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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Donald Trump Hits Ben Carson as Super Low Energy; Oklahoma State Homecoming Tragedy; New Video of Raid on ISIS Prison in Iraq. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired October 26, 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] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning. At least five people dead. A tour boat capsizes. The latest on the search and rescue effort ahead.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump sinking in one key state polls, lashing out at the new frontrunner to CNN.
BERMAN: And overnight Joe Biden reveals exactly what stopped him from entering the race for president.
Good morning, everyone. Happy Monday. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: Happy Monday. Just don't go together.
BERMAN: I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it.
ROMANS: You didn't mean it.
BERMAN: No.
ROMANS: Take it back. I'm Christine Romans. It's Monday, October 26th, it's 4:00 a.m. in the East.
Breaking news this hour. Five people are dead after a whale watching tour boat capsized off Canada's west coast near the town of Tofino, carrying 27 people. Officials say 21 people were rescued, one remains missing. They say search and rescue operations are finished, with the case now handed over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a missing person's case. No word yet on a possible cause for this disaster.
BERMAN: All right. This morning, Donald Trump is on the attack. He's now running second to Ben Carson in polls in Iowa. Over the weekend, Trump raised questions about Carson's faith, also criticized his stances on immigration, on trade, and bashed what he called Carson's super low energy level. Ben Carson spent the weekend ducking the punches.
CNN's Ryan Nobles has the latest from Washington.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, good morning. Donald Trump will be in New Hampshire this morning after a weekend of tweaking his chief rival Ben Carson. During a rally in Florida Trump touted his own Presbyterian faith and told the crowd in Florida that he didn't even know what a Seventh Day Adventist is.
Carson is a Seventh Day Adventist. Trump later said he was not attacking Carson's religion and said Sunday he would not apologize. Trump said that polls show him leading with evangelical voters, however a new Quinnipiac poll in Iowa shows Carson with more support from that key voting bloc.
And during an interview on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" Trump recycled an attack he used against Jeb Bush to describe Carson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Ben Carson is a very low energy person. Actually, I think Ben Carson is lower energy than Jeb if you want to know the truth. We need strong energy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLE: Now Carson has eclipsed or drawn even with Trump in two different polls of likely Iowa caucus goers. While Trump sent attacks Carson's way, Carson attempted to avoid engaging the billionaire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really refuse to really get into the mud pit. You know, Hillary actually was right when she said, you know, that the Republicans are there, you know, trying to destroy each other. I really think that was a huge mistake in the last cycle. And I'm certainly not going to get into that no matter what anybody says.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLE: While Carson has closed the gap in Iowa, Trump still maintains a healthy lead nationally, and in the early primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina -- John and Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Ryan, thank you for that.
This morning Ben Carson says he is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest. In an interview on NBC Carson compared abortion to slavery and he said he wanted to see "Roe versus Wade," the Supreme Court decision making abortion legal -- he wants to see that struck down. He said the only exceptions he would support are the rare cases where the mother's life or the mother's health are in jeopardy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK TODD, MODERATOR, NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS": Definitively, do you want to see "Roe v. Wade" overturned?
CARSON: Ultimately I would love to see it overturned.
TODD: Rape and incest?
CARSON: Rape and incest, I would not be in favor of killing a baby because the baby came about in that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Marco Rubio is defending himself against the criticism for all the Senate votes he has missed while campaigning for president. Rubio's rivals for the Republican nomination or some of them have criticized him for having the worst attendance record in the Senate this year. The senator has drawn charges of hypocrisy after he said on the Senate floor last week that federal workers who do not do their jobs should be fired.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Someone might say you're not showing up, you're not doing your job by voting.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not true. Not true.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You don't think --
RUBIO: Because voting is not the only part of the Senate job. I mean, the most important thing a senator does is constituent service. We're still involved in looking out for Florida's issues.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Wait a minute. Votes aren't important?
RUBIO: Of course they're important.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Intelligence committee hearings aren't important?
RUBIO: We do all the intelligence briefing. I was just there this Tuesday. I got fully briefed and caught up on everything that's happening in the world. I'm fully aware. We have a staffer that's assigned to intelligence. We get constant briefings. I think votes, of course, are important. But unfortunately, too many of them today are not meaningful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Jeb Bush is in Houston today for the second day of high flying, high level donor conference. The Houston gathering features former presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, even Barbara Bush.
[04:05:04] This follows the surprising announcement of major cuts to campaign staffing and salaries. "Washington Post" reports that the super PACs supporting Bush is considering deploying its own ground staff to key states. Until now the Right to Rise super PAC has concentrated on running TV ads.
BERMAN: New developments in the Democratic side of the race. For the first time, really, Bernie Sanders took some pretty direct swings at Hillary Clinton. This happened in the Democratic Jefferson Jackson dinner in Iowa Saturday night. Big event for Democrats there. Sanders highlighted differences with Clinton over the Defense of Marriage Act, the free trade deal, and Keystone Pipeline and the Iraq. And Clinton and Sanders traded fire over he calls her shouting on the issue of gun control.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been told to stop, and I quote, "shouting about gun violence." Well, first of all, I'm not shouting. It's just when women talk some people think we're shouting.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All that I can say is I am very proud of my record on women's issues. I certainly do not have a problem with women speaking out. And I think what the secretary is doing there is taking words and misapplying them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: All right. Overnight, in his first interview since announcing that he would not run, Vice President Joe Biden revealed the moments he says framed his decision about whether he should run -- he would run for president. He told "60 Minutes" that his wife Jill wanted him to do it. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I remember about a month ago we're on the porch at home and I said, you know, maybe we should just -- I don't really get there in time. Maybe we should just say we're not going. And Jill said, what about the Supreme Court?
JILL BIDEN, JOE BIDEN'S WIFE: What about education? What about community colleges? I felt like we were -- everything we've worked so hard for in this administration, you know, could all -- could just all change.
JOE BIDEN: Now that's because she's prejudiced. She thinks that I have the best chance of winning a general election. So that's --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's really interesting to hear that. That you were really pushing him to go forward.
JILL BIDEN: Yes. Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you ever run for political office again?
JOE BIDEN: No, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Biden said his late son Beau who died of cancer earlier this year, Beau believed he could run and win. But he said Beau never pushed him to do it. Biden's 11-year-old granddaughter helped him make the final decision when she pleads with him not to leave her.
And, John, he said there was no Hollywood moment.
BERMAN: No. Exactly.
ROMANS: And I think that was a real takeaway. There was a lot of discussion about, you know, maybe it's his death bed wish that his father run for political office. And the vice president said there was no Hollywood moment.
BERMAN: I think he resented all of the talk about whether he would do it one way or the other. That may have been another reason, too. He wanted to take back and do it on his own terms.
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: It's interesting to hear him talk about it last night.
Congress Trey Gowdy speaking out in defense of Benghazi hearings. The South Carolina Republican heads up the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks. He insists the former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, she needs to answer for her actions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TREY GOWDY (R-SC), CHAIRMAN, BENGHAZI COMMITTEE: When she is asked whether she takes responsibility, she says yes. But when you ask responsibility for what, I can't tell you what she is taking responsibility for. And my main fear there is how are we better prepared to avoid the next Benghazi if we don't fully understand who made the errors and where the errors were made last time.
TODD: Secretary Clinton, was she a cooperative witness?
GOWDY: She answered the questions. And I would note I don't think I ever cut her off. She was given ample opportunity so she answered the questions, yes. If that is your definition of cooperative, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So there were suggestions that the five Democrats who sit on the commission might resign their post after Clinton's testimony but the Ranking member Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland said they decided against that because he says, quote, "Somebody has to be in the room to defend the truth."
They didn't really ask Hillary Clinton any serious question, but they were there to defend her.
All right. The White House ruled out new non-binding guidelines for standardized school testing. The president says he believes children are taking too many tests. He says that now. The new guidelines recommended no more than 2 percent of classroom time be spent taking exams and only high quality tests that are worth taking should be administered.
The president said he is concerned testing is crowding out teaching and learning. We're going to get more details from the White House probably around January.
ROMANS: All right. Nine minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money this Monday morning. U.S. stock futures down. But remember stocks have done the impossible once again after fears about China's slowdown and the timing of the Fed rate hike sent the S&P 500 into a correction. The index quietly climbed back. While you were sleeping you've got the S&P 500 again positive for the year.
Strong profits from tech companies, tech giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft helping the rally last week. But those are the exception not the rule this earning season. Third quarter profits still expected overall to shrink. But you know, Microsoft at a 15- year high, Amazon, also known -- and the Alphabet which is Google are at record highs.
[04:10:12] A Chinese investment firm is buying giant oilfields in Texas. The company will shell out $1.3 billion for assets in the western Texas Permian Basin. The deal has already been approved by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment. That's the group that has to decide whether it's in the U.S. interest to sell such important infrastructure to a foreign country. Smaller gas and oil companies are looking for deals abroad to combat tough competition from giant state owned energy firms and tight government regulations.
BERMAN: All right. Tragedy at a homecoming parade. An out of control car plows through the crowd. The suspect is in court this morning. We have new details on this next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: This morning, the woman suspected of crashing her car into a crowded people at the Oklahoma State University homecoming parade is facing four counts of second-degree murder. Dozens more injured. Adacia Chambers is accused of driving under the influence. Her attorney believes mental illness not intoxication is behind the crash. A relative of one victim says the Oklahoma State community is still in shock.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK MCNITT, STEPSON OF LEO SCHMITZ: I apologize. We're still in our clothes from yesterday. It's been -- it's been a crazy 24 hours. But, you know, the OU Medical Center really has helped out and not to say the least, you know, best doctors around. And everybody kept a cool head and I think Leo and the rest of the families and children are in the best hands that can be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: It must be so hard for them.
We're getting a look now at cell phone video of that incident. CNN's Nick Valencia has more on that.
[04:15:05] NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, 25-year-old Adacia Chambers is expected to make her first court appearance on Monday. She's accused of using her car to crash into a very crowded homecoming parade in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on Saturday afternoon.
Over the weekend, CNN obtained cell phone video from one of the spectators in the parade. We have to warn you, it is very graphic. It shows the moment that Chambers plowed to an unmanned police motorcycle and proceeded into a packed crowd. At least four people were killed as a result of that crash. More than 40 were injured. Among the dead, 2-year-old Nash Lucas. Over the weekend his father posted on Facebook, saying, "Miss you so much, buddy."
Chambers has been charged with driving under the influence. It is likely that she will face even more charges -- John, Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Nick, thanks for that.
Breaking overnight, a veteran New Orleans police officer fighting for his life after being shot in the neck. Officials say the officer was off duty, not wearing his uniform, driving in an unmarked car when he was shot Sunday night. The victim, Lieutenant Derrick Frick, a 24- year veteran of the force, reportedly in critical condition this morning. Police searching for a suspect.
BERMAN: New York City Police divers have found a gun investigators believe was used in the fatal shooting last week of Officer Randolph Holder. The gun was retrieved early Sunday morning from the East River. Authorities say it will be tested for DNA, prints and ballistics. The suspect, 30-year-old Tyrone Howard, is charged with murder for allegedly shooting Officer Holder in the head.
ROMANS: Hurricane Patricia heading east after pounding Texas with heavy rains. Look at this. A driver whose car was stuck in the high water, went back into the flooding to try to rescue his vehicle. Never a good idea. You can see other cars in Houston submerged. Areas around Houston saw nine inches of rain. The Fort Worth suburb of Burleson saw more than a foot.
And all of this, I guess, John, you know, moving and swamping Louisiana. And we'll feel it up here in the northeast, no question.
BERMAN: All right. What is in store for today? Let's bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John and Christine. Improving conditions across Texas here. We have about 10 rivers that are reporting flooding. But I think the conditions will improve and the bulk of the moisture is moving farther to the east. And notice the temperature grade, in the upper 70s this morning around New Orleans and Panama City, work your way towards Nashville into the 50s, but 40s beyond that across the Midwest.
So finally some autumn temperatures to the north. But look down to the south, we know remnants of what was Patricia once right now feeding into another storm system that has already produced anywhere from 10 to 20 inches of rainfall across northern and eastern Texas in the past couple of days. All of that moisture get sent in to the north. And when you put it together, our model here did a pretty good job showing you the activity locked in across the southeast where you got some 10 million people underneath flood watches and flood warning this morning.
And the reason pretty evident over here when you take a look at the widespread areas, especially around Jackson, points to the south around Mobile and Pensacola where you could see upwards of six, maybe eight inches of rainfall just over the next 36 hours. Your forecast looks as such, with the 60s coming back around D.C. Cooling to about 58 around New York and Boston the temperature on the cool side as well, around 52 degrees today, guys.
BERMAN: A lot of rain headed to some places, though.
ROMANS: Yes. Thanks, Pedram.
BERMAN: And we have stunning new video this morning of a U.S. mission freeing hostages in Iraq. Wow. We are live after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:22:02] ROMANS: Riveting new video this morning of the raid in northern Iraq that cost a member of the U.S. Army's elite Delta Force his life. That video released by the Kurdistan Regional Government captures the rescue of about 70 hostages from an ISIS controlled prison. The Pentagon says those hostages were facing imminent mass execution. They were going to be killed -- their graves have been dug.
Let's get the latest from CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh who is live from Turkey this morning.
And Nick, you know, this video, watching this video of this event that resulted in the death of the first, you know, American service member in four years in Iraq. Really just telling the story of the dangerous situation.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it actually shows you a glimpse into the secret of what American special forces have been doing in Iraq or particularly were doing in that raid. Now it's rare that you see American commandos in action. This is captured on a Kurdish soldier's helmet camera, right to the very front of the action. It's pretty clear when you see what's going on here that the American commandos are right at the front much of the way, they're often shooting at the enemy, it seems.
And the normal idea of the advice and assist mission you often see with the American Special Forces, they tend to hold back. They're not necessarily right to the front. They're kind of giving advice and instructions from behind. Clearly in this case, which led to the death of Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler, 39-year-old from Oklahoma, a veteran of 14 tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The commanding officer on the ground decided they needed to get more into the fight. Now they may have been assisting on the ground, or it may have been a part of their broader rules of engagement but it has opened a window on to quite how much boots on the ground American commandos were in that case and perhaps have been before but just not publicly acknowledged in the fight in Iraq.
That's a significant change in America's involvement. Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter, saying, look, they're going to be in harm's way and we're going to see more of this. And perhaps that's a reflection of the constant criticism of the White House, they're not really serious about tackling ISIS, that there need to be people on the ground, taking the fight to the leadership. But in this video, you see just how intense that combat is, just how close to the front those Americans were, and how they partner along with their Kurdish special force counterparts. But it's frankly, when you listen to this, the Americans just seemed in control -- Christine.
ROMANS: Yes, they do. What can you tell us about, Nick, about the hostages? Who were those people who the Americans and the Kurds were able to free?
WALSH: Well, that's sort of bit a mystery about this really. I mean, U.S. officials said initially they were aiming at Kurdish captives in there, which explains why the Peshmerga Kurdish Special Forces put themselves in that mix and perhaps why they got partnership for the Americans to do that. It turns out that was wrong. They got there. Found captured Iraqi soldiers, Iraqi civilians, and perhaps two, perhaps some ISIS members who've been considered spies by ISIS who are being held captive.
Now quite how that intelligence failure came about, we don't know. Quite if we're hearing the whole picture we don't know either because we just have American and Kurdish officials' word for what was going on there. But still, a stark bold raid there and one that frankly publicly has changed the perception of what American soldiers are doing in Iraq in the fight against ISIS -- Christine.
[04:25:08] ROMANS: All right. Nick Paton Walsh for us this morning. Thank you.
BERMAN: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says his top priority is to defeat terrorists before holding presidential and parliamentary elections. But the embattled leader claimed he is ready to hold those elections sooner if necessary. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for new elections in Syria over the weekend. The Russian insists Assad is prepared for a broad dialogue with all responsible political forces operating within Syria.
ROMANS: European leaders have agreed to work together to manage tens of thousands of migrants crossing the Balkans. The leaders of 11 nations meeting over the weekend in Brussels, they came up with a 17- point action plan that includes aid from the U.N. to accommodate 100,000 people, half of them in Greece. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling on Europe to be a continent of, quote, "values and solidarity."
BERMAN: All right. A former television comedian with no political experience is going to be the new president of Guatemala. And Jimmy Morales won by a landslide Sunday, defeating former first lady, Sandra Torres. Brought at 72 percent of the vote. A corruption scandal brought down the last administration. The 46-year-old Morales campaigned on a promise of clean government and is promising to hand out smartphones to kids and tag teachers with GPS devices to make sure they show up for class.
ROMANS: All right. Breaking overnight, at least five people killed when their whale watching boat capsizes. Details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Breaking news overnight. At least five people killed when their tour boat capsizes.
BERMAN: Donald Trump now questioning the religion of his chief opponent. That as his numbers dropped in the important state of Iowa. We'll have the very latest.
