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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

NSA Spy Program Expires; Iran Nuclear Negotiations: New Obstacles; Biden Family Grieves Loss of Son. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 01, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:27] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, the NSA's domestic surveillance program is over for now. The Senate fails to extend the agency's right to spy on Americans. The conversation won't end here. Details ahead.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A surprising new obstacle to a nuclear deal with Iran -- a broken leg. Secretary of State John Kerry coming home after a major bike accident. So, what does his femur mean for diplomacy?

ROMANS: The life of Beau Biden cut tragically short. New condolences pouring in for the vice president and his family.

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

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Good to see you today. It is Monday, June 1st. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.

And breaking overnight, key counterterror programs run by the NSA, they expired overnight at midnight. After the U.S. Senate could not reach agreement Sunday on extending legal authority to continue them at least for now. Instead, Senate leaders are dropping their opposition to any changes in existing programs and setting up a vote later this week on surveillance reforms already passed by the U.S. House.

CNN's Athena Jones with the latest from Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

Several provisions of the Patriot Act expire just a few hours ago at midnight because the Senate failed to pass a bill to extend the law.

Take a listen to some of the debate from the Senate floor last night from the two Republican senators from Kentucky, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who spoke in favor of these programs, and Senator Rand Paul who spoke in opposition. Take a listen.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: These aren't theoretical threats, Mr. President. It's not theoretical threat. They are with us every day. We have to face up to them. We shouldn't be disarming unilaterally as our enemies grow more sophisticated and aggressive.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The people who argue the world will end and we are overrun by jihadists. They want to take a little bit of your liberty, but they get it by making you afraid. They want you to fear and give up your liberty.

JONES: In the end, by a vote of 77-17, the Senate did agree to proceed to debate on the USA Freedom Act. That's the bill that already passed the House, that would keep these Patriot Act programs going while reforming the phone data collection program that's been so controversial. This sets up the vote for final passage around mid- week in the Senate, that's because of some Senate procedural rules and also some amendments that may end up being voted on.

Now, of course, if they amend that USA Freedom Act, that passed that House, if they change it, it's going to have to go back to the House so that they can consider these changes. So, this is far from over -- John, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Athena Jones. Thanks for that, Athena.

More tributes overnight to Vice President Joe Biden's son. Beau Biden died Saturday of brain cancer. He was just 46. The Iraq war veteran had served two terms as the attorney general of Delaware. Beau Biden was praised over the weekend by prominent Democrats, including the Clintons, Republicans including Sarah Palin, and by the president who visited with the Biden family on Sunday.

Our national correspondent Sunlen Serfaty has more from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Christine, the vice president was at his son's bedside when he passed away on Saturday evening, as well as the rest of his family. And over the years, the vice president's office, they've been very limited in their details of what illness Beau Biden was suffering, really keeping the details close to their vests, only recently revealing when he passed away on Saturday evening that he did have brain cancer.

He first became sick in 2010 when he had a stroke. In 2013, we know he was diagnosed then with cancer when he became disoriented on vacation and later had surgery to remove a brain lesion. Two weeks ago, Beau Biden was admitted to Walter Reed Military Hospital, which is just outside of D.C. And in the time since, there has been an outpouring of support from Washington.

This is how they opened up the Senate floor last night.

MCCONNELL: Beau Biden was known to many as a dedicated public servant, a loving father of two, and a devoted partner to the women he loved, Hallie. SEN. HARRY REID (D), NEVADA: Delaware is a better place because of

Beau. Our country is in better place because of Beau. And the world is a better place because of Beau Biden.

SERFATY: Beau Biden is actually the second child of Joe Biden that had passed away. He lost his 1-year-old daughter in a car accident in the 1970s. So, sadly, he has been through this tragedy of losing a child before.

[04:05:00] President Obama says he is grieving along with the Biden family, saying of Vice President Joe Biden, quote, "Joe is one of the strongest men we've ever known. He is as strong as they come and nothing matters to him more than family. It's one of the things we love about him. And it is a testament to Joe and Jill, to who they are, that Beau lived a life that was full, a life that mattered, a life that reflected their reverence for family."

And President Obama and the first lady spent time with the Biden family on Sunday. He spent about 30 minutes at their home here in Washington, D.C. -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Sunlen Serfaty, thanks for that.

BERMAN: You know what's sad, is that Joe Biden had to deal with so much sadness over his life. And he consoled so many who go through things like this before. And one of the things he often tells parents who lose children, and he goes, there will come a time in your life when the memory of your child will put a smile on your face before it brings a tear to your eye.

ROMANS: Ooh.

BERMAN: And your heart goes out to that entire family.

ROMANS: We wish them all the best.

BERMAN: Overnight, John Kerry's doctor jumped on the plane to Switzerland. Surgeon Dennis Burke will accompany the secretary of state when he returns to the United States later today. Kerry broke his leg while biking on Sunday. He was in Switzerland for the nuclear talks with Iran's foreign minister and was supposed to attend a meeting on Tuesday in Paris to discuss the battle against ISIS. Now, he faces up to six months of rehab.

I want to turn to correspondent Nic Robertson who is on the phone from Geneva.

And, you know, the secretary of state, Nic, has a very full plate. A June 30th deadline to reach this nuclear deal. How will this femur factor into the situation?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): It's already factoring in, John. I mean, clearly, Secretary Kerry when he was brought to this hospital, the university hospital in Geneva, I mean, I'm right outside of it. Now, when he was brought here yesterday, clearly, atop of his agenda was to get back home and get on the mend. And, clearly, his doctors have had other advice.

His additional security outside this hospital, checking vehicles before they go in. That's abnormal, clearly that's because Secretary Kerry is here. He is awaiting his doctor Dennis Burke to arrive from Boston.

But the way that it's going to impact the talks here, they are now 30 days to the deadline for negotiations with Iran. There are many issues that remain unresolved. Key among them are inspections and sanctions. Secretary Kerry's relationship with the Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif has been key to moving these talks along. It's a personal relationship. They both know each other and they both read each other.

While Secretary Kerry has a lot of experts at his disposal to negotiate and fine-tune some of the details and understand what each step in the negotiation means, getting those steps to happen is very much a personal matter between him and the Foreign Minister Zarif, and being able to read the foreign minister, read his face, read his language, understand his expressions, know when he is pushed too hard, know when a little more concession might be made. That has been critical.

Now, the deadline for that is 30 days from now, as Secretary Kerry is really going to have a long rehab, we're told to expect, that could very well have an impact. At the moment, he is still in hospital here. He has been in hospital now for almost 24 hours, John.

BERMAN: You know, at one point, they thought he might fly back on Sunday, but they wanted to keep him overnight for observations. Obviously, this is a fairly serious thing. He had a hip injury before. This to be clear, he broke his femur, which is a serious injury on your leg, very painful. It takes a long time to recover from.

Nic Robertson for us in Geneva. We will stay on this story for you. Thanks, Nic.

ROMANS: He must be frustrated. He's got such a busy, busy agenda.

Hillary Clinton's two declared challengers for the Democratic nomination both hit the campaign trail in Iowa over the weekend. Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley christened his Des Moines headquarters Saturday night, taking questions from the hundreds packed into the room.

Former Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders drew overflow crowds across the state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The United States of America for public colleges and public universities tuition will be free. MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm most comfortable

actually as an underdog. When I ran for mayor, I was -- my two opponents both had name recognition north of 80 percent, and I was first choice of a whopping 7 percent of my neighbors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: In recent polls, Sanders is drawing around 15 percent to Clinton's 60 percent. While O'Malley has barely registered yet.

BERMAN: The former Florida Governor Jeb Bush says he hopes to run for president, although he actually claims he still hasn't made a decision. Bush is battling understandable accusations that he is violating campaign laws by using his super PAC to raise money for his yet undeclared bid for the White House.

This is what he said on "Face the Nation."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB SCHIEFFER, FACE THE NATION: Do you think you may be violated the spirit of the law? Do you feel that you violated the law here?

[04:10:00] JEB BUSH (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: Of course not. I would never do that. I'm nearing the end of the journey of traveling and listening to people, garnering and trying to get a sense of whether my candidacy would be viable or not. We're going to completely adhere to the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So interesting. He said, "I hope I run." If only there was someone he knew that could make that decision. It is interesting to hearing candidate says, I hope I can run. He went on to discuss the president's plan to defeat ISIS. He's not all happy with it. He says the U.S. should embed troops with Iraqi forces to train them and to help identify targets.

Lindsey Graham, he's getting in. He's going to announce his bid for the White House later today. The South Carolina senator will become the ninth official candidate in the fight for the Republican nomination. Plus, the others such as Jeb Bush who are essentially running without actually saying it out loud.

Senator Graham is considered a long shot by many. The three-term senator draws about 2 percent in national polls or sometimes even less.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this Monday morning.

Stocks up around the world. Asian and European stocks are higher. U.S. stock futures are higher as well. Looks like a good start to June so far.

On Friday, stocks finished May trading with solid gains. The Dow and S&P climbed 1 percent. The NASDAQ had a really nice day, up more than 2 1/2 percent.

One thing to watch this week: OPEC ministers will meet in Vienna for the second time since prices plunged last summer. The likely outcome, keep production the same. The U.S. oil boom has been a big factor driving prices down. But now, growth is starting to fade and oil prices rebounded from $45 a barrel to $60 now.

So, OPEC very likely to keep output high even if that means cheaper oil. So, that's the big meeting to watch this week.

BERMAN: Excellent.

All right. Happening now, Iraqis are increasing their attacks in the fight against ISIS. We're going to go live to the region with the very latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Iraqi troops hitting an ISIS stronghold hard Sunday, marking the heaviest in three days of air and artillery attack on Fallujah and surrounding villages.

[04:15:03] Witnesses tell CNN at least 31 people have been killed, another 82 wounded. Meantime, officials in the west are on edge as ISIS gains ground in Libya.

CNN's international correspondent Ian Lee brings us the latest live from Cairo this morning.

And so, that advance is moving slowly, I think it is fair to say.

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You are right there, Christine. They are moving slowly. That's mainly because ISIS is very good at digging in and slowing down Iraqi forces. They leave these roadside bombs, these mines, which Iraqi forces are very careful to avoid. They do hit them from time to time, but a lot of it are these engineering teams going in and trying to clear the road.

But we're seeing these air strikes and this artillery which has been crucial in the past to dislodged is from their areas that they hold. But don't expect this to be a quick battle. ISIS knows how to dig in. And we've seen in the past, they will fight until the last man.

They are, though, going up against the Shiite militias which have proven to be effective in the past, although controversial. Another force we are watching closely are the Sunni tribes who had been complaining they are not getting the weapons from the Iraqi central government.

Weapons that they desperately need. United States has said they are talking about arming these Sunni tribes directly, something that the tribes are very happy with.

But there is a lot of mistrust between the two. That is difficult moving forward as Anbar province is predominantly Sunni.

ROMANS: All right. Ian Lee for us this morning in Cairo, thank you, Ian.

BERMAN: Sixteen minutes after the hour.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says he will find whoever is responsible for the mistaken live anthrax shipments to 11 states, Australia and South Korea and he says he will hold them accountable. The secretary says Pentagon officials are working with the Centers for Disease Control to address this problem. Four lab workers in Delaware, Texas and Wisconsin are now taking antibiotics as a precaution. The Pentagon is giving preventative antibiotics to 22 workers in Korea.

ROMANS: Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert expected to face a judge this week on charges of lying to the FBI. A federal law enforcement official has confirmed to CNN the 73-year-old former high school wrestling coach and teacher allegedly paid off a male student he sexually abuse in the 1980s. Hastert is facing a federal indictment, accusing him of paying this alleged victim more than $1 million over the last four years. The indictment says Hastert lied to the FBI about allegedly taking off large sums of cash to buy the man's silence.

BERMAN: The three shootings over the weekend in Baltimore marks its deadliest month in more four decades. The three fatal shootings Sunday brought May's homicide count to 43. That makes it the deadliest month since 45 people were killed in August 1972. In all, there have been 116 homicides in Baltimore so far this year.

ROMANS: In New York City, ten people recovering this morning following a crane accident. It happened Sunday morning when an industrial air conditioner being hoisted by a crane fell 28 stories. Authorities say the cable snapped. Ten people were hit by falling debris. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will conduct a full investigation to determine exactly what caused that accident.

BERMAN: A 9-year-old girl is in critical condition this morning after a car slammed into the terminal at Los Angeles International Airport. A spokesman for the L.A. Fire Department said the accident happened just before 5:00 p.m. at the departure level. The sports sedan plowed into the girl on the sidewalk before crashing into utility room. The police are looking into what caused this tragedy.

ROMANS: Too bad.

All right. People in Texas still reeling from devastation caused by that widespread flooding. Look at those pictures. Many areas still submerged. Thousands of homes destroyed. Officials say enough rain fell in May to cover the entire state to the depth of eight inches. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton expected in Hays County to assess the damage and promise to protect victims, look at that, from disaster scams and price gouging, but using basically boats and aircraft to herd cattle.

BERMAN: Yes, we have seen pictures. That's just one cattle. You've seen pictures of, you know, hundreds of cattle being wrangled by this hovercraft. And there, some of them right there in these flood- ravaged areas.

ROMANS: Now, fortunately, the weather in Texas is expected to improve. Now, the Northeast facing a flood threat stretching from Maine to New York.

Let's bring in meteorologist Derek Van Dam for an early look at your weather.

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

Here is the fine how do you do -- 20 degree temperature change from this time yesterday. Look at these daytime highs for New York, 66 compared to yesterday's 87. We are talking 20 to 25 degrees in some locations. Providence up to Boston.

Obviously, we have some sort of system moving through. This low pressure will bring rain to the New England coast including the Big Apple, all the way to Boston, expect a quarter to even upwards of an inch of rainfall. Cooler weather settling in.

[04:20:03] We remove rainfall from the Plain States. That's good news. Texas gets the opportunity to dry out. We have this active weather pattern that's instead going to bring the rainfall to the East Coast. In fact, we have flash flood watches for the greater New York City region stretching through parts of Connecticut.

We also have a chilly morning in store already felt across northern Michigan and into the U.P. of Michigan. Those parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Look at these overnight lows. Marquette, Michigan, dropping to 40 degrees overnight.

ROMANS: Are you kidding me?

BERMAN: That seems nice now we have the hot stuff.

ROMANS: No, no. That's not nice.

Travel ban extended for five Taliban prisoners freed by the U.S. traded for then captive Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. This ban is only temporary. We are live with what comes next, right after the break.

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ROMANS: Qatar is agreeing to temporarily extend travel ban on five senior Taliban leaders released from prison at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for captured Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, this after the Obama administration said it was closing on a deal to extend restrictions for six months.

Let's get right to CNN international correspondent Becky Anderson. She is live for us this morning in Abu Dhabi -- Becky.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. For now, they stay in Qatar. Nothing has been officially announced.

[04:25:00] But a senior U.S. official telling CNN that the tiny Gulf nation has agreed to temporarily extend this travel ban.

You will remember the images, Christine, remember these a year ago today, jubilation as these men who have been in Guantanamo bay for 12 years, mostly mid to high level officials of the Taliban regime on Qatari soil reunited with family members. As I say, they had been in Guantanamo Bay for 12 years at that point, relinquished by the U.S. in agreement for the release of Bowe Bergdahl, held by the Taliban, of course, for five years.

Now, how long the ban will be in effect and what happens to the men and their families going forward? Very unclear. We are told only that the U.S. officials are, and I quote, in close contact with Qatari authorities to make sure that these individuals don't pose a threat to the U.S.

Washington, Christine, is clearly concerned about the prospects of these men returning to the battlefield and endangering the U.S. troops and advisers who are still, of course, in Afghanistan, albeit in advisory roles. Those concerns only heightened by reports of three of the former detainees have attempted to make contact with active members of the Taliban while they've been under supervision.

Behind closed doors, I have to say, that this prisoner exchange which was touted as a win-win a year ago when news of it was first released, now seen by many in Qatar as an out and out failure on the part of the Obama administration. As we are all well-aware, Bowe Bergdahl was recently charged with desertion -- Christine.

ROMANS: It is the American military policy, they don't leave anyone. Even someone they say is a deserter on the battlefield. It's a very complicated, sticky situation.

Thank you so much for that, Becky Anderson.

BERMAN: And breaking overnight, the NSA's controversial domestic surveillance program, it expired at midnight. Congress did not extend that part of the Patriot Act. So, what does this mean? Does that mean that the U.S. is less secure this morning? The details, next.

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