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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Will Israeli Leader Spill Sensitive Details?; Iranian Nuclear Talks Resume; Nasdaq Tops 5,000; Iran Backs Iraq Against ISIS; Funeral For Slain Russian Opposition Leader
Aired March 03, 2015 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: In just hours, Israel's prime minister speaking before Congress on why he believes a nuclear deal with Iran would be an historic mistake. Warned by the White House not to reveal sensitive information about the negotiations. But will Benjamin Netanyahu listen? Live team coverage breaking down our big story this morning.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour. John Berman has the morning off. It's nice to see you all this morning.
The White House is warning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to reveal secret details of nuclear talks with Iran when he delivers a speech to Congress later this morning.
That speech bringing to a head a month's long faceoff between the administration and Israel over a signature initiative the White House believes will rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, but that Israel views as an existential threat, a speech with such high drama that it has also become the hottest ticket in Washington.
CNN's Michelle Kosinski is at the White House for us this morning.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christine. Right, so we are hearing these concerns from lawmakers and secretary of state and even within the White House that there could be some sensitive information revealed by Prime Minister Netanyahu in this big speech before Congress.
It seems like that is coming from the Israeli delegation putting out these sorts of teasers that we are going to hear something that we have not heard before. There is good reason, though, to believe that.
Because remember over the last couple of days, leading up to the big speech, they have revealed certain bits of information about the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran. Like that it could have something like a ten-year timeframe.
At that time when the White House was asked about that specifically, they said no, no, that is not accurate. But we just heard from President Obama on the negotiations and it does seem like they are going for at least a ten-year timeframe.
The White House too issued a kind of warning about revealing sensitive information. Here is the press secretary. Listen.
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JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The release of that information would betray the trust between our allies. It is certainly inconsistent with the behavior of trusted allies. The fact is and that would be true even if the sources were to claim that they had obtained the information from somewhere else.
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KOSINSKI: So he just said if the prime minister or the Israelis do reveal sensitive information about the negotiations, that's not the way trusted allies react to each other, calling it a betrayal. Whatever is revealed today, though, it is generating a lot of attention. Congress had to set up alternate viewing areas because there is so much demand to hear Netanyahu speak -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Michelle, thank you, Michelle. The prime minister previewing this morning's congressional address at a speech Wednesday to the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, he said he will warn Iran is quote, "Developing the capacity to make nuclear weapons, lots of them." But the prime minister also said his speech is not intended to hurt the president politically.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the office he holds. I have great respect for both. Israel and the United States will continue to stand together because America and Israel are more than friends. We're like a family. Now disagreements in the family are always uncomfortable, but we must always remember that we are family.
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ROMANS: For more on the prime minister's speech and how it is all playing out in Israel, I want to bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann live in Jerusalem. Good morning.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. This morning, one of the big political names on the left and viewed as one of Netanyahu's chief rivals in the upcoming elections, only two weeks away, went on an ultra-orthodox radio station here.
And said that Netanyahu has done irreparable damage to the relationship between Israel and America viewed here generally by everybody as critical to Israel's security because of the level of military and financial cooperation between the two countries.
That being said, Israeli politicians especially in the last two days have been fairly quiet. There has been some criticism in local media from the left, a little bit of support coming from the right. It seems as if the war -- Israel wants to present a united front to the world with Netanyahu in Washington right now on the international stage.
So they have been fairly quiet. That being said, that speech scheduled for later on tonight here in Israel. Isaac Herzog, another one of the politicians on the left viewed as Netanyahu's big political rival in the upcoming election, has already scheduled his response, which is essentially for the moment Netanyahu's speech ends.
So he will be in the settlement or in the communities outside of Gaza where he has his own press conference. After that, I expect to see more criticism here from politicians on the left. That will be refuted from politics on the right who support Netanyahu's decision.
The public much like the politicians very split on this, those on the right, supporting Netanyahu's decision and those on the left opposing this as a political move with two weeks to go until the elections in Israel. Christine, those elections looked to be very, very close.
ROMANS: Interesting. All right, Oren, thanks for that in Jerusalem for us this morning.
The White House and Israeli officials maneuvered in Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart are moving ahead with nuclear talks in Switzerland.
President Obama says it is unlikely those talks will yield a deal, unlikely to yield a deal. But he says if Iran does say yes, it would be, quote, "far more effective than military action or sanctions at keeping Iran from getting nuclear weapons."
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You know, I would say that it is probably still more likely than not that Iran doesn't get to yes, but I think in fairness to them, they have been serious negotiators. They have gotten their politics inside Iran. It is more likely we could get a deal now than perhaps three or five months ago. But there are still some big gaps that have to be filled.
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ROMANS: For the latest, I want to bring in senior correspondent, Frederik Pleitgen live in Tehran. Good morning, Fred.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Certainly if you listen to Javad Zarif, who of course, is holding those negotiations with Secretary of State Kerry, he also says that the speech of Benjamin Netanyahu is not going to derail talks in any way, shape or form.
It is interesting because also the chief of staff of the president, Hasan Rouhani has come forward. He has said he believes Netanyahu's speech will create a rift between Israel and its western allies. He believes it will not derail any negotiations. If you speak to regular people on the street, they are not sure. Not just pertaining to Netanyahu's speech, but in general about the negotiations. There is cautious optimism among many people. There are many people who say they believe that it is now closer to a deal than they have seen in the past couple of years.
But there are also many people who will say that they have been very close in the past and positive signs in the past. Things have been falling apart. You speak to people here generally in Iran, most of them will tell you they believe their country should have nuclear capability and allowed to develop nuclear capability.
There is actually even quite substantial minority here in Iran that believes that some sort of weaponized form of nuclear capability should be thought about. So it is quite interesting from that vantage point, but one thing that everybody here agrees on they want the sanctions to end as fast as possible.
They say the sanctions are absolutely crippling the economy. They say that they want foreign investment here and they want some sort of economic perspective. That is one reason why Netanyahu's speech is actually something that people are talking about a lot here.
Even though, of course, it will not be broadcast anywhere here. The people here will be talking about monitoring the speech closely -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, a windy Tehran this morning and a lot of talk about that speech. Thank you so much, Frederik Pleitgen.
Tensions rising between the U.S. and Venezuela, the U.S. Embassy in Caracas ordered to reduce its staff of 100 to just 17. They have been given 15 days to do it, 17 is the number of Venezuelan diplomats serving in America.
Over the weekend, Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, announced several Americans accused of spying detained. He is vowing to limit the move of U.S. diplomats accusing them of plot with the opposition to oust him.
Hillary Clinton may have violated federal rules when she was secretary of state. The "New York Times" reporting Clinton did not have a government e-mail address during her four-year tenure using a personal account to conduct all government business.
It was two months ago that Clinton advisors in an effort to comply with record keeping requirements reviewed tens of thousands of pages of personal e-mails and then decided which ones to turnover to the State Department. A spokesperson says Mrs. Clinton has been complying with the letter and spirit of the rules.
Possible Republican candidate, Jeb Bush, taking Clinton to task in a tweet, he wrote, transparency matters. He called for the release of all of Mrs. Clinton's unclassified e-mails and then release all of his.
The latest now on the political fight to fund the Department of Homeland Security, the money runs out at midnight Friday. Republicans are running out of options when it comes to reversing the president's immigration reforms.
Senate Democrats are voting down the only chance they had left on Monday. Pressure mounting now on the speaker, John Boehner, to accept a clean funding bill passed by the Senate, a move some believe could jeopardize his speakership.
It's 39 minutes past the hour, time for an EARLY START on your money. Futures barely moving, but yesterday was a huge day for stocks. The Nasdaq above 5,000 for the first time since the dot-com bubble. It's now just 2.4 percent from its all-time high.
But this is not the same Nasdaq from the dot-com era. Back then, tech companies were fly-by-night. They spent a lot of money and they had no business plan. They went public without even any earnings prospects.
Remember pets.com, but now the companies leading the charge here are well established and a lot of cash on hand. They have products. Apple for example has more than $175 billion in cash. The Nasdaq late to the record game.
The Dow and S&P 500 have been demolishing records for almost two years now. Yesterday was no exception. The Dow climbed 156 points to a record-high close.
A crucial battle begins in the war on ISIS, Iraqi forces moving into the key town of Tikrit. We are live with the latest this morning after the break.
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ROMANS: There is a bloody struggle raging right now for control of Tikrit. The Iraqi city is under ISIS control, but Iraq's military is staging a major offensive to retake it. They are getting a big assist, not from the U.S. but from Iran.
CNN's Ian Lee is tracking these developments from Cairo this morning. Good morning, Ian.
IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. When you look at that fighting force going after ISIS in Saddam Hussein's hometown, it is predominately Shi'a. When you look at Tikrit, it is predominantly Sunni.
You have Iraqi military. You have Iraqi Ministry of the Interior and you have the Sunni fighters. It is the Shi'ite militias that a lot of people are worrying about including the brigade, which is one of the most effective fighting forces we have seen against ISIS.
We are hearing from Iran's semi-official news agency that Suliamani, the commander of the elite brigade will be part of the fight. This has the United States worried.
These forces, these militias and Iraqi army have a poor track record when they go into Sunni areas accusations of human rights abuses. The United States is careful to get pulled into sectarian fighting. There are Sunni-Arab fighters watching the assault as well.
If they are able to kick out is and go in there, will they welcome back the Sunni civilians with open arms? Will they allow them to return and treat them well? Will we see human rights violations? Last summer when the Iraqi army dissolved in the face of is, is dismembered 1,700 of the Iraqi army in the city.
We will see if the Iraqi army will exact revenge from the situation. It is going to be a very dangerous situation and also needs to be dealt with carefully as not to further exacerbate sectarian violence -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Ian Lee for us this morning from Cairo, monitoring that offensive in Tikrit. Thanks, Ian.
Shocking allegation by a Texas nurse, in her lawsuit against the hospital where she contracted Ebola, Nina Pham claiming Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital lied when it upgraded her condition to good in order to preserve its reputation.
She is accusing the hospital of taping her and distributing the footage without her consent, and revealing her identity against her wishes. The suit which seeks unspecified damages claims hospital officials only gave Pham Googled information about Ebola before assigning her to care for the stricken Liberian man.
Seventeen new cases of measles reported in the last week bringing the national total to 170. The outbreak is now affecting 17 states and Washington, D.C. Now most of the cases linked to Disneyland in California, but three straight outbreaks in Illinois, Nevada and Washington State are not connected to Disneyland.
With measles spreading, a new study reveals more than 70 percent of pediatricians admit delaying vaccinations when parents asked them to. That is although most of the doctors know that puts kids at risk.
A key witness in the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin's strongest critic, revealing what see saw the day her lover was murdered and why she was held in Russia against her will. We are live in Moscow after the break.
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ROMANS: In Russia, murdered opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, will be buried later this morning. Mourners filing past his coffin at a memorial service for Nemtsov underway right now at the Sakrav Center in Moscow. He was gunned down Friday while walking outside the kremlin.
The 23-year-old Ukrainian model who was with him she says she never saw the shooter. The kremlin describing the killing as provocation designed to stain the reputation of President Vladimir Putin. Let's go to Moscow. I want to bring in CNN's international senior correspondent, Matthew Chance. Let's talk first about this witness, the closest witness we have, the Ukrainian model, who was his girlfriend.
What did she say she saw and there is the controversy if she was detained by Russian authorities or free to go.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, she has been free to go now. In fact, she's already gone back to Ukraine. She was handed over to the consulate services of the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow. They took her back to Ukraine at the first possible opportunity.
She gave an interview to a local television station here yesterday on Skype from Moscow saying that she could not add much to what was known about the killing of Boris Nemtsov. She was standing right next to her boyfriend of several years at the time he was killed.
She said the gunman came out of nowhere and fired shots in the back of Boris Nemtsov. She was in shock and did not see what happened. She did not see where the gunman came from or couldn't describe the car into which he had made his getaway.
So she was questioned by authorities here and detained for further questioning according to authorities but subsequently released. It is not clear if she will be able to add much more to the clarity of what we know about this killing.
ROMANS: All right, Matthew Chance for us this morning in Moscow. Thank you, Matthew.
It's 53 minutes the hour, $2 gas is gone, for now. What to expect at the pump? That's next.
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ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. Stocks are at record highs. The Nasdaq is near its dot-com bubble high. Nasdaq yesterday topped 5,000 for the first time since March of 2000. Fifteen long years to get all that back, and the Dow and S&P 500 both closed at record highs. Stocks are climbing as companies report profits and the American economy keeps getting stronger.
Lumber Liquidator shares pummeled thanks to a huge safety question. A report by CNN's Anderson Cooper on "60 Minutes" revealed laminate flooring sold by the company contains high levels of formaldehyde, which can cause cancer.
The stock tanks 25 percent that is after an already fell 26 percent last week when the CEO warned that negative report was coming. The company says it stands by every plank of wood. Rare to see a news report send a stock down so much.
A $2 gas is gone at least for now. The national average for a gallon of regular is $2.44. Prices have been climbing for five weeks. The average is above $2 a gallon in all 50 states. Experts tell us prices will climb through March. We could see the return of $2 by early fall.
Israel prime minister is just hours away from a controversial speech before Congress. Will he reveal secret details about the U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran? "NEW DAY" picks up that story right now.
