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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
The Race for President: Jeb Bush Fights Back; The Race for President: Will Biden Run?; Alleged CIA Hackers Speak to CNN. Aired 4- 4:30a ET
Aired October 20, 2015 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:14] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Jeb Bush fights back, ripping into Donald Trump in a late night interview.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Will Biden run? The vice president said to be interviewing potential staff for a potential presidential campaign.
ROMANS: And, were the heads of the CIA and Homeland Security hacked? The group claiming it has accessed secret e-mails speaking to CNN.
BERMAN: Pot-smoking kids.
ROMANS: Yes, bored and up to no good.
BERMAN: Dangerous.
ROMANS: Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. It is Tuesday, October 20th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.
And breaking overnight: Jeb Bush fires back in his feud with Donald Trump over whether George W. Bush kept the United States safe or bears responsibility for the September 11th attacks. In the interview with Sean Hannity, Governor Bush suggested that Trump's criticism of his brother proves he does not understand the threats to the United States and the threats the U.S. faces around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: His view of history is just wrong. The simple fact is when we were attacked, my brother created an environment where for 2,600 days, we were safe. No one attacked us again. And he changed the laws, he did everything necessary, united the country and he kept us safe. And just a tip of the hat to that and moving on to what the threats are today is what we ought to be focused on.
Donald Trump is not a serious candidate as it relates to foreign policy.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: Now, earlier in the day, Trump fired off his own taunts. He wrote a tweet that says, "Jeb is fighting to defend a catastrophic event. I am fighting to make sure it doesn't happen again. Jeb is too soft. We need tougher and sharper."
There's more breaking political news overnight. A new pool showing a high water mark for Donald Trump. The NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll has Trump at 25 percent. That is his highest number in that poll. Look at Jeb Bush, all the way down at 8 percent. That is what Trump talked about on the trail in South Carolina, the polls.
CNN's Sara Murray was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine.
In front of a crowd of thousands here in Anderson, South Carolina, last night, Donald Trump slammed his GOP rivals, bragged about his lead in the polls, and even accused President Obama of wanting to take away Americans' guns.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, big Second Amendment. We're all heavy on the Second Amendment, you know? You know, the president is thinking about signing an executive order where he wants to take your guns away. You hear this one. This is new.
Not going to happen. That won't happen. But that's a tough one. I think that's a tough one for him to do when you actually have a Second Amendment, that's tough, because there are plenty of executive orders being signed. You know that. And we can't let that go on.
MURRAY: But what he didn't mention was his latest controversy, after suggesting in an interview that George W. Bush was responsible for the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Donald Trump doubled down on Twitter. But he made no mention here tonight. It's a line that many voters felt was an unfair attack against the former president, although they didn't say that it would ultimately sway their decision about whether or not to vote for Trump.
Now, as for Trump, reporters tried to catch up with him after the event. The candidate dodged their questions in a rare move for a candidate who loves the camera.
Back to you, John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Sara Murray, thanks for that, Sara.
New signs this morning that Joe Biden may be closed to announcing a run for president. A source close to the Biden camp tells CNN the vice president's associates are setting up interviews for campaign jobs. Biden himself kept tight lipped as he arrived late for a White House climate change event.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm the late Joe Biden and I just want you to know as much as I love you, I have been in a meeting with the president on another matter for last two hours. It is hard to say, "Mr. President, I've -- you're on your own. I'm leaving." Although he is on his own. He doesn't need me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: One White House member setoff a flurry of speculation on all this. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania tweeted this, "I have a very good source close to Joe that tells me VP Biden will run for prez."
Biden would enter the race third in the polls behind Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Sanders was in a campaign swing through Iowa.
Our Sunlen Serfaty spoke to the candidate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.
Well, even though Bernie Sanders still trails behind Clinton in these new national polls, the first since the debate, it is clear he is still feeling very good. He is clearly having a moment in the pop culture spotlight and he's having a little fun with it while on the campaign trail, noting all of this attention he's been getting from that "Saturday Night Live" treatment he received, the equivalent of campaign gold to any candidate.
[04:05:08] And I caught up with Bernie Sanders while here out in the Iowa campaign trail and I asked him if he expects to receive a bump in the polls from Larry David.
(LAUGHTER)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'm giving serious thought. Larry David does Bernie Sanders better than Bernie Sanders does Bernie Sanders. So, maybe we'll ill invite Larry to do the next rally, I don't know. But I think we actually gained on it. We have done better since the last poll.
I think that frankly the momentum is with us. There was a poll that came out in New Hampshire today that have us pretty comfortably ahead. But, you know, I freely concede.
You know, we started off the campaign, I was at 3 percent in the polls. And a kind of people thought I was a fringe candidate. I think we made a lot of progress in the last five months and I think we've got a real shot to win this.
SERFATY: And that has been and continues to be one of the biggest challenges for Bernie Sanders, to go from being seen as a fringe candidate to being more of a mainstream candidate that can really appeal to a broader group of voters. But what is key here is going forward, this will be a challenge for the Sanders campaign in this moment to turn this attention that's focused on him into actual support -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right. Sunlen, thanks so much.
In just a few hours, we will know whether Jim Webb is dropping out of the Democratic presidential race in favor of an independent run. He has a news conference set for 1:00 p.m. Eastern. The former Virginia senator is sort of hovering near the bottom of the polls. He spent him time at the Democratic debate complaining of how little speaking time he was getting at the Democratic debate.
ROMANS: All right. The FBI and the Secret Service looking into claims of shocking hacks into the personal e-mail accounts of CIA Director John Brennan and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. Law enforcement officials tell CNN it doesn't appear the hackers got any classified information. These were not governmental accounts.
But one self-proclaimed hacker told CNN's Laurie Segall the emails held a wealth of personal details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You say were you able to hack into his personal inbox. What did you find?
HACKER (via telephone): Social security numbers. Plans and he was talking about Iraq and Syria. There was a lot of I guess private information, really.
SEGALL: If this is true and it's true you guys have actually broken into his private e-mail account, how difficult would you say it is?
HACKER: You mean out of ten?
SEGALL: Sure, out of ten.
HACKER: One.
SEGALL: A one.
HACKER: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So that hacker told Laurie he's a pot-smoking American under the age of 22 to target, quote, "the government and police". The hackers have been tweeting information they claimed to have gathered from these accounts. Sources have confirmed both Brennan's and Johnson's accounts were hacked, but CNN cannot independently verify the accounts were leaked.
Again, these were private email address, like AOL accounts. You have hackers going in, messing around. Social engineering, they called it, with Verizon and AOL to change the passwords. They had enough information to go in there and starts changing passwords, getting into the accounts and basically taking them over.
BERMAN: Still, it wasn't his government account. But if there is one guy who would have his personal e-mail secure, it might be the CIA director.
All right. Breaking overnight. Shocking blowout in Canada. Justin Trudeau, son of a prime minister, he is set to become the country's first new leader in 10 years. The incumbent conservative Stephen Harper, he conceded overnight. It looks like Trudeau's liberal party will win enough seats in the general election of majority government fairly easily.
ROMANS: Right.
BERMAN: The victory denies a fourth term for Harper. Justin Trudeau is the son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. You know, at many points in this election, there's a third party that was actually in front of the seat. Harper was in front, and the liberals with Trudeau came up late. It's a big election with big implications here in the United States.
ROMANS: That's actually right and a real nail biter. And I'll tell you, the country is in recession because it depends so much on oil and commodities. And China has been flowing for those, so a different situation in there, economy-wise. But still kitchen table economics are very big deal.
BERMAN: It could have an impact on Keystone. It could have an impact on the war in Syria. Trudeau says he doesn't want, you know, Canada that much involved in the battle against ISIS. It will be interesting to see.
ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning. European and U.S. futures barely moving. Asia shares, they closed mostly higher this morning. Shanghai's benchmark rose more than 1 percent. It's up 12 percent this month. Gosh, it's a big reversal from a recent collapse.
Worries about China's growth, though, is still weighing on markets, pushing oil prices much lower again yesterday.
The United Continental Airlines tapped in acting CEO overnight. Now, the company's new CEO, Oscar Munoz, suffered a heart attack last week. He is taking medical leave. The change comes only 41 days after Munoz took over, following the quick exit of the previous CEO.
[04:10:02] He lost his job over favor trading allegations with the airline and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Remember that was all the echo of that bridgegate scandal. Now, United's top lawyer Brett Hart will be in charge. United ranks at bottom for customer service and now having its third basically acting chief in a little over a month. BERMAN: All right. It was astronomy night at the White House.
President Obama hosted 300 students, 11 astronauts, and Bill Nye the Science Guy in the South Lawn. Among the students on the guest list, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed. He is the Texas teenager who brought a homemade clock to school that was mistaken for a bomb. He wound up being detained and handcuffed. The president shook hands and met very, very briefly with Mohamed at the end of the event, telling him and all the kids to keep inventing and creating and discovering.
Israel now vowing to investigate the mob killing of a man mistaken for a terrorist. That country, so much tension there on edge. The violence escalating this morning.
ROMANS: Plus, "The Force Awakens" and breaks the Internet. Demand for the new "Star Wars" movie crashes ticketing web sites as the first full length trailer is released.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Israeli police were launching an investigation over the mob assault that left an innocent African man beaten to death. It all started when an Israeli soldier was murdered and Israeli security forces the 29-year-old refugee Sunday night, mistaken him for the Arab attacker. An angry mob then repeatedly stomped on the wounded victim while he lay bleeding on the ground.
I want to go live in Jerusalem and bring in senior international Ben Wedeman.
Ben, it just shows high the tension is running right now in that country.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed. This -- and it's not the first instant where it appears innocent people have been killed as a result of the reaction to the stabbings.
[04:15:03] Now, the Israeli police have launched an investigation into this incident. Keep in mind, it was a security guard who shot this 29-year-old Eritrean migrant. Now, the police are going to conduct an autopsy and try to determine whether this man died as a result of shotgun wound or the gun wound, or is it result of the mob that went up and kicked this man as he lay bleeding clearly in very bad shape on the ground.
And on the basis of the results of the autopsy, they will determine whether they will level charges of either murder or manslaughter on people who participated in this incident and in this day of cell phones. A variety of people actually have filmed this with their phones, so police know exactly, have a very good idea who was involved.
Now, we also heard the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling on people to allow law enforcement to do their job, do not interfere in incidents such as this. But given the level, as you mentioned, the level, the high, the extreme level of tension that exists in the moment, those words may not be heeded. Rather heated in the moments of passion and anger that followed these attacks -- John.
BERMAN: Ben, it's midday there. Any new violence today, stabbings, retributions, the like?
WEDEMAN: Well, we are just getting news right now that there may have been a stabbing incident, a Palestinian stabbing an Israeli soldier outside Hebron, in the southern West Bank. That's a city where tensions are high even in the best of times. As far as news, we have just learned from a U.N. official here that U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon will be coming today. He will be visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories to speak with officials on both sides to find ways to reduce the tension, although that's a difficult task at the moment -- John.
BERMAN: Besides not talking to each other.
Ben Wedeman for us in Jerusalem, thanks so much, Ben.
ROMANS: All right. Health officials in Texas have cut Planned Parenthood from the state's Medicaid program. This decision follows a controversial undercover video released in the summer by an anti- abortion group. The inspector general for the Texas Health Commission says the video reveals program violations that justify terminations. He sent a letter to the Houston chapter of Planned Parenthood, charging the organization as, quote, "no longer capable of performing medical services in a safe, legal or ethical manner."
BERMAN: In Ohio, executions are on hold until 2017. Corrections officials say the state has exhausted its supply of lethal injection drugs. They've been unable to obtain more. Eleven death row inmates originally scheduled for execution in 2016 and at least one in early 2017 have been granted temporary reprieves.
ROMANS: All right. Eighteen minutes past the hour in the East, well, everywhere, it's 18 minutes past the hour. But it's 4:18 in the East.
And temperatures are rising along the East Coast. Let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri -- Pedram.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good Tuesday morning, John and Christine.
We are entering a nice and dry trend on the eastern side of the country. You take a look at the expansive area of high pressure taking place over this region. So, it will keep it mostly sunny at least for the next three or four days with high pressure in place, certainly going to see temperatures warm up drastically over the next couple of days as well.
In fact, you take a look at Tuesday's highs, up to 70 from the low 50s in New York City. Chicago, unseasonably mild, seventy-four degrees on Tuesday. By Wednesday, we're talking here to 80 in Chicago. New York City makes it up to 73. Even Charlotte down to Atlanta, temperatures on the mild side as we continue on to Thursday. And it looks like this pattern certainly is here to stay it with the sunshine in the forecast. In Texas, it has been all about the sunshine and heat this past
summer. Of course, we know some 14 million people dealing with drought across this region. Thirty-two percent of the state dealing with severe drought, plus some changes in the forecast as we're watching some tropical moisture potentially work its way toward south Texas.
Look at the forecast over the next couple days. Some indications put as much as 10 inches of rainfall from points of Austin to San Antonio, if the tropical feature works toward the region. So, certainly flooding concerns here, but beneficial with the drought issue across Texas as well, guys.
BERMAN: All right. Pedram, thanks so much.
This morning, the Internet recovering from the release of the most important movie trailer of all time. The first full length preview of "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens." Two minutes, 35 seconds of galactic awesomeness.
("STAR WARS" TRAILER)
[04:20:07] BERMAN: All of it.
Han Solo there all over the trailer. What does it all mean? It debuted at halftime on Monday night football. The Walt Disney Corporation, of course, owners of both ESPN and "Star Wars" franchise. That, my friend, is synergy.
ROMANS: Corporate synergy.
BERMAN: That is synergy.
The online ticket sales happened during the trailer and the Internet exploded.
ROMANS: So, what happens? The bad guys come back?
BERMAN: I'm at a loss. I simply don't know. But --
ROMANS: A disturbance in the force.
BERMAN: But I intend to find out on December 18th at a theater near you.
ROMANS: I know. I'm really excited actually. I usually don't like corporate hype. But I love "Star Wars."
BERMAN: I'm all in.
ROMANS: There you go.
BERMAN: All right. Twenty minutes after the hour right now.
Oscar Pistorius trading in his prison cell for a mansion, released on house arrest after being convicted for killing his model girlfriend. We are live next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Brand new this morning, Oscar Pistorius is out of prison after serving less than a year of his five-year sentence. He was moved to house arrest in South Africa. The Olympic blade runner was found guilty last year of culpable homicide in the shooting of girlfriend Reva Steenkamp. Prosecutors are appealing that verdict, claiming Pistorius should have been convicted of murder.
CNN international correspondent David McKenzie live in Pretoria, South Africa, for us.
[04:25:00] And, David, what's the response in South Africa to this early release of Oscar Pistorius?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, the response is somewhat mixed. There are people who are outraged that Oscar Pistorius got out of jail just shy of a year in prison of his five-year sentence. He is now swapped his jail cell for a three-story mansion here at his uncle's house in Pretoria. So, certainly, his circumstances have changed.
But just moments ago, a spokesperson of the Pistorius family said that certainly it's not like he is being led free.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNELIESE BURGESS, PISTORIUS FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: The family is happy Oscar's home, but they want to make point the sentence continues. And that is the key point here. His sentence isn't shortened, it hasn't been reduced. He continues to serve his sentence as per the sentence handed down by the trial judge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKENZIE: So, Christine, he will be in some form of house arrest potentially for the next few years. We do not know exactly what the conditions are.
But, certainly, his movement will be restricted. He will have to do community service out in the part of South Africa and he will have other conditions like not being able to access firearms. He will not be able to drink or use drugs. He will be closely monitored.
But there are some sections of society that say because of the nature of his crime, that he killed his girlfriend by shooting her four times through a locked bathroom door, this sends a bad message in a country where there is violent crimes against women. But again, it is within the bounds of South African. But for the moment, we won't be seeing Oscar Pistorius anytime soon. He is locked up behind the three-story mansion here in Pretoria -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. David McKenzie for us in South Africa -- thanks, David.
BERMAN: All right. Twenty-six minutes after the hour.
Jeb Bush firing back at Donald Trump. A new interview. The feud got even nastier overnight. We have details, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
