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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
A Historic Day with Pope Francis at the White House; The Security Challenges of the Pope's Visit; Clinton and State Department At Odds Over E-Mail Investigation; Trump Does Not Apologize; E.U. Leaders Agree to Resettle 120,000 Migrants; Asian Stocks Down. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired September 23, 2015 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Boris, it was one of the biggest symbolic moments of the Obama presidency, with the president and first family, plus the nation's first Catholic vice president and Dr. Jill Biden altogether greeting the pope. It made for an unprecedented welcome for the United States at Andrews Air Force Base.
[05:30:04] Day two of the pope's visit later on this morning, it will be a sight to behold. For starters, 15,000 visitors are expected to cram on to the White House South Lawn to witness the pope's official arrival ceremony. After the president greets the pope, the two leaders will speak to the world and then hold a one-on-one meeting with only translators in the room. That is all before Pope Francis addresses Congress on Thursday. The Vice President Joe Biden will be in attendance for that.
And even though the president and pope are allies on issues ranging from climate change to income inequality to Cuba, the White House has been very secretive about what these two men will discuss during their meeting in the Oval Office. Perhaps that's because this pope can be full of surprises. I can tell you, after their last meeting in Rome last year, we asked the president whether any hot button social issues were raised, the president said the pope unexpectedly brought up immigration reform, and the White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett is telling CNN these two leaders may have more business to tackle in the coming months as the president winds up his time in office -- Boris and Christine.
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Jim, thank you.
Also on the pope's schedule today, the cannonization of a new American saint, Father Junipero Serra. Established the Spanish missions in California more than 200 years ago, but his canonization is controversial. Many Native Americans and Latinos hold him responsible for the enslavement of the California Indians and their forced conversion to Christianity. Others see Father Serra's canonization as an opportunity to begin healing very old wounds. On Thursday, more opportunity for controversy as the pope addresses a
joint session of Congress. The mystery there, will he bring up climate change, economic inequality, several other hot button issues? CNN's Rosa Flores has the latest from Washington.
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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine and Boris, Pope Francis waking up in the United States for the very first time. This is his first trip to America.
And he's got an action packed day. He starts off at the White House with a welcome ceremony. And then he meets the bishops, and then he comes to the basilica you see behind me for the canonization ceremony of Junipero Serra. And he's the first Hispanic-American to be canonized.
Now, I've been flying with the pope on the papal plane. There was a papal plane press conference on the way from Cuba to the United States where we were asking the pope about, you know, what is he going to say on his speech before Congress, the much anticipated speech before Congress. And he said that the embargo will not be mentioned.
But he did say that what happens he might speak about bilateral and multi-lateral relations agreements and how they are a sign of progress and co-existence. As for what he is actually going to say? Well, we're going to have to wait until Thursday to find out -- Christine, Boris.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Rosa Flores, thanks for that, Rosa.
The pope's U.S. tour, including Washington, New York, Philadelphia, has triggered one of the largest security mobilizations in American history. Jointly run by the Secret Service and the FBI, the security operation involves federal, state, city law enforcement officers, their task complicated frankly by the fact that this pope wants to be able to sort of spontaneously reach out and interact with huge crowds he always draws. And, also, he's going to be visiting a lot of different locations.
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JOSEPH CLANCY, DIRECTOR, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Each venue presents different challenges, an outdoor event as opposed to an indoor event. With an outdoor event such as we see here on the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, it creates enormous challenges, but we have to adapt to that. We have. We have to have structure. If you don't have structure, you have mayhem. And you have to have routes available so if there is an incident, we can certainly get the Holy Father out of the city.
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ROMANS: Stay with us, CNN, for live coverage of the pope's visit all day long. We're going to bring you those events as they happen.
SANCHEZ: Another esteemed visitor from abroad in the U.S. today, China's president touring Washington State. Tensions between the U.S. and china are as high as they've been in years over industrial espionage, human rights, Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, and a host of other issues. Today the President Xi Jinping will visit Boeing's factory just as China's Commercial Aircraft Corporation and Boeing announced this morning they've signed a deal to build a 737 completion center in China and a group of Chinese companies will boy 300 Boeing planes. President Xi will take part in tech demos at Microsoft and visit a high school in Tacoma that he visited about 20 years. On Tuesday, he gave a speech in Seattle pledging to work America to stop cyber crime.
ROMANS: All right, turning now to the latest on the battle against ISIS in Syria. U.S. officials tell CNN American commanders are proposing to provide arms and ammunition to a coalition of up to 5,000 anti-ISIS Syrian rebels. Now that group, loosely known as the Syrian- Arab Coalition, it has had recent battlefield success against ISIS. At the same time, a Pentagon effort to equip and train other moderate Syrian rebels has faltered.
[05:35:03] The Syrian government confirming that it has now received advanced fighter and recon aircraft from Russia. The Assad regime says the new planes and the drones are enhancing its ability to target ISIS fighters. This as a top former general goes before a Senate panel; he criticized what he calls America's failure to stabilize the situation in Syria. General David Petraeus arguing that chaos in Syria is creating an opening for Russia to reestablish its empire.
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DAVID PETRAEUS, RETIRED U.S. ARMY GENERAL: Like a nuclear disaster, the fallout from the meltdown of Syria threatens to be with us for decade, and the longer it is permitted to continue, the more severe the damage will be.
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ROMANS: At the same time, ISIS now cranking up its propaganda machine in apparent reaction to the Syrian refugee crisis. Nearly a dozen ISIS videos released in recent weeks denounced these refugees, berating the abomination of living among unbelievers while begging them to return to the ISIS caliphate.
SANCHEZ: As Yogi Berra would say, it's deja vu all over again. The Senate now working to avoid a government shutdown before the October 1 deadline. Senate leaders stay a stop-top gap funding bill to extend the current federal budget for another ten weeks is now gaining traction. In the meantime, the White House budget office has started working with government agencies on shutdown plans just in case there is a lapse.
ROMANS: All right, time for an EARLY START on Your Money. Asian stocks closed lower after China's manufacturing activity hit a six- year low. European stocks though bouncing quite a bit here. We're also watching the auto sector, because Volkswagen's scandal is widening. Now those shares bouncing back a little from early losses but VW has lost a third of its value this week as that emission scandal grows. Maybe 11 million of its cars have this secret software that allow it to dodge stronger emission standards.
The drug that saw a 5,000 percent price hike overnight, well, now coming down in price. Turing Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli, he became the focus of public outrage after his company took the price of Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill. And now he's backing down.
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MARTIN SHKRELI, CEO, TURING PHARMACEUTICALS: I think they have a fundamental misunderstanding of the way pharmaceutical companies operate. At this price, Daraprim is not a substantially profitable drug.
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ROMANS: The controversial CEO has not said just how much lower that price will be, but he earned the ire of Hillary Clinton who said that what he was doing, Boris, was price gouging, and she used him sort of as an example to launch her drug pricing plan that she announced yesterday on the campaign trail.
SANCHEZ: Bernie Sanders pushing for a similar thing. Should be interesting to see how much lower that price goes.
We mentioned Yogi Berra earlier; the baseball legend passed away yesterday. He was born Lawrence Peter Berra. The Hall of Fame catcher played 17 seasons for the Yankees, helping him win ten World Series championships. Berra was known for his much oft-used humorous quotes as his on field achievements. The two most famous: "It ain't over until it's over" and "It's deja vu all over again." Yogi Berra dead at 90-years-old.
ROMANS: You come to a fork in the road, take it.
SANCHEZ: Take it.
ROMANS: He has a lot of really good ones.
All right, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, yep, they're not backing down on controversial comments about Muslims. The new fallout this morning.
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[05:42:03] SANCHEZ: The State Department and Hillary Clinton at odds over how the investigation into her private e-mail server got started in the first place. The Democratic front-runner claiming she was initially asked to turn over e-mails as part of a benign record keeping procedure. But "The Washington Post" post reports the State Department initiated the investigation as soon as it discovered Clinton was exclusively using a private server in her home. The former Secretary of State says she cannot explain the discrepancy. Clinton also breaking her silence on the Keystone Pipeline, finally
taking a position against that controversial project.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it is imperative that we look at the Keystone Pipeline as what I believe it is, a distraction from the important work we have to do to combat climate change and unfortunately from my perspective, one that interferes with our ability to move forward to deal with all the other issues, therefore, I oppose it.
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SANCHEZ: Clinton says she's going to be releasing a plan for a clean energy agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada over the next few days. This plan, she says, will create jobs.
ROMANS: All right, Donald Trump refusing to back down. The Republican front-runner still, still under scrutiny for not correcting an anti-Muslim comment made by a supporter at a town hall meeting. Now, Trump says it is not up to him to defend the president. And he insists he will not apologize in this interview with CBS Scott Pelley.
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SCOTT PELLEY, CBS NEWS: It was a testing moment for a man running for president.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think so.
PELLEY: You never know when they're coming.
TRUMP: I don't think so.
PELLEY: But here you had a bigot.
TRUMP: That wasn't a testing. Well, you don't know that.
PELLEY: You could have slapped down.
TRUMP: You don't know that. I mean, he asked a question. You don't know that he was a bigot. But, look, look, he said --
PELLEY: A problem in this country is Muslims?
TRUMP: Well, let me ask you this, you said, there is a problem in this country, and it's Muslims, all right? I love the Muslims. I have many, many, friends, people living in this building, Muslims. They're phenomenal people. But like everything else, you have people where there are problems.
Now, we can say there are no problems with the Muslims. There's no problem. There's no terrorism. There's no crime. There is no anything. They didn't knock down the World Trade Center.
To the best of my knowledge, the people that knocked down the World Trade Center, you know where they -- they didn't fly back to Sweden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Trump also making an appearance last night on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert". And Stephen Colbert gave him every opportunity, every opportunity, to retract or weigh in. Listen.
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STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN: This is the last time you ever have to address the question if you hit the ball. OK?
TRUMP: Go ahead.
COLBERT: OK. Like salt all over my hand, so big. OK.
TRUMP: I want to hear this.
COLBERT: Barack Obama born in the United States?
TRUMP: Let me just --
COLBERT: Was he? It's a meatball.
TRUMP: I know.
COLBERT: It's hanging out there. Right there. Come on.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And you want to know, I don't talk about it anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Trump will be campaigning today in South Carolina.
[05:45:02] SANCHEZ: Ben Carson now trying to calm the uproar over his comments about Muslims. Carson initially said he did not believe a Muslim should be in the White House. After getting slammed by Democrats and fellow Republicans, he seems to be softening his position.
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BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't care what a person's religious beliefs are or what their religious heritage is. If they embrace American culture, if they embrace our Constitution and are willing to place that above their religious beliefs, I have no problem with them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Carson says he could support a Muslim for candidate if that candidate renounces sharia law.
ROMANS: All right, we've got a very big day coming up on "NEW DAY". Chris Cuomo joins us this morning. Good early morning to you, Chris. Very, very busy day ahead for you.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": History, my friends, history. That's what it will be. South Portico behind us, the stage where you see, that's where Pope Francis will be greeted by President Obama.
Why is it history? Not just because this is Pope Francis' first trip to the United States. That's least of it. This is about a man, a moment in our time, and his message. What we just saw with Trump and Carson, at a time when our politics are confused about the morality of tolerance, we have a man coming here, who is in charge of one of the biggest churches in the world, who says you need the think about tolerance and inclusion. You have a man who is the first Latin American pope who's coming here to talk at a time within we're trying to figure out the relationship of America with Latin American immigrants.
And then of course we have what his defining message will be, and I think it's going to decide (sic) on whom he's talking to. He's not here to talk to politicians. Yes, he'll be the first to address Congress. But he is here to meet with the poor. He is here as a -- what he would call a missionary of mercy. He is here to refocus everyone, if he can, but certainly Catholics, not on what they obsess on in terms of rules but what the overarching principle of faith is supposed to be, which is love and mercy.
The message could not be more timely. The question, isow does he specify it and how does it resonate? So we're going to be here all morning with all the events. It will be historic and we'll have people weighing in on the Vatican side to get the perspective, as well as the U.S. political side. So it's going to be a big morning.
ROMANS: Lots of context and expertise all along the way. Thank for that, Chris Cuomo.
All right, Europe with a new plan to deal with thousands of refugees and migrants flooding European borders. Will it be enough? We are live after the break.
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[05:51:13] SANCHEZ: E.U. leaders finally meeting on the refugee crisis, agreeing to resettle 120,000 migrants. But not all European countries are on board. Our international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is live in Brussels, Belgium, this morning. Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Boris, there is something usual unusual about this situation that was taken. Normally the European union likes to act by consensus. Here they had to take a majority vote because four countries, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, all voted against this agreement. So while the European Union is trying to make this decision fast, and at the same time it's exacerbating some of the differences that exist over how to tackle this migrant problem.
And the other part of the rude reality here is 120,000 migrants that they've agreed to help now, that's a drop in the ocean. So far this year the U.N. says that close to a quarter million have come into Europe. The pace is picking up; about a quarter of a million have come in since July and August alone. And the Croatia interior minister, just one country on the migrant path, said yesterday they received 8,750 migrants. So this is a drop in the ocean and it's exacerbating divisions inside Europe about how to tackle this problem without even getting to the root of the problem. Boris.
SANCHEZ: All right, Nic Robertson in Brussels, thank you.
ROMANS: All right, 52 minutes past the hour. That iconic Happy Birthday song in a heated legal battle. What it means for your next birthday party coming up next.
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[05:56:38] ROMANS: Hi there, I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on Your Money this Wednesday morning. Asian stocks closed down after China's manufacturing activity hit a six-year low. But European stocks were up quite a bit. Watching the auto sector this morning; Volkswagen shares a little bit of a recovery from some early losses there. But, look, the big story here is that VW has lost more than a third of its value this week in this growing emissions scandal, this cheating scandal, where it skated through on emission standards.
U.S. stock futures are also bouncing. Yesterday, the Dow fell 180 points; ongoing global growth concerns there.
All right, next time you signing the Happy Birthday song, you won't have to worry about a legal battle. A federal judge ruled that Warner/Chappell Music's claim to a 120 year old song is not legal. That frees it from copyright. You know, the company has earned more $2 million a year in fees for Happy Birthday, but that's over now thanks to a lawsuit from documentary filmmakers facing a $1,500 bill for using that song. I'm sure you can expect an appeal for it.
SANCHEZ: 120-years-old, that should be in the public domain.
ROMANS: Yeah, you'd think so. You'd think so.
SANCHEZ: Well, Pope Francis waking up in the U.S. for the first time. "NEW DAY" starts right now.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a rockstar here in Washington.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The world is waiting to see what Pope Francis says before Congress.
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president is not meeting with Pope Francis to advance a political agenda.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All eyes zeroed in on Pope Francis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody wants to have a protectee go down on their watch. CARSON: I don't care what a person's religious beliefs are.
TRUMP: I don't have to defend President Obama. He's not going to defend me.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not going to go out and outrageous things, or make promises that I can't keep to win.
COLBERT: Is there anybody you'd like to apologize to right now yourself?
TRUMP: Ah, no.
COLBERT: No?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is "NEW DAY" with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.
CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to NEW DAY. And what a day this will be. Wednesday, September 23rd, 6:00 in the East. Alisyn and Mick are in New York and I'm coming to you live from the White House, the South Portico behind us. This is where history will be made.
Just a few hours from now, Pope Francis will become the third pontiff to visit the White House. But this is a unique man, moment, and potential message in our history. As we witness the politics of intolerance all around us in the presidential election, here comes a man to talk about immigration and tolerance who's an immigrant himself from Latin America; to talk about religious tolerance as the head of one of the biggest churches in the world. How will he use the huge audience he will have here in America? Some of it is a mystery, like many things about this pope and Catholicism. Some is not.
So let's begin our comprehensive team coverage with chief national security correspondent Jim Scuitto, who is on the North Lawn of the White House. There is a lot of politics here and religion, but also practicalities like security, Jim; not only do you have a president but a pope. Big challenge.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question. And history, of course. This is a history of firsts: Pope Francis' visit in his lifetime to the U.S. The first time you've had a president and vice president greet any world leader as he or she lands in the U.S. And then, of course, later this morning, from the White House, Pope Francis' first address directly to the American people.
[06:00:03] He's going to be doing that in English to help get himself across. But, as you know, he also speaks in gestures.
