Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Sanders Surges Ahead Of Clinton In New Hampshire; Clinton Slams Trump Immigration Plan; Trump On Top Iowa And New Hampshire; Backing The Iran Nuclear Deal; China Markets Resume Trading After Holiday; Migrants Pour Into Germany And Austria. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired September 07, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: -- voters are beginning to look for alternatives to Hillary Clinton. Thrown into the mix is Vice President Joe Biden going to run or not? He met with some family members over the weekend in Delaware as part of the discussion as he decides over the next month or so whether to jump into this campaign.

It is one reason that Hillary Clinton is doing a house party. She is doing meeting with activists across the state of Iowa trying to get those Democrats to sign on to her campaign.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: With her poll numbers sagging, Hillary Clinton is turning up the heat on Donald Trump. Listen to how she ridicules the Republican frontrunner's plan to deport all undocumented immigrants if he wins the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mr. Trump on the other side talks about deporting 11 million people. Somebody needs to ask us tell us specifically how that will happen. You know what he says. They will go. They will have to go over there and stand in line and have to come back, 11 million or 12 million people, really?

Well, I'm going to be pressing very hard to get specifics because there aren't any specifics. This is just the kind of political rhetoric that doesn't belong in our election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: So meanwhile, Donald Trump is holding on to the top spot on the Republican side. He is sporting a commanding lead in New Hampshire and slightly less comfortable margin in Iowa.

In both states, Dr. Ben Carson is making a strong move there. We get more from CNN national correspondent, Sunlen Serfaty in Milford, New Hampshire.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Today, we will see some of the Republican candidates march in the Labor Day parade and fresh on their mind is catching up to frontrunner Trump. There is a new poll out by NBC/Marist that shows that here in

New Hampshire, Donald Trump, has a commanding lead at 28 percent support and that's picking up 7 percentage points from July.

John Kasich at number two with 12 percent followed by outsider candidates Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina. They both have been on the rise here recently. Jeb Bush clearly on the decline in New Hampshire, he's lost almost half of his support since July and is now polling at only 8 percent here.

Meanwhile in Iowa, we are seeing Donald Trump and Ben Carson on the rise. Trump with 29 percent in Iowa, Carson at 22 percent, and Bush again in Iowa, losing half of his support there now polling at only 6 percent.

Another candidate who is seeing some decline in Iowa is Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who once was in the lead in Iowa over the summer. I caught up with Walker as he launched his motorcycle tour throughout New Hampshire here and asked him about this decline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT WALKER (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The person who won the primary four years ago is about at that same point at this point. We have every confidence. There will be ups and downs in polling along the way. Our key is to stay true to who we are, to get our message out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: Labor Day is often seen as the unofficial kickoff to the campaign season. So today can serve as a reset button for many of these candidates who need a lot of momentum.

ROMANS: All right, Sunlen, thank you for that.

Here is a name you probably haven't heard in a while, ex- Republican vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, weighing in on this feud between the GOP rivals, Donald Trump and Jeb Bush.

Those two candidates battling over Trump chastising Bush for speaking Spanish on the campaign trail. Here is what Palin thinks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER GOVERNOR, ALASKA: It's a benefit of Jeb Bush to be able to be fluent in Spanish. We have a large and wonderful Hispanic population that you know is helping to build America. On the other hand, you know, I think we can send a message and say you want to be in America, you better be here legally or you're out of here. When you're here, let's speak American.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Speak American. Palin went on to say, quote, "a unifying aspect of the nation is the language that is understood by all." She also mentioned that she'd interested in an energy secretary position in a Trump administration.

KOSIK: Sounds lovely. President Obama is picking up a couple of key endorsements for the Iranian nuclear deal. Congresswoman Debbie Wassermann Schultz, the head of the Democratic National Committee, and former secretary of state, Colin Powell, are both coming out in favor of the agreement after considerable angsts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: My number one goal is to reach a conclusion based on what I thought would be most likely to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons goals. In weighing everything, all of the information that I've had in front of me, I concluded that the best thing to do is vote in support of the Iran deal.

COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Here is why I think it is a good deal. One of the great concerns that the opposition has that we are leaving open a lane for the Iranians to go back to creating a nuclear weapon in 10 or 15 years.

But we are forgetting the reality that they have been on a super highway for the last ten years to create a nuclear weapon program with no speed limit.

And in last ten years, they have gone from 136 centrifuges up to something like 19,000 centrifuges. This agreement will bring them down to 5,000 centrifuges.

[05:35:07] All of these will be under IAEA supervision and I think this is a good outcome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: President Obama taking to Twitter expressing gratitude for Powell's approval saying, "Thank you, Colin, for putting your experience and expertise behind this important initiative for our country."

ROMANS: The Pentagon revamping its strategy in the war on ISIS acknowledging the plan to build a force of moderate Syrian rebels is failing. Now defense officials want to drop larger numbers of rebels into safer zones and provide them with better intelligence, better training.

This is according to the "New York Times." For the first time, Iraq's Air Force is targeting ISIS positions using F-16 fighter jets purchased from the United States.

It's 35 minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money this Monday morning, Beijing calls the stock market bubble there over, but the market disagrees.

China's Central Bank hoping to calm fears set on Saturday the corrective process in the market was nearly finished. Investors did not think so. The Shanghai Composite is down 2.5 percent. It is down 40 percent from the high this year.

European markets are higher right now. Here in the U.S., markets are closed for the Labor Day holiday. It was an ugly day on Friday for Wall Street. The rest of it is welcome. The Dow fell 272 points, now down more than 12 percent from its peak. The S&P 500 down 1.5 percent Friday and now on the edge of correction territory.

The president on the Labor Day ordering paid sick leave to employees of federal contractors. President Obama will sign an executive order today, which would allow workers to earn up to seven paid sick days a year.

It's a move that could benefit more than 300,000 workers. The White House hopes this pressures Congress to pass similar legislation for private sector workers. That could mean a huge change for 40 percent of workers, 40 percent of workers who get no paid sick time.

KOSIK: Something very important to all of us. Chaos at the borders of Europe, thousands of migrants trying to get into leaving war-torn countries only to face new difficulties this morning. We have live team coverage as the crisis unfolds ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:40:43]

ROMANS: A wave of refugees pouring into Austria and Germany by the thousands this weekend. An estimated 13,000 men, women and children greeted warmly at train stations by volunteers and ordinary citizens. A growing number of Iraqis joining the tens of thousands of Syrians who are fleeing violence and poverty in their countries.

Pope Francis calling on Catholic parishes and religious communities to open their doors to these refugees. But right now the E.U. remains deeply divided over how to handle this.

CNN is covering the crisis like no other network on TV can starting with senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, at the Hungary/Serbian border. What are you seeing there, Arwa?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, take a look at this and the crowds that are here. This is meant to be a temporary holding area for those that cross the border. We were speaking to the women and little girls. They told us they have been waiting in line since 5:00 a.m. they arrived yesterday and had to spend the night out here in the cold.

It does get very bitterly cold here. People are extremely frustrated because the Hungarians have not been able to move them through quickly enough. We were here a week ago and the wait time was about 5 to 12 hours.

Now we are told it is up to 36 hours up to three days. You see it gets chaotic when a bus arrives as it did just now. People shoving themselves through all of them desperate to get on to those buses that are going to be taking them to the transit camps.

Desperate not because they want to go to the camps, but because they want to get out of here. This is their only option. They are not allowed to walk. There is very little by the way of aid here. There is no shelter for them to speak of.

There are a few tents over there. That's about it. The problem is the minute one bus comes and they are not coming quickly enough to clear everybody out. You have more and more refugees coming across. The small amount of people you see and it has just quieted down.

They are following the train tracks from Serbia to Hungary. Many of them arriving exhausted. They would have trekked anywhere from four to six hours. They have also gone through a long and arduous journey that lasted anywhere from two to three weeks.

They are finding themselves at the gateway at the European Union and they are reduced to having to exist like this. This field, as they will say to you, is basically a garbage pit. There has not been any proper shelter put up.

They are distributing whatever aid they can. The conditions here are so drastically worse than when we were here last time. It is really something difficult to fathom because organizations like UNHCR have been offering assistance to the Hungarian government. They say they handle the situation.

This is clearly not a situation they can handle. The woman sitting over there, she was about to go completely crazy. She could not deal with it. She was saying I'm an old woman. I come from a respectable family. How can you expect me to keep existing like this?

ROMANS: Arwa Damon, thank you for that. Again, the rules and regulations of the European Union cannot handle the influx of people. The people want to go to Germany or someplace else. They have to apply for refugee status there.

KOSIK: Let's move on. The thousands of refugees are pouring in to Austria and Germany over the weekend. The policy to law them in could be short lived.

CNN's coverage continues with Atika Shubert live in Munich. We are seeing the difficult and arduous journeys that these refugees are making and then they are coming to where you are in Munich and getting a warm welcome, but why could this end, Atika?

[05:45:06] ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Germany has made very clear that the set up right now as organized as this is, is temporary. It is not sustainable at the level it is now. Yesterday, we saw more than 13,000 people coming into the area in Munich which is the main doorway.

You see families coming through here throughout the morning. In fact, we saw a little boy come in without any jacket. It is getting cold without any shoes. He has just been given fresh clothes and shoes.

Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, has just made a speech and said an extra 6 billion euro will be allocated to deal with the refugee crisis. Germany will take up to 800,000 refugee applications here.

She made it very clear that Germany is in this for the long term. They are allocating special resources and funds to deal with it. Germany also expects its neighbors in the E.U. to take in more refugees to build more reception centers like this to handle the influx. Germany cannot handle it alone -- Alison.

KOSIK: Atika, that is really the trick to get those other countries to accept these refugees too.

SHUBERT: Well, exactly. What Germany wants to see is a quota system where every country in the E.U. is required to take a certain number of refugees based on economy and population and size of the country. Germany is trying to say we will set the example by taking 800,000.

Sweden takes in most per capita of any other country here in the E.U., but Germany is putting pressure on the U.K. to take more especially also the richer nation to take in more, but it also expects countries like Hungary, Slovakia and Poland who don't want to take in as many refugees to take in asylum seekers as well.

KOSIK: All right, Atika Shubert live from Munich. Thanks for that. It is interesting to see how these countries try to coordinate this influx of thousands of refugees.

ROMANS: Many are wondering what the U.S. is prepared to do about the refugees. Congressman Peter King of New York is warning against the wholesale of mission of migrants from Syria.

He says terrorists could be embedded with those throngs of people. King says it's important to be vigilant if the U.S. decides to take in refugees.

Two GOP candidates also weighing in, Carly Fiorina says the U.S. has already done enough. John Kasich is pushing for an enhanced U.S. role taking in those migrants.

Peter king, interestingly, points out the Boston bombers, two people who were admitted to the U.S. on asylum, as refugees from their war-torn country and turned out to be enemies.

KOSIK: The Kentucky clerk in jail for refusing gay couples the right to marry filing a new appeal overnight. What she is now asking a judge next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:50:00]

KOSIK: The Kentucky clerk currently sitting in jail for refusing to grant marriage licenses to gay couples is filing an appeal. Kim Davis has been behind bars since Thursday after defying orders from a U.S. district judge to issue the licenses. She says it conflict was her religious beliefs.

Well now Davis is drawing support from presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Gavin Newsom in San Francisco as mayor performed same-sex weddings even though it was illegal. Did he ever get put in jail? He most certainly did not. You have Barack Obama and Eric Holder when he was attorney general. They ignored the rulings of DOMA. Did they get put in jail for ignoring the law? They most certainly did not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: The former Arkansas governor plans to visit Davis in jail Tuesday before holding a rally for her outside of her detention center.

ROMANS: Breaking overnight, the Minnesota dentist who faced a worldwide backlash for killing Cecil the lion on the African safari is breaking his silence. Walter Palmer who is expected to return to practice Tuesday telling the "Associated Press" and Minneapolis "Star Tribune," he has regrets, but insists his hunt was legal. He did not address if he would return to Zimbabwe to face questioning. Palmer is not charged with a crime.

All right, millions of Americans hitting the road this holiday weekend, why the drive will be less painful than usual. An EARLY START on your money is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:57:06]

ROMANS: All right, time for an EARLY START on your money, Labor Day edition, U.S. markets are closed for the holiday. The first day of trading in China after a four-day break brings new losses. Shanghai Composite closed down 2.5 percent. It tumbled 40 percent since June.

The latest losses follow a revision of China's growth last year. The government now says Chinese growth last year was 7.3 percent, not 7.4 percent. It's a small change, but any sign of a slowdown in China makes alarm bells ring all over the world.

If you are hitting the road today, this should make your day and drive easier. This is the cheapest Labor Day gas prices in 11 years. The nationwide average for a gallon is $2.40. Look at that, that's more than $1 cheaper than a year ago.

Oil prices have been tumbling and even volatile, plunging below $40 a barrel two weeks ago then jumping sharply and then slipping lower again. Analysts say the recent rise in oil to put a floor under gas prices. Trend is down.

A lot of folks predicting $2 gas is coming by December. I saw it $2.05 in my home town. When people talk about lower as. They say I live in Chicago. There are some refinery issues there that mean they are not getting the benefit.

KOSIK: I still have a smile on my face.

All right, new trouble for Hillary Clinton, "NEW DAY" starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This presidential race is more unsettled than we could have imagined.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bernie Sanders surging past Hillary Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the secretary's people are getting very nervous.

CLINTON: It will be a fight, make no mistake about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump to the highest poll numbers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a major problem for Bush.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Germany and Austria taking in thousands, but warning they cannot keep this up for long.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More than 13,000 asking for asylum.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of us around the world have to do more to help the Syrian refugees.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Minnesota dentist who sparked an International firestorm after killing Cecil the lion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Walter Palmer is possibly going to be extradited.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is not even a human being as far as I'm concerned.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, September 7th, Labor Day, 6:00 in the east. Did you know who started Labor Day before the U.S.? Canneta. Did you know the state of Oregon had made it a holiday before the United States did?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Really?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: You are filled with trivia.

CUOMO: I got them online. So can you. I will tweet it. Do you know who has a lot of work to do even today? Hillary Clinton. Here is why. A new NBC News/Marist poll shows an incredible reversal of fortune. Democratic rivals, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden making a move especially in New Hampshire --