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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

U.K. Conservatives Keep Power; Tom Brady Addresses Deflate-Gate Report; FBI: Thousands of ISIS Followers in U.S.; Tornadoes Flatten Communities; U.S. Military Training Syrian Rebels; Pakistan Military Helicopter Crashes. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 08, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:08] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: EARLY START continues right now.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Distraction.

(MUSIC)

ROMANS: Breaking overnight: Election night in the U.K. A big night for conservatives and good news from Prime Minister David Cameron. We're live with the results.

BERMAN: Tom Brady speaks, sort of, about the deflate-gate report. We will tell you what he said and what he doesn't say. It raises questions. Coy Wire breaks it down for us.

ROMANS: And tornadoes again. A second night on the rampage tearing through communities and turning deadly and folks, this is still a dangerous situation this morning. It is not over yet.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: Great to see you today. I'm John Berman. It is Friday, May 8th.

What day is it?

ROMANS: Friday.

BERMAN: It's 5:00 a.m. in the East.

We do have breaking news from the United Kingdom. I've got to say a stunner of an election.

This one was supposed to be close, more than close, like deadlocked. They were expecting overtime here. Days to form a governing coalition. No! Much closer to a blowout.

The incumbent Conservative Party looks like they will remain in power. Prime minister David Cameron keeping his job, actually in some ways expanding his power.

Let's go live now to CNN's Erin McLaughlin who is live in Edinburgh, in Scotland for the very latest.

Good morning, Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

That's right. A remarkable and historic election here in the United Kingdom. You know, many people thought the British Prime Minister David Cameron was really going to struggle to keep a hold of Downing Street going into this.

The math simply were not in his favor. All polls really pointing to a hung parliament. But right now, according to some projections, the conservatives stand to gain a majority seats in parliament. Shocking many people. Prime minister tweeting out a picture of himself as well as his wife Samantha in celebration promising a better future for everyone.

(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, here up north, an absolute revolution, the Scottish National Party. The party responsible for the referendum back in September. They wanted to break up the United Kingdom, they wanted independence for Scotland. Well, they managed to gain -- they now have 56 seats, incredible. The most that party has ever had in U.K. history was 11 seats. Those gains made on the back of the Labour opposition party here in the United Kingdom. Shortly, we do expect to hear from the Labour opposition leader Ed Milliband to resign.

And we're also expecting a victory speech from Prime Minister David Cameron. He's expected in the coming hours to visit the queen as well -- John.

BERMAN: A seismic result there -- not the one that was expected. Erin McLaughlin in Scotland -- thanks so much.

ROMANS: New England quarterback Tom Brady says he doesn't have any reaction yet. He doesn't have any reaction yet to an NFL report concluding he likely knew about footballs being deflated during the AFC title game.

Coy Wire joins us live now with the latest.

You know, he even said there's been only 30 hours since the report came out. I am not ready to react yet. How can he not prepare a statement? He's got a team advising him, right? I'm surprised he didn't have a statement about it.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: I'm with you, Christine. I think a lot of people are as well. So, he made his first public appearance and first comment since the Wells' report was released. He was aware of the deflation of footballs in the last season's AFC title game. So, he was in front of a crowd at Salem State University. He said he hasn't had time to digest the deflate gate report.

Here's exactly what he said, Christine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: I don't have really any reaction. Our owner commented on it yesterday. It's only been 30 hours. I have not had much time to digest it fully. But when I do, I'll let you know how I feel about it.

(CHEERS)

JIM GRAY, SPORTSCASTER: Is the Super Bowl tainted?

BRADY: What do you guys think?

(BOOS)

BRADY: Neither do I.

GRAY: Has this, however, detracted from your joy of winning the Super Bowl?

BRADY: Absolutely not.

GRAY: Why not?

[05:05:00] BRADY: Because we earned and achieved everything we got this year as a team. I'm proud of that and our fans should be too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: So, there you have it. Brady played to the crowd and addressed the position. He never stuck his flag in the ground.

His agent, though, Don Yee, told CNN last night that Brady didn't have any knowledge of footballs deflated. This was after he released a statement earlier in the day, calling the Wells report a terrible disappointment, saying it had tragic flaws.

And now, we're going to wait to see what the NFL has to say in terms of punishment or possible punishments, shall we say. Will Brady get a suspension? Will the team lose draft picks? Will they get fined?

The NFL hasn't given a timeline, Christine. But they will respond to this in the next few days. But I'm with you, Christine. I think a lot of people were wanting a bit more out of Tom Brady last night.

ROMANS: And then there are others who say it is time to move on. It's not a big deal. John Berman has stopped crying. He is not weeping, anymore, Coy. But, you know, I mean, this process isn't over. It sounds as though

Don Yee, his agent, are fighting the process, right?

BERMAN: Look, to me, what it seems like is that Brady didn't want to go out there on record and say anything before the league office issue this punishment. He wanted to keep his hands clean. He was happy to have his agent do the dirty work. But he wants to stay out of it until that punishment is levied, which could come very soon.

Coy Wire, thanks so much.

WIRE: You're welcome, guys.

BERMAN: Developing this morning, the FBI holding a conference call with local law enforcement today to define violent extremists in the U.S. -- extremists like Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi. Both shot dead by police as they tried to attack a Texas contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. FBI Director James Comey told reporter there is are perhaps thousands of extremists in the United States like Simpson being fed what he called ISIS poison online.

Multiple officials now tell CNN that Simpson was in private contact with overseas jihadists who were encouraging some kind of attacks, although the sources say Simpson likely chose the target on his own. Also learning the FBI did warn police in Garland, Texas about Simpson's interest in the cartoon contest.

Let's get more on that from CNN's Pamela Brown.

(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: An invisible needle in a haystack.

Pamela, thank you for that.

A senior commander for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula 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 that al-Ansi, his son and six al Qaeda fighters died last month in the port city of Mukalla. White House is not commenting.

BERMAN: The Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill giving Congress the right to review any nuclear agreement with Iran. The vote was 98- 1. The measure prevents President Obama from lifting sanctions against the Iranians for 30 days, which gives lawmakers time to decide whether they will disprove of the deal or take no action at all.

Even if Congress does disapprove, the president could veto that action. Opponents are not likely to have enough votes to override him.

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

Let's get more this morning on the story from CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John and Christine.

Right. So, this federal appeals court ruled that the government's collection of these vast stockpiles of telephone data is actually illegal under the Patriot Act.

[05:10:01] That the collection exceeds the scope of this law as it was intended, and it's one that the judge's wrote, the sheer volume of information sought is staggering.

The court, though, didn't rule it was unconstitutional, and they sent it back to the lower court. But the section of the Patriot Act that the government interpreted to collect this phone data expires next month anyway. So, it is up for review.

The Patriot Act was established in 2001 after September 11th. It was then renewed by both Presidents Bush and Obama. So, President Obama allowed this collection to continue, but he has since said that he agrees that now that it's expiring, it should be reformed.

There has been legislation proposed. There had been ideas out there, such as this -- data could be collected, but stored by a third party so that the government wouldn't own it and control it. And the government would have to ask permission on a case-by-case basis when it wanted to access this kind of data.

Some in Congress, though, lately, especially given the threat of ISIS, have been saying, let's look at this and let's not water down this kind of legislation because it's necessary to national security -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Michelle Kosinski at the White House -- thank you, Michelle.

Time for an early start on your money. Good day so far for stocks around the world. European shares up, getting a boost from the U.K. election results. Asian shares, U.S. stock futures higher as well.

The big story here comes later this morning, the April's job report, due out at 8:30 Eastern Time, 220,000 net jobs, 5.4 percent unemployment rate is the forecast.

BERMAN: Rosy forecast there.

ROMANS: It's not too bad.

Blue Bell Ice Cream, folks, won't be back on shelves soon. A new government report shows the company knew about listeria contamination as far back as 2013. It did not recall products until last month. Inspectors found Blue Bell's process for cleaning equipment was inadequate. Plus, a number of sanitary concerns that employees were not washing their hands. Blue Bell says it thought problems discovered in 2013 were taken care of, extensive cleaning will mean Blue Bell stays out of stores longer than expected.

Millions bracing for severe storms around the country this morning, folks. Tornadoes tear through communities. The damage done and what is still to come after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:33] ROMANS: Another round of severe weather leaving damage in its wake across the Midwest and other parts of the United States.

BERMAN: You're talking about three tornadoes confirmed in northern Texas. Warnings, alerts and advisories from storms and floods remain in place in nearly two dozen counties. Major hail issues in that area. Near Denton, Texas, overnight, a lightning strike set off a natural gas well explosion. There was even a 4.0 magnitude earthquake. Got a whole range of problems in that region.

ROMANS: Several tornadoes tearing through Oklahoma. Police say one woman died after her storm shelter flooded. At least a dozen others were injured. Those twisters flattening neighborhoods you can see. Oklahoma's governor, he has declared a state of emergency in 12 counties now.

BERMAN: Rain expected in parts of Colorado over the next few days. In northeastern Colorado, a tornado touched down on Thursday. No damage reported, but amazing pictures right here. The storm did bring heavy rain already. Colorado Springs, look at that, that's hail the size of quarters, if you're keeping track there. They have eight inches of it.

ROMANS: In South Dakota, a storm with strong winds collapsed the roof of the building on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. Dozens of people who were for a tribal meeting temporarily trapped inside that building. Amazingly, thankfully, only four people suffered injuries.

BERMAN: More than 18 million people are in the threat of the severe storms today.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is tracking the forecast for us this morning -- Derek.

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

Thursday brought another round of severe weather to the central plain states. This time, nine tornadoes were reported. One was actually just north of the Denver metro area. The other across portions of Kansas and just north of the Dallas Ft. Worth region. Strong storms once again in the forecast today unfortunately.

We have a set up that looks like this -- very dry and cool air settling in, thanks to an upper level disturbance over the western half of the United States that is filtering the atmosphere clash ahead of the warm gulf air that's been streaming ahead of our low pressure system. Those are going to collide today, bringing yet another possibility of severe storms.

This is our high resolution radar imagery. I want to take note across the central portions of Oklahoma, specifically between Oklahoma City and Wichita Falls. That's where we have a moderate risk of severe storms today, including strong, long track dangerous tornadoes.

Back to you.

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

In Baltimore, the mayor is getting her wish. The Justice Department is expected to announce it will launch a full-scale investigation into the Baltimore Police Department. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake asked the feds to investigate the patterns and practices of excessive force by police in her city.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch hinted at the decision during a congressional hearing Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LORETTA LYNCH, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Although the city has made significant strides in their collaborative reform efforts with the community-oriented policing services office, I have not ruled out the possibility that more may need to be done. I assure you, senators, that I am listening to all voices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Justice Department is already conducting an independent investigation into the arrest of Freddie Gray. Baltimore has seen a surge in gun violence that began with riots last month after Gray died in police custody.

BERMAN: Pamela Geller says she has no regrets for organizing the cartoon contest to draw pictures of the Prophet Muhammad in Texas that ended with police shooting the two alleged terrorists who tried to attack the event. Geller rejects criticism that she was mocking Muslims with the cartoon contest. She claims it was a protest to support free speech. She says she plans to repeat the event in the future.

ROMANS: The Secret Service is reinforcing security following several high profile breaches at the White House. Officials say the temporary enhancements include adding sharp metal spikes on top of the White House fence to deter any future jumpers. New security measures also include replacing concrete barriers at vehicle checkpoint was mobile steel plate barriers.

BERMAN: This looks like a Leonardo Da Vinci sketch. This looks like something from the renaissance. What's that?

ROMANS: A new officer booth at one of the entrances as well. Look at that. Steel pencil point.

They had a real problem with the White House being an attraction for fence jumpers.

BERMAN: All right. The United States has a controversial plan to fight ISIS in Syria.

[05:20:01] We're live right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: The U.S. military is now training Syrian rebels for the fight against ISIS. This program launched 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)

ROMANS: I want to bring in CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh live from Beirut.

And, Nick, how are they deciding who, which rebels to train and arm here?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a complex vetting process which has been long trailed, is involving psychological testing, background checks as well.

But at this stage, it is 90, as you just heard. So, we are losing power here. You may not be able to hear me. We are talking about 90 in the first wave initially being trained of a group that will go on to be 400 strong in terms of the vetted on the list. That is a list of 3,000 who applied to be part of this program.

Now, the 400 U.S. military trainers. The question is does that 3,000 expand to other numbers? There are tens of thousands of rebels of various descriptions at play on the Syrian battle field right now.

[05:25:05] The question being what to do. These U.S. trained troops finally end up doing. They will be better equipped. They will have better weaponry. That's some of their counterparts. The radios and medical training as well, vehicles.

Do they, though, as initially thought, just end up defending their towns from ISIS or do they end up dragged like other rebels have in fights with the regime, or even fight with other rebel factions that may have more radical ideology than them?

It potentially the (INAUDIBLE) because the second question the U.S. must be asking is what happens if these rebels come under attack, and they spent all this money and time training? Do they come to defense with power and artillery? It's a complex question. Some say it is far too little, far too late in terms of solid Western intervention. It's now over a four-year long conflict.

The question being, where does this really stop for the West and its allies -- Christine.

ROMANS: So many questions actually about U.S. involvement there. Is it enough or is it not enough, or is it too late? Thanks so much for that, Nick Paton Walsh.

BERMAN: We do have breaking news. At least six people are dead in Pakistan. A military helicopter carrying foreign diplomats crashed. The military spokesman tweeted two pilots and four foreigners were killed. A witness tell CNN the chopper exploded in a fireball after crashing into a school. Obviously, we need many more details, including the nationalities of non-Pakistanis in that crash.

ROMANS: All right. We'll continue to follow that for you.

Other breaking news this morning: big night for conservatives in Britain. Big changes in Scotland. Election results are in. We are breaking it all down for you, next.

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