Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Cruise Ship Sinks: Hundreds Missing; Alarming Failure for TSA; Introducing Caitlyn Jenner; Houthis Free U.S. Journalist. Aired 4- 4:30a ET
Aired June 02, 2015 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:15] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning: a frantic rescue mission. Hundreds of tourists missing after their cruise ship sinks. We are live.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Shocking failure at the TSA. Replica bombs, weapons, contrabands smuggled past check points at airports across the country. This morning, the TSA leader ousted. Details on the shakeup, ahead.
ROMANS: Introducing Caitlyn Jenner, now sharing her story from transformation from U.S. Olympic hero to America's highest profile transgender person. Photos are simply amazing. Everyone is talking about that this morning.
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Great to see you. It is Tuesday, June 2nd, 4:00 a.m. in the East.
And we begin with breaking news: frantic search is underway on China's Yangtze River, rescuers scrambling to save survivors from a cruise ship that capsized in the storm. More than 400 people were onboard. Crews report hearing sounds through the hull. They're desperately trying to reach passengers they believe could be trapped inside.
Chinese state media reports just 14 survivors have been rescued. Remember, more than 400 people on board. Among the rescued, the captain and chief engineer who are in police custody.
Let's get the latest from CNN's Anna Coren.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, a desperate search is underway for any more survivors onboard the ships that was carrying 450 people when it sank last night on the Yangtze River in eastern China. So far at least, a dozen people have been rescued, including a 65-year-old grandmother, who reportedly kept thanking the drivers who brought her out of the water.
The chartered cruise ship with mainly senior citizens on board was traveling to Nanjing to Chongqing, two of China's largest cities. It was reportedly hit by a cyclone last night and capsized in less than a minute. It took more than two hours for authorities to be alerted after a survivor swam to shore and raise the alarm.
The captain and chief engineer who both survived have been taken into police custody. Premier Li Keqiang who was on the scene said every effort must be made to save lives, demanding that rescuers have every resource at their disposal and has ordered an investigation -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. We'll keep you up-to-date on that. Thank you, Anna Coren, for those details.
Breaking overnight, the acting head of the TSA losing his job after tests found that airport screeners failed to detect weapons and explosives 95 percent of the time. That would be an "A" in missing the dangerous stuff.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announcing overnight that the acting TSA administrator Melvin Carraway is being reassigned. The chairman of the House committee that oversees the TSA, Jason Chaffetz, calling the test results deeply alarming.
Aviation and government regulation correspondent Rene Marsh has the latest for us from Reagan National Airport in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine and John, undercover agent with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, they tested the system at airport security check points. They tried to smuggle weapons as well as fake explosives through these checkpoints. They performed 70 tests and they were successful 67 times.
This sort of operation has been done for years. The goal is to test the vulnerabilities as well as to strengthen the system. So, by design, this test is very difficult.
But as one former TSA official puts it, there's no way, absolutely not, the failure rate should be as high as it was. It was 95 percent. We are hearing from the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Jeh Johnson says that he has called for six actions.
The first one, he wants revised screening procedures. He wants the results of the testing to be shared with airports across the country. He wants more training for TSA officers. He also wants TSA screening equipment to be retested and reevaluated. He wants these covert operations to continue, and lastly, Secretary Johnson says he is appointing a team to make sure this happens in a timely fashion -- Christine, John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right. Rene Marsh, thanks for that. At the start, 95 percent is pretty much almost always.
All right. Four minutes after the hour.
Expected later today, a vote in the Senate on restoring the NSA surveillance programs that lapsed the other night when legal authority for them expired. On Monday, Republican Senator Rand Paul once again thwarted Mitch McConnell's efforts to get a speedy vote on the USA Freedom Act.
Senator Paul wants to tweak the bill adding more restrictions on NSA data collection. But any amendments would send the measure back to the House and extend the time the NSA goes without the bulk collection of America's telephone records or ability, I should say, to access the bulk collection of American telephone records.
[04:05:05] CNN's Michelle Kosinski is at the White House with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John and Christine.
Even yesterday, we saw Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to cobble together the unanimous vote to move forward and take a vote on this issue last night. But once again, he was blocked by Rand Paul.
Meanwhile, the White House keeps urging the Senate to act in the name of national security, calling this an unnecessary risk. But the White House still won't go so far as to say that the American public is now less safe since these four Patriot Act's programs have expired. They refer us to intelligence officials.
They still won't give any concrete examples also of how any of these programs actually helped in the past. They say national security concerns prevent them from giving away that information, calling them important tools that have generated some info in the past that wasn't generated through other means.
What the White House will do freely is criticize the Senate. Here's this.
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Unfortunately, what we have seen is a whole lot of posturing within the Republican Party. There's a lot of politics being played on this, and unfortunately, it's coming at the expense of the national security and civil liberties of the American people.
KOSINSKI: So, you have Rand Paul doing pretty much a victory lap, since these programs have indeed expired for now. But the price he said was a verbal beating from key members of his own party, calling his tactics political posturing and fund raising.
The reality is this bipartisan bill that already passed the House that puts the bulk data collection out of the hands of the government and into the hands of the phone companies will likely pass, just maybe with some amendments. Some senators, for example, want to make sure the phone companies are going to do it in a way that is useful to the government.
Bottom line is, it's going to take time, but we could see a real vote on this as early as today -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Michelle Kosinski at the White House -- thanks, Michelle.
Developing overnight: Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Boston for surgery on his broken leg. Kerry broke his femur Sunday during a biking accident in the French Alps. Nuclear talks with Iran had hit a critical stage, and with less than a month to reach a deal, it is not clear when the 71-year-old secretary will be able to fly again and his staffers are saying he is working the phones, he is firing off emails, he is working. They say the injury will not affect the talks.
Meanwhile, international inspectors report that Iran's stockpile of nuclear fuel has increased 20 percent during the last 18 months. The White House has been claiming Iran's nuclear production has been frozen during those talks.
BERMAN: Secretary Kerry will miss a critical meeting in Paris today. Senior officials from the U.S.-led coalition will be holding a strategy session. They will discuss ways to defeat ISIS.
The meeting comes on the heels of a lot of failure, the fall of Ramadi. The U.S. has delivered 2,000 anti-tank weapons to defend against suicide bombers. The terrorist group is on the move again, this time in Syria, launching a surprise weekend attack in Aleppo, the northern part of that nation. That latest push brings ISIS closer and closer once again to the Turkish border.
And according to a new CNN poll, six in 10 Americans believe the military action against ISIS is going badly. President Obama taking a hit in terms of approval ratings on how he's handling it -- 44 percent of Americans blame him for the unfolding crisis in Iraq, 43 percent says it is George W. Bush's fault.
For the latest on the talks to defeat ISIS, let's go live to the Middle East and bring in CNN's Ian Lee.
Ian, the discussions in Paris today, what are they about?
IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, foreign ministers from 24 different countries are arriving at the meeting right now. They are going to be talking about an array of issues.
Before this meeting takes place, we've heard from Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi who gave some scathing remarks about the international coalition, saying that the coalition partners are not providing Iraqi forces with sufficient air intelligence to stem ISIS' advances while support for ground operations was also lacking. He pointed out that ISIS moves in small groups and they are not getting enough intelligence to track these movements.
But what this meeting will take place will be talking about is really twofold. You have the military operation on the ground. How they can provide enough support and coordinate better to defeat ISIS and to stop their advances.
On the other side, you also have the political developments. You may remember, this really all begun with the divide between the Sunnis and Shiites.
A lot of talk is going to be how to bridge that divide to get them to come together and really build some trust between the two sides. Only that way will they be able to ultimately be able to defeat is and really have a united Iraq if they are able to defeat the organization.
[04:10:02] BERMAN: You talked about what Haider al-Abadi wants from the coalition. In particular, what does Iraq want from the United States right now?
LEE: Well, what Iraq wants is first more air surveillance to follow the movements of ISIS. They also want more weaponry. We know the United States is providing 2,000 anti-armor weapons. These are crucial as we've seen one of the deadly tactics by ISIS is to drive these armored vehicles into the frontlines, detonate them, killing dozens of people, creating chaos, and they exploit that. That's one thing they want.
They want also training to help get their soldiers get the fighters up to a level where they can push back against ISIS. Also, Sunni fighters are asking for those weapons and training as well to push back and retake their homeland.
BERMAN: Ian Lee for us -- thanks so much, Ian.
ROMANS: All right. The Pentagon now says live anthrax were sent to three additional labs, three more labs in Canada. That means live anthrax has been mistakenly sent to 12 states, Washington, D.C. and three countries. The samples originated at an Army lab in Utah. Scientists intended to ship inactive strains of those deadly spores for research. Defense officials say, so far, no one has been sickened by the anthrax samples.
BERMAN: Health insurance premiums could increase as much as 30 percent for people who purchase through Obamacare. According to the Obama administration, major U.S. carriers are seeking major rate hikes for 2016. Among the large proposed rate increases, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois looking to raise premiums by 29 percent or more for plans.
Last year, premiums for Obama increased an average 5.4 percent. That had been something the White House had bragged about. I do not think they will bragging about the 30 percent increases.
ROMANS: No.
All right. Time for an early start on your money. U.S. stock futures barely moving. But June already up to a pretty good start. That was yesterday, the Dow climbed 30 points, thanks to some positive signs for the economy.
I think you can expect that to continue today because we get auto sales later this morning. Likely to be strong, auto sales in the United States folks on pace for the best year since 2001. That says a lot about how consumers are feeling.
A judge has ordered Canada's three tobacco companies to pay $12 billion in damages. Plaintiffs in the case say the companies didn't do enough to warn of the dangers of smoking. Now, those with cancers who begun smoking before 1976 will get $80,000. And plaintiffs who started smoking later get $70,000. Company will pay tens of thousands of dollars in so-called moral damages to people with emphysema.
The tobacco companies said they will appeal. Consumers are well aware of the risk of smoking.
BERMAN: Interesting.
ROMANS: Yes, very.
BERMAN: All right. Also interesting -- hello Caitlyn Jenner. Caitlyn made her public debut on the cover of "Vanity Fair". The former Bruce Jenner is talking candidly about gender transition and finally being able to live freely as the person she believes she is inside.
The new Caitlyn Jenner Twitter handle drew more than 1 million followers in a matter of hours. That beat the record set by President Obama who responded by tweeting, "It takes courage to share your story." Caitlyn has sent three tweets so far.
But a really interesting rollout in "Vanity Fair". Beautiful pictures.
ROMANS: Yes, the pictures are really, really lovely. It is an interesting thing how her family is coming around and learning -- I guess, and introduced to a new person.
BERMAN: The family is complicated to begin with. You add this and this is a difficult transition for any family. It's fascinating.
Buzz Bissinger, who wrote the article, too, is a really great article. I encourage you all to read it.
Thirteen minutes after the hour.
Severe storms pounding the East Coast this morning. I mean, it is raining hard and has been for days now. Flash flood fears up and down the coast. We'll show you the damage and talk about what is coming this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:17:00] BERMAN: As Texas and Oklahoma finally start drying out, the East Coast is getting its turn for severe weather.
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: Reports Monday from Florida to Jersey of large hail, high winds and funnel clouds, flash flooding -- with more now in today's forecast.
ROMANS: In Atlanta, heavy rain triggered flash floods that just swamped streets and backed up traffic around the city. The sudden cloud burst flooded homes and totaled cars in this apartment complex parking lot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone on the bottom floor was trying to move their cars, but a few minutes later, there was nothing anybody could do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: In Washington, D.C., high winds toppled trees. Look at that tree hitting that bus there. Flash flooding from Monday's thunderstorms flooded Union Station.
ROMANS: Whoa!
BERMAN: Wow! Also city streets.
The flooding turned the stairs at the Metro Capital South Station -- looks like a waterfall there.
ROMANS: There is potentially more dangerous weather in today's forecast.
Meteorologist Ivan Cabrera is tracking the weather forecast and has the latest for us.
IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, John and Christine, the weather that we have seeing across Texas, the active weather now, is beginning to shift to the east. And so, all of the shower and thunderstorm activity will be there. In fact, we have been talking about significant rainfall.
Look at this: 2.5 inches in Baltimore. That was a record yesterday. These are the rains we could see again today. Some parts of New Jersey picking four inches of rainfall. This is radar estimated.
You can see it feel right across the Northeast Corridor here. And I think that will continue for today as our frontal boundary is in place. Flood watches remain in effect throughout the remainder of today and into this evening.
Forecast radar, you'll be able to see the showers and storms continue to bubble up here. Not expecting severe weather outbreak, but certainly heavy rainfall. So, rivers and streams are high. We could talk about some flash flooding taking place later on this afternoon. As far as the forecast rainfall, what we are expecting, anywhere from
2 to as much 4 additional inches in the next couple of days -- guys.
BERMAN: All right. Thanks so much.
Later this morning, a House committee begins investigating last month's deadly Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia. The president of Amtrak is expected to testify. Lawmakers want to know why the railroad had not yet installed automatic train control technology on the stretch of track where the derailment took place.
They will also explore the need for two-man crews and inward facing cameras. Amtrak says those are coming. We could learn more about engineer Brandon Bostian, and the actions he took immediately after the crash.
ROMANS: Another House committee will be looking into the Takata airbag mess today. Thirty-four million cars in this country have been recalled because of airbags that could explode with so much force, they spew metal fragments throughout the car. Six deaths have been linked to this defect. Takata's executive vice president, Kevin Kennedy, is expected to testify this afternoon.
BERMAN: The Supreme Court tossing out the conviction of a Pennsylvania man who wrote threatening messages to his estranged wife on Facebook. The case involved a man who adopted a rap persona and posted -- less (ph) what he said he was doing.
[04:20:00] He posted long tirades on Facebook in the form he says of rap lyrics.
Chief Justice John Roberts called them crude and degrading and violent, but the court said prosecutors failed to prove his intent on posting the threatening material on Facebook, which was directed at his wife.
ROMANS: In another case, the justices ruled in favor of a Muslim woman who sued Abercrombie and Fitch after she was rejected for a job when she was 17 years old because she wore a head scarf to the job interview. Samantha Elauf claimed Abercrombie has, quote, "look" policy violated her religious freedom. This ruling seen as potentially carrying landmark significant for workplace discrimination and religious liberty.
BERMAN: New information this morning held against their will in Yemen, torn by civil war. We will discuss the battle to bring these people back to safety. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: The White House and Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels are talking. The two sides meeting secretly last week in Oman. The negotiations led to the release of an American journalist, but three other U.S. nationals are still being held.
We get more this morning from CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, an American man Casey Coombs said to be a U.S. freelance journalist in Yemen was said to be released by the Houthi rebels in charge there.
[04:25:00] He was sent to Oman, apparently, a diplomatic initiative by Oman, a close U.S. ally, to get the Americans who are being held by the Houthis out of Yemen.
Coombs was met in Oman by U.S. diplomatic personnel. He is said by the State Department to be in stable condition.
It is believed that there are perhaps three or four additional Americans being held by the Houthis. One of them said to be a dual national U.S./Yemeni citizen. But very few details and in all candor, the U.S. may not be entirely clear how many Americans are being held because of the chaos in Yemen at this time.
It's believed that the Americans were detained or in some way arrested by the Houthis earlier this year and in the last several weeks when they did not leave Yemen as the U.S. so strongly advised Americans to do earlier this year.
Right now, there is a diplomatic effort to get any Americans out of there and out of any Houthi detention. This is not expected to turn into a military situation. This is all about diplomacy to get Americans freed -- John, Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Barbara, thank you for that this morning.
BERMAN: When you see that destruction, you can see the urgency to get people out.
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: Breaking news it this morning: a frantic search and rescue mission. Hundreds missing after the cruise ship sank, people believed to be trapped inside. We are live with new developments, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
