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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
CNN Debate Stages are Set; Biden's Emotional "Late Night" Interview; Clinton Support Plummets in New CNN Poll; Deadly Flooding Devastates Eastern Japan; Migrants Meet Resistance. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired September 11, 2015 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:16] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The CNN Republican presidential candidate debate stage has been set. We now know which candidates will be in the primetime faceoff. The lineup for you, ahead.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: While were you sleeping, Joe Biden in a late night interview with Stephen Colbert. This was emotional, it was candid and he may have made some news, some doubt expressed about whether he's ready to run for president.
ROMANS: A new CNN poll showing Hillary Clinton's support plummeting across the country. Can a shift in strategy help her regain her momentum?
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. So nice to see you all this morning -- especially you, John. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: I have (INAUDIBLE) watching Patriots.
I'm John Berman. It's Friday, September 11.
ROMANS: It's not morning for you. It's all one long night.
BERMAN: Exactly one long day. 4:00 a.m. here in the East.
New this morning, at long last, we know where they will stand, the staging for the CNN debate. CNN has announced that Donald Trump will be center stage quite literally, next Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. That location determined by his standing in the polls.
The most notable addition to the stage is Carly Fiorina, now eligible after CNN changed the requirements. Trump and Fiorina will be joined by Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, John Kasich, Chris Christie and a partridge in a pear tree.
The undercard debate will start at 6:00 Eastern. That will include Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki and Lindsey Graham. You'll notice the absence of Jim Gilmore. He hasn't even registered a 1 percent in national polling. He will not be invited to the debate.
These debates are looking ever more crucial and contentious with the race heating up and really getting a lot more personal.
CNN's Sara Murray has more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine.
The gloves are coming off on the Republican side. Candidates are trading insults as Donald Trump dominates the Republican field. Our CNN/ORC poll shows Donald Trump ahead with 32 percent among Republican supporters, a wide lead over Ben Carson who's at 19 percent support, but gaining momentum. Both candidates far ahead of Jeb Bush who comes in at 9 support.
And the tenor of this campaign has really changed over the last couple of days. You're seeing Trump insulting Carly Fiorina about her looks.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS: You want to take this back about Carly Fiorina?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Many of those comments are made as an entertainer because I did "The Apprentice." It was one of the top shows on television. I decided not to do it again because I wanted to run for president. But some comments were made as an entertainer. And as every said, as an entertainer, it's a much different ball game.
MURRAY: Christine, Ben Carson insult Donald Trump about his faith, and Bobby Jindal even laid into Donald Trump, calling him a carnival act and an egomaniac.
GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R-LA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What's more dangerous is, here's got -- we got a man, there's no ideology, there's no policy, there's no intellectual curiosity. He is only for himself. He said his favorite book is the Bible. He couldn't name one verse that he liked, that had an impact on his life.
Wolf, I don't think he's read the Bible because he's not in it. This is a complete narcissist. It's been a fun show. The idea of Donald Trump is great. The reality is awful.
MURRAY: Now, we had Jeb Bush on CNN. He said he agreed with everything Bobby Jindal had to say about Donald Trump.
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think he believes that he can insult his way to presidency. And I don't think history is a pretty good guide for that. I think he needs to begin to say what's his vision is for the future. And up until now, I think Governor Jindal is absolutely correct. That he is not a serious candidate.
MURRAY: Now, those comments alone give you an idea of how this debate has moved beyond the substance of the candidates to attacks over their personality, getting much more vicious more quickly than many people intended.
As for Bobby Jindal, it will be difficult to see whether this will actually help him in the polls. He is much further behind Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, even Ben Carson.
John and Christine, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Sara. Thank you for that, Sara.
This morning, an emotional Joe Biden casting doubt on his potential bid for the presidency during his appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." The vice president talking about his faith, his parents and the pain of the recent death of his son, Beau. He opened up to Colbert about his plan for the future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, I don't think any man or woman should run for president unless, number one, they know exactly why they would want to be president, and two, they can look at folks out there and say, I promise you, you have my whole heart, my whole soul, my energy and my passion to do this. And I'd be lying if I said that I knew I was there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:05:01] ROMANS: I got to tell you, he was really, really candid with Colbert. I mean, this is the vice president -- a guy who usually just says what he feels, but it felt different, especially about how he's coping with the loss of his son, really candid moments there. Listen to the story about the near emotional breakdown he suffered at a military base.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I was talking about them being the backbone and sinew of this country. And all of a sudden, it's going great. A guy in the back yells, "Major Beau Biden, Bronze Star, sir, served with him in Iraq." And all of a sudden, I lost it. How could you -- I mean, that's not -- I shouldn't be saying. But that --
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST: You know, we --
BIDEN: You can't do that. You can't do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: You know, it really was remarkable. Let's read a tweet from David Axelrod, you know, obviously, political strategist, and now a CNN contributor.
He said in his powerful moving interview with Colbert, you could see the reasons why so many want Joe Biden to run and why he may not. I mean, it was raw and deeply personal.
ROMANS: And totally not political. That's what the country has been clear in the polling we have seen. They don't want politics as usual. They want real people running for president.
BERMAN: And Joe Biden who's been in politics a long time said it best. He said you can't have doubt. You know you have to be 100 percent, 110 percent in.
ROMANS: Yes, and why you're doing it.
BERMAN: Fascinating.
ROMANS: Really frank interview.
BERMAN: All right. In the meantime, brand new poll numbers out overnight that spell trouble for Hillary Clinton.
The CNN/ORC poll shows support dropping both in the primary and against potential Republican opponents. Clinton's lead is now just 10 points over Bernie Sanders nationwide. Last month, it was 18. In June, her lead was 43 points. This follows polls from the key early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where Sanders is neck and neck or ahead of Hillary Clinton.
Sanders tells Wolf Blitzer even he is shocked at the speed of his surge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I'm stunned. Look, we have a message that I believe from day one was going to resonate with the American people. Did I think they would resonate as quickly as they have? The answer is no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The crowds he is getting across the country, especially in New Hampshire and Iowa just unbelievable. Hillary Clinton training her fire not on Sanders, but Republicans she might face in the general election. She blasted Governor Scott Walker on his home turf and his speech at University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
In Ohio, Clinton took a shot at Donald Trump and his Carly Fiorina taunt without mentioning Trump's name.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We hear from candidates on the other side about turning back the clock on women's rights. There is one particular candidate who just seems to delight in insulting women every chance he gets. I have to say if he emerges, I would love to debate him.
Now, it seems to me just observing him that Governor Walker thinks because he busts unions and starves universities, guts public education, demeans women, scapegoats teachers, nurses, and firefighters. He is some kind of tough guy on his motorcycle, a real leader.
Well, that is not leadership, folks. Leadership means fighting for the people you represent and putting their interests first.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Clinton's new more fun side on display as her appearance on "Ellen DeGeneres" aired Thursday, including Clinton's attempt at dancing -- she appears on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" on September 16th.
BERMAN: The things you have to do (INAUDIBLE)
Democrats in the Senate have handed a major victory to President Obama. They blocked the debate on the Republican resolution to reject the nuclear deal with Iran. That means the historic measure will go into effect without the president having to use his veto pen. The deal did not have a support of a single Republican senator. And there were Democrats who did oppose it.
ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning. Asian markets closed mostly lower. European and U.S. stock futures are also down. Yesterday, the Dow climbed 77, the S&P and NASDAQ up a bit. Wait and see mode ahead of the Fed's meeting next week when it decides whether to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
New York to be the first state in the nation with a $15 minimum wage. That's if Governor Andrew Cuomo gets his way. He will push the state legislature to adopt that wage. You know, there is a $15 minimum wage now for fast food worker that he pushed through, just a sign yesterday by wage board.
Vice President Joe Biden also at this event at Javits Center yesterday. This was a big, big rally for a higher minimum wage.
Listen to what the vice president said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:10:03] BIDEN: It's reasonable. It's rational. It's the right thing to do. And the federal minimum wage needs to be raised. It's been ten years since Congress has increased it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: He said it's the last outstanding bit of business that he'd like to finish with his boss, the president. He called stagnant wages a single biggest issue facing the economy and the missing piece of the recovery.
Cuomo announced New York's labor commissioner has now approved that $15 minimum wage for fast food workers. He wants, of course, to extend it to all workers in the state.
BERMAN: All right. It is September 11th. The nation will pause this morning. Events at the World Trade Center and Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to remember the attacks of this day 14 years ago. Names of the newly 3,000 victims who died at the World Trade Center in 2001 and 1993 attack there. It will be read at the sites.
The president and the first lady will observe a moment of silence at the White House at 8:45.
ROMANS: This day never gets any easier. It doesn't.
BERMAN: No. It is important every year, to give it an appropriate.
ROMANS: Take a moment. There'll be a moment at the New York Stock Exchange. It will be a poignant moment downtown. It really is. Everything stops.
New York's top cop and mayor both now apologizing for the mistaken identity arrest of a tennis pro. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: New York City's top police official apologizes to former tennis star James Blake. The police commissioner along with the New York mayor reaching out to Blake after he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed by plainclothes in a case of mistaken identity.
We get more from CNN's Jason Carroll.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, New York's police commissioner finally was able to reach James Blake by phone and apologized to him late Thursday afternoon. Police say Blake accepted the apology. The tennis star was roughed up by a plain clothed police officer and what police call a case of mistaken identity. It happened Wednesday afternoon while Blake was in front of his midtown hotel.
[04:15:04] He was waiting for a car to take him to the U.S. Open when suddenly an unidentified man rushed him.
JAMES BLAKE, RETIRED AMERICAN TENNIS PRO: I even thought maybe -- I thought maybe it was someone I didn't recognize, a high school friend or something coming in to mess with me and give me a bear hug me. And it turned out quickly that it wasn't. When he picked me up, but he picked me up and body slammed me and put me to the ground and turned me over and shut my mouth.
CARROLL: Blake cooperated with police, though, he was handcuffed and held for about 10 minutes. He says the plainclothes officer who tackled him did not identify himself nor did he say why he was being held.
There were six officers involved in the incident. All were white. Blake is biracial.
The police commissioner William Bratton says this incident was not about race, but just simply a case of mistaken identity. He says Blake looked very much like the suspect police believed they were looking for. Police have video of the incident which they are not releasing.
However, after review of the video, they placed the officer who tackled Blake on administrative duty pending the outcome of an investigation -- Christine, John.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: Thanks, Jason.
Police in Phoenix on the hunt for a possible serial sniper, sniper who may be targeting cars on the stretch of Interstate 10 over the past two weeks. On Thursday, police reported an 11th freeway shooting. A bullet hole was found in a truck there. Officials say seven of the attacks involve gunfire, the others projectiles, possibly BB or pellet guns.
ROMANS: Six police officers facing charges in the death of Freddie Gray, they will be tried in Baltimore. A judge rejecting arguments by defense attorneys that the officers can't get a fair trial there. Protesters outside the courthouse cheering that decision, chanting the trial stays here. Gray died from a traumatic spinal injury while in police custody last April. All six officers have pleaded not guilty.
BERMAN: New concern about Pentagon labs and their handling of potentially deadly material. Investigators say bubonic plague bacteria may have been mislabeled and improperly stored at secured military facilities. Defense officials are also trying to determine if samples of the deadly germ were shipped from its labs.
The new investigation comes just months after the revelation that an Army lab in Utah had mishandled anthrax samples for 10 years.
ROMANS: All right. Happening now: rescue work following a deadly disaster in Japan, 400,000 people now displaced by monster flooding. We're live next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:20:58] BERMAN: Devastating flooding in eastern Japan has forced nearly half a million people to flee their homes. More than two feet of rain has fallen since Monday, two feet.
The unprecedented downpours sent torrents of flood waters raging through communities. You can see the pictures there. At least three people are dead, nearly two dozen missing. The weather today better as you will see.
Let's get the latest from CNN's Will Ripley live in Joso City. That's north of Tokyo, where, Will, there's so much work to do.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John and Christine.
Remember when we were showing you those live pictures yesterday of the rescues that were taking place, this area was submerged and water up to the rooftops of houses like this. So, you can see how much the water has receded today. It has been sunny. There hasn't been rain in this portion of eastern Japan, which is good news.
There was rain however farther up a bit Japan's eastern coast, in the city of Osaki, where they saw a levee break and they now have a rescue that's ongoing at this moment, very similar to what we saw here in Joso City.
But I want to show you just the destruction that it's left behind. Look at those cars down there. You can actually see those young men who were able to walk through the neighborhood for the first time, really since they were evacuated. Cars that were floating through here just kind of planted on the ground.
If you pan up to the second story balcony of the apartment building, those are balconies where people were standing and waiting for the helicopters to rescue them. Now, they've been are able to walk in to their neighborhoods to assess the damage and there really is a lot of it.
There are still 100 evacuations centers open. There were thousands of people who were staying here, because if their houses are under water, they are not livable. It may be some time before they have a place to live. They are getting dry clothing and food and water and medical treatment.
But the question remains what will they do when they come home to this and start to put their lives back together -- John and Christine.
BERMAN: Will Ripley, those pictures still just amazing, even though things are getting better. I appreciate it, Will.
ROMANS: All right. The White House, under pressure to do more with the migrant crisis unfolding in Europe, announces the U.S. is prepared to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees in the coming year.
No letup in the massive influx of refugees at the Hungary/Serbia border. The Hungarian government mobilizing the military now presenting a new obstacle for these refugees, these economic migrants in some cases who were trying to make their way west to Austria and Germany. And Austria has just suspended rail service with Hungary.
Let's go there right now live to the Serbia/Hungary border. I want to bring in CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon.
Arwa, what are you seeing there?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Well, Austria is suspending rail service. That does not mean it shut its border down to those who were trying to make it through. It just means they are walking across the border which is something we have been seeing them do in the past.
But take a look at the situation out here. The rain and weather has turned this holding area into a mud pit.
And there is still no organized aid. What you see is a lot of volunteers packing up trucks with much-need warm clothing and boots. These people arrive here often soaked to the bone, having walked under the rain for hours. And then they sift through the various clothing that they can find and try to get dry clothes, but also warm clothes, because the temperatures here are dipping significantly.
You also have the buses coming to pick people up arriving with more frequency than they have in the past. Those buses will be taking people on to the various different transit camps and from there, if the system works the way it's supposed to, they get finger-printed, registered and then they are eventually able to move on to Austria, Germany, or wherever final destination may be.
[04:25:00] But despite the fact you see this outpouring of goodwill here, this scene underscores the very need for much more organized assistance. These shelters that have been put up are very flimsy. They hardly provide what is needed against the elements, especially because at times the wait here can last for quite a while.
And at this stage, it's clear from this location, a number of other key areas along this route, that that real international effort has yet to materialize when it comes to putting together something that is actually sustainable, because this is not a problem that is going to be eliminated anytime soon. This is going to be ongoing for the foreseeable future, because the very causes that are driving these people from their homes, most of them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, those wars are not ending.
ROMANS: You're absolutely right, Arwa. And even European officials have said that the solution for this has to be crafted for years. That this will be a crisis for years, and they need to get their act together to figure out how you are going to process and provide refuge for people who need to be helped. Thanks so much for that, Arwa Damon.
Still, a lot of work on that front, John. A lot of work to do.
BERMAN: That's an understatement.
All right. Big news overnight: we now know which Republican candidates will be at the CNN debate and most importantly where they will stand on the stage. The debate is next Wednesday, but the excitement begins right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: The debate stage, it is set for the CNN Republican presidential candidates, less than one week away. We know who will be there. We now know where they will be standing.
