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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Versus Bush over George W's Legacy; Gowdy Wants to Focus on Embassy Security; New Attacks in Israel Prompted Wall Between Hostile Areas; Fatal Shooting at Zombicon; Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 19, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:30:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A new feud firing up on the campaign trail. Donald Trump, Jeb Bush fighting over the 9/11 terror attacks. Could it have been prevented?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Benghazi hearing people have been waiting to see for months. Hillary Clinton testifies on Thursday. Now the chairman of that committee speaks out and said this is not just a political witch hunt.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: Nice to see you this Monday morning. I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour.

New developments this morning in this escalating feud between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush. Trump spent the weekend pinning at least some responsibility for 9/11 on George W. Bush. Jeb Bush says his brother kept America safe after the attacks.

The sparring started with the "Washington Post" interview which Trump said, quote "You always have responsibility because you are the president." Trump claimed his tough immigration policies would have stopped the 9/11 hijackers from ever boarding the planes. Jeb Bush fired back on "STATE OF THE UNION," got another boost last night at the evangelical group candidates forum in Texas.

Our Athena Jones was there. She has the very latest.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

Six GOP candidates spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Forum here at a mega church outside Dallas. They talked about the importance of faith and public life. They talked about their views on abortion, issues like religious liberty. It was an important opportunity for these candidates to try to appeal to Christian conservatives who are very important part of the Republican primary electorate.

And while the candidates didn't really go after each other or launch any attacks against one another, the pastor who was leading the forum, Jack Graham, weighed into the ongoing feud between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush about whether George W. Bush kept America safe. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JACK GRAHAM, PASTOR, PRESTONWOOD BAPTIST CHURCH: And by the way, George W. Bush did keep us safe no matter what anybody says.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: That comment from the pastor got a standing ovation. A sign that the crowd at this mega church sides with Bush on this issue and not with Trump who had this to say about it on "FOX News Sunday."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Jeb said we were safe with my brother. We were safe. Well, the World Trade Center just fell down. Now, am I trying to blame him? I'm not blaming anybody. But the World Trade Center came down. So when he said we were safe, that's not safe. We lost 3,000 people. It was one of the greatest -- for me the greatest catastrophes ever in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Bush responded to Trump's assertion on "STATE OF THE UNION." Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My brother responded to a crisis and he did it as you would hope a president would do. He united the country, he organized our country, and he kept us safe. And there is no denying that. The great majority of Americans believe that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Bush also said that by repeatedly bringing up 9/11, Trump is showing that he's not a serious person. He also said he has grave concerns about Trump being in charge of nuclear weapons and that Trump, who is now the GOP frontrunner, will not be the party's nominee -- John, Christine.

BERMAN: All right, Athena. Thanks so much.

This morning the chairman of the House Benghazi Committee is telling other Republicans to shut up about Hillary Clinton. The comments from Trey Gowdy come with Clinton set to testify to the panel on Thursday. That is a huge day.

Trey Gowdy, you can see him right there, the committee chairman, he is trying to argue that the committee is not designed as a political takedown of Hillary Clinton as a couple of Republican congressmen had suggested. This is a claim that Clinton herself is now utilizing, taking advantage of, and she did so most recently in an interview with Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really don't know what to expect. I think it's pretty clear that whatever they might have thought they were doing, they ended up becoming a partisan arm of the Republican National Committee with an overwhelming focus on trying to, as they admitted, drive down my poll numbers.

I have already testified about Benghazi. I testified to the best of my ability before the Senate and the House. I don't know that I have very much to add. This is, after all, the eighth investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Gowdy says he is less interested in Clinton's e-mails than in e-mails of U.S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. Stevens had sought additional security for the embassy in Tripoli before he was killed in the Benghazi attacks.

Let's get more on this, and bring in CNN's Chris Frates in Washington.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John and Christine.

Gowdy said that the e-mails will demonstrate Stevens had been asking for more security since he became ambassador. Now we've known for some time that the officials in Libya had requested more security but Gowdy says that Stevens' e-mails show a disconnect between what was happening on the ground in Libya and what was going on in Washington.

Gowdy says Stevens wanted more security in response to the growing violence and Washington wanted help with how to spin the increasing violence there. The e-mails hadn't been released but here's how Gowdy put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TREY GOWDY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: He needed help with security, John. He didn't need help with PR. He was asking for more security. And on one occasion, he even joked in an e-mail maybe we should ask another government to pay for our security upgrades because our government isn't willing to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:35:10] FRATES: Despite previous investigations into Benghazi, Gowdy says his committee was the first to get Stevens' e-mails. A fact he used to botcher the claim that the committee's work is not political.

Now when it comes to political, he had some choice words for his Republican colleagues. He was taking aim at House members who have suggested that the committee was designed to politically damage Hillary Clinton's run for president. Here is what he said to his colleagues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOWDY: I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends shut up talking about things that you don't know anything about. And unless you're on the committee, you have no idea what we've done, why we've done it, and what new facts we have found. We have found new facts, John, that have absolutely nothing to do with her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So tough words for his own Republican colleagues and for pretty good reason. Clinton and other Democrats, they've used Gowdy's colleagues' words against him.

Kevin McCarthy, the number two Republican in the House, said the committee's work helped drive Clinton's poll numbers down. And last week, another House Republican said the committee was designed to go after Clinton. Now Clinton used those comments to discount all of the committee's work arguing that the panel really is just an arm of the Republican National Committee.

So Gowdy was really trying to return the conversation to Benghazi and away from the campaign trail ahead of Clinton's testimony this week -- John, Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Chris Frates. Thanks for that, Chris.

Bernie Sanders is in Iowa this morning. He is trying out a new strategy there atop of the huge rallies he's staging for months. Sanders is now doing smaller more intimate events, aimed at proving he will be electable in the primary and general elections. Sanders is also reveling in the special "Saturday Night Live" treatment he received this weekend with Larry David standing in as his doppelganger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY DAVID, ACTOR: I'm the only candidate up here who's not a billionaire. I don't have a super PAC. I don't even have a backpack. I own one pair of underwear. That's it. Some of these billionaires, they got three, four pairs.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am told that I don't have a sense of humor.

(LAUGHTER)

SANDERS: So I'm going to start off with a joke. You all ready for a joke? Here is the joke.

My name is Larry David and Bernie asked me to do this.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: So when people tell you I'm ultra serious and grumpy, you tell them that you heard me tell a joke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: He told a couple of jokes. He also said that he does have two pairs of underwear actually. He does have two pairs of underwear. He didn't have a suit when he was the mayor of Burlington. But now he does because he is a United States senator. He does have a suit.

BERMAN: My favorite part of the whole delivery was, here is the joke.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: Write it down.

BERMAN: Here is the joke.

ROMANS: And you can know that I can tell a joke.

BERMAN: All right. Democrats anxiously waiting to hear from Joe Biden about whether he plans to run for president, they are still waiting. The vice president The vice president spent Sunday at home in Delaware then attended mass in the afternoon. This morning he goes back to Washington where he has a very full schedule of events including a speech on climate change and a reception for the USO.

ROMANS: Congress returns from a week-long recess this morning. House Republicans are hoping to identify the next speaker this week. Paul Ryan, the top choice of many but, you know, he still has not said that he is interested in that job. That a growing number of House Republicans plan to oppose him if he runs.

BERMAN: Word this morning that a top al Qaeda leader was killed in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike in Syria. Pentagon officials say Sanafi al-Nasr was the highest ranking member of the Khorasan Group. That's a collection of veteran al Qaeda members based in Syria. The U.S. says they're intent on striking the U.S. and its allies. This guy died on Thursday during an attack in northwest Syria. Nasr was once al Qaeda's chief financial officer. He is the fifth senior member of the Khorasan Group to be killed, the U.S. says, in the last four months.

The Iran nuclear deal now in effect. Sunday was the official adoption day. That means officials from Iran and other world powers have begun the long complicated process of carrying out what they agreed to do in the deal. It could take up to a decade to check off the entire list. The first step is for Iran to begin working with the IAEA, the International Atomic Nuclear Agency, to deal with the history of their program, to document what currently exists.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an EARLY START on your money this Monday morning. European stocks mostly higher. U.S. stock futures barely moving. Asian shares closed down today. This morning China posted 6.9 percent growth in its third quarter. So when is a 6.9 percent growth a bad thing? When it's the lowest since 2009. China still growing the fastest of any major economy. But that growth is slowing. And investors are anxious to see if China can manage that slow in growth into a soft landing and not something more painful for the global economy.

When an economy like China slows, wow, you can really see the -- feel the reverberations everywhere.

Police raiding Volkswagen's French headquarters. The raid is part of an ongoing probe into the VW emissions cheating scandal. European officials are looking for documents to pin down exactly who knew what and when. VW is also being investigated in the United States.

[04:40:14] BERMAN: The China thing, when they come back with 6.9 percent growth, the only thing I can think about is what that number really means is less than 7 percent. You never actually know if it's real, though, at 6.9 percent. It could be much less.

ROMANS: There are a lot of people who study electricity demand and railcar growth and volume in the country who say it's much, much less than 6.9 percent.

BERMAN: Right.

ROMANS: They are suspicious of China's key economic figures.

BERMAN: It's a curious number. Just below 7 percent.

All right. Police searching for the shooter behind an attack in an annual zombie festival. Strange, strange, sad story to tell you about. We'll give that to you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning, police in Florida are hunting for a killer who opened fire on a crowd at the annual Zombicon festival in Fort Myers. One person was killed, five others wounded. Authorities said the shooting began just minutes before the event officially ended at midnight Saturday sending hundreds of people in zombie-themed costumes fleeing in very real terror.

Let's get more from CNN's Jason Carroll.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, still no word on a motive or who was responsible for the shooting but police have released the name of the young man who was killed. His name is Expavious Tyrell Taylor. He was 19 years old. I spoke to his aunt who told me that he was there in Zombie-Con with some of his friends. At first there was some sort of word that perhaps he was targeted or maybe some of his friends were targeted. But she does not believe that. She simply believes he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Police saying that the shooting happened at 11:44 Saturday night p.m. That's when they first got the call. That's when those shots rang out. This is an event that attracts some 20,000 people. Apparently it was so crowded people were standing shoulder-to-shoulder when it all happened. When police got to the scene, they found that Taylor had been fatally shot. Five others were hurt. Their injuries described as non-life threatening.

This is an event that -- it's really all about taking pictures so you can imagine there were a number of people who were out there with their cell phones. One bystander actually captured the sounds of the gunfire as it erupted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four or five shots at the same time. And go pop, pop, pop, pop. And the guy fell right there. Right down in front of me. I mean, right here. The body's right there. I just seen the body right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: The organizers of Zombicon Pushing Daisies Inc. released a statement, saying, "We are deeply saddened by the news of what happened within the footprint of our event. We take the safety of our patrons very seriously and take precautions in hiring security and police officers for our annual event. Our prayers go out to the family members and individuals involved in the incident."

Again, police still on the hunt for the suspect or suspects who were involved. Taylor's aunt tells me that he attended college in Miami. At this point the family now headed to Fort Myers, Florida -- Christine, John.

ROMANS: Jason Carroll. Thank you for that, Jason.

A Minnesota police officer shot and killed in a hospital room by an injured inmate he was guarding. Police say Deputy Steven Sandberg was overpowered by the inmate who was receiving treatment in the hospital following a domestic dispute. They say Danny Leroy Hammond somehow wrestled the officer's gun from him, fired several shots. Police used a taser on Hammond who later died.

BERMAN: The Obama administration is taking aim at rogue drones. This morning officials will announce the creation of a task force requiring all drones to be registered with the Transportation Department. It follows a number of high-profile security incidents involving drones. Previously only commercial users had to register their drone aircraft with the FAA.

ROMANS: Four days after a river of mud ran through the streets, many of those roads in southern California are open again. Crews worked through the weekend using heavy machinery to excavate dozens of cars and trucks that were buried, just buried in tons of mud during that flash flooding last week. Officials in Los Angeles County reopening stretches of five roads in mountain communities some 40 miles north of the city.

BERMAN: A new deadly attack in Israel this morning. The violence getting even worse over the weekend. We're live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:51:42] BERMAN: All right, this morning, tensions and a concrete wall arising in East Jerusalem. There was new violence over the weekend. An attacker opened fire at a bus station in the town of Beersheba. You're looking at video right here. An Israeli soldier and the Arab gunman were killed. There was also another death connected to this. At least 10 other people wounded. Israeli police now building a new concrete barrier to separate Jews from Arabs in one volatile East Jerusalem neighborhood.

This comes as Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to meet separately with the Palestinian president and the Israeli prime minister this week.

I want to go live to Jerusalem and bring in CNN's Phil Black with the very latest.

Phil, we are learning this morning of a tragic death on top of all the other deaths we've already been reporting this weekend.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, the most recent attack on the streets of Israel took place last night as you mentioned there in the south where a gunman entered a bus station, shot an Israeli soldier at close range with a handgun, took his M-16 and then used that in a firefight with Israeli police. That attacker was killed but amid all of that chaos, amid of what must have been a very panicked scene, yes, you're right, there was another death.

One of the bystanders, an Eritrean migrant, was also shot and killed by a security guard. Now he wasn't killed immediately. He was severely injured and as he lie there wounded, bleeding, he was abused physically and verbally by other people who witnessed all of this unfold. He later died in hospital. An Israeli police say they are now looking to investigate and find those people who also harmed that man as well and who are responsible for the suffering that he endured as he lay there injured.

Now it is just another sign of the anger, the fear that has really gripped Israel over the last two weeks as we've seen a regular -- a regular event, a series of attacks on streets largely here in Jerusalem. Largely involving knives with young Palestinians stabbing Israeli Jews. And the human cost has been significant. Eight Israelis have been killed since the start of October. The Arab death toll is at least 44 at this stage. Some of those who were killed are believed to be those who took part in this knife and gun attacks. Others who were killed in clashes with Israel forces.

What it all shows, as greater security is locked down here in Jerusalem in particular, particularly around Palestinian neighborhoods, there is no imminent sign that this most recent wave or surge of violence is about to subdue in any way -- John.

BERMAN: No, no sign at all. No talks planned. No efforts to deescalate the tension there among the folks running the show.

Phil Black for us in Jerusalem, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right, 54 minutes past the hour. Are you a "Star Wars" fan?

BERMAN: Yes.

ROMANS: "Star Wars" fan. "Star Wars" fan. Today is a big day. You're going to get a closer look at "The Force Awakens." We'll tell you where next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:58:32] ROMANS: All right. Good Monday morning to you. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money. U.S. stock futures barely moving. That could change, though, with some big earnings reports due out before the bill. We'll hear from Morgan Stanley, Hasbro, and Halliburton. Investors trying to get a pulse on the American economy, a read on the pulse with growth slowing abroad.

This morning, China announced 6.9 percent growth last quarter. Sounds good, right? But it's the lowest since 2009. Major concerns about China's ability to ease the slowing economy into a soft landing.

" Goosebumps" got a win at the box office this weekend. This movie starring Jack Black is that children's horror author RL Stine, brought in $23.5 million. It beat tough competition from superstars like Tom Hanks and Matt Damon. " Goosebumps" had two big advantages. One, Halloween right around the corner plus nostalgia for '90s children who obsessed over these books.

BERMAN: Brian Stelter was a "Goosebumps" blogger when he was like 12 years old.

ROMANS: Was he really? Wow.

BERMAN: True story.

ROMANS: Wow. All right. So "Star Wars" fans, pay extra close attention to Monday Night Football tonight. The trailer for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," a new trailer, will debut during halftime.

I love that movie.

Until now, only two short teasers have been released. "The Force Awakens" is the first addition to the franchise in a decade. Disney of course looking to cash in on its $4 billion purchase of Lucas Films. After the spot airs, fans will be able to purchase tickets for the December 18th opening.

BERMAN: You will purchase tickets for the December 18th opening.

ROMANS: No, that only works on weak-minded people.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: EARLY START continues right now.