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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Candidates Sharpen Attacks For GOP Debate; Trump Previews Tax Plan; Carson Backs Off Slam On Trump's Faith; Sanders To Speak At Christian University; California Wildfire Burns 400 Homes; Kim Davis Returns To Work Today; Germany Imposes Visa Checks At Austrian Border. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired September 14, 2015 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik. Happy to be here.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: It's so nice to have you here this week. John Berman is in California for the debates. I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour.
Republican presidential candidates are sharpening their attacks ahead of the GOP debate on Wednesday night. With the new "Washington Post"/ABC News poll that shows Donald Trump expanding his already wide lead and Ben Carson in second place, solidly.
All the candidates who are stuck in single digits are scrambling to devise an effective strategy to end 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, he can expect to referee a rough game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: You know what every candidate and 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. You will have your hands full.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: It should make for an exciting second Republican debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. That is where CNN's Athena Jones is. She has the latest for us.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Alison. We are two days away from the debate here at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. The stage is set. The podiums are up. 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 on Wednesday night. She spoke yesterday about her outsider status and what she brings to the table.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have been in and around Washington for a very long time. I don't think it is a big mystery actually. I think one of the dirty little secrets is professional politicians want everyone to think it is so hard to do what we do.
Nobody else can do it. It's hogwash. It is not so hard. Most of the stuff takes common sense and good judgment. People are frustrated because they see no common sense or good judgment in Washington, D.C.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: Now meanwhile, Scott Walker, who was once a serious contender in Iowa, but has now sunk in the polls, talked about why it is a good thing he held elected office. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT WALKER (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Remember Barack Obama had never run anything in government before. We see what a lousy president he has been, not just ideologically, but in terms of actually running things. I have actually gotten things done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Guys, this is going to be a huge television audience and a huge opportunity for these candidates to make a strong impression with voters. A lot have not been getting a lot of attention in the media. This is their chance to create a moment that leaves an impression on voters and hopefully for them, one that gives them a boost in the polls.
KOSIK: OK, Athena Jones, thanks for that. Donald Trump will face protesters when he speaks at a huge rally at the American Airlines Center in Dallas today. Latino groups bringing in demonstrators from as far away as Houston for a march against hate.
This as two immigration rights groups launched a TV ad that contrast Ronald Reagan views on immigration with those of current Republican candidates. The ad includes Reagan's line about a city on a hill teaming with people of all kinds. And Trump warning of rapists and the murderers among Mexican immigrants.
Ronald Reagan receiving another unusual dud as Jeb Bush plays GOP Superman. At a campaign event, Bush opened his buttoned down shirt to reveal the 1984 Ronald Reagan and George Bush campaign logo. Jeb Bush said that's the party I believe in adding that team took out the Soviet Union.
ROMANS: A lot of talk about Ronald Reagan this week. No question. Over the weekend, Trump announced his tax plan. He told CBS that as president, he'd end a big tax break for hedge fund managers. He also promised to 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 (via telephone): I want to bring the money back into this country. We have $2.5 trillion, John, out of this country. The corporations rightfully don't bring it back because of they have a massive tax to pay. We have to make it so they can bring it back. I'll bring it back. We will have a lot of money pouring into the United States if I get elected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Donald Trump's plan would be good for corporations. It would lower their tax rate, but their chief executives, he is not kind about their compensation. He says CEO compensation is, quote, "A total and complete joke made possible by putting friends on their boards."
A look at Trump's own company has three of his children as his executive vice presidents. Overall, he says his plan will reduce taxes with the middle class paying less.
KOSIK: Ben Carson is walking back his criticism of Donald Trump's faith telling ABC News that his remark last week, that Trump lacks, quote, "humility and the fear of the Lord" was inappropriate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I wasn't meant as an attack. It was spun that way by the media because they enjoy creating a fight.
[05:35:10] They love to have a gladiator scene. It wasn't my intention. I'm certainly not going to allow it to become my intention regardless of how anybody reacts to it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: Carson turning Trump's recent put downs about his energy level back against the brass billionaire. Carson telling ABC, quote, "You don't have to be loud to be energetic."
ROMANS: All right, you can find complete debate coverage and the debate itself, of course, right here on CNN. The main event airs Wednesday night 8:00 p.m. Eastern with the undercard debate set for 6:00 p.m.
KOSIK: On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders surge and Hillary Clinton's slide are unmistakable in the "Washington Post" poll, Clinton the choice of 42 percent of registered voters 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 or not to run, is in third at 21 percent.
There are new developments 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 more than 30,000 e- mails Clinton says deleted from the server could possibly now be recovered.
Meantime, Clinton is promising to be nicer to the media. She told a packed crowd at the Washington church on Sunday, that her pastor pointed to a New Testament verse when he suggested that she improve relations with reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I got some advice from Dr. Wagerman this morning, which I promise I will put into effect. Basically said if you will read and listen to Romans 12, you have to be nicer to the press. So to my friends in the press, I will certainly take that to heart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: And in the case of Romans 12, it urges each of us to use the gifts we have been given. If your gift is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
ROMANS: If your enemy is hungry, feed him, it says and she is feeding the press. Bernie Sanders heads to Lynchburg, Virginia. The self- described Democratic socialist will speak at a conservative Christian Liberty University.
That has turned to be a more skeptical crowd shall we say. Three big events in South Carolina, crowds cheered Sanders' proposals including more than doubling the national minimum wage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage. 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 an hour.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Sanders is also proposing free tuition at public colleges and creating jobs with spending infrastructure.
KOSIK: Devastation and despair in Northern California, officials say 400 homes have been destroyed by a fast spreading wildfire west of Sacramento. The governor of California is declaring a state of emergency. Thousands of residents forced to flee their homes. The so-called valley fire consuming more than 50,000 acres so far.
Let's get more from CNN's Stephanie Elam in Middletown, California.
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 exploded in size over the weekend. Look what it did to this community. This neighborhood just flattened by the wildfire.
This is one home here that is completely destroyed. You can see it is smoldering a bit out there. The air quality here is still strong and pungent. This is still a very active fire. They do not have a handle on at any point right now.
As you can see, this fire is getting so hot. Not only did it take out the homes, but the cars as well. This car just gutted here by the wildfire. There's nothing left inside even melted the windows out of the windshield.
This is not the only wildfire. The butte fire east of here that is burning thousands of acres and homes lost there as well. When you take a look at the picture across California, there are several wildfires burning and you look at the drought we have had out here, it is 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 the blazes around the clock. A lot of displaced people and a lot of loss here as well -- Alison and Christine.
KOSIK: All right, Stephanie Elam, thanks for that.
[05:40:04] A Kentucky clerk once jailed for refusing gay couples the right to marry heads back to work this morning. Will Kim Davis comply with the judge's orders? Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KOSIK: Welcome back. All eyes will be on Rowan County, Kentucky this morning when Kim Davis, the clerk who became 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 knows what she's going to do once she punches in. Let's get more now from CNN's Chris Welch from Kentucky.
CHRIS WELCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Alison, local police and the local sheriff's department here saying they are preparing for potentially large crowds 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 had 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 and 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 ordered her to issue these licenses to same-sex couples.
[05:45:00] They have not had much success. She even sent a direct petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. That did not work. But on Friday, her team of attorneys once again sent another appeal, this time in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and so far no response from the court -- Christine, Alison.
ROMANS: All right, Chris Welch, thanks for that, Chris.
Let's take a look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Alisyn Camerota joins us this Monday morning.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Ladies. I'll be assisted by Michaela and Chris. We do have new polls to show you. Spoiler alert, Donald Trump is still in the lead, but we will tell you who is losing the most steam. That same poll shows Hillary Clinton could be in trouble. We will breakdown all of the numbers for you.
Also that former tennis pro, James Blake, wants the police officer who tackled him fired. We will hear live from two people who say that very same officer used excessive force on them as well. We will look at the history of complaints against that officer and what the NYPD needs to do now, all that and so much more when we see you at the top of the hour.
ROMANS: What a way to start the week. Thank you so much.
An emergency meeting called to deal with Europe migrant crisis, Germany at its limit. It is adding border controls as thousands more people arrive. We are live right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KOSIK: Germany growing more desperate by the hour to slow the unending tide of migrants flooding into the country
[05:50:06] German authorities are now imposing visa checks at the Austrian border, the temporary new controls seen as a strong statement to the rest of Europe to step up and take in more refugees.
Let's bring in CNN's Atika Shubert live from Munich this morning. You have ministers meeting to talk in Brussels to talk about some coordinated response from E.U. nations. That is happening in hours. What is expected to come of it?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are expecting to see several proposals on the table. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely we will get an agreement today from all 28 E.U. member nations. Basically what the dividing issue is here is quotas.
How many refugees should each E.U. country take and how can that be enforced? Countries like Hungary, Slovakia, and Czech Republic say they don't want to be forced to take a set number of refugees.
The other issue is how refugees get to the countries that want to take them safely and legally. Right now, many are traveling illegally because technically they are supposed to wait outside of the E.U. for permission and travel in.
The numbers are so massive they have been flooding in over the last few months. We have seen 16,000 refugees coming into Germany alone. That is just in one day. Germany says those numbers are unsustainable.
That is why they put in border controls and stopped train service between Austria and Germany. The service has resumed, but the main line from Saltsburg to Munich has been halted. They are trying to speed up the process.
KOSIK: All right, Atika Shubert, still looking a coordinated response there. Thanks so much for that.
ROMANS: The two of us are saving for college. Are your kids going to college? Some very important news and a new tool to help you avoid crushing debt, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:56:06]
ROMANS: Good morning. I'm Christine Romans. A monumental week for your money, the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates for the first time in nine years this week, something that would shift the financial foundation under everyone.
Fed chief Janet Yellen and the fed policymakers must decide if the U.S. economy is strong enough to take away the emergency stimulus that has been propping up the economy for six years.
Slowdown in China and recent turmoil for stocks may complicate the fed's timeline. But higher rates mean more expensive home loans, car loans and credit cards almost everyone will feel it.
Gas prices have dropped 27 cents over the past three weeks. According to one survey, the average price of a gallon of gas is $2.44 that's the end of last week down more than $1 from a year ago.
Prices are expected to keep falling as refineries this week begin switching to the cheaper winter blend. Gas is cheaper than bottled water and milk.
Is your child looking at colleges? The White House launched a brand new college scorecard to show how much the typical graduate makes ten years down the road plus the average monthly loan payment depending on where you go to college. Too many families are borrowing too much money.
They still haven't saved enough. They are still not making -- they don't have the right information to make better decisions. Out of control student debt is a growing problem. Some colleges are much worse than other. This tool helps you kind of navigate that.
In fact 70 percent of all loan defaults are from students who attended for profit colleges. More information always better. KOSIK: Absolutely. Just two days until CNN's Republican presidential candidate debate. "NEW DAY" starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The stage is stage. The podiums are up and the candidates are getting ready.
TRUMP: I'm a deal maker. I'll make great deals for this country.
CARSON: I'm not taking the bait. I'm not going there. Next question.
FIORINA: Donald Trump is an entertainer. I am a leader.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton is sliding in the polls. Bernie Sanders is surging.
CLINTON: I believe I have a determination to get us back on the right track.
SANDERS: Are you ready to make a political revolution? You have come to the right place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outright tackling him. You know, it seemingly without basis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Blake was inappropriately arrested and detained. It should not have happened.
JAMES BLAKE, FORMER TENNIS PLAYER: You got that badge. You are supposed to treat that with respect. He doesn't deserve to have that happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, September 14th, 6:00 in the east.
CAMEROTA: Happy new year to everyone celebrating.
CUOMO: Today, the political day of reckoning is just two days from now, cheap shots? Forget it. It is time to get it on. The Republican debate here on CNN. It is time for the rest of the field to shine.
A new poll out this morning has Donald Trump and Ben Carson pulling away accounting for more than half of the Republican votes in the latest "Washington Post"/ABC News poll.
CAMEROTA: Now on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton's lead continues to erode. A hypothetical Clinton-Trump matchup is now a statistical tie. A lot is at stake two days before the big debate.
Let's begin our team coverage with CNN's Athena Jones. She is live from the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Good morning, Athena.
JONES: Good morning, Alison. The countdown to the big night has begun here in Simi Valley. You mentioned that new national poll out today has Trump still in the lead and posting his biggest number yet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Winning in Iowa. Winning in New Hampshire. Winning every place.
JONES: Donald Trump's lead reaching new heights above the still crowded GOP field. This morning, a new "Washington Post"/ABC News poll shows Trump with 33 percent, his highest lead yet. Trump's closest competitor, Ben Carson, coming in 13 points behind.
TRUMP: People don't have energy. I don't think Ben has the energy.
