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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Unrest in Egypt; Snowden Withdraws Request for Asylum from Russia; Triple-Digit Heat; Seven-Year-Old Hero; Wimbledon Upsets Continue
Aired July 02, 2013 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Crisis in Egypt this morning. Deadly protest. The army pitted against the president. And a 48-hour deadline is much shorter now, that could lead the country in complete chaos. We're live.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Deadly wildfires and intense heat wave and tornadoes touching down. Extreme weather across the country. Is there any relief in sight?
(BEGI NVIDEO CLIP)
DAKOTA TAYLOR, 7-YEAR-OLD SAVES FAMILY FROM FIRE: Cover my mouth like this to keep me from breathing in the smoke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: That little boy is seven-year-old hero. He came to the rescue and saved his family from a fast-moving fire. It is a wonderful story.
HARLOW: Yes. Great story. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. It's 5:30 in the east. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. This morning, Egypt very much on edge.
HARLOW: Well, the military insists it is not threatening a coup in Egypt, but the governor of Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, is being told that it now has less than 48 hours. Now, about 24 hours to solve the growing political crisis there or the military says it will step in. President Obama even calling Morsi on Monday encouraging him to respond to the complaints of the Egyptian people who have taken to the streets in droves.
The White House saying that the presidential Morsi democracy is about a lot more than just elections. Our Reza Sayah is joining us live in Cairo this morning. Good morning, Raza.
REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. Egypt bracing itself for what shaping up to be a dramatic 24 hours. It's still early to figure out exactly what this next 24 hours is going to bring, but there's all sorts of signals that this country, believe it or not, is moving towards yet another revolution, the second in the past two and a half years.
And this is due in large part to the statement made by the military yesterday, giving all sides in this conflict 48 hours to fix things, to resolve this crisis. Otherwise, the military says it's going to step in with a road map to move forward and the military saying it will supervise the implementation of that road map.
Again, it's not clear what that means, but now, the two sides, the president and his Islamist supporters, the opposition, the moderates and the liberals have less than 24 hours to get together and resolve things, all sorts of pressure on the president.
The opposition accused of hijacking the revolution and pushing aside the moderates and liberals. What is he going to do? Is he going to back down or is he going to dig in and fight? Poppy.
HARLOW: I think -- one the things it's so unclear here is what is that road map? What does it look like? Anywhere you look, anything you read, there's not -- there just aren't details out there. Is there any indication that we do have just 24 hours left, when we may be hearing more from the protesters, from the military and what exactly they're demanding?
SAYAH: Lots of unknowns, Poppy, and that's what makes these next 24 hours so dramatic. If you go by the statement by the armed forces, if they're not satisfied by what the president, his government and the opposition does, they're going to step in and seemingly take over for some period of time, just like they did after the revolution in 2011.
And they seem to say they have a road map to move forward, to continue this democratic transition, but indications are this country, remarkably is on the verge, is pushing the reset button to the 2011 revolution.
HARLOW: Yes. Absolutely. Reza Sayah, appreciate it this morning. Thank you.
BERMAN: Thirty-three minutes after the hour right now. And, Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker is still believe to be at the Moscow airport this morning, looking for some country willing to offer him asylum. The latest development, he has now withdrawn his request for Russia to give him refuge and he's blasting the Obama administration.
In a statement posted to the WikiLeaks website, Snowden claims that Vice President Biden is pressuring countries to deny him asylum, and that the U.S. is using his own citizenship against him.
Snowden writes, "Although, I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right, a right that belongs to everybody the right to seek asylum."
WikiLeaks which is working with Snowden says it has now asked more than 19 countries to consider taking in the former NSA contractor.
HARLOW: Well, European officials are stepping up their security in the wake of some very serious allegations. The NSA bugged some of their offices. The head of the European Union has ordered a full security sweep of all EU buildings to check for any evidence of that. They also want an explanation directly from the U.S. government.
Secret documents published in a German news magazine alleged that the United States put those devices, those tapping devices in EU buildings in Washington, D.C. Brussels and the United Nations also saying that they hacked into some EU computer networks.
BERMAN: They thought they were going to die. That from stunned passengers on board a Spirit Airlines flight from Detroit to Dallas this past weekend. The pilot had to make a sharp nose dive over Michigan to avoid a skydiving plane. None of the 126 passengers on board the airbus jet were injured.
Officials say the two aircraft came within a mile and a half horizontally and just 400 feet vertically. That's very close. A series of recent close calls at major U.S. airports has led the NTSB to recommend new rules to prevent planes from getting this dangerously close to each other in the air.
HARLOW: Same-sex couples now have new access to immigration rights. This morning, after Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, announced that the government will treat same-sex married couple the same as opposite sex couples when it comes to green card applications and visa applications. This, of course, it comes on the heels of that historic Supreme Court decision outlaw -- banning a lack of federal recognition of gay unions.
Now, under the Defense of Marriage Act, same-sex spouses were ineligible for immigrations protections afforded (ph) to opposite sex couples. Now, though, Napolitano says they'll treat legally married couples the same for visas, et cetera, no matter what the sex.
BERMAN: Texas lawmakers are moving ahead with trying to pass some of the nation's toughest abortion restrictions. Protesters and supporters were at the state capital in Austin Monday as a special session got under way. Today, a committee will consider the bill which would prohibit most abortions after 20 weeks and require they take place in surgical centers, which effectively closes most clinics in that state.
Last week, Democrats including state senator Wendy Davis, who led a 10-hour filibuster, successfully blocked the bill in the state Senate, but this time it is expected to pass during the special session.
HARLOW: There's more triple digit heat on tap. Can you believe it? Today, for the Western United States, forecasters have extended heat warnings through the July 4th holiday for California, Nevada, and Arizona. The hot, bone-dry conditions are an enemy of crews battling wildfires out west.
Death Valley, California will be just shy of 130 degrees today. In the desert southwest, June was the hottest month on record.
BERMAN: So, the rain, which they could desperately use out west is causing havoc here in the east. A storm system spawning a tornado in New Jersey. The National Weather Service confirming that one touched down Monday night in union county, New Jersey, that's just west of New York City. Severe storms brought down trees, power lines, damaged homes. Luckily, no injuries were reported.
HARLOW: Our Indra Petersons is tracking the severe weather for us, making that face she's been making all morning like, oh no! More is coming here out of the northeast and in the west.
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I see John is already laughing as soon as we toss to me. Yes, definitely not good news. I mean, if you haven't known yet, yes, it is still raining. We're talking about heavy rain anywhere from the Midwest all the way to northeast down to the southeast in the last 24 hours. We've received some places as high as four inches of rain.
And that the pattern is not changing. All thanks to a high pressure, believe it or not, sitting in Atlantic. Remember, winds go clockwise around the high. Why does that matter? Well, depending on where the position of that high is, that's we'll start to see the rain. I know this is key because we have Fourth of July and everyone wants to know if it's going to rain.
Well, we're thinking is this high pressure will move actually a little bit closer to the coast which would actually push the rain a hint farther inland. So, that's what we're going to be monitoring exactly where this high goes over the next several days. Otherwise, the forecast for today, easy. Rain. More rain and flooding.
One to three inches in the northeast. Even a heavier rain down to the southeast, anywhere from two to four inches, the higher amount, of course, and the thunderstorms. Here's that Fourth of July forecast everyone has been wondering about. Yes, it's going to be warm, but as far as where that rain goes, again, we are going to have to closely monitor the position of that high.
It changes absolutely everything. There is one high that we know exactly where it is. It's hanging out in the west. And this dome is going all the way up towards Canada, which means those temperatures are soaring. There's summer heat and then I don't know what the word is for weather -- we talk about that.
BERMAN: Ridiculous --
HARLOW: Ridiculous.
PETERSONS: Thanks to John. Ridiculous.
HARLOW: Official.
(LAUGHTER)
HARLOW: An official term. Indra, thank you. BERMAN: Elena Kagan, big game hunter. How's that for a transition?
HARLOW: Who knew?
BERMAN: Elena Kagan, big game hunter. The liberal leading Supreme Court justice and former Harvard Law School (ph) told an audience this past weekend she took a trip last fall to Wyoming to hunt, and she did it with conservative justice Antonin Scalia. The two had shot birds together before, but this time was different.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELENA KAGAN, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: He said to me, he said it's time for big game hunting. And we actually went out to Wyoming this past fall to shoot deer and antelope. And we did. I shot myself a deer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: She's not very big, by the way. So, the deer and antelope much bigger than Elena Kagan. She says the public sometimes doesn't realize that despite the rhetoric and their rulings, there are friendships in the high court that reach across political lines. And she says she knows those hunting with Scalia a few times a year.
HARLOW: I mean, pain to be a fine wall to see them hunting and then talking about their decision.
BERMAN: I would say that (INAUDIBLE) that --
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: So, they can keep fire a big shotgun there must knock her back like 12 feet.
HARLOW: Yes. Exactly.
All right. Coming up, you got to stick around for this. This is a great story. An unlikely hero, saving his family as fast moving flames spread through their home. You're going to hear from him in his own words. That's straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: So, a seven-year-old Ohio boy is a big-time hero. He smelled smoke coming from the kitchen of his home. Then, using the fire safety training he learned at school, he was able to alert his parents of the danger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAYLOR: I had to cover my mouth like this to keep me from breathing in the smoke.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He crawled on his belly underneath the fire, through the smoke and that and came into our bedroom and woke us up so that I could get him and the kids out of the house. If he wouldn't have done that, we all would have choked out from the smoke. By the time I woke up, I was already starting to choke on it. He was my hero for the day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: What a hero. Little guy, big time hero. The family of five escaped the burning trailer through a back window. They were taken to a local hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, but he appears as you can see, everyone is OK.
You know, it's amazing, our kids sometimes know so much more about things like this because they train for it in school so many times a year.
HARLOW: Absolutely.
BERMAN: They're much more up on what to do.
HARLOW: Much more vigilant than we are.
BERMAN: Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY" now. Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan with us. What's going on, guys.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: Hey there. Good morning, guys.
HARLOW: Good morning.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: Good to see you. George Zimmerman, huge day in the trial.
BOLDUAN: -- big day right here.
CUOMO: Prosecution has made its big decision to play the interview tape with Zimmerman after the night of the crime. What did they get out of it? What did the defense get out of it? And then, what happens today? We'll have our legal analyst here going through it and try set up the high marks of what is to come in this trial.
BOLDUAN: Yes. And imagine this. Facing eight years in prison for a sarcastic and they would argue a joke made on Facebook. That's what's happening to a 19-year-old after joking about a school shooting. His father is going to be joining us live to talk about the fight to free his son. This is a very, very tough situation.
CUOMO: And I want you to look at this duck we have here, J.B. see this duck here? Look at that.
BOLDUAN: See that?
CUOMO: It's had some serious, serious upgrading done.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: A prosthetic foot has changed the fate of this feathered friend --
BOLDUAN: Wow.
CUOMO: -- right here. An amazing story. Ingenuity changing the life of this foul, creature, F-O-U-L.
BOLDUAN: I love that.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: One lucky duck.
(LAUGHTER)
HARLOW: One lucky duck.
CUOMO: F-O-L-L.
BOLDUAN: I'm so proud of you. You actually --
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: Thank you so much. We'll let you rest on your (ph) after that comment. You get one every few weeks right there.
HARLOW: All right, guys. See you soon.
And folks, coming up here on EARLY START, a stunning loss at Wimbledon. Serena Williams, out, ending a 34 match winning streak. The "Bleacher Report" breaking it all down next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: So, last night, all around major league baseball, teams honored the 19 firefighters who tragically lost their lives fighting that fire near Yarnell, Arizona. Andy Scholes joins us now with more in this morning's "Bleacher Report." Hey, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Hey, good morning, guys. Well, the tragedy in Yarnell, Arizona definitely hit close to the home for the Diamondbacks. The team plays their home game about 85 miles away from where the 19 firefighters tragically lost their lives. And last night, the Diamondbacks, they weren't playing at home, they were playing the Mets in New York, a city that knows all too well about fallen firefighters.
Now, before this game and every game last night, that means (ph) around the country held a moment of silence. A jersey bearing the number 19 and the name Yarnell on the back hang in both team's dugout at city build. The Diamondbacks also wore black arm bands to pay tribute to the firefighters and they're been raising money for the victims of the Yarnell fires.
Well, the upset bug continues to bite at Wimbledon. Top seeded and defending champion Serena Williams became the latest big name to fall as she lost in three sets yesterday to Sabine Lisicki. The loss is the first for Serena in four and a half months, and it ends her career best 34 match winning streak. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERENA WILLIAMS, 34-MATCH WIN STREAK SNAPPED: I didn't play the good points good enough. I didn't do what I do best. And I think I had a little hesitation. And that explains it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Well, Serena's early exit leaves just one American left in the tournament and that is Sloane Stephens. The 20-year-old Stephens beat Monica Puig in three sets yesterday to reach her second grand slam quarter final of the year. Stephens who is considered one of the sport's brightest rising stars is looking to win her first grand slam event of her career.
The Washington Nationals star, Bryce Harper, made his return from the disabled list last night. Harper has been out of action since May 26th with a knee injury. Gets a standing ovation. And then, check this out. His first at bat, guys, opposite field home run. That's how you return (ph) in style.
BERMAN: It turns out, Andy, that Bryce Harper is good at baseball.
(LAUGHTER)
SCHOLES: He is.
BERMAN: Very, very good. No one left good playing tennis at Wimbledon, but that's a different story. All right. Andy, appreciate it.
HARLOW: Thanks, Andy.
All right. Coming up, 5:50 in the morning, ready for an animal story? A baby gorilla abandoned at birth, finding a happy ending with a new mother. That story straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. Here is a great story of adoption with a very happy ending, and it involves humans and a 5- month-old ape. Here's our Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What mama could possibly reject this? But glad this is real mom did. So, these humans at the Cincinnati Zoo took over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today, for the first day, we stuck her on our backs.
MOOS: You might remember seeing them crawling around, giving her a bottle, rough housing gorilla-style, all the while, wearing fake fur vests from a company called fabulous furs that normally advertises the wow factor for humans. At least, they didn't have to wear a bunny costume like Anderson Cooper did to please a couple of bonobos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I brought you presents.
MOOS: Because the bunny happens to be their favorite character. The fake furs and abled clad is to cling to the surrogate moms as if they were real gorillas. They called the four-month process.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gorillafication.
MOOS: The humans also had to speak gorilla with disciplinary coughs and soothing belches.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gorillas make this when they're contents.
MOOS: And when Gladys was sassy or snippy, displaying what they called Glatitude, she got a warning. They exposed Gladys to clanging doors, the outdoor habitat. Even a fake fur vested reporter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just peed on me.
MOOS: She showered him, they showered her with affection. They introduced Gladys through what they call this howdy mesh to four gorilla candidates. Only one of whom would take over as Glady's gorilla surrogate mother. The winner was a gorilla named Melinzy who had been an excellent mom to her own baby. This wasn't love at first sight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gladys even got a little nervous at one point and bit Malinzy a couple of times, but Malinzy was very patient.
MOOS: After a week or so, Malinzy was carrying Gladys around, grooming her, comforting her when she got upset. So, Gladys probably doesn't appreciate being dragged out of a good nap.
(on-camera) Gorillafication is a one-way street. After the humans hand Gladys over to her own kind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't take her back. She's in there for good.
MOOS (voice-over): And though, Ron Evan (ph) says he'll miss holding her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gladys isn't our baby. Gladys isn't a pet, Gladys is a gorilla? But will he miss dressing up like a gorilla?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I still do it every Saturday night.
MOOS: Somehow it feels like the father giving up the bride.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: I was just going to ask, how your -- you know, how you could do that sound?
BERMAN: I've had a very good morning. I leave you with this sound. So, let's bring in "NEW DAY" anchors, Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan. Beat that, guys.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: I don't think we can beat it. That's what Chris sounds like every time we walk in his make-up room.
CUOMO: I wanted this moment to pass as quickly as possible. I was like, oh good, John honed it. He's not going to --
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: I know. Gorillafication. Who knew that was actually a word.
HARLOW: Who knew?
BOLDUAN: You learn something every day.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: Thanks, JB. I see you differently now. I want you to know that.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: That's enough.
CUOMO: Have a good morning to you and Poppy. Sorry for that, Poppy. Good to see you. It's close to top of the hour. And you know what that means here on "NEW DAY," time for the top news.
