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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

White House Beats Drum For Iran Deal; Donald Trump Claims $10 Billion Worth; Heart-Tugging ESPY Awards; Severe Storms On The Northern Plains; Stocks Up Around The World. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired July 16, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:03] JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president brushed off the celebrations of the deal as a victory in Iran and even in Syria and he hit back at opponents in Congress demanding that they read the agreement.

Mr. Obama also bristled at one question on why Americans currently detained in Iran were not freed as part of the deal. He said that would have complicated their release. He touted the agreement's controversial inspection process dismissing doubts that Iran would get away with cheating. Here is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If in fact we are counting the amount of uranium that's being mined and suddenly some is missing on the back end, they got some explaining to do. This is not something you hide in a closet. This is not something you put on a dolly and kind of wheel off somewhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: But the president knows he has more explaining to do, which is why he is sending his vice president to Capitol Hill to convince skeptical Democrats. Meanwhile, the deal's toughest critic, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argues Iran will never change, to his detractors including Netanyahu the president asked, where is their alternative? -- Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Jim, thanks for that. As Jim mentioned that exchange Jim mentioned about Americans being held by Iran came as one of the rare moments where the president has lashed back at a reporter.

CBS White House correspondent, Major Garrett asked the president about the four Americans including "Washington Post" reporter, Jason Rezaian, who are being held in Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJOR GARRETT, CBS NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Can you tell the country why you are content with the fanfare around this deal to leave the conscious of this nation, the strength of this nation, unaccounted for in relation to these four Americans. PRESIDENT OBAMA: I have to give you credit, Major, for how you craft those questions. The notion that I'm content as I celebrate with American citizens languishing in Iranian jails, Major, that's nonsense and you should know better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The administration also scrambling to convince leaders around the world that the Iran nuclear agreement is a good deal. This morning, Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Saudi Arabia's foreign minister next week.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter heads to the Middle East to meet Saudi officials on their home turf and later, he will meet with Israeli officials.

The "New York Times" reporting the White House is trying to soften fierce Israeli opposition to this deal. Unnamed administration officials telling the "Times," the U.S. is offering to increase the U.S. military aid package to Israel.

One unexpected side effect of the deal is producing a slight thaw in relations with Moscow, President Obama calling President Putin to thank him for his help with the negotiations.

Joining us now with the latest on the global sales effort, senior international correspondent, Atika Shubert -- Atika.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Christine. This is completely changing the landscape, not only in the region, but as you also mentioned there, Russia. Russia hoping to seal a number of possible weapons deals with Iran at some point in the future.

That is also something that really unnerves Iran's neighbors in the region. Saudi Arabia has asked for more military help. President Obama in May promising more missile defense, for example, to Saudi Arabia as it deals with an increasingly powerful rival in Iran.

The other ally in the region, of course, is Israel. Israel right now is concerned about the loopholes in the agreement. We did have a chance to speak to the spokesperson of the prime minister. He confirmed that President Obama did have a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He would not say exactly what those details were as reported in the "New York Times," but he also said the focus right now is on the fact that Iran can still with all of the limitations in the deal develop a nuclear weapon within 10 to 15 years.

But also the knock on effect that as Iran opens up as sanctions are lifted, whether it will actually start supplying more arms and weapons to military allies like Hezbollah and Hamas, sworn enemies of Israel. So it really is changing the entire landscape in the region -- Christine. ROMANS: All right, Atika Shubert in London, thank you, Atika. New details this morning on Donald Trump, we've always known he is rich. He will tell you so himself. How rich though was not clear until he filed his campaign disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission.

Now we are still awaiting the details, but trump in a press release claims those forms will show a net worth of about $10 billion. The Republican candidate argues that he has now defied critics who said he would never disclose his personal finances.

All of this at a time the polls keep handing Trump really good news. CNN's Dana Bash has the latest.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, just how rich is Donald Trump? Well, he now says he has a net worth of more than $10 billion and he said he made more than $362 million last year alone. With classic Trump hubris, his campaign calls his wealth so vast that it was hard to fill out the Federal Election Commission form.

[05:35:07] Because if a building owned by Mr. Trump is worth $1.5 billion, the box checked is only worth $50 million or more. It's important to note that Trump did not make the details of this financial disclosure public yet.

So we can verify saying it's like claiming that he made $213 million over the 14 seasons that we has on the reality show, "The Apprentice." Now the other thing that Donald Trump has to talk about and has been talking about it a lot is the fact that he is doing well in the polls.

Just for one example, the "Washington Post"/ABC poll just showed that 57 percent of Republican voters say that they have a favorable view of him. That is a big jump almost double from what it was in just May.

So those are the kinds of things that you are definitely hearing from Donald Trump and you'll probably hear a lot more. One other interesting note is that he had a meeting with one of his competitors late yesterday.

Ted Cruz who you would think that they would be competing for the conservative vote on immigration, but Ted Cruz understands the mania as anybody else. He's been very complimentary. So we will see how long that bromance lasts -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Dana Bash, thank you for that, Dana. Hillary Clinton is burning through a big chunk of her campaign cash. Her team just filed its first report with the Federal Election Commission. They have raised a hefty $47 million, but only have $29 million in cash. The rest is spent. That's a 40 percent burn rate. The Clinton campaign has received 250,000 donations with 94 percent of them $250 or less.

Barack Obama is about to become the first sitting president to ever visit a federal prison. He will be talking to law enforcement officials and inmates at the Federal Correctional Center in El Rino, Oklahoma later this morning. He is expected to call for prison and sentencing reforms. Oklahoma imprisons more women than any state in the country. Local mayors want to talk to the president about that problem.

Time for an EARLY START on your money, stocks are up around the world this morning. European stocks up to a six-week high after Greece voted yes on economic reforms needed for a new bailout. That means an overhaul of its pension and tax systems.

In the U.S., stock futures are higher. One stock we are watching closely this morning is Netflix is up 12 percent before the opening bell. Huge subscriber growth, it added 3.3 million customers last quarter to a total now of more than 65 million members. The stock is the best performer in the S&P 500 this year. It has doubled this year and a 7 for 1 stock split this week took shares down from 700 to 100 making it easier for the everyday investor to buy.

Caitlyn Jenner accepting the Arthur Ashe Courage Award with an emotional message, we're breaking it down next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:41:30]

ROMANS: The annual ESPY Awards honors the year's best achievements in sports. But the highlight of Wednesday's night ceremony may have been a former Olympic champion now known Caitlyn Jenner, who is honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award and made an emotional plea for accepting people for who they are. CNN's Stephanie Elam was there.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, the ESPYs were at times heart breaking, well, at the same time, they were inspiring. There was a story of Danielle Green, the war hero who came back, to work with other veterans this after she lost her arm in battle.

She received the Pat Tillman award. There was also an award for Lauren Hill, the young woman who wanted to play her one college basketball game. She lost her battle for cancer. Her parents were on hand to accept that award.

And then there was also Devon Still. His young daughter is battling cancer. His speech really moving the crowd as well as he toasted everyone for their support of him as he has been battling this so he could stay strong for his young daughter.

Of course, the one person everyone was waiting to see was Caitlyn Jenner, who took her turn in the spotlight to focus on the struggle and the challenges that so many young transgender people face not just in the United States but around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAITLYN JENNER, ARTHUR ASHE COURAGE AWARDEE: If you want to call me names, make jokes, doubt my intentions, go ahead, because the reality is I can take it. But for the thousands of kids out there coming to terms with being true to who they are, they shouldn't have to take it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: I talked to several people on the red carpet and for the most part, the people I spoke to were supportive of Caitlyn Jenner winning the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. There are few who just tempered what they had to say about it, not really giving an opinion either way.

But when Caitlyn Jenner was done with her speech, which at times did get a little bit emotional, she got a standing ovation from the crowd. And her family was on hand to watch her give the speech and you could see a couple of her children definitely had tears in their eyes -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Stephanie Elam, thank you for that, Stephanie.

President Obama says he cannot revoke Bill Cosby's presidential Medal of Freedom because there is no mechanism for doing so. At his news conference, the president was asked about Cosby and he said he could not comment on a case where criminal or civil charges could be brought, and then he proceeded to comment with a definition of rape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If you give a woman or a man for that matter, without his or her knowledge a drug, and then have sex with that person without consent, that's rape. And I think this country any civilized country should have no tolerance for rape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Cosby received the Medal of Freedom in 2002 from President George W. Bush.

All right, the death toll rising in Kentucky following severe storms and catastrophic flash flooding. At least four people have been killed. Five others are still missing. The torrential rains and flooding leaving the Kentucky's governor to declare a state of emergency. Some 150 homes have been destroyed.

The threat of severe thunderstorms still hanging on, let's get to meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Christine. That's right. The severe weather threat back again. It is for a smaller area. That's the good news.

[05:45:03] You know, over the past couple of days over 800 reports of wind related damage across the country.

The threat now confined to areas around Peoria, Springfield, Illinois. That's the main area of interest, I think sometime late morning into early afternoon, and the biggest threat is going to be large hail and damaging winds yet again in the forecast. But the frontal boundary begins to scoot by towards the great lakes. Sparks off a few thunderstorms and this weekend, showers towards the northeast sometime around Saturday and Sunday, but notice the bulk of the activity late this morning into early this afternoon around Des Moines and Chicago.

They do taper off by the time they arrive around Chicago. Some 700 reports of lightning strikes this morning in a three-hour period in Omaha and south of Omaha around the I-29 corridor towards Kansas City, upwards of 4 inches to 6 inches of rainfall in the past 24 hours.

So we do have flood watches and warnings in place from say Cooper out towards Des Moines and this is the concern for today with the additional rainfall that is expected.

But your high temperature in Kansas City is about 94 degrees. It feels close to 100 degrees this afternoon, beautiful 79 out in Chicago. New York City, not too bad, we'll make it up to about 81 degrees with mostly sunny skies.

ROMANS: All right, pretty hot in the plains today, folks. All right, it takes a lot for NASA scientists to be blown away. But the first ever up close pictures of Pluto did the trick. They called it a toy store. NASA is releasing the first batch of breathtaking images of Pluto.

They reveal ice mountains as tall as the Rockies. A stunning lack of craters on the planet's surface suggesting it still could be geologically active. NASA's new horizon space probe traveled 3 billion miles over nine years to get the incredible snapshots, more data and pictures will be coming for the next 16 months, amazing stuff there.

All right, inside El Chapo's escape tunnel. CNN crews traced the route the powerful Mexican drug lord used to break out of prison. We take you there next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:50:51]

ROMANS: Thousands of Mexican police and soldiers are now searching for El Chapo. Still no sign of this elusive drug king pin, who slipped into the tunnel beneath the shower stall in his prison cell and vanished last weekend.

Twenty one prison guards have been questioned about his escape. The intelligence chief of Mexico's federal police force has been fired. We are getting an inside look at the end of the tunnel where El Chapo slipped to freedom. Here is CNN's Nick Valencia.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, it was incredible access that we were granted. For days now, we have been trying to gain entry into that home where El Chapo was said to have emerged. We were finally granted access escorted in by Mexican military as well as the attorney general's office in Mexico. Initially ushered into a room that was by all means, their work shed, we saw power tools still plugged in outlets and cinder blocks around us. It seemed the moment that they were done building that tunnel, they gave the signal to El Chapo and then he was off on his way.

We dropped down ten feet on the initial ladder into a small space, walked another few feet and then approached a second ladder into a deeper portion of that tunnel about 20 feet down.

And when we got down there, a magnificent feat of engineering, it seemed like a professional job building that tunnel. There were Coke bottles laying on the ground left behind with oxygen tanks and ventilation, and PVC pipe running along top of that tunnel with electrical lines to provide electricity in there.

We also got to see that motorcycle, which ran on tracks which we believe El Chapo used to escape from one end to the tunnel to the other. It was cramped in there and very hard to breath and there was also this overwhelming smell of gas inside. I could not stand tall in there. Authorities have no idea where he is and if they do, they are not saying publicly -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right, thanks for that, Nick.

Uber is in big trouble in California. Why the ride sharing giant could soon be shut down next.

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[05:56:22]

ROMANS: All right, good morning. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money. Stocks are up around the world. European shares six-week high. Greece voted yes on new reforms for bailout money. U.S. stock futures are higher.

One stock soaring before the bell, Netflix, the streaming giant added more than 3 million subscribers last quarter. That is more than expected. The stock is the best performer in the S&P 500. It has more than doubled this year.

Was Amazon's Prime Day bigger than Black Friday? Amazon says yes by at least one measure. Customers placed orders faster. Once they entered the site, but some Amazon shoppers disagreed. They vented their frustration on social media.

They used like #unhappyprimetime and #amazonfail. They said there were no good deals and sales sold out too quickly and what they wanted was not on sale.

Walmart also had big sales yesterday trying to catch up in online retail. Shares of Amazon are up 50 percent this year, been a very good year for Amazon near an all time high. Walmart shares are down 15 percent.

A California judge wants Uber to pay $7.3 million and be suspended from operating in the state. The problem the judge says Uber is not reporting required data about its rides. That is against state laws put in place to make sure passengers are treated fairly regardless of who they are or where they live. Uber says it will appeal the decision. It has 30 days to appeal.

It's 57 minutes past the hour. President George H.W. Bush is hospitalized after a fall. We have more information this morning about his condition. "NEW DAY" picks it up right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: President George H.W. Bush hospitalized after a fall.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His spokesman says Mr. Bush, quote, "fell at home in Maine."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has a broken bone in his neck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the bed that El Chapo slept on here. That is the access point that El Chapo used to escape. It stretches for more than a mile, a remarkable feat of engineering.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell the country, sir, why you are content?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The notion that I'm content.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The strength of the nation unaccounted for.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: That is nonsense. You should know better.

JENNER: I am so, so grateful to have all of you in my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The big moment that not everybody is celebrating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A tabloid play.

JENNER: Trans-people deserve your respect.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, July 16th, 6:00 in the east. We do have breaking news. Former President George H.W. Bush is in the hospital this morning. The 91-year-old breaking a bone in his neck after falling at his summer home in Maine.

The patriarch of the Bush family is said to be stable right now, but he also suffers from a former Parkinson's disease. He has had several health scares in the last few years and the situation is dicey. Let's get right to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty live from Washington with the latest -- Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. A big scare for George H.W. Bush, aides say he is in stable condition, but spend the night at a hospital in Portland, Maine and still there this morning.

He took a fall yesterday while at their family home in Kenny Bunk Port breaking a vertebrae in his neck. His spokesman tweeting overnight, quote, "his condition is stable. He is fine but he will be in a neck brace."

Now over the years we have seen many photos of the former president skydiving, jumping out of helicopters, most recently just last year on his 90th birthday.

But Bush is the oldest living former U.S. president and he has battled with his health in the past. Last year, he was hospitalized for shortness of breath. In 2012, he was in the hospital for two months for a bronchitis-related cough and he does have Parkinson's disease and is wheelchair bound.