonstrate he was isolated and selected

because he's wearing a uniform, I think that would qualify.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: We're also learning the suspect has a rap sheet and history of mental illness.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has more from Houston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and John, we have learned that in October of 2012, Shannon Miles was arrested and criminally charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Austin, Texas. But he never went to trial on that charge. Instead, he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial and was sent to a state hospital for six months.

We've also learned that prosecutors have issued a subpoena, trying to track down mental health records here in the Houston area as well. This comes as one of Miles' attorneys says that one of the first things they're going to do is order up a psychological evaluation of Shannon Miles.

So, clearly, the health issues here will be something prosecutors will be digging deeper into as the case moves along. But here at pump number eight at the Chevron gas station where deputy Sheriff Goforth was shot and killed on Friday night, the outpouring of support continues, thousand of people have been streaming by here leaving flowers and balloons and teddy bears and balloons and messages of condolences for the family of Goforth, his wife and two children who have been left behind.

This as 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. Very troubling, but a very powerful and very emotional scene inside that courtroom -- Christine and John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Ed for that.

A stunning rise in murder rates in cities across the United States. The number is sobering. Milwaukee tops the list with 104 homicides so far this year. That's a 76 percent increase over 2014. St. Louis, Baltimore, Washington, New Orleans and Chicago also suffering these high murder rates.

Some officials believe intense scrutiny of police departments and their use of force made officers less aggressive, while emboldening criminals. There are people who say there is no statistical proof of that.

ROMANS: A lot of discussion about what the cause is and how to reverse that. The family of Kate Steinle plans to file a claim against the San Francisco sheriff, the Bureau of Land Management and Immigration and Customs Enforcement casting blame on the agencies for her shooting death in July. The suspects, 45-year-old Juan Francisco Sanchez Lopez is Mexican national who was in the country, in the U.S., despite being deported five times.

The Supreme Court refusing to intervene on the behalf of Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis who has denied marriage licenses to same sex couples because she says it conflicts with her religious beliefs. Davis sought a stay on the high court while she appealed a decision ordering her to start issuing gay marriage licenses. Her continued refusal now could result in fines or jail time. Her attorney says she will thoroughly consider what to do next.

BERMAN: A late summer heat wave hitting the east. Let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri -- Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John and Christine, good morning. Welcome back, Christine.

Let's show you what is happening. Incredible warmth, if you ask me, for this time of year, temperatures across New York City this morning up to 80 degrees. Believe it or not, that is what it should be for high temperature this time of year. We are sitting at that in the early morning hours, massive area of high pressure.

With high pressure, you get sinking air. It warms by compression. The same concept as you pump the bike tire and see and feel the air warm on the pump and also on the tire. We're getting on a broad and expansive skill across parts of the Eastern U.S. New York City heat index and in Washington up around 96 degrees. New York City should be close to 90 what it feels like by the afternoon. All of this generally about ten degrees above climatological norms for the first day of September. Guess what? The high doesn't go anywhere. We get a little front that tries to impact the region in the coming couple of days, cools off just a hair and it warms right back up.

So, Boston, pretty average today, 77, gets up to 90. There is a cooing right there. New York City, we don't get much of that. It gets up to 93 degrees. Notice the temperatures do want to cool off for Friday and Saturday. Much the same develops next Monday. It looks like a long term pattern for the immediate future, guys.

BERMAN: We can pretend it summer. We all know it's not.

ROMANS: But it was 80 degrees at 2:30 this morning, 80 degrees in New York.

BERMAN: All I can hear is 2:30 this morning, which reminds me I was at 2:30 this morning.

ROMANS: Which is worse than the heat --

BERMAN: Exactly.

All right. One down for Serena Williams who is hopefully getting a good night sleep as she chases history at the U.S. Open. Andy Scholes with his vicious backhand in the bleacher report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:31] BERMAN: After eight long months, we could finally have a decision on Tom Brady's deflategate punishment. It could happen today.

ROMANS: Andy Scholes, put an end to our misery. He's got this morning's bleacher report.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: We all want it to end, guys.

Both sides, though, standing their ground. No one is willing to settle in this case. The hearing yesterday lasted four minutes before Judge Richard Berman said he would likely make the ruling by the end of the week, possibly as soon as today.

At this point, three likely outcomes, one, Brady wins, and his suspension is overturned. Two, the NFL wins and the suspension upheld. Both of those rulings would likely result in the losing side appealing to the Second Circuit Court. If Brady is on the losing side, he would ask the judge to stay his suspension while he continues to appeal. If he is granted a stay, he could play in the season opener. Now, the other possible outcome, Judge Berman rules for Brady, sent this case back to arbitration.

The other story line coming out of yesterday's hearing is what would Tom Brady look like in Jane Rosenberg's courtroom sketch. The ones from the first hearing went viral because Brady, it didn't look very Brady. But as you can see, much better this time around. But Rosenberg actually called doing this sketch a nightmare because she couldn't really see Brady. He was in the second row.

What do you think? Better? I think so.

[05:25:01] Rosenberg said, though, she thinks Brady looks a little too much like lurch from the Adam's family.

All right. Serena Williams is one step closer to the calendar year grand slam. She won the first set yesterday, 6-0 before Vitalia Diatchenko retired due to injury. Serena trying to become the first woman to win all four grand slams tournament in a season since Steffi Graf dead it 27 years ago.

Finally, last night's Dodgers-Giants game turned into this morning's Dodgers-Giants. The marathon did not end until 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Adrian Gonzalez blasted the base loaded single in the bottom of the 14th to lift L.A. to 5-4. First place Dodgers now have a 4.5 game lead over the their Bay Area rivals. The Dodgers needed a win like that after being no-hit twice in the past two weeks.

BERMAN: It was unusual to see the Dodgers get a hit. That was like the first hit of Adrian Gonzalez had like a month.

Andy Scholes, great to see you this morning.

SCHOLES: All right. You, too, guys.

BERMAN: New e-mails sent by Hillary Clinton as secretary of state released overnight. What she said about her own department's handling of classified information. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: While you were sleeping, new e-mails from Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server released, 7,000 pages from her time as secretary of state show some frustration of her department handle secrets. Although mentioning gefilte fish.

ROMANS: President Obama's new fight against global warming and his tough words for politicians who deny climate change.