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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Versus Jeb Over George W.'s Legacy; Gowdy Wants To Focus On U.S. Outposts' Security; China Growth Weighs On Markets; Fatal Shooting At Zombicon; Cop Fatally Shot By Hospital Patient; Israelis And Palestinians Clash. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired October 19, 2015 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:03] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's what Trump says. Jeb Bush fired back on CNN and overnight, received an unexpected interesting boost at an evangelical forum in Texas. CNN's Athena Jones was there. She has the latest.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine. Six GOP candidates spoke at the Faith and Freedom Coalition forum at a mega church outside Dallas. They talked about the importance of faith in public life.
They talked about views on abortion and issues like religious liberty. It was an opportunity for these candidates to try to appeal to Christian conservatives, who are very important part of the Republican primary electorate.
While the candidates did not really go after each other or launch any attacks against one another, the pastor who was leading the forum, Jack Graham, weighed into the feud with 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: 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. That's not safe. We lost 3,000 people. It was one of the greatest catastrophes ever in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Bush responded to Trump's assertions 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 and organized the country and kept us safe. 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 not a serious person. He says he has grave concerns about Trump being in charge of nuclear weapons and Trump, who is now the GOP frontrunner will not be the party's nominee -- John, Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Athena Jones, thank you.
This morning, the chairman of the House Benghazi Committee is telling other Republicans to, quote, "shut up" about Hillary Clinton. The comments from Trey Gowdy come with Clinton set to testify on the panel on Thursday.
Gowdy, the committee chairman is trying to argue that the committee is not designed as a political takedown of Hillary Clinton as a couple of Republican congressmen have suggested. It is a claim that Clinton endorsed in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really don't know what to expect. I think it is 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 House. I don't know that I have very much to add. This is, after all, the eighth investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Gowdy says he is less interested in Clinton's e-mails than in the e-mails of U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. He sought additional security for U.S. facilities before he was killed in the Benghazi attacks.
For more, let's bring in CNN's Chris Frates in Washington.
CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine. Gowdy said 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 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 haven't been released, but here's how Gowdy put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPRESENTATIVE 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 joked in an e-mail maybe we should ask another government to pay for our security upgrades because our government is not willing to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRATES: Despite previous investigations into Benghazi, Gowdy said the committee was the first to get Stevens' e-mails, a fact he used (inaudible) that the committee's work is not political.
Now when it comes to political, he had some choice words for Republican colleagues. He was taking aim at House members who suggested the committee was designed to politically damage Hillary Clinton's run for president. Here's 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. Unless you're on the committee, you have no idea what we have done, why we have done it, and what new facts we have found. We have found new facts, John, that has 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 used Gowdy's colleagues' words against him.
[05:35:06] Kevin McCarthy, the number two Republican in the House said the committee's worked 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 the comments to discount 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.
BERMAN: All right, Chris, thanks so much. Bernie Sanders is in Iowa this morning trying a new strategy. On top of the rallies, he is now doing smaller events. He wants to show voters he could be electable in the primary and general elections.
Bernie sanders also just reveling in the special "Saturday Night Live" treatment he received this weekend with Larry David standing in as separated at birth version of Bernie Sanders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am the only candidate up here who is 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 pair.
BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm told I don't have a sense of humor. So I'll start off with a joke. You ready for a joke? Here is the joke. My name is Larry David and Bernie asked me to do this. That's the joke. So when people tell you I'm ultra-serious and grumpy, you tell them you heard me tell a joke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: I am going to tell a joke.
ROMANS: I am not ultra-serious and grumpy. He said he has two pairs of underwear.
BERMAN: You go to any candidate web site to see how many pairs they have.
ROMANS: He also has a suit.
BERMAN: I hope he has more than just the underwear.
ROMANS: Democrats anxiously waiting to hear from Joe Biden. Whether he plans to run for president or not, they are still waiting. The vice president spent Sunday in Delaware and attended afternoon mass.
He heads back to Washington where he has a full schedule of events on climate change and a reception for the USO, and lots of reporters saying, will he or won't he play that game all day?
BERMAN: Congress returns from a week-long recess this morning. House Republicans hoping to identify the next speaker this week. Paul Ryan is the top choice of many, but he is still not saying he wants the job. A number of House Republicans say they refused to line up behind Paul Ryan.
ROMANS: All right, time for an EARLY START on your money, European stocks mostly higher. U.S. stock futures are down. Asian shares are down. This morning, the big news, China posting 6.9 percent growth in the third quarter, that sounds pretty darn good when you are look at 2 percent in the United States.
So when is it a bad thing, when it's the lowest since 2009. China is still growing the fastest of any major economy. That growth is slowing. Investors are anxious to see if China can manage this into a soft landing and not something painful for the global economy.
Police raiding the French headquarters of Volkswagen, 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 U.S.
BERMAN: All right, police searching for the shooter behind an attack at an annual zombie festival. We will tell you what investigators are uncovering this morning. That's next.
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[05:42:07]
ROMANS: This morning, police in Florida are hunting for a killer who opened fire on the crowd of the annual Zombicon festival in Fort Myers over the weekend. One person was killed, five other wounded.
Authorities say the shooting began just minutes before the event officially ended at midnight Saturday. Hundreds of people in zombie- themed costumes were fleeing in real terror. We get more this morning from CNN's Jason Carroll.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, still no word on a motive or who was responsible for the shooting. Police have released the name of the young man who was killed. His name is Xpaviuos Tyrell Taylor. He was 19 years old.
I spoke to his aunt who said he was at Zombiecon with some of his friends. At first, there were some sorts of word that perhaps he was targeted or maybe some of his friends are targeted, but she does not believe that.
She simply believes he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Police say the shooting happened at 11:44 p.m. Saturday night. That's when they first got the call. That's when the shots rang out. This event attracted 20,000 people.
It was so crowded. People were standing shoulder to shoulder. 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 out with cell phones. One bystander actually captured the sounds of the gunfire as it erupted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four or five shots. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. The guy fell right their rig there in front of me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: The organizers of Zombicon 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 seriously and take precautions and 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 is still on the hunt for the suspect, four 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 and John.
ROMANS: Jason Carroll, thank you.
Police in St. Cloud, Minnesota are investigating the fatal shooting of the officer by a patient he was guarding inside a hospital room. Authorities say 60-year-old Deputy Steven Sandberg was overpowered by the suspect, who was receiving treatment in the hospital following a domestic dispute.
They say Danny Leroy Hammond somehow wrestled the officer's gun from him and fired several shots. Police used a taser on Hammond who later died.
BERMAN: The Obama administration taking aim at rogue drones. This morning, officials will ask the creation of a task force requiring all drones to be registered with the Transportation Department.
[05:45:07] This follows a number of high profile security incidents with drones. Previously only commercial users had to register their drones with the FAA now it's going to be everybody.
ROMANS: All right, four days after a river of mud ran through the streets, many roads in Southern California are open again. Crews worked through the weekend using heavy machinery to excavate dozens of cars and trucks simply buried in tons of mud during flash flooding. Officials in Los Angeles County are reopening stretches of five roads in mountain communities some 40 miles north of the city.
All right, a new deadly attack in Israel this morning, violence escalates over the weekend, we are live with the new details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right, this morning, tension and then a concrete wall rising in East Jerusalem. There was new violence over the weekend. An attacker opened fire at a bus station in the town of Beersheva.
An Israeli soldier was killed. The Arab gunman was killed as well, at least ten other people wounded. Israeli police is building a concrete barrier to separate Jews from Arabs in 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.
Let's go to live Jerusalem. CNN's Phil Black is there. Phil, we have new details on this attack in Beersheva. It started with the murder of another Israeli soldier.
[05:50:05] PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John. So a man is accused of walking into this bus station and shooting an Israeli soldier at close range, taking his M-16, and then using that in a shootout with Israeli police. The attacker was killed in that instance.
In the panicked scenes that followed, there was another innocent victim as well. Security video from the site shows a man crawling away, trying to get to safety. He was a migrant who was shots moments later by an Israeli security guard at the site.
More disturbing is what happened next where other video shown on social media shows him being kicked physically and verbally abused and injured on the ground and later taken to hospital and died. Israeli police are searching for those responsible for beating that man.
It is yet another sign of the anger, the fear that is everywhere across the region at the moment after more than two weeks of regular street attacks, most of them involving knives wielded by young Palestinian men. It has had a considerable human cost as well.
Eight Jewish Israelis have been killed in these attacks. Palestinians and Arab The death toll in the attacks and Israeli response and clashes with Israeli forces over the same period of time of time is now 44 dead.
So a great deal of violence still continuing in the region and it shows no sign of deescalating anytime -- John.
BERMAN: So Phil, the Secretary of State John Kerry meeting separately with the Palestinian leader and the Israeli prime minister. But they are not talking to each other in a substantive way. There is just no sign that is about to happen anytime soon, is there?
BLACK: No, there really isn't. That is what is missing from here. The grievances that you hear from both sides of this conflict now have not changed. At the moment, there is no sense of a peace process working forward.
There is no sense that these two sides, leaders, are prepared to work together to deescalate things. I think what Secretary Kerry will be hoping to do is to inspired both sides to take a step back and to use language to their own people, calling for something of a pause, calling for an end to the violence that we've been seeing here with such regularity over the last two weeks.
BERMAN: All right, Phil Black in Jerusalem, thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right, 52 minutes past the hour. "Star Wars" fans, today is a big day. We will tell you where you can get a closer look at "The Force Awakens" next.
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[05:56:44]
ROMANS: All right, welcome back. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money this Monday morning. U.S. stock futures barely moving, but you know, that could change, big earnings reports out before the bell. We'll hear from Morgan Stanley, Hasbro, and Halliburton. Growth slows overseas. China announced 6.9 percent growth last quarter. It's sounds good, right, but it's the lowest since 2009. There are major concerns about China's ability to ease its slowing economy to a soft landing.
"Goosebumps" got a top spot at the Box Office. The movie starring Jack Black as children's horror author, R.L. Stein, it brought in $23.5 million. It beat tough competitions from superstars like Tom Hanks and Matt Damon.
"Goosebumps" had two big advantages, Halloween around the corner and nostalgia for the '90s kids who obsessed over these books.
BERMAN: Brian Stelter, our very own, launched a "Goosebumps" blog when he was in his early teens.
ROMANS: So that's the '90s kids. How about the '70s, '80s, 90s, and 2000s kids, "Star Wars" fans. Pay attention to Monday night football. Trailer for "The Force Awakens" will debut at halftime.
Until now, two short teasers have been released. "The Force Awakens" is the first edition. What is happening? Could he be back? This is the $4 billion purchase of Lucas Films by Disney. You will be able to buy tickets sometime after the trailer debuts.
BERMAN: Can we keep watching this?
This morning, a disturbance in the political force, a new CNN poll out in 2 minutes reveals Americans who won the first Democratic presidential debate. "NEW DAY" starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: Hillary Clinton winner of the first Democratic debate at least according to the latest CNN/ORC poll.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Anyone who looks at what I have fought for, knows I have been steady.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you blame George W. Bush for 9/11?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We were not safe. That's not safe. We lost 3,000 people.
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My brother responded to a crisis and he did it as you would hope a president would do.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I'm angry with the direction of the country and I blame politicians.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lack of focus on solutions.
CAMEROTA: What sorts of things have politicians promised they would do when they get to Washington and not delivered?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: El Chapo Guzman got hurt slipping away from Mexican authorities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's injured in his face and leg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a lot of people in Mexico that have a financial stake in El Chapo being on the run.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Monday, October 19th, 6:00 in the east. We have the first national polls, CNN's record-breaking Democratic debate and guess who won, no, not Joe Biden. Hillary Clinton is the winner according to a new CNN/ORC poll.
We have new insights into who and what is working for voters. Take a look. Democratic voters who watched the debate say Clinton was the winner by nearly a 2 to 1 margin. Clinton now has a 16-point lead over Bernie Sanders with an undecided Joe Biden at 18 percent. There is also insight in this into Biden's potential as well -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Yes, so many interesting things to look at with these numbers because at this hour.
