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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Clinton Opens Low-Key Iowa Campaign; Chris Christie Hits New Hampshire; Congress Compromises On Iran Nuke Deal; Senate Approves Medicare "Doc Fix"; Iraqi Leader In Washington; Humanitarian Crisis In Yemen; Severe Flooding Hits Mississippi. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired April 15, 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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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Small town Iowa turns into big time media circus. This was the low-key listening tour from Hillary Clinton. Wow. Not so low key. This morning, new insight into what her candidacy will look like this time. That is as Republican rivals make some big moves today.
New complications for nuclear negotiations with Iran, the White House conceding to Congress that Congress will have a say, will get to weigh in on the nuclear negotiations. What does that mean for the prospects of the deal? We'll tell you ahead.
Yemen in crisis, weeks of war leaving that country devastated. CNN got a remarkable exclusive look at the devastation. An attempted aid mission, we're live.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman. Christine Romans is not feeling well this morning. It's 31 minutes past the hour.
Happening this morning, the Hillary storm moves deeper into Iowa. The campaign wants this, a low-key series of listening events. Well, it's getting that but so much more. There is also this, the media frenzy.
Reporters forced to chase the small Clinton caravan as it drives around the corner in her so-called Scooby van. A key question, though, what do voters think of this? How is it playing in Iowa?
Senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar is there -- Brianna.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine. Hillary Clinton will spend her second day of campaigning at a fruit company outside of Des Moines. This is after all a state where agriculture is king.
This follows yesterday where she visited Leclair, a small town of less than 4,000 people. She stopped at a coffee shop. Talked to some locals there and then she was on to have a round table at the satellite campus of the Kirkwood Community College.
She talked with students and faculty. She struck a populist tone taken on Wall Street and stagnant middle class wages.
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HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The deck is still stacked at those in favor at the top. There's something wrong with that. There is something wrong when CEOs make 300 times more than the typical worker. There's something wrong when American workers keep getting more productive, that productivity is not matched in their paychecks.
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KEILAR: The only policy position Hillary Clinton outlined was a proposal to do away with what she called unaccountable money so super PACs and the big donors who have proliferated along with them. No word, though, she did not explain how that would square with Priorities USA, the Democratic super PAC that she has blessed to help her in her run.
BERMAN: Our thanks to Brianna in Iowa. Meanwhile, Republican presidential contender, Marco Rubio, holds his first campaign event today pushing a plan for tax reform. The senator spent Tuesday in Washington working on Senate business and speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper.
A really interesting interview, he said that Hillary Clinton is not entitled to the women's vote any more than he is entitled to the Hispanic vote.
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SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would never assume that every Hispanic in America has to vote for me because I'm Hispanic, because my last name is Rubio. I have to earn their support. That may intrigue them about my candidacy, but ultimately I have to prove that I'm the right person for the job.
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BERMAN: Now tied with Senator Rubio right now for sixth place in the latest CNN poll is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who is not so far an official candidate.
So why is he in New Hampshire, the first primary state of the nation? Well, he's no doubt trying to build support for a presidential run with what he is calling his tell it like it is tour.
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GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I will not pander. I will not flip-flop and I'm not afraid to tell you the truth as I see it, whether you like it or not. I want to help lead a national conversation that rewards truth over pandering.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Later today, the governor holds the first of two New Hampshire town halls set for this week. He promises many more.
New this morning, the nuclear deal, not with Iran exactly but with Congress. A compromise bill that lets Congress weigh in on any final agreement between the U.S. and Iran, a bill the White House says the president is willing to sign. The legislation passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously.
CNN's Jim Acosta is at the White House with the latest.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House is giving up on its fight with Congress over a bipartisan bill that would give lawmakers the ability to vote up or down on the Iran nuclear deal after Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee crafted a compromise bill.
Dropping some provisions that were opposed by the White House, aides to the president said it was a measure Mr. Obama could support. At issue is whether the bill would force Iran to renounce terrorism, a provision the White House deemed a poison pill aimed at killing the nuclear talks.
[05:35:13] The amount of time lawmakers would have to weigh in on the deal was also shortened meeting another White House demand. After repeated questions from reporters, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged that the changes brokered by the committee's chairman, Bob Corker, and ranking member, Ben Cardin were enough to withdraw the veto threat. Here's what he had to say.
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JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What I am willing to say is that despite the things about it that we don't like, enough substantial changes have been made that the president would be willing to sign it because it would reflect the kind of compromise that he'd be willing to sign.
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ACOSTA: But Chairman Corker said there was another reason why the White House dropped its veto threat that Republicans and Democrats were on the verge of lining up enough votes to override a presidential veto.
Corker tweeted the simple fact is that the White House dropped its veto threat because they weren't going to have enough votes to sustain a veto.
BERMAN: Our thanks to Jim Acosta at the White House. Now from the White House, President Obama submitted an official request to Congress to remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The Cuban government called the move a just decision. Lawmakers now have 48 days to review the request are not expected to block it. If Cuba comes off that list, sanctions most of them would remain in place, but U.S. businesses and banks would be more likely more inclined to invest in the Cuban market. Breaking overnight, the Senate came together to approve the so-called Medicare Doc Fix and the final vote is 92-8. The measure repairs the formula for reimbursing Medicare physicians, had passed just in time to hit off a 21 percent pay cut for those doctors. The bill now goes to the president's desk.
You know, they had to pass this every year for the last several years. It was sort of ridiculous. This puts a more permanent fix in place. The president said it will strengthen the health care system and he would be proud to sign it.
Iraq's new prime minister is canvassing Washington for financial help today. Haider Al-Abadi met with President Obama and received a promise of $200 million in humanitarian aid. But the Iraqi leader said he needs not millions but billions to rebuild his country and battle ISIS.
He will meet with members of Congress today along with the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the president of the World Bank and senior executives from oil companies and international banks. Iraq is facing a budget deficit of $22 billion. The sagging oil prices mostly to blame.
There are fears this morning that ISIS could take control of the key Iraqi city of Ramadi within hours. An official in Western Iraq tells CNN that ISIS fighters now have Ramadi essentially surrounded. Government forces not sure how much longer they can hold on. They're desperately calling for reinforcements and for air support from the U.S.-led coalition.
It's been three weeks since Saudi Arabia launched its first air strike against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. It has been a bloody campaign. The United Nations is now stepping in voting to ban arm sales to the Houthis, this as the Iranians are calling for a ceasefire.
The conflict has triggered a huge humanitarian crisis with more than 120,000 Yemenis forced to flee their homes. Our CNN senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh got a firsthand look at the efforts to bring help to some of these people in Yemen. Good morning, Nick.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, it's pretty remarkable, how difficult it is to complete the task, to UNICEF, the children's agency, of delivering urgently needed food and medicine to the capital, Sana'a.
The runway at that airport, they are miraculously still intact despite the heavy bombing campaign of the past three weeks and negotiated with 13 different sets of permission, a two-hour window in which their plane could land there.
They were delivering 75 metric tons. The pictures you see seem to show an awful lot, but that is not anything like the amounts that those suffering inside Yemen need. We saw medicines being offloaded. A complex situation because those two hours are basically the only part of the Saudi window permitted in the Houthi controlling the airport window that would actually overlap.
And then came Air India jets bringing some Yemenis remarkably back, taking some terrified civilians still out of the country as well. We saw, of course, to the devastation wrought upon that airport, the military objectives around it hit heavily it seems by the Saudi campaign.
But we heard a U.N. resolution just now in the past 24 hours, which talked about an arms blockade against those Houthi rebels themselves, but didn't really deal with the humanitarian crisis. It simply called on the U.N. secretary-general to negotiate a window to deliver humanitarian aid.
We saw one window, how hard that was to negotiate, how hard that was to complete and that delivered really a smallest part of a fraction of what is required, millions without food or water.
Children, their lives at risk day by day as medicine is scarce there. As the bombing continues and no sign of a political off-ramp here appearing -- John.
[05:40:06] BERMAN: Now the need for that aid will only grow and the difficulty in getting it there will only grow. Nick Paton Walsh for us, thanks so much, Nick.
Developing this morning, a top operative in Yemen has been killed by a U.S. drone strike. The terror group confirms Ibrahim al-Rubaish died Monday on Yemen's southern coast.
The 35-year-old Saudi citizen spent five years in Guantanamo Bay and served as a top spokesman for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Al Rubaish is one of a half dozen senior members of al Qaeda killed in the last year by U.S. air attacks.
A shocking just released government report warns that hundreds of commercial jets could be vulnerable to hackers. The Government Accountability Office concludes it is theoretically possible for someone with a laptop to take over a jetliner's navigation system and commandeer in the plane.
One of the report's authors tell CNN that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner along with the Airbus A350 and A380 all have advance cockpit systems that are wired into the same Wi-Fi system used by passengers, which makes them susceptible to attacks.
Time now for EARLY START on "Your Money," Asian stocks are mostly lower with disappointing growth in China, disappointing at 7 percent in the first quarter. How could that be a bad thing? Well, it is the slowest pace in China since 2009.
European stocks are higher. We'll hear from the European Central Bank today on interest rates. Here in the U.S., stock futures are up a bit and it is tax day. If you haven't filed yet, my advice is panic. But here is some productive steps, first, file the paperwork, even if you can't pay, it will generally cost you more to file late than pay late than pay late. And if you can't get the paperwork done on time, file for an extension.
Remember, you're only pushing back the deadline, though, on that paperwork. You still have to pay any taxes that you owe. They will get you, one way or another.
New accusations of excessive police force, an officer crashes his patrol car into a robbery suspect on purpose. Did he go too far? We'll have the details next.
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BERMAN: Police in Arizona have released graphic new video of an officer using his patrol car to stop an armed suspect. He is armed but they ran him down as he was walking along.
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OFFICER: All right. One round just went out into the sky. It's definitely unlocked now. It's definitely loaded.
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BERMAN: The dash cam video was recorded in February. It shows Mario Valencia firing his rifle in the air. You just heard it. Earlier in the day, police say Valencia had launched a one-man crime spree that included robbery, arson, and pointing the stolen rifle at officers and himself.
Police you can see tailing Valencia as he walks along. Finally what happens is that Officer Michael Rapiejko slammed into Valencia with his patrol car.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The unit on -- stay live. Man down.
CHIEF TERRY ROZERNA, MARINA, ARIZONA POLICE DEPARTMENT: If we're going to choose between he -- maybe we'll let him go a little farther and see what happens or we're going to take him out now and eliminate any opportunity that he has to hurt somebody, you're going to err on the side of -- in favor of the innocent people.
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BERMAN: Valencia was taken to the hospital in serious condition and released into custody two days later. He faces 15 charges now including aggravated assault and armed robbery.
New details this morning about the actions of former Police Officer Michael Slager after the fatal shooting in North Charleston, South Carolina, officials says investigators say Slager refused to speak to investigators initially who arrived at the scene about an hour after Slager fatally shot Walter Scott when Scott fled following a traffic stop.
Cell phone video indicates that Slager firing eight shots at Scott as the man runs away there. Slager has been fired from the force and is now charged with murder.
Roberts Bates, the Tulsa volunteer deputy, who fatally shot a suspect after pulling his gun instead of his taser he is free on bail this morning. The 73-year-old surrendered to authorities on Tuesday. He's charged with second degree manslaughter in the death of Eric Harris.
You can see here during a gun buying sting. Prosecutors accused Bates of negligence. His attorney claims what happens is the deputy made a split second mistake during an arrest.
Dramatic video of rain pounding the south and this morning, millions face the threat of more flash floods. That's next.
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BERMAN: Mississippi getting hit hard by flooding. A thunderstorm stalled over Columbus dumping several inches of rain in about an hour. Look at this car, halfway up on that car at least a dozen streets, water invading an apartment complex forcing residents to stay in shelters. There is more flooding in the forecast.
I want to bring in meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri, for the latest on the weather -- Pedram.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John. You know, it's one of those days, good reminding here that besides heat related fatalities in the United States, flash flooding kills more people than any other weather event in the country.
And a lot of them, about half of those flooding fatalities occur because people trapped in their vehicle. Heavy rain still in the forecast across the southern United States and you look at the numbers, 6 inches of moving water can sweep a person off their feet.
You take 24 inches that can move a vehicle or lift a vehicle. The saying turn around, don't drown that the National Weather Service puts out is often important to remember on a day like today.
Showers scattered about the region just a pesky one, going to be hard- pressed to move about the next several of days. The south has seen 10 inches of rainfall in the last few days.
I want to show you another one moving through the western parts of the United States, the city of Eugene, Oregon, a tornado touching down there on Tuesday.
In fact, since 1950, only 104 tornado reports across the state of Oregon, only four injuries fortunately with that as well. The weather pattern across the country with scattered storms in the south.
BERMAN: All right, Pedram Javaheri, thanks so much.
So for the first time, Americans are spending more at restaurants than grocery stores. Why? And what does it mean for you? That's next.
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BERMAN: Let's get an EARLY START on "Your Money." U.S. stock futures barely budging this morning, but a lot to consider on Wall Street today, more corporations opening their books, we'll get earnings from Bank of America, Delta and Netflix.
Plus growth worries abroad, economic growth in China slipped to 7 percent. It is putting pressure on the Central Bank to come to the rescue. The European Central Bank is set to recommit to bond-buying stimulus measures today.
For the first time, Americans are spending more at restaurants than the grocery store. This is seen as a good sign that people are feeling confident to indulge in dining out. The big shift in eating attitude is apparently among millennials.
They are willing to leave their parents' basements and spending more in restaurants, which is why you see every restaurant from Olive Garden and McDonald's trying to figure out what these millennials want.
Minimum wage workers going on strike today. Tens of thousands of low wage workers are expected to walk off the job demanding pay of $15 an hour. The push will happen in dozens of city include workers from fast food, retail, home care and more.
Last several months, big employers like Wal-Mart and McDonald's have raised wages as the start, but some say these increases not enough.
All right, we have dramatic video capturing a police officer using a cruiser to take down a suspect. Did he go too far? "NEW DAY" starts right now.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These demonstrations will only get larger. They will only get angrier.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New video igniting more questions about excessive force.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gun is loaded.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton back on the campaign trail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's it like to be back in the game?
CLINTON: It's great. Americans and their families need a champion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ten Atlanta public school educators sentenced to prison for a year's long cheating scandal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These teachers got caught in the trap.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a victimless crime.
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ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, April 15th, tax day. It's 6:00 in the east. Alisyn is off. JB is here with me and Mich, and we have big news for you.
Hundreds of protesters on both coast outraged by excessive force use by police. Police clashing with these hundreds of protesters in New York and L.A., officers injured, dozens arrested after blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. Folks are marching in defiance.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All of this as new video surfaces of more questionable police tactics. And an officer in Arizona, look at that, intentionally using his cruiser to take down a suspect who is running through the streets with a gun.
Were the actions of that office justified or does it speak to a wider problem? Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Rosa Flores. Rosa, good morning.
