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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Tornadoes Tear Through the Midwest; Report: Patriots "Likely" Deflated Balls; New Controversy Over Officers' Charges. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired May 07, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:16] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking overnight: tornadoes tearing through the Midwest. Dozens of people hurt. So many towns leveled. And you know what? It is not over yet. You are tracking the damage. We're also tracking where these storms are heading, next.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Did Tom Brady cheat his way into the Super Bowl? The deflategate investigation is out and it doesn't look good for the Patriots. Andy Scholes breaking it all for us this morning.

BERMAN: Growing controversy over charges leveled against police officers in the death of Freddie Gray. The new challenges the prosecutor in Baltimore could now face in this case.

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

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It's Thursday, May 7. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East, not Friday yet, folks, but Thursday.

A big night overnight, breaking overnight, severe storms tear across the Great Plains spawning dozens of tornadoes, flattening homes, injuring at least 13, dropping heavy rains that produced flash flooding.

BERMAN: This morning, they are assessing the damage in Oklahoma. Dozens of homes were torn apart in the Oklahoma City area. A flash flood emergency was declared in the metro area for the first time in history. And the main airport canceled all flights overnight.

I want to show you the scene in Norman, Oklahoma. It's about 20 miles from Oklahoma City, where the University of Oklahoma is. You can see the cars working their way through the roads that were submerged by the flash flooding. Flash flooding often follows tornadoes. The areas of Amber and Bridge Creek, south and west of the metro area, they are reporting heavy damage as well.

ROMANS: Now, these storms produced at least nine confirmed tornadoes in Kansas. People in the north central part of the state assessing the damage this morning, now that the strongest storms have moved through. Two homes were severely damaged in Sedgwick County. One of them lifted off of its foundation. Winds so powerful, they snapped trees in two and toppled tombstones at this cemetery. No report, thankfully, of injury.

BERMAN: A huge twister in southern Nebraska. A man who shot this video says he saw it destroy a farm near the town of Hardy. That's on the state line with Kansas. Look at that.

And not far away in Roseland, Nebraska, another possible tornado yanked some homes right off their foundations, just put others in splinters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLEO MOUSEL, ROSELAND, NEBRASKA RESIDENT: It's like what you see on TV. Never thought I would see it in real life. I saw one cloud and then I saw it dissipate and I saw two clouds meet as one. And then we could hear the sound of a train. Our ears started popping because of the air pressure. And we went to our locker room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, again, there were heavy rains. You see what it does to the creeks and rivers there. It was flash flooding across so many states.

ROMANS: All right. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam tracking the severe weather for us.

Derek, what's the latest?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Concern that as people go to assess that tornado damage, they still have to content with the heavy rain and the flash flooding. Some of those image is coming out so people want to be careful crossing flooded roadways. Remember, only two feet of rushing water can pick up an SUV and drags down a river.

Now, we've had 46 tornado reports yesterday. On average, in the month of May, we received 276. So, that's just in one day today. We have seen nearly 50 tornadoes.

And here we go again -- setting up for the same location. We have upwards of about 9 million Americans under some sort of slight risk of severe weather. That means large hail, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes once again from parts of Kansas, even eastern Colorado, through the Oklahoma and Texas panhandle, stretching through the Dallas-Ft. Worth region.

May is the busiest time of year in terms of severe weather. And we start to cool teams off as we head into the summer months. At the moment, the more immediate threat is the rainfall that is moving through. We still have a severe thunderstorm watch with some heavy thunderstorms in the Oklahoma and Texas border.

But I want to show you this rainfall total. We had the third rainiest 24-hour period in Oklahoma City. Just over 7 inches, 5.5 of that coming in just two hours. You can imagine why there is flash flooding in that area -- John and Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Derek Van Dam, thank you for that, Derek.

There is no smoking gun, but a month long investigation by the NFL into so-called deflategate finds that two New England Patriots employees probably released air from footballs for the AFC championship game and the quarterback Tom Brady was likely, quote, "at least generally aware of the rules violation."

Andy Scholes joins us with more details.

Wow. This is not good for the quarterback.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: No, it certainly is not, Christine. Yes, there's no hard evidence against the Patriots and Tom Brady. But there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence that they intentionally deflated footballs.

[04:05:03] Now, the most damning evidence in this whole situation against the Patriots were these text messages between Jim McNally, which is a Patriots locker attendant. He's also referred to -- he referred to himself as a deflater. And John Jastremski, a Patriot equipment assistant.

Now, here is an example of the two in October of 2014. Jastremski said, "I can't wait to give you your needle this week." Smiley face. McNally responded, "Expletive Tom, make sure the pump is attached to the needle. Expletives watermelons coming."

Now, McNally and Jastremski also discussed via text. McNally receiving autographs and shoes for supposedly altering footballs. Wells obtained those text messages from McNally and Jastremski's work phones. Brady, meanwhile, declined to turnover any documents or electric information such as text messages and emails during the investigation.

Now, in terms of the actual deflategate game, the AFC championship game against the Colt. The report citing evidence that McNally took the game balls into a bathroom adjacent to the field at Gillette Stadium and stayed there for about 100 seconds. The report said that was an amount of time sufficient to deflate 13 footballs using a needle.

Patriots' owner Robert Kraft released a statement on the Wells report. It read in part, "To say we are disappointed in its findings, which do not include any incontrovertible or hard evidence of deliberate deflation of footballs at the AFC championship game would be a gross understatement." He goes on to say, "We will accept the findings of the report and take the appropriate action based on those findings, as well as any discipline levied by the league."

Now, the report did find that Kraft and Bill Belichick had no knowledge of this wrongdoing. The big question now, though, is will the NFL suspend Tom Brady? Right now, the league says they are reviewing the matter.

ROMANS: All right, Andy Scholes.

What do you think? Do they suspend Tom Brady, John Berman?

BERMAN: I think he may be suspended for a game. For a guy who is 37 and at the beginning of the season when, you know, it may not be the end of the world to take a game off. But, yes, they may very well suspend him.

And more probably than not, by the way, people are saying, oh, there is no hard evidence. But more probably than not, is the standard for NFL discipline. That is the standard. That is why they used that language. It is enough to issue discipline for the NFL.

ROMANS: What a story. Thanks for that, Andy.

BERMAN: Developing this morning, investigators are becoming increasingly confident that the two men who tried to attack a Texas contest to draw the Prophet Muhammad are confident they were acting alone. Law enforcement officials say they have not found any evidence that Nadir Soofi and Elton Simpson had direct orders from ISIS.

But officials and CNN analysis show that Simpson was in contact through social media with several ISIS sympathizers and recruiters, including this British fighter in Syria, Junaid Hussain. U.S. lawmakers are concerned enough about terror recruiting through social media. That is the subject of the Senate hearing later this morning.

Let's get the latest from CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown in Phoenix.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, an ominous warning from a key ISIS operative who may have been connected to the Texas attack. On Tuesday, he tweeted out, "You ain't seen nothing yet."

Hussain is believed to have been connected to Elton Simpson, one of the Texas gunmen. In fact, they were tweeting around the time of the attack.

Officials I have been speaking with say Junaid Hussain is a, quote, "real problem." The concern is that he could inspire other Americans to launch an attack. He is very active on social media. We know that Hussain not only exchanged tweets with him, but other terrorists.

In fact, officials I have been speaking with say that in part is the reason why the FBI reopened an investigation into Elton Simpson in the past few months. In fact, I'm told that he was a priority subject, which allowed law enforcement to use all resources available. I'm told he was monitored, but did not have 24/7 surveillance.

I have been talking to a family friend who is very close to the Simpson family. And that friend says that the family is in shock. That it had no idea about Elton Simpson's extremist leanings. In fact, the father apparently just saw Elton in the past couple of weeks and did not detect any issues whatsoever.

I even spoke to Elton Simpson's brother. He was visibly shaken up and called it a tragedy -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Pamela, thank you for that this morning.

The mother of the other gunman, Nadir Soofi, said she called her son to chew him out when she heard he bought an AK-47. Sharon Soofi heard about the Craigslist purchase from her younger son Ali who lived in the same Phoenix apartment as Nadir and Elton Simpson. Three weeks ago, Ali moved out.

"The Wall Street Journal" reports he was worried about Elton Simpson's radical interpretation of Islam and Simpson's radical interpretation of Islam and Simpson's efforts to influence and isolate Nadir.

Sharon Soofi says of her son, "I had all the hopes and dreams that he would grow up and have a good life and raise a family and be successful.

[04:10:00] For whatever reason, he thought that wasn't what he needed to do. Something else called him to take the path he did."

Nadir Soofi is scheduled to be buried today outside Kansas City.

BERMAN: There's a new video to show you of Elton Simpson. He appeared at a 2012 fund raising video for the Phoenix mosque he attended with Nadir Soofi. In the video, Simpson talks about the power of prayer as spiritual armor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELTON SIMPSON, SLAIN GUNMAN: It recharges your imam when you come together and pray five times a day with the brothers and you reminded with the hereafter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The mosque president tells CNN that a few months ago, Simpson completely stopped going to services there.

ROMANS: The Pentagon is launching a controversial new program to train moderate Syrian rebels in the fight against ISIS. Four hundred members of the U.S. military have arrived in Turkey and Jordan to begin the training as soon as this week. The Pentagon plans to furnish the rebels with weapons, trucks and tactical radios once they make it through the program.

BERMAN: In Iraq, ISIS very much on the move, breaching the perimeter of the oil refinery near the town of Baiji. There's been a lot of fighting around this refinery. The Pentagon is concerned is the facility could fall to ISIS forces again. It's gone back and forth. It could fall again within days. Militants already have control of parts of the refinery. If it falls, defense officials say -- well, the rebels are in control of Mosul already.

ROMANS: Hillary Clinton is ready to rake in some big money for her White House bid. She's already courting donors to give to her super PAC Priorities USA Action. Backers are hoping to raise up to $300 million in what could be the most expensive presidential run in history. Clinton is meeting with potential donors today through a campaign swing through California.

BERMAN: Rick Santorum could be joining the growing field of Republicans running for president. The former Pennsylvania senator says he will make an announcement on May 27th in his hometown of Butler. The former senator beat eventual nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 Iowa caucuses by, you know, 10 votes. He outlasted almost every other candidate in the primaries, except for Romney. This time around, he is polling though toward the back of the pack.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this Thursday morning. Not a very good day for stocks so far. Asian and European shares are down, so are U.S. futures. Yesterday, the Dow lost 86.

Whole Foods gearing up to launch a lower cost chain to attract millennials. The new store will stock cheaper goods while still maintaining the quality standards. Whole Foods sometimes called whole paycheck, is still growing, opening new stores every year. But it faces steep competition in natural and organic foods -- even Walmart getting into that game.

The new store is aimed to give cost conscious customers an option. Whole Foods is considering leases for the new chain.

BERMAN: Twelve minutes after the hour.

Baltimore police charged in Freddie Gray's death. They are fighting back, a key piece of evidence that could make or break the prosecutor's case. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:16:09] ROMANS: Baltimore police this morning not seeing eye to eye with the city's top prosecutor. Sources telling CNN the police investigation into the death of Freddie Gray does not support some of the charges filed against six of the department's officers. Lawyers are already filing motions challenging a key finding in State Attorney Marilyn Mosby's case. And now, the mayor of Baltimore is taking action.

We get more from CNN's Athena Jones.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESONDENT: Good morning, guys.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has asked the Justice Department to carry out a civil rights pattern or practices investigation into the Baltimore police department. Let's take a listen to what she said.

STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, BALTIMORE MAYOR: The Department of Justice has employed these investigations in communities across our nation, to reform serious practices of excessive force and bias and other unconstitutional practices by law enforcement. I'm asking the Department of Justice to investigate if our police department has engaged in a pattern or practice of stops, searches or arrests that violate the Fourth Amendment.

JONES: Now, the Justice Department is already conducting an investigation into whether Freddie Gray's civil rights were violated. But the probe the mayor is requesting would be broader -- a full-scale civil rights investigation into the entire Baltimore Police Department, much like the Department of Justice conducted in Ferguson, Missouri. That investigation found discrimination against African- Americans by the Ferguson Police Department and municipal court system.

The Department of Justice is, quote, "actively considering whether to open a probe."

The mayor also said Wednesday that the Baltimore police department will have body cameras by the end of the year -- John, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Athena Jones, thanks so much.

In just a few hour, testimonies resumes in the penalty phase of the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial in Boston. The jurors will hear more from the defense about the super max prison where the convicted marathon bomber would spend the rest of his life if they decide against the death penalty. On Wednesday, a former brother-in-law testified that Dzhokhar went along with anything his brother Tamerlan said to do.

ROMANS: Emotional testimony in the Colorado courtroom on Wednesday from the woman who survived the Aurora movie theater massacre, but lost a friend in the carnage. James Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 70. Sandy Phillips lost her daughter. She's been in court each day since the trial began and has no plan to stop going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDY PHILLIPS, DAUGHTER KILLED IN COLORADO MOVIE THEATER SHOOTING: You get through the day. You are exhausted. You go home. You try to eat something. You go to bed and you prepare yourself as best as you can to go through it the next day. But it's extremely hard and it's extremely when you hear that you're supposed to have empathy or sympathy for the person that butchered your children. I can't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Two graduate school professors also testified Wednesday, describing Holmes as cocky and socially immature. Holmes as pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. If convicted of the most charges he could face the death penalty.

BERMAN: All right. High tensions in drought-stricken California. The governor there, Jerry Brown is under fire for imposing mandatory restrictions on water usage. He is asking municipalities to cut back as much as 36 percent and he is in no mood to listen to critics who do not like his plans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JERRY BROWN (D), CALIFORNIA: It's a challenge that's need to deal with California's water. So, I'm here to deal with the problems I'm given. I didn't invent these problems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It's sad to say the California's four-year drought has killed more than 12 million trees.

[04:20:00] Rivers there are so low that salmon are being carted away in trucks and driven to the sea.

ROMANS: All right. Happening now: Secretary of State John Kerry in Saudi Arabia, pushing for a ceasefire in Yemen. A humanitarian crisis worsening there. We are live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Secretary of State John Kerry is in Saudi Arabia this morning and the worsening situation in Yemen at the top of his agenda. Kerry expected to meet with senior Saudi leaders about a proposed humanitarian pause in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi rebels. Kerry will also meet with the Yemeni president who fled to Saudi Arabia.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is monitoring developments from Beirut for us this morning.

Nick, good morning.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, $68 million in humanitarian aid pledged by the U.S. here. But, of course, the key question is, how do you get that aid in? There's a lot of it sat in the neighboring port across the African coast of Djibouti. But where many people tried to land aid, the runway in Sana'a, has been hit by air strikes. That is in fact a major highway that was often doubling as a back up runway.

So, the key question is, yes, h do you stop the violence and then, effectively, how do you get to land the aid actually into the country? It is the ports that are heavily fought over right now, an estimated 50 people according to the government of President Hadi killed when they tried to flee the port city of Aden in boats yesterday, when they according to the government were hit by Houthi rebels, unclear precisely what happened.

[04:25:10] But we are talking about a conflict, the humanitarian aspect, which is worsening day by day.

And the plea now from that international recognized government of President Hadi for a U.N. force of intervention. They wrote to the United Nations Security Council asking, quote, "for a land force" unclear who would make it up, who would actually provide troops for this. But that is a key move by them to try and interject some sort of stability into this country, or it may simply be a way of trying to introduce some sort of international legitimacy if the Saudis decide they want to move ground forces in at a later stage.

But while there were suggestions in the past weeks that the Saudi campaign was curtailing itself, it's quite clear the opposite is happening. The airstrikes continuing with full force, and we are seeing the crisis unfold -- Christine.

ROMANS: Indeed, unfold and actually escalate.

Thank you so much for that, Nick Paton Walsh, this morning.

BERMAN: All right. Twenty-five minutes after the hour.

We do have breaking news this morning: dozens of tornadoes tearing through Oklahoma and the Midwest. We have dozens of people hurt, thousands without power. And there's serious flooding, trailing these tornadoes. We will break it all down for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Breaking news this morning: tornadoes roar across the Midwest, ripping through communities. And it's not over. We are tracking these storms live, ahead.

BERMAN: So, the Patriots more probably than not, cheated -- at least some personnel on the team. More probably than not, Tom Brady knew about it. It does not look good for the Super Bowl champs.