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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Sixteen House & Senate Leaders at the White House; The War on ISIS: Iran to the Rescue?; Who is Suspected Kidnapper Delvin Barnes?; Coffee, Tea or Bacteria?
Aired November 07, 2014 - 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: EARLY START continues right now.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Happening in just hours: President Obama meeting with new leaders in Congress since the first time since the landslide mid-term elections. After days of posturing and threats, can the Republicans and the president finally find some middle ground? What we know about the morning's meetings, ahead.
BERMAN: Could there soon be new help in the war on ISIS from Iran? The secret letter from President Obama. What we're learning about what was in that letter. That's ahead.
ROMANS: History of violence inside the troubling past of the man accused of kidnapping a Philadelphia nurse.
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START this morning, everybody. I'm Christine Romans. Nice to see you.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. It is Friday, November 7th -- Friday -- 5:00 a.m. in the east.
And it will happen today. They will get together. They will sit. They will eat. But will they get along?
The first meeting between President Obama and the man soon-to-be the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell bringing the rest of the congressional leadership with him as well, judging from the tone of remarks made the last couple of days, this first meeting could be a first confrontation.
CNN's White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski with more.
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MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John and Christine. Yes, maybe we could all use a bourbon summit, as it's being called for, after hearing this back-and-forth over the last few days, these warning shots. This is all supposed to be presented in this new spirit of cooperation.
Listen to Speaker of the House John Boehner talking about the possibility that the president could take executive action on immigration.
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REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I believe that if the president continues to act on his own, he is going to poison the well. When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself. And he's going to burn himself if he continues to get down this path. The American people made it clear Election Day. They want to get things done and they don't want the president acting on a unilateral basis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: We did hear the White House say repeatedly that the president is open to doing things differently, that if he sees areas to make some changes, without getting into specifics, that he will make changes in order to get things done. And they say that progress starts now, with this big meeting today at the White House, 16 congressional leaders. The White House says it's a beginning point, to look at what everybody wants to get done and find those areas of common ground.
Some obvious starting points would be things like ISIS, immigration, Ebola. So, if the optimistic view that's being put out there, this is a rededication. So, let's really work together now. The reasonable question is, why wasn't this done a long time ago? And the White House acknowledged that, yes, even on the part of the president, more could have been done.
We asked the question, you know, one of the criticisms you hear the president from both Democrats and Republicans, is that he doesn't reach out enough, doesn't engage enough. And they said sure, that that is true to some extent. But they put the onus on Republicans, saying that in the past, Republicans saw a political gain in trying to oppose everything the president wanted to do, and that now, just maybe, they could see some benefit in finding that common ground -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Michelle Kosinski, thanks for that from the White House this morning.
Now, we are learning that President Obama secretly wrote the supreme leader of Iran last month with the eye toward cooperation in the war against ISIS. Now, this is not the first time the president has written Ayatollah Khamenei. In fact, it's the fourth time since he became president.
"The Wall Street Journal" reports that any cooperation with the U.S. and Iran in fighting against ISIS would depend on reaching some kind of a deal on the future of Iran's nuclear program.
The administration refuses to confirm that the letter exists and denies there is any coordination with Iran or any link into a nuclear deal. Congressional Republicans expressing outrage to the revelation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN: Obviously, we understand that they have concerns about the threat of ISIL, which they expressed as well. But I would not look at it as a path to a different type of coordination.
BOEHNER: I don't trust the Iranians. I don't think we need to bring them into this. And I would hope that the negotiations that are under way are serious negotiations. But I have my doubts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry begins new negotiations with Iran's foreign minister on a nuclear agreement. The White House puts chances of reaching a deal right now at about 50/50.
BERMAN: An American airstrike in Syria apparently hit a key target in the battle against alleged terror there. A U.S. defense official says a major attack on the Khorasan Group is believed to have killed its most skilled bomb maker David Drugeon. Intelligence officials believe the 24-year-old French national was developing non-metallic bombs that could be sneaked through airport security.
The Pentagon says the airstrikes hit five Khorasan targets. A Syrian human rights group says civilians were also killed, as were anti-Assad fighters for Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham -- two groups that have not made terror attacks against Western targets a priority so far.
ROMANS: A stunning revelation this morning, that hundreds of American service members reported that they were exposed to chemical weapons in Iraq. But the Pentagon offered them no treatment or any follow-up.
After "The New York Times" revealed 17 such cases last month, the Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered a review of forms submitted by troops as they left combat. That review turned up 629 more service members who reported they had been exposed, exposed by the way to 1980s-era degraded chemical weapons. The Pentagon says it will now expand outreach to veterans, including a toll free number.
BERMAN: A former Navy SEAL says he is the man who shot Osama bin Laden. Robert O'Neill had been a SEAL for 15 years at the time of 2011 bin Laden raid. That's according to "The Washington Post".
Now, O'Neill is the target of criticism. Some in the military community wonder how he can claim to have fired the kill shot when at least two others in bin Laden's room also fired their weapons. And some fault O'Neill for seeking attention at all. Other says O'Neill has taken a serious risk by even acknowledging his role.
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JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: He sacrificed a lot in doing this. Whether he is the real shooter or not, he's put a bull's eye on his back that is bigger in a lot of ways than the bull's eye that Osama bin Laden had on his.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, you are talking about an actual bull's eye from jihadists.
GILLIAM: From jihadists, you know? So, his family, himself, he is on the speaking lecture circuit. Anybody that goes to see this guy now is a target when they're in a room with him.
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BERMAN: O'Neill says he was willing to publicly acknowledge his part in killing bin Laden only after being outed by a military blog earlier this week.
ROMANS: All right. Six minutes past the hour. Time for an early start on your money, Friday edition.
Stocks pointing higher, the Dow and S&P hit fresh record highs yesterday. The big word on Wall Street today, jobs. The government releases its October jobs report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Expecting more than 200,000 jobs created.
Also new details this morning about the Home Depot security breach. The retailer says 53 million customer e-mail addresses were taken during that hack. That's in addition to 56 million credit and debit card numbers it previously disclosed. Hackers got into the system by stealing a third party username and password, eventually reaching Home Depot's self check out systems.
The card readers that were hit have been removed. Home Depot beefing up its security on payment data.
Really important, folks -- if you shopped at Home Depot this year, look at your bank statements and your credit card statements. Look out for suspicious e-mail. This is the information bad guys can use to phish to send you e-mails to give you information that pretend to be somebody official trying to fix your breach and then they steal your identity.
BERMAN: If someone sends me an e-mail, Christine Romans, that says, you know, they need to fix my security and they want my Social Security number. What should I do?
ROMANS: Just don't do it. You can't do it.
BERMAN: Ignore it. Delete.
Inside the past of the accused Philadelphia abductor. What he told police about this week's kidnapping and what they now say about the crimes he committed in the past.
ROMANS: Plus, a terrifying attack caught on camera inside the hospital. The story behind the video and what happened next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: The latest now on the man police say abducted a woman right off a Philadelphia street. The victim Carlesha Freeland-Gaither was rescued Wednesday night by police in Maryland. She was found inside Delvin Barnes's car. Police say they have a confession from the 37- year-old suspect and this is not the first time he has done something like this.
Listen to his closest friend say he is stunned by the charges.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD DAVIS, SUSPECT'S FRIEND: We used to chill, hang out. He is a good guy. He is always looking to help somebody, always looking to bend over backwards. He'll give his shirt off his back if he could. I don't believe it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So, who is Delvin Barnes? And what do we know about this past?
Jean Casarez takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Federal charges have now been brought against Delvin Barnes in the abduction and kidnapping of Carlesha Freeland-Gaither, and transporting her across state lines into Maryland. This was brought in the eastern district of Pennsylvania.
While this is all happening, Barnes waived his extradition to come right back here to Virginia where he lived to face local charges of attempted capital murder.
And in a strange irony and twist of fate, this local case may have helped save the life of Carlesha.
It was about a month police say that a young 16-year-old girl, local girl, was walking along the streets and they say that Barnes kidnapped her, hit her with a shovel and put her in the trunk of a car, transporting her to a home. She was then, police say, assaulted.
Out in the backyard, he made her take her clothes off, he began to allegedly dig a grave saying, I'm going to kill you, at the same time dousing her with bleach and then gasoline, sitting her on fire.
She escaped. She survived. She was taken to a local hospital and she was given a forensic rape examination.
That perpetrator DNA was matched to Delvin Barnes. But at that time, police say, which was about a week ago, he fled the state. It's that DNA that led them to Delvin Barnes in Philadelphia via the surveillance camera. When local police saw that surveillance video, they recognized him, they also saw a decal on his car which led to a local car agency here and lo and behold, a GPS tracker was put on Barnes car because he was a credit risk.
Immediately, local police called ATF and said we have located the car and that's when they rescued Carlesha. Carlesha at this moment is with her family. She is safe. She is trying to understand and comprehend what has happened to her. But her family is grateful, and they tell me she is our hero -- Christine, John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: Thanks, Jean Casarez. Amazing police work there to be sure.
I want you to look at amazing shocking video of a rampaging patient attacking nurses inside a Minneapolis hospital. You can see 68-year- old Charles Logan chasing down nurses with a metal bar he apparently ripped from the side of the hospital bed. Eight of those nurses suffered injuries. One of them is recovering this morning from a collapsed lung.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hallway shot and in the hallway shot, you can see those same people are coming out the door. Two of them actually fell down in the hallway. And they were repeatedly struck by the man with the pole.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Terrifying. Police say Logan fled the hospital and died a few blocks away after officers used a taser on him in order to subdue him. Authorities say they don't know why he attacked the nurses.
ROMANS: New evidence this morning linking the prime suspect in the abduction of Hannah Graham to a 2005 sexual assault case. Court records show DNA evidence collected from one of the victims' fingernails nine years ago came back positive last month for a match for Jesse Matthew. Matthew has been charged in the 2005 case with attempted capital murder and abduction. He's scheduled to appear in court next Friday.
BERMAN: Former NFL running back Ray Rice awaiting a judge's decision after finishing up two days of testimony in his appeal hearing. He wants to be a running back once again. He is hoping to overturn the indefinite suspension handed down by the NFL after video footage surfaced of him punching his then fiancee in an elevator. Rice claims he was subjected to double jeopardy when the league suspended him indefinitely after originally banning him for just two games.
ROMANS: Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is on the verge of resolving his legal issues. Peterson struck a deal in his child abuse case, pleading no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor reckless assault for injuring his four-year-old son while spanking him with a tree branch back in May. Peterson will not play for the Vikings until the NFL's review of his case is complete.
BERMAN: Texas Governor Rick Perry making his first court appearance on abuse of power charges. During the two-hour hearing Thursday, Perry's lawyers criticized the case against him, calling it a comedy of errors. The judge did not hand down a ruling in the case. This was just a preliminary hearing. Perry is accused of pressuring a prosecutor to resign by threatening to veto money for her anti- corruption division.
ROMANS: A federal appeals court ruling Thursday may force the Supreme Court to take up same-sex marriage. The 2-1 ruling holds up the bans in Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky. Now, the ruling conflicts with every other federal appeals court decision across the country, making it almost certain the Supreme Court will have to step in to settle that matter.
BERMAN: The justices of the Supreme Court said they were not weigh in on same-sex marriage this year. One of the big reasons everybody suspects is there was no conflict at the federal appeals court level.
ROMANS: Now there is.
BERMAN: You may have noticed it is cold a lot of places. A blast of arctic air coming your way.
And Indra Petersons is here with that.
ROMANS: Hi, Indra.
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: On that note, right, yes, we have a system out there today. We are actually dealing with right now is not going to be the headline that's going to be here this week.
So, let's start with today. Yes, we have a low that will bring about a foot of snow to northern parts of Maine and reinforce cold air and reintroducing showers in the Northeast today. That will be exiting out of the area.
These are the temperatures. Take a look at the country. Enjoy it. This is mild, guys. It will not be anything like we're expecting next week. I want to remind you.
You talk about Superstorm Sandy. The characteristics of a hurricane combined with a winter storm. That is the same thing that we're dealing with this morning, but all the way out in the Bering Sea. You have what was a super typhoon Nuri off the coast of Japan, and it combined with the polar jet stream. This monster storm that's producing 50 foot waves. All this activity, affecting the Aleutian Islands as early as this evening, but it doesn't stop there.
Picture of the jet stream, if you go like this, that ripple effect continues. So, by next week, that monster storm will have an impact in the form of very cold air hitting the United States. So, this is what we're going to be looking at, the large trough of cold air down to the Southeast.
Let's talk about the comparison, mild air, that was in place yesterday. This cool air is moving farther east today and for the weekend. Another front behind it brings cooler air -- still not the story. Once you have the effect of the jet stream. Here comes the arctic plunge of cool air settling to the Northeast, by
the middle, it's not the end of the next week. So, let's talk about the temperature change. Look at the days, we are starting with Monday.
So, already cooling behind the second cold front. Notice New York City will go down in the 40s. But look even the places like the South, 70s, going down to the 50s, cold air already in place, Minnesota going down to the 20s. Many people 20 degrees below average for this time of year. So, very scary what is going on in the Bering Sea right now.
BERMAN: Keeping eye on that very sure. Thanks, Indra.
ROMANS: The star of last night's Bengals/Browns game didn't even play. Four-year-old Leah Still proving to be stronger than any of her father's teammates. Andy Scholes shares the emotional story in this morning's "Bleacher Report", next.
While the Ebola scare has people traveling in surgical masks, that worry maybe replaced. The World Health Organization says contracting it through casual contact is very low. But the team at Auburn University looked at commercial airplane cabins and found the real hot spots is other contaminants on services like armrests, tray tables. Auburn conducted a two-year study and found harmful bacteria like MRSA and E. coli can survive for up to a week on those surfaces. The FAA leaves the airplanes to set their own cleaning standards. If you want to protect yourself from germs, the DOH suggest treating bodily fluids as if they're contagious get in the practice of good hygiene, use hand sanitizers and avoid contact with your eyes, nose and mouth when you touched potentially contaminated surfaces.
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BERMAN: First place in the AFC North was up for grabs last night when the Bengals and Browns took the field. But it was a 4-year-old girl who stole the show.
ROMANS: So sweet.
Andy Scholes has more on the morning's "Bleacher Report".
You're sweet, too, Andy. But she's sweeter.
ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Definitely, Christine. Leah Still, the daughter of Bengal's defensive lineman, Devon Still, she's battling stage four pediatric cancer right now. And last night, she was in Cincinnati to watch her dad in the NFL for the very first time. This was a special night for Leah.
Her story touched people across the country. Last night, all over the stadium, you could see Leah strong signs as hundreds of fans wearing her dad's jersey. Between the first and second quarters, Leah took the field as the Bengals announced a donation of $1.3 million to Cincinnati's Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Leah's name. An awesome, awesome moment and an awesome night for Leah. Now, as far as the game goes, the Browns put on a dominating
performance. They jump out to an early lead and Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton, he had a brutal night. He threw 23 incomplete passes as the Browns won 24-3. They are off to the best start in 20 years at 6- 3.
Also at the game last night sitting with Leah Still was 19-year-old Lauren Hill. If you haven't heard her story, Lauren was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer this year. Her dream was to play college basketball for Mt. St. Joseph University. She realized that dream this past Sunday in front of a sold out crowd. She will not stop living life to the fullest and she will continue to fight for a cure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAUREN HILL: There's families going through this and there's kids younger than I am going through this, which is what -- I mean, they're who I'm fighting for. I'm not fighting for myself. I'm going to start fighting for little kids, because one of the tumor symptoms is that it takes their voices away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: You can catch that whole interview tonight at 10:30 Eastern on CNN's "UNGUARDED WITH RACHEL NICHOLS." Such a touching story. And it's pretty awesome of Devon Still. He friended Lauren Hill and trying to have been there for what she is going through in such a tough time.
BERMAN: A whole lot of courage right there, Andy.
ROMANS: We've got a lot of work to do to beat cancer, to kick cancer. Let's all try to do something about it. Thanks, Andy.
BERMAN: Twenty-six minutes after the hour. In just hours, President Obama meets with the Republican leaders of Congress. This the first time since Tuesday's bruising mid-term elections. Is there any hope for any middle ground? We will give you a preview next.
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