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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Big Night for U.K. Conservatives; Tom Brady Speaks Out; FBI Warned Texas Authorities of Elton Simpson; Tornadoes Flatten Communities; U.S. Military Training Syrian Rebels. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 08, 2015 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:30:02] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight: election night in the U.K., a big night for conservatives and good news -- good news for Prime Minister David Cameron. We're breaking down results for you live.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tom Brady speaks, a little, sort of, kind of responding to the deflate-gate report that accuses some patriots personnel of more probably than not, cheating. So, what did he say? What did he not say?

ROMANS: Nearly 20 million people in the path this morning of severe storms. We're breaking down damage done and what could come next.

Welcome back to EARLY START this Friday morning. I'm Christine Romans. Nice to see you.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. About 30 minutes after the hour right now.

And breaking news from the United Kingdom -- oh, my goodness. So, they had said this was going to be a close election. The polls show everything essentially tied going into Election Day. But the results that are coming in show a landslide, just a stunner, for the incumbent Conservative Party and the British Prime Minister David Cameron will keep his job.

I want to go to CNN's Erin McLaughlin live in Edinburgh this morning.

Erin, this is a shocker. I mean, we've been looking at these polls for the last week or so. People were saying it was going to be deadlocked. They have to form coalition governments. There would be turmoil. It is a huge win for the conservatives.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It certainly looks that way, John. People here in the United Kingdom waking up to a different political reality. And it's a reality that's completely unexpected.

Many people going into this thought that British Prime Minister David Cameron would have a difficult time holding on to Downing Street, that's because the math simply did not seem to be in his favor. Polls pointed to a hung parliament. But this morning, those polls proving to be wrong. Some projections

now say that his conservative party will have a majority of the seats in parliament. The prime minister tweeting out his delight -- a picture of him and his wife Samantha celebrating.

Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Some people say, in fact, I've often said, there is only one opinion poll that counts, and that's the one on election day. And I'm not sure that's ever been truer than it is today and tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLAUGHLIN: Meanwhile up north, an absolute revolution, the Scottish National Party. Now, that is the party that was behind that failed referendum back in September. They wanted to break up the United Kingdom. They wanted independence for Scotland.

They have managed to go from six seats to an unprecedented 56 seats out of a total of 59. The Scottish National Party now the third largest political party at Westminster here in the United Kingdom. So, truly stunning, historic and shocking.

Conservatives already talking about potentially new powers for Scotland in an effort to avert which many people up here in Scotland see to be inevitable, which is a second referendum -- John.

BERMAN: Yes. Already, Prime Minister David Cameron invited to see the queen already. Talking about a possibility that Ed Milliband will resign as head of Labour, huge repercussions that will be coming in by the hour this morning.

Erin McLaughlin in Edinburgh, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. New England quarterback Tom Brady says he doesn't have any reaction. He has no reaction yet to that NFL report concluding he likely knew about footballs being deflated during the AFC title game. A raucous crowd at Salem State University cheering Brady as he said he had not had, quote, "time to digest" the deflate- gate report 30 hours after its release.

National reporter Deborah Feyerick has the latest for us this morning from Boston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, John, Tom Brady arrived by helicopter, and when he got here to the stadium at Salem State University, he was given a standing ovation, people cheering and chanting his name. The host, the moderator and sportscaster Jim Gray, he essentially got right down to it, saying he wanted to tackle the elephant in the room. When he mentioned the deflategate report, when he mentioned the investigator Ted Wells, he was basically -- the crowd booed extremely loudly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BOOS)

(LAUGHTER)

JIM GRAY, SPORTSCASTER: What is your reaction, Tom, to the Ted Wells' report?

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Who cares!

TOM BRADY, PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: Yes, I can't usually say those things, but I don't have really any reaction, Jim.

[04:05:00] I -- our owner commented on it yesterday. And it's only been 30 hours. I have not had much time to digest it fully. But when I do, I'll be sure to let you know how I feel about it, and everybody else.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

GRAY: Are you that slow a reader?

(LAUGHTER)

[04:35:03] BRADY: Well, my athletic career is better than my academic career. So, I'm used to reading Xs and Os. This was a little bit longer.

GRAY: When do you plan to address this publicly?

BRADY: Hopefully soon, hopefully soon. There's still a process going forthright now. I'm involved in that process. Whenever it happens, it happens. I'll certainly want to be comfortable in how I feel about the statements that I make.

GRAY: So, since no statements right now will speak for you and you don't want to get into the details. How are you handling this controversy? Is it bothering you?

BRADY: You know, I dealt with a lot of things in the past. I dealt with this three months ago before the Super Bowl. I dealt with adversity over the course of my career and life, and I'm very fortunate to have so many people that love me and support me.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

BRADY: Thank you.

FERYERICK: The crowd supportive before he began speaking and certainly after he was done. Again, very supportive environment. They were here to see a man who they adore, Tom Brady -- Christine, John.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ROMANS: And they do. Deborah, thanks for that. They do adore Tom Brady. That was clearly a good place for him to go for first remarks -- his first non-remarks.

Brady's agent Don Yee denies that his client had any knowledge of footballs being deflated. Yee told Anderson Cooper Brady will sooner or later speak for himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON YEE, TOM BRADY'S AGENT (via telephone): He will address this, you know? But keep in mind, Anderson, he had a rather chaotic press conference right after the AFC championship game where he faced all of the media then as well as we spent one entire day in front of four investigative attorneys from Mr. Wells' law firm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Anderson asked Yee if Brady is completely innocent. And Yee said, in my opinion, yes.

BERMAN: Yes, it was interesting to see, very interesting to see. You know, Yee had a scathing letter he released yesterday to the NFL where he attacked the report. He attacked the, you know, the motivations of the people who wrote the report saying money was involved. So, not as nice as he was with Anderson.

Developing this morning: the FBI holding a conference call with local law enforcement, that's happening today, to seek help to find violent extremists. Extremists like Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi. Both of those men were shot by police as they attack a Texas contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

FBI Director James Comey telling reporters that perhaps thousands of extremists in the U.S. like Simpson being fed what he called ISIS poison online.

Multiple officials now tell CNN that Simpson was in private contact with overseas jihadists overseas who were encouraging some kind of attack, although the sources say Simpson likely choose the target on his own. We are learning FBI warned Garland police about Simpson's interest in this cartoon contest.

CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown with more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Christine, FBI Director James Comey met with a small group of reporters and said the FBI actually sent a warning to local authorities in Garland, Texas, three hours before Elton Simpson arrived with his accomplice and opened fire.

We learned that the FBI sent a picture to local authorities and a possible license plate. But this was just a bulletin. The FBI apparently had no idea that Elton Simpson had left his home in Phoenix, Arizona, and was driving to Dallas in order to launch this attack. It only saw Simpson's social media post talking about the event.

Of course, a concern was that he was someone, an extremist that they had their eyes on, that they had an investigation on tweeting about this. So, they alerted authorities. Apparently, the FBI had a list of people of possible extremists who may want to target the event and Elton Simpson was part of the list.

Also, Director Comey talked about the hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. who are following ISIS online. He said it's a big concern. And there are hundreds of investigations into possible extremists.

He said it's like finding a needle in a haystack. And increasingly, that needle is invisible -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

A senior commander for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was killed by a U.S. drone strike that happened in Yemen. Nasr bin Ali al-Ansi had become the public face of the terror group, appearing in some of the high profile videos, including the one taking credit for the "Charlie Hebdo" attack in Paris. A statement released by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula confirms al-Ansi, his son and six al Qaeda fighters died last month in the port city of Mukalla. The White House as its custom is not commenting on that. And it doesn't usually comment on drone strikes.

[04:40:04] BERMAN: The Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill that gives Congress the right to review the nuclear agreement with Iran. The vote was 98-1. The measure prevents President Obama from lifting against sanctions for 30 days giving lawmakers time to decide whether they will approve or disapprove of a deal or take no action at all. Even if Congress disapproves, the president could veto that action and opponents are not likely to have enough votes to override him.

ROMANS: The NSA phone surveillance operation is illegal. That is the finding of the federal appeals court in New York. A three-judge panel says it exceeds the scope of what the Congress authorized. The judges did not address whether it violates the Constitution.

Time for an early start on your money this Friday. European shares higher boosted by U.K. election results. Asian shares, U.S. stocks, they are higher as well. Stocks got back on track yesterday. Dow climbed 82 points.

The true test comes today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. We're going to get the April jobs report. CNN Money predicts 220,000 net new jobs added in the month significantly better than the pathetic 126,000 in March. The unemployment rate likely ticked down to 5.4 percent. We'll be looking to see if these disappointing numbers in March were just a fluke or sign of a slowdown. Plus, I want to see if wages are starting to rise. There's a feeling that wages are bubbling here. That wages will start to rise eventually.

BERMAN: I think this is a big month. Either last month was a blip or it wasn't. If it's no blip, then I think people have to be concerned that things have stalled for real here.

All right. Forty-one minutes after the hour.

The tornadoes, they have turned deadly, leveling communities this morning. And today, millions will face the threat of severe storms. We will break it all down, next.

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[04:45:25] ROMANS: Another round of severe weather leaving damage in its wake across the Midwest and other parts of the U.S. last night.

BERMAN: Yes, three tornadoes confirmed in northern Texas. Warnings, alerts, advisories for storms and flood remain in place in nearly two dozen counties.

Serious hail coming down in that part of the country. Near Denton, Texas, overnight, a lightning strike set off a natural gas well explosion. There was even a 4.0 magnitude earthquake that rattled the region, also. Whole range of issues there.

ROMANS: Several tornadoes also tearing through Oklahoma. Police say one woman died after her storm shelter flooded. Flooding has been a big problem here. At least a dozen others were injured. These twisters, as you can see, they just flattened entire neighborhoods. Oklahoma's governor has declared now a state of emergency in 12 counties there.

BERMAN: Rain is expected in parts of Colorado over the next few days. Northeastern Colorado saw a tornado touch down briefly on Thursday. No damage was reported. The storm brought heavy, heavy rain. Look at those pictures. Colorado Springs got 8 inches of hail.

ROMANS: In South Dakota, a building collapse on the Cheyenne Indian River reservation. Dozens of people who are there for a tribal meeting temporarily trapped inside of there. Amazingly, thankfully, only four people suffered injuries in that collapse.

BERMAN: Eighteen million people under the threat of severe storms. That is for today.

Let's bring in meteorologist Derek Van Dam tracking the forecast for us -- Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John and Christine.

Unfortunately, we have another active day of severe weather forecast across the central Plain States. This time, the set up is looking like this. We have very cool, dry air being funneled in behind an upper level disturbance. Ahead of this is very warm and humid air in the Gulf of Mexico.

So, these two air masses are going to collide and that is going to set the scene for strong to severe weather throughout the course of today and into tomorrow.

Just to give you an indication of the two atmosphere, we are talking about nearly a 50 degree dew point temperature swing behind the warm gulf air ahead of the low pressure system. A dry line has formed. Just as what we saw the past couple days. In fact, our high resolution radar imagery showing the thunderstorms firing up by later this afternoon and this evening. This time the bull's-eye between Oklahoma City and Wichita Falls region, dangerous long track tornadoes possible and large hail and more the same for Saturday.

Back to you.

BERMAN: We have to keep our eye on that over the weekend.

All right. Thanks, Derek.

The United States with a new plan to take down ISIS in Syria. U.S. troops now involved in training. We'll tell you all about it right after the break.

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[04:51:48] BERMAN: U.S. military now training Syrian rebels for the fight against ISIS. The program really launched on Wednesday in Jordan. The Pentagon plans to train more than 5,000 handpicked Syrians each year at locations in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: These are highly vetted individuals. That's an important part of the program. Second, the training takes place in a secure location. And third, of course, our people who are participating in the training are very experienced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's Defense Secretary Ash Carter right there.

I want to bring in CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh.

You know, Nick, it strikes me. We are sitting in May of 2015. There has been talk of this for well over a year. So, why now and what can it do now?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN ITNERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Syrian war started four years ago, absolutely, John. And I think the issue is this is the smallest that the U.S. can militarily do while being considered in the fight without necessarily putting itself too much at risk. We are talking about 90 Syrian rebels trained initially in the first round by 400 U.S. trainers. There are only 400 vetted so far, Syrian rebels, who can be part of

the group moving forward. Said to be hundreds more who are potentially vettable of the 3,000 who want to partake in the program. So, it's a drop frankly in the ocean of extremist militants and moderately militants who are currently doing the fighting in the Syrian civil war.

It asks another question. These men will emerge with radios and better arms and equipment and trucks. The U.S. says this is aimed to defend their villages and towns from ISIS and take the fight to ISIS, and even take the fight to ISIS. But do they end up fighting the regime? That will happen somewhere. Do they end up fighting other rebels? That's likely, perhaps to happen as well at some point.

What is the U.S. then do if they are hand picked troops come under aircraft fire, artillery? Do they get dragged in providing cover? It's (INAUDIBLE) military potentially, too.

The U.S. doesn't have a terrific track record in arming Syrian rebels. There are a lot of expensive anti-tank missiles that turned up in the hands of others. They never said it came from the U.S., but everyone knew that is where it come from. They have been overrun by extremists and lost a lot of weapons.

It has had a mixed past. This is the U.S. bid to get behind the Turks and Saudis who have taken the gloves off, so to speak, and providing better support for the battle field there against the Assad regime. But does it drag the U.S. further in and how effective is it by itself anyway? Two key questions you have to ask -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, can it help? Maybe. Is it a panacea? No way.

Nick Paton Walsh for us in Beirut, thanks.

ROMANS: Is it a dangerous business? Absolutely, absolutely.

All right. Forty-four minutes past the hour.

Working moms say they can do it all, but can they do it all well? The balancing acts, next.

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[04:58:25] ROMANS: All right. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an early start on your money this morning.

European shares are up boosted by the U.K. election result. Asian shares and U.S. stock futures are higher. We will see if that holds today, 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, that's when the April jobs report comes out.

Here's what CNN money predicts: 220,000 jobs added. Significantly better than a pretty pathetic 126,000 in March. The unemployment rate likely ticked down to 5.4 percent. We will see if the disappointing report last month was a blip or the beginning of something new. And I personally am going to be looking to see if wages are starting to rise. I'm hoping that's going to start happing soon.

A Fitbit is going public. The company that makes the wearable fitness trackers, you have one, Berman?

BERMAN: I do not.

ROMANS: They have filed for an IPO. Sales have more than doubled for three years in a row, and Fitbit sold more than 11 million devices last year. There is a lot of competition in this space. Apple Watch the latest to jump in. Many buyers say they use it for a little while and then they forget about it. Is it a one-trick pony? A lot of competition. We'll see, but it will debuting on Wall Street.

And it is Mother's Day weekend, don't forget. It's Mother's Day weekend everyone and 78 percent of working moms say they can have it all, success at home and at the office. It is a top balancing act.

Half of moms say they are equally successful as a parent and employee. The twos compliment each other. Sixty-nine percent of employers say parenting skills like patients and time management are relevant in the corporate world. You know, I have toddlers and a kindergartner and now, a third grader.

And I can say the skills in dealing with irrational children work very well in the workplace.

[05:00:03] BERMAN: They've stayed out of (INAUDIBLE) so far. So far.

ROMANS: Don't you think it's the same skills?

BERMAN: EARLY START continues right now.