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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Romney and Ryan Hitting the Trail; Passing the Torch; Not Letting "Fast & Furious" Go; GM Recalls 38,000 Impala Police Cars

Aired August 13, 2012 - 05:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Paul Ryan ready to hit the road. Mitt Romney's new running mate flying solo on the campaign trail today, with Democrats sharpening their knives and ready to go on the attack.

ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR: More than 300 people killed, thousands injured after two earthquakes rock Iran. We have the latest from that region for you.

BERMAN: And next stop, Rio. London promised a party and boy did it deliver. The Summer Olympics are over and we'll have all the details from the closing ceremonies and a live report.

SAMBOLIN: Did you watch the closing ceremonies?

BERMAN: I was asleep. What are you talking about?

SAMBOLIN: I didn't get to see it either. But Twitter was all abuzz about it.

BERMAN: What I read about it on Twitter, boy were they amazing?

SAMBOLIN: Yes. All right. Good morning to you. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.

BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East, explaining why I was asleep so early last night.

What we're all talking about is morning is politics. After 36 hours joined at the hip, Mitt Romney and his new running mate are going their separate ways today. The former Massachusetts governor says he's happy with his new teammate.

And Ryan seems thrilled with his new role. At one point, Ryan teared up with emotion during a stop in Wisconsin.

And on "60 Minutes," Romney praised his V.P. pick for being a lot like him. Of course, the president is weighing in, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a man who's dedicated the last 14 years working in Washington in ways that are not highly partisan. This is a man who's also analytical. He's a policy guy. People know him as a policy guy. That's one of the reasons he has such respect on both sides of the aisle. I'm a policy guy, believe it or not. I love policy. I love solving tough problems.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDNT OF THE UNITED STATES: Congressman Ryan is a decent man. He is a family man. He's an articulate spokesman for Governor Romney's vision. But it's a vision that I fundamentally disagree with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Today, Ryan will make his first solo appearance as Romney's running mate. He's going to the Iowa state fair in Des Moines. Romney's bus tour makes two stops in Florida today, St. Augustine and Miami.

President Obama is leaving his Chicago home this morning. He'll do a three-day bus tour across Iowa. And Vice President Biden for his part has a campaign event in Durham, North Carolina.

Everyone is out. We have full activity this morning.

CNN political editor Paul Steinhauser joins us live from Washington.

And, Paul, now that Romney has his running mate, what everyone seems to be saying is, is that the tone of this race is somehow reset.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: It really is reset. And the choice of Ryan makes this election more of a choice election rather than an election which seem to be a referendum on Barack Obama.

But, yes, y right, John. You saw that tough tone both from Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney at that rally last night in Waukesha in Wisconsin, with both candidates talking pretty tough about the president. And you're going to hear more of that today from Paul Ryan in Iowa where he's going to continue to go with the Romney theme, attacking President Obama over welfare, something we heard first last week. The President Obama would -- his requirements would end requirements for welfare, the Obama campaign pushing back on that.

Also, you heard Mitt Romney take a very tough tone against the president, against those negative attacks from the president and super PACs supporting him. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMNEY: There's no question but if you follow the campaign of Barack Obama he's going to do everything in his power to make this the lowest, meanest, negative campaign in history. We're not going to let that happen. This is going to be a campaign about ideas, about the future of America.

Mr. President, take your campaign out of the gutter, let's talk about the real issues that America faces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEINHAUSER: You're going to hear that sound bite a lot, I'm sure, this morning, John and Zoraida.

And one of this thing, we've got a little bit of a news last night. Paul Ryan will be releasing two years -- two years of his tax returns. Does that sound familiar? Mitt Romney has released two years of his tax returns. No more.

BERMAN: Paul, I do have to ask, though, the Democrats, a lot of them in Congress have been sort of chomping at the bit to take on Ryan and the so-called Ryan budget plan. What are you hearing from Democratic sources this morning?

STEINHAUSER: Oh, yes, you've heard already from this week -- I mean, from the moment we learned it would be Paul Ryan, you saw statements from the Obama campaign, attacking Ryan, over that House budget, which, of course, would alter Medicare significantly. You're saying from Democrats attacks that the Ryan plan would hurt senior citizens, even though nobody over 55 would be affected. You're going to hear a lot more of that on campaign trail. Sources telling me you're going to hear it not only from the president and from the vice president today in North Carolina but from other pro groups, Romney, pro-Obama groups.

And, John, you know, I got to say, you were there four years ago. You saw when John McCain picked Sarah Palin. Two very similar results right over the first 48 hours, an increase in crowd size, an increase in enthusiasm by Republicans, especially the base, also, an increase in fund-raising. But one very big difference here, there really seems to be a lot of chemistry between Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, which we did not se four years ago between Sarah Palin and John McCain -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Paul Steinhauser in Washington, thank you very much.

SAMBOLIN: He may have just coined a new phrase, Mitt Ryan, right?

All right. This morning, we're keeping a close watch on tropical storm Hector. It is now clocking in max winds at 40 miles per hour. And right now, the storm is far off the coast of Mexico.

CNN's Rob Marciano joins us live.

And, Rob, where is hector headed? And could it get stronger and welcome back.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Thanks. Good to be back after a week away. Hello. Good morning, John.

We're looking at this storm which is actually not great this morning. You see the satellite picture, it goes from very established tropical system to kind of lose a lot of its gusto, 40-mile-an-hour wind heading to the west at seven miles an hour. So, even if this thing re-organizes itself, we don't think it will do much as far as the southern tip of the Baja, California. And that would include Mexico, of course, off the coast by right now, by about 300 miles. And we expect it to not even get to hurricane strength. Watching a couple other systems in the Atlantic basin, this one in the Atlantic Ocean. We've got some time to deal with that. This one is just south of the island of Hispaniola. Pretty strong tropical waves, but winds aren't really set up all that great to have it explode into something significant anytime soon.

We'll watch it but at this point not terribly concern. We're watching this system as well, moving across the midsection of the country. Severe storms potentially across the mid-South, north into parts of the Ohio River as well.

Temperatures will be warm down across parts of the South, 103 in Dallas, 85 degrees expected in New York City, and a cool 71, with a little bit of rain, in Chicago.

Guys, I toss it back up to you.

SAMBOLIN: All right. Thank you very much.

BERMAN: I like how Rob says the storm isn't looking good when it starts to break up. Storms are big and powerful, that's a good looking storm there.

SAMBOLIN: Yes, good for him and terrible for other folks.

BERMAN: All right. Changing speeds now.

Rescue operations end in northeast Iran after two strong earthquakes kill at least 306 people in Iran. The semiofficial Farsi news agency reporting another 3,000 injured, 11 aftershocks followed. The deputy interior minister telling as far as 110 villages were damaged as were some historic monuments. People were asked to spend the night outdoors as a safety precaution.

SAMBOLIN: Evangelist Billy Graham is alert and in good spirits in a North Carolina hospital this morning. The 93-year-old preacher was admitted this past weekend for treatment of a pulmonary infection that is believed to be bronchitis.

Graham's spokesman says no date has been set for his discharge. We wish him well.

BERMAN: In Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a ceremony of cleansing and rebirth. A Sikh temple resumed services exactly one week after that gunman opened there, killing six people, including the temple's president. The president's son said in his words, quote, "a coward tried to cause a race war but ended up uniting people."

The gunman, Wade Michael Page, killed himself after being wounded by police.

SAMBOLIN: An Illinois man charged with shooting his air rifle at a mosque during Ramadan services will appear in bond court today. The leader of the mosque says he thinks the suspect, right here, 51-year- old David Conrad, should be charged with a hate crime. But police say prosecutors rejected hate crime charges in this case. BERMAN: Penn State's board of trustees says it will comply with NCAA sanctions over how it handled the Jerry Sandusky molestation scandal. Trustees also expressed a desire to move forward. Last month, the NCAA banned Penn State from post-season play for four years and fined Penn State $60 million. That was among other penalties.

SAMBOLIN: The mars rover Curiosity is getting what NASA calls a brain transplant. It's no small feat considering the remote upgrade is happening from 350 million miles away. If anything goes wrong, it could be the last time NASA has contact with Curiosity.

The upgrade should be wrapped up later today. Curiosity's been sending back amazing pictures of the Death Valley-like environment around its landing site on Mars. The color pictures are amazing.

BERMAN: Very fantastic. We hope that upgrade goes well.

SAMBOLIN: Yes, I know. If it doesn't, that is horrid news.

BERMAN: Better than for your home computer at least.

SAMBOLIN: Yes.

BERMAN: All right. Rio, here we come. The Summer Olympics wrapped up in London, plenty of music, fireworks and star power. We'll have a live report about the closing ceremonies and the really cool passing of the torch, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. It's about 13 minutes after the hour. So glad you're here. I'm John Berman.

SAMBOLIN: And I'm Zoraida Sambolin.

The 2012 Summer Games, finally, officially over but they did not end quietly. London rocked it out.

And our Amanda Davies was lucky enough to be there to see the handoff of the next host city, Rio, that is in 2016.

And, Amanda, it was fun to watch, I hear and bittersweet. Tell us all about it.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you, Zoraida, you're going to have to come and forcibly remove me from this balcony. I'm hanging on to these games as long as I possibly can. It's been the most fantastic 17 days.

And, yes, really, really odd here this morning. Olympic Park, which has been so packed and hustling and bustling for the last 2 1/2 weeks, is now eerily quiet. They're packing up the barriers. It's just been superb.

And there was that fabulous climax at the stadium last night. The best of 50 years of British music with the Spice Girls performing, George Michael, the Who, the most spectacular light display with those fitted boxes behind all the 80,000 seats in the stadium.

So -- and now the concern here is that the Olympic hangover is kicking in. It's a case very much of roll on the Paralympics, which is just 16 days away.

SAMBOLIN: All right. So, some medals were handed out yesterday, including men's basketball got the gold. I hear that at least there was some level of competition going on.

DAVIES: Yes. It wasn't the cake walk the men's basketball final, that maybe the USA had thought it was going to be. Coach K had been saying he was just going to sit there, put his feet up, he felt his team were playing so well they'd easily claim the gold. But, not, it went all the way right down to the closing seconds of the final quarter. The USA did beat Spain 107-100 to claim their 14th Olympic gold medal in the basketball and successfully defend their title, of course.

So, people saying maybe you know, it's a sign of the improvements of European basketball, that it did go as far as it did. But in terms of the USA, what that gold men the is that they finished the top of the medal tables, 104 medals in all, 46 gold. And USA's best Olympics outside of the states ever. So big success for the USA.

SAMBOLIN: Yes, a really big success. My producer was saying that the bouquets looked like boutonnieres in the hands of those big guys.

Let's look forward, right? The next stop is Rio. They have a whole lot to live up to. Some folks are saying that this is probably the most successful Olympics ever. So, how about that handoff?

DAVIES. Yes, roll on, Rio. It's a really busy four years for them. They've actually in 2014 got the football, the soccer World Cup in Brazil, haven't they? Then two years later, they've got the next Olympic Games in Rio.

Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, described London as absolutely fabulous. He said that games refreshed the Olympic movement. So, not much pressure from here.

I mean, there are concerns for Rio in terms of the transport in place and the structures, the arenas and how much work needs to be done with them. We do know it's going to be a warm welcome. They're very good at throwing a party in Rio, particularly, are they?

It's going to be a great amount going on at Copacabana Beach. I for one am putting my hand up already.

SAMBOLIN: I'm joining you, I'm joining you.

Listen, Amanda, we're going to be talking about our favorite Olympic moment, and you have been a good sport bringing us all of the special moments. What was yours?

DAVIES: Mine is, I'm afraid to say is a team G.B. moment. I'm lucky enough to have gotten around some of the venues and seen incredible occasions, the final swim for Michael Phelps, for example, saying farewell to him at the Olympics for a final time.

But for me, it was super Saturday as it was described, the middle Saturday here at the Olympics, I got into the stadium, literally as the bell went for the final lap of the 10,000 meters, the men's 10,000 meters to see home favorite Mo Farah roar to victory. It was just sensational. The whole stadium with Union Jacks flying and his utter delight. For me, that was the day that really put this Olympics on the map. And it was a real, real honor to be there.

BERMAN: So, Amanda, it's John Berman here. I have to say, that was actually my favorite moment of the whole Olympics, too. Yes, I liked how your guy, Mo Farah, from Great Britain, came in first. But you can see running close behind him is Galen Rupp from Oregon, who trains with Mo Farah.

And I was actually watching this with my 5-year-old son. And in the way the 10,000 works is they run so close together for the entire race until there's basically one lap to go and then these guys start to sprint with everything they have. You have this pack of men, including Farah and Rupp, giving it everything they've got. You can see the emotion in their faces, racing down.

My son and I were screaming for Galen Rupp there. We were so happy when he won the silver. Rupp was thrilled, too. It was so emotional.

SAMBOLIN: Well, Amanda, you just --

DAVIES: Yes, you know, these guys are -- sorry. I was just going to say, they're great rivals. But I was fabulous to see the two of them celebrating together as well. And they go for it. It's a journey for all of them, isn't it? And to be at the Olympics is just fantastic.

SAMBOLIN: We really appreciate all of your coverage, Amanda. I know we're going to talk to you again. Thank you.

My favorite moment, they said it had to be within the last 24 hours. And I thought this was perfect because I watched the men's swimming finals and David Boudia, and the men's diving final. He won the U.S. first Olympic diving gold in 12 years, taking first in the men's 10 meter platform. This from a guy who -- it's his dad cheering him on -- who overcame his fear of heights.

And he came from behind. He was 18th. He got the last spot for the semifinals. And look at what he was capable of doing.

BERMAN: It really is amazing.

SAMBOLIN: All those moments were just spectacular.

What was your favorite moment? Tell us. We want to hear from you today. Tweet us @EarlyStartCNN.

BERMAN: I'm going to miss the Olympics and the jokes about tape delay also.

SAMBOLIN: Yes, I know. BERMAN: All right. It is 18 minutes after the hour right now. And, of course, what we're talking about in this country right now, politics. Paul Ryan is hitting the road today, two days after being introduced as Mitt Romney's running mate. The congressman will be campaigning all by himself in Des Moines, Iowa, today.

Ryan enjoyed a rousing welcome when he campaigned yesterday in his home state of Wisconsin. He was wiping away tears before taking the stage to thank his supporters.

SAMBOLIN: And switching gears here. It is 19 minutes past the hour. Let's get you up to date.

Gabby Giffords is finally home again, 19 months after being shot during a political event. The former congresswoman and her husband moved back to Tucson yesterday. They are now there permanently. Giffords had been spending most of her time, as you know, in Houston, rehabbing. Her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly tweeting, quote, "gabby has been waiting for this day for a long time."

BERMAN: All right. We're getting an early look at local news that's making national headlines. If you live in Florida right now, Miami, one of the things making headlines, sports. Chad Ochocinco, actually, now he's known as Chad Johnson. He was Chad Ochocinco. Now, he's Chad Johnson again. Well, now, he's a former dolphin, because the dolphins waived him after a dust-up that really seems nasty.

He got in a fight apparently with his wife. The police arrested him saying he headbutted her in the car, according to the reports down there. The two were fighting in the car after she found a receipt -- I'm going to say it out loud -- for condoms in the car. A fight ensued. Police say he headbutted here.

He said it was her fault that his head hit hers. And, anyway, he's not playing for the Dolphins.

SAMBOLIN: It was her fault that his head hit hers.

BERMAN: He said that her head was moving forward. He said that her head was moving forward.

SAMBOLIN: OK. All right. I have another one for you.

The University of Central Florida is rolling out a new Web site to make class registration easier, after punishing a student for essentially doing the same thing. I love this story.

This guy, his name is Tim Arnold, he's a senior marketing major. He was put on probation for three semesters in late July, for creating a Web site called youcouldfinish.com.

So, basically what he did was he plugged into the school's registration server through a public portal, and it allows the students to search for classes and send a text message when a class becomes available. Apparently, that was something the system and school could not do. So, he got punished for doing that, because he never asked for permission.

BERMAN: You know, they're going to punish this kid. This kid would be the kind of guy who's going to be worth billions in a few years. He'll be begging for his money in a few years.

SAMBOLIN: Listen to his punishment, he was ordered to write two research papers on the error of his ways and he was ordered to pay $15 for a counseling session as well.

BERMAN: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, this kid's next.

SAMBOLIN: There you go.

BERMAN: All right. Coming up, find out why is Barnes & Noble slashing the price of their e-reader, the Nook? We'll tell you why. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Minding your business this morning.

Stocks are set for a lower opening after notching solid gains last week. But keep in mind, the trading volume has been pretty light lately, which is normal for this time of year but it means that there's more volatility and that is something you could see this week, too.

SAMBOLIN: Also on the move lately, you know about this -- gas prices.

CNN's Alison Kosik joins us with the fresh look at where things stand.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I know you get tired of talking about gas prices. But this is really significant. Gas prices are up to $3.70 on average for a gallon, that's the national average. So, that means that you're seeing gas prices are up 31 cents in a month. That makes a difference when you head to the gas station. I know it does when I do.

This really is a culmination of sort of the perfect storm of circumstances. First of all, there are refinery problems all across the country. In California, there was a fire at a refinery last Monday. So, our gas supply has taken a hit and our gas prices are being pushed up.

But it's not just the supply. It's also corn. Did you know that current law mandates that 10 percent of gas in your tank has to be made up of ethanol? Ethanol is made up of corn and corn prices are up, because the corn harvest is expected to be the smallest in 17 years.

And, of course, then we've got oil prices moving higher.

So, you rolled all that together, we've got higher gas prices. But he good news is, is that we're going to see some relief most likely in September. Because the peak demand for driving season kind of rolls down. BERMAN: Speaking of season, it's back-to-school season. We're seeing a lot of price wars are going on now. And now, they seem to have moved on e-readers.

KOSIK: Yes, cue the price of it, right? Well, Barnes & Noble says that it is chopping prices on three models of its Nook e-readers and tablets, anywhere from $20 to $50 depending on the model.

Now, part of it is clearing out the old inventory for new versions of the tablet. But it's really about competition. You look at Apple. Apple is -- the speculation is may be coming out with a smaller version of its iPad.

But it's really about the Kindle Fire tablet. There's speculation that Amazon is going to be rolling out a new version of that. So, Barnes & Noble is feeling the pressure, cutting these prices. As of Sunday, you can get three versions of its nook cheaper.

SAMBOLIN: Love that.

BERMAN: It is such a competitive ma marketplace for something that didn't exist five years ago.

KOSIK: I know. Now, it's not just about pencils and folders when you paper, when you send your kid back to school, you're buying him kindles as well and you're buying him, you know, these Kindle fires.

SAMBOLIN: I'm in the market for one. I appreciate the news.

KOSIK: You got it.

SAMBOLIN: It helps. The backpack gets full. You put that in there and it's one as opposed to ten books.

BERMAN: And they are fun to use.

SAMBOLIN: They are.

BERMAN: All right. Twenty-seven minutes after the hour right now.

And just one year after a deadly stage collapse at the Indiana state fair, got another scary moment. This time involving a stagecoach. Details, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Mitt Romney's new running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan, ready to fly solo on the campaign trail today. Conservatives are cheering the choice while Democrats lick their chops and prepare to attack.

ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A disturbing breach at New York's JFK Airport. How a stranded jet skier managed to beat the airport's $100 million detection system? Wait until you hear the details.

BERMAN: That was shocking.

SAMBOLIN: Unreal.

BERMAN: Terror and panic caught on camera. A crowded Kansas City bus crashes and flips over on its side, sending more than a dozen people to the hospital. Terrifying.

SAMBOLIN: Oh, my goodness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN (on-camera): Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.

SAMBOLIN (on-camera): And I'm Zoraida Sambolin. We're very happy to have you with us. Thirty-one minutes past the hour.

BERMAN: Congressman Paul Ryan campaign solo today just two days after he was announced Mitt Romney's running mate, but just who is Congressman Ryan?

SAMBOLIN: Our next guest recently spent several hours with him right before Ryan got the news from Mitt Romney. He wrote an article for the "New Yorker" called "Fussbudget: How Paul Ryan Captured the GOP?" Ryan Lizza is the CNN contributor and a Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker" and apparently clairvoyant as well.

(LAUGHTER)

SAMBOLIN: That's a big question. Were you shocked?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I was. I was. I didn't -- you know, I knew that -- we wrote the piece because Paul Ryan has become a rising intellectual ideological force in the Republican Party as Mitt Romney said when he introduced him. But I was surprised that he actually brought him into the ticket.

I mean, no matter what happened this year, if Mitt Romney won, Paul Ryan's ideas were going to be front and center in a Romney administration and in a Republican Congress. That's why I wrote the piece, because Paul Ryan has basically defined the Republican agenda. So, didn't matter if he was VP or not, he was worth writing about.

What I was surprised about is that Romney -- you know, the question for Romney was, does he distance himself from the set of ideas that Paul Ryan has defined for the Republican Party or does he fully embrace them? Obviously, he's fully embraced them.

BERMAN: Those ideas, of course, have to do so much with the debt and the deficit. I want to just take a listen a little bit about what Paul Ryan has been saying for years now about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We feel, as your fellow citizens, that we owe you a choice, a choice of two futures. We can either stay on the current path that we are on, a nation in debt, a nation in doubt, a nation in despair, a nation with high unemployment, where we're giving our children a diminished future or we can change this thing and get this country back on the right track.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The phrase game change is so cliche now, it makes me cringe every time I hear it right now. But does this shift the discussion and the race? And if it does shift it, is it a permanent shift?

LIZZA: I think it does. I mean, I think that the Romney strategy going into this pick was really not to make the race about himself or even his ideas. He wanted to focus wholly on Obama's failures and get the country thinking when they go into the voting booth. This isn't a choice between Romney's vision for the future and Obama's vision for the future, it's a choice on whether Obama did a good job over these last few years or not.

That's now changed. Romney has sort of given up that strategy or at least he's added a whole another component. He's now said, you know what, this is going to be a big choice election and from the voters' perspective, I think it's a great thing because we really are going to have a big, bold, defining choice.

This isn't going to be like, say, the 2000 election where Gore and Bush, they kind of tried to paper over the differences. These two guys now are not going to do that. They're going to put forward two extremely different visions about the role of government in American life. And that's what Paul Ryan really does. He makes this a much more definitional choice.

SAMBOLIN: Well, he's also an incredibly passionate man. And that --

LIZZA: Yes. You saw that in the clip.

SAMBOLIN: Yes, absolutely. Very warm, very inviting, kind of like the anti-Mitt Romney. Do you think that factored in at all when making this decision? Because at the end of the day, don't people need to connect somehow? And it's been disconnected.

LIZZA: The danger of that is you overshadow the guy on top.

SAMBOLIN: Which maybe happening right?

LIZZA: So, he's got a little more personality than Mitt Romney, let's be frank. And, he's more definitional when it comes to policy. So, I think that's why I was surprised that he chose him because, well, why do you want this to be all about your number two? Now, maybe that will even out as we go on.

BERMAN: This is interesting. It's the second race in a row where the base of the Republican Party identifies more closely with the number two on the ticket than the number one.

LIZZA: Absolutely. And, I don't -- if Romney chose this guy to shore up the Republican base, it seems like he didn't really need to do that. If you look at the polls, since April, the Republican Party has been consolidated and very excited to vote. They're not that excited about Romney specifically, but they're very excited to vote against Obama.

And the polls have consistently shown that. So, you can't really say politically that Romney actually needed to do that to appease conservatives. The numbers just don't show that.

SAMBOLIN: And what about the big spotlight that is being put on Ryan's budget and how that will affect the election?

LIZZA: Look, this -- you know, once we get past who is Paul Ryan and the biography, what's going to come into focus is, do his numbers add up, right? He's very specific on Medicare and Medicaid, but there are big, big holes in his plan that the Democrats will go after.

They will go after what specifically he wants to cut and on tax reform, what tax loopholes he wants to close. Two big things he hasn't spelled out yet.

SAMBOLIN: All right. Ryan Lizza.

BERMAN: Ryan Lizza, it's great to have him here.

SAMBOLIN: And great article. So, folks, want to read it in "New Yorker," really -- I thought clairvoyance all the way.

LIZZA: I appreciate that.

(CROSSTALK)

LIZZA: I knew it all along.

BERMAN: So, we'll read your next article closely to find out what's going to happen next in the future.

SAMBOLIN: I know.

(LAUGHTER)

SAMBOLIN: Thank you.

LIZZA: Thanks, guys.

BERMAN: All right. It is 36 minutes after the hour right now.

And overseas, big changes in Egypt. President Mohamed Morsi rest power from Egypt's military forcing several top military chiefs out and replacing a constitutional declaration with one that gives him broad, legislative, and executive powers. The declaration (ph) also potentially gives him a key role in drafting Egypt's still new constitution. SAMBOLIN: The queen of the Indiana State fair, one of five people injured when a stagecoach overturn. Twenty-year-old Erica Burkhart (ph) was riding on top of the stagecoach next to the driver when it tipped over. All of the injuries, we're happy to report, are nonlife- threatening. That accident coming one day before the one-year anniversary of the stage collapse at the fair that killed seven people.

BERMAN: Stage (INAUDIBLE) those words.

So much for the $100 million security system at JFK Airport. It seems the perimeter intrusion detection system is no match for a jet skier from Queens. Daniel Castillo (ph) broke down in Jamaica Bay Friday night, ended up swimming three miles to shore. Then, he climbed out the airport's eight-foot perimeter fence, crossed two separate one ways, and walked right into terminal three undetected.

Castillo was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing after he approached an airline worker for help. This guy was just looking for help. The port authority is in charge of security at JFK Airport, and it says it is reviewing the incident.

SAMBOLIN: That is incredible.

Army Brigadier General Tammy Smith (ph) is the U.S. military's first openly gay flag officer. The 26-year army veteran received her stars in a private ceremony at the women's memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. It was also the first day she publicly acknowledged her sexuality.

BERMAN: Junk food laws may actually work, that at least according to a new study. It finds children who live in states with strict laws on snacks and sugary drinks in school were less likely to gain weight. The study published in the Journal Pediatrics track weight changes for more than 6,000 students from 5th grade to 8th grade.

Obese fifth graders will more likely to drop to a healthy weight by eight grade if they live in a state with strong laws. It's very interesting study.

SAMBOLIN: That is interesting.

A terrifying bus accident that was caught on tape. It sends more than a dozen people to the hospital in Kansas City. Look at this. An investigation is now under way. Authorities say a car pulled out in front of a bus, and the driver swerved to avoid a crash. The bus slipped down an embankment, flip over at least once.

Thirteen people, including the bus driver were injured. But officials say none of the injuries are life threatening.

BERMAN: Crazy, amazing picture.

SAMBOLIN: We've got a crazy video for you today.

BERMAN: So, we have another one coming up. Coming up, a navy destroyer ripped up by an oil tanker. More amazing pictures. The story behind these after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAMBOLIN: Good morning. Welcome back to EARLY START. It's 43 minutes past the hour. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.

BERMAN: And I'm John Berman.

SAMBOLIN: Having a really good time this morning.

BERMAN: I know.

SAMBOLIN: We're very happy you're with us.

BERMAN: All right. You have to check out some pretty amazing time last (ph) video of a dust storm and a wind storm that blew through the Phoenix area last week.

SAMBOLIN: Of course, it's Phoenix.

BERMAN: Of course, it's Phoenix. A CNN I-producer captured this footage looking toward Camelback Mountain. The (INAUDIBLE) say dry, drought conditions can cause dust storms like this. Wow! Just look how dark it gets.

SAMBOLIN: Gone.

BERMAN: The officials say the storm brought wind gusts as high as 40 miles an hour.

SAMBOLIN: And this morning, we're also keeping a close watch on tropical storm Hector. It is now clocking in at maximum winds at 40 miles per hour. And right now, the storm is far off the coast of Mexico. CNN's Rob Marciano joins us now live. And you are keeping track of this. Was that a haboob by the way? I just want to make sure that I get that right.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. We've got storm that kicked up by a thunderstorm is certainly a haboob technically speaking, and they get them there in Phoenix quite a bit. Right the heat there as well. Get that just a sec. Good morning again, guys. Here's Hector. Not too impressive, actually, on the satellite picture, kind of a weakening 40 mile-an-hour winds.

So, just barely a tropical storm. Westerly movement at about seven miles an hour. As Zoraida mentioned, fairly well offshore of Mexico by about 350 miles. So, the track of this thing is to keep it offshore and not really strengthen it all that much. So, not terribly concern about Hector, although, there are one or two other spots just off Mexico where a system may very well develop and we're also watching a couple things in the Atlantic.

All right. Here's what's happening across the desert southwest, even Southern California temperatures, heat advisories today, 115 expected in Palm Springs which had a record low temperature -- record high low temperature of 89 degrees yesterday. So, not really cooling down tonight. 114 in Phoenix.

And this is the time of year where, actually, it's not a terribly dry heat. They do get a little bit of humidity. So, when they say 115 in Phoenix, it's pretty toasty this time of year. All right. Across the mid-south, Memphis, you're going to be in the gun here, possibly seeing some thunderstorms that could produce large hail or some damaging winds, maybe even an isolated tornado.

Just little systems (INAUDIBLE) cross to the east. It does have some rainfall with it. You're feeling it now in Chicago and you also will feel some cooler air that will come in behind the rain. Seventy-one degrees is probably about the best you're going to do up there in Chicago. Eighty-six degrees expected in New York.

Beautiful day today across the east coast. That system, going through Chicago now will get to the I-95 corridor, I think, tomorrow afternoon. So, enjoy today, your second stretch of good weather.

And here's two other spots that we're watching in the Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean, there's Florida. Ten percent chance of this storm just south of Hispaniola to develop into something, but at this point, conditions not terribly favorable to for that. So, good day (ph) at least for the next couple of days.

SAMBOLIN: Can you hop on Twitter and explain what makes a dust storm a haboob? Give us a little bit of an education this morning?

MARCIANO: All right. Since you asked, I haven't said hello. So, that's a good reason to do it.

SAMBOLIN: Oh, perfect. Thank you.

MARCIANO: All right, guys.

BERMAN: Giving Rob a home work assignment. That's nice.

Rob, you're working, but go do this right now.

It's 45 minutes after the hour. And Congressman Paul Ryan will be hitting the campaign trail today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN (voice-over): The Wisconsin congressman appearing in his first joint interview alongside Mitt Romney one day after being tapped to his running mate. Listen to him tell CBS "60 Minutes" how he'll be handling the release of his tax returns now that he's officially on the GOP ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many years of tax returns did you turn over to the campaign?

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) WISCONSIN: Well, it was a very exhaustive vetting process. It's confidential vetting process. So, there are several years, but I'm going to release the same amount of years that Governor Romney has. But I got to tell you, Bob --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many was that?

RYAN: Two. I'm going to be releasing two, which is what he's releasing. What I hear from people around this country, they're not asking where are the tax returns, they're asking where the jobs are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It actually only released (ph) Romney one so far plus a summary of his second. The full second year is going to come out this fall. Mitt Romney continues his four-day bus tour today with two stops in Florida. Paul Ryan also makes his first solo appearance as Romney's running mate, this at the Iowa State fair in Des Moines this afternoon.

President Obama leaves his -- leaving his Chicago home this morning to kick off a three-day bus tour across Iowa himself. And Vice President Biden has a campaign event in Durham, North Carolina.

SAMBOLIN (voice-over): Obama was celebrating his birthday in Chicago with a lot of fundraisers.

BERMAN: That's right.

SAMBOLIN: A lot of fundraisers.

The House Oversight Committee chairman, Darrell Issa, isn't dropping his complaints with attorney general, Eric Holder, over the "Fast and Furious" failed gun-running probe. Today, the committee plans to file a civil contempt suit against Holder.

Last night, Issa tweeted that he plans to file the charges. Earlier this summer, the House voted to hold Holder in contempt of Congress for not turning over subpoenaed "Fast and Furious" documents. The Obama administration cited executive privilege in refusing to confide with Issa's committee subpoena. They did turn over quite a volume of documents.

BERMAN: General Motors is recalling more than 38,000 Chevy Impala police cars in the U.S. and Canada. According to the automaker, a control arm in the front suspension can crack and cause the driver to lose control. GM says it doesn't know of any injures caused by the problem yet, and Impalas made for the public are not affected because they have totally different suspension parts.

SAMBOLIN: A U.S. navy ship suffered significant damage after it collides with the Japanese oil tanker. The "USS Porter" hit a tanker early Sunday near the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. Photos released by the military show a very large dent on the side of the missile destroyer. The U.S. navy is investigating the incidents, but officials say the collision was not combat related.

BERMAN: WikiLeaks says web attacks have either slowed or shut down its site for more than a week now. The group said it's been hit with denial of service attacks which work by flooding a website with bogus traffic. WikiLeaks says it's been overwhelmed by thousands of different internet addresses.

SAMBOLIN: And next stop, Rio. London promised a party, and it delivered. The Spice Girls, George Michael, Annie Lennox, The Who, rock great, Ray Davies, even an appearance by Monty Python great, Eric Idle, have closed out the 2012 summer games.

And in a new twist, the 10,000 athletes entered the stadium through the stands high-fiving spectators as they made their way to the field. The U.S. topped the medal count the with the most total, 104 and the most golds, 46.

BERMAN: On to Rio.

Box office now. "The Bourne Legacy" topping the weekend box office. The action was starring Jeremy Renner taking in $43.3 million in ticket sales. It's the fourth film of the spy franchise that previously starred Matt Damon. It's grossed more than $1 billion overall. The comedy, "The Campaign" took knocking "The Dark Knight Rises" to third.

SAMBOLIN: Do you play the lottery.

BERMAN: When it gets to be $300 million.

SAMBOLIN: Oh, yes. The fever is spreading. Wednesday's powerball jackpot swelling to $305 million.

BERMAN: I'm in!

SAMBOLIN: That is after no one matched all six numbers in Saturday night's multistate draw. We're all in here. Five powerball tickets did match five of the six numbers. Let's take home a cool million dollars each --

BERMAN: That's not so bad. Not so bad for a day if not working, right?

SAMBOLIN: It's fantastic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN (on-camera): All right. Fifty minutes after the hour right now, and Terrell Owens playing up his bad-boy image and already shocking his new teammates. The really awkward moment he created on his first day, just ahead.

If you're leaving the house right now, you can watch us anytime on your desktop or mobile phone, just go to CNN.com/TV.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. It is 53 minutes after the hour. I'm John Berman along with Zoraida Sambolin. We're taking a look at what is trending on the internet this morning.

SAMBOLIN: Trending really high. McKayla Maroney shows she is a good sport by embracing the internet name that took after she took silver at the Olympics in the individual pool (ph). Do you remember that picture right there? She doesn't look too happy, does she?

BERMAN: No. But what she did is she tweeted this photo of herself along with her teammates by a pool. Hopefully, we'll see that. You're seeing all the photos that people have photo shopped and put on Tumblr of McKayla Maroney looking unimpressed at various places, but this, she put up.

They're by a pool. And what they're saying, McKayla Maroney not impressed by the pool. I think it's really funny. You think she's a little grumpy, but you know?

SAMBOLIN: I, too. I think, gosh, you know, smile at the podium. This is a spectacular moment for you and for us. So -- but at least she is being a good sport about people not being happy with her.

BERMAN: And on the subject of strange senses of humor, the newest Seattle Seahawk, Terrell Owens, he's already punking his teammates. He and coach Pete Terrell took advantage of Owens' bad boy reputation and pull off an elaborate prank, so elaborate it's hard to understand. First, Carroll called Owens up to introduce himself to his new team with a sort of heartfelt story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He's giving a speech about how he's already angry with his new team. He says he was promised jersey #81 which currently belongs to another player, Golden Tate. Keep listening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For me, you know, I've always worn #81. It's always the number I've had, everywhere. And you guys said it would be somewhat available. So, I talked to Golden and he tried to charge me $81,000. You know, to me, it's not cool. I'm just being straight up. No, coach, I want to say this -- I'm pretty sure he's wearing #81 because of me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: In the end, Pete Carroll and Owens left everyone in on the joke. They said it was just a big joke. Let's hope they're better at football than they are at comedy.

SAMBOLIN: No kidding.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: But one of their teammates, Clint Gresham, tweeted later on saying, "Wow! That was the most awkward moment ever, so glad it was a joke." SAMBOLIN: All right. Fifty-six minutes past the hour. Congressman Paul Ryan taking up his first big campaign duties today. He's hitting a swing state and he is flying solo. Will he be able to convince voters he's VP material? A live report, top of the hour.

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