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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Obama: Iran Deal Is Israel's Best Option; Israeli Prime Minister Slams Iran Deal; Kenya Names University Terror Attackers; "Rolling Stone" Issues Retraction; Severe Weather Week; John Oliver Grills Edward Snowden; NCAA Title Game Tonight. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 06, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Point/counter point, President Obama and the Israeli prime minister not ready to budge from their positions on the Iranian nuclear deal. What did the president say to try to ease rising concerns in Israel?

Hunted man, officials in Kenya are searching for the man they say masterminded last week's terror attack at the university. How are authorities trying to track him down? A live report from Kenya is minutes away.

A retraction and an apology, "Rolling Stone" in damage control mode after a review finds serious flaws in the publication of an article about an alleged rape at UVA. So how can nobody be fired for such a blunder? The school's response minutes away.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour for you this Monday morning. John Berman has the morning off.

This morning, new perspective from key players in the developing deal to curb Iran's nuclear program, President Obama in an interview with "The New York Times" acknowledging widespread criticism and Israeli reluctant towards the framework hashed out last week in Switzerland.

But the president said he is, quote, "Absolutely committed to making sure the Israelis maintain their qualitative military edge over Iran and their Arab neighbors. The president reinforced his argument that this deal is the best way to protect Israeli security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: What I would say to the Israeli people is, however, that there is no formula, there is no option to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon that will be more effective than the diplomatic initiative and framework that we put forward and that's demonstrable.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: The president's interview was just one part of an all-out lobbying offensive from all sides that included Israel's prime minister slamming the Iran deal on CNN. A top Senate Democrat suggesting the prime minister has made his point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: As the prime minister of the one and only Jewish state, when I see a country, a terrorist regime, committed to our destruction and not only to our destruction, having the path, a clear path to the bomb, it is my obligation to speak out as I'm doing now as I'll do in any form.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: I think he said what he has had to say. To be candid with you, this can back fire on him. I wish that he would contain himself because he has put out no real alternative in his speech to the Congress. No real alternative since then, no real alternative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Right. For more on the Israeli reaction to the Iran nuclear deal, I want to bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann live for us this morning in Jerusalem. Good morning, Oren.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Both sides are pushing very hard here, nothing subtle about these messages. The focus is on the deal. The question is, is the deal good enough? Of course, President Obama thinks it is and he is moving forward with the negotiations.

Meanwhile, on this end, in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is very much pushing against this deal and especially in the last 24 to 48 hours, we have seen him upping his rhetoric and criticism of this deal.

He says the deal would increase the risk for, quote, "A horrific war and terrible war." So he is very much pushing back against this deal. He said in that sound bite right there, he will keep doing that over the next three months as long as he can, using whatever tools he can.

Of course, he is getting some push back from some Democrats, but said in the "State Of The Union" interview that he spoken with other Democrats and we know he has spoken with Republicans.

It was House Speaker John Boehner and Senator Mitch McConnell here last week, visiting Israel, visiting Netanyahu, and very much supporting him, also criticizing the deal. That could be President Obama's biggest roadblock moving forward if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can get enough support.

We know he has the support with the Republicans. We will see how much support he can rally with the Democrats. What he wants to see is not eliminating of Iran's nuclear infrastructure, but dismantling, taking apart of the facilities. He doesn't want see advanced research. Netanyahu doesn't want to see centrifuges. He wants all of that or at least much of that taken apart. That would be what he would call a better deal. That is what he is pushing for here, a better deal and working with congressional Republicans.

And now he says working with congressional Democrats to try to lobby support directly against what President Obama is trying to do here, trying to move forward with this deal. So of course, we expect both sides here to keep pushing over the next three months, Christine, this will be interesting to watch as both sides lobby very hard here.

ROMANS: Yes, three months of I'm sure twists and turns and two men doubling down on their positions no doubt. Thank you so much for that, Oren Liebermann, in Jerusalem.

New developments this morning in the brutal terrorist attack on a university in Eastern Kenya that killed 142 students and five security officers, the Kenyan government naming the mastermind of that attack by al-Shabaab militants as Mohamed Mohamud.

Now the Interior Ministry had previously posted a most wanted notice for Mohamud offering a reward equal to $215,000.

[05:35:08] The father of another suspect in that attack named by the government spoke to CNN over the weekend. He said his son graduated from law school back in 2013 and then went missing. The father said he had really given up on his son.

A bombshell move from "Rolling Stone" magazine following a scathing report from Columbia University School of Journalism, now the program says that the magazine failed to engage in quote, "basic even routine journalistic practice" when it run a now retracted article about a woman who claimed she was gang raped at the University of Virginia.

The author of the story now is issuing an apology as well. CNN's senior medial correspondent, Brian Stelter is here this morning with more on the fallout for us. So routine journalism 101 ignored?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, major failures across the board. Systemic failures, Christine, from the reporter level to the editor level and fact checkers and all the way to publisher. He read a draft and he was compelled by this piece. He thought it was going to be very important.

It seemed like there were blinders on inside "Rolling Stone" when the story was originally written in October and November. They were over reliant on the victim, "Jackie" and her story. They did not go and seek out other sources that might have contradicted her story and eventually did contradict her story.

The bottom line is if they just made a few phone calls, they would have seen all these red flags that would have caused them to take a second and third look and frankly, they probably would not have run the story at all.

ROMANS: They have now retracted it. What does this mean for (inaudible) and his legacy. I mean, this is a really big mess up.

STELTER: To his credit, he decided to go out and get Columbia to do the review. Open the books and let everybody in and investigate for three months. I think I give him a lot of credit for that, for doing that external investigation.

However, he's decided not to fire or even discipline anyone, and that is the big story this morning. You could call that loyalty or you can call that stubbornness.

I emailed him last night and asked him for comment. He is not commenting. But for the moment, he is not going to discipline anybody involved. The writer is a freelancer. Technically, you can never assign her a story again.

He told "The New York Times" yesterday actually that she will keep writing for us. That was perceived by a lot of people to be a strange move. I do wonder if we will hear more in the coming days about that.

Because you know, this writer has been widely discredited. She is apologizing for what she has done. Imagine her writing for the magazine again is hard for people to swallow.

ROMANS: What is really troubling about it -- a lot of troubling things about it, rape victims for so long have said they felt like they have been discounted or not believed. They are very careful and sometimes very cautious about even coming forward. That's what makes this so scary.

STELTER: Partly, I think one of the errors here is the desire or determination to find an extreme example. You know, there are all too common cases of rape and sexual assault on campuses all across the country.

But this reporter wanted to go and find the most horrific and sickening story she possibly could. Well, the details of that sickening story really did not add up.

If she had instead chosen to tell the all-too common stories, she might have made a bigger impact. It may not have had all the damage. We saw the president of UVA come out last night and say this article set back the cause, a very important cause.

In the meantime, UVA has implemented reforms. I think everybody agrees there were problems at that campus. This article was right to point out those problems, but it used perhaps the wrong character and that's one of the tragedies here.

ROMANS: These mistakes were not intentional. It wasn't intentional that is why he is not really firing anybody.

STELTER: Right. He says the staffers are doing good work before and they've done good work since so they should not be disciplined for one error. However, you know, when you see systemic failure throughout an organization, usually what we see is some sort of suspension or disciplinary action of some sort. I think we are going to chock it up to loyalty. That he is going to stick by his staff, but it certainly is something that's getting people's attention today because it makes you wonder. What do you have to do to get fired?

ROMANS: Right. Interesting, all right, Brian Stelter, thanks for that, Brian.

Let's get an EARLY START on your money right now. Stock futures are down quite a bit. You know, there is a disappointing jobs report Friday. Wall Street has not had a chance to react because the market was closed on Good Friday.

The economy added just 126,000 jobs in March, the smallest gain since the end of 2013. Hiring has previously been the bright spot here with crack showing up elsewhere in the economy.

We will start getting corporate earnings this week. They are expected to fall for the first time since late 2012. Also experts have cut growth forecast for the U.S. economy for the first quarter.

All right, all systems on standby for Hillary Clinton. A presidential announcement could come within days. The latest on her campaign-to- be, that's next.

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[05:43:35]

ROMANS: Thunderstorms possibly disrupting the Masters Tournament practice may be just the beginning of a severe weather for this week. For more, let's get to meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri with an early look at your forecast.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Christine. The national glance today is showing the northeastern portion of the country with mostly sunny skies today. Temperatures are going to remain on the warm side for a couple days.

The concern though for this afternoon is going to be around Memphis with thunderstorms around noon and 1 p.m. At 7 to 8 p.m., they roll in through Atlanta, Georgia with severe storms possible by later in the week as well.

But the temperatures, you cannot beat it, mid 70s close to 80 degrees from Atlanta to Charleston. The warming trend really continues across the south up to 91 degrees in Tallahassee towards the middle portion of this week.

Once again, those severe storms in the picture there, how much needed rainfall around the western U.S., above 4,000 feet, significant snow accumulations perhaps too little too late.

But a lot of people certainly will take it as we know 70 percent of the water supply for the ground water at least in California comes from the Sierra snowmelt and of course, you know, what comes out of California.

Almonds intensive while water requirements 2,100 gallons for just a single pound of shelled almonds. Beef, even one pound of beef takes about 1,800 gallons of water and walnuts takes significant water as well so any of this moisture that you see here from about 0.50 inch in Los Angeles to over 1 inch in potential areas across (inaudible) valley is going be good news in the coming days -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Pedram Javaheri, thanks for that, Pedram.

Questions swirling around Hillary Clinton this morning in her all but announced run for president. We are told aides have been instructed to be ready starting today for a campaign rollout.

[05:45:09] Top Democratic activists in Iowa and New Hampshire privately say they have been placed on alert. Clinton will declare soon with the first announcement expected on social media. The Hillary watch picked up steam last week when Clinton's team signed a lease office space in Brooklyn.

Let's take a look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY" this morning. Chris Cuomo joins me this Monday morning. Hi, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hello, my friend. I hope you had a good Easter. We have the new desk here at "NEW DAY." You see this? I can't tell what you are seeing because right now, I have a picture of your face frozen on my monitor where you just look completely disinterested in what I'm saying.

I don't know how genuine your interest is right now, Christine. This is our new desk. Brings us closer and gives us some better angles on our guests. We do a lot of group chat on here. It was hard for us camera-wise so now this is an improvement.

ROMANS: I like it. I really like it.

CUOMO: I feel a little bit better then. We have this today. This is Phillip Mudd's new book. It's called "The Head Game." It has a brilliant set of insights into what's going on in the war of terrorism.

We will weave it in to what we see going on in North Africa right now where he spent a lot of quality time doing that. We will have that for you.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": We are going to get inside Phillip Mudd's head. That's no safe place.

CUOMO: One of the main chapters is a very, very scary place, Mudd's head.

Then, we are going to take on the obvious this morning. You have the Iran issues. The president has come out. We now know what he's sell is to Congress on why we need to do this deal. It goes well beyond the framework. So we will take on the politics of it because they matter as much as the policies behind it. Remember, he has to get this through. Congress believes they have every reason to weigh in on this. If not, they are holding sanctions as a stick over his head. We will take that on as well.

ROMANS: All right, I like the new desk. Is it easier to pinch him?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Totally. See, look at that.

CUOMO: It has no effect. When it is show time, I'm completely focused.

ROMANS: All right, Chris, thanks. Nice to see you all you guys. See you very soon. Thanks, guys.

It's 47 minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.

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[05:50:52]

ROMANS: NSA leaker Edward Snowden facing tough questions from "Last Week Tonight's" John Oliver. The HBO political comedy host traveled to Moscow to meet with Snowden. You know, he conducted arguably the toughest interview of Snowden since he exposed NSA spy activities.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN OLIVER, HOST, HBO "LAST WEEK TONIGHT": How many of those documents have you actually read?

EDWARD SNOWDEN: I evaluated all of the documents in the archive.

OLIVER: You've read every single one?

SNOWDEN: Well, I do understand what I turned over.

OLIVER: There is a difference between understanding what is in the documents and reading what is in the documents.

SNOWDEN: I recognize the concern.

OLIVER: When you are handing over thousands of NSA documents, the last thing you want to do is read them. "The New York Times" took a slide and did not redact it properly. It was possible to see something was being used in Mosul on al Qaeda.

SNOWDEN: That is a problem.

OLIVER: Well, that's a (inaudible).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Wow, things did eventually get a bit more lighthearted. Oliver showed Snowden video of people being interviewed in Times Square. Most of them had absolutely no idea who Edward Snowden is. One person got a little closer thinking he was in charge of the web site, "Wikileaks."

All right, batter up. It's opening day for Major League Baseball, a full slate of 14 games on the schedule today. The season officially was underway Sunday night with the familiar site of poor Cubs, a loss for the Cubs. The Cardinals knocked Chicago's ace Jon Lester in a 3-0 win.

The season started with a bang with the trade hours before the first pitch. Atlanta shipped all-star closer, Craig Kimbrel and outfielder, Melvin Upton to the San Diego Padres in exchange for two outfielders, two prospects, and a draft pick.

Duke and Wisconsin gearing up for NCAA championship game tonight. Wisconsin hasn't won the NCAA title since 1941. Duke looking for title number five under Coach K. Wisconsin advanced to the championship with a stunning win over previously unbeaten Kentucky Saturday night.

The fallout after the game for Kentucky, not limited to basketball. Guard Andrew Harrison was picked up by a hot mic using the "n" word to refer to Wisconsin's Frank Kaminsky who is white. Harrison later apologized on Twitter. Kaminsky for his part saying, he's, quote, "over it."

On the women's side, a rematch of last year's finalist set Notre Dame and UConn will play tomorrow night.

Bill Gates marking the big anniversary for Microsoft, what did he have to say to his employees? We'll get an EARLY START on your money next.

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[05:57:00]

ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. Most of Europe and Asia markets closed for holiday. Looks like a tough start to the week here. U.S. stock futures are lower.

This is the first chance to react to Friday's disappointing March jobs report. The economy added just 126,000 jobs, the smallest gain since the end of 2013. We will see how stock investors react to that.

It has been 40 years since Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. To mark the anniversary, Gates sent an e-mail to Microsoft employees that have since gone viral.

He said, quote, "Early on Paul Allen and I set a goal of a computer on every desk and in every home. It was a bold idea and a lot of people thought we were out of our minds to imagine it was possible. It is amazing to think how far computing has come since then. We can all be proud of the role Microsoft played in that revolution."

"Furious 7" roared through the Box Office this weekend, had the largest opening of the year bringing in $143 million. Perspective here, the first "Fast and Furious" made that much total. "Furious 7" made twice as much as "50 Shades of Grey." The previous Box Office winner is also last movie starring actor, Paul Walker. It was in production with Walker when he was killed in a car crash in 2013.

All right, candid new moments and comments from President Obama saying he is in Israel's corner if Iran ever makes a threat to the Jewish state. How can he convince Israelis he has their back in the wake of the nuclear deal with Iran? "NEW DAY" picks up that story right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OBAMA: It is a good deal even if Iran doesn't change at all.

NETANYAHU: The better deal would rollback Iran's vast nuclear infrastructure.

FEINSTEIN: It can be a very serviceable classical agreement. It can signal a new day.

PEREIRA: The manhunt intensifying for the alleged mastermind of last week's university terror attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a new ideology. Anything to do with Christianity, they want to efface them from earth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A trip to paradise turned nightmare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really scary to think that this could happen to (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some basic failures of journalism 101.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rolling Stone said it had taken Jackie's word and failed to fact check much of her story.

STELTER: Rolling Stone just did not get it right.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Monday, April 6th. It is 6:00 in the east. First up, a once in a lifetime opportunity, that is what President Obama calls the preliminary agreement with Iran. Can he convince Congress and Israel? Congress because they have sanction powers. The question is will nuclear weapons become a political football?

CAMEROTA: Congress is skeptical, lawmakers pressing for the right to reject any final deal. Some of the president's biggest critics accusing him of giving away too much. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling this a historically bad deal.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is live at the White House with our top story. A lot happened over the weekend, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. There are critics in Congress trying to kill this bill. Critics abroad are trying to kill this bill.