Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Man Wanted in Connection with Bangkok Attack; Hundreds of Clinton Emails Flagged for Review; GOP Candidates Divided on Birthright Citizenship' Growing Anger After Terrifying Blasts; Shell Permitted to Drill Off Alaska. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired August 18, 2015 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:22] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning: Police searching for a terrorist behind a deadly bomb blast in Bangkok. At least 22 dead, more than 100 injured. We're live with who investigators are now zeroing in on.

Hundreds of Hillary Clinton's e-mails as secretary of state flagged for possibly containing classified information. What we're learning new this morning ahead.

Donald Trump's new immigration plan dividing Republicans running for president. Should birthright citizenship end? What the candidates are saying this morning.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. Thirty-one minutes past the hour. Nice to see you all this morning.

Let's begin here with this breaking news this morning in Thailand. Police are on the hunt for a man they believe may be connected with Monday's deadly bombing attack in Bangkok. Officials say that a man is seen on a closed circuit TV. But they cannot confirm his identity just yet. Authorities now looking at footage going back as far as two weeks before the attack to see if they spot anything suspicious.

There is devastation in that city following the blast that killed 22 people. More than 100 others hurt after a terrorist pipe bomb targeted a Hindu shrine in the heart of the Bangkok shopping center, popular with locals and tourists. The explosion shattering windows, creating panic in the streets.

We're also getting a look at frightening video captured at the very moment of the blast.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

ROMANS: CNN's Asia Pacific editor Andrew Stevens on the phone for me now with the latest from Bangkok.

Good morning, Andrew. ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR (via telephone): Good,

Christine. Yes, you're right. Police are really focusing on this search for a man they want in connection with the explosion. He was wearing a yellow shirt and virtually a backpack. He was seen in CCTV very close to the actual shrine itself, near the road. He was seen emerging without the backpack. So, police are saying they want to get in touch with this man.

They say they cannot, though, identify his nationality. They don't know whether he's a Thai or a foreigner. At the moment that's what they are focusing. There are a lot of steps to go through. They have been combing the area as well around the shrine looking for debris, anything which may give them some sort of clue as to what the -- where this investigation could take them as far as they're trying to find the actual person.

But the said has said so far that they were warned, Christine, there was a telephone warning of an attack but the attack, they didn't give any description, say where it could happen or when it could happen. They did say the device which is being described as an IED was a pipe bomb and it would appear to have been placed close to the road near a fence.

If you look down at the actual area there is a big concrete pillar which holds up a fence. One of them is completely mangled. That blast went off at 7:00 p.m. in the evening when there would have been a maximum number of people at the shrine around the shopping area. Police say it was primed for maximum impact, maximum loss of life, Christine.

ROMANS: So, talk to me a little bit about what the motive here. There's no claim of responsibility. They're zeroing in on this person they think they see on closed circuit television. Give us a little bit of context about why someone would want -- would target this temple in Bangkok.

STEVENS: Bangkok has for years seen a lot of street protests and violent street protests. Political rival factions and supporters of political rivals take to the streets to make their case. There have been explosions in the past. There have been thousands on the street in the past.

In 2006, for example, three people died separately in explosions which were linked to protesters at the time.

But this is on a whole new scale, completely different magnitude. People say they can't obviously rule out this could be an escalation of the political struggle on the street, but it has been quiet here in Bangkok since the military took power in a coup in May of last year. You can't rule this out. This could be reigniting.

There's also a separatist movement in the south of Thailand, on the border with Malaysia.

[04:35:04] That could also be links to -- although police say it's unlikely because the insurgents in the south who are Thai Muslims have not taken targeted Bangkok seriously in the past.

And there is some discussion that this could actually be linked to a Chinese-Muslim separatist. There is a separatist movement in China. There is an independence of a common state there, some suggestions show that could be in connection.

There is a lot of ground to cover here. There are reasons people could have taken this action but it is such a major installation. This is what has police baffled at this stage and this doesn't fit to what has been seen in the past and violence in the streets of Bangkok.

ROMANS: All right. Andrew Stevens, thank you for that this morning. Andrew Stevens for us in Bangkok.

New fallout this morning regarding Hillary Clinton's e-mails. Intelligence officials now recommend 305 of her e-mails from her private server be referred to their agencies for consultation. Officials investigating whether classified information was sent to receive, something Clinton has long assured the American public never happened. Just about 20 percent of the e-mail on that server has been sampled so far.

So how much worse could the issue get for the Democratic front-runner?

CNN's Pamela Brown with more from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.

Three hundred and five documents from Hillary Clinton's private server have been referred to various intelligence agencies for consultation to determine whether the contents are classified. That's according to a court filing from the State Department. This is after intelligence community reviewers from five different agencies joined the process of looking at Clinton's e-mails. And the court filing says, quote, "Out of approximate lid 20 percent of the e-mails the intelligence review jess have recommended 305 documents, approximately 5.1 percent for referral to their agencies for consultation."

So, this filing is update for a federal judge on review efforts in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and basically these intelligence agencies will now have to determine whether or not there is classified information in these documents and whether or not these documents should be released to the public as part of this lawsuit.

And Hillary Clinton, as we have heard, repeatedly has denied sending or receiving information marked as classified through her personal server. It's unknown at this point if any of the 305 flagged e-mails contain classified information, but this does come at a time when the FBI is investigating the security of Clinton's private server -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Pamela Brown, thank you for that. Will Joe Biden run? Some calls are growing louder for the vice

president to enter the presidential race. One place those calls aren't growing louder, the White House. A Democratic Party source says that support inside the administration is said to be limited at best. Many in the White House already heavily invested in the Hillary Clinton campaign. There's also concern a Biden run would put the president in an impossible spot having to choose between supporting his vice president and his former secretary of state.

Donald Trump back on the stump after not getting picked to serve on a jury in New York City. So, he's back to pushing his first major policy proposal on immigration. Some of his GOP rivals are already pouncing on the immigration plan calling it unworkable. So, would it ever have a chance in Congress?

CNN's senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny has a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.

Well, it's back to the campaign trail for Donald Trump. He was not picked for jury duty on Monday. After spending several hours there, he was not selected. He was let. He'll be back out campaigning. He's been selling his new immigration plan. It's the first real policy proposal that he's introduced so far in his young campaign.

It's drawing some praise for some anti-immigration reform activist, but it's drawing much criticism from some of his Republican rivals.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I appreciate the fact that Mr. Trump now has a plan, if that's what it's called, but I think the better approach is to deal with the 11 million people here illegally in a way that is realistic.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump's eight page plan is actually gibberish. It is unworkable. Mitt Romney said his biggest mistake is a candidate for president was embracing self-deportation. That hurt our party.

Donald Trump's plan is force deportation. It's not going to work. It is unworkable.

ZELENY: All of the controversy or most of it centers around the so- called birth right citizenship, a provision in the 14th Amendment that allows U.S. citizens if you were born here the right to citizenship. Donald Trump says he wants to do away with that. Of course, that takes a lot of work. It would take a 2/3 vote in both the House and Senate, it would take a ratification of 3/4 of the state legislatures.

[04:40:00] But that is one of the key provisions at the center of Donald Trump's immigration proposal. He'll be selling that on the road as the week continues. They're all gearing up towards the next presidential debate, the CNN presidential debate in September in California -- Christine. (END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thanks for that.

Now, some of Trumps Republican opponents are touting similar aspects of their own proposals. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal writing on Twitter, we need to end birth right citizenship for illegal immigrants. Scott walker wants to end it and he's in favor of the wall and ending amnesty.

Lindsey Graham told CNN Monday the policy needs to be changed. He said he would consider a constitutional amendment to change the law that grants citizenship to any child born in the United States.

Rick Santorum also said birth right citizenship should end as part of a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

With Congress in recess, states under Republican control are wasting no time targeting funding for Planned Parenthood. At least five states are now trying to cut off money by ending contracts allowing Planned Parenthood to service people with Medicaid. All this follows hidden camera videos claiming to show Planned Parenthood is profiting from fetal tissue sales, a charge Planned Parenthood denies.

Time for an early start of your money this Tuesday morning.

Huge selloff in China. Big, big, big downdraft in China. It's dragging down global markets. Shanghai's benchmark index fell more than 6 percent. Many companies listed there fell the maximum daily limit of 10 percent. You remember earlier this summer the Chinese market began collapsing wiping out trillions of dollars of value, the Chinese government trying desperately to prop stocks up. We're seeing the return in volatility back this morning.

Following that lead, U.S. stock futures are a bit lower this morning. A lot going on, including looking at some of the books of the country's biggest retailers. We're going to see earnings from Walmart, T.J.Maxx and home depot. Those will be out before the bell. It would be critical we'll see how resilient the American consumer is here as the job market improves in the United States.

Forty-two minutes past the hour. A grim discovery for search and crews now reaching the site of a deadly Indonesia plane crash. We're live with the new developments next.

(MUSIC)

[04:45:44] ROMANS: Worse fears confirmed this morning from that missing Indonesian plane. The bodies of all 54 passengers and crew have been located after the wreckage of the Trigana flight was found in a mountainous region of eastern Indonesia. The black box also now in the hands of investigators as helicopters are deployed to begin the recovery process.

CNN's Kathy Novak has the latest for us this morning -- Kathy. KATHY NOVAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, tragic news, Christine. But

sadly not unexpected, it's been two days since villagers saw this plane crash into the mountain.

It's taken that long for the search and recovery teams to actually reach the site and now once again facing exactly the same problems of this rugged terrain and bad weather. They had a clearing in the weather and they were able to get there and locate the bodies. But now the problem is they have not been able to get a single one out, ground teams spending yet another night on the mountain.

Now, the search teams in the air have also had to be called off just because this is such a difficult region with steep slopes, heavy jungle and really unpredictable weather. So, as you can imagine, the families would be very anxious to get these bodies back, get them identified and start to get some answers, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Kathy, tell me a little bit about the context of the safety record of this airline and the rapidly growing airlines in the region.

NOVAK: Absolutely. The black box, as you mentioned, has been discovered. Hopefully the data there will give some answers on what happened here. There was no distress call.

But what we do know about this airline is it has a very small fleet but a disproportionately high number of accidents, including this one, five of them fatal. This is part of a growing industry that you're talking about, Christine. It's expected to triple in the next couple of decades as more and more middle class Indonesians fly around the region.

With the expansion questions are being asked about the safety concerns, infrastructure, pilot training, pilot experience and with another crash now being reported out of Indonesia, the whole industry is going to take another look at itself and people are going to be demanding answers as to whether it is safe to fly in Indonesia -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Kathy Novak for us following this story -- thank you for bringing that to us this morning and come back with any new developments. Thanks.

All right. Residents demand answers after a deadly chemical explosion in China. More than 100 killed, dozens still missing. We are live with what we are learning this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:51:55] ROMANS: Growing anger and calls for compensation after those deadly warehouse explosions in northern China. Some homeowners want the government to buy back their homes. They fear chemicals in the air and on the ground make it unsafe to live there. Investigations into workplace safety and negligence at the warehouse are now underway. The number of missing from the explosions is climbing. CNN's Will Ripley live at a rail station severely damaged by those

explosions. And, Will, we can see around you barrels of chemicals scattered all over the place.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's really remarkable when you look at this damage, Christine. This entire light rail station was, if you go inside, everything kind of fell apart. There's a good part of Tianjin's bus fleet in the parking lot there. The windows are all smashed.

Yes, we've seen a lot of chemicals contamination. There are barrels strewn all other the place. You can see right down at the edge of the tracks here, there's a barrel with chemicals coming out of it that have a reaction to the rain. White steam starts to come off.

So, this is clearly very concerning for people. It's the reason why we're seeing calls for prosecution in this case. Ten executives at the Ruihai International, the shipping company that owns the warehouse that was the center of this explosion, they are facing potential criminal charges. They are being detained right now.

There are also, as you said, lots of mourning happening around here. Today is the seventh day after the explosion and given the Chinese tradition, it was time to stop and pay condolences. So, we saw several different sites around the city where people held ceremonies. In the busy port area, which is resuming normal operations, the ships -- the cargo ships were sounding their horns as well.

But, Christine, it really is staggering as we get a bigger of all of this damage. The insurance claims alone from this one incident we're now learning expected to amount to $1.5 billion. That's in addition, of course, to the human toll. Thousands of people remain homeless, at least 114 dead and 57 police I missing, almost 700 still in the hospital right now -- Christine.

ROMANS: Wow. Seven hundred still in the hospital. Unbelievable.

Will Ripley, thank you. Be careful out there.

Oil prices plunged but that's not stopping oil giants. Drill, baby, drill. Shell's major moves in the Arctic Ocean, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:58:07] ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an early start on your money this Tuesday morning.

Stocks sell off in China rattling markets. The Shanghai's benchmark index tumbling 6 percent. European shares, U.S. stock futures following. It's a return in the Chinese stocks we have seen all summer, despite that government's efforts to stop a bubble from popping.

Oil prices also moving lower this morning. Yesterday crude oil hit a new 6 1/2 year low, below $42 a barrel. Crude oil prices down 11 percent in just a month. Shell gets the green light to drill in the Arctic Ocean off of Alaska's northwest coast. The government approved a permit allowing Shell to drill below the ocean floor for the first time in decades. That's because shell brought in equipment to prevent a possible oil blowout.

Environmental groups oppose off shore drilling there. They say it will harm wildlife already threatened by global warming. The Arctic is home to an estimated 20 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.

A college degree is an advantage in this job market, but education has not helped everyone equally. In the past 20 years, the median wealth for blacks and Hispanics with college degrees declined. That's according to a new report, a new report from the St. Louis fed.

At the same time median wealth for whites and Asians with a college degree grew more than 80 percent. That's because blacks and Hispanics carried more debt in the recession and their wealth was tied to their homes. Interesting St. Louis Fed study there.

EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC)

ROMANS: Breaking news this morning. Police are searching for a man they believe could be behind the terror attack in Bangkok. At least 22 dead, more than 100 injured. We have new information ahead.

Hundreds of Hillary Clinton's e-mails flagged for secrets. Did the former secretary of state handled classified information through her private email server? New developments.

Donald Trump's immigration plan dividing people running for president, igniting a new debate over birthright citizenship.