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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Cochran Wins Mississippi Senate Runoff; Charlie Rangel Emerges the Winner; U.S. Military Advisers Arrive in Iraq; World Cup Biting Incident

Aired June 25, 2014 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Establishment candidates coming out on top in heated primary battles across the country. This morning, we're going to break down the results their opponents say are too close to call and what it all means for elections in November.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, terrorists gaining ground in Iraq, moving closer to Baghdad. This as U.S. military advisers arrive. But will it be enough to stop the chaos? We're live with the latest.

ROMANS: Violent storms barreling across the country. Millions in their path again today. Indra Petersons is tracking what you need to know about the weather this morning and there is a lot to know about the weather this morning.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

MARQUEZ: And I'm Miguel Marquez. It is almost 30 minutes, almost 31 minutes past the hour.

Score two for the political establishment. After a bitter primary and runoff, CNN projects Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran prevailing against the Tea Party challenger. He'll be running for his seventh term in November.

ROMANS: It looks like Charlie Rangel -- Charles Rangel will get to stay -- extend his stay in Congress after declaring victory in his New York primary.

Our CNN politics executive editor Mark Preston joins us from Washington.

Mark, another term all but guaranteed for these two. Let's start in Mississippi sending off the Tea Party challenger. As one Republican strategist said to me recently score another one for the establishment.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Yes, big win. Big win for the establishment especially coming after the big loss of Eric Cantor, the majority leader, just a few weeks ago to a Tea Party candidate. But down in Mississippi, Thad Cochran, the incumbent, in many ways scored an upset last night by winning. He won by about 6300 votes, although there are certainly some hard feelings over the victory. Let's hear what his opponent Senator McDaniel had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS MCDANIEL, MISSISSIPPI STATE SENATOR: We have to be absolutely certain that the Republican primary was won by Republican voters. There is something a bit unusual about a Republican primary that's decided by liberal Democrats.

So much for bold colors. So much for principle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: So let me break this down for you. That's State Senator Chris McDaniel. He was in the runoff last night against Thad Cochran. Thad Cochran perhaps could have won and it looks from anecdotal evidence that That Cochran was certainly helped by Democratic in last night's runoff. Thad Cochran made an appeal specifically to African- American voters down in Mississippi to come out and vote for him. In many ways probably the lesser of two evils.

As we do know, that African-Americans do vote heavily for Democrats. But last night they came up for Thad Cochran and that's why we saw Chris McDaniel very upset by that.

ROMANS: Interesting. Interesting.

MARQUEZ: Interesting, in that do you think the Democrats might vote for the more conservative member who would then be given a better shot in the general election down the road, but it doesn't sound like McDaniel is exactly conceding in that speech, and neither is Charlie Rangel's opponent, Espaillat, in New York. Very, very close race here, yes?

PRESTON: Very close race, certainly. Just north of where you two sit right now, Charlie Rangel, longtime member of the House of Representatives, fighting off or appears to have fought off another challenge from a state senator as well, Adriano Espaillat. Last night Charlie Rangel spoke to our own Alexandra Field, last night saying that he was the victor. Let's hear what he has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Did you consider waiting for him to concede before declaring victory? Why declare now?

REP. CHARLIE RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: It hit my mind, the frustration of all of these people in a hot room and the vote was so close, when it reached a point, that I was more concerned about them and the press than I was about anything else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: And there you have it. Charlie Rangel last night saying that in fact he is the victor. Right now, the margin between him and his opponent Adriano Espaillat is 1800 votes.

ROMANS: Wow.

PRESTON: I have to tell you back in 2012, Charlie Rangel won in a matchup with the same opponent by 1100 votes, however, Adriano Espaillat has not conceded. He wants every vote counted so there's certainly be some headlines. A lot of looking to see what happens up in Harlem.

MARQUEZ: Wow.

PRESTON: In northern Manhattan this afternoon.

MARQUEZ: Hard fought politics.

ROMANS: Thanks, Mark. Mark Preston.

American help is to combat ISIS arriving in Iraq. This morning 90 military advisers have landed. They join 40 who are already in Iraq. And more help is on the way to guide the Iraqi military against insurgents.

The task of slowing ISIS is getting harder. The U.S. now estimates 10,000 ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria with more now joining the fight.

Let's go to Nima Elbagir in Baghdad with the very latest.

Can you bring us up to speed on just where we are here? It seems as though the ISIS presence is strong and strengthening. U.S. military advisers now on the ground. Are they slowing that advance to Baghdad?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the first order of business for U.S. military advisers is going to be assessing the Iraqi army's capacity. What can they do? What can they be trusted to hold?

And you'll remember, Christine, this is an Iraqi army that's been reinforced now by volunteering Shia militiamen. Do they have the capacity for that? Do they have the weaponry? Do they have the bullets for all these new volunteers and how quickly can these volunteers be trained given the speed with which ISIS is gaining ground.

And yesterday, when Secretary Kerry came through, his big message for both sides of the Iraqi political divide, both the Sunni and the Shia, and even the Kurds up north, was that the military process that needs to be bolstered by some kind of a political process, well, just before we came to air, Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki speaking there.

If Secretary Kerry was hoping that his visit would result in some kind of olive branch extended, he's going to have been very disappointed listening to al-Maliki speak. He's blaming much of this on his political rivals and not just those inside Iraq. He's also gone so far as to accuse neighboring states. He won't say which but neighboring states of supporting ISIS and being the architects of this crisis in Iraq. He's saying that the brave Iraqi army is attempting to open some of

those highways between the towns and cities that have been taken. And his hope is that soon they will be able to march on some of those towns and cities.

But clearly, he's going to be looking for some kind of concentrated U.S. support to do that. The hope we're hearing privately is that they'll get some kind of air cover to try and open up some of these towns. But the language definitely wasn't a conciliatory tone being sent out to the different ethnic faction here in Iraq, Christine, today.

ROMANS: Very interesting. The tone of al-Maliki in that speech.

Nima Elbagir, thank you so much.

MARQUEZ: Now the IRS did not follow the law when it failed to report thousands of e-mails lost in a computer crash. That's according to a top official at the National Archives. He told a congressional hearing an agency must report unauthorized destruction of e-mails even if it's an accident.

Those e-mails belonged to an official later forced out over allegations the agency targeted conservative groups.

ROMANS: A $50 billion price tag as negotiators working on a compromise to get issues at the VA under control. Both the House and the Senate passed their own pieces of legislation. But some lawmakers question whether a huge cash infusion will fix the problems. Others argue that look, you've got to have the money. It's necessary even if the costs have to be offset.

MARQUEZ: We want it fixed, but we're not paying for it.

ROMANS: Yes. Or we're just going to throw more money at a really bad, bad system.

MARQUEZ: Something is going to happen.

President Obama could be facing a lawsuit from House Speaker John Boehner who is taking issue at Obama's use of executive action. The president has used its -- to push initiatives without approval from a bitterly divided Congress but Republicans argue Obama is breaching his constitutional power.

ROMANS: Concerning analysis this morning of who exactly signed up for coverage under Obamacare. Data shows 27 percent of people enrolled have serious health conditions, as compared to just 12 percent of other people -- other insurance. It's concerning because the Affordable Care Act counts on revenue from healthier patients to offset costs for sicker people. Insurers say the finance could drive up premiums for Obamacare users next year.

MARQUEZ: And happening today, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is heading to Arizona. He wants to see what Border Patrol agents are facing as record numbers of kids try to cross from Mexico into the U.S. without parents. 52,000 minors have been caught since October. At a hearing on Tuesday, Republicans suggested lenient immigration policies are to blame but Johnson says it's much more complicated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: If you're asking me if I can take an unaccompanied child, turn him around on the border and send him right back to Guatemala, I don't believe the law would permit us to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: The 52,000 kids crossing from Mexico is nearly double from the previous year.

ROMANS: I watched that whole law yesterday. It was really, really interesting. And then some of these -- I mean, it is a complicated problem and there are more and more children coming every day.

MARQUEZ: It's become so complex and the number of people on both sides of the border just don't make it any easier and that the U.S. laws regarding minors really complicated.

ROMANS: Yes. All right. The U.S. is set to export unrefined oil for the first time in about four decades. Multiple reports this morning say the Commerce Department gave two companies permission to ship the type of oil, ultra light oil, from south Texas to foreign buyers.

The move will likely spark a wave of requests from other companies. No word on if the exports may expand. But it shows you that the U.S. is producing a heck of a lot of energy.

MARQUEZ: Pretty amazing.

ROMANS: Time for an EARLY START on your money this morning. Tough day at the stocks around the globe. European shares lower. Asian stocks ended their day down. Futures are flat right now. The Dow dropped a whopping 119 yesterday. You know, moving back from that 17000 milestone. We're expecting a contraction of GDP later this morning. We're going to get a GDP report this morning.

Brand-new on "CNN MONEY" you've heard of rags to riches, it's often rags to riches to rags. Look at this, about 60 percent of the time a family's money is exhausted by the children of the person who created it. That's according to wealth consultants, the Williams Group.

In 90 percent of cases it's gone by the time the grandchildren die. The main reason, experts point to overspending and a lack of ambition among people --

MARQUEZ: The kids today.

ROMANS: Yes, among rich people who have enough money to, you know, pass along. Money can --

MARQUEZ: I don't hate rich people. I despise their children. (CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: The story -- wasn't that the theme story the other day?

MARQUEZ: Yes. Yes. He's not giving it.

ROMANS: He's not giving it.

MARQUEZ: He's spending it on himself.

All right. City streets leveled. Communities left under water. Severe storms affecting millions across the country. And it's not over yet.

Indra Petersons keeping track of everything for us today. We'll see you in a second.

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MARQUEZ: The raging weather, well, it just won't quit. Take a look at these images from Marion County near Indianapolis. More twisters touching down and leaving a path of destruction. Homes were heavily damaged, trees left blocking the roads. Cars were lifted off the ground. One of them landing on a house.

ROMANS: Whoa.

MARQUEZ: Whack. Yes.

ROMANS: Widespread flooding in northwest Illinois. Some of the roads around Chicago -- look at that. Looks like a river.

MARQUEZ: Crazy.

ROMANS: Some people forced to boat their way to safety. A major expressway was closed as flood advisories issued in Chicago.

MARQUEZ: And the flooding was catastrophic in parts of northern Texas. Cars literally halfway submerged. Some people were left stranded in their cars, while rescue crews made their way through. More than five inches of rain fell in Ft. Worth area that needs the rain but it's a lot of rain.

Indra Petersons has a look at the forecast. Seems like a pretty rough spring out there.

ROMANS: Good morning.

MARQUEZ: In the summer.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I mean, you want the rain, right? You don't want it all at once.

MARQUEZ: At once.

PETERSONS: That is the key. Chicago showing that with only about an inch of rain, but look what happened when it fell in such a short period of time.

Today severe weather threat still out there in pretty much the same places. We're talking about Rapid City down to about Colorado Springs but out towards Denver again, one of those major hubs. We're going to be seeing a lot of delays again.

Now into the northeast, that same system that brought that rain into Chicago, now sliding farther to the east today. So what we're going to be watching for is more showers developing especially as we get later throughout the day today. You'll notice around in D.C. and New York, kind of dry in the morning hours, as we continue in toward the afternoon, late evening, we'll start to see some of those heavier showers through that overnight period.

By tomorrow, it does kick offshore. But on the back side of it yes, sure, you can always still get some of those afternoon thunderstorms, but a lot lighter than what you're going to be seeing today by the time you get in through tomorrow. So looking a lot better out there.

Temperature wise are staying kind of where you should be, but notice the total here about two to five inches, heaviest amounts out toward Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire. But still good about one to two inches are going to be out there toward New York City, even maybe a little bit lighter down towards Philly. Temperatures nice and hot and muggy. Not comfortable for anyone. Heavy rains still down in the southeast. And of course there are those temperatures staying hot and muggy as well.

I got rid of swampy for you.

MARQUEZ: Swampy.

ROMANS: Hot and muggy.

MARQUEZ: I like swampy. I like swampy.

PETERSONS: Is that right?

MARQUEZ: Very descriptive.

PETERSONS: I'll bring it back.

ROMANS: AKA summer.

MARQUEZ: (INAUDIBLE) on that map.

ROMANS: Thanks, Indra.

Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY," Chris Cuomo joins us now.

Welcome back, my friend.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It is good to be back. But what's going on with politics? I leave for one second now all this madness going on with the primaries. I guess it was a good night for the GOP establishment. They seemed to

have beaten back Tea Party challengers.

Why am I making it all so qualified? Well, because in Mississippi and some other states, the challengers are refusing to quit. So we're going to have to take it now.

On the left of your screen, you see veteran Charlie Rangel, he squeaked by again. He had the same opponent in his primary he did the last time. And once again, his challenger is saying it ain't over yet. We'll tell you why.

We've got a panel of experts to break it down what's going on there and why. And there's also this controversy about Democrats voting in Republican primaries. What? We'll take you through the rules, see if it's real or if it's a little bit of, you know, chicanery going on.

Plus the World Cup. Boy, it finally has teeth as a story. Ha, ha, ha. One of Uruguay's star players is accused of biting an opponent. Like Holyfield-Tyson style. And supposedly it's not the first time this guy Suarez has gotten in trouble for this. So we're going to tell you what's going on there.

And, you know, it's like one of the only non-quaps (ph) I saw in soccer the whole time I was down.

There were also a preview for U.S.-Germany game that's big tomorrow in terms of seeing if the U.S. makes it out of the group.

ROMANS: What are you going to do, Chris? This is my unscientific polling of America. What are you going to do at noon? Are you going to have an office viewing on Thursday?

CUOMO: What are you doing, Miguel?

MARQUEZ: Body paint, drinking, pub. You know, USA, USA.

CUOMO: Look --

MARQUEZ: Come on, here's --

CUOMO: I've caught the bug, there's no question about it. So I think that I will probably be watching it with a group of people, though, I must say, I don't see it as this make-or-break death match for the U.S. I think they're more than capable of getting the draw. And I think there's so many variables that have them getting in no matter what happens that I'm not worried.

ROMANS: All right.

MARQUEZ: All right. That analysis.

ROMANS: Chris Cuomo.

MARQUEZ: Wow.

ROMANS: Thank you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: I love that little -- I love that, go, go, go. But look, he's done it before. And now another biting incident by Uruguay's star player is marring the World Cup.

Have a look, Luiz Suarez looks to be biting an opposing player in his team's win over Italy. Just the latest incident for Suarez who's been suspended for a similar action in the past.

MARQUEZ: Yes, he sure has. Now the big question, will Suarez have to sit out -- boy, it has to be bitter -- the World Cup because of the bite.

ROMANS: Bitter.

MARQUEZ: Yes. A bit of bite. Alex Thomas has more from Rio de Janeiro.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miguel and Christine, he's turn into the sporting world's most famous biter since Mike Tyson, and although his country has qualified for the knockout stages, Luiz Suarez's World Cup could be over.

Soccer's governing body FIFA is looking at his clash with Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini and could ban the Uruguay star if they feel he overstepped the mark and the referee didn't do enough to punish the player at the time.

There's been uproar throughout the sport at the antics of someone who's a brilliant goal scorer but can't stay away from controversy. He's been banned for a total of 17 games in two different countries of biting before. He received an eight-game suspension for racially abusing an opponent. And in the last World Cup, he deliberately and illegally handled the ball to help Uruguay beat Ghana.

Suarez's antics to at least make the United States crucial game against Germany far less contentious, both nations say they're playing to win if no tie will be good enough to put them through to the next round.

And the conspiracy theorists are having a field day because the two team managers, Jurgen Klinsmann and Joachim Low, are all friends. The latter assisting the former as coaches of their native Germany when it hosted the World Cup in 2006.

The U.S. players are already in Recife, the city that will stage this vital fixture. And with record numbers watching back in America, Miguel and Christine, they can reach the knockout stages for the third time in the last four World Cup.

MARQUEZ: Very cool.

ROMANS: All right.

MARQUEZ: I think they should pull his teeth. Just pull a tooth. Old Gum Suarez we can call him.

ROMANS: Gum Suarez.

All right, coming up, Go-Pro, going public. I've got an early check of your money. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Three minutes to the top of the hour. So let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning.

Global stocks are lower. European shares also down. Asian stocks are done for the day. They closed lower. Futures in the U.S. not showing much of anything yet after the Dow dropped 119 points yesterday, the biggest one-day drop in more than a month.

And you know what, I'm going to tell you this. Don't worry about what promises to be a terrible report on economic growth this morning. Don't worry. The economy likely shrank 1.8 percent in the first quarter. That's terrible. It made the worst quarter since the recession. But the second quarter looks much, much better. A lot of forecasters are saying look out the front of the car, don't look through the rearview mirror.

Got it?

MARQUEZ: Very sensible. Got it.

ROMANS: All right. Speaking of cars, tired of all those recalls? It's already a record year in just the first six months of the year. With new recalls this week, 32 million cars have been recalled this year. The previous record is about 31 million was set in 2004. And guess who is responsible for more than half of this year's recalls?

MARQUEZ: Ah, General Motors?

ROMANS: General Motors. You got it.

MARQUEZ: Wow.

ROMANS: And you're soon going to be able to buy a piece of Go-Pro, the camera company pricing its shares today. Its stock will start trading tomorrow.

MARQUEZ: Love this video.

ROMANS: It's the largest stock debut by a consumer electronics company in decades. Has a loyal customer base of people like that who can do things like that. They strap the portable cameras by helmet.

(CROSSTALK)

MARQUEZ: This is it. This is the one. My god.

ROMANS: This has nothing to do with how I feel about the stock markets or investing in stocks. MARQUEZ: That bike went from the ground to somebody flying in the

air.

ROMANS: The company is going to be worth about $3 billion.

MARQUEZ: All right. Thanks for sticking around with us. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS MCDANIEL (R), MISSISSIPPI STATE SENATOR: We had a dream and the dream is still with us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, a wild primary night, the battle for the GOP. Longtime Republican Senator Thad Cochran seems to squeak by his Tea Party opponent. That opponent refusing to concede.

The Dems also in conflict. New York veteran congressman, Charlie Rangel, declares victory. But his opponent says not so fast. What's going on? We'll track it all.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: In country, 90 American military advisers now on the ground in Baghdad. This along with reports the Iraqi government is giving up much of the country to the terror group ISIS. We're live with the latest.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Mystery in Atlanta. Twist in the case of a little boy who died in a hot car. Do police now believe the father left him there on purpose? Stunning new details on the shocking case.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY starts right now.