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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Clinton Campaigns in Texas Today; CNN Exclusive: Ivanka Trump; Airport Computers Crash; Blue Jays Win Wild Game 5. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 15, 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: One of the most prominent restaurateurs in the country taking on the minimum wage issue. Danny Meyer getting rid of tipping at this New York restaurants. He wants to even the pay gap between workers in the front of the house and in the kitchen.
[05:00:07] Starting next month, The Modern and the Museum of Modern Art will get rid of tips. The change will happen at the rest of the restaurants next year. Meyer says some menu prices will rise, but the impact on the diner won't be significant.
But there are other restaurateurs who've been talking about this saying, OK, the day of paying people with gratuity for something that really is a skill at the front house, really is not fair.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: But you know, it's a slippery slope. You know, it will start in the restaurants. It will go to the nail salons, and the hair salons, how does everybody feel? I bet everybody has a different opinion on that.
ROMANS: If everyone gets paid fairly, I think that's the best outcome.
KOSIK: That's the catch.
ROMANS: Right.
KOSIK: EARLY START continues right now.
(MUSIC)
KOSIK: The race for president intensifying. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigning late into the night. This week's debate causing a shift in strategy.
ROMANS: Is Donald Trump sexist? His daughter Ivanka answers that question in a CNN exclusive.
KOSIK: Breaking overnight: computers crashing across the country at airports. What cause the delays for thousands?
Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.
ROMANS: So nice to have you here. I'm Christine Romans. It's Thursday, October 15th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.
Let's begin with Hillary Clinton this morning, capitalizing on momentum from her debate performance, with a series of campaign events starting in Las Vegas. Last night at her very first large rally in months, Clinton basked in debate afterglow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am thrilled that people finally got a chance to compare the Democrats to the Republicans. And I think we came out of that pretty well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: With more on the resurgent Clinton campaign, senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alison and Christine.
Hillary Clinton making some post-debate campaign stops in Nevada and courting some key constituencies in the swing state, union members and Hispanic voters. She stopped by a trade union training facility and picked up an endorsement of a key trade union and she also made a stop at a local chain, La Flor de Michoacan, which specializes in Mexican ice creams and other sweet treats.
She spoke about Joe Biden as he contemplates a run for the White House as the first debate is over.
CLINTON: I'm going to continue to run my campaign and make my case for my candidacy. And everyone else, whether they are in or not in, will have to make whatever judgment is best for them.
And I will repeat what I have said to you many times -- I have the greatest respect and affection for the vice president. He and I are friends. We were former colleagues in the Senate. I just think he needs to decide what is best for him and his family.
KEILAR: Hillary Clinton's next stops will be today in San Antonio, Texas. She will go on then to New Hampshire on Friday and Alabama on Saturday as she tries to gin up some enthusiasm after her debate performance in Las Vegas -- Christine and Alison.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOSIK: OK, Brianna, thanks for that.
And Bernie Sanders also riding the momentum from the debate this morning, at the same time, his campaign is trying to pivot from a focus on building excitement with big rallies by adding smaller events aimed at persuading voters that Sanders can win all the way to the White House.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is with Sanders on the campaign trail in Los Angeles.
ROMANS: All right. We're going to get that report from her in just a few moments.
Donald Trump stirring controversy on the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, whether Russia bears the blame for the jetliner shot down over Ukraine. Dutch investigators now say with confidence that pro-Russian separatists down the airliner using a Russian made rocket, killing all of those passengers and crew on board. Trump says that's not enough evidence and it's time to move on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: On Russia, you said today that there is no way to know if Russia is behind shooting down MH-17. That's not what the intelligence so far shows. Why -- what would make you say that?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you know what? That's a horrible thing that happened. It's disgusting and disgraceful.
But Putin and Russia said they didn't do it. The other side said they did. Nobody really knows who did it. Putin probably knows who did it. Possibly it was Russia, but they are totally denying it.
REPORTER: I think some people might be worried you are defending Russia when you say there's no way --
TRUMP: No, I'm not defending Russia. No. I think it's despicable. It's horrible.
But they deny it totally. And they don't even say what was it, where it came from -- nobody really knows. And I'm sure reports are going to be done. Maybe some day, we'll find out.
But right now, Russia is totally denying it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: Meantime, Trump's daughter, Ivanka, is talking about one of the biggest controversies hanging over her dad's campaign.
[05:05:03] In an exclusive interview with CNN's Poppy Harlow, Ivanka Trump dismisses the attention given to her father's comment about women and their look. And she says the furor has been, in her words, orchestrated largely by the media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IVANKA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S DAUGHTER: Look, my father is very blunt. He is very direct. He is non-gender specific in his criticism of people and people that he doesn't particularly like, or people that he does like, but thinks they're wrong on a particular issue. S, you know, I don't think that he is gender-targeted at all.
Like I said, I wouldn't be the person I am today, I wouldn't be a high level executive within his organization if he felt that way. So, he's always supported and encouraged women. And truthfully, he has proven that over decades through his employment practices, through his hiring practices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: I suspect you'll see more of her on the campaign trail. She really is an asset to Donald Trump. She's well-spoken, classy. She is working mother, very successful. Interesting, Fortune's most powerful woman in the conference yesterday.
She told the crowd yesterday why do they talk about working women and now working men, you know? There still is an unfortunate anomaly.
KOSIK: Barrier to being equal.
ROMANS: Right. It's so interesting. But, you know, she says he's unbelievable leader and unbelievable father. Only really great things about her father and does not want to be drawn into the controversy about how he feels about women at all.
KOSIK: And the interview that Poppy Harlow did, if you want to see it full, go to CNN's Web site. I love that I watched the whole thing.
ROMANS: Really interesting.
KOSIK: All right. Jeb Bush is about to become the first Republican presidential candidate to release the names of fund-raisers who are bundling contributions to his campaign. But the former Florida governor is defining bundlers as donors who raised at least $17,600. That's a much lower threshold than Hillary Clinton is using. She is defining bundlers as donors who raised a minimum of $100,000. Bush critics point out his lower threshold makes it impossible to identify the campaign's biggest bundlers.
ROMANS: Carly Fiorina trying to reignite her campaign with a three- day visit to Iowa today. She'll be hosting a series of town halls and a chili cook-off. Her strong performance in the last debate helping raised $6.8 million in the third quarter, outpacing rivals like Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.
KOSIK: And speaking of Rubio, Rubio is hoping to profit off the departure off of Scott Walker's departure from the race. The Florida senator meeting with more than a dozen of Walker's former top fund- raisers on Wednesday. Winning over those donors, though, could make or break Rubio's chances. He was only able to raise $6 million last quarter, which is not considered a lot.
ROMANS: Ben Carson taking a break from campaigning for the next two weeks. He's going to be busy promoting his new book "A More Perfect Union", making stops throughout the Midwest. The next time he'll appear publicly as a candidate again, October 28th. That's the date of the next GOP debate.
KOSIK: And as we mentioned, Bernie Sanders shifting his debate strategy after the debate. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is here with Sanders on the campaign trail in Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Alison.
Well, for the moment, Bernie Sanders is really trying to capitalize on its debate performance through momentum and money. He is building off that $2 million that his campaign has been out touting that they raised since the debate performance, and here in Los Angeles, held a pair of fund-raisers with $160,000 for the campaign.
And it was here speaking out for the very first time about that performance where he specifically went out of his way to reference all this money they raised and specifically that memorable moment where he spoke about Hillary Clinton's e-mails. That got a big reaction from this crowd.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am tired of Hillary's e-mails. Let's talk about real issues.
(APPLAUSE)
SERFATY: Today, Bernie Sanders will make an attempt to show his softer side. We got a look at his interview with Ellen today where, yes, he does dance. He says his favorite song is "Staying Alive" and he says he thinks he has the best hair of all candidates. This is an area where has challenged him, really showing a little bit of color, a little bit of softer image while on the campaign trail.
Now, the campaign will have a small shift in strategy in a few events coming up. We will see Bernie Sanders in addition to all of those big booming rallies that really have defined the early start of this campaign, will now see him in more small, intimate settings. And that shift starts with this weekend in a two-day swing through Iowa -- Christine and Alison.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOSIK: OK, Sunlen, thanks for that.
So, it appears that President Obama is rethinking his plan for pulling almost all of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan out of Afghanistan by the end of the year of next year. There are currently 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Now, the president's original plan called for whittling down that number down by 1,000 by the time he leaves office. Well, now, the administration is expected to keep 5,500 troops there by the end of 2016.
[05:10:01] U.S. military advisers say that's because of a resurgent Taliban and growing threats from ISIS and al Qaeda.
ROMANS: Just last month, the Taliban overran the city of Kunduz. Now, Afghan officials are worried more cities could fall. They say insurgents are targeting urban areas in the south, including the city of Ghazni. That's about 75 miles from Kabul. Officials say a Taliban offensive came within three miles of the city limits before being pushed back by Afghan troops.
KOSIK: Long lines and flight delays for millions of air travelers on Wednesday. All caused by a glitch in the homeland security system. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the program that matches passenger names with terror watch list was down for about 90 minutes. The malfunction is not considered malicious, but it did create enormous back up at airports in New York, Atlanta, and Boston.
ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money.
A good start to stocks around the world. Asian stocks higher, Shanghai up 2 percent. European and U.S. stock futures, they are pointing higher.
But it was a bad day on Wall Street folks. The Dow down 157 points, losing almost 1 percent. S&P 500 and NASDAQ also down. Disappointing start to the earnings season and you can focus squarely on Wal-Mart.
Strong dollar and the phased in wage increases are eating into profits. The stock plunged a stunning 10 percent to a three-year low on news. It's the worst percentage loss in decades since 1988.
Wal-Mart says profit could drop between 6 percent and 12 percent next year. It's been under pressure to raise employees' minimum wages. Earlier this year, it raised wages to $9 an hour. That will go up to $10 from most workers in February.
Walmart also facing tough competition from Target and Amazon. Wal- Mart investing to catch up online. Wal-Mart's bad news following a weak sales report yesterday. Shares of Target, Kohl's and Sears all sank as well.
But when you look at Wal-Mart and then Amazon --
KOSIK: Amazon is a force to be reckoned with.
ROMANS: Wal-Mart is down 30 percent this year. Amazon shares are up 75 percent this year. So, really, two different retail stories there.
KOSIK: Wal-Mart really trying to play catch up.
ROMANS: Interesting.
All right. New information this morning on Lamar Odom's condition. Khloe Kardashian's husband hospitalized. What drugs police say were in his system and we're going to hear from the brothel where he collapsed.
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[05:15:24] ROMANS: Lamar Odom fighting for his life this morning in a Las Vegas hospital. Former NBA and reality TV star was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel. The owner of that brothel says Odom had been staying there for several days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS HOF, OWNER, THE LOVE RANCH: Well, everything was fine until Tuesday morning. They last saw him at 6:00 in the morning when they went to do some things and he was going to sleep, or been sleeping. And my staff took some food into him about noon, which he was sleeping then. The girls came back at 3:15, and he was unconscious, foaming from the mouth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Workers at the love ranch say Odom was taking cocaine and using drugs to enhance sexual performance. Something later confirmed by police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHARON WEHRLY, NYE COUNTY SHERIFF: The reporting parties informed the Nye County sheriff's office dispatch the male had been using cocaine. They confirmed his usage on Saturday, but was unsure if it had continued to the weekend. They also informed dispatch that he'd used up to 10 tabs of sexual performance supplements over the last three- day period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Odom said to be still unconscious. He is on life support. His estranged wife Khloe Kardashian at his bedside. Sources say she is making medical decisions for him.
KOSIK: Investigators processing a church in Upstate New York as a crime scene this morning. Police say a teenager was beaten to death by his parents and four other members of the World of Life Church during a so-called counseling session Sunday night. The victim's younger brother also beaten and the hospital. Authorities say the session was designed to get the teens to confess their sins.
Neighbors tell us they always had their suspicions about the place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCHAEL MINARD, CHURCH NEIGHBOR: They don't make noise. They don't really -- you don't see them. We know there's people living in there, but you don't know what's going on in there. You don't know their names. They don't come out and talk to you or nothing.
They are really systematic about how they come and go. There's one person standing at the door of the church. There's one person standing at the gate and there's one person driving the car and it all gets locked at once.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: The victims' parents, Bruce and Debra Leonard (ph) of Clayville, New York, arrested, charged with manslaughter. Four other church members are in custody facing assault charges.
ROMANS: Breaking overnight: demonstrators in Baltimore arrested after taking over city hall after the Uprising Coalition were protesting the interim police commissioner Kevin Davis. The group demanding a change in police tactics following Freddie Grays. More protests are expected this morning.
KOSIK: The FBI is now investigating the daily fantasy sports web sites Draft Kings and Fan Duel. Players and lawmakers alleging company employees are using insider information and predatory tactics with costumers. There are also accusations against Draft Kings claiming the firm is encouraging and accepting deposits from players and states where the contests are banned. The FBI is not commenting.
ROMANS: All right. Eighteen minutes past the hour. A big chill coming this weekend, as cold bears down on the Midwest and East.
I want to bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Alison. Good morning, Christine.
Look at the cold front coming in, the first shot of two punches here of cold air that will eventually pushed in towards the Northeast. It will drop the temperatures off on order of 15 to 20 degrees in places. Starting off in the low 40s in the northern portions of New England, that double nickel out of New York City will make it up to about 50 degrees. That is the temperature at this hour across portions of Boston, about 10 to 13 degrees below what it was this time yesterday. So, the cooling trend in place.
Look at this, cold air really settles in place as we head from Saturday into Sunday. In fact, some high elevation snowfall possible, on the lighter end. But some areas of northern New England could get in on a couple inches of snowfall associated with us from Saturday through Sunday.
So, it will call for scattered showers today. The vast majority of the country back behind us remain on the dry side of the large area of high pressure try to establish itself, or call for near normal temperatures into the 60s, which is what we expect for this time of year. And then you take the high temperatures and mid-90s in Little Rock, while temps again into the '60s around the Northeast, significant cooling ahead of us here in the coming couple of days.
ROMANS: All right. Pedram Javaheri, thank you for that.
A wild night in Toronto. Blue Jays squaring off for the Texas Rangers in game five of the American League Division Series, a game memorable for one very bizarre inning and badly behaved Toronto fans.
Andy Scholes is always well behaved has highlights in this morning's bleacher report, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:23:33] ROMANS: All right. The Toronto Blue Jays are moving on to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 1993 after surviving a wild winner take all game against the Rangers.
KOSIK: Andy Scholes has more in this morning's bleacher report.
Good morning.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys.
You know, the seventh inning of yesterday game between the Blue Jays and the Rangers was one of the craziest innings in baseball history, and I'm not exaggerating one bit. We're going to pick this up at the top of the seventh. Runner on third for the Rangers.
When trying to throw the ball back to the pitcher, Russell Martin inadvertently hits Shin-Soo Choo's bat, and the run comes in. Initially, it was ruled a dead ball. But after Jeff Banister argued, and the umpires got together, they called it a run, which by rule was the right call.
The fans in Toronto were not happy about this. They're very upset, starting throwing stuff on the field. Some throwing beer cans from the upper deck.
Players pleading with the fans to stop. We go to the bottom of the seventh. Rangers were up at 2, but they just fall apart in this inning. Committing three straight errors to load the bases. And with the game tied at 3, Jose Batista with a bomb and does a back flip in post-season history.
All in all, the 7th inning took 53 minutes. The Blue Jays come out on top, 6-3, to advance to the ALCS.
All right. The other do-or-die game five last night was not nearly as exciting, unless you're a Royals fan. Johnny Cueto was dominant on the mound against the Astros, at one point retiring 19 straight batters.
[05:25:03] In the eighth inning, Morales would come to the plate and he would put this one away with a three-run black (INAUDIBLE) who came in the game in relief. Royals won it, 7-2. They're going to advance to play the Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series. Game one of that series is going to be Friday night.
And don't forget, you can catch game five of the Dodgers and Mets series tonight at 8:00 Eastern on our sister station TBS. Winner of that series is going to play the cubs in the NLCS on Saturday.
And speaking of the Cubs, Kyle Schwarber's monster home run from Tuesday night to travel 419 feet and landed on top of the Wrigley Field scoreboard. Well, it's apparently going to stay there. The team announced they will keep the ball there and enclose it in a glass case until the end of the post-season. Then, the team is going to decide after the season if they keep it there long term.
Christine, you know the Chicago Cubs fans are superstitious.
ROMANS: Yes.
SCHOLES: So, if they win the World Series, I'm guessing that ball will never leave that spot.
ROMANS: It is time for new traditions at Wrigley Field. Hitting balls like that, this team of hitters. These are the new traditions we need at Wrigley.
Let's not talk about it too much. I don't want to jinx anything.
SCHOLES: Don't want to jinx it, yes.
ROMANS: Can't wait until Saturday.
Thanks so much, Andy.
SCHOLES: All right.
ROMANS: All right. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigning late into the night. Tuesday's debate, causing some candidates to shift their strategies in some interesting ways. We've got that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both campaigning late into the night. What they're saying this morning about Tuesday's debate and why it's causing some candidates to change their strategy now.
