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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Clinton's Use Of Private Server Hurting Her; Trump Ad Attacks Bush On Immigration; Chris Christie Drops By Tonight Show; President Obama In Alaska; Houston Cop Killing; Migrant Crisis Rocks Europe; Stocks Down Around The World. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired September 01, 2015 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama's new fight against global warming and his tough words for politicians who deny climate change.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New information in the execution-style murder of a Houston sheriff's deputy. What investigators are saying about the suspect's past and why they think he did it.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Nice to see you all this morning, first day of a new month.
Under scrutiny this morning, a new batch of e-mails from Hillary Clinton's time as secretary of state, these new e-mails released overnight by the State Department, more than 7,000 pages of them in this new set. Many of them are routine.
Some are eye catching especially in light of the controversy over her private e-mail server. In one exchange, she expresses frustration with the State Department's treatment of a document on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict as if it were classified sending it over to classified messaging system.
Secretary Clinton wrote to an aide it's a public statement. Just e- mail it. Once she received the draft remarks via her personal e-mail, she responds sarcastically, well, that is certainly worthy of being top secret.
Another e-mail from Chelsea Clinton blasts the international relief efforts in Haiti as, quote, "incompetent." Chelsea Clinton urges her mother to, quote, "quickly change the relief paradigm on the ground."
Also worthy of note, more than 100 e-mails in the batch that have been marked classified retroactively. CNN global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, has the latest for us.
ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, 125 of the 7,000 e-mails released last night have information that has now been upgraded to classified. Percentage wise that is 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. The information was not marked classified at the time it was sent. The vast majority were upgraded because they were being released to the public. They received the lowest level of classification.
Still we see this issue as dogging Clinton's presidential campaign. She is taking a hit in the polls and on honesty and trustworthiness. Bernie Sanders is gaining on her in Iowa. Clinton is leading, but lost one-third of supporters in Iowa.
So that's a troubling trend. You have seen her change her tone in the past week or so acknowledging some members of the public have 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 released. Every month, a new batch will be released. It's fodder for the Republicans and every time Clinton is forced to talk about e-mails, she is not talking about issues that are important to Americans -- John, Christine.
BERMAN: Thanks, Elise. New challenge to Donald Trump and supremacy in Iowa, a surging Ben Carson now tied with Trump at 23 percent in a new Monmouth University poll. Look at Carly Fiorina at 10 percent.
So 53 percent of voters in Iowa say they want someone with no government experience for president. This is the first time that Donald Trump has not led in a poll in the last month over the four early nominating states in the Republican race.
Ben Carson's gain appears to be Scott Walker's loss, back at 7 percent in the polls. Six weeks ago, he was leading in Iowa in the poll. He had 22 percent.
ROMANS: Ted Cruz has been senator for two and a half years. He worked hard to try to make himself be the outsider.
BERMAN: I have a pet peeve with classifying him as such. I mean, he is a guy who worked for George W. Bush's campaign, worked in the Bush administration, (inaudible) one of the big insider's clubs on earth right now. He would certainly like to put himself with those three non-government types.
ROMANS: All right, a sharp jab from Donald Trump at Jeb Bush's position on immigration. A new attack ad posted on Instagram 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's not a felony. It's an act of love.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: This morning, Bush will be back in his home state of Florida. He is going to tour a high school and host a town hall in Miami.
BERMAN: A lot of people think that blurb reminiscent of the Willie Horton ads produced in support of Jeb's father, George H.W. Bush back in 1988.
Candidates doing what they can to grab some attention. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who is at 2 percent in a lot of polls recently, he went on "The Tonight Show" last night. If he can't win Iowa, maybe you can win Jimmy Fallon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON: Donald Trump now is the leader of all of the polls. Is this a surprise to you?
GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. I expected that. Didn't you?
FALLON: No.
[05:35:00] CHRISTIE: Of course. Everything he does is fabulous and amazing. Life is a strange ride, Jimmy. We'll just keep riding it. The fact it is doesn't matter. I'm not worried about Donald. I have to worry about me. I do what I do and we will see what happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Joe Biden is set to join in one of the country's largest Labor Day parades this weekend. The vice president will be marching in Pittsburgh Monday along with 60,000 union members. Political observers say Biden's recent series of political appearances is an effort to gauge support for a possible run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
BERMAN: Biden is thinking about it.
President Obama will be in the Alaskan wilderness today. He is planning a glacier hike and a boat tour of the bay. It's all part of a White House plan to use the Arctic as a back drop for the president's high priority climate agenda.
Already he has taken global warming deniers to task in an unusually blunt speech at a diplomatic conference in Anchorage. Our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta is there.
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 wildfire seasons in years.
The president delivered a speech to a conference of Arctic nations including Russia on Monday night. His address, he hinted that Republicans in Congress who have stood in a way of his climate agenda. Here is more of what the president had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 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 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: The president started this trip by making some waves renaming Mt. McKinley here in Alaska "Denali" in honor of native Alaskans. Next he will be seeing some of the effects of climate change first hand. He plans to tour one of the state's 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 talk about global warming.
Later on this week, he will travel to Northern Alaska where he will become the first president to visit the Arctic to hear from some fishermen who are seeing their livelihoods threatened 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.
ROMANS: All right, Jim Acosta for us this morning in Alaska, thanks, Jim.
Two of Ohio's most prominent politicians are furious with President Obama for renaming Mt. McKinley to Denali. Denali is the original native-American name for North America's tallest mountain.
The park is still called Denali. House Speaker John Boehner and Governor John Kasich say the switch disrespects William McKinley, America's 25th president and the governor of Ohio.
Donald Trump taking the fight one step further tweeting this, "President Obama wants to change the name of Mt. McKinley to Denali after more than 100 years. Great insult to Ohio. I will change it back."
BERMAN: Interesting. Alaska's representation, Republicans, are lauding this change. They think it is great. It pits Alaska versus Ohio.
President Obama now just three votes short of having enough votes to keep the Senate from blocking the Iran nuclear deal, 31 senators favor the agreement with 13 Democrats still undecided.
Later today, we will find out how two key swing votes might play out. Democratic Senators Ben Cardin of Maryland and Chris Coonz of Delaware could announce their positions on this as soon as today. Congress votes in the coming weeks.
ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money. Asian shares are lower after the disappointing report on Chinese manufacturing numbers reminding us all that China has got some troubles here.
European shares are down. Look at stock futures in the U.S., much lower right now, looks like an ugly start to September. That's going to be an ugly morning, folks, you know, following August footsteps.
Yesterday, the Dow fell 115 points. It plunged more than 1,100 points last month, 6.6 percent in one month, the biggest drop since May of 2010.
Watching Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart is cutting back worker hours at some of its stores. The move comes four months after Wal-Mart raised wages, which has resulted in a drag on profits.
Wal-Mart says these cutbacks only affect a small fraction of stores, stores that are scheduling too many hours based on the kind of sales they are seeing. The company CEO says they will watch costs closely to make up for the more expensive labor investments in its new plans this year.
BERMAN: Troubling history revealed about the suspect in the execution-style murder of the sheriff's deputy.
[05:40:02] New information about his past and why investigators now think he did it. That's next.
(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, he 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 HOST, "AC360": The president of the Fraternal Order of Police has said that he believes this should be labeled a hate crime. Do you think that should be the case?
HICKMAN: I think if we can demonstrate that he was isolated and selected because he was wearing a uniform, I think that would qualify. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: We are also learning the suspect had a rap sheet and a history of mental illness. CNN's Ed Lavandera has more from Houston.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and John, we have learned that in October 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 for six months. We've also learned that prosecutors have issued a subpoena trying to track down mental health records from a mental hospital here in the Houston area as well.
[05:45:09] This comes as one of Miles' attorney says that one of the first things they are going to do is order up a psychological evaluation of Miles. This is something they will dig deeper into as the case moves along.
Here at pump number eight at the Chevron Gas Station where Deputy Goforth was shot and killed Friday night, the outpouring of support continues. Thousands of people have been streaming by here leaving flowers and balloons for the family of Goforth and 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 very first time in court today. Some of the gruesome details of the way this murder unfolded in the parking lot were released. It's very troubling but a very powerful and very emotional scene inside that courtroom -- Christine and John.
ROMANS: Ed Lavandera, thank you for that this morning, Ed. Let's look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Alisyn Camerota joins me this morning. Hi, Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hi, Christine. Great to see you. As you know, there's big news in the political world, Donald Trump suddenly tied with Ben Carson. Who saw that one coming? We will talk to one of Carson's top advisers about this.
And also a new batch of Hillary Clinton's e-mails revealed overnight. What is in them and were they classified? Our political panel tackles that.
Also more on the case you have been talking about of that police officer gunned down in Texas. The suspect marched through a courtroom lined with officers. We will ask the sheriff about the past mental history that is now coming to light. We have a lot to talk about at the top of the hour.
ROMANS: So many questions in that story. Thank you so much for that, Alisyn.
Chaos in Europe, refugees escaping war zones and looking for any place to call home. We are live where hundreds arrived overnight in Germany next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:50:45]
ROMANS: New developments in Europe's escalating migrant crisis. Train loads of men, women and children, mostly from Syria flooding into Austria and Germany overnight.
The E.U.'s asylum rules collapsing amid all of this chaos. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel warning that all governments in Europe must equally bear the burden.
CNN senior international correspondent, Frederik Pleitgen, live from Munich this morning. Fred, I'm reading this Reuters bulletin right now about, you know, hundreds of people at a train station Hungary chanting Germany. They are trying to get to Germany.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, a few hundred have managed to get to Germany. We have trains coming to the Munich central station. I would say on each, 100 people get off. They are immediately taken by German police and brought to this area. It's sort of a holding area.
What the Germans do here is they give these people medical check and food. I'll show you a bit here. There are teddy bears here. Food was given to them. A family is here. These folks are here from Syria. Most of the people we are seeing from Damascus area.
They said Hungary was difficult for them to try to get through there. Now many of them are very happy to have made it here to Germany. You can feel the authorities here are having a lot of trouble coming to grips with the situation.
Many people coming here. You also get the feeling that they are doing their best to avert the greatest chaos. There is a lot of buses here. Cops are waiting for the next bus to bring these people to temporary shelters to make sure they have a place to stay.
It is very hot here at this point. Again, we have a bus coming in here that is getting ready to take people to a temporary shelter. The authorities are doing a great job of keeping it orderly. In many countries, Christine, all of that has broken down and it is chaotic.
ROMANS: Just sort of a fractured response what you are seeing there. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor saying Europe has to get its act together on this migrant crisis. Thank you so much for that. Fred Pleitgen in Munich for us.
It's 53 minutes past the hour. A CEO announces she is having twins and she will work the whole time. The latest in the parental leave debate next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:57:08] ROMANS: All right, good morning, everybody. Nice to see you. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money. An ugly start to the month for stocks, Asian and Europe shares lower. Disappointing Chinese manufacturing data underscoring the challenges in China's economy.
U.S. stock futures falling sharply. Picking up where it left off last month. The Dow plunged more than 1100 points in August, that 6.6 percent, the biggest drop since May of 2010. Why, those concerns about China and looming interest rate hike and timing of that and of course, oil.
Look at the chart. Oil just logged the biggest three-day rally since the 1990s when Iraq invaded the oilfields of Kuwait. Two reasons, hints from OPEC it may consider cutting production and the U.S. government cut estimates for oil production.
Maybe a third reason speculators. After the three-day run, oil is down again almost 4 percent right now. Still looking at $2 gas by the fall.
So how much time should women take off for maternity leave? Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer says as little as possible. She announced she is expected twin girls in December. Congratulations. She will take, quote, "limited time away and working throughout."
During her last pregnancy, critics slammed Mayer for setting a bad precedent for working moms. She worked from home during her two-week leave and went back to the office two weeks after giving birth to her son who is now 3 years old. There are challenges at Yahoo! and she needs to be at the helm.
There is a new challenge to Donald Trump's supremacy in Iowa. "NEW DAY" picks up that story now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two guys who never held political office leading the race.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ben Carson tied with Donald Trump in Iowa.
COOPER: How concerned should the Republican establishment be at this point?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A 125 of the 7,000 e-mails upgraded to classified.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Classification is not an exact science.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She didn't break any rules.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gruesome details of the way this murder unfolded.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fifteen shell casings. He unloaded pistol into Deputy Goforth. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The assassination of police officers is on the rise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's hope it is not because of the uniform or it wasn't race related.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have another incident of somebody with mental illness being able to get a gun.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, September 1st.
Up first, Donald Trump tied forefront runner status now. A new Monmouth University poll shows rival Ben Carson tying Trump in the critical state of Iowa. This is the first time in a month that there is a poll that does not give Donald Trump a huge lead over the field.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Also overnight a new batch of Hillary Clinton's emails released by the State Department, what's in them? Classified information and does this matter to voters?
