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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
First GOP Presidential Debate; Wing Part Came From Flight MH370; Flight 370 Families Demand Answers; Search for MH370 Wreckage Goes on; New York Mets Continues Its Winning Streak; Lionel Messi Headbutts Opponent; Katie Ledecky Wins Third Gold. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired August 06, 2015 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:02] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And frankly, when you're talking about jumbo loans, if you're talking about the bay area, you're talking about the tri-state area on the East Coast, you're talking about some other parts of the country, jumbo loans are what you need to get in as a first-time home buyer.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Big money.
ROMANS: Big money.
BERMAN: All right, Christine.
ROMANS: EARLY START continues rights now.
In just hours, Republicans running for president face-off in the first debate of the primary season. New information about their last-minute preparations and possible surprises on the way.
BERMAN: And according to the Malaysian leader, part of the missing Malaysia Airline Flight 370 was found. Malaysian officials do say the wreckage washed ashore to the Indian Ocean belongs to the missing jetliner. Other officials not so fast to agree. We do have new information and new reaction from the victims' families ahead.
ROMANS: A new movie theater attack. A man armed with a pellet gun and hatchet attacks audience members. We have developments ahead.
Good morning. And welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman. It is Thursday, August 6th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East and it is debate day in America.
It's been nearly three years without a single presidential debate. How have we made it? Well, the long national nightmare is over and we do get to celebrate with Donald Trump.
Ten Republican candidates including Trump face off in the main event in Cleveland at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Seven other candidates are on the undercard at 5:00 p.m.
Let's get the very latest on what we can expect. CNN's Dana Bash is in Cleveland.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, I know you're both big sports fans. So I'm sure you recognize what is behind me. The locals here call it the Q. It is the arena where LeBron James plays basketball now. But it is tonight the arena where the first Republican debate is going to take place.
And it is going to be like nothing we've ever seen when it comes to political debates because we've never seen a billionaire reality TV star at center stage, which is exactly what tonight is going to be all about.
The candidates have been in town. They have been prepping. They have been going over their policies. They have been going over their one- liners, their zingers, trying to figure out exactly how to breakthrough because, even though only 10 of the 17 are going to be on the main debate stage, primetime, it's still hard to get your message across when you are one of 10, especially if you're on the outside flanks.
So some of those campaigns, sources inside have been telling me that they're going to try to maybe seize on the kind of thing that Donald Trump has done very well, which is the outsider status. Even one candidate's aide who's a senator told me that he's going to make the point that he is an outsider because he hasn't been here that long and he's going to add up the number of years that everybody else on the stage has been in elected office because that is kind of the thing that nobody wants to hear about if you are really pushing for an outsider and non-politicians like Donald Trump.
But unclear how much that is going to be able to kind of carry the day when you have again so many candidates and you have the Trump factor and the Bush factor, because Donald Trump might be the most entertaining, Jeb Bush has the most to lose. He still has the $100 million plus in his account that major donors in the Republican establishment gave him from all over the country.
He's got to prove that their investment was worth it and this is going to be a big setting for him to do that, especially given the fact that he's had some stumbles just this week. The idea is he's going to have to show that he's sort of shaken off the cobwebs from being out of the game for almost 10 years, and that he has that fire in the belly which people are still saying, we're not so sure he has.
So that's just kind of the tip of the iceberg of what we're going to be looking forward tonight. It is going to be a rather fun evening -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Dana. It will.
There are new details this morning about exactly how FOX News plans to run the main debate. The arena holds about 20,000 people, but there will only be 4500 in the audience tonight selected by lottery. To save time, the candidates will not give opening statements. The hosts will dive straight into questions with candidates giving one-minute answers. Candidates called out by name, well, they'll get 30 seconds to rebut.
The American public will ask some of the questions submitted through Facebook. That's a debate co-sponsor. The "New York Times" reports about 100 questions have been prepared. Half of which will get asked. And for candidates who run over time, FOX News is considering replacing the desk bell ding sound with the Cleveland Cavs shot clock buzzer.
BERMAN: And if you do get a slam dunk, the entire crowd does a standing ovation.
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: All right. New this morning, some Clinton-Trump intrigue. Word of a private telephone conversation between Donald Trump and Bill Clinton just before Trump announced he was running for president.
A Clinton aide confirmed to CNN that the former president returned a Trump call sometime in late May. The aide said the 2016 race was not discussed, but an unidentified Trump ally told the "Washington Post" that the real estate mogul did discuss his interest in a run for the White House and that Clinton responded by analyzing Trump's prospects. Trump's team declined to comment to CNN.
[05:05:04] ROMANS: I think Bill Clinton, he loves to talk about politics. He loves to talk about policy and politics.
BERMAN: You talk about running for anything with anyone. If you want to like run for the school board or dog catcher, you'd call Bill Clinton, he would tell you how to do it right. But look, Republicans say this just shows that Trump has had a relationship with Democrats for a long time.
ROMANS: Right.
BERMAN: The Clintons went to his wedding in 2005. And this could come up tonight and in weeks to come.
ROMANS: All right. Five minutes past the hour. A breakthrough in the search for Flight 370. According to the prime minister of Malaysia, a wing part found on Reunion Island did come from the missing jetliner. Physical proof the Malaysian prime minister says that Flight 370 tragically ended in the Indian Ocean. Now investigators begin more tests on that flaperon hoping to figure out why the plane went down.
CNN's Saima Mohsin is live from the French aviation laboratory.
What will they be looking for on that wreckage? What kind of clues will help them zero in on how that plane went down?
SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Yes. Lots more tests to be run today. The investigators have already arrived. They must have come in pretty early this morning because they're already inside the facility.
Now what kind of tests do they plan to run? Well, today we'll see things like sonograms, x-rays, 3-D imagery. All of the technology that they have here at the DGA lab in Balma, near Toulouse. Now they're likely to perhaps start pulling the piece apart. Now we weren't given the details of how much of this they started yesterday and what's happening today in those press conferences last night.
Last night we heard of course as you mentioned from the prime minister of Malaysia, a very confident confirmation saying that they have conclusively determined this flaperon belongs to MH370. The prosecutor, of course, used a more measured tone. Here is what Australia's deputy prime minister, Warren Truss, had to say about the announcement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN TRUSS, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: We know for certain that it comes from -- that the wreckage comes from a Boeing 777. That this part does not fit any other aircraft. We are aware that the manufacture time is about consistent with when the flight -- the aircraft operating MH370 was actually constructed. But of course, there are still some I's not dotted and T's not crossed.
There is still very small element of death. The French are being more cautious but the Malaysians, the flag carriers of the aircraft, they are now satisfied that the body of evidence is sufficient to say that this is wreckage from MH370.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOHSIN: And that disparity between the French and Malaysians, I think, I'd like to point out, Christine, may well be simply the difference between a prime minister speaking to a nation and to the passengers on board and a French prosecutor who is running a manslaughter case. It may well be that he has to err on the side of caution because of legalese and wants more tests.
Those tests will be conducted, those dotting the I's and crossing the T's are happening here today. We expect those results not immediately, though, I have to ask. They may come in weeks, maybe in months to come. But we will hopefully find out that this does belong to MH370 as was announced last night and how that plane potentially went down and whether that piece came away in the air or when it hit the sea in the southern Indian Ocean -- Christine.
ROMANS: Saima Mohsin, thank you for that. And indeed this search for more wreckage on Reunion Island continues. Thank you, Saima.
BERMAN: For many of the family members who lost loved ones on Flight 370, this new development brings little comfort. One woman whose husband was on the plane told reporters it's just a flaperon. It doesn't prove anything. Those sentiments were echoed by other family members still in mourning.
Let's go to Malaysia right now and bring in CNN's Andrew Stevens. Good morning, Andrew.
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.. I think it's fair to say that there has been a lot of distrust. The trust has broken down between many of the families and the authorities, the Malaysian authorities, particularly Malaysia Airlines. And we saw that distrust surfaced again today particularly in China.
The Chinese have been very, very angry with many, many facets of this investigation. Particularly at the beginning where there's so many twists and turns and false starts as to what may have happened to MH370. And when this information came out from the Malaysian prime minister at 1:45 in the morning here in Kuala Lumpur, the reaction in Beijing, at least among some family members, was very strong. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Through Translator): I am suspicious of Malaysia Airlines' words because in the past they have a track record of going back and forth in what they say of being true and not true. What I hope right now is for the Chinese officials to give me a confirmed answer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (Through Translator): I don't believe it. I'm furious and I think this announcement is very irresponsible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:10:04] STEVENS: It's interesting listening to the Chinese asking for their own government to give them official answer. The government has been very publicly prompting the Malaysians into more action. They did it again today. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing saying that they want the Malaysian authorities fulfilling their duties to the families of the passengers.
And here in Malaysia, John, the reaction hasn't been as strong, but there has been an overwhelming sense of disappointment, at least for the people I've been speaking to, saying why did the prime minister have to say this so definitively now when the French seem to be edging just a little bit away from that definitive statement? Why couldn't the Malaysian government had left it until we have absolute truth.
And the other side of this, of course, as they say, even if it is conclusively linked to 370, it is not going to give us the closure that we so desperately need. We want to see where that plane's final resting place is, we want to understand what actually happened before we move on -- John.
BERMAN: I think there is an irreparable rift between the families and Malaysian officials right now.
Andrew Stevens for us in Kuala Lumpur. Thanks so much, Andrew.
ROMANS: Eleven minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money this morning. European and Asian stocks mostly lower. U.S. stock futures, oh my
gosh, that's barely moving. Yesterday, the Dow closed just barely lower. Dragged down by media stocks.
Look at this. Disney shares down 9.2 percent. The stock has had a very strong year. But not yesterday. Now Wall Street is worried about cord cutting. And that triggered a selloff across the board for media stocks.
Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, down 9 percent. Look at Viacom, 7.5 percent. Discovery Communications 12 percent. Two others, 21st Century FOX and CBS, they reported strong earnings after the closing bell but the shares are still down right now.
All these companies rely heavily on fees from cable subscribers and there is a sign a small, small but significant sliver of households are unsubscribing.
BERMAN: Yes. How about the 401(k)?
ROMANS: Yes. Exactly.
BERMAN: I mean, how about it.
ROMANS: If you have media stocks, I'm sorry.
BERMAN: Today marks a somber anniversary. You're looking at the Peace Park in Hiroshima right now, in Japan. 70 years since the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended a ceremony at that park before thousands of lanterns were released on a river nearby.
About 200,000 people believed to have been killed by that bomb blast in the initial explosion and in the weeks following. And of course, that bomb plus the bomb on Nagasaki proceeded the end of World War II.
A very, very important day, not just in Japan, but all around the world. And you know, an important reminder of what man has done and perhaps a warning about the capabilities that still exist.
ROMANS: And a reminder that 70 years ago the world was in utter turmoil. Utter turmoil. The prospect of potentially hundreds of thousands more Americans dying if (INAUDIBLE). It's a debate that rages still.
Twelve minutes past the hour. Hatchet-wielding attacker terrorizes an audience in a movie theater. New information this morning about his mental health next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:16:16] ROMANS: We're learning new details this morning about an attack on Nashville moviegoers by a man wielding a pellet gun, pepper spray and a hatchet. And the attacker shot dead by police. Listen to the dramatic 911 call released overnight.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
STEVEN: So I was in the movie theater, like literally a minute or two ago. And this guy, this shady looking guy stood up with like two bags and he walked toward the back of the theater. And he pulled out a hatchet and started attacking this family. And then he pulled out a gun, and we all ran out of the theater.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ROMANS: Police say 29-year-old Vincente Montano had been committed to a mental institution four times in the mid-2000s. Three days ago, his mother filed a missing persons report that said Montano was homeless and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
The only injuries reported by theater patrons were irritation from the pepper spray and a minor cut from the hatchet. One moviegoer identified as "Steven" expressed his relief.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN, VICTIM OF THE THEATER ATTACK: I am eternally grateful, excuse me, for Metro Police Department for their fast response today and the fact that no one else got injured other than the person who did this. I would ask anyone to pray for his family because he obviously has some mental problems or something else.
My family does not want any kind of 15 minutes of fame. We were not looking for any of this. We did nothing to bring this upon ourselves. And I am very, very grateful that no one else got injured here today other than the person who perpetrated this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Police say the weapon Montano used which looked real, it was actually an air soft gun. His backpack destroyed by the bomb squad turned out to contain fake explosives.
BERMAN: Had to be so scary for people in that theater.
New information this morning on the New York prison escapee who was on the loose for three weeks until U.S. Border Patrol agents shot and killed him on June 26th. Toxicology reports showed that Richard Matt's blood alcohol level was .18 percent. That's more than double the limit for driving. That was when he died. State police say an autopsy determined Matt died of brain injuries due to gunshot wounds to the head.
The other inmate, David Sweat, who broke out of that same facility with Matt, is now in solitary confinement at another upstate New York prison.
ROMANS: New legal trouble for Bill Cosby. The comedian now ordered by a Los Angeles judge to give a sworn deposition to lawyers for Judy Huth. She accuses Cosby of sexually abusing her at the Playboy mansion in 1974. Huth's complaint is one of several pending civil lawsuits stemming from dozens of accusations. The deposition is expected in October.
BERMAN: This could be trouble for Cosby. It's another sworn deposition that will go on the record.
All right. Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" run almost over. The finale airs tonight. Last night, he joked about everything from eviscerating ISIS, racism, FOX News and Wall Street. And it even included a clip of Wednesday's EARLY START.
Christine Romans, sort of a special guest on Jon Stewart's final week, showing just how much influence Romans has all over the media landscape.
ROMANS: He really just liked that story about the trading --
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: No, no, no. Not just the story. It's never just the story, Christine Romans.
In the end, Stewart decided that the world is demonstrably worse than when he started 16 years ago. He does say that one thing did change for the better. The New York Mets are actually now in first place in the National League.
ROMANS: And he's going to retire forever to New Jersey.
BERMAN: Where everyone goes to retire.
ROMANS: I -- you know, Jersey has got a very, very strong appeal. But I wonder what he will do next. I don't think he's retiring forever. Do you?
BERMAN: You think we'll see him again somewhere?
ROMANS: I think we will.
BERMAN: I will.
Big apple going bonkers. Jon Stewart, a Mets fan. And the Mets, they somehow keep on winning. Don't they know they're not supposed to win? How long can it last?
Andy Scholes and the "Bleacher Report" next.
[05:20:01]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Will the Mets ever lose again? They have now won six in a row. They swept the Marlins.
ROMANS: Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."
Hey, Andy. ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Hey, good morning, guys. You know, it's a
great time to be a baseball fan in New York City. It's like we're back in 2006. The Mets were in first place, the Yankees were in first place, and A-Rod is good at baseball again.
The red hot Mets is going for the sweep of the Marlins, and Matt Harvey was on his game. And in this one, he pitched seven shutout innings. The bull pen almost let this one get away, giving up six runs. But the Mets would hold on to get their sixth straight win.
The Yankees, meanwhile, taking on the Red Sox. Their top 15 prospect, 21-year-old Luis Severino, making his debut. He was solid, giving out these two runs while striking out seven in five innings. Now one of those runs, though, came on this Big Papi homerun that traveled 441 feet. The Red Sox stopped the Yankees in this one, 2-1.
FC Barcelona taking on Roma in an international friendly. But this match wasn't very friendly. Lionel Messi and a Roma player getting into it in the first half. They butt heads and check it out, Messi puts his hands around the other player's throat, pushing him away. Both players received yellow cards. Could have easily been red card. Messi would go on to score a goal seven minutes later. And Barcelona won that game 3-0.
Katie Ledecky continuing to look absolutely unbeatable in the pool at the World Championships. Yesterday the 18-year-old won the 200-meter free style. It's her third gold medal in the past four days. Ledecky will go for a fourth gold medal on Saturday at the 800 freestyle.
[05:25:17] Michael Phelps meanwhile tells the Associated Press that he won't have a drink until after the Olympic Games in Rio. Last October, U.S. Swimming suspended Phelps for six months after his second DUI arrest. This week, Phelps is in San Antonio competing in the U.S. championships.
I tell you what, guys, the swimming events are always my favorite at the Olympics. And I can't wait until Rio next year. It's going to be so exciting with both Phelps and Ledecky competing in the pool.
BERMAN: Unbelievable athletes. That's for sure. All right, Andy, thanks so much.
SCHOLES: All right.
ROMANS: In just hours, Republicans running for president take the stage in the first debate of the primary season. Look at all those guys. What to expect next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
BERMAN: All right, welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. Thirty minutes past the hour. This is our breaking news this morning. A Malaysian official says new
aircraft wreckage has been found on Reunion Island. The same place where a wing component was recently discovered. This is according to the French press agency AFP.
I want to get right to Saima Mohsin at the French aviation laboratory near Toulouse.
Saima, what are we learning about what may have been there on the ground?
SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning. Breaking news here, Christine, from AFP news agency which is the French presser.
The Malaysian Transportation minister telling them that he believes, and I'm going to quote this for you, "We have also found debris like window panes, aluminum foil, and seat cushion," where the wreckage --
