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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Hillary Clinton Endures Marathon Grilling on Benghazi; Paul Ryan to Run for House Speaker; U.S. Commando Dies in Raid on ISIS Prison; Kerry Meeting with Lavrov in Vienna. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired October 23, 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: Hillary Clinton grilled for hours and hours and hours and hours. A marathon hearing over the Benghazi attack going late into the evening. The explosive moments and new reaction this morning.
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, not a lot of sleep for some of us.
I'm John Berman. Friday, October 23rd, 4:00 a.m. in the East.
This morning, Hillary Clinton is back on the campaign trail. She will be in Virginia this after an exhaust an exhausting and exhaustive 11-hour session before the House Select looking into Benghazi.
Over and over, Republicans pressed the former secretary of state about her response to security concerns at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi in Libya. They tried to grill into Clinton's actions on the night of the 2012 attack. That was an attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, foreign service officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
There were moments of emotion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: I wonder if you would like to comment on what it's like to be the subject of an allegation that you deliberately interfered with security that cost the life of a friend.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Congressman, it's a very personally painful accusation. It has been rejected and disproven by nonpartisan dispassionate investigators. But nevertheless, having it continued to be bandied around is deeply distressing to me.
You know, I would imagine I thought more about what happened than all of you put together. I've lost more sleep than all of you put together. I have been wracking my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: It was former secretary of state clearly trying not to snap back, trying to be measured, trying to be almost presidential.
At other moments in this contentious hearing, Clinton simply stepped back and allowed others do the shouting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: Would the gentleman yield?
REP. TREY GOWDY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I'd be happy to, but you need to make sure the entire record's correct.
CUMMINGS: That's exactly what I'm going to do.
GOWDY: Well, then go ahead.
CUMMINGS: I move that we put into the record the entire transcript of Sidney Blumenthal. We're going to release the emails, let's do the transcript. That way, the world can see it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Second in motion.
CUMMINGS: Motion has been seconded.
GOWDY: Well, we're not going to take that up at a hearing. We'll take that up --
CUMMINGS: Mr. Chairman, I consulted with the parliamentarian and they have informed us we have a right to record a vote on that motion. You know --
GOWDY: Well, I'll tell you what --
CUMMINGS: You want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Well, that's what we want to have. Let the world see it.
SCHIFF: I think the core theory is this. That you deliberately interfered with security in Benghazi and that resulted in people dying. I think that is the case they want to make.
GOWDY: There's no theory of the prosecution, Mr. Schiff, because there is no prosecution. There's a very big difference between a prosecution, where you already have reached a conclusion and you're just trying to prove it to people. This is an investigation.
CLINTON: No one ever recommended closing the post in Benghazi.
REP. PETER ROSKAM (R), ILLINOIS: No one recommended closing, but you had two ambassadors that made several requests. Here's basically what happened to their requests. They were torn up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So after all this, did anything new emerge? And what effect might it have on the 2016 race.
Chief political correspondent Dana Bash has more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, we are still standing after 11 hours from start to finish. That is how long this marathon hearing took.
And so, the big question at the end of the day is what new did we learn?
Well, the answer to that from the Republican chairman himself was effectively not much -- not much compared to other testimony a that Hillary Clinton has given, which is not exactly what Republicans wanted out there to know or Americans who wanted their taxpayer dollars spent wisely.
However, I spoke to another Republican on the committee, Susan Brooks, who had some interesting exchanges, good questions for Hillary Clinton during the many hours of that hearing. And I asked her what she learned new. She thought she did. Take a listen.
REP. SUSAN BROOKS (R), INDIANA: She led the agency where our Americans died and so, it was very important to ask her about who, what, why, when and where. We asked those types of questions. Some she had obviously testified previously.
[04:05:02] But I think we went into much greater detail and much greater depth in getting an understanding of how -- who she took advice from, who was involved in decision making and what happened actually on the night of the incident. I think we went into much greater detail.
So, I think it was insightful. I think it was productive. I know that we have more important witnesses to go. This is not the end of the investigation.
BASH: Now, for people who watched some or all of this very, very long hearing, you can see that the Democrats, for the most part, weren't trying very hard to probe exactly what happened, when and why. Some were asking security questions, but most of them used their time to try to call this out as a political partisan witch hunt effectively.
And so, afterwards in these hallways talking to reporters, they felt that they were vindicated by the way that it went, that it was partisan. And at the end of the day, they insist that they are not sure that this whole select committee is going to come up with anything that we didn't know beforehand.
So, we'll see what's next. The chairman says he does have other witnesses he's going to call. They do have more work to do. They are still waiting for some more documents from the State Department.
So, Hillary Clinton's portion of this drama might be over at least publicly, but the investigation continues -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Dana, thank you for that.
Republican presidential candidates immediately jumped onto Clinton's testimony, blaming her for the security lapses in Benghazi, spotlighting the controversy over her e-mail.
Late last night, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush blasted the former secretary of state.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She has always felt and Clintons have always felt that they operate above the law. That there's a set of rules for one group of people and a set of rules for them.
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I didn't see much of it, but she's not accepting responsibility.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: We have more on the Republican response from senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, as Hillary Clinton testified in that marathon session on Benghazi on Capitol Hill, some of the Republican presidential candidates were following the proceedings with interest and weighing in on Twitter, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham who tweeted, "As threats increase, security decreased. Hillary Clinton is responsible above all others for this dynamic."
Graham also expressing support for Congressman Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the committee. He tweeted, "For those who want to avoid responsibility for their actions regarding Benghazi, Trey Gowdy has become their worst nightmare."
Senator Rand Paul tweeted a parody picture of a computer hard drive, writing, "We need liberty, not Hillary."
A Donald Trump retweet claimed, quote, "Hillary is doing a horrible job suggesting she was reading from a script."
And Dr. Ben Carson, leading in Iowa in the latest Quinnipiac poll, answered a question about the hearing. Listen.
DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'm glad she's gotten around to it. It's a good thing. Benghazi is a very serious issue because it goes to the core of who we are as Americans.
REPORTER: Do you think the committee has been delegitimized at all?
CARSON: I think a lot of people who tried to say it's been legitimatized because they don't want to get to the bottom of the situation. But we have to get to the bottom of it because it's very important.
JOHNS: Democrats have said the Benghazi committee investigation was undermined by recent statements from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, suggesting Hillary Clinton's poll numbers were reduced due to the committee's work -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right. Thanks, Joe.
Now, while the hearing was going on, there was other big news on Capitol Hill. Paul Ryan, he made it official. He announced he will run for speaker of the House. He did that in a letter to Republican colleagues. He said he's ready and eager to unite the party. He made it official after two influential groups followed the House Freedom Caucus, pledging support and making the Ryan really the consensus candidate, the vote for speaker is scheduled for next week.
ROMANS: With a stroke of the veto pen, President Obama deepened with Republicans over federal spending. The president rejected a $612 billion defense bill saying it fell short. He did praise the measure for ensuring military funding and making improvement in the area of cybersecurity. But he says it fails to confront other national security threats. Republicans say they will move ahead with an override attempt.
BERMAN: New details this morning on the U.S. Special Operations raid in an ISIS-controlled prison in northern Iraq, a raid that left one American service member dead. Among the open questions, just who were the 70 or so prisoners rescued in this helicopter raid.
The rescue was conducted at the request of Kurdish leaders. They told the U.S. that Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were among the hostage. That is not all of what commandos found when they got there.
Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, the Pentagon insists the mission was worth it, but for one American family, the worst possible news, an American service member killed when U.S. troops went with Kurdish forces to a compound in northern Iraq.
[04:10:07] The mission was to try to help rescue a number of hostages that ISIS was holding at this so-called prison, this compound. The U.S. was supposed to simply transport the Kurds to it. The Kurds were supposed to be in the lead.
But as they all approached the compound, a fire fight broke out. The Kurds came under heavy fire from the ISIS forces there. It was, at that point, that commanders on the ground made the decision that they would under the rules of engagement help the Kurdish forces, help keep them safe and they moved in, also coming under fire.
It was then that the one service member suffered a serious wound. He was medevaced to a trauma center nearby, but he succumbed, he died of his wounds at that it trauma center in northern Iraq under U.S. military care.
A number of hostages were rescued, about 70, but it turned out, according to Pentagon, at this point they don't think any of them actually were Kurds. They are still trying to figure out who these people were. That open admission from the Pentagon, they really did not know who was there.
So, why did they undertake this mission? Pentagon officials saying it came at the request of the Kurds, that the Kurds are valuable allies and that Defense Secretary Ash Carter made the decision he wanted to help them -- John, Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Barbara Starr, thank you for that, Barbara.
Eleven minutes past the hour. Time for an early start on your money.
Great morning for stocks around the world, folks. European and Asian shares up on hopes of more stimulus from the European Central Bank. U.S. stock futures are higher.
Yesterday, the Dow surged, Berman, look at this, 321 points. While you and I were watching Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi hearing, the stock market was going crazy. Solid earnings for big players like McDonald's, Google, Amazon, Microsoft.
One big looming threat to stocks, though, the debt ceiling, yes, we're watching that again, folks, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned the impasse in Washington is already increasing borrowing the costs, Congress must act as soon as possible.
The Treasury abruptly canceled a sale of two-year notes slated for next week over fear that Congress won't raise the debt ceiling in time. The sale was scheduled for October 27th. It's set to go through on November 2nd. It's a day before the treasury estimates it will exhaust measures to keep the country below the debt limit, and a sale could push us over the debt limit.
BERMAN: It's going to be a real, a real fight in Washington. That's as there's a vote for the new speaker, that as we're in the middle of a presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, we're less than one hour now from a big meeting between the United States and Russia. This over the crisis in Syria, not to mention hot spots raging around the world.
We'll have the very latest, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:16:01] ROMANS: Breaking news this morning, at least 42 people are dead in a collision between a bus and a truck in southern France near Bordeaux. Local officials say the bus was carrying elderly people. Five were injured. Just three walked away unharmed.
BERMAN: It's awful.
Secretary of State John Kerry about to meet with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Vienna. They are hoping to find common ground on the crisis in Syria. The Russians have been propping up Syrian leader Bashar al Assad with airstrikes against his enemies. The U.S. insists that Assad cannot be part of a future Syrian regime.
CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is watching these developments for us live from London.
Good morning, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, good morning, John.
I mean, these meetings in Vienna offer an opportunity, a diplomatic opportunity, if you will, to begin to put together a framework for a political solution in Syria. But you have to look at it right now and see that seems remote. So, you have Sergey Lavrov coming from Moscow to meet with Secretary of State John Kerry. But you also have the Turkish and Saudi foreign ministers, Secretary Kerry meeting with them first in a trilateral meeting.
You have all the major players here. You have the two big world powers, the United States and Russia, essentially in the Syria issue, both involved. And you have two main regional power brokers involved. Saudi Arabia, and Turkey and the United States on the same side here. What's new in this question? Will the Russian campaign, military campaign in Syria, as you say, into three weeks now, the Syrian President Bashar al Assad going to Moscow during this war meeting with Vladimir Putin?
Vladimir Putin just last night saying that Assad is ready to work with rebel groups that are ready to fight against ISIS. But therein lies the rub and that will be the difficulty of the talks that Secretary Kerry will have with Sergey Lavrov. Why? Because when Vladimir Putin and Bashar al Assad talk about rebel groups fighting ISIS, United States is already backing groups to do that.
The United States and Russia differ over who these rebel groups are. Russia is targeting these rebel groups. So, the chances of fighting a compromise at the moment seem very, very remote. Both Turkey and Saudi Arabia opposed to Russia's actions as well. So, it seems that Sergey Lavrov is coming into a situation where he's going to find a lot of opposition to what Russia is doing, maybe people willing to listen to what he has to say. But the chances of moving this forward politically at the moment that does seem remote, John.
BERMAN: Absolutely. You know, it's been very interesting to see Lavrov and Kerry who's got a very amicable working relationship through the years, despite the fact that the nations seem is to be very much at odds.
Nic Robertson for us in London, thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. We're following breaking news overnight. One person is dead, two others injured in a shooting on the main campus of Tennessee State University. Nashville police say the attack happened just before midnight. Police unable to say if the victims are students. It is also unclear if the shooter is on the loose.
Nashville police tweet says the shooting happened following an apparent dispute over a dice game. We're tracking developments. We're going to bring you more information as we get it.
BERMAN: Planned Parenthood is accusing Texas officials of a political witch hunt aimed at discrediting them. Agents from the state and the inspector general's office made unannounced visits Thursday to Planned Parenthood health centers in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, armed with subpoenas and demanding records. This comes after the Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he would drop Planned Parenthood from the state Medicaid program and cut off funding to affiliated clinics.
ROMANS: President Obama publicly defending the Black Lives Matter movement. That group came to prominence after a series of police shootings involving unarmed black men.
[04:20:00] The president making his first official comments about the movement during a criminal justice panel discussion at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The reason that the organizers use the phrase black lives matters was not because they were suggesting nobody else's lives matter. What they were suggesting was there's a specific problem that is happening in the African- American community but that's not happening in other communities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The president says he has specific concerns about African-Americans in certain jurisdictions being subjected more frequently to excessive force and he says unfair treatment.
BERMAN: All right. We have breaking news overnight. A powerful category five hurricane, a serious storm spinning toward land. We have the details, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right. Hurricane Patricia is big and getting bigger. The storm has grown into a monster category 5 hurricane out in the Pacific. It's baring down on Mexico. Forecasters say the impact of Patricia could be catastrophic. It's expected to make landfall on the Pacific coast by midday today.
BERMAN: Wow. All right. Let's get more on the powerful storm.
Meteorologist Karen Maginnis joins us.
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John and Christine, when the National Hurricane Center uses a word like "unprecedented" when they are discussing Hurricane Patricia at a category 5, you know that that's important.
[04:25:00] It got our attention because it looks like it has developed so rapidly, it has deepened in central pressure, which tells us it's getting stronger. But it went from 160 miles an hour to winds 185 miles per hour. And this is going to be potentially catastrophic in coastal sections of Mexico, on the Pacific side from Puerto Vallarta towards Manzanillo.
It looks like it will make landfall later in the day on Friday. As it does, 6 to 10 inches of rainfall in some areas, but in those coastal regions, computer models are suggesting 10 to 20 inches of rainfall possible there, as it continues to trek towards the north, eventually moving towards the northeast. A secondary problem that we have in the United States, available moisture being tapped from the Pacific, that in an area of low pressure that moves across Texas. Well, take a look at this and you'll see what I mean. Most of the state under flood watches and warnings, even along coastal areas, we could see significant rainfall over the next couple of days.
How much rainfall are we looking at? Take a look at these estimates that the computer models are picking up over the next three days. Even in Dallas, Texas, close to 8 inches possible. The potential for severe flooding is likely. Even towards the coast, just as I mentioned.
Well, as we look through the forecast over the next 24 hours or so, from Dallas to San Antonio to Austin, this is what we're looking at that most significant rainfall. They have been in drought conditions now for quite some time. This is a drought buster.
Christine, John, back to you, guys.
ROMANS: A drought buster. All right. Thanks for that, Karen Maginnis.
Hillary Clinton grilled for 11 long hours over the Benghazi terror attack. Question about security concerns, question about her e-mails, how she held up and if we learned anything new, ahead.
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