Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Manhunt for New York Prison Escapees; Pool Party Chaos: Officer Resigns; The War on ISIS: more U.S. Troops to Iraq?; Putin to Meet Pope While Battle Rages in Ukraine. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired June 10, 2015 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now: narrowing an intense search for two killers who made a shocking prison break. A new tip in this case and the help they may have had in their escape. That's ahead.

Brand-new developments in that out of control pool party that ended with a police officer drawing his gun on unarmed teenagers. That man has now quit the force.

More U.S. troops could soon be heading to Iraq to fight ISIS, hundreds more. We're live with a possible new plan ahead.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans this Wednesday morning. It is 30 minutes past the hour. John Berman has the morning off.

Happening now, authorities have a couple of new important breaks in the manhunt for two convicted killers escaped from a maximum security prison in Upstate New York.

The first break, a source tells CNN investigators they think a woman who worked with Richard Matt and David Sweat at the Clinton correction facility, that woman planned to pick them up after their escape Friday. But source says Joyce Mitchell changed her mind at the last minute and she wound up in the hospital suffering panic attacks.

Her son dismissing that and say there is no way she was having an affair with one of the men.

Mitchell's son Tobey rejecting any suggestion she voluntarily helped those inmates escaped, telling NBC News there is no way she was having an affair with one of the men.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOBEY MITCHELL, SON OF PRISON WORKER: She is not the kind of person that's going to risk her life or other people's lives to let these guys escape from prison.

She definitely wouldn't have an affair against my father, and it definitely wouldn't be with an inmate. There's no truth to that. REPORTER: There is a report out there that your mom went to the emergency room with a panic attack. Did that happen?

MITCHELL: Yes. She was, in fact, in the hospital that evening. I don't know the exact details. I just know that she was having severe chest pains and she was concerned about that.

My mom, she worries a lot about everything. I mean, especially with me.

People might say no matter what, I wouldn't do that. Well, when you're put in a situation where family members threatened or other family members might be, you know, threatened or at risk, you do a lot of things that you wouldn't think you would do. And in my family, family always comes first.

REPORTER: Were there threats, Tobey?

MITCHELL: I have no idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. Here is the second break in the case. A witness report of two suspicious men spotted walking down a road in rural Willsboro. That's some 40 miles south of that prison. That's where CNN's Jason Carroll picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, for several hours, a number of law enforcement were out here on the ground, searching by foot and by air. This after on Monday night, they got a tip that two men were spotted walking around during the middle of a storm in the middle of a street when a car approached, apparently, those two men took off. That set off a lot of red flags. That's also what set off this massive search out here where we are located it's just about 40 miles south of where the prison is located. So you can imagine why this search effort was under way here.

Again, searching by ground, searching by air in terms of the ground search and the property where we are, it's bordered by a train tracks on one side, by a river on the other side. At one point, officers walking shoulder-to-shoulder as they conducted their search throughout the woods. . it wasn't just a search in the woods, but they also checked security cameras, resident security cameras and security cameras from businesses as well. So far, we're told that has turned up nothing.

So, it's going to be another restless day for many residents in this rural area -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Jason. Thank you for that, Jason.

Now, for days, authorities have been warning how dangerous Richard Matt and David Sweat are. Few people understand that threat like Matt's accomplice in a 1977 crime. A man named Lee Bates. Bates served 15 years for his role in the kidnapping and murder of businessman William Rickerson.

Now, Bates told Anderson Cooper he watched Richard Matt brutally beat Rickerson over a 27-hour period in an unsuccessful effort to get money from the man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEE BATES, MATT'S ACCOMPLICE IN 1997 MURDER: Torture is probably an understatement because once he -- at different points during the commission of what was the crime there, he used duct tape to tie Mr. Rickerson up. He beat him with anything and everything that he possibly can, a knife sharpener, security device, the club for my automobile.

He physically grabbed Mr. Rickerson's hands and pulled his fingers back until they snapped, punching him, beating him. Starting from in the house throughout the car ride and then eventually when he opened up the trunk and Mr. Rickerson told him, I'll take you to the money, let me out, and Richard Matt there then said, "I don't believe you, I don't believe you. You've been playing games with me, I don't believe you."

[04:35:05] And in a fit of rage, he reached into the car, grabbed Mr. Rickerson by his head and snapped his neck in front of me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That's the person who is on the loose right now after that jail break. Bates says he was afraid of Richard Matt then and is still afraid of him now.

A dramatic new development this morning in McKinney, Texas, where the police officer at the center of that pool party melee has resigned. Protesters have been calling for Corporal Eric Casebolt's badge, even his prosecution after he drew his gun on unarmed teenagers.

The host of the pool party telling CNN she's happy Casebolt is off the course.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TATYANA RHODES, HOST OF POOL PARTY: I feel that he could have done way better, performed better and acted better toward teens in this situation. Just like in the video, his peers were working way better, more appropriately than he was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: For the latest, let's turn to CNN's Nick Valencia in McKinney.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, the huge news on Tuesday night was the announcement of the resignation of Officer Eric Casebolt, the officer in question of that viral video posted over the weekend showing him wrestling a young teenage girl to the ground. The police chief of the McKinney police department came out and called his actions indefensible. He said of the 12 officers that responded to the incident on Friday, 11 of them acted appropriately, but Officer Casebolt wasn't one of them.

CHIEF GREG CONLEY, MCKINNEY POLICE DEPT.: Eric Casebolt has resigned from the McKinney Police Department. As the chief of police, I want to say to our community that the actions of Casebolt as seen on the video of the disturbance at the community pool are indefensible.

VALENCIA: This much is clear. We're told that the incident began with the physical altercation between an adult and a young teenager. We're told by one of the witnesses who wasn't within earshot of this but said that others heard it, that it began when an adult started hurling racial slurs at the young black teenagers. Neighbors that we spoke to there in the community say that just wasn't the case. One African-American resident in that subdivision where this incident took place on Friday said it was the teenagers that were causing the commotion and that the chaos didn't start until they started hopping the fence.

Now, this has created some division within the community and the case is far from over. Some are asking for charges to be brought against Officer Casebolt -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Nick.

Now, McKinney police have dropped the charges against one person arrested following that chaos. An 18-year-old named Adrian Martin.

To the war on ISIS now, the White House is considering a sweeping new strategy in the war on ISIS. The plan calls for a new military base in Iraq's Anbar province, manned by hundreds of U.S. military trainers. The goal: to help the Iraqis win back Ramadi.

Let's get the latest from CNN's Jomana Karadsheh.

And for sometime now, there's been pressure on the administration to clarify exactly what the strategy is to fight ISIS and decide whether there will be more boots on the ground in that fight.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, the U.S. administration has insisted that training local forces is the way forward, in addition to the air strikes that we have been seeing taking place for the past ten months. Now, we are hearing from U.S. officials that the administration is considering sending 500 more troops to Iraq. That raises the number of U.S. troops on the ground to more than 3,000. We are already there at this point.

Now, according to U.S. officials, these 500, if the decision is made, to send them, would mainly be there for training. Now, how the breakdown would be what these troops are doing is unclear at this point, how many of them will be training, how many will be doing other missions like air support and medical support and security, it's still unclear at this point.

But also U.S. officials are saying under consideration is establishing of increasing the number of training sites in Iraq. And as you mentioned, potentially also in Anbar province, the province that is predominantly controlled by ISIS, where we saw the group making gains recently, serious setbacks to the Iraqis with the takeover of the provincial capital of Anbar, Ramadi there.

Another thing the U.S. is considering doing is training Sunni tribes directly. Not arming them but training the tribes. As we have heard, U.S. officials, including President Obama is saying they want to see the Sunnis play a greater role in the fight against ISIS. They want to try and replicate a U.S. strategy of 2006 and 07 that helped turn the tide in the fight against ISIS predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq, by using these Sunni tribes to turn on the extremists and fight them in these areas.

Officials are saying that a final decision is expected soon, really underscoring the urgency here after ten months of the military campaign in Iraq.

[04:40:02] It does seem that ISIS is still very powerful group, as we have seen able to go on the offensive and capture new territories as we have seen in recent weeks -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Jomana Karadsheh for us this morning in Amman, Jordan -- thank you for that, Jomana.

This morning, the Secret Service and Capitol Hill police investigating two separate bomb threats that force evacuations of a Senate hearing and the White House briefing room. Reporters were moved to a separate building while the Secret Service kept the president and his family in place in the White House. Officials say they covered up TV cameras to protect the methods used to investigate bomb threats. Secret Service officials declined to discuss any possible connection between the two threats.

Another embarrassing development for the Secret Service. Turns out dozens of newly hired officers have been signed to the White House and other sensitive posts without the proper national security clearance. Some of them even having information to classified material. A rush to hire new personnel in the wake of the host of security lapses is being blamed. But the Secret Service director promising to fix that problem quickly.

Time for an early start of your money this Wednesday morning. Asian and European stocks are lower and U.S. stock futures looking more upbeat. Stocks are near record high, but uncertainty about a fed rate hike is weighing on the markets.

America has a part-time worker problem folks. That's the message from Republicans about the economy. But the truth a little more complicated. There are 6.6 million Americans working part-time who want full-time jobs. It's true that is higher than before the recession but a big improvement from the 2010 peak. The bad news for Democrats, a new study from the San Francisco Fed finds the growth in part-time jobs may be intensified by Obamacare and by higher minimum wages. Part time workers are more likely to live in poverty and get no benefits.

Are America's airports being kept safe from terrorists? Shocking new failures of the TSA revealed. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:27] ROMANS: Welcome back.

Stunning testimony from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security. John Roth appearing before a Senate Homeland Security Committee slamming the TSA for a host of shortcomings including a failure to detect 73 airport employees who were hired despite being on a federal database of potential terrorists.

We get more from CNN's Rene Marsh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, on Capitol Hill, serious questions raised about whether the TSA is capable of protecting the flying public from terrorists. The agency is struggling with low morale, faulty airport screening equipment, officers failing to detect weapons and fake explosives, and inadequate vetting of airport workers.

Now, lawmakers are calling for a complete overhaul of the agency. The TSA was not at this hearing, but the Department of Homeland Security inspector general was. He told lawmakers, quote, "He is deeply concerned about TSA's ability to execute its important mission."

Those are sobering words from the government auditor behind a scathing report, revealing TSA cleared more than 70 people with links to terrorism to work at U.S. airports. The inspector general was also behind the recent covert bomb threat that TSA officers failed miserably at airport checkpoints.

Now, some of the possibilities is more bomb sniffing dogs and better communication between agencies, sharing information about individuals on terror watch lists. We should point out that CNN reached out to TSA for comment but they have not yet responded -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

We are learning new details this morning about the charges against former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. He emerged from hiding to go plead not guilty Tuesday in federal court in Chicago. The 73-year-old Hastert is charged with structuring cash withdrawals from banks and lying to the FBI about the reason. Prosecutors believe he was buying the silence of a former student to cover up allegations of sexual abuse.

The FBI says Hastert made 106 withdrawals of less than $10,000 to avoid bank reporting requirements. They say he promised to pay $3.5 million to the person identified in the indictment only as individual A. Hastert has not been charged with sexual abuse.

He will not officially join the presidential race until Monday. But Jeb Bush, he is polishing his foreign policy credentials during a three-nation trip to Europe. Bush meeting Tuesday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, urging the country's political leaders to take a tough line for Russia for its aggression in Ukraine. He travels later today to Poland and in Estonia where the focus is expected on the crisis in Ukraine.

The pope is set to meet with Russia's president as a battle rages on in Ukraine. Could the meeting between the world leaders end with any kind of a new peace plan? We are live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:52:06] ROMANS: A big meeting today at the Vatican. Pope Francis hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Holy See trying to build relations with Moscow, even as Putin's government is facing increasing isolation on the world's stage.

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is at the Vatican with more.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Christine.

Certainly, the pope is hoping whatever he talks with President Putin about, it can help bring peace. We know that two items of the agenda is Ukraine and plight of Christians in the Middle East and there, the pope certainly hope President Putin can play a role.

The pope is walking a tight rope here. On the one hand, you have President Putin, ostracized, an outcast from the G7. It was the G8. And that meeting took place just a couple of days ago. So, President Putin gets to come to Italy, gets to sort of elevated on the world stage, if you will, by meeting with the pope. That's what he gets out of it.

But what will the hope get out of it? Well, the pope has faced criticism for Ukraine's 4 million to 5 million Catholics for not being critical enough of Russia and what they believe it's doing inside of Ukraine. He has called the situation in Ukraine fratricide. And Ukraine's Catholic said, it needs to go further. He needs to go further than that, and criticized Russia for its responsibility.

His position he wants to bring about peace. But when you look at the Middle East, the pope is going to be looking to president Putin to help protect the Middle East Christians, many of whom look to the eastern orthodox Russian faith as protectors at a time when they are under increasing pressure in the Middle East. Of course, the pope is trying to build sort of a historic bridge, if you will, between that ancient schism in the charge, going back to (INAUDIBLE) 54. So, a lot going on at multiple levels, but undoubtedly, Ukraine is the most pressing peace issues that the pope could be addressing at this time -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Nic Robertson. It looks like a beautiful day in Rome and a big meeting on deck there. Thank you, Nic.

Breaking overnight: South Korea's president postponing her upcoming visit to Washington in order to deal with the MERS outbreak in her country. Her government under fire for allowing the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome to become the largest outside of Saudi Arabia. Her press office says she plans to reschedule that visit very soon.

One hundred eight MERS cases have been confirmed. Nine people have died and thousands are under quarantine.

Now, this ad may look innocent enough. But not everyone sees it that. Look at this ad for a moment. There's a vicious fight raging online about this ad and millions of dollars caught in the middle. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Good Wednesday morning. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an early start on your money this morning.

Asian shares are down after one of the world's major equity indexes says Chinese stocks are not ready for prime time. They are not ready to be included. European stocks and U.S. stock futures are looking brighter. They're up a little bit right now.

You know, stocks really near record highs but they are being capped by the prospect that higher borrowing costs are on the way in the U.S.

All right. Who do Americans love working for on? Google's Larry Page. A brand new report finds the CEO had a 97 percent approvable rating from employees who submitted feedback nonetheless. They like his vision and how quickly he responds to questions.

Also atop of this list were Nike's Mark Parker and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

There is an angry, ugly debate raging online about this Wells Fargo ad. Look at it quickly. In April, Wells Fargo became the first American bank to feature a gay relationship in its ads. Now, Christian evangelist Franklin Graham is pulling his organization millions of dollars out of Wells Fargo bank in protest. The group has started moving its money to BB&T instead. Wells Fargo says it stands behind the ad campaign and supports the LGBT community.

All right. Fifty-nine minutes past the hour. EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC) ROMANS: Happening now: the search narrows for the two killers who broke out of prison. This morning, the new tip that has focused the search and new information on how they may have managed their escape.

The police officer at the center of a pool party controversy, he is now off the job, resigning after being caught on camera pointing his gun at unarmed teenagers.