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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Lays Out His Plan to Defeat ISIS; Photo Finish in Women's 400M Sprint; Simone Biles Ends Up with Bronze; Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired August 16, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:03] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Details of Thiel's personal life were exposed by a Gawker site back in 2007. Forbes says at least two bidders have emerged including Univision so watch this space.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Indeed. EARLY START continues right now.

ROMANS: Donald Trump laying out his plans for combating ISIS and terror worldwide. Some of his proposals coming under immediate scrutiny. We'll have plans and the reaction.

HOWELL: And Trump coming under fire from the three best known Democrats in the world. Hillary Clinton, President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden all taking their swipes at him. We'll show you what they have to say.

ROMANS: And a finish for the ages in Rio. Did American Allyson Felix take gold in the ;last second push in the women's 400-meter final? You cannot believe how close this heart-stopping conclusion was.

HOWELL: What a race.

ROMANS: Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START this Tuesday morning. I'm Christine Romans.

HOWELL: Good morning, I'm George Howell. It is Tuesday, August 16th. 5:01 on the East Coast. And Donald Trump hoping to reboot his campaign this morning after giving a major speech explaining his plan to take on and defeat ISIS and safeguard the U.S. from Islamic terrorism.

Trump went on promising a global clash against Islamic terror. He compared it to the Cold War. He called for the testing of the values of would-be immigrants. Trump also vowed to keep Guantanamo Bay, Cuba open and to launch a commission on radical Islam. He also slammed Hillary Clinton and President Obama, this time without again calling them the, quote, "founders of ISIS." Trump blamed the terror group's rise on their decisions and policies. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We cannot let this evil continue. Nor can we let the fateful ideology of radical Islam -- its oppression of women, gays, children, and non-believers -- be allowed to reside or spread within our own countries. Any country which shares this goal will be our ally. We cannot always

choose our friends, but we can never fail to recognize our enemies. If I become president, the era of nation building will be brought to a very swift and decisive end.

Hillary Clinton lacks the judgment, as said by Bernie Sanders, stability, and temperament, and the moral character to lead our nation. She also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS and all of the many adversaries we face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And as you would expect, the Democrats instantly jumped on Trump's speech. Clinton and Vice President Biden did so together campaigning in Pennsylvania, and the president taking time from his vacation, also slamming Donald Trump.

CNN's Sara Murray is on the road with the Trump campaign in Ohio and has the very latest for us.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Christine and George. Campaigning yesterday right here in Ohio, Donald Trump said it's time to rewrite America's approach to foreign policy, saying it's time to end the practice of nation building and instead focus our efforts on fighting ISIS on all fronts. And Trump said to do that we need to partner with any ally who's willing to fight ISIS alongside of us.

Now on the more controversial side of this speech, he also unveiled a new set of immigration measures, essentially saying there should be an ideology tests for immigrants coming to the U.S. to weed out anyone who might hold extremist views, whether those are anti-Semitic, anti- gay, or anti-women.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We should only admit into this country those who share our values and respect our people. In the Cold War, we had an ideological screening test. The time is overdue to develop a new screening test. I call it extreme vetting. I call it extreme, extreme vetting. Our country has enough problems. We don't need more and these are problems like we've never had before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now Trump delivered this speech from teleprompters. It was a rare moment where this unscripted candidate was directly on message. But the question for Republicans both in and outside of his campaign is whether he can stick with that for the rest of the week. He'll be campaigning today in Wisconsin and we should have a better sense then. Back to you, guys.

HOWELL: Sara, thank you.

ROMANS: All right. So let's scope out the political battlefield this morning. We've got CNN Politics reporter Eugene Scott and he's here in New York for us this morning.

HOWELL: Good to have you.

ROMANS: So nice to see you.

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good to be here with you, guys.

ROMANS: So let's start on the strategy to defeat ISIS. You know, we were talking about these pillars that Donald Trump was going to put up there.

[05:05:02] He wants this ideological test for hostile attitudes, for people coming into this country. He wants to suspend immigration from volatile regions. He wants to keep Guantanamo Bay open and he wants a commission on radical Islam.

He laid this out. The Clinton campaign jumped. The so-called policy cannot be taken seriously. "It is a cynical ploy to escape scrutiny of his outrageous proposal to ban an entire religion from our country and no one should fall for it."

Is the Trump policy yesterday -- is it being received as a real legitimate actionable policy, immigration policy in this country right now?

SCOTT: Everything I saw yesterday on social media looked at those proposals and say, what does that mean exactly? There were some absence of specifics. Which countries? I think we can guess he means Libya and Syria. But like there weren't specifics on what he meant exactly and which ideologies. I think he meant something -- he said something about anti-gay, but there were people saying, you don't support marriage for gay Americans. So what's the message? Like how do you go about determining what is acceptable and what's unacceptable for Americans?

And there's all this concern about, so does that change if they actually become Americans? Because of some of this sounds like it would be a violation of the First Amendment. And so I think people have questions whether or not this proposal is even realistic as well as what does it even mean.

HOWELL: I remember, he repeated that statement. Extreme vetting. Extreme vetting. The question is, you know, what is the policy behind that? It sounds like a reality show. I mean, what exactly does that mean?

Also I want to get into what we heard simply from Rudy Giuliani on the campaign trail talking about terrorism and attacks on the United States. Let's play exactly what Mr. Giuliani had to say and we can talk about it here in a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Remember, we didn't start this war. They did. We don't want this war. They do. Under those eight years before Obama came along, we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack in the United States. They all started when Clinton and Obama got into office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Now Trump spokesperson clarifying what Giuliani meant to say. But you know, a lot of people stumped here because just a few miles from here, we know that there was a major attack on U.S. soil. 9/11.

SCOTT: Right. Right. I mean, one can argue that the only reason we're talking about him, America's mayor, 15 years later is because of that attack. And gaffes happen. And there's -- you know, there's grace. People understand what happens. But this seems like an example to Trump's critics of criticism and partisanship just going too far. There's some mistakes. It's just not a lot of patience for.

ROMANS: And that's what's sort of the cover of "The Daily News" that we just showed, was sort of saying, that's politicizing that terrible event. But I think you could also argue that you see among Trump supporters this attempt to rebrand radical Islam as something that was born under this administration.

SCOTT: Right. Right.

ROMANS: Kind of sort of restart the clock and rebrand this. Not as something that comes out of September 11th.

SCOTT: Sure.

ROMANS: And decades, actually.

SCOTT: Sure.

ROMANS: But something that is more tied to failures from this administration. A Clinton -- an Obama-Clinton Obama era. Listen to what Donald Trump said about that yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: At the very beginning of 2009, before the Obama-Clinton administration took over, Libya was stable. Syria was under control. Fast forward to today. What we have, and think of this, and the decisions made by the Obama-Clinton group have been absolutely disastrous. Libya's in ruins. Our ambassador and three other really brave Americans are dead and ISIS has gained a new base of operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Now, Eugene, when you talk to foreign correspondents who've covered the Arab springs and the years and developments leading up to the Arab spring, they always remark, you know, it was in the absence of U.S. or Western pushes that -- you know, that really caused the Arab spring in the first place. You know, in a way it was -- it doesn't reflect what Donald Trump is saying really.

SCOTT: Yes. I was reading this morning preparing for the show, and I was like, that statement is probably one of surprise to a lot of Libyans. I mean, before the Obama administration, Libya was just rife with human rights violations and concern, with the absence of an independent free press, women's rights violations left and right, not a robust non-profit community that could challenge the government and so this whole idea that everything was OK until the Obamas came along is a low view of history if not just factually incorrect.

HOWELL: It does seem to be a rebranding, a repackaging of facts.

[05:10:03] SCOTT: Very much so. I remember last week, one of our commentators, S.E. Cupp, made a statement saying that Donald Trump perhaps has one of the weakest foreign policy, like, knowledge reference points of any candidate. And I re-tweeted what she said just for the sake of conversation. And the number of people who pushed back and said actually that's not true at all. Actually his knowledge and his experience is greater than even Obama's.

What's fascinating, so he puts these ideas out and there are people who actually believe them.

ROMANS: Well, he projects confidence.

SCOTT: Absolutely.

ROMANS: And so -- and he always in every opinion, in every double down, triple down he projects confidence.

SCOTT: Right.

ROMANS: And that's something that resonates I think with his supporters.

SCOTT: Yes.

ROMANS: All right, Eugene, stick around. We're going to talk to you in few minutes. Thank you.

Let's talk about stocks. The stock market surging to record highs. And billionaires are fighting on Twitter about Donald Trump's economic policies. Here's the battle, on one side, Mark Cuban, tech entrepreneur, owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks. Supporter of Hillary Clinton. His net worth $3.2 billion. On the other side, Carl Icahn. Legendary investor. Trump supporter. Trump friend. He is worth $17.4 billion.

Icahn tweeted after Hillary Clinton's economy speech, quote, "How do you unleash the power of corporations if you do nothing about the strangulating regulations which she said zero about." Cuban responds to that. "You know you wouldn't hire Donald Trump unless you were short the company." Shorting a company is a bet the stock will drop. It's a funny stock market joke.

The two then went back and forth about regulations, capital spending, productivity, global competitiveness. In the end, Cuban says, he likes Icahn, doesn't have a problem with him but thinks he's just dead wrong about Donald Trump.

HOWELL: A back and forth over the blue-collar billionaire. How about that?

ROMANS: That's right.

HOWELL: In the state of California, firefighters are working hard to get a handle on this surging wildfire. And now criminal charges are being filed in connection with that disaster. We'll have the details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:22] HOWELL: Welcome back to "EARLY START. I'm George Howell.

A suspected arsonist arrested in connection with the raging Clayton Fire in northern California. Here he is. 40-year-old suspect Damin Anthony Pashilk facing 17 counts of arson for allegedly starting several fires in the Lake County area over the past year, including the Clayton Fire which now is only 5 percent contained this morning. It's already destroyed more than 175 homes and structures with 1500 more threatened.

ROMANS: A Brooklyn man is charged with murdering a local imam and his assistant. 35-year-old Oscar Morel was arrested Sunday night -- arrested on charges related to a hit-and-run accident only to then be connected to the killings after authorities executed a search warrant the next day and they found the murder weapon.

Imam Maulana Akonjee and an aide were shot and killed in broad daylight Saturday after a religious service at a Queens mosque. Police are saying there is no indication the shooting was a hate crime.

HOWELL: In Milwaukee, after two nights of violent protest there, a 10:00 p.m. curfew on teenagers and a heavy presence of religious leaders has restored calm there. Earlier Monday a police station in the Sherman Park neighborhood had to be shut down briefly because of threats and shots fired in that area. The curfew will be imposed indefinitely. And 100 National Guard members are on hand and on the ready in case they're needed.

ROMANS: All right. The death toll and the flood waters on the rise in Louisiana. Nine fatalities now confirmed. Thousands of people forced to evacuate their homes. Baton Rouge police confirmed a firefighter was shot accidentally by another firefighter during the flood response effort on Monday. No word on his condition this morning. But the misery in Louisiana just -- and all these school districts are closing for the whole week as these waters keep rising.

HOWELL: And you just feel for people there. I mean, their homes are under water. And they want to go back in and see what's left. Not much left behind.

Let's bring in our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri to tell us when things will dry out there.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, George. Good morning, Christine. (WEATHER REPORT)

ROMANS: All right. Thank you for that.

And then this. Seven 100th of a second.

HOWELL: Unbelievable.

ROMANS: It's all that separates gold from silver. The women's 400- meter sprint. Could American Allyson Felix finish her comeback surge? We go live to Rio next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:24:00] HOWELL: At the Olympic Games, let's talk about the 400- meter sprint on the women's side. It all came down to a photo finish, a nail biter between the Bahamas' Shaunae Miller and American Allyson Felix. And the question, who crossed the finish line first? It all came down to the wire.

Our own Coy Wire following it all there in Rio.

Coy, good to have you. So you see that picture and it's just incredible to look at who crossed and how they crossed.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I see what you did there. I like that. Down to the wire.

(CROSSTALK)

HOWELL: Just had to do it.

(LAUGHTER)

WIRE: I love it. I was at an event last night. Michael Phelps was there, guys. The U.S. women's soccer team was there when that photo finish happened. The athletes were there, all leaned forward, they screamed, then they stood eyes wide open. Waiting for the result of that 400-meter final.

Allyson Felix, the defending world champ, four-time Olympic gold medalist, leans at the line, but it was Shaunae Miller doing the dive- fall-slide lunge across the line and it worked. Gold by .07 of a second.

[05:25:03] But with her gold -- with her silver, rather, Allyson Felix earns her seventh all time now to become the most decorated American female track athlete ever. She surpassed her mentor, the great Jackie Joyner Kersey. So a still great accomplishment for her.

Now the other thing, guys. This just in. Simone Biles is human. A bronze in the balance beam competition. She hauled in three straight golds here in Rio. Dominating every time she performed but one slip cost her a chance at five golds here in the games but she can still become just the fourth gymnast ever to win four gold in a single Olympic Games with a win in the floor final tonight. Now, all right, let's take a look at this medal count. How is this

stacking up? Team USA pulling away, 75 in total. China in second with 46. And Great Britain in third with 41.

Now, guys, last night, I'm still kind of pinching myself because I think I got to interview Michael Phelps on the red carpet here in Rio last night. It was an awesome moment. I had to ask him what's next for the greatest Olympian of all time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL PHELPS, 21 CAREER GOLD MEDALIST: I think first I get to go home for a couple of days and relax. And just enjoy some sun and get soda pops. I'm happy now. And I think that's the biggest difference between now and 2012. You know, in 2012, I think I just wanted to be done. I wanted nothing to do with the sport anymore. And now I'm very, very happy, very pleased with the place that I'm in and I'm happy with how I finished my career.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Guys, from one GOAT to another, 200-meter final for men, we'll get to see Usain Bolt go at it again.

HOWELL: That will be a race to watch. Coy, thanks.

ROMANS: All right. I love the pictures coming in, you know, the sun coming up on the beach behind him every morning.

All right. Donald Trump -- back here. Donald Trump says it's time for an ideological screening test to admit people to this country. Will that help curb the flow of terror? How are Democrats responding? The latest of the 2016 race next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)