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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Reaction To Details Of Iran Nuke Deal; Israel Slams Iran Nuclear Deal; How "El Chapo" Escaped; Poll: Trump Leads GOP Field; Stock Market Winning Streak; Prime Day Bigger Than Black Friday? Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired July 15, 2015 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: -- we now know the details and it's causing controversy here at home and around the world. Today, President Obama trying to sell that deal to Congress, can he do it? Live team coverage begins now.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It is exactly 30 minutes past of the hour this Wednesday morning.
Happening right now, reaction from around the world over that nuclear deal with Iran, praise and criticism now that we know what is in the 109-page agreement.
Presidents Obama and Rouhani of Iran emphasizing the deal's advantages for their people, as Iranians celebrate in the streets. But concerns are also mounting specifically over the last few years of the 15-year deal when Iran would be allowed to conduct more advanced nuclear research, and eventually produce all the nuclear fuel it wants.
For the latest, let's bring in senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson in Vienna. Nic, tell us about those concerns.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. What happens is that the more research and development Iran does, the better its technology becomes. One of the constraints of the agreement right now is they have to use the old technology to enrich the very limited amount of uranium they have at the moment.
That means that we can measure the amount of time it would take them to break out to make a weapon to about one year. But if they get better technology, they are more efficient in their centrifuges and enrichment process, of course, that time comes down to make a weapon, and that is going to be one of the major concerns.
So it comes down to the fundamental of trust, are they really committed to not making a weapon in future or they are just committed to getting out from under sanctions -- Christine.
ROMANS: What do we know about inspections? What do we know about any kind of guarantees that the Iranians aren't, you know, breaching this deal? ROBERTSON: Sure. I mean, what the Iranians have signed up for here is what every country around the world agrees to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the world's nuclear watchdog signs up to, but there is some additional steps bolted on the back that have.
Number one, these inspectors have the right to ask for wherever they want to go to provided they have a basis and concerns about nuclear technology that does include military sites despite the fact that Iran wants to designate it as sites of interest rather than military sites.
But what the inspection system has is a very, very rapid recourse to snap back on sanctions. Fourteen days after the inspectors are not allowed into a site, it goes to a commission and that commission operates for seven days and then three days later, triggers a snap- back on of sanctions.
So this is the sort of enforcement measure behind the inspection system that is designed to make sure that Iran complies -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Nic Robertson in Vienna for us, thank you, Nic.
This morning the White House is well into its campaign to sell the Iran deal. The president determined to win over the American public, skeptical Democrats, and fiercely opposed Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: And that is why the deal that we have out there, in my view, from what I know about it thus far, is unacceptable.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: It would aim at the best deal acceptable to Iran, rather than one that might actually end Iran's nuclear program.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Opponents in Congress have two months to review and debate that deal and possibly vote to stop it. Senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta has more.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine, there's a full-court press here at the White House in selling this nuclear deal with Iran. Later today, President Obama will defend the agreement at a news conference here at the White House.
That will be just after Vice President Joe Biden spends the morning briefing House Democrats on this deal. The president's global pitch has already begun. He has made calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leaders in Europe, and Saudi Arabia's king, and leaders in Congress.
Lawmakers up on Capitol Hill have 60 days to review and block this deal, but the White House is taking comfort in the fact that much of that time will be spent during the lawmakers' August recess and pushing a likely showdown to September and a showdown the president says he is ready for.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm confident that this deal will meet the national security interests of the United States and our allies. So I will veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: But the big question comes down to this, do the deals opponents in Congress have the two-thirds vote needed to override a presidential veto? One White House official told me they don't believe the opposition will be able to clear that hurdle.
That means the president, as he likes to say, he will live long enough to see whether or not this deal fails. It is all but certain, he'll have that chance -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Jim Acosta, thank you for that.
Some of the most passionate opposition to Iran deal is coming from Israel just hours after the agreement was signed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a historic mistake. He said on Israeli TV that lifting the sanctions would provide Iran with a dangerous jackpot, hundreds of billions of dollars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[05:35:00] BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: This cash bonanza will fuel Iran's terrorism worldwide, its aggression in the region, and its efforts to destroy Israeli, which are ongoing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The Obama administration quick to respond. Secretary of State Kerry calling the Israeli prime minister's comments, quote, "way over the top." Joining us now from Jerusalem, CNN's Erin McLaughlin with the latest on reaction in Israel and around the Middle East -- Erin.
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi, Christine. Israeli officials telling me they ratcheted up the rhetoric and there is a focus on the United States, some ministers calling on lawmakers to reject this deal.
Opposition leader, Isaac Herzog, saying, you know, he intends to go to the U.S. to explain the risk of the agreement. We are also hearing from other key U.S. allies in the region. A source from inside Saudi Arabia called the agreement, quote, "a monumental historic miscalculation" calling the deal, quote, "a charade," so strong words from key U.S. allies.
Yesterday, President Obama made a series of phone calls to leaders of country including Saudi Arabia and Israeli. Prime Minister Netanyahu personally telling President Obama the deal threatens the security of Israeli and the entire world.
It's no secret that this agreement has soured relations between the two. Next week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter is expected to visit Israeli to convince them this is a good idea, not just in Israeli, but some other key U.S. allies in the region as well -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, thanks for that, Erin McLaughlin.
Oil prices rebounding overnight as investors realized it would take months for Iran to ramp up its oil exports. U.S. crude oil prices dove 2 percent right after the news of the deal broke. Why?
Well, because Iran has the fourth biggest oil reserves in the world, it had been blocked from world markets by sanctions. A deal would change that adding as much as 1 million barrels of crude per day to an already oversaturated market, but right now prices have rebounded. They are up 4 percent to about $53 a barrel.
Turning to world markets, Chinese stocks lower this morning. China's economy grew 7 percent in the second quarter. That matches the slowest growth in two decades.
In Europe, stocks are mixed. U.S. stock futures are flat. Those markets all awaiting a vote in Greece today that could secure the country another bailout. The Greek parliament will vote on new reform measures.
The new bailout proposals are more severe austerity than those rejected by Greek voters on July 5th. The Greek prime minister defending that $95 billion deal on state TV Tuesday, he said that it's necessary to avoid exiting the euro.
President Obama pushing for major criminal justice reforms, he made an impassioned plea for a new legislation in a speech to the NAACP on Tuesday citing the plight of too many low level criminals paying too high of a price for their offenses. The president says current laws have a disproportionate impact on blacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: A growing body of research shows that people of color are more likely to be stopped, frisked, questioned, charged, and detained. African-Americans are more likely to be arrested. They are more likely to be sentenced to more time for the same crime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The remarks coming on the heels of the president commuting the sentences of 46 nonviolent drug offenders. On Thursday, he'll go where no sitting president has gone before. He will visit a federal prison in Oklahoma to talk more about reforming criminal justice policy. Two months after learning that the personal information of 21.5
million Americans were compromised in a hack of government computers, officials say none of the people affected has been formally notified. None of them have been formally notified.
The Office of Personnel Management said to be working with multiple federal agencies setting up a system to inform the victims. It could still be weeks before a mechanism is in place. The head of OPM resigned last week after coming under fire for the massive cyber breach, which included fingerprints, which is a big problem if you're talking about biometric security in the United States.
New video capturing the very moment a notorious Mexican drug lord escaped from prison. New details on how El Chapo broke free is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Just released surveillance video shows the exact moment when Mexican drug king, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, escaped from his maximum security prison cell. You see him pacing back and forth before entering the bathroom stall. The drug lord then leans forward and seconds later he is gone.
Also new this morning, law enforcement official telling CNN that relatives and close associates of "El Chapo" may have been plotting to break him out of prison. We get more on the escape and the search now for the kingpin from CNN correspondent, Nick Valencia.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, the new images show by all accounts, the magnificent feat of architecture and engineering complete with ventilation system. Lighting and a modified motorcycle presumably used to dig through that tunnel.
The equivalent to the interior minister here in Mexico said that it's likely that El Chapo had helped from inside that prison. We know more than 30 prison guards have been taken into custody and questioned as part of this investigation.
The head of the Altiplano prison has also been fired. We were able to get into that prison. We were trying to go through official channels to get access, but we were denied so we simply knocked on the front door.
They took our I.D. and escorted us to another room where we handed over our belongings. Then we were passed through a metal detector. As soon as we got through that first perimeter, we were met by a federal police van who took us to a second perimeter and we were met by the current director of the Altiplano prison.
He was furious that we were able to get that far into the prison. He asked us what organization we were with. We told him we were with CNN. He told us we were on the list and turned us away and escorting us back with heavily armed federal police and military.
Now if we, as a news organization, were able to get that far into that prison, you could only imagine the type of access and ease at which El Chapo operated, a man with incredible influence and money.
If authorities here in Mexico know anything about his whereabouts, they are not making it public -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Nick Valencia, what a remarkable story, Nick. Take a look what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Alisyn Camerota joins us this morning. Hi there.
[05:45:07] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: How are you? Great to see you, Christine. So of course, reaction is pouring in on the Iran nuclear deal from all sides. We have quite a lineup of guests this morning, first up, former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright. We also have Israeli's ambassador to the U.S.
We also have Senator Tom Cotton leading the charge against this nuclear deal. Also, the man who was Secretary Kerry's right hand man during all of these negotiations, he'll be here to tell us what that screaming match in the hallway was about and whether or not it almost scuttled the deal.
Also, we will have a former cast member from "The Cosby Show" on. Wait until you hear how he says Bill Cosby behaved on the set and whether or not he believes the comedian is guilty, all that when Chris and I see you in about 15 minutes.
ROMANS: Making news right and left. Thanks so much, Alisyn. We will tune in. Thank you.
Donald Trump is soaring to the top of the presidential poll. That's right. Donald Trump at the top of the poll. It's not all good news for the Donald. We will explain next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Donald Trump surging to the top of the crowded Republican presidential field in a new poll.
[05:50:00] In the "USA Today"/Suffolk University poll, 17 percent say Trump is their first choice for the GOP nomination. Jeb Bush is second at 14 percent and Scott Walker third at 8 percent.
The news for Trump is not as good in a head-to-head matchup with Hillary Clinton. He trails her by 17 points. In an interview Tuesday with CNN's Dana Bash, Trump tried to set America straight on just why he is running for president.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A new poll just came out saying that 40 percent of Republican voters think that you're just doing this for publicity.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's what I don't understand.
BASH: How do you change their minds? TRUMP: Well, I think it's a great thing for me.
BASH: Why?
TRUMP: Because a lot of those people want to vote for me, but they think I'm doing this for publicity. The fact that is one I was very surprised at. Why would I be doing this? I take abuse from everybody and I'm doing this for fun? This isn't fun.
I want to make America great again. Those 40 percent are people that would vote for me. That's the thing I like about it. Remember, before I announce, everybody say he is never going to announce. I announce.
Then they say I will never sign the form two weeks ago and I signed it. Now over the next couple of days, I'm putting in my financials which will show an unbelievable company, unbelievable.
BASH: Can you give me a little teaser of that?
TRUMP: No, I can't. But you'll see it tomorrow or the next day, but it's an unbelievable company. Far greater and I built that. I built that and that is what this country needs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Trump is expected to make the financial disclosures to the Federal Election Commission today.
The brother of a San Francisco woman killed by an undocumented immigrant is criticizing Donald Trump for using his sister's death to punctuate Trump's political message painting immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally as criminals.
CNN's Anderson Cooper asked the brother, Brad Steinle, about what he thinks Trump using his sister's story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": This is a hard question and you don't have to answer it. Do you feel like Donald Trump is using your sister?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a way, yes. Sensationalizing it is not the route we would like to go.
COOPER: So your message to Donald Trump would be what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're going to use somebody's name and you're going to sensationalize the death of a beautiful young lady, maybe you should call and talk to the family first and see what their views are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Asked about Trump's plan to keep undocumented immigrants out by building a bigger fence along the U.S./Mexico border, Steinle called it not rational and quote, "not common sense."
Five people reported hurt in a plant explosion in Newport, Washington. Officials say the cause was some kind of chemical explosion, but they don't know the exact cause, but a chemical explosion is the suspicion here.
Two of the victims have been air-lifted and area residents have been evacuated. Again, that's in Newport, Washington. We'll keep you up to date as we get more information on that.
Photos of the new horizon probes, a close encounter with Pluto, due out later today. NASA personnel crammed into the spacecraft's mission control and they broke into applause when the new horizon phoned home and it came after 12 hours of planned silence while the probe collected data during its first flight of the icy distant world. Look at that.
Could today's online sales be bigger than Black Friday? Could today be bigger than Black Friday? An EARLY START on your money next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:56:51]
ROMANS: Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning, stocks on winning streak. The market had a fourth straight day of gains on Tuesday. Dow is up 76 points closing back up of 18.000. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 also higher. Right now futures are flat this morning.
Investors have a look to today. There is a vote in Greece that could secure the country another bailout. Earning season has begun, of course, essentially the report card for companies. So far it's been pretty good for bank stocks.
Shares for both JPMorgan and Wells Fargo rose on positive results. Bank of America, Delta Airlines and Netflix all report today and the fed chief will be appearing before Congress the next couple of days so we could get some news about interest rates.
Honda will pay $24 million for auto loans the government says discriminated against minorities. The federal government claims Honda's financing division over charged black Hispanic and Asian customers.
The investigation found minorities paid 150 to 250 more than white borrowers over the life of a loan, regardless of the credit score. The company denied it practiced discrimination, but said it will pay relief to thousands of minority car buyers.
Will online deals today be bigger than Black Friday? That is what two of the world's biggest retailers are claiming. At 12:01 Pacific Time this morning Amazon launched "Prime Day" in honor of its 20th anniversary.
It will have blow-out sales, Amazon will, on thousands of products that is just for prime members. Walmart says it will have atomic online discounts for everyone and it's going to lower its shipping costs. Even with competition, Amazon investors really like this news. The stock jumped 2.2 percent yesterday for a record high close.
Surveillance video capturing the very moment before Mexican drug lord broke out of prison. "NEW DAY" picks up that story right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Just released surveillance video shows the very moment El Chapo escaped from his maximum security prison cell.
VALENCIA: The ventilation system, light and a modified motorcycle presumably used to dig through that tunnel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The world is a much more dangerous place today than it was yesterday.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: We have cut off every pathway for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.
BOEHNER: The deal we have out there is unacceptable.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: We should not tolerate conditions in prison that have no place in than civilized country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have now in our country, 25 percent of the world's prisons.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we are really doing is putting more Band-aids on a system that has a real infection.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We crashed and I was the only one that made it out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As they came out of the clouds, she said all she saw was trees.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is definitely a miracle that she survived.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, July 15th, 6:00 in the east. "El Chapo" is caught but only on surveillance video. There is now footage capturing the final moments before Mexican drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, busted out of his prison cell. Mexican authorities released these pictures.
They show "El Chapo." He seems to be phasing, some say nervously in his cell before he steps into a blind spot in his shower and disappears because that's where the escape hole was.
