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Rebel Flag Fight Gains Momentum; Big Retailers Ban The Confederate Flag; Democrats Applaud Flag's Removal; Police Tape Of South Carolina Killer's Arrest; Joyce Mitchell Bombshell; Severe Storms Turn Deadly In Maryland. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired June 24, 2015 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New calls to drop the Confederate flag across the nation, politicians and businesses taking new action to ban this symbol of the old South.
ROMANS: Help hidden in hamburgers. Stunning revelations on how two dangerous killers escaped from prison.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
[05:30:00] BERMAN: Great to see you this morning. I'm John Berman. Thirty minutes past the hour.
And this morning, there are new moves to vanish the Confederate battle flag and remove Confederate symbols from the public square across the South. Leaders in at least seven southern states now debating everything from the confederate emblem from the state flag that's in Mississippi and striking it from license plates, that's in Virginia among other places.
The epicenter of the discussion, though, in South Carolina where a racist killer gunned down nine people in an African-American church last week, and that is where state leaders and protesters are demanding the removal of the confederate flag from the state capitol grounds. CNN's Ryan Young is in Columbia with the latest.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, a lot of debate about the flag behind me, the confederate flag. There was a large group of people came here today to talk about taking the flag down.
But across the United States, the conversation has now gotten a lot of steam. In Mississippi, where the confederate flag is a part of the state flag, they are talking about taking that off as well.
And in North Carolina and Georgia, they are talking about removing the confederate flag from state-sponsored license plates. But in Virginia, that move has been made. The governor doesn't want it on the license plate any more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOVERNOR TERRY MCAULIFFE (D), VIRGINIA: Although the battle flag is not flown on our capital square, it has been subject to considerable controversy and it has divided so many of our people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: And the flurry of activity continued in the business world as well. Walmart, K-mart, Sears, Amazon and eBay have all decided to stop selling the confederate flag. This conversation has been sparked by the death of nine people and now started a wave of people seeing the confederate flag, for so long, a symbol here in the south getting removed all at once -- John and Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Ryan. As Ryan, mentioned, you know, a lot of big retailers have joined the movement to take down the confederate flag or stop selling it. You are not going to find merchandise online or in stores anymore at Walmart, Amazon, eBay, Sears, K-Mart, and now Google Shopping.
The CEO of Walmart telling CNN Money's Cristina Alesci yesterday, you know, selling those items featuring the confederate flag, it was an oversight in the first place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOUG MCMILLON, CEO, WALMART: We just don't want to sell products that makes anyone feel uncomfortable and we felt like that was the case. This was the right thing to do.
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Were you shocked to see that kind of merchandise on Walmart's platform?
MCMILLON: I was surprised, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Top retails are shutting down the symbol. Some smaller stores have seen their sales spike in the last few days. Even Amazon saw items bearing the flag soar more than 2000 percent before the company then took those items down.
BERMAN: Even with -- the pace of this change is just extraordinary after so many years of very little change.
Many Republicans running are expected to run for president in 2016 are now also calling for the removal of the confederate flag within hours of each other.
Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, John Kasich, Rick Perry, Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham, Chris Christi, they all endorse South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and her call for banishing the flag from the capitol grounds.
Two sort of holdouts are Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, they are sticking to their position that the flag issue is one that the state should decide for themselves, which South Carolina is doing. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton applauded the growing momentum against the flag.
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HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Recognizing it as a symbol of our nation's racist past that has no place in our present or our future. It shouldn't fly there. It shouldn't fly anywhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Those comments were near Ferguson, Missouri. Another Democratic candidate, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, he is also speaking out against the flag, calling the flag a relic of our nation's stained racial history.
ROMANS: New police audio and video giving us a fuller picture this morning of the man who has confessed to killing nine people in that Charleston Church last week.
North Carolina police releasing this dash cam video of last Thursday's low-key arrest of 21-year-old Dylann Roof. The 911 recordings also released are anything but ordinary. Dispatchers frankly sound surprised at this call from a flower shop employee who recognizes killer from media reports almost 250 miles from where the shootings took place.
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UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: I just got a third-person telephone call behind a vehicle matching the description of the Charleston shooter.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: The suspect looks like the subject they are talking about on the news from that Charleston shooting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Let's get more on the arrest video now from national correspondent, Martin Savidge in Charleston.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Good morning, Christine. Thanks to this new video that's been released by the Shelby Police Department, we can now see and hear how 21-year-old Dylann Roof, who was then the most wanted person probably in all of America, was taken into custody.
And the remarkable thing especially as you look at that dash cam video is that he seems completely compliant and he seems actually quite docile for a man who is accused of being a mass murderer and taking nine lives.
[05:35:03] And as you listen to the police transmissions, one of the things you find out is that the real trip wire to all of this was a concerned citizen, someone who saw something and then said something to the authorities. The other thing to note is the radio traffic seems to show is that even though this is a very small and rural police department, they seem to have done everything right. The officers were in all of the right places.
And if you read the incident report of the one officer who makes the approach to the vehicle, you got to imagine that his heart is beating about a thousand times a minute because he knows he is going up against a vehicle that has an armed suspected mass murderer inside.
He, in fact, shouts out to Dylann Roof to put his hands on the steering wheel, who does, in fact, do that. And he shouts a number of other commands for Roof to follow and it appears that Roof follows every single one of them.
He's taken into custody with no violence. Then a search of the vehicle reveals the Glock semiautomatic pistol in the back seat, which is believed to have been the murder weapon, and then also one other item, a pillow, which could suggest how Roof spent the night sleeping in the car on the run -- John and Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Martin Savidge, thank you for that. He was on his way to Nashville, I guess. He never really thought he would be able to get out of Charleston and kind of aimlessly moving toward --
BERMAN: Great police work there.
ROMANS: All right, pastry is for prison favors. How Joyce Mitchell may have manipulated her coworkers to help two dangerous killers escape. The stunning new details, next.
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BERMAN: This morning law enforcement officials say they believe they are closing in on two convicted killers who escaped from prison in upstate New York. Sources tell CNN the man scrambled out of a cabin they broke into in the mountains up there in such a hurry that they left boots behind, which means that at least one may be moving through the dense underbrush barefoot.
There was also a stunning new admission from Joyce Mitchell, the prison worker who helped them break out. Mitchell tells investigators that she put hacksaw blades in frozen hamburger meat and convinced a prison guard to deliver it to inmate, Richard Matt, which the guard did without passing it through a metal detector first. The lawyer for that prison guard insists his client was duped by Mitchell.
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ANDREW BROCKWAY, ATTORNEY FOR GENE PALMER: She has conned many individuals inside of the prison. She would curry favors amongst the prisoners and bring them baked goods. She was very good at what she did and my client fell for it. If he is guilty of anything, Anderson, is that he is a very trusting individual and he is looking forward to telling his side of the story.
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BERMAN: For more, let's turn to national correspondent, Jason Carroll, in Cadyville, New York.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, that prison guard now in question. His name is Gene Palmer. I have spoken to his attorney at length. He said that, yes, Gene Palmer did, in fact, help to smuggle in that frozen slab of hamburger meat, but his attorney tells me he did not know what was inside that meat.
Inside the meat, as you now know, hacksaw blades that Joyce Mitchell had allegedly put inside to be smuggled inside the prison. We are also learning more information about Joyce Mitchell, herself.
Apparently for several months, she vouched for both Richard Matt and David Sweat, convincing other guards there at the facility that they were good guys, that they could be trusted, in fact, bringing in baked goods to curry favor with other guards.
Also, we are hearing that she went as far as recommending to prison officials that David Sweat's cell be moved right next to Richard Matt. All of this information coming forward as her husband, Lyle Mitchell, has come forward speaking about all of those allegations surrounding his wife.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYLE MITCHELL, JOYCE MITCHELL'S HUSBAND: She told me that Matt wanted her to pick him up. She said I never leave without Lyle, never. He said, I'll give you some pills to give him to knock him out and then you come pick us up. She said, I can't do this, and then she told me he started threaten her, that somebody inside the facility would harm me or kill me or somebody else inside the jail if she didn't stay with this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Prison policy now under review. In fact, the New York State inspector general has joined the effort in terms of looking at everything that took place in that prison before the daring escape -- Christine, John.
ROMANS: Thank you, Jason, for that.
Sentencing day in Boston for marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the judge will sentence him to death for the 2013 attack in which three people killed and 200 injured. A jury decided on the death penalty for Tsarnaev last month.
He will have the opportunity to break his silence and address the court. It's not known if he is going to take it. Some two dozen people are expected to give victim impact statements before the sentencing.
BERMAN: Let's take a look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Michaela Pereira joins us now. Good morning, Michaela.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: It is a NEW DAY. It is a Wednesday, of course, guys, we are going to talk about South Carolina legislators voting to debate removing that flag, the confederate flag from statehouse grounds.
Businesses and lawmakers across the country are now considering similar measures. We are going to talk about the growing calls to drop the symbol with Republican presidential candidate, Ben Carson, and we will ask him if he thinks more candidates should start weighing in.
And Donald Trump is gaining popularity in New Hampshire coming in second place in this new poll behind Jeb Bush. Is he a more serious candidate than people thought? We will take a look at what is behind his surge in popularity.
Also our Alisyn Camerota is in South Carolina. She has been talking to voters. We'll have that coming up in the 6:00 hour.
ROMANS: All right, fantastic. Thank you for that, Michaela.
All right, happening now, French President Francois Hollande just finished an emergency meeting with his defense council over these new revelations, the U.S. spied on his and his predecessors. Documents released by Wikileaks Tuesday shows the National Security Agency, the NSA, eavesdropped on Hollande and former leader, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy.
The spying reportedly spanning 2006, 2012 targeting communications of cabinet ministers and the French ambassador to the U.S. The French Defense Council calls the eavesdropping unacceptable and the U.S. ambassador has just been summoned to a meeting at the foreign ministry this afternoon. Fair to say, they are not happy about it.
BERMAN: No, I mean, that will be an intense meeting.
Severe storms turning deadly, homes destroyed, flights cancelled. Amazing pictures to show you. The threat is not over yet.
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BERMAN: Line of severe storms that marched across the country this week. It hit the east coast and hard, heavy rain, hail, lightning sparked fires, deadly high winds even some probable tornadoes. The dangerous weather is not over. A new line of powerful storms is taking aim in the upper plains and Midwest again today.
ROMANS: Tuesday's severe storms pounded Philadelphia packing near hurricane force winds, knocking down countless trees. You know, some toppled onto houses, others right onto cars. This woman said she thought a tornado was ready to hit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I grabbed my kids and ran into on the basement. It was terrifying. You saw something like out of a movie when you see the debris going around and around.
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ROMANS: Check out this dramatic photo, it shows intense lightning over of the Delaware River and the calm after the storm, a beautiful sunset when the severe line of storms finally passed through.
BERMAN: We have been discussing all this morning. Is this a real photo or a doctored photo?
ROMANS: You have been discussing all morning. We want them to know our standards are high enough. We don't put doctored things on the air.
BERMAN: I don't believe it's real. Let us know what you think. Tweet us at EARLY START. So the violent storms turned deadly in Maryland. Emergency officials in Montgomery County said a driver died in an accident involving a downed tree and a power pole.
[05:40:03] Huge hail just pummeled Baltimore, listen to that. Temperatures hit the 90s on Tuesday. The city issued a code red heat advisory. An addition to some damage, power outage and Amtrak disruption the storm left behind this spectacular sunset, if you believe it. Amtrak says train service has been restored, but there could be some residual delays today.
ROMANS: Heavy rains and high winds ripping through New York flooding streets, knocking out power. Look at the skies over Manhattan. Rapid fire lightning strikes and damaging buildings and sending everyone heading for cover.
BERMAN: Look at this mall in Southern New Jersey, badly damaged by a suspected twister. Winds hit about 80 miles an hour and flipped cars and ripped off the rooftops. Shoppers rode out the storm in the Macy's basement. There is more severe weather in the forecast today, let's get straight to meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri -- Pedram.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, good morning, guys. What a wild day across parts of the north east, a lot of wind reports upwards of 300 storm related reports, the vast majority of them associated with powerful winds and some wind-related damage.
But here is a prospective this morning for thunderstorms as active as they come across portions of Tennessee at least in the last couple of hours. Three-hour span, 1,500 lightning strikes across Tennessee, but they are beginning to fall apart as they are pushing in for the Deep South.
The severe weather threat is really going to be confined out there towards portions of the Midwest. Chicago is one of the cities we are concerned about this afternoon as active weather certainly in the forecast. Twenty million people are going to be impacted by it. Again, Chicago takes a large number there out of areas around Northern Illinois. Here we go with model indications. Storm is pushing out of Des Moines and Sioux City eventually working their way towards Central Illinois.
Afternoon and evening hours, you can see these reunite across Northern Illinois as well. The trend going to be a cooler one for New York City, the temps dropping back down to reality even below average for the first time getting close to 70 degrees since the 4th of June.
So pretty impressive stuff, and notice, a 7-degree cooling trend from this time yesterday as far as the highs 92 in New York and today will shoot for 85 degrees, and the trend over the next couple of days keeps it pretty comfortable. Send it back to you.
ROMANS: Thanks, Pedram.
BERMAN: So if you took any dramatic pictures of the weather in your area, real or otherwise, share them, use the #ireportcnn.
BERMAN: Parents, is your kid graduating in the near future? Graduates, are you looking for the best place to work? I'll tell you where it is next.
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[05:56:19]
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. European stocks falling right now after Greece said its lenders have rejected its latest proposal, crushing hopes of an agreement before Greece defaults on its loans at the end of the month. Look. Watch that very carefully.
Stocks very close to highs here, yesterday, the Nasdaq inch to a record close the second day in a row. The Nasdaq has had a huge year final topping the dot com era high. I want to show you some of the biggest drivers.
Look at Netflix and Smith and Wesson, Amazon and Kraft. These are the biggest gainers in the Nasdaq. The price tag for one share of Netflix is 680 bucks. But the company just announced a seven for one stock split to make it more affordable.
Wages have been severely stuck during this recovery. Finally, big retailers like Walmart, is starting to raise their wages. Some critics wages at the nation's largest private employer still too low. A Walmart CEO told CNN Money's Cristina Alesci, higher wages would actually hurt workers.
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DOUG MCMILLON, CEO WALMART: If we set that rung too high, we'll have fewer jobs. We won't be able to hire as many people. We won't have as many part-timers that enable them to go to school while they are working. It reduces the employment base in the country potentially. I think our job at Walmart is to be that ladder of opportunity.
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ROMANS: So they have been raising wages because it helps keep their turnover down, right?
According to a brand-new survey exclusive to CNN money, the top place college students want to work is Google. No surprise there. Survey after survey shows Google the big, you know, prestigious place to work, famous perks.
Also near the top three of the big four accounting firms, PWC, Ernst & Young, KPMG, plus investment bank, Goldman Sachs. I did not go to school to do anything at any of those companies.
BERMAN: New calls to drop the confederate flag across the nation. "NEW DAY" with all of the developments, starting right now.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Walmart, K-mart, Sears, Amazon and eBay have all decided to stop selling the confederate flag.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God help South Carolina if we fail to achieve the goal of removing the flag.
UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: The suspect looks like the subject they are talking about on the news from that Charleston shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New video showing the arrest of Dylann Roof in North Carolina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were jokes, I guess racist slurs, but they were never taken too seriously, until now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More than 1,000 officers now converging on the tiny New York town of Owls Head.
BERMAN: Joyce Mitchell has confessed to investigators she put hacksaw blades in frozen hamburger meat.
MITCHELL: She said their plan was they want to kill you. I said, what?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, June 24th, 6:00 in the east. As you can see, Alisyn is in the South Carolina capitol of Columbia. The big question there will be when will that confederate flag be moved off state grounds?
The legislature agreed to take up the debate, but when? What's going to happen in six other states with questionable flags? Let's get to Alisyn -- Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So Chris and Michaela, I am here in front of the state capitol. When you are in Columbia, you can really see the issue in stark relief because that is the confederate flag over my shoulder. It's hard to see because it's not windy this morning.
It stands in front of the state capitol every single day. It's behind the confederate war memorial. It's that position. It's that place of prominence that, of course, has caused so much debate and contention here over the past week.
CNN's Ana Cabrera has been here for days following all of this political shifting, stance, and the different in attitude in just a few days. Tell us what you've seen.
