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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Hillary Clinton Testifies On Benghazi Attack; Paul Ryan Wins New Support for Speaker Role; The Race for President: Inside Biden's Decision; Mets Sweep Cubs in NLCS. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired October 22, 2015 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:16] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: In just six hours, Hillary Clinton will face tough questions on Capitol Hill over the Benghazi terror attack. Were early call for more security ignored?
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Paul Ryan, he can be speaker of the House if he wants to be. New support overnight from a group of some of the most conservative Republicans.
ROMANS: How Biden got the know and how this changes the race for president. That was quite a day in news, after we left here yesterday.
BERMAN: Yes, a lot going on.
ROMANS: Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman. It is Thursday, October 22nd, 4:00 a.m. in the East.
And it all happens this morning, Hillary Clinton goes before the House Benghazi Committee, questions and answers that could last eight hours. This will be a long day.
The committee says its focus will be the 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi in Libya. The attacks that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The Republican- led committee is expected to ask then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about what she knew of reported security problems at the compound.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. SUSAN BROOKS (R), INDIANA: I'm particularly focused on the security incidents and the posture of the State Department with respect to the security requests. We have learned through emails and through documents. But there were hundreds of mentions about security incidents particularly in 2012. So, we have questions for the secretary about what she did with respect to those security requests.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So, there are huge political stakes as well. Hillary Clinton, you may have heard, is running for president. Many Democrats say this is all about the campaign.
CNN's Elise Labott has the latest from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, Christine, after months of anticipation, the day is finally here. It's going to be a long day. We understand there will be four two- hour rounds of questioning of Secretary Clinton, with breaks.
Aides to Clinton say she's ready. She's spent the week preparing with policy and legal teams, going over potential questions and studying up on the events leading up to and following the Benghazi attacks. It was a long time ago, after all.
Now, there have been more than a half dozen congressional investigations following the attacks. But there has been a greater political tone to this one. Democrats, of course, maintain it was designed as a takedown of Clinton. And you have a string of comments recently by Republicans almost backing up those accusations.
But Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy says he will prove the committee is not about politics with a hearing that is respectful of Clinton and focuses on the facts surrounding the Benghazi attacks. Democrats, Republicans, the State Department, all will be watching this hearing, putting out their own spin, or their own talking points. But for Secretary Clinton, this is really a chance to defend her record at secretary of state and argue that this committee is retreading old ground here.
And, you know, in some ways, it's a chance to lay out her foreign policy as she campaigns to be commander in chief. So, clearly, this hearing a key moment for the presidential campaign the future of this committee -- John, Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Elise Labott, we know we'll be covering it for us this morning. Thank you for that.
Breaking overnight, Congressman Paul Ryan clearing a major hurdle in his reluctant bid to become speaker of the house. Last night, a supermajority of the House Freedom Caucus of hard right Republicans, they voted to back Ryan. Not quite enough for a formal endorsement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: The Freedom Caucus supports him but didn't fully endorse him. What does that mean in practical terms?
REP. MICK MULVANEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Well, practical terms means we couldn't get 80 percent as our rules require. But we got more than two-thirds of our group saying they want to support Paul for speaker. So, if Paul really has the votes that we all think that he has in the other portions of our conference, he's got enough votes to be the speaker of the House. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Ryan had earlier said a formal endorsement as a condition of his bid. But by last night, two-thirds was enough for him. Ryan tweeted, "I'm grateful for the support of the supermajority of the House Freedom Caucus. I look forward to hearing from the other two caucuses by the end of the week, but I believe this is a positive step toward a unified Republican team."
You called his negotiating tactics muscular. His politics, muscular --
BERMAN: Yes.
ROMANS: Muscular moving in here.
So interesting that he came in, you know, much like you would in corporate America, if you're in demand for a hard job, you go right in there, you say, this is what I need to do this job. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and we'll see if he gets all of his conditions.
BERMAN: He also came in a little bit like Michael Corleone, whacking the heads of the other five families. You know, I mean, he went in strong and he's getting what he wants and it may make it easier for him to govern as speaker.
ROMANS: One of the things -- he also, a lot of people talking yesterday, one of the things he said he wanted was family time. He said, the last condition was, you know, I'm not going to sacrifice time with my family. Interesting it's a gen-X guy who is out there changing the conversation about work/life balance, huh?
[04:05:04] BERMAN: Dude is my age. I know what he's just talking about. Seriously.
ROMANS: Right.
BERMAN: All right. New details this morning about Joe Biden's decision not the run for president. The vice president ended months of intense speculation, much of it wrong, with an announcement in the Rose Garden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But while I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party, and where we need to go as a nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: This is, of course, big news for Hillary Clinton. Polls show she is likely to benefit most from the absence of the vice president.
Let's get more now from senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
In the end, Joe Biden followed his head not his heart, as he decided to back away from what is surely his last chance at the presidency. In closing the doors to weeks of self-induced speculation about joining the 2016 presidential race, he opens the door to the rest of the Democratic campaign.
So, was he ever serious at all? Several advisers and friends insist that he was. I'm told the more he knew about the race, the more exploring he did in calls of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, the more daunting his path to victory actually seemed.
So, over the past several days, when he was out calling Hillary Clinton for saying Republicans are the biggest enemies, he wasn't firing a warning shot as much as offering a lesson in bipartisanship for how he thinks Washington should actually work.
Now, Hillary Clinton is surely relieved. Bernie Sanders is now the leading alternative if Democrats are still looking for one.
Now, Biden made clear he would not remain silent in the race going forward, urging Democrats to embrace President Obama and his legacy tightly. But his endorsement may depend on which candidate listens -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thanks for that, Jeff.
Other presidential candidates, Democrat and Republican, quickly weighed in on Biden's decision. Hillary Clinton tweeted, "The VP is a good friend and a great man, today and always, inspired by his optimism and commitment to change the world for the better". She signed it "H," so you know she wrote that.
Well, others expressed their sentiments on camera.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He made a difficult decision, based on the needs of his family and his view of his future. And I respect the decision that he made.
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was actually -- I'm kind of surprised. I thought he was going to run. I thought he would have been a competitive candidate in the Democratic nomination.
BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It pretty much guarantees that Hillary will be the person that we're running against.
REPORTER: What about Bernie Sanders?
CARSON: It pretty much guarantees that Hillary will be the one we're running against. MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think I -- given the
field, it looks like Hillary Clinton is on her way as I always felt would be the case. And, you know, the Democrats have a candidate under extraordinary scrutiny.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: I know what you're thinking. What did Donald Trump say? Well, he managed to compliment Joe Biden for his decision while taking a shot at Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump is also marking a personal milestone in his presidential campaign.
CNN's Sara Murray has the very latest from Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine.
Donald Trump took the stage here in Burlington, Iowa, last night, celebrating his 100th day leading the GOP field. You can count on Trump to give the people what they want, a dose of conservative red meat delivered in entirely unscripted manner.
But, first, he had a message for Vice President Joe Biden. You did the right thing in deciding not to run for the presidency.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So -- we had some news today. That Biden is not running.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
And I think he did the smart thing because frankly, I don't know that he would have won. He wouldn't have gotten the nomination. I don't think he probably would have.
And frankly, I really want to run against Hillary. I really do.
MURRAY: And, of course, there's a reason Donald Trump would prefer to run against Hillary Clinton. Polls show that in a head-to-head matchup, he faces a much tougher fight if he's up against Joe Biden than if he's up against the Democratic front-runner, Clinton. But, of course, that's a matchup that will never come to pass.
Back to you, John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Sara. Thank you.
Security in Afghanistan will be at the top of the agenda as the President Obama meets with the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the White House today. Just last week, President Obama announced 5,500 U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan until 2017 to help stabilize the region. The U.S. wants Pakistan's government to convince the Taliban to participate in peace talks.
Also on the table, sensitive nuclear negotiations. Sharif plans to tell President Obama that Pakistan will not accept limits on its use of small tactical nuclear weapons. He claims they are vital to deterring neighboring India from attacking.
BERMAN: All right. Concerning news for the CIA director this morning. WikiLeaks vowing to publish personal information hacked from John Brennan's personal email file.
[04:10:02] On Wednesday, Social Security and passport numbers belonging to the director and his family, they were revealed online, causing a great deal of consternation at the agency. Though we are told no classified data was stolen.
WikiLeaks is promising another data dump today. Posting this tweet Wednesday, "Tomorrow, we continue our CIA chief John Brennan e-mail series, including on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan."
ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning.
Stock futures pointing higher. Companies opening books this morning. Earnings reports from McDonald's, Southwest, United Continental and many others.
Yesterday, stocks fell. The Dow dropped 50 points, investors cautious as earnings expected to show companies have contracting profits for the first time since 2009. It means profits falling.
Donald Trump's billionaire friend will spend $150 million to fight Congress. Hedge fund manager Carl Icahn announced he will use his substantial fortune to form a political action committee and it will have one goal in mind: force Congress to get its act together. He wants major corporate tax reform, so companies will stop moving overseas and will bring back profits held abroad.
Icahn, one of Trump's biggest supporters and his pick for secretary of state if elected.
BERMAN: All right. 1908 just got one year further away. The New York Mets swept the Chicago Cubs. That means they won each of four games in a row to advance to the World Series for the first time since 2000.
Didn't take long last night. The Mets led 4-zip after one inning, 6- zip after two. The final score was 8-3. In the four games, the Chicago Cubs, they never led once.
So, Daniel Murphy, who is sort of like an average player during the year, maybe a little better than average, he's been playing out of his mind. He was named the series MVP. He set a new record with a home run in his sixth straight post-season game. You cannot defeat Daniel Murphy.
Now, the Mets will face the winner of the American League Championship Series. That was sent to a sixth game because Toronto beat Kansas City 7-1 last night. Thought the Royals still lead that series, 3-2. Game six, tomorrow.
ROMANS: Can I just -- you know, unbelievable. I feel bad for my Cubs. I know Mets fans are very happy this morning.
I just misspoke. I said that Carl Icahn would be the pick for secretary of state. I meant treasury secretary.
BERMAN: Good God. I'm glad you fixed that.
ROMANS: Let's have Wall Street running foreign policy.
BERMAN: I'm just glad we cleared that up.
ROMANS: Breaking news this morning: Secretary of State John Kerry meeting with Israel's prime minister, hoping to halt rising tensions and violence with Palestinians. We are live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Secretary of State John Kerry in Germany at this hour, holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He's hoping to bring an end to a wave of violence that's already claimed dozens of Israeli and Palestinian lives this month. Netanyahu raising eyebrows, even among his supporters by this public claim. It was a Palestinian who gave Hitler the idea for the Holocaust.
Let's go live to Berlin and bring in CNN's Atika Shubert.
And that, that particularly claim stirred up a whole lot overnight.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, critics from within Israel saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the statements for his own gain, really revising history.
A number of historians have actually debunked that, saying he's been exaggerating the role of the Palestinian grand mufti in history. And Germany itself, Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Netanyahu yesterday and next to him said, Germany alone takes responsibility for what happened in the Holocaust and that there is no need to revise history.
That set the scene for the meeting that he has this morning with Secretary John Kerry. Secretary Kerry really is going to try and dial down that sort of emotional rhetoric that he fears is inciting more violence. But it's unclear just what kind of agreement could at this put an end to this wave of attacks.
ROMANS: Putting an end to the wave of attacks so critical.
Do we know overnight -- has there been any calm, Atika? Or is this still such a tense situation?
SHUBERT: Sadly, there have been another set of stabbings just this morning, in fact. So, there doesn't seem to be an end to it. What Secretary Kerry may try to do is get an agreement on the Temple Mount, the Haram al-Sharif area. The dispute over it seems to be what triggered this latest surge of attacks.
So, if they can come to some kind of written agreement, that may deescalate the situation. But, again, no guarantee that the attacks will actually stop.
ROMANS: All right. Atika Shubert for us this morning in Berlin, thank you for that.
BERMAN: All right. Breaking news this morning. A suspect in custody following a manhunt in the overnight shooting of an Albuquerque police officer. Officials say the eight-year veteran officer was shot multiple times in a struggle that started in a traffic stop. The officer, who has not named is in criminal condition.
ROMANS: Also breaking overnight from Albuquerque. A confession in a fatal road rage shooting. Thirty-two-year-old Tony Torres was arrested after police received an anonymous tip. They say he confessed to that shooting on Interstate 40, a shooting that killed 4- year-old Lily Garcia as she rode in the back of the car.
The governor of New Mexico says the loss of this little girl is felt in every corner of her state.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. SUSANA MARTINEZ (R), NEW MEXICO: Such a senseless act. I mean, they're just driving down the freeway and -- she dies over -- being shot. It is so senseless. And, I just can't express how sad it is, to know that something as simple as going down the freeway and your child dies because of road rage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The suspect is being held on $650,000 bail.
BERMAN: The gunman who allegedly shot and killed a New York City police officer has been formally charged with murder. Authorities say the suspect, 30-year-old Tyrone Howard is a career criminal, who was wanted in another shooting last month. A memorial for Officer Randolph Holder was set up outside the station house. Last night, the lights on top of the Empire State Building were blue to honor the fallen officer. That's nice to see.
ROMANS: So sad.
All right. It is hot and getting hotter on earth. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says global temperatures running well above last year's record all but guaranteeing that 2015 will be the hottest year ever. Officials at the agency say last month was the warmest September on record. The temperature increased from September 2014 was the largest since global tracking began in 1880.
BERMAN: All right, on the subject of hot -- though, not quite is same thing -- Jeb Bush, he was answering questions at a presidential forum last night.
[05:20:04] He had been discussing a lot of serious issues. When he was asked, what was he asked?
He was asked about his favorite superhero. Listen to his answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I like the old school guys, like Batman. A little dark these days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good choice. Good choice.
BUSH: I saw that there's a -- Supergirl is on TV. I saw it when I was working out this morning. There's an ad promoting Supergirl. She looked kind of -- she looked pretty hot. I don't know what channel it's on, but I'm looking forward to that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So PolitiFact will be looking into that.
ROMANS: You know, these guys running for office, they sit there and talk all day long. And they answer all kinds of questions. It's like -- some of those questions are almost like your worst job interview question. What's your favorite superhero?
And you're trying to get a job -- you know, that's what it is. Basically, the job interview. Who's your favorite --
BERMAN: Tom Brady. See, I have an answer. It's not Supergirl is pretty hot. It's Tom Brady.
ROMANS: My favorite, super Berman.
BERMAN: I appreciate it.
ROMANS: All right. Twenty-one minutes past the hour.
New details this morning inside the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Syria's embattled president and U.S. complaints that Putin ruled out the red carpet for Bashar al-Assad.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Word this morning, Syrian President Bashar al Assad earned a chilly reception in Russia.
[04:25:01] The embattled leader has always had a complicated relationship with Vladimir Putin with the two met secretly Tuesday night in Moscow.
Russian officials tell CNN they were distant and wary of one another. Even as Putin is trying to prop up Assad with airstrikes against his enemies.
For more on the meeting between Assad and Putin, we turn to CNN senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance. He's joining me this morning live from Moscow. And the U.S. perspective on this is, the White House spokesman says Vladimir Putin rolled out the red carpet for Bashar al Assad, a man who has attacked his own civilians. But it doesn't sound like there were bear hugs in that room.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, that's apparently what you're hearing. But I can tell you that the message that was meant to be sent by this was very different, that this is an ally of the Kremlin, and that this was a president who, despite the fact that he's criticizing the West for and Washington in particular, for carrying out attacks using chemical weapons, Russia stands squarely behind him.
I think that's the message that the Kremlin wants to put across. If there are any negotiations in the future about political settlements Syria, then Assad is the Kremlin's man, and any negotiated settlement will have to go through Moscow and, of course, that diplomatic support is being shadowed by military support on the ground as well with the Russian airstrikes now in their third week, striking hard at opposition fighters inside Syria, including Islamic State and other non-ISIS rebels as well.
So, the Russians playing a tough, hard-nosed game on this.
ROMANS: So, you don't buy this chilly reception stuff? These are two men who are standing together to try to defeat Assad's enemies?
CHANCE: Well, it's not so much I didn't buy, I haven't heard that characterization of the meetings, to be perfectly honest with you. But, certainly the pictures we saw on state television showed the two meeting overnight. It was very secretive. There were smiles between the two leaders.
Clearly, President Assad did not want his people no know that he was out of the country. This is the first time he's been out of Syria, it's believed, for the past four years since the Syrian crisis began. And Putin clearly wants to show that, again, Assad is his man. And he'll have part in an interim government in the future.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that. Matthew Chance for us this morning in Moscow.
BERMAN: Hillary Clinton now just a few hours from a big day on Capitol Hill. Face to face with the select committee on Benghazi. The committee members waiting a long time for this. So, too, has Hillary Clinton. A huge moment in the campaign as well.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
