Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Will Ceasefire Hold in Ukraine?; FBI Opens Investigations Into Chapel Hill Killings; NBC Sources: Investigation into Brian Williams "Far From Done"; Remembering NYT's David Carr; Stocks on the Rise

Aired February 13, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Will the cease-fire hold? The truce begins this weekend in Ukraine but many are concerned it may fall apart before it even starts. We'll have a live report.

The FBI now investigating the murders of three Muslim students in North Carolina as thousands of people pay respects and demand justice.

And did Brian Williams exaggerate stories about his time with Navy SEALs? New questions about what he said about special ops teams as more moments from his past are scrutinized.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Poppy Harlow. John Berman and Christine Romans have the morning off. It is 30 minutes past the hour.

Even before the Ukraine cease-fire talks take effect this weekend, there are concerns about whether the agreement will hold. The Obama administration remains skeptical, saying more work needs to be done. This deal was reached after marathon talks between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine. French and German leaders are warning that Russia could face more European Union sanctions if the cease-fire is not respected.

So what is Russia's take on the prospects for lasting peace in Ukraine? Our Matthew Chance joins us from Moscow. What is the sense today, Matthew?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The sense here, Poppy, is that Russia got much, although not all, of what it wanted in the negotiations. A cease-fire has been agreed. It goes into force on Saturday night, Sunday morning at midnight local time. The forces have been required to move back from the frontline positions, but that leaves the pro-Russian rebels in position where they gained several hundred square miles of territory. And so in that sense, it's something of a positive for the Kremlin.

Also the prospect of sanctions, further sanctions, have been alleviated on the Russians because they're now playing the role of peacemakers. The European Union, of course, as well as the United States have stressed some skepticism, expressed some skepticism. But it's unlikely there's going to be sanctions from either of those two entities while this peace deal holds.

And so from the Russian point of view, it's a general positive. And that's been reflected in the kind of remarks we've had from Russian officials over the course of the past 24 hours or so since this peace agreement was made. Poppy.

HARLOW: Matthew, thank you very much. Appreciate the live report.

We are also following at this hour breaking news out of Pakistan. At least ten people have been killed, more than 60 people have been injured in an explosion near a Shi'ite mosque in Peshawar. Police report heavy gunfire at the scene and they say armed militants barged into the mosque, hurtling hand grenades and firing indiscriminately. Pakistan's prime minister is calling it a terrorist attack. So far, there has been no claim of responsibility. We'll bring you more on that as soon as we have it.

Also, ISIS launching new attacks across Iraq, hitting Kurdish and Iraqi forces in northern and in western Iraq. They have now seized control of parts of a town that is very close to an air base where U.S. Marines are training Iraqi forces. Also, according to U.S. officials, ISIS has now succeeded in spreading to Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Those officials saying some Taliban members are rebranding themselves as ISIS, hoping to attract terrorist recruits.

And breaking overnight, two Al Jazeera journalists are free this morning after spending more than 400 days in prison in Egypt. Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were released on bail. They are awaiting a retrial on charges that they supported the banned Muslim Brotherhood. That retrial scheduled for February 23rd.

And the FBI has opened an investigation into the fatal shooting of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Thousands of people attended the funeral service on Thursday; it took place on North Carolina State campus. Police say those three individuals were shot by their neighbor, allegedly, in a dispute over a parking space at their condominium complex. And now investigators, though, including the FBI, are digging deeper, trying to determine if this shooting was motivated by religious hate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, the FBI opened that preliminary inquiry into the case to try to ensure that no federal laws were violated. This will be a parallel investigation in addition to the local investigation being conducted by the Chapel Hill Police Department and local law enforcement officials as well. Word of the FBI getting involved on the same day that the victims were buried. The three victims, Deah Barakat, 23, Yusor Mohammad, 21, and Razan, 19. Thousands of people showing up for the memorial service for them; it was an incredibly sight to see there.

Also here at NC State University, many came here tonight to pay their respects for the victims as well. Those coming together here. Many believing, Poppy, as you know, that this was not a case of a dispute over parking spot. Many people here believing that this was, in fact, a hate crime. Once again, the FBI now getting involved in this investigation as well. Poppy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Jason Carroll, thank you very much for that update.

The American Civil Liberties Union calling it a great day for the State of Alabama. The federal judge who struck down the state's ban on the gay marriage has ordered a Mobile County probate court to start issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. This comes in defiance of an order from Alabama's Chief Justice Roy Moore. Most Alabama counties, though, are still complying with Roy Moore's wishes. Theyare refusing to issue those marriage licenses.

And a candid moment from a Supreme Court justice. Ruth Bader Ginsburg sitting down for an NPR interview right along with fellow justice Antonin Scalia. And CNN had the only camera there. When the subject of the State of the Union address came up, Ginsburg revealed why she may have nodded off a bit during the president's speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUTH BADER GINSBURG, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: The audience, for the most part, is mostly awake because they're bobbing up and down all the time. And we sit there stone-faced, sober judges. But we're not, at least I wasn't, 100 percent sober. Because before we went to the State of the Union -

(LAUGHTER)

-- we had dinner together and Justice Kennedy brought in --

ANTONIN SCALIA, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: Well, that's the first intelligent thing you've done.

(LAUGHTER)

GINSBURG: Well, there was a time you came to those dinners, especially it was - something or other, very fine California wine that Justice Kennedy brought. And I vowed this year just sparkling water; stay away from the wine. But in the end the dinner was so delicious, it needed wine to accompany it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: A little moment of levity there from one of our Supreme Court justices.

All right, let's get an EARLY START on our money. Cristina Alesci joins me now.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: It looks like a rocking end of the week for stocks so far. U.S. futures are climbing, following yesterday's 110-point gain for the Dow. It's been a huge swing so far for stocks and now they are very close to all-time highs. The S&P 500 is just two points shy from its December record.

And speaking of all-time highs, smart money is getting out of Apple. Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world, cut its stake in Apple at the end of last year. Shares are up, remember, 15 percent this year and, earlier in the week, Apple became the first American company worth more than $700 billion.

But now the debate is how high can Apple go? Bridgewater is taking its profits and buying shares of Microsoft instead, which is just --

HARLOW: Why, what are they saying?

ALESCI: -- a huge surprise because it has so much competition out there for the its enterprise products, the services it sells to big companies. Google is trying to get in on that game. They're saying, look, the stock is down 8 percent. Maybe there's some upside here. It's taken a little bit of a beating. Maybe this is a vote of confidence for the CEO Satya Nadella. And that could play out.

HARLOW: And Apple, meantime, just continues to stun with the success of its iPhone 6.

ALESCI: Yes. And the question is, though, $700 billion is a bit of a rich valuation. Like how -- where do you go from there?

HARLOW: How is it become the company that made the most ever of any American company last quarter? Pretty astounding. They are calling Tim Cook the $18 billion man., right?

ALESCI: He is having his moment in the sun right now.

HARLOW: He certainly is. Cristina, thank you. Have a great weekend.

All right. Coming up, more controversy for Brian Williams. The anchor now being questioned about stories that he told about his time with Navy SEALs. How deep is this investigation into his reporting going to go? Brian Stelter joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: The internal investigation into Brian Williams is nowhere near done. That is a quote according to NBC sources. And now there are new questions about claims that he flew with Seal Team 6 in Iraq, also about gifts he said he received from members of the military, including a piece of the helicopter from the raid on Osama bin Laden.

Joining me to talk about this and more, senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", Brian Stelter. So a lot of this breaking late yesterday. I want to play you some sound and get your reaction. This is some sound from Brian Williams talking about one of those experiences that is now in question. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC ANCHOR: About six weeks after the Osama bin Laden raid, I got a white envelope. And in it was a thank you note, unsigned, and attached to it was a piece of the fuselage, the fuselage from the blown up Blackhawk in that courtyard. And I don't know how many pieces survived, but I --

DAVID LETTERMAN, TALK SHOW HOST: Wow. Sent to you by one --

WILLIAMS: Yes, one of my friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Why is that claim and a few others now under such scrutiny?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: These are the kinds of things that he said on Letterman and other late night talk shows that passed mostly unnoticed, frankly, at the same. Maybe it sounded like a bit of bragging or showmanship but didn't - wasn't questioned as being inaccurate. But when you do think about it, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The only reason why I could see anyone mailing Brian Williams a chunk of the helicopter is because he was one of the main news anchors on the air the night of that announcement.

Even so, it doesn't hold up when you start to think about it. And we heard from Peter Bergen last night that his sources in the SEAL community, in the Navy SEALS, don't seem to believe it either. And it doesn't seem to add up. And it is one of everal claims that the "Huffington Post" first scrutinized yesterday which seem -- if these are true, if there is evidence to back these up, it's time for NBC or for Brian Williams to show it. Because, right now, the silence from the network is really revealing. And they're not letting Williams speak either.

HARLOW: Another one of the claims is his experience while he was in university meeting the Pope at the time. This story has changed over time.

STELTER: We wrote about this on CNNmoney.com last night. This is an example of how a story gets bigger and more dramatic over time. He talked in 2012 about being there when the Pope came to Catholic University. Over them, he talked about then meeting the Pope, and his story about how he was able to position himself to meet the Pope changed over time.

There was questions about how he has described being at the Berlin Wall when it fell. He has changed his depiction of that over time. He once spoke about being there on the night it fell, in other words, the night it started to come down. But his predecessor Tom Brokaw was famously the only network news man from the U.S. to be there. In fact, it's one of the important parts of Tom Brokaw's career. And I think among people like Brokaw, the fact that Williams sometimes suggested that he was there at the time really irked, really irked some of those people. He was there later; he was there the next day.

And that's one of the complicated things about this story. Williams has been on the scene of a lot of the news events. He's covered them well.

HARLOW: But is it totally accurate? STELTER: But has he been exaggerating over the years?

HARLOW: I want to switch gears to a very sad story breaking overnight, the death of just a phenomenal journalist, a legend. David Carr of "The New York Times" at only 58 years old, sudden death. The last piece of his that was published was about Brian Williams.

Brian, to you, Brian, this was your mentor at "The New York Times". This was a fellow Minnesota native like myself, a man that we all looked up to.

STELTER: An incredible man. And somewhat -- I'm still speaking of him in the present tense because I have been so shocked by this. He collapsed at work last night at "The New York Times". I worked with him there for over six years. And he really took me under his wing, the way he took so many young journalists under his wing, and mentored them and developed them.

He had a passion and love for "The New York Times" like no one else, and a love for journalism. And I think what's important about David Carr, for viewers at home, is he was the most important media reporter of our time. He was explaining the media revolution to us, to all of us as readers. And, through that, he was explaining our world, the way that our world is changing due to this information age and this digital revolution. He had a grasp of that like no one else.

HARLOW: What do you think he would want people to remember most about him and to do in his absence?

STELTER: His love for other people, his love for family and his friends, and his love for "The New York Times". His passion for what that institution represents, and for what that - that daily miracle is, the publication of that paper. He has been taken from us far too soon and on a week that includes the news of Brian Williams and the news Jon Stewart signing off "The Daily Show" and the death of Bob Simon. It's a pivotal week for media and it's going to be - and it's a loss to not have him there on Monday to write his weekly column about. This is the kind of week we need a David Carr column. And so his absence will be felt even more than normal this weekend.

HARLOW: His contributions, immeasurable. We're all sorry for his loss. I'm sorry for you.

STELTER: Thank you.

HARLOW: Your mentor, someone who meant so much to you. You're lucky to have had the time with him, I think.

STELTER: I really am.

HARLOW: Everyone who crossed his path was. Thank you, Brian.

STELTER: Thanks.

HARLOW: Appreciate it.

All right, let's take a look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY". Alisyn Camerota joins me now. Hey Aliysn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR," NEW DAY": Hi Poppy, great to see you.

So ahead on "NEW DAY", ISIS forces making advances in Iraq. Hundreds of U.S. soldiers could be in harm's way. So we have reporters on the ground tracking this developing story for us.

We're also looking at those developments in the Brian Williams saga that you were just talking about, Poppy. Sources tell CNN that the investigation of this anchorman is far from over. What does that mean? We'll talk about some more questionable reports in his past.

So join Michaela, Chris, and me at the top of the hour. We'll see you then, Poppy.

HARLOW: We will. Have a great weekend.

CAMEROTA: You too.

HARLOW: Coming up, dash cam video shown during this trial for the American sniper murder. It shows the dramatic police tape the day the suspect killed Chris Kyle and his friend. Prosecutors think it helps their side; the defense says no, it is far from a slam dunk. We will explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: More testimony coming today of the so-called American sniper murder trial. It was another dramatic day in court on Thursday as jurors saw video of the defendant leading police on a wild chase in Chris Kyle's pickup truck.

Our Martin Savidge was in the courtroom and has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, on day two of testimony, the real stars in this case were two videos. The first one is a dash cam video and it shows a high-speed chase that took place as police were closing in on Eddie Routh. He had stolen Chris Kyle's pickup truck after he'd murdered Kyle and his best friend. And while on that chase, you see another police officer take his police cruiser and try to ram that pickup truck to try to bring it to a stop. It didn't stop but it did slow the chase. But then the chase takes off again. Eventually, though, the truck was so badly damaged, it had to stop. And that's when Routh was taken into custody.

But then there's the second video. It's a body cam video; I can't play you the audio. But what was significant are some of the quotes that authorities hear from Routh before the high-speed chase. And he talks in a way that most people would say sounds extremely weird. For instance, he says, is this about like hell's work walking on earth right now? I don't know, I don't know where peace and law and order is and what it's all about. He also says is it voodoo that's upon us? And then talks about the apocalypse. The defense would say look, it only proves he really was insane. The prosecution will then point back at the chase video and say he wasn't a man who was talking crazy; he acted like a guilty man who wanted to get away. Poppy.

HARLOW: All right, Martin Savidge, thank you very much.

Quick break; a quick check on your money straight after that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Let's get an EARLY START on your money. Cristina Alesci joins me now. Good morning.

ALESCI: Good morning. Stocks are moving higher. Let's start in Europe where shares are up on some solid GDP numbers from some major economies. The eurozone as a whole grew a bit more than expected. And Germany, no surprise, is still the region's growth engine. And it could be a record day for U.S. stocks. Futures are pointing higher and the S&P 500 is just two points shy of a record close.

Here's a creepy story for you, Poppy. You can assign a friend to take over your Facebook page when you die. Previously, Facebook simply added words "Remembering" to a person's profile after they died. Now you can choose a legacy contact who will manage your page. That person can post information and respond to friend requests. But they won't be able to read messages or delete old posts. Or you can simply request to have your account deleted after you die. Supposedly, that word "Remembering", that comes from your family that notifies Facebook when you die and they ask for an obit to confirm that.

HARLOW: I was wondering how that would happen. So thank you for explaining it to me. Good to see you, good to be with you this week. Have a great weekend, Cristina.

ALESCI: It was really fun. You too.

HARLOW: Thank you all for joining me this morning.

There is a lot of news to get to this morning, including ISIS gaining ground in Iraq with fighting taking place near U.S. Marines. "NEW DAY" has a lot more on that and it begins right now.