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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Brown's Stepfather Under Investigation; Takata Refusing to Expand Recall; Woman Claims Cosby Abused Her At Age 15; ISIS Leader Wife Arrested?; Defense Secretary Watch

Aired December 03, 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: Under investigation, did the stepfather of Michael Brown intend to start a riot in Ferguson after Officer Darren Wilson was cleared in his stepson's death or was this outburst just an emotional reaction? We're looking at the controversy this morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight: airbag maker Takata refusing to issue a nationwide recall despite demands of U.S. officials and concerns the airbags are potentially deadly. The response likely setting up a showdown at a House hearing today.

BERMAN: Conflicting reports this morning about whether the wife of the leader of ISIS is in custody. Someone's in custody, but is she his wife? We have a live report on this new developing information ahead?

ROMANS: Who is she? It's so interesting that they think that maybe the women in his life are leaders in the ISIS movement.

BERMAN: A lot of questions this morning. And as I said, this is developing as we speak.

Good morning. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It's Wednesday, December 3rd. It's 5:00 a.m. in the East.

Multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating whether Michael Brown's stepfather Louis Head incited a riot last week. It happened Monday night after a grand jury decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in Brown's death.

Head reached out to comfort Brown's sobbing mother, his wife, and then he turned to the crowd and said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUIS HEAD, MICHAEL BROWN'S STEPFATHER: Burn this mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down! Burn this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down! Burn this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down! Burn this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down! Burn this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down!

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: Two federal investigations into the Ferguson Police Department, Brown's shooting and its aftermath are still moving ahead. They're expected to wrap up by the time that Attorney General Eric Holder leaves. That should come by February.

After days of non-violent protest in Ferguson, the National Guard is now starting to scale back its presence there. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is giving no firm timetable, but he has announced a systematic reduction from the 1,300 guard troops that have been stationed in the city.

Let's check in with CNN's George Howell for the latest from Ferguson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The headline out of Ferguson, John and Christine, really is all about the investigation. Police are promising to look into every angle to find anyone responsible for the damage that we saw play out here the night of the riots here in Ferguson.

And specifically, they're looking at that video that many of us had seen, the video of Michael Brown's stepfather, Louis Head, where he was basically telling the crowd to burn the city down, burn things down.

Remember, we have heard from Michael Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, saying at that moment, he was just very angry. He was very frustrated with the outcome of the grand jury and he made those comments in that context.

We've also heard from his attorney, Benjamin Crump, from the family's attorney, saying the same thing.

But police are looking into the possibility that those comments could have changed the mood of the crowd and incited the riot, incited the looting that we saw play out that night. We understand that the Ferguson Police Department is looking into that, and also the St. Louis County police department will be looking into it as well. They have interviewed people who know Mr. Head. They also plan to interview Mr. Head himself.

And police again making the point that they're not just singling out Louis Head here. They are going to go aggressively to track down anyone responsible. Anyone that they can determine who was behind the looting and the damage that we saw play out in Ferguson -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right.

So, former NBA great Charles Barkley is speaking out into the investigation into Louis Head's action. The Turner Sports basketball analyst is standing behind his comments criticizing people who set buildings on fire in Ferguson. He agrees with the grand jury's decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson but Barkley tells CNN's Brooke Baldwin that that police should not be investigating Mike Brown's stepfather for inciting the riot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES BARKLEY, FORMER NBA STAR: I think under the circumstances, this has just been an awful incident to everybody. And I just think that it just clouds the discussion. You know, one of the problems of this entire situation, it's just so much noise going on, you never get to the crux of the issue that needs to be discussed. So, no, I don't think they should pursue charges against him. Anybody who walks out peacefully, who protests peacefully, that's what this country was built on, I have no problem with that whatsoever. But to be burning people's property, burning police cars, looting people's stores, that's 100 percent ridiculous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You can see more of this really terrific interview between Brooke Baldwin and Charles Barkley on "NEW DAY" at 6:00 a.m. eastern.

ROMANS: All right. We're getting reports of a woman detained by Lebanese security officials as they tried to cross from Lebanon into Syria. Lebanese officials saying she is one of the wives of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

Within the last hour, though, the government of Iraq posted a statement online saying the woman of al Baghdadi's wives.

CNN's Nic Robertson is live for us in London with more.

Nic, what do we know about this woman?

And we should say, she wasn't picked up yesterday. This was several days. They've had -- Lebanese officials have had her in custody for sometime, likely debriefing her. Do we know who she is?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, one Lebanese official has said she's the lady called Saja al Dulaimi. Dulaimi is a very big tribe from Iraq, which is where she is from.

What the Iraqi ministry of interior is now saying, they've had a chance to listen publicly to what Lebanese authorities have been saying for a day now, and they're responding to that, saying actually this isn't one of al Baghdadi's two wives. She is married to another woman from the al Dulaimi tribe, another al Dulaimi, but not this one.

The sources that we talked to in the region, both Lebanese and other sources, say they still believe it is a wife of Baghdadi. This woman played a prominent role within the ISIS organization itself, is an important figure with important connections.

Now, we have to look at this in total. And Iraq was playing a role in bringing about her arrest. We heard this from our own sources. They say that Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon were all involved in capturing this woman, that the United States in conjunction with Iraq played a role,. that this is somebody who is a valued target, somebody they've been trying to get, putting together a plan for over a month. That they were waiting to try to capture.

So, I think as the dust settles on this, we're probably going to learn a lot more. Some of it not surprisingly will be conflicting. Will we ultimately get to the truth? Possibly not all of it. What does appear to be important was that this woman was the subject is of a concerted effort to bring about her capture, Christine.

ROMANS: Yes, multiple governments working together to try to -- to try to round up and bring in the people closest to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

What kind of information could she have or could a wife this man have that's incredibly important to these officials?

ROBERTSON: If she's a wife -- so I think, now, in light of what the Iraqis are saying, you know, we have to qualify it and say, if she's a wife. And he had two wives. And if he was spending time with this wife, and it's not uncommon for these sort of commanders to spend a lot of time away from home because that's an easy way to get to them. If they had spent time together recently, then she would have useful potentially actionable intelligence that could be used to try to find Baghdadi.

Broader than that, she may know his patents of movement, the people around him, how many people, to expect to be in the room, the house, the facility, the village where he's hiding if there's an operation put into -- to try to capture or kill him.

ROMANS: What a mystery as they try to zero in on this guy and the people around him.

Nic Robertson in London, thank you for that.

BERMAN: Seven minutes after the hour. Expect fireworks this morning when airbag maker Takata appear before a House subcommittee alongside federal highway safety regulators. Takata is ignoring regulators' midnight deadline to issue a nationwide recall of airbags the government says are dangerous. The airbags have been shown to malfunction when they are deployed. Some firing shrapnel at motorists and some drivers have been killed.

CNN's Andrew Stevens is standing by live in Tokyo with more on this.

Good morning, Andrew.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Yes, that's right, Takata put out a statement today saying they did recognize that the authorities in the U.S. did want them to expand that recall nationwide. They didn't actually rule it out in the statement. But, certainly, they didn't move on and say they would comply. So they really didn't give any indication as to why they weren't prepared to comply. We spoke to the press office here in Tokyo, John, and asked them

what's behind this. And they said -- they told us that it's really up to the automakers themselves to do a recall. And they would support the automakers. There are ten automakers involved who have these faulty airbags made by Takata.

So, it's up to them. They also said that they thought the best way to deal with the recall was to go to the priority areas first, which is those humid states that we've been talking about, Florida, Hawaii, those states there, where the incidents of these airbags exploding have been much higher. They say that is the focus.

But no doubt there is going to be a lot of fireworks when the Congress hearing starts. They're going to be grilled. Takata is actually putting up his quality control head. And he's going to come into pretty sharp questioning as to why they want to see this restricted -- this recall, when in fact there are many, many more cars, perhaps in the millions that need to be looked at, probably as a matter of real urgency, John.

BERMAN: A lot of issues and there will no doubt be a lot of questions today. Andrew Stevens, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. Breaking news overnight, a pair of car bomb attacks. We're told a blast was reported outside of the international airport Somalia's capital, that's where the U.N. and some Western embassies are based, no reports of any deaths.

Meantime, a guard is dead and six people hurt following an attack in Yemen. It happened outside the residence of the newly appointed Iranian ambassador. No word on who is behind either attack.

BERMAN: All right. Also breaking overnight: new allegations against Bill Cosby, and for the first time, they come from a woman claiming the comedian sexually abused her when she was underage.

"Radar Online" is reporting on a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by a woman named Judy Huth. She claims that Cosby molested her in 1974 when she was 15 years old. It allegedly happened in a bedroom at the Playboy Mansion after Huth says Cosby alcohol to her and her 16-year- old friend. CNN has reached out to this woman, her attorney, and Cosby's attorney for comment.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning.

Futures barely moving, they're coming off a record high for the Dow yesterday. The Dow climbed 103 points -- never in history has it been this high. One reason for those gains: huge car sales.

Automakers reported strong November sales. There were all these Black Friday deals. Cheap gas, pushing people out there to buy. Even gas- guzzlers again, Berman.

A big victory overnight low wage workers. Chicago is raising its minimum wage. The city council approved an increase to $13 an hour by the year 2019. That will give 410,000 people a raise. Federal legislation on minimum wage has stalled.

So, many cities and states have taken matters into their own hands. Look at -- 29 states and D.C., they have approved a minimum wage higher than the federal limit. The federal limit is $7.25. You look at cities like Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, and now, Chicago, Chicago is 13 bucks an hour, some of those other cities $15 an hour.

In Los Angeles, they're raising wages to hotel workers to almost $15 an hour, too. So, you're seeing where there's not been action from Washington, you're seeing piecemeal moves around the country.

BERMAN: It is happening. All right. Twelve minutes after the hour.

Could a situation in New York be Ferguson all over again? A grand jury expected to make a decision again in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man. A New York City police officer was involved. The details, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Breaking overnight, Israel's prime minister has fired two government ministers and called for early elections. The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissing the country's finance and justice ministers. In a televised news conference, Netanyahu blasted the pair for attacking his government and its policies from within. The prime minister said he's dissolving parliament and setting new elections to gain a clear mandate for leadership.

BERMAN: There's no official word yet from the White House, but all signs are pointing to Ashton Carter as President Obama's choice to be the next secretary of defense. Carter is a former deputy defense secretary in the Obama administration.

We're also learning the White House wanted Chuck Hagel to hold off on resigning as defense secretary until this week when they hope the new nominee would be in place. But Hagel refused, deciding that if he was being forced out, he wanted to announce it as soon as possible.

ROMANS: A grand jury investigating the chokehold death of a New York City man is expected to meet today. The incident was caught on video. Eric Garner died last July after Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo placed him in an apparent chokehold. It happened after Garner was being charged for selling loose untaxed cigarettes. We're told a decision on whether to indict the officer could come by the end of the week.

BERMAN: The National Transportation Safety Board investigating the cause of a deadly between two school buses in Knoxville, Tennessee, that were carrying elementary school students. Two young girls and a teacher's aide were killed. Nearly two dozen other children were treated at area hospitals. Police say the buses were traveling in opposite directions when one apparently crossed over the median and hit the other.

ROMANS: That's a tough story, a real tough story in Tennessee.

All right. Seventeen minutes past the hour. Let's get an early start on your forecast.

Indra Petersons is here this morning. Good morning.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

Actually, it's a little chilly today. Feel better for one day. But you know what? I am taking it.

Temperatures have gone up on the East Coast, looking at D.C., looking for a high of 60s, after about 30s and 40s we felt yesterday, we're loving this. Now, notice it's not warm everywhere. Now, notice, it's not warm everywhere in Chicago, today their high barely above freezing at 35 degrees. Hey, it's winter. We are used to this.

What are we looking at? The system in here yesterday making its way out of new England but another front making its way through. Light showers, kind of soggy rainy day still expected again into the mid- Atlantic and Northeast.

Very easy to see, there's the cold front kind of kicking through, bringing those showers. Notice, high pressure moves in for tomorrow. So, tomorrow's the best day of the week until this guy makes its way in. So, really, we're going to see showers spreading from the south all the way to the Ohio valley into the Northeast.

So, by the time we talk about the weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, even Monday, there will be a threat for more rain. So, enjoy the beautiful day while you can. Temperatures are actually going back down as early as tomorrow.

So, yes, you know, another piece of good news. At least we're going to be staying warm above normal for the next two weeks.

BERMAN: So, rain and not snow?

PETERSONS: There's rain. But we're talking about warm temperatures, I'm riding on good, John.

ROMANS: You see good, I see mud. That's all I see. I see a puppy and mud. Thank you very much.

BERMAN: All right. NFL brass admitting they made a crucial mistake when handling the initial punishment of Ray Rice, as one executive gets emotional while testifying about domestic violence.

Laura Rutledge with all the details coming up in the "Bleacher Report."

ROMANS: In this week's "Road Warriors", it may cost a little more to travel for business in the U.S. next year. American Express Global Travel says both business airfares and hotel rooms could go up by as much as 7 percent. AmEx says airline consolidations, limited hotel rooms, and stricter corporate travel policies maybe key to the rise in the prices of corporate travel. The silver lining, international travel expenses could get a little cheaper in 2015.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Sirius outrage on Twitter and social media over this new college football rankings. Florida State getting no respect from the 12-member playoff committee.

ROMANS: This has consumed John Berman all morning, this drama and controversy.

Laura Rutledge has more in the "Bleacher Report." Hey there.

LAURA RUTLEDGE, BLEACHER REPORT: Hey, John and Christine.

Yes, Florida State is the last undefeated team in the Division I college football, defending champs in the Heisman quarterback, now, they're squarely on the bubble to make this year's playoffs.

Let's take a look at the rankings. Alabama and Oregon keep the first two spots, but it's TUC, the Horn Frogs leaping, if you will, over Florida State for the third spot. FSU still hanging on as the final team in.

Now, their quarterback Jameis Winston has even bigger issues on his plate. Yesterday was day one of his student code of conduct hearing where he faces four violations stemming from an alleged sexual assault of a female student in 2012. The proceedings get back under way today.

Troy Vincent, a former NFL player and now league executive, got emotional when recounting his personal experience at a Senate hearing on domestic violence in sports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY VINCENT, NFL EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF FOOTBALL OPERATIONS: I relate to the 20 million victims, survivors of domestic violence, sexual abuse in every community across our great nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RUTLEDGE: Lawmakers question representatives of the major sports leagues and their players unions at the hearing. When discussing the discipline of Ray Rice, Vincent told the panel the NFL made a, quote, "crucial mistake" in its initial handling of the situation. He said the league should have not have needed more video to properly punish Rice for knocking his then-fiancee out in the elevator. Rice was originally just given a two-game suspension.

The 5-13 Oklahoma City Thunder were hoping to right their ship with Kevin Durant's return from a broken foot. But the New Orleans Pelicans had other plans. Durant, the reigning league MVP, playing in his first game of the season had 27 points. It was never able to fully take over and get in a rhythm. Pelicans' Anthony Davis stole the show with a double-double.

And John and Christine, the Oklahoma City Thunder weren't able to get it going last night. But they do play the lowly Philadelphia 76ers on Friday. So, that may be a win for them.

BERMAN: The Sixers have not won since 1993, I mean, like a game. They're 0-38 or something, they can't win no matter what. So, that should be a good one for the Thunder.

ROMANS: Thanks, Laura, Laura Rutledge.

NBA legend Charles Barkley is speaking out about the violence and unrest in Ferguson, about racism in America and relationships between police officers and the black community. You'll want to hear what he says.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)