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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Death Toll Rises in Carolinas Flooding; Hillary Clinton Unveils Gun Plan; Dow Rallies 304 Points; Israel Rocked by Week of Violence; Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired October 06, 2015 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:06] MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama has declared a major disaster, ordering federal aid to help in the recovery efforts.
The mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, epicenter of the flooded regions, says he expects things to, quote, "get worse before they get better," with damage in the billions of dollars. And flooded streams still flowing into swollen rivers. Officials say 18 dams have breached or failed in the storms like this one in Lexington, near Columbia. A mandatory evacuation ordered downstream of Overcreek dam after a breach Monday.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: There have been hundreds of water rescues already. Dozens more from the air. Some 1300 National Guard troops have been called in to help 250 state troopers.
Want to show you a rescue of a different sort of here. Look at this. This man trying to secure caskets that floated right out of a gravesite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAYNE REEVES, RESIDENT: That's somebody's family out there. Show respect. This is respect. We got to respect the dead. I mean, that's families suffering. They had their family out there, popped up out of the ground. I think it's the human thing to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: You see the scope of the issue is facing that area right now.
With the very latest on the flooding, CNN's Boris Sanchez is in South Carolina.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are standing on Highway 301 in Manning, South Carolina. And if you take a look behind me, this major highway that leads all the way to Florida is covered in flood water. At least as far as the eye can see. We're looking at possibly a mile covered in water and all around there are vehicles that are submerged. Debris scattered across the road. Officials tell us they don't know exactly when this water is going to recede. Possibility into the coming days. If not, the coming week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: This is not over. Just because the rain stops does not mean that we are out of the woods. We very much still have a vulnerable situation that's out there. I'm still going to ask citizens to please stay inside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Despite the obvious problems here, there are some signs of progress. The lights are back on in town and the water is slowly but surely receding. Though again, we are not sure whether or not it's going to be raining into the coming days and making this situation possibly worse.
Boris Sanchez, CNN, Manning, South Carolina.
KOSINSKI: So what everyone wants to know, when will the rain and flooding turn around in the Carolinas? Let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Michelle and John, good morning to you, guys. The good news of the forecast yes, definitely an improving trend when it comes to dry weather. The last bouts of this historic rain shower -- rain event that are finally culminating across this region. But of course you think about the dam failures that have occurred over this region and the state of South Carolina home to some 2400 dams. And about 200 of them considered high risk or high hazard dams.
Overtopping being the main concern in recent days where you typically see this with about 30 percent of dam failures in the United States. You have excess rainfall, excess water, get into the dam and eventually you have waters that are spilling the banks of it. But if you put enough pressure, enough force, and certainly we had that across this region, you can cause dam failures where you have fractures take place within the dam.
Now a lot of dams across the United States, about 75 percent to 80 percent of them are privately owned. In South Carolina, you have around 90 percent of the dams being privately owned. So you think about this. The government restrictions are not there. A lot of them certainly are dated when it comes to severe weather events and being able to deal with such rain events. And you look at some of the flooding that is taking place. We'll leave you with this, Murray Boulevard we go in Charleston. Historic site. The before and after in perspective. Just remarkable to think the amount of water that has taken over some of these incredible landscapes across the Palmetto State -- guys.
BERMAN: All right, Pedram. Thanks so much.
New developments in the search for the missing cargo ship in the Caribbean. The Coast Guard now focusing on a hunt for survivors after concluding that the ship El Faro sank on its way to Puerto Rico under the fury of Hurricane Joaquin. Coast Guard officials say they found survival suits, life boats, life rafts, but no signs of survivors so far. The crew includes 28 Americans. KOSINSKI: The White House is making plans for this morning for
President Obama to travel to Roseburg, Oregon, on Friday. He'll visit privately with the families of victims of last week's mass shooting, This as we learn new details about the young man spared by the shooter.
CNN spoke with the mother of Matthew. She asked that we not use his last name. The gunman spared Matthew's life so that he could hand police an envelope containing a flash drive with the shooter's writings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUMMER SMITH, MOTHER OF STUDENT WHO SHOOTER SPARED: He's different. He will never feel the same. He will never feel complete security again. He doesn't know how to deal with it right now. I don't even think he can register what happened yet. It's just too much.
The shooter gave him what he was told to give to police. He was then sent to sit in the back of the room facing the room and to watch what was going on. Matthew said that he froze. He didn't make a single move. He was afraid to look away, that if he made anything -- did anything to make the shooter notice him, that he would be shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:35:01] KOSINSKI: And Hillary Clinton is responding to the Oregon mass shooting. Wading more deeply than ever into the debate over gun regulation.
CNN's Brianna Keilar is with the candidate in New Hampshire. She has the latest.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Michelle.
Hillary Clinton unveiled a series of proposals aimed at stemming gun violence in the wake of the shooting at the Oregon community college last week. She said she wants to close the gun show loophole and she's willing to take executive action to do so if Congress can't act, which it has shown it doesn't have an appetite to do.
She also says she wants to stop domestic abusers from being able to purchase a firearm. And she wants to give gun violence victims the opportunity to sue gun manufacturers.
Clinton became rather emotional here in New Hampshire as she introduced the mother of a 6-year-old who was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre of 2012.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So many of the parents of these precious children who were murdered have taken the unimaginable grief that they have been bearing and have tried to be the voices that we need to hear. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: When Clinton ran for the Senate in 2000, she had a pretty liberal proposal of supporting a national gun registry. In 2008 when she ran for the presidency, she moderated her views on guns a little bit. But now this run for the White House, she is tacking left, taking on the NRA with fiery language. She tries to really get some more support here in New Hampshire in the polls.
Bernie Sanders actually has a more moderate position when it comes to guns and he is beating Hillary Clinton in the polls in New Hampshire by double digits -- John and Michelle.
BERMAN: Of course the CNN debate with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton one week from tonight. One person likely not going to be there is Joe Biden, though he says he could make up his mind soon about whether to run for president. Politico says it could be as soon as this weekend. That's according to several close confidantes who visited the vice president recently. A top political lead believe he is leaning towards running. A former Senate colleague is quoted in the report saying Biden still loves what he does and feels he can contribute in a meaningful way.
KOSINSKI: This might be just a strategy to keep us guessing.
BERMAN: I like it. It's working.
KOSINSKI: Well, in other news, Donald Trump has a new target. He's lashing out at Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney's top strategist from 2012. Stevens claims the Republican frontrunner is afraid of losing. Listen in to the shocking prediction he made to CNN's Jake Tapper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STUART STEVENS, FORMER ROMNEY STRATEGIST: I don't think he's going to be on the ballot by February 1.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Really?
STEVENS: No.
TAPPER: You think --
STEVENS: I mean, I think he said it tonight that the greatest sin in his value system is to be a loser. And most people who run for president lose. I don't think he'll risk it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: Well, guess what, it didn't take long for Trump to fire back, tweeting, "Political strategist Stuart Stevens who led Romney down the tubes in what should have been an easy victory has terrible political instincts."
BERMAN: They're not friends, I guess, Donald Trump and Stuart Stevens. Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz says he does not expect to win
Republican House members backing this week in his bid to become speaker. But he does not believe that frontrunner Kevin McCarthy will have enough support to replace John Boehner when a House holds a full vote at the end of the month. A new date set for that vote.
Chaffetz slammed McCarthy and decided to challenge him for House speaker after McCarthy, the majority leader, described the Republican investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack. He said there were some political motivations or at least claims some political success for that investigation.
KOSINSKI: California is now the fifth state to allow doctor-assisted suicide. Governor Jerry Brown signed the so-called Death with Dignity measure into law on Monday. It will permit doctors to prescribe lethal dosage of drugs to quicken the deaths of terminally ill patients. Vermont, Oregon, Montana, and Washington state have similar end-of-life laws.
BERMAN: Time now for an EARLY START on your money. Alison Kosik here this morning.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And good morning. Are you seeing some red arrows this morning? Stocks have been weak. European shares are also lower. Investors are processing some weak factory data that came out of Germany this morning. U.S. stock futures once again are lower as well. And this follows a fantastic Monday for stocks. We saw the Dow climbed 304 points yesterday. The S&P 500 extended its five-day winning streak climbing about 6 percent in the past week.
Facebook is one step closer to providing Internet access to people in sub-Saharan Africa. Facebook will launch a satellite next year and service will begin in 2016. And what this is going to do is reach 14 countries in West, East and South Africa. Facebook has used satellites, lasers and even drones to get to the next billion people online.
Other companies are also racing to bring low-cost, low-bandwidth Internet to the world. Google even has its own effort to get more people online. That's called Project Balloon and uses these big hot air balloons floating up there in the stratosphere.
You know, we take it for granted. We just kind of, you know, pick up our phone and go online.
KOSINSKI: Yes.
KOSIK: There are a lot of people who don't have that luxury of connectivity.
[04:40:02] BERMAN: And hot air balloons are going to make the difference.
KOSIK: Well, for Google they're looking to make that happen.
KOSINSKI: Yes. It's hard to imagine what would happen if we just suddenly lost it. I mean, I think we would be lost.
KOSIK: I would be lost without my --
BERMAN: Yes. I lose it every day. But that's a totally different story.
All right. Alison, thanks so much.
KOSINSKI: Thanks, Alison.
Ground combat on the rise in Kunduz. Days after a strike from the air took out a Doctors Without Borders hospital. The U.S. now shifting some blame. We'll tell you where.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KOSINSKI: The Pentagon is blaming the Afghan government for a deadly U.S. air strike that killed 22 people at a Doctors Without Borders medical clinic in Kunduz. General John Campbell, the top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, says the weakened air strike was requested by Afghan leaders to help drive the Taliban out of the city. Doctors Without Borders is calling for an independent investigation citing constant discrepancies in the reports being provided by the Pentagon and the Afghan government.
BERMAN: New this morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ramping up security operations to defeat what he calls a wave of terror. Thousands of police have been deployed in Jerusalem, soldiers have been dispatched with orders to enter Arab neighborhoods and demolish the homes of terrorists. Those demolitions are underway this morning.
All this coming after five days of escalating violence that the Israelis are now blaming on a terror cell affiliated with Hamas.
Want to go straight to Jerusalem and bring in CNN's Erin McLaughlin.
Erin, the situation here, very, very tense and seemingly getting much worse as we go.
[04:45:05] ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. And the Israeli government seeming to want to send a message with those demonstrations that you were just describing. I mean, demolitions rather. They happened overnight in east Jerusalem. Israeli forces demolished the home of an attacker who they say carried out a bulldozed attack, a deadly bulldozed attack, another home of two men they say carried out a deadly synagogue attack.
Now both attacks happened last year. In both cases, the attacker was killed following the attacks. And Palestinians are reacting with outrage, saying that it's a form of collective punishment, saying that it's a war crime. But the demolitions are part of a string of actions announced by the Israeli government. A string of measures that they say is designed to prevent further violence that includes ramping up Israeli security presence in Jerusalem as well as the West Bank and authorizing Israeli forces to take stronger action in response to stone throwing.
So clearly the Israeli government in these actions trying to send a message that it's in control of the situation but at the same time with some of these activities risking further escalation.
BERMAN: Yes. And when things happen in Jerusalem, it's very different in Israel. The level of tension there, it can rise so quickly and the emotions run so hot there.
Erin McLaughlin, live for us, thanks so much.
We have a major recall to tell you about. And it could be in your cereal bowl. Cheerios. Say it ain't so. We'll tell you the problem coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:50:21] BERMAN: Some frightening moments for passengers on board an American Airlines flight from Phoenix to Boston after they learned the pilot was sick and the plane made a rapid descent for an emergency landing in Syracuse.
This is how the cockpit alerted air traffic control when the captain who later died became ill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED AMERICAN AIRLINE CO-PILOT: Medical emergency. Captain is incapacitated. Request handling for runway one-zero landing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ambulance will meet you in the south de-ice pod.
UNIDENTIFIED AMERICAN AIRLINE CO-PILOT: All right. Are they going to have a way to get into the airplane quickly or do we need to go to a gate?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They will have a way to get into the airplane quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED AMERICAN AIRLINE CO-PILOT: Understood. As long as they have a way to get on the airplane quickly. We'll need them to get to the captain. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Listen to the calm in that. The pilot has now been identified as Captain Michael Johnston. His wife says she has been told the likely cause of death was a heart attack.
KOSINSKI: Everyone talking about that story.
BERMAN: Can you imagine? You know, Richard Quest, though, told us yesterday, he said this actually happens more than you realize on flights.
KOSINSKI: Yes.
BERMAN: And it's why these cockpits are configured like they are.
KOSINSKI: Right.
BERMAN: With co-pilots who can land the plane safely.
KOSINSKI: Right. Yes. Thank God for the co- pilot.
BERMAN: Sadly.
KOSINSKI: I'm your co-pilot.
BERMAN: Yes. Exactly. Let's hope it ends better.
KOSINSKI: Well, there's an investigation underway now into what caused an Amtrak commuter train to derail in central Vermont. At least two cars ran off the track Monday morning over an embankment. That's pretty bad. The federal preliminary report, though, suggests the accident was caused by a rock slide in the train's path. Officials say six people were injured. One seriously. The train carrying 98 passengers and four crew members was headed to Washington, D.C.
And just when you thought nothing could possibly go wrong with your Cheerios, we have a major recall to tell you about. Sorry about that. Stop eating now. General Mills says nearly two million gluten-free boxes are being recalled because they may contain wheat. It affects Honey Nut and Regular Cheerios in the classic yellow box. The company is converting five varieties of the popular cereal to gluten-free. Officials say there have been two reports of illness due to wheat allergies.
BERMAN: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in your cereal bowl.
A big scandal in the world of fantasy sports. Huge money in fantasy sports. And the allegations are essentially about insider trading. It involves two major fantasy companies, DraftKings and FanDuel. The "New York Times" reports a DraftKings employee won $350,000 in a week placing bets at the rival site using data from his own company that was not available to the public.
The company issued a joint statement in response to the cheating concerned saying, "Nothing is more important than the integrity of the games," adding they have, quote, "strong policies in place to ensure employees do not misuse any information at their disposal."
Now I was wondering, how do you cheat at fantasy, right, because the players play on the field, you can't change that, right? It turns out you have data that could indicate where other people are placing all their bets, which players they're picking, and you can pick different players so it increases your chances of winning if your player does well. Complicated --
KOSINSKI: It might as well be another universe to me. BERMAN: So much money.
KOSINSKI: I have no idea what you're talking about.
BERMAN: $350,000 this guy won. So that's crazy.
All right. Other big news in sports this morning. The New York Yankees rallying around pitching great CC Sabathia. Sabathia shocked everyone when he announced he was checking into an alcohol rehab center just as his team is preparing for a one-game playoff against the Houston Astros. The Yankees are now adopting the rallying crying of "Win One for CC." Alex Rodriguez, he's his teammate, is applauding Sabathia's courage for, quote, "admitting he had a problem and raising his hand for help."
CC Sabathia really known as one of the nice guys in the game. And his teammates they tell such great stories about how helpful he has been to them over the years. A lot of people just saying, look, yes, sure, it's the playoffs, but at least he's got his priorities in check. If his health at risk, you know, if he's family is at risk here, he's got to deal with it.
KOSINSKI: High pressure of sports. High pressure field.
BERMAN: Hope he does OK.
All right. You can now get your Egg McMuffin anytime of day. Thank goodness. But can all daybreak help turn McDonald's financial issues around?
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:53:16] KOSIK: Good morning. I'm Alison Kosik. Let's get an EARLY START on your money.
Stocks are pulling back a bit this morning. European shares, though, are recovering from earlier losses right now. U.S. stock futures still down just a bit. But this follows a fantastic start to the week. The Dow climbed 304 points yesterday. And the S&P 500 extended a five-day winning streak. It's climbed almost 6 percent in the past week making investors wonder if recent stock market turmoil is just a pause or if the worst is behind us.
It just got a little easier to navigate through the complicated mortgage process. New rules are now in effect to reduce how much paper work is involved. So instead of four forms from two different government agencies, now lenders have to give home buyers just two forms that clearly detail the terms of their loan. The simpler forms should make it easier for borrowers to compare loans from different lenders to find the best rates and terms.
All right, It's official. All-day breakfast starts today at McDonald's. It's part of an effort to boost slumping sales and profits. And the rollout, it's actually been a little more complicated you would imagine because all restaurants have to install these separate griddle and train staff on how to handle the extra options. This is at a time when franchisees say the menu is too bloated and leads to longer wait times. McDonald's is betting all-day breakfast will attract new customers without discouraging loyal burger lovers.
I'm a buyer on this because I love to get those greasy hash browns all day.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: It's never a bad time for an Egg McMuffin. I think what we should so, all day EARLY START to coincide with all-day breakfast.
KOSINSKI: Why not?
KOSIK: I know you love working you love the 24/7.
BERMAN: And I get the free food.
EARLY START continues right now.
KOSINSKI: A flooding disaster in South Carolina. The death toll is rising as waters rage around the state. Dams breached. Homes washed away. Hundreds of people rescued.
We'll have the latest on the damage.
