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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Clinton Benghazi Hearing Lasts 11 Hours; Paul Ryan to Run for House Speaker; Kerry Meeting with Lavrov in Vienna. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired October 23, 2015 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:30:33] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Emotional moments, outright shouting members between members of Congress and Hillary Clinton. Questioned late into the evening, 11 hours of testimony on the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi. We have new reaction coming in this morning.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. Thirty minutes past the hour this Friday morning.
This morning, Hillary Clinton is back on the campaign trail in Virginia after this exhausting and exhaustive 11-hour grilling by the House Benghazi Committee. Again and again, Republicans pressed the former secretary of state about her response to security concerns at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya.
And these members grilled into actions on the night of the 2012 attack on the compound, an attack that killed Chris Stevens, foreign service officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
At times, the aggressive questioning provoked an emotional response from Clinton.
(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's interesting. That's almost a moment where the Democrats on the committee trying to offer her chances to give her perspective in contrast to some of the more contentious questioning.
BERMAN: Well, that was all the Democrats did when they weren't just attacking Republicans for their motivations of the hearing. The Democrats asked very few actual questions about Benghazi itself.
At some moments in the hearing, Clinton, she just sat back and allowed others, the Democrats and Republicans, to 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 want to do.
GOWDY: Well, then go ahead.
CUMMINGS: That's what I'm about to tell you. 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)
BERMAN: So after all of this, did anything new emerge? What effect might this all 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.
[04:35:02] 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.
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)
BERMAN: All right. Thanks, Dana.
Republican presidential candidates, they immediately jumped on this testimony. They blamed Hillary Clinton for the security lapses in Benghazi, to spotlight the controversy over her email.
Overnight, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, they both talked about this.
(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)
BERMAN: Let's get more on the Republicans 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)
ROMANS: All right. Joe in Washington -- thanks, Joe.
Paul Ryan is taking the plunge, officially announcing he will run for House speaker in a letter to Republican colleagues. Ryan says he's ready and eager to lead and unite the party. He jumped in after two influential GOP groups followed the House Freedom Caucus pledging their support and making Ryan the consensus candidate. A vote for speaker expected and scheduled for next week.
BERMAN: All right. With a stroke of his veto pen, the president deep in divide with Republicans over federal spending, the president rejected a $612 billion defense bill saying it falls woefully short. He did praise the measure for ensuring military funding and making improvements in the area of cyber security, but it fails to confront other national security.
It's actually over budgeting. He said that they should be able to use trick budgeting procedures when domestic spending priorities not have the same option.
[04:40:03] It's about the sequester still.
ROMANS: Right.
BERMAN: Congress, the House Republicans and the Senate Republicans are going to try to override the veto. The president thinks the Democrats have the votes to stop that. This is all leading up to a budget showdown and a debate over the debt ceiling.
ROMANS: That's right. Debt ceiling, sequester, party like it's 2013, 2011.
All right. Time for an early start on your morning this morning. Great morning for stocks around the world. Hopes of more stimulus measures from the European Central Bank. Stock futures are up a bit.
The Dow up 321 points yesterday. That's almost 2 percent. Good news from several big players. Google's new parent Alphabet, strong profit and better than expected sales in the third quarter.
Much of the growth comes from mobile search. The stock up 10 percent, a record high for Google and Alphabet. And Amazon shocked Wall Street by posting a profit. You heard that right.
You know, Amazon regularly loses money. Typically only makes money during the holidays. Its cloud business is booming so are retail sales. The news launches Amazon shares launched to a record high as well.
A bunch of household names did very, very well yesterday.
BERMAN: McDonald's.
ROMANS: Yes, I know. Apparently, that butter milk chicken sandwich.
BERMAN: Breakfast all day.
ROMANS: Breakfast all day. McDonald turnaround might be working. I'll tell you a little about that later.
BERMAN: All right. Secretary of State John Kerry, he is just a few moments away from a very important meeting with the Russian foreign minister right there. Can they find any common ground on Syria? This is an important discussion. We'll have it, next.
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[04:45:01] BERMAN: Breaking news, at least 42 people are dead in a collision between a bus and a truck in southern France. Local officials say the bus was carrying a lot of elderly. They say five people were injured. Only three people in this accident walked away unharmed.
ROMANS: Secretary of State John Kerry about to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Vienna. They are hoping to find common ground on the crisis in Syria. The Russians propping up President Bashar al Assad with airstrikes against his enemies. The U.S. insisting he cannot be part of the future Syrian regime.
CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson monitoring developments live from London.
Good morning.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. Good morning, Christine.
So what is it that it that Sergey Lavrov could be bringing from Moscow to make a political difference here this time? Well, his boss Vladimir Putin yesterday outlined some of his conversation with the Syrian President Bashar al Assad. The two of them, of course, met in Moscow earlier this week and Putin says that Assad is willing to support rebel groups in the country that would fight ISIS. OK, this might sound like it's going to tick the box for everyone.
But when you break that down a little bit, a look at it, the United States is already supporting rebel groups inside Syria fighting ISIS. But Russia and Bashar al Assad are targeting those same rebel groups. So where's the common ground in that?
So what you have in Vienna today is not just Secretary Kerry meeting with Sergey Lavrov, but also you have the Turkish foreign minister and Saudi foreign minister in meetings during the day with both of the men as well. So, you have the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, pretty much all on the same page here. Russia is the odd one out. Both the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia supporting the rebel groups that Russia and Bashar al-Assad are targeting.
So, at the moment, while there's an opportunity for discussion and some ground maybe for them to work, some common ground for them to work toward a political deal, it doesn't seem that they are likely to walk away with anything.
What is significant here is you have the major players involved, the United States and Russia, the two big international powers and the two big regional powers, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
So, if you're going to get something done around the table, today, these meetings could be the place to do it. But I don't think expectations are high, Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you for that, live from London this morning, thanks, Nic.
All right. Breaking news overnight, a category 5, monster category 5 hurricane spinning toward Mexico this hour. This could be catastrophic, next.
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[04:51:25] BERMAN: All right. Hurricane Patricia is big and getting bigger. The storm has grown into a monster category five hurricane. It is in the Pacific baring down on Mexico. Forecasters say the impact could be catastrophic. It's expected to make landfall on the Pacific coast by midday today. This is a huge storm.
ROMANS: Yes. All right. Let's get more on how powerful the storm is.
Meteorologist Karen Maginnis has that.
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.
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: All right. Karen Maginnis, in what a big, big storm.
All right. You have heard it before. Millennials have no hunger for McDonalds. Guess what? That might be -- is the McDonald's turnaround working?
BERMAN: Goodness.
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[04:58:00] ROMANS: All right. Welcome back, I'm Christine Romans.
Let's get an early start on your money, Friday edition. A great end to the week for stocks. European and Asian shares are up. Hopes of more stimulus measures from the European Central Bank. U.S. stock futures are up right now too after a surge in the Dow yesterday, 321 points, almost 2 percent.
Good news from several big players. Very strong profit and sales for Google's parent company. What's it called?
BERMAN: Alphabet.
ROMANS: Much of that coming from mobile search. Amazon shocked Wall Street posting a profit. Their cloud business is booming and so are retail sales.
Look at McDonald's. Is McDonald's finally coming back? U.S. sales are growing for the first time since 2013. Americans gobbled up their new chicken sandwich.
BERMAN: By Americans you mean you. Let's be clear about this.
ROMANS: I do love the chicken sandwich.
BERMAN: Like one a week, two a week?
ROMANS: About one a week. It's got a revamped Egg McMuffin. This is even without the added the boost from all day breakfast, which didn't launch until this month. I work the early shift, sometimes --
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BERMAN: -- if I can say Americans like what I really mean is me.
ROMANS: It's all part of the McDonald's plan to rehab its image and compete for millennials. The stock soared 8 percent yesterday. Millennials like me.
The latest in the drug pricing battle of San Diego-based pharmaceutical company says it will offer a lows cost alternative to the drug Daraprim. That's the drug from Turing pharmaceuticals that that guy, the CEO Martin Shkreli jacked up the price 5,000 percent overnight from $13.50 a pill to 750 bucks a pill. Now the substitute from another company will cost roughly a buck a pill.
Democratic presidential hopefuls have slammed the price hike and that CEO. This week, Hillary Clinton asked the FDA and the FTC to investigate.
BERMAN: It was hard for Americans to wake up this morning. By that I mean me because I speak on behalf of all Americans.
All right. EARLY START continues right now.
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BERMAN: Hillary Clinton on the hot seat for hours, hours and hours -- an 11-hour hearing on the Benghazi terror attack. This went late, folks. There were big emotional moments. We have new reaction this morning, coming up.
