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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Donald Trump on the Attack Against Ben Carson; Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Trading Fire; Oklahoma State Homecoming Parade Crash; New Video of Raid on ISIS Prison in Iraq; This Week on Sports; Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 26, 2015 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:02] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: DraftKings and FanDuel were forced to close their games to Nevada residents. The state's gaming control board ruled that the daily fantasy sports are sports gambling and require a casino license.
Illinois, Pennsylvania, and some other states are reviewing fantasy sports as well. These games have been called the wild, wild west due to the lack of regulation.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: EARLY START continues right now.
BERMAN: Breaking news this morning. At least five people killed when a tour boat, a whale watching tour boat, capsizes.
BERMAN: Donald Trump now no longer winning in at least one state. He lashes out at the new Iowa frontrunner questioning his religious faith.
ROMANS: Joe Biden revealing exactly what stopped him from entering the race for president. Emotional and candid Joe Biden. And emotional and candid, this one especially so.
Good morning and welcome to EARLY START, I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: Nice to see you today. I'm John Berman. It is Monday, October 26th, 5:00 a.m. in the East. And we have breaking news.
Five people are dead after a whale watching boat capsized off of Canada's west coast. This happened near the town of Tofino. 27 people were on board. Officials say 21 people were rescued. One person remains missing.
Look at that picture right there. Search and rescue efforts at this point are finished. The case has been handed over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Now being looked at as a missing person's case now. No word yet on a possible cause for this disaster.
ROMANS: All right. This morning, Donald Trump is on the attack. He is now running second to Ben Carson in Iowa polls. Over the weekend, he raised Carson's faith as an issue, criticizing his stances on immigration, on trade, and he bashed what he calls Carson's super low energy level. Ben Carson spent the weekend ducking those punches.
CNN's Ryan Nobles has the latest for us 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.
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)
NOBLES: Now Carson had 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)
NOBLES: 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.
BERMAN: All right. Ryan, thanks so much.
New developments on the Democratic side of the race. For the first time, really, Bernie Sanders taking some pretty direct swipes at Hillary Clinton. It happened at the Democratic Jefferson Jackson dinner in Iowa. Big night in Iowa. Senator Sanders highlighted differences with Clinton over the Defense of Marriage Act, the Pacific free trade, and the Keystone Pipeline, also the Iraq war. Then Clinton and Sanders traded fire over what 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 (D), 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: Overnight, in his first interview since announcing he would not run, Vice President Joe Biden revealed the moment he says framed his decision about whether he would run for president. He told "60 Minutes" that his wife Jill actually, she 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.
[05:05:11] 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, he believed he could run and win but he said Beau never pushed him to do it.
John, he said there was no Hollywood moment where there was this, you know, moment where he said, dad, you got to run. Biden did say -- and this is just so sad that his 11-year-old granddaughter helped him make his final decision when she pleaded with him not to leave her.
BERMAN: All right. I want to talk about the politics. The Republican race, the Democratic race, all of it. CNN Politics reporter Jeremy Diamond joins us now live from Atkinson,
New Hampshire, where Donald Trump will be holding some pretty big events this morning. He's going to be doing an event at 7:00 a.m. Then he's on the "Today's" show.
A lot going on for Donald Trump this morning, Jeremy. Thanks so much for joining us.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, absolutely. Good morning, guys.
BERMAN: Surprising to me over the weekend and I don't think at this point we should be surprised by anything Donald Trump said, but Trump went out of his way to question not the faith but the actual religion of Dr. Ben Carson. Trump said, hey, I'm a Presbyterian, middle of the road, but Seventh Day Adventist, don't know about that, don't know about that. What's going on there, Jeremy?
DIAMOND: Yes, I mean, listen, it's clear that this weekend, Donald Trump decided that he's really going to start going after Ben Carson. This comes after two Iowa polls show Carson pulling ahead of Trump by I think eight points now. So he is definitely made a serious decision to go after Carson.
And this weekend, you know, that was definitely a little bit of a dog whistle to evangelicals who are a key voting bloc in Iowa. But let's remember, Carson in September, questioned Donald Trump's faith. And he did so in a pretty much more direct way, even though he says that that's not what he is doing. But he did say, you know, that he realizes where his success comes from. And Carson also said that, you know, humility -- talk about humility and fear of being called into faith and suggesting that Donald Trump doesn't really have that.
So it's not the first time the two have exchanged words on the topic. But Carson is pledging not to counter-punch against Donald Trump.
ROMANS: Jeremy, I want to show one of those polls because this is the "Des Moines Register"-Bloomberg Politics poll that does show that you've got Ben Carson in Iowa ahead pretty significantly by 10 points. And you know, Donald Trump said he was surprised by this. He is getting a great love and great crowds in Iowa. He is surprised by these polls, but he accepts them.
DIAMOND: Yes. Well, it's interesting because that's what he told our Jake Tapper in the interview that aired yesterday on "STATE OF THE UNION." But when I was at the rallies in Miami and in Jacksonville this weekend, Trump wasn't saying that he, you know, accepted the poll numbers. He was saying that he didn't believe them. He was saying that the two polling groups are out for him, you know, in a way that they don't like him and that that's the reason why the poll numbers are the way they are.
Of course these are two very well-respected and independent polling groups. So it's unclear which way Donald Trump feels but it's clear that when he's in front of a crowd, he's going to go after the media as much as he can and he's going to criticize the polls and ultimately try and win back that support.
BERMAN: You know, it's interesting. Iowa right now at least, with this big evangelical voting base, seems like an anomaly. Donald Trump's lead in other states including early states seemed to be big and perhaps growing.
Jeremy, I want to shift to the Democratic side of the race because I think we saw a shift this weekend with Bernie Sanders drawing much more direct contrast. Sharper contrast with Hillary Clinton. We saw it on stage at the Jefferson Jackson dinner. We also saw it when Sanders was talking about the Defense of Marriage Act. Hillary Clinton raised some eyebrows when she said, well, you know, when Bill Clinton signed that, it wasn't anti-gay, it was actually a defensive move to prevent people who are anti-gay from doing something worse. Follow the logic there but this is what Bernie said over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: Today, some are trying to rewrite history by saying they voted for one anti-gay law to stop something worse. That's not the case. There was a small minority in the House opposed to discriminating against our gay brothers and sisters and I am proud that I was one of those members.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Do you think we will see more of these contrasts from Senator Sanders over the coming days and weeks? And do you think there is any risk in this for him? Because he's always said he's going to stay above the fray and not really criticize Hillary Clinton.
DIAMOND: Absolutely on both counts, I think. Especially the first one. I mean, listen, we're going to see much more contrast. But this is a presidential campaign. You cannot have a presidential campaign without comparing and contrasting records, without going after the other candidate, and showing the public and the voters why you're the better candidate.
[05:10:05] For Bernie Sanders, of course, you know, he has -- you know, his biggest line from the first Democratic debate was that we don't care about, you know, your damn e-mails anymore and that, you know, this should not be an issue. He wants to focus on the issues like Wall Street and the income inequality in this country. So if he starts going after Clinton, certainly we saw that backfire in a way when Clinton suggested that he was being sexist. But we'll see how that plays out.
ROMANS: Do you think, Jeremy, you know, and John and I have talked about this several times. I mean, do you think that the Sanders factor is going to affect maybe whoever the eventual candidate is, you know, for the Democratic?
BERMAN: Pull Hillary to the left.
ROMANS: Will he pull Hillary to the left? DIAMOND: Yes. I mean, it's -- we've certainly seen that already on
certain issues. You know, when you look at TPP and Clinton's stance on that. It's very clear that Sanders played a huge role in pulling her to oppose that deal.
ROMANS: Right.
DIAMOND: He's been a staunch opponent of that of course for a long time now. Clinton had called the TPP the gold standard or said at least that it would be the gold standard. So we're certainly seeing that leftward swing from Clinton already. And that's part of the thing that Sanders was going after this weekend.
ROMANS: Right.
DIAMOND: Saying that he wouldn't be swayed by poll numbers, suggesting Clinton is politically motivated in all of her positions.
ROMANS: Let's talk about Joe Biden because we heard from him this weekend, a very frank, a raw Joe Biden, I would say, on CBS talking about why he didn't ultimately decide to run for president. You know, his wife was pushing him until the very end. She said there is a lot on his agenda that they could still achieve. But in the end he told the story about his granddaughter that was just heartbreaking, that sort of I think pulls back the curtain on what was going on in his family. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: At one point, late summer, I thought, well, you know, I think we can do this. I don't forget, my little granddaughter were down by the swimming pool. Mom says time for dinner, everybody, and everybody goes up, and she's lying between my legs and head on my chest. Turns around and puts her arms around me and starts sobbing, says, Pop, I see daddy all the time. I see daddy all the time. Pop, you smell like daddy. You're not going to leave me, are you, Pop? Well, when that happens, you go, I don't know, man. How? You know, how can --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: That just broke my heart. And it tells you so much about what's been going on in that family. And it's -- again, it's a raw and very out there Joe Biden, isn't it?
DIAMOND: Yes. It's truly heart-wrenching to watch him talk about that. Similarly to the way that, you know, when he went on the "Late Show" and talked also about the grieving process over his son. But, you know, he was also very frank that grief, you know, ultimately, you know, prevented him from making a decision soon enough, but ultimately the reason why he didn't get in he said was because he could not win.
He realized that Clinton had consolidated so much support already and she really has in the early states and beyond and to get in, he just knew that he wouldn't have a fighting chance. And he didn't want to do that to his supporters and probably not to himself as well. ROMANS: Also interesting, Jeremy, he said there was no, you know,
Hollywood moment where his late son Beau was telling him to run. It wasn't quite the definite depiction that you saw in the media.
Jeremy Diamond, out there this morning, early following the Trump campaign. Thanks so much. Nice to see you today.
BERMAN: New Hampshire never sleeps.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: New Hampshire --
BERMAN: New Hampshire never sleeps.
ROMANS: Never sleeps.
BERMAN: Thanks.
ROMANS: CNN Politics never sleeps. Neither does money. Time for an EARLY START on your money. U.S. stock futures down slightly. Stocks have frankly done the impossible, though, folks. The S&P 500 back in the black for the year. Quietly overcoming the fears about China slowdown and a Fed rate hike that sent the S&P 500 into that correction.
The recent credit goes to strong profits from Amazon, Google, Microsoft. But those are the exceptions this earning season. Third quarter profit and sales are expected to shrink for the first time since the recession.
A Chinese investment firm buying giant oil fields 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 body that makes sure that it's in the U.S. interest to sell important infrastructure to foreign governments and foreign companies. Smaller Chinese oil and gas companies are looking for deals abroad to combat tough competition from giant state owned energy firms and tight government regulation.
BERMAN: All right. Tragedy at a homecoming parade. An out of control car plows through the crowd. That suspect in court this morning. We have new details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:17:43] ROMANS: This morning, the woman suspected of crashing her car into a crowd of people at the Oklahoma State University Homecoming Parade is facing four counts of second-degree murder. Dozens more people were injured.
Adacia Chambers, she's accused of driving under the influence. Her attorney, though, believes mental illness, not intoxication is behind the crash. A relative of one victim says the Oklahoma State community still in shock.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK MCNITT, STEPSON OF LEO SCHMITZ: Yes, 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)
ROMANS: The youngest victim is 2 years old.
We're now getting a look at cell phone video of the tragic incident. Our Nick Valencia has more on that.
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.
BERMAN: All right, Nick. That's just an awful story.
All right. Big NFC East match-up. The Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. Could the Cowboys stop their skid?
Andy Scholes has the details and I really hope he talks about the other really important football game that happened yesterday and ended very, very well.
The "Bleacher Report" coming up next.
[05:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Things not going so well for the Dallas Cowboys. Lost four in a row and now Greg Hardy making headlines again and not for good reasons.
ROMANS: Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report." Hey, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Hey, good morning, guys. Greg Hardy was suspended for the first four games of this season for domestic violence so you think he'd be on his best behavior but apparently that's not the case.
Cowboys and Giants, we're tied at 20 end of fourth quarter when Dwayne Harris, the former Cowboy, is going to return this kickoff 100 yards to give the Giants a 27-20 lead. Then after the touchdown, watch this video. Hardy slaps the clipboard out of the hands of one of the special teams' coaches. Then he's going to get in his face. Teammates would have to pull him away. Then Dez Bryant would confronts Hardy. They would exchange words. After the game, Hardy said no comment. Next question. Every time he was asked about it.
All right. Panthers looking to remain undefeated as they hosted the Eagles on Sunday Night Football. Pick it up in the third quarter, Cam Newton runs a little play action. He'll hit his pull back Mike Tolbert and the Big Ben. Going to break some tackles then takes about four Eagles into the end zone with him. Panthers roll, 27-16. They're now 6-0 for the first time in franchise history.
All right. Some very sad news to report. Minnesota Timberwolves coach and president Flip Saunders passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer. Saunders announced in August that he was battling Hodgkin's lymphoma. Doctors at the time considered it very treatable and curable. Saunders however suffered a setback in September.
[05:25:07] Kevin Garnett posted this pic of himself sitting in Saunders' parking spot with the caption, "Forever in my heart." Saunders coached in the NBA for 17 seasons. He was 60 years old.
All right. More tragic news to report in the world of high school football. 17-year-old Andre Smith died Friday morning as a result of a hit on the field during his team's game Thursday night. Smith played for the Bogan High School in Chicago. And the hit happened on the very last play of the game. Smith walked to the side lines before collapsing. He was unconscious but breathing while being rushed to the hospital. An autopsy confirmed that Smith died from a blunt force head injuries.
And guys, this is the seventh high school football-related death that we've seen this year.
ROMANS: You just never like to see a kid playing a game, just playing a game, and having fun.
BERMAN: No.
ROMANS: All right, thanks for that, Andy Scholes.
SCHOLES: All right.
BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight. At least five people killed when their whale watching boat capsized. We'll have the details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Breaking news overnight. At least five people killed when a whale watching boat capsized. We have new details.
ROMANS: Donald Trump support slipping in one key state. He's launching new attacks at the man now beating him in the polls there.
BERMAN: And then overnight Joe Biden opens up about his decision not to run for president. You're going to hear things you have not heard before about what drove that decision.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour this Monday morning. Let's begin with the breaking news this morning. Five people are dead after a whale watching tour boat capsized off Canada's west coast near the town of Tofino.
