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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Egypt Explosions; Bieber Busted; GOP Rebrand Hits Snag
Aired January 24, 2014 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Deadly winter weather across the country, millions waking up to ice- covered roads, bone-chilling temperatures. People in some areas being warned, it's dangerous out there. They should stay home. Indra Petersons tracking the worst of the weather for us and what's still to come this weekend. And folks, it's not just in the usual spots, down south, too, very cold.
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ROMANS (on-camera): Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. It is 30 minutes past the hour. Nothing to do but stay in bed and turn on EARLY START.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: That's what we like to say. This morning, chances are, you are waking up to dangerous cold, and as Romans said, it's hitting everyone, even in these places you would not expect, like deep in the heart of Texas. The map, it never lies. Look at it. Most of the country still in the grip of this arctic freeze. There are hard freeze warnings up along the gulf coast, just below your screen there, the map would show it. We're talking about from Louisiana to Florida.
ROMANS: So, blizzard conditions are being blamed for a horrific pileup on I-94 near Michigan City, Indiana. Look at this, 40 vehicles, 15 semis involved in this thing.
BERMAN: Oh, my goodness.
ROMANS: Three people killed, two dozen others injured. Drivers were simply blinded by the heavy, blowing snow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The collision was just like boom! It was like louder than a gunshot. I mean, you heard it, and it was, this is crazy.
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BERMAN: Outrageous pictures from that accident. So, just how cold was it in the twin cities? You saw there, that cold, 22 degrees below zero on Thursday in Minneapolis. That's really cold, folks, in case you need to be told. And it's not even factoring in the wind chill. Twenty-two below before the wind chill. But honestly, does it even matter at that point if it's 22 below with the wind chill? You know, schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul were closed, so the kids probably happy and not frozen.
ROMANS: The rider gears and (INAUDIBLE) who lives there always says, you know, cold doesn't hurt anybody if you know how to dress. You just have to know how to dress. Even at minus 22, you can dress as warm as you want and you're still going to feel it.
People in a coastal Wisconsin town are getting a frozen treat here. Look at this, below zero temperatures creating some ice caves on Lake Superior. It's the first time in five years that lake has been frozen solid enough to walk on and people are making the roughly two-mile hike to the Apaso Islands to witness these spectacular ice caverns.
BERMAN: Those are beautiful!
ROMANS: They really are.
BERMAN: I've never seen those before.
ROMANS: Haven't had them in five years.
BERMAN: The question, is what's going to happen next? Will we get any relief over the weekend? Indra Petersons is here with the answers.
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I think we know, the month of January says it all.
(LAUGHTER)
PETERSONS: It's been a rough January, and unfortunately, we're going to be talking about even more blasts of cold air making their way, especially at the end of the weekend. Let's talk about what's going on today, very atypical, going all the way down to the south now through Texas. We have a chance of some wintry mix out there. You can actually see some of this wintry mix this morning, even icing concerns are there.
Why? That cold air went all way far down to the south, a cold front pushed through, and it pulled that moisture off of the gulf. You can actually see the low here that pooled all that moisture and kind of enhanced the amount of rain and snow they're getting in that region. That's going to be pulling off, which is good news in the sense that we're going to be talking about high pressure building in and lowering those chances, of course, for the snow and the moisture to be out there.
Bad news, high goes down. That means even more cold air is filtering (ph) farther down to the south as well, so that's going to be the concern. Up farther to the Midwest, the northeast, three clippers, this is the pattern right now, are going to be making their way through. So, each one of this bringing the chances for some light showers as we go through the weekend here.
So, we're talking about snow showers. Keep in mind, the third one, this is going to bring that big, bitter-cold arctic air. Again, want to show you these temperatures, especially as you look at Minneapolis. Notice going down to a negative 11.
BERMAN: Oh, my!
PETERSONS: That's their high for Monday. New York City looks good. Watch it drop. By the way, look at Chicago Sunday to Monday, 28 to zero. So, that third clipper is going to be another huge drop we're all going to feel next week.
BERMAN: Those are ugly numbers, Indra.
PETERSONS: Yes. Sorry about that.
ROMANS: Snow boots and parkas, my friend.
PETERSONS: They're not fake. Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Thanks, Indra.
U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder, making Edward Snowden an offer he apparently couldn't refuse. The NSA leaker in an online chat said he won't return to the United States because it's not possible, he says, to get a fair trial here. Snowden says the law is protecting whistleblowers need to be changed first. Holder says they're willing to discuss the fugitive's return to the United States if he pleads guilty.
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ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: If Mr. Snowden wanted to come back to the United States, enter a plea, we would engage with his lawyers. We'd do that with any defendant who wanted to enter a plea of guilty. And so, that's what -- that gives a little context to what I said.
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ROMANS: Snowden's charged in the U.S. with espionage. He has been in Russia since June after being granted temporary asylum for one year.
BERMAN: Developing this morning, an eye-opening, three-year Pentagon study suggests that some of the NSA's anti-terror techniques should be used to find nuclear weapons. The study found that American intelligence agencies are not organized enough or equipped to detect when other countries are developing nuclear weapons or beefing up their arsenals.
And as if that wasn't troubling enough, the 100-page report concluded that potential new nuclear states are emerging in numbers not seen since the early days of the cold war. And of course, this is important with these negotiations going on with Iran. ROMANS: And raises so many questions about the priorities of the U.S. Intelligence and analysis.
All right. Also developing, defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, responding to a series of embarrassments involving military officers in charge of the nation's nuclear weapons. He has ordered an independent review of the nuclear force. Earlier this month, nearly three dozen air force officers at a nuclear base in Montana were implicated in a scandal involving cheating on a proficiency exam. Cheating nuclear weapons. Yes. A Pentagon spokesman says, quote, "Clearly, we have some issues."
BERMAN: Indeed.
ROMANS: But insists, the U.S. arsenal -- nuclear arsenal is safe.
BERMAN: All right. Developing this morning, United Nations officials confirming that the Syrian government and members of the opposition will meet separately with a U.N. mediator today in Geneva. There was some hope, slim as it may have been, that the two sides would meet face-to-face for peace talks aimed at ending Syria's three-year-old civil war in which more than 100,000 people have died, but they will not sit and talk directly to each other. The expectations there alarmingly low this morning.
ROMANS: All right. Breaking overnight in Egypt, explosions rock Cairo, the largest hitting the city's police headquarters. Two others apparently targeting police stations. At least four people in Cairo killed, more than 50 wounded in these blasts overnight. Tensions are running particularly high in Egypt on the eve of the third anniversary now of the 2011 revolution.
All right. It's not a bear market but a scare market. That's according to one strategist, Jeff Kleintop of LPL financial says growth scares are likely to happen many times this year. Where are they coming from? Emerging markets trouble, earnings for U.S. companies that are mostly unimpressive or worse?
Dow futures lower this morning after the Dow Industrials fell to a five-week low. I want to show you the Dow, down 176 points yesterday. That's about one percent. Yesterday, the trigger was a slowdown in China's economy. The NASDAQ, the S&P 500 also lower. In Europe right now, stocks of London, Frankfurt, Paris, following this trend, they are all down. In Japan, the Nikkei Index falling nearly two percent.
Here in the U.S., a stock to watch this morning for you, Microsoft. Shares are up about 3.5 percent to premarket trading. Xbox, a big seller this holiday season, 7.4 million consoles flying off the shelves. Microsoft's sales were up 14 percent. That helped the company bring in better earnings. Watch MSFT.
Another stock we're watching this morning, Starbucks up 1.3 percent. It's the world's biggest coffee chain, of course. Stronger earnings raised the forecast for how much money it things it will make this year. Starbucks and Microsoft, two stocks to watch, but you're going to see red ink on the Dow if trends hold over the next four hours. BERMAN: Yes. Has not been a good week.
Speaking of not been a good week. It is my favorite time of day, it's time for the Justin Bieber update. Probably, the young Biebs waking up with a headache today as he faces criminal charges this morning following his arrest in Miami for driving under the influence while drag racing in a rented Lamborghini. I should say that properly, because it's just too good to mispronounce.
He's arrested for driving under the influence while drag racing in a rented Lamborghini. There, I said it. The 19-year-old spent about an hour in jail and faced a judge via video link. Bieber is also charged with driving without a valid license and resisting arrest. The police report reveals Bieber's expletive-filled reaction when he was stopped by police.
Here now, a dramatic reading of what he said. "Why did you stop me? Why the blank are you doing this? What the blank did I do? Why did you stop me? I ain't got no blanking weapons."
ROMANS: Well, he's got that going for him.
BERMAN: "why do you have to search me? What the blank is this about? What the blank are you doing?" An expansive vocabulary from the 19- year-old from Canada. From the sounds of it there, Justin Bieber could really use a good lawyer. He now has a good lawyer, defense attorney Roy Black.
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ROY BLACK, JUSTIN BIEBER'S LAWYER: Mr. Bieber has been released on bail. Both the state and I agreed that the standard bail would apply in this case, and they have not asked for any increased bail because of his popularity or fame.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you name a Justin Bieber song?
BLACK: I will have to take the fifth on that.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: He loves this client, you can tell. The standard bail, which was set at $2,500. According to police, Bieber told them he drank, smoked pot, and took prescription medication before getting behind the wheel, which is no joke, folks.
ROMANS: But he didn't have any blank weapons.
BERMAN: Not have any blanking weapons.
ROMANS: All right.
BERMAN: That's the blanking truth. ROMANS: Coming up, major moves in the 2016 race for president. New signs that Hillary could be ready to run for office, and the controversial speech that's raising new -- did you see the Mike Huckabee speech?
BERMAN: I did.
ROMANS: That was unscripted, right?
BERMAN: It appears so.
ROMANS: Hmmm, let's talk about Mike Huckabee and how women are responding this morning after the break.
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BERMAN: All right. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. This morning, there are some raised eyebrows after the Republican Party's rebranding efforts towards women had an interesting twist yesterday, shall we say, thanks to some comments from former Republican presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee. Let's just listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE HUCKABEE, FORMER ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: The Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without uncle sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Paul Steinhauser is here with more in our Washington bureau. Paul, as part of the GOP rebranding effort to women, this does not fit into the playbook that party leaders have been trying to follow.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: There has been a controversy over these comments since he made them yesterday, but Mike Huckabee, remember the former Arkansas governor who ran for the White House in 2008, what he was trying to say was that Democrats have invested this phony war on women to lure more women to the Democratic party, and he was saying that Republicans are actually the bigger supporter of women.
And as you mentioned, Christine, this does come as the GOP is trying to rebrand the party to reach out to more female, minority, and younger voters, but the inartful way in which he said it, the use of the word libido, that's what's caused this minor controversy and gave Democrats an instant ammunition to say Republicans haven't changed one bit. In fact, that comment coming from Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a woman, of course, and the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
Listen, all this comes, of course, one year or little over a year after the presidential election. Take a look at the exit polls. This is 2012, the presidential election, you can see the Democrats doing much better, 55 percent of the female vote going to Barack Obama, only 44 percent going to Mitt Romney. Well, what have the Republicans done to try to capture some of that female vote back? Who's going to be giving the GOP response next Tuesday to the state of the union address?
Cathy McMorris Rodgers. She's a congresswoman from Washington State. She's the highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives and the first woman to give the response in almost 15 years. And one other thing, the only person ever to give birth to three children while serving in Congress.
BERMAN: That's impressive in and of itself.
STEINHAUSER: Yes.
BERMAN: On the subject of women in politics, there is a certain woman named Hillary Clinton.
ROMANS: I haven't heard of her.
BERMAN: Who may or may not be running for president, Paul. It turns out that she's considering a run for office in 2016.
STEINHAUSER: Really?
BERMAN: I don't know if you heard. But there is this cover on the "New York Times" magazine that everyone on the internet was simply buzzing about overnight. Explain, sir.
STEINHAUSER: Take a look at this. This is going to be in "New York Times" Sunday afternoon magazine section. And well, it is quite an interesting photo, isn't it? What the "New York Times" said is, well, their article's about Hillary Clinton's influence of various people within her political universe. So, this is the idea they came to. Hillary Clinton as a planet in the middle and those people around her in the universe.
You know, this comes just a few weeks after that "Time" magazine cover. Take a look at that. Remember that one? That was also generating a lot of buzz. "Can Anybody Stop Hillary?" And of course, you can see somebody hanging on to the heel of her shoe. Guys, you put Hillary Clinton on the cover of your magazine or whatever, you're going to get more readers, you're going to get more clicks, no doubt about it, but there is a little bit of Hillary Clinton news out there.
Priorities USA, let's flashback to 2012, that was the big Super PAC that supported President Barack Obama. they announced yesterday they will now start fundraising, raising money for a possible, probable, likely, who knows, President Hillary Clinton run in 2016, and they also announced that, Mike -- Jim Messina, who is the chairman of the guy who ran the president's re-election campaign, is coming on board to help out Priorities.
That's actually a big deal. These Super PACs very influential, raise a lot of money, put a lot of ads out there.
BERMAN: This is Obama people and Obama money getting behind Clinton. Very interesting. All right. Before we let you go, Paul, because a lot of people were sleeping last night when this happened, House speaker, John Boehner, sitting down on the couch with Jay Leno and some very interesting comments. Let's watch.
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JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": You ever think of running for president?
JOHN BOEHNER, (R) HOUSE SPEAKER: No. I like to play golf.
(LAUGHTER)
BOEHNER: I like to cut my own grass. You know? I do drink red wine. I smoke cigarettes, and I'm not giving that up to be president of the United States.
LENO: Right, right. That's right. That's not worth it!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: A man with his priorities in check, Paul.
STEINHAUSER: There you go. He says it like it is. He is a big smoker and he does love to play golf and I guess have a drink. Hey, two things here quickly, this was his first ever appearance on "The Tonight Show." He got in there just in time before Leno retires. And guess what? He got second billing in this last night to, who else, but Joey, Matt LeBlanc. So, he may be speaker of the House, but you get second billing to Joey.
BERMAN: I always say, it's spinal tap, then puppet show. Paul Steinhauser in Washington for us.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: Thank you so much.
ROMANS: All right. In just a few hours, former Virginia governor, Bob McDonnell, will be in court to face federal corruption charges. The indictment of McDonnell and his wife stems from their relationship with a Virginia businessman. Prosecutors allege they received gifts and loans, Rolex watches, Luis Vuitton shoes, all in exchange for access, allowing the head of a health supplement company to promote his products. McDonnell insists he did nothing illegal.
BERMAN: New developments in New Jersey, the investigation surrounding Chris Christie. Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed his campaign and the state Republican Party Committee to assess their knowledge of the move to create traffic jams as political payback. A spokesman says the campaign and the state party intend to cooperate with the U.S. attorney's office. The governor has denied knowledge of the plan and he, of course, fired two top aides. In Santa Cruz, California, they're gearing up today for a big surf competition. Organizers of the Body Glove Mavericks Invitational given the go-ahead for their big surf competition. The 24 contestants from around the world are expected to compete. They'll ride waves forecast to be in excess of a whopping 20 feet high. The winner takes home a cool $50,000.
BERMAN: You want big waves? Let's take a look at what's coming up on "New Day." Kate Bolduan joins us now.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We were just talking, you guys. I'm going to get to our tease copy really quickly, but that big of a wave, it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
(LAUGHTER)
BOLDUAN: I don't think -- there are few things that are scarier than getting caught in a wave like that, I think.
ROMANS: Twenty-foot wave, you're right.
BOLDUAN: Oh, my gosh! OK. So, what's coming up on the show? We're going to dig deeper into this brand new "New York Times" magazine article you guys were talking about, about Hillary Clinton that really has quite a lot of people buzzing, and that's the reason why, because of this really wild and a bit bizarre cover showing Clinton as a planet. We're going to talk with the author of the article, talk a lot about that.
Also coming up, imagine going to college, you expect to meet new friends, right? Instead, not only do you meet new friends, you find the sister that you never knew you had. We're going to meet two girls -- these two girls who realized that they were just too similar for it to be a coincidence. They found out they have the same father, and we're going to talk with them about how they figured it out and how this has changed their lives. It's really amazing.
ROMANS: It's such a sweet story, and the fact that they found each other --
BOLDUAN: It's not a sad story.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Against all odds. That is a real feel-good story of the day. I can't wait to hear from those girls.
BOLDUAN: I'm not going to tell you what Chris just said.
(LAUGHTER)
BOLDUAN: Not going to tell you.
BERMAN: All right. On a different type of story, to be sure, French president, Francois Hollande and his companion, Valerie Trierweiler, reportedly plan to issue a formal clarification concerning their relationship. Wow! That is some terminology. It comes on the heels of the alleged affair between Hollande and a French actress.
A French newspaper's quoting Trierweiler's attorney saying she wants to resolve the manner in order to come out of it in the most dignified way possible.
ROMANS: It's so French. Everything about this story is so French. You know -- it's just, he wants it to be private, but it isn't private. Everyone's asking questions. Let's just say Francois Hollande, if he had a Facebook page, it would be "it's complicated" for his status.
BERMAN: Let's just say (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
ROMANS: And he was supposed to be (INAUDIBLE). He was supposed to be Mr. Normal.
OK. Coming up, new developments this morning in a crime caper nearly 30 years old. The plot straight out of a mob movie! That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Welcome back, everyone.
A fifth accused mobster expected in court today to enter his plea to a string of unsolved crimes, including the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist. Four other men accused in the crime pleaded not guilty on Thursday. The caper, which took place at Kennedy Airport, and netted thieves $6 million in cash and jewels.
This was immortalized, of course, in the Martin Scorsese film "Goodfellas." Murder, racketeering, armed robbery, arson, and extortion, and claims that one of the alleged wise guys was a captain for the Bonanno (ph) crime family. Those are some of the allegations here. His attorney says there was no way he was involved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERALD J. MCMAHON, ATTORNEY: Pretty much all the people that did it got murdered by Jimmy Burke (ph), so I read. So, the fact that my client didn't get murdered would suggest that he didn't have anything to do with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: In the film, Robert De Niro played a character based on Jimmy "The Gent" Burke, and played him marvelously.
ROMANS: Interesting defense. We'll see how that turns out.
Coming up, when will the bulls start running again on Wall Street? What is going on? It was so easy last year. It was so easy, just the 401(k) going up, up, up, and now, that's not happening. "Money Time" is next.
BERMAN: Run, bulls, run!
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right. You've got about less than three minutes to the top of the hour. Welcome back to EARLY START. It's "Money Time" on this Friday morning.
Investors looking for stocks to pull out of that tailspin today, and I'm going to tell you, quite honestly, so far, the signs are not good for the morning. Dow futures are sharply lower right now, Another 85 points is what the futures gauges here. That's after the Dow Industrials fell 176 points yesterday. That comes about 1.1 percent. It's a five-week low.
The NASDAQ and the S&P also closing lower. You know, Berman, I like to look at the whole year, you know, for some perspective. Last year was awesome. This year has not been. The Dow is down just about 2.3 percent. The NASDAQ is up. Tech stocks have done better. This is for the year, this is the yearly numbers.
The S&P down about one percent. It's been a slow start to the year. It's got a lot of people asking this question, hey, wait a minute, we did so well last year, is that over? Is the bull market over? This bull market is already one year longer than your average bull for the past, I think 60 or 70 years. So, a lot of people questioning whether it's got some good mojo here.
I'm not too worried about it yet. It's only -- you know, we showed you those numbers -- it's only one percent lower for the S&P, so don't get too worried.
BLITZER: Can I force you to give people one bit of good news? I was actually surprised to see Microsoft doing very, very well --
ROMANS: Yes. Microsoft had good Xbox sales over the holidays.
BERMAN: And the surface doing well, too.
ROMANS: And the surface doing -- and so, when you look at Microsoft shares, I think you're going to see that one higher today. You're going to see some stocks higher based on earnings news, but the momentum is lower. Europe down, Asia closed lower in stocks and Dow futures are lower, too.
BERMAN: And also, it's Friday. Have a great weekend. "New Day" starts now.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am just too cold to function right now.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Iced out. The cold is deadly. This horrible 30-car pileup just one of the problems stretching across a huge cut of the country. The cold is setting in and communities are shutting down. We're tracking it all. BOLDUAN: New details inside Bieber's bust. His father picking him up from jail. Bieber's salute to his fans and what happens next to the 19-year-old pop star. We're live in Miami.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Caught on tape. Look at this. A couple leaving their California home not noticing a bear lurking right beside them. Repeat. A bear lurking right beside them. We hear from them this morning.
CUOMO: Your "New Day" starts right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is "New Day" with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Good morning. Welcome to "New Day." It is Friday, January 24th, six o'clock in the east. The frigid cold is punishing people from Florida to Texas. We are tracking a big ice storm raising havoc on major cities, including Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. The deep freeze still causing major problems in the Midwest as well. Three people killed in this huge pileup you're looking at right now.
