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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

GOP Candidates Will try to Make an Impression; California Wildfires: State of Emergency; Migrant Crisis: Germany Adds Border Control; Dramatic Finishes in NFL's "First Sunday". Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired September 14, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, parents, is your child looking at college? Listen up. The White House launched a new college scorecard. It gives them important information about how much the typical graduate makes ten years down the road, plus the average monthly loan payment for a graduate of that college.

[05:00:10] Too many families are borrowing too much money and they don't have the right information to make better decisions at the beginning when the kid is going to college.

Out of control student debt is a growing problem. Some colleges are much worse than others. In fact, did you know 70 percent of all student loan defaults are from students who attended for-profit colleges? That is important information. You can see there, collegescorecard.ed.gov.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Good to know.

All right. EARLY START continuing right now.

(MUSIC)

KOSIK: New developments in the race for president. Donald Trump and Ben Carson surging in a new poll this morning. The CNN Republican presidential debate just two days away. How the candidates are preparing.

ROMANS: California on fire. Hundreds of homes burned down. Thousands evacuated as these flames turn deadly.

KOSIK: Europe's migrant crisis. Germany at its limit, now enforcing border control as thousands more arrive.

ROMANS: Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

Nice to have you here this week.

KOSIK: Happy to be here. Thank you.

And I'm Alison Kosik. It's Monday, September 14th. It's 5:00 a.m. in the East. And Republican candidates are sharpening their attacks this morning ahead of Wednesday night's GOP debate right here on CNN. With the new "Washington Post"/ABC News poll showing Donald Trump expanding his lead and Ben Carson in second place. All candidates who are stuck in single digits are scrambling to device an effective strategy to earn Trump's reign.

Candidate Rand Paul telling "The Associated Press", quote, "Someone has to bring him down."

Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus warning debate moderator Jake Tapper that he can expect to referee a rough game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, GOP NATIONAL CHAIRMAN: You know what? Every candidate in all these campaigns are going to do whatever they need to do in order to benefit their own campaigns and there will be more elbows thrown at that debate and you're going to have your hands full.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: It's going to be a good one. It all should make for an exciting second Republican debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. That's where CNN's Athena Jones and she has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, Christine and Alison.

We are now just two days away from the debate here at Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The stage is set, the podiums are up and the candidates are getting ready.

As you know, one of the big themes of the campaign season so far has been the strength of outsider candidates like Donald Trump who is, of course, the GOP frontrunner and Ben Carson who is not far behind him and also Carly Fiorina.

Now, Fiorina is going to be the new addition to the primetime debate stage here on Wednesday night and she spoke yesterday about her outsider status and what she brings to the table.

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have been in and around Washington for a long time. So, I don't think it's a big mystery actually. I think one of the dirty little secret is professional politicians want everyone to think it's so hard to do what we do, nobody else can do it. It's hogwash. It isn't so hard. Most of this stuff takes common sense and good judgment. And people are frustrated because they see no common sense or good judgment in Washington, D.C.

JONES: Now, meanwhile, Scott Walker, who was once a serious contender in states like Iowa, but has now sunk in the polls talked about why it is a good thing that he's actually held elected office. Take a listen. GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R-WI), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Remember, Barack

Obama never run anything before and we see what a lousy president he's been not just ideologically but in terms of actually running things. I've run things. I've actually got things done.

JONES: Guys, this is going to be a television audience and a huge opportunity for these candidates to make a strong impression with voters. A lot of them haven't been getting a lot of attention in the media, so this is their chance to create a moment, to have a memorable, effective moment that leaves an impression on voters and hopefully for them, one that gives them a boost in the polls.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Athena Jones in California, thanks, Athena.

Donald Trump will face protesters when he speaks at a huge rally at the American Airline Center in Dallas today. Latino groups bringing in anti-Trump demonstrators from as far away as Houston for what one organizer calls a march against hate.

This as two immigration rights groups launched a TV ad that contrast Ronald Reagan's views on immigration with those of the current Republican candidates. The ad includes Reagan's line about a city on a hill teaming with people of all kinds, and contrast that with Trump warning of rapists and murderers among Mexican immigrants.

Over the weekend, Trump previewed his long promised tax plan. He told CBS that as president, he'd end the big tax break for hedge fund managers and that he'd cut taxes on corporations so they would be more likely to bring foreign profit back to the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to bring the money back into this country.

[05:05:00] We have $2.5 trillion, John, out of this country. And big corporations rightfully don't bring it back because they have a massive tax to pay and we've got to make it so they can bring it back and I'll be bringing it back. We're going to have a lot of money pouring into the United States if I get elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So interesting, too. So many of the candidates invoking Ronald Reagan. It is interesting in that, when you talk about the immigration analysis. You know, Ronald Reagan had 2.7 million who essentially had amnesty, became -- had a pathway to citizenship. So, that is interesting as they try to say what their immigration platforms will be as they all try to invoke Reagan, don't you think?

KOSIK: It really is turning into a personality primary, though. It certainly is.

ROMANS: Oh yes. One personality and everyone else is reacting to that one personality.

KOSIK: They are, they are.

All right. Meantime, Ben Carson is walking back criticism of Donald Trump's faith, telling ABC News that his remarks last week that Trump lacks, quote, "humility and the fear of the Lord" was inappropriate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It wasn't meant as an attack and it was certainly spun that way by the media because they enjoy creating a fight. They love to have a gladiator scene. And, you know, it wasn't my intention and I'm certainly not going to allow my intention subsequently, regardless how anybody reacts to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Carson turning Trump's recent put downs about his energy level back against the brash billionaire. Carson telling ABC, quote, "You don't have to be loud to be energetic."

And you can find complete debate courage and debate itself, of course, right here on CNN. The main event airing Wednesday night, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. You don't want to miss it, with the undercard debate set at 6:00 p.m. I'm talking must-see TV.

ROMANS: On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders surge and Hillary Clinton's slide are unmistakable in the new "Washington Post" poll.

Clinton, the choice of 42 percent of registered voter, down a whopping 21 points in the same poll since July. Sanders has 24 percent, up 10 points over the same period. Joe Biden, who is still deciding whether to run, he's third at 21 percent.

There are new issues in the Clinton e-mail controversy. The company that managed her private server says it has no information indicating the server was ever wiped. That means 20,000 e-mails Clinton said she deleted from the server could now possibly be recovered.

Meantime, Clinton is promising to be nicer to the media. She told a packed crowd at a Washington church on Sunday that her former pastor pointed to a New Testament verse when he suggested she improve her relations with reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I got some advice from Dr. Wogaman just earlier this morning.

(LAUGHTER)

Which I promise I will put into effect.

(LAUGHTER)

He basically said, you know, if you are going to read and listen to Romans 12, you got to be nicer to the press.

(LAUGHTER)

So to my friends in the press, I will certainly take that to heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: In case the text of Romans 12 doesn't spring automatically to mind, it urges each of us to use the gifts we have been given. It says if your gift is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

KOSIK: OK. A different part of the Bible coming to mind, the one about Daniel and the lion's den as Bernie Sanders heads to Lynchburg, Virginia, this morning. The self-described Democratic socialist is set to speak to the morning convocation at conservative Christian Liberty University.

That is certain to be a more skeptical crowd than the ones he faced over the weekend. At three big events in South Carolina, crowds cheered Sanders proposals, including the more than doubling the national minimum wage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage.

(APPLAUSE)

You can do the arithmetic as well as I can. It just does not add up.

And that is why we need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, 15 bucks an hour.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Sanders also proposing free tuition at public colleges and creating jobs with spending on infrastructure.

ROMANS: All right. To California now, northern California to be precise. Devastation and despair there. Officials say 400 homes destroyed by a fast moving wildfire west of Sacramento. The governor of California declaring a state of emergency, thousands of residents forced to flee their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVE CANNON, RESIDENT: Yes, I'm all right. Everything's OK. This is my parents business. I guess we're just lucky it's not our home.

JAMIE KELLY, RESIDENT: The school's gone. The store's gone. A lot of people have dogs stuck up there and they wouldn't let them go get them. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The so-called Valley Fire consuming more than 50,000 acres so far.

Let's get more this morning from CNN's Stephanie Elam. She is there in Middletown, California -- Stephanie.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[05:10:04] STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Alison.

We want to give you an idea of just how intense this Valley Fire has been. It really just exploded in size over the weekend. And look what it did to this community. This little neighborhood here just flattened by this wildfire.

This is just one home that is completely destroyed. You can see it's still smoldering a bit out there. And the air quality here is still really strong and pungent. It burns the eyes, it also sometimes tingles the back of your throat.

This is still a very active fire that they do not have a handle on at any point right now. And as you can see, this fire getting so hot, that not did it take out the home, it took out the cars as well. Take a look at this car, just gutted, literally gutted here by the wildfire. There is nothing left inside. It melted the windows right out of the windshield here.

But this is not the only wildfire. There's also the Butte Fire due east of here that is burning also thousands of acres, and also homes lost there as well.

So, when you take a look at the picture across California, there are several wildfires burning. You look at the drought that we have had out here, it's really dry, it has been very hot. You put that all together and resources are spread very thin as far as firefighting is concerned, as they try to battle these blazes around the clock. But a lot of displaced people and a lot of loss here as well -- Alison and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Stephanie Elam, thank you so much for that, Stephanie.

Time for an early start on your money. China stocks down this morning. Shanghai's benchmark closed down 2.7 percent. Otherwise, it looks like a pretty good start to the week. European stocks are up, so are U.S. stock futures.

Last week, U.S. stocks had their best performance in a week, with the Dow and the S&P 500 up about 2 percent. Of course, it's been a crazy week. Investors waiting for huge news from the Federal Reserve this week.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen and policymakers may raise interest rates for the first time in nine years. The U.S. economy is steadily improving, but slowdown in China and recent turmoil for stocks may be could complicate the Fed's timeline.

Whenever that rate hike happens, pretty much everyone will feel it. It means more expensive car loans and home loans and more expensive variable rates for credit cards, for example. And rising rates could make stocks less attractive and risk ending the six-year bull market.

My advice to anyone out there looking to refinance your mortgage or get a mortgage, please do so quickly.

KOSIK: Sooner rather than later.

ROMANS: Sooner rather than later. Rates will, if not next week, this week. Maybe in December. Rates are going to start to rise.

KOSIK: All right. A Kentucky clerk once jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses returning to work today. But will she comply with the judge's orders or go back behind bars? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:45] KOSIK: All eyes will be on Rowan County, Kentucky, this morning when Kim Davis, the clerk who's become a national lightning rod, returns to work. Davis was jailed for contempt after refusing to issue same sex marriage licenses. She was released last week and it appears only Davis herself only knows what she'll do once she punches in.

We get more from CNN's Chris Welch in Morehead, Kentucky.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS WELCH, CNN REPORTER: Christine, Alison, local police and the local sheriff's department here saying they are preparing for potentially large crowd when Kim Davis returns to her job here as county clerk for the first time since being held in contempt of court and spending five days in jail.

Now, the big question remains: will her deputies continue to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples? That is how it worked while she was spending time in jail. But the question remains, now that she is in the office with the deputies, will she continue to allow that to happen or will she step in, put her foot down once again and refuse these couples from getting marriage licenses?

Now, we had known for several weeks now that her attorneys and she had been fighting this and trying to overturn the initial judge's order, which order her to issue these licenses to same sex couples. They have not had much success. She event sent a direct petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That did not work. But on Friday, her team of attorneys sent another appeal in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and so far, no word from that court -- Christine, Alison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: OK. Chris Welch, thanks for that.

ROMANS: All right. The Rookie Bowl is just one of the highlights from the NFL's kickoff weekend. The league's two top draft picks going head-to-head. Coy Wire has the details on the bleacher report, next.

Forget planes, trains and automobiles. Imagine barreling at 700 miles an hour through an above ground tube. It's called the Hyperloop, and its the vision of entrepreneur Elon Musk.

It may sound like science fiction, but CNN's Rachel Crane has more on the company trying to build it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA AND SPACEX: There's a special case of cities which have a lot of travel between them below about 500 miles of distance where the Hyperloop would be useful. It is a special case solution because once the distances get long, then the amount of time an aircraft takes to ascent and land, which is mostly what it does on the 500 mile trip, that percentage declines and it is better to just use aircraft.

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We dream about moving comfortably from place to place in a blink of an eye. That's essentially the dream of the Hyperloop.

(on camera): What exactly is the Hyperloop?

DIRK AHLBOM, CEO, HYPERLOOP TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGIES: It is very similar to an airplane on high altitudes. You have a low pressure environment inside a tube. The capsule that doesn't touch anywhere hovers, and because of the low pressure, it doesn't encounter a lot of resistance.

CRANE: This concept of humans traveling around in tube has been around for more than a century. Then, in 2013, Elon Musk drafted up actual blueprints and put the challenge of building it to the engineering community.

Enter UCLA.

CRAIG HODGETTS, PROFESSOR, UCLA: It's an unconventional system. So, you sort of have to invent everything from the ground up.

CRANE (on camera): So, do we know what it will feel like traveling at 700 miles an hour?

HODGETTS: You'll accelerate. You will feel almost no sense of motion.

CRANE: Do you feel your working on a project that will change the future?

HODGETTS: Oh, obviously, if I have a date and want to see the opera in San Francisco, I can literally do that and get back in time to go to sleep at my own house. I mean, that's the nature of the kinds of disruptive change that this bring in and to be able to be part of this effort is a dream come true.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:12] ROMANS: The first Sunday of the NFL regular season is in the books. How did your team do yesterday?

KOSIK: Coy Wire has the details in this morning's bleacher report. Good morning.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: Good morning, Alison and Christine. Sorry about your Bears, Christine. They'll get next week, though.

What a great start for the NFL season, hard hits, historic debuts, dramatic finishes and for many, food and good drinks.

Let's start with last night's primetime game. Cowboys hosting the Giants. And some jolting news for Dallas. Dez Bryant plants the foot and goes to the locker room. Out four-to-six weeks with a broken foot.

Good news for Dallas. This touchdown toss from Tony Romo to tight end Jason Witten with under ten seconds to go. The Cowboys beat their rival Giants, 27-26.

Now, for the first time in NFL history, the top two picks in the NFL draft, Bucs Jameis Winston and Titans Marcus Mariota started quarterback against each other in week one of the same season, and Marcus Mariota managed four touchdowns, and a perfect passer rating, wow.

Now, Winston, he had two touchdowns as well, but he also finished with two picks, was sacked four times. The Titans get a blowout victory, 42-14.

The Jets hosting the Browns. First quarter Browns Josh McCown diving across the goal line, helicopter to the ground, spins, tumbles, ball pops out. Look at that hit.

That means one thing. Johnny Football time. Johnny Manziel in the second pass of the game finds Benjamin for the touchdown. But the Jets, a new quarterback, a Harvard grad Brian Fitzpatrick just too much for the Browns to handle. Fitzpatrick threw two touchdowns. Jets get their 31-10 victory.

Finally, in tennis, Novak Djokovic, give that man another grand slam title.

[05:25:02] He's the best player in the world. He defeated the best player of all time, Roger Federer, in four sets to win the men's final last night. It's the second U.S. Open title and tenth career grand slam tournament victory. Djokovic, he also beat Federer in the Wimbledon final this year.

Guys, they played each other 42 times. They are split 21-21. I could not stop watching. Over three hours of awesome.

KOSIK: You know what turned into the situation, where Federer has become the Serena Williams of men's tennis, hasn't it?

WIRE: He is incredible, just what he's done. His career and to watch him and Djokovic go against each other now, it's truly --

ROMANS: It is fun to watch. Really fun to watch.

OK, Coy Wire, thanks for your consolation on the Bears.

(LAUGHTER)

WIRE: You're welcome.

KOSIK: Republicans running for president sharpening their attacks just two days ahead of the CNN primetime debate. How the candidates are getting ready and who is surging in a new poll this morning, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: New this morning, Donald Trump and Ben Carson surge in a new poll. The CNN Republican presidential debate just two days away. How candidates are preparing.

ROMANS: California on fire. Hundreds of homes destroyed. Thousands evacuated. A state of emergency now in effect. Is there any relief in sight?

KOSIK: Europe's migrant crisis exploding. Germany at its limits adding border control as thousands more arrive. We are live.

And welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.