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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Police Shooting During Ferguson Protests; Obama Addresses Critics of Iran Nuclear Deal; Trump Stands Behind Megyn Kelly Insult. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired August 10, 2015 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR, "EARLY START": Fired in Ferguson, Missouri. The violence breaking out as crowds marked the year since Michael Brown was shot and killed. More demonstrations plan today. It is just the tip of the iceberg. We have all the breaking detail.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
It is 30 minutes past the hour. John Berman is off this Monday morning.
Breaking overnight, gunfire erupts in Ferguson, Missouri one year after a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown.
[04:30:00] CNN reporters on the ground say there were at least three rounds of gunfire. Officials in Ferguson say two people were shot after officers came under heavy gunfire.
CNN's Sara Sidner was interviewing Ferguson's Interim Police Chief, Andre Anderson, when shots rang out. You can hear them, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're trying to work with the community. We're explaining to them their rights. And we just want to be as patient as possible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your message to those who are rooting?
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The police department says that one officer was hurt by a hurled brick, but none were injured in that exchange of gunfire
Joining us on the phone from Ferguson is CNN's Sara Sidner right in the middle of it all.
A long and very tense night. I know that the police chief of St. Louis County police chief, Sara, is saying that these were criminals, not protesters. They were protesters doing what everyone expected them to do. And then these were criminal elements. What do we know? SARA SIDNER, CNN REPORTER: They're protesters were out in front of police. There was a line of police on West Florissant. This is the same road where you saw the unrest boil over last year on August 10th. So basically, this is the anniversary of that happening. Again, it's like deja vu all over again.
But what we saw were a group of protesters, not more than two or three dozen protesters that were out, standing in front of police, having words with police. Police telling them that they needed to disburse.
As that was happening, we noticed the chief came up so we went over to speak with him, and that's when the gunshots started going off. We turned and it was a few hundred yards away from where the protesters were standing and were just facing off with police.
A few hundred-yard down West Florissant towards some of the businesses and so everyone started scrambling. The police -- everyone saying was saying, "Take cover. Take cover." Everyone tried to get through a place that was safe.
And then we heard a second round of shots happening a few minutes after the first just behind us.
We now understand that at least one of those -- in one of those incidents that the police were involved in a shooting. We also understand that, like you've mentioned, there was a police officer who was hit with a brick.
There was quite a bit of back and forth with police on one end of West Florissant. And on the other end there was a lot of just yelling protesters at police, but no physical altercations there.
But this certainly has turned in a night that was relatively peaceful. I mean there were no huge protests planned for tonight. The plans were that there were going to be a silent protest which happened earlier in the day and sort of a mournful type of day, commemorating the death of Michael Brown. This has changed sentiments here on the ground now.
Christine?
ROMANS: Is it quiet now, Sara? I mean, it's 4:33 in the East? Is it quiet there now?
SIDNER: Yes. What's happened right now is there is still quite a bit of police activity but I noticed -- as we were trying to get out of the way, all of a sudden, we heard more gunshots and then we heard the sound of tear gas this morning. And we -- then we saw all the tear gas bubbling up again on West Florissant very, very similar to what we saw just one year ago, except for much, much more contained and smaller.
So I can tell you that that is what happened before things got quite calm.
But I do want to let you listen to Chief Belmar, who is the chief of the St. Louis County police, who has come out to assist Ferguson, yet again on the anniversary of Michael Brown's death And what he said about what happened tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON BELMAR ST LOUIS COUNTY POLICE CHIEF: While this is a tragedy for the family of this man and certainly for the officers involved and it is truly a tragedy. There is a small group of people out there that are intact on making sure that we don't have peace that prevails. I don't know how else to say that but that's just the bottom line on this and that's unfortunate.
[04:35:00] Because even with the folks that they were in the street with last night, they listen. And then there are lot of emotions, I get it. But this is something different. And we can't sustain this, as a community, as we move forward.
We have other individuals out there who are armed right now. They're part of this group. We need the public's help. We can't do it by ourselves. We have to have the community out here helping us, working with us to identify this and to make this stop. And their intent ...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: And he talks about these things and saying this is a criminal element. Some of the people on the ground, some of the residents were saying similar things. Very frustrated with what happened because they wanted these protests to be peaceful protest. They were loud and voice stress. And this shattered that with one person that we now know has been shot. We are still waiting on detail if there are any other people who have been hurt on this evening.
Christine?
ROMANS: OK. Sara Sidner, I know you've had a long night and you still have more reporting to do. Keep in tract of just with the statuses of that -- of the person who's been shot, the police officer with the brick, all this. OK. Thank you Sara we'll check in with you again very, very soon. Thank you.
You know Michael Brown's death sparked a nationwide movement for police reform.
Once again, this morning there's concern after the killing in Texas of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer. They live one year to the day after Michael Brown's death.
The FBI joining the investigation into the shooting death of a college football player who police say failed to comply with officers' orders after he broke into a car dealership in Arlington, Texas.
CNN's Nick Valencia has the latest.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, newly release security camera footage shows the moments right before 19-year-old Christian Taylor was shot and killed by a police officer in Arlington, Texas. That footage shows Taylor showing up just after 1:00 a.m. on Friday to the car dealership. He tries to break his way into one of the windows of the cars, and when that doesn't work, he gets on top of the hood of the car and smashes his way into the windshield. He goes and retrieves his own car, forces his way into the lot and eventually crashes his car into the front entrance of that dealership.
When police arrive, they say a struggle ensues after Taylor refuses commands to surrender. One of the officers tazes Taylor, the other draws his weapon and fires.
An officer who fired the fatal shot 49-year-old Brad Miller who is a rookie police officer who had finished his cadet training in March and was still under field supervised training. Now that officer has not spoken yet to investigators. And according to the police chief that is routine during officer involved shootings.
That's Police Chief Will Johnson saying that there will be a full comprehensive and thorough investigation. And if it's found that the shooting was unjustified, there will be consequences against Brad Miller.
Adding to this confusion is that there is no body cameras on the officers, there's also no dashcam footage and no additional footage of what happened during the shooting.
The police chief there in Arlington he's called in the FBI to participate for the investigation.
Christine?
ROMANS: All right, Nick Valencia. Thank you for that, Nick.
Today, 58 members of the House arrived in Israel to discuss the Iran Nuclear Agreement with Israeli and Palestinian officials. The trip comes with the mid-September deadline to approaching to either approve or reject that deal.
Back here at home President Obama continuing his tough sell of the nuclear plan calling out critics who oppose it for not having a viable alternative.
CNN's White House Correspondent Michelle Kosinski is on Martha's Vineyard where the president is vacationing.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi Christine.
Well, the president may be on vacation here but, of course, the issue of the Iran nuclear deal has not gone away. And there's so much going on right now out there. And we have groups opposed spending literally tens of millions of dollars buying ads and lobbying against it. We have members of congress going to Israel and meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And in fact, the president addressed Netanyahu's fierce opposition to the deal.
And an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria before he came on vacation here, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: So, the question has to be is there, in fact, a better path to preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapon than this one? And I've repeatedly asked both from Mr. Netanyahu and others to present me a reasonable, realistic plan that would achieve exactly what this deal achieves and I have yet to get a response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: Over the last couple of weeks, we've seen the president himself and members of his administration really try to match the lobbying effort that's been going on against the deal. They have been trying to do it for the deal. They've been holding a number of briefings and meetings, some of them classified from members of congress, one-on-one meetings between members and the President.
But while he is here, the White House said well there could be the occasional phone call in regards to the Iran deal, but don't expect a lot of lobbying. This seems to be truly a vacation for the president. And again, the White House expresses confidence that the votes are there still to sustain a presidential veto if congress did vote to disapprove the deal.
Christine?
[04:40:03] ROMANS: All right, Michelle Kosinski. Thanks for that, Michelle.
New hope this morning that jailed "Washington Post" reporter, Jason Rezaian, will soon be released by Iran. He's been held for more than a year on espionage charges. Iran's revolutionary court holding a fourth and final closed door hearing today. His trial has been secret.
It's a hearing "Washington Post" editors called the critical moments in this case.
President Obama has publicly called on the Iranians to free Rezaian.
40 minutes passed the hour. Let's get an EARLY START on your money European stock lower. Asian stocks, U.S stock features are up.
But boy it was not a great week last week.
The Dow closed 45 points lower Friday. It was seven-day losing streak, the longest losing streak for stocks in four years. The Dow is now down 2.5 percent for the year. The trend could continue as investors watch how the Federal Reserve handles a looming interest rate hike, many people think that hike is coming in September.
And Warren Buffett is closing in on his largest deal ever. Buffett Berkshire Hathway is reportedly buying Precision Castparts, an Oregon- based fortune 500 companies and manufactories components for aerospace power and industrial companies. The deal is worth $30 billion. It could be announced as early as today. It would add to Buffett's growing list of brands, including Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen, and GEICO.
Donald Trump not backing down. He said comments about the debate moderator are being misinterpreted. But now, the GOP field is firing back. We have the latest on race for the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:45:07] ROMANS: All right, Donald Trump not backing off this morning from his controversial insult aimed at Fox News Debate Moderator, Megyn Kelly.
Listen to what he said Friday night on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She gets out and she starts to asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. And, you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her -- wherever. But -- and she was -- in my opinion, she was off- base.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Many of Trump's opponents claimed the billionaire was suggesting that Kelly had been menstruating, that's why she had such sharp questions. He called her ridiculous.
Trump now says only a sick person would think that's what he meant. But as criticisms mount, some political strategist say this might be what turns the tide against Trump.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has more from Washington.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Donald Trump again not backing down, seeking to his guns, refusing to apologize, saying there is nothing. He believed he needs to apologize for. He says his comments were misinterpreted.
Here is how he explained what he was trying to say on State of the Union with which I've covered (ph).
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: No. I said as long was pouring for wherever. Because I wanted to finish the sentence because I went on to some -- I wanted to get off with the whole thing and get back on to the subject of jobs or whatever we were talking to about right after that.
So, I didn't even say anything because I didn't even finish the thought. I was going to say nose and/or ears because that's a very common statement. Blood, organ, somebody's nose it's a statement showing anger. She had great anger when she was questioning me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: And this gives an opening for many of the republican candidates, most notably, Carly Fiorina, as the only woman in the republican field to come out and speak up against this.
And she talked about times in her past in the corporate world that she has to put up with the same sort of insinuations herself. And she called Trump's comment completely inappropriate and offensive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLY FIORINA, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think presidential campaign test character under pressure and overtime. And so, it's a moderator's job to ask tough questions. All of those moderators asked tough questions of everyone. And so, there is no excuse for personally attacking one of the moderators for asking a set of questions he didn't like.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: Trump, meanwhile, fired back on Sunday afternoon at Fiorina, talking her a bit with this twit writing, "I just realized that if you listen to Carly Fiorina for more than ten minutes straight, you develop a massive headache. She has a zero chance". And this comes as there's been some broader turmoil in the Trump campaign. Another shake up, the second one in two weeks cutting ties with one of his top advisers Roger Stone.
Now, Stone says he quit the Trump campaign though. They say they fired him now, regardless Stone saying that he is leaving in part because of Trump's behavior like this.
Christine?
ROMANS: All right, Sunlen Serfaty from Washington, thank you for that.
A new developments in the Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy this morning. The State Department spokesman confirming to CNN on Sunday the former secretary of state has now sworn to a federal judge that she has turned overall of her work related e-mails.
The judge had ordered Clinton and two of her aides to certify their penalty of perjury that they have turned over all government record in their possession.
Happening today, Hillary Clinton kicks off a two-day campaign swing through New Hampshire.
She will layout her plan to expand the access to higher education and help ease the burden of student's debt.
Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, on the West Coast with the swing today to visit to Oakland a brunch event with the group National Nurses United. This follows the -- a best of times, worst of times, weekend for Sanders. The biggest rally of his campaign drawing some 12,000 people in Seattle on Saturday that followed a planned speech earlier in the day where black lives matter protesters confronted the senator and shutdown that event.
Severe weather in the forecast as the workweek gets underway. We'll tell you where next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:52:55] ROMANS: Record-breaking heat in the forecast folks. Let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for the latest.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, METEOROLOGIST: Hey Christine, good Monday morning to you.
Look at the weather here across the southeast really much of the eastern half of the country heat indices. About 180 across portions of Memphis. Little Rock at 105.
Some of the more comfortable temperatures around the Philly and Washington they will take it at 85 degrees but they will feel like by this afternoon
But a tremendous heat. Over 30 million people dealing with this with the areas indicated in the purple or hot pink and that is the area with the most intense heat expected in Dallas, back to the west, can't count them out when you're looking at 105 for your forecast. 97 is normal for this time of year. You noticed it cooled off to above average still. But it's been the cooling trend. But unfortunately, when you're talk about 99 being cool, not the best story in the week there.
But here, we go to some severe weather across the portion of the southeast, mainly around the, say, portions of Western Tennessee getting in on from strong storms later this morning. Memphis, around 8:30 to 9:00 in the morning some active weather possible. Atlanta, at about 3:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon, we got some wet weather to roll through.
And across the northeast, we go, where the temperature trend is a warming one for, say, New York up to 86. While Washington gets back up to the mid 80s by later portion of the week.
Christine?
ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Pedram.
Legendary football star and broadcaster Frank Gifford being remembered this morning for his grace and quiet dignity. The Hall of Famer died of natural causes suddenly at his Connecticut home on Sunday. The husband and talk show host, Kathie Lee Gifford, was the NFL's most valuable player in 1956. After a brilliant career on the Gridiron, he successfully transitioned into the broadcast booth as announcer and an analyst on Monday Night Football. Frank Gifford with 84.
Are you ready for the iPhone 7? More details on Apple's next move coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:58:36] ROMANS: Happy Monday. Welcome back. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. U.S. Stock Futures pointing higher right now, that could mean a reversal of last week's dropped.
Stocks have been climbing, you know, for six years, but it turns out they can go down.
The Dow has close lower for seven days in a row, something that hasn't happened in four years. The Dow now down to 2.5 percent for the year, expect more volatility as of September.
Interest rate hike looks more likely.
And get ready for a big Apple announcement on September 9th. Apple will most likely debut its new generation of iPhones, that Wednesday. The new phone is expected to feature a better camera and faster processor, plus something called Force Touch Display, which detects how hard a user touches the surface.
Apple may also unveil a new version of the iPod, a 12.9-inch Pro model. The company unveils the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus a year ago on that same date.
Fantastic Four not so fantastic at the box office. The Marvel super hero film in 20th Century Fox brought in an estimated $26.2 million in the U.S. 26.2 is not a lot. It's less than 40 million expected. It was one of the worst openings ever for the brand.
With December movie season wrapping up, Mission Impossible Rouge Nation took the top spot at the box office.
All right, EARLY START continues right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN's Breaking News.
[05:00:01] Our breaking news this morning, shots fired in Ferguson, Missouri a year to the day after Michael Brown was shot and killed by police. What led us to the confrontation? And could more violence be in store with demonstrations plan...
