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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Violent School Arrest Captured on Video; White House & Congress Near Budget Deal; U.S. warship Sails Into Chinese Claimed Territory; World Series Game 1: Mets Vs. Royals. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 27, 2015 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Americans are already saving big at the gas pump, too, thanks to cheap oil.
[05:00:02] It's really like a stimulus for the typical American household. Gas prices, heating oil prices. Those are like stimulus in their pocket right now.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's a great new deal.
EARLY START continues now!
(MUSIC)
BERMAN: Stunning video this morning. A student arrested after being thrown to the ground by a school resource officer. New details about this video coming up.
ROMANS: Breaking overnight: The White House and Congress nearing a budget deal. It could prevent a government shutdown, but will it divide the Republican Party?
BERMAN: The U.S. defying China. A Navy war ship sails through water claimed by the Chinese. This is an international dispute over manmade islands. We're live.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Tuesday, October 27th. It is 5:00 a.m. exactly in the East.
Let's begin with that disturbing new video taken by a cell phone. Video of violence inside a high school classroom in South Carolina.
Now, this video shows a school resource officer body slamming a female student after she apparently refused to get up from her chair. The resource officer dragging her across the room.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
ROMANS: The officer in the video is identified as Richland County Sheriff's Deputy Ben Fields. He has been placed on administrative leave while authorities investigate. Police are trying to piece together exactly what led to the violent incident.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. CURTIS WILSON, RICHLAND COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT.: The student was asked to leave the class several times by the instructor of the school. The assistant principal was there was well. Then the officer was called on scene to actually have the student removed from that location. The student refused and the officer acted that you see on the video.
Now, again, what we saw was just a tidbit of what that video showed. Of course, we're going to look at what happened that led up to it, that accident that took place and then what happened afterwards. All of that is going to take part in what the sheriff decides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And big discussion among law enforcement in school circles about if there is anything that justifies throwing a student to the ground like that. We are also learning that officer in question, Ben Fields, has been a subject of two lawsuits in the past decade. We'll continue to follow these new developments for you.
BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight. A major budget deal that could bring relative peace to Washington for more than a year. Imagine that. Congressional Republicans and Democrats and the White House hammered out the agreement. We learned about it in the wee hours of the morning in the wee hours of the morning to avert a government shutdown and avoid a default on federal debt.
But the deal already dividing congressional Republicans. Some say that retiring Speaker John Boehner gave too much away and that the next speaker, presumed to be Paul Ryan, it will be Paul Ryan, should have been part of the Republican negotiating team. Many Republicans believe this though is the best deal they can get.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CHARLIE DENT (R), PENNSYLVANIA: I can only speak for myself. But the outline that was presented seems like a path forward.
REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R), TEXAS: We should read the bill before we vote on them. Some of us remember that from 2010. Things like presumptive speaker should be negotiating too, not just the outgoing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Can the conservatives stop the deal when it comes to a vote which is set for tomorrow?
CNN's Manu Raju with the latest from Capitol Hill -- Manu.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Guys, the White House and Republican leaders reached a major fiscal deal to avert a possible debt default by next week. This deal would raise the national debt ceiling until March of 2017, essentially taking this fight off the table in the election year, pretty significant deal. In addition to that, it would raise domestic and defense spending by $80 million to apiece the defense hawks who are very worried of the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration would really hurt the Pentagon and national security program.
In addition, there's increased domestic money to appease Democrats who are worried that those same sequestration cuts wouldn't hurt a lot of those favored domestic program.
Now, this deal is being pushed aggressively by John Boehner because he wants to really -- it is what he said -- clean the barn up before his successor, Paul Ryan, assumes the speakership later this week.
The big question is, how will House Republicans in the rank and file respond to this? Right now, there are mixed reviews outside of the House Republican conference meeting Monday night. The question is, how will they deal with it when there's actually a vote on the House floor as early as Wednesday?
We don't know the answer to that yet. But, guys, right now, the betting is House Republicans will pass this bill and it will pass the House. Likely pass the Senate and the president may have a major fiscal deal on John Boehner's final days in office -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Manu Raju, thank you for that.
[05:05:00] Donald Trump will be in Iowa tonight for a rally, trying to whip up support in Sioux City. He has said he has some work to do in his own words in Iowa. A new poll finds Trump a distant second behind Ben Carson among Iowa Republicans.
In the Monmouth University poll, Carson took the lead at 32 percent. Trump trailing by 14 points, Jeb Bush came in fifth at 8 percent.
New details this morning from inside the Bush campaign's family extravaganza. This is a long planned event. It was for donors, to supporters held in Houston. This is the first time this campaign where Jeb appeared on stage with his brother, the former president.
Also there, Barbara Bush, former president George H.W. Bush. George W. Bush described his brother as a fierce competitor whose ties to the Hispanic community, his wife was born in Mexico, will be crucial. Today, Jeb Bush arrives in Colorado ahead of the Republican debate in Boulder.
BERMAN: In a new interview, Bernie Sanders passed on a chance to take shots at Hillary Clinton. During a speech in Iowa over the weekend, Sanders did portray Clinton as a flip-flopper. But given the opportunity to do the same or worse on "The View," he changed the subject. And last night, he told Rachel Maddow he only wants to drive
distinctions between their records. He says the former secretary of state has been rewriting history specifically about when talking about her then support for the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All that I criticized secretary Clinton on was saying something that wasn't accurate. I mean, you can argue that, you know, somebody made -- hey, look, I don't agree with DOMA politically or I have to do it. You can make that argument. But you can't say that DOMA was passed in order to prevent something worse. That is just not the case. That's the only point that I want to make.
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BERMAN: Clinton and Sanders are both in New York this morning. Sanders will be on the "Today" show. Hillary Clinton will make her first appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
All right. Joining us now to discuss all these developments and this potential big budget deal, political economist and chief strategist of Horizon Investments, Greg Valliere. Greg has his finger on the pulse of all this stuff there in Washington.
Greg, so this deal, does it resolve the discord in the Republican Party and put the debt ceiling debate and shutdown off the table and bring peace to the force? Balance to the force?
GREG VALLIERE, HORIZON INVESTMENT: It is actually a really big deal, Christine. I'm usually kind of cynical. I think this is important for the financial markets. It means we're not going to have a default crisis. It means we're probably not going to have a government shutdown in December. It means we can go until the spring of 2017 before we have to revisit a lot of these issues.
And maybe most importantly, I think it now puts the U.S. in the camp with the rest of the world of being stimulative. We have a very accommodative monetary policy and now, I think fiscal policy is going to become more stimulative.
BERMAN: You know, and it's interesting. And what it does is it allows the presidential candidates to argue their own plans, push their own plans without getting caught up in holding the government hostage for a period of time. We talk about gridlock. But this is a case where people are getting the job done, Greg.
VALLIERE: Yes, it gives everybody kind of a pass. You're absolutely right. The biggest pass of all goes to Paul Ryan.
ROMANS: Right.
VALLIERE: So, he comes in as speaker of the house at the end of the week. As John Boehner says, I'm gong to clean out the barn. So, Boehner is cleaning out the barn. There is no thorny, difficult obstacles for Ryan. He starts with some pretty smooth sailing.
ROMANS: And his finger prints nowhere, anywhere near this deal. So, that allows him with --
BERMAN: Intentionally so.
ROMANS: With a clean slate. That leaves the campaigners to debate on the health right now of the American economy, on tax reform, on all the things that they want to do this morning. Carly Fiorina with an op-ed in "The Wall Street Journal" saying that Hillary Clinton will be terrible for the economy.
How do the Republicans win on an economy issue if you have jobs that are still improving, if you have gas prices that are a stimulant for so many American families, and now you have the debt crisis off the table?
VALLIERE: Yes, I think a lot of it, most of them, will harshly react to this deal. I think the conservative base and left wing base is not going to like it. The left wing doesn't like cuts in entitlements. The right wing says we are going to spend more money as part of this.
I would argue this offsets, but it's not going to raise the deficit. The deficit still look pretty goods for the next year or two. But I would argue that most of the Republicans will denounce this deal in the debate tomorrow night.
BERMAN: Yes. And, of course, Bernie Sanders already has said that he is disinclined, not inclined to support it because of changes made to Social Security and Medicare.
Greg, I want to shift gears to Donald Trump because he said something that raised eyebrows yesterday. He was asked about had there been any obstacles in his life that he had to overcome. He was told -0- you know, he had been told his own life and he managed to scrape by with almost nothing -- well, except a giant loan from his dad. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[05:10:01] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My whole life, really has been a no and I fought through it. I have been -- you know, I talk about it. It's not easy for me. It has not been easy for me. And, you know, I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of $1 million.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: You know, it's interesting. Mitt Romney, you know, was criticized like crazy for making a $10,000 bet on a debate stage. Donald Trump just there said $1 million is a small loan. Other candidates, that might hurt, but with Trump, you know, his wealth is such a big part of his persona. Who knows?
VALLIERE: He's in a slump. No question about it. The Iowa polls are really interesting. A third one, as you guys know, in the last day showing him now trailing badly. If he starts to fade, if Carson hits a peak, I guarantee you, we'll be talking in the next month or two about who emerges among the establishment candidates.
I think Jeb still has a chance. I think Marco Rubio has a really good chance.
ROMANS: What about you? You talk to the Wall Street money and people on Wall Street who put their money where their mouth is. What are they saying about Jeb just polling 8 percent in Iowa?
VALLIERE: A lot of disappointment over Jeb. I have been joking he has to get off the decaf and go on espresso. Maybe tomorrow night, he will show some fire in the belly.
But I tell you -- more and more people on Wall Street who are disappointed with Jeb are looking at Rubio. I think Rubio is now the guy to watch.
BERMAN: The betting markets all pointing to Rubio, as you said. I've heard people says that Jeb Bush needs a transcendence performance at the debate stage tomorrow night, but it could be Ben Carson in the spotlight there on CNBC talking about the economy.
Greg Valliere, thanks for being with us. I really appreciate it.
ROMANS: Nice to see you. Horizons Investments.
VALLIERE: Yes.
ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money. More money this morning. Asian and Europeans shares mostly lower, signs of weakness in China, falling oil prices, U.S. stock futures down too. The Federal Reserve kicks off its two-day meeting today. It's widely expected the Fed will keep interest rates near zero, leaving December the last chance to hike rates this year. It has been years since the Fed has raised interest rates.
Walmart wants in on the drone delivery race. The retail giant asking regulators to test drones. You know, Amazon does this. Walmart says it has been testing them indoors for several machines. The initial focus will be shipping merchandise between distribution centers, before potentially tackling home delivery. So, getting a package via drone will not happen anytime soon, but big players are trying to make it happen.
BERMAN: These are unarmed drones, which is a joke I have not made for at least an hour. So, I can see it again, unarmed drones by Amazon and Walmart.
ROMANS: That's true.
All right. U.S. warship sailing into international waters. Waters claimed by China. The U.S. says they are international waters. We are live next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:16:13] BERMAN: Breaking overnight: A U.S. warship passed within 12 miles from an artificial island built by China in the South China sea. The move was essentially a challenge to Chinese territorial claims. Chinese not at all happy about it.
Let's get the very latest on this. I want to bring in CNN's Will Ripley live at the U.S. naval base in Japan.
You know, Will, this is provocative by the United States deliberately so.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And China just within the last few hours, putting out some very strong words. Their ministry of foreign affairs saying that if the United States continues these so-called "freedom of navigation patrols" near this disputed territory, they may perhaps accelerate the development of infrastructure in the area, military infrastructure, including an airstrip, docking ports and capability for the Chinese military in the South China Sea, which, of course, is a very important trade route with trillions of dollars passing through every year. It's the lifeline to the United States to the number one ally, Japan.
The key difference here, though, China says the United States is acting illegally, but the U.S. says they are following the rules of international law.
Listen to John Kirby from the State Department.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPARTMENT: This is a military matter. More broadly, you don't need to consult with any nation when you are exercising the right of freedom of navigation in international waters. The whole point of freedom of navigation in international waters is that it's international waters and you don't need to consult with anybody to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIPLEY: The naval base was the launching point for the U.S. destroyer on the mission in the South China Sea, and the U.S. saying we can expect to see more of these patrols which could lead to escalating tensions here if the two governments can't work out some sort of a compromise -- John.
BERMAN: All right. Will Ripley for us in Japan -- thanks so much, Will.
RIPLEY: So, are you ready for some baseball finally! After several days off, an inexplicable break designed to suck all of the excitement out. The World Series, it will finally begin. The New York Mets against the Kansas City Royals on tap for tonight.
Andy Scholes with a preview in the bleacher report, next.
ROMANS: Artificial intelligence, the term can conjure up dark visions of the terminator and even entrepreneur Elon Musk has warned of the dangers. Rachel Crane looks at America's most powerful super computer and whether it's something to fear.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA AND SPACEX: A.I. is more advanced than people realized. And the pace of progress is much greater than people realize. You know, it would be fairly obvious if you saw a robot walking around, talking and behaving like a person. That would be really obvious. What's not obvious is a huge server bank in a dark vault somewhere with an intelligence that's potentially vastly greater than what a human mind can do.
RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Computers invented out of necessity. They do things faster than we can. In America, nothing is stronger or faster than a super computer named Titan.
(on camera): Why do we need a super computer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The super computers that we have today are really addressing some of the most important problems that we have in the world. We just can't be done on smaller computers. In fact, we need more powerful computers to address all of the science we want to be able to accomplish.
CRANE: What is the difference between super computers and artificial intelligence?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Super computer is really more about the hardware that we use to calculate the numbers that we need and processing the data. Artificial intelligence is going to be more about, what's the algorithms and the software that we need to process the data.
With Titan, the advantage that we have is we actually can run multiple designs and parallel to try to find the right design that works best.
[05:20:04] CRANE: Is this the computer we should be scared of?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love science fiction movies and I have seen the ones, you know, with computers taking over the world. We are a long, long way from anything like that happening.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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BERMAN: Game one of the World Series tonight at long last from Kansas City. Mets versus Royals. Two will enter. One will leave.
ROMANS: Andy Scholes has more of this morning in the bleacher report.
Hey, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys.
Yes, the big question heading into tonight's game is, what inning will Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy hit a home run? Murphy has homered in a record six straight post-season games. He has seven home runs in the playoffs. Only Barry Bonds has his more in the post season.
Murphy is a guy who has never hit more than 14 home runs in an entire season. He said you cannot explain where the power has come from. He is excited to be playing in his first World Series.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL MURPHY, METS 2ND BASEMAN: You always when you are growing up, you know, in October, you see the World Series. You always kind of imagine yourself being there. To be able to make it, it's definitely very exciting.
TERRY COLLINS, METS MANAGER: From veteran guys to the rookies. They walk around and say this is a cool place. I've never been here. We're in the World Series. You know, it strikes home. It's what it's all about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Game one between the Mets and Royals tonight, 8:00 Eastern. Royals have not won since 1985, and the Mets since '86. One of these fan base is going to be very happy when these things all said and done.
Baltimore Ravens are trying to save their season last night. They took on the Cardinals. Arizona up 17-10. Everyone thought he was down, but he never touches the ground.
[05:25:02] He's going to get up and run it for more than 60 yards before he is finally brought down.
Now, the Ravens tried to rally in the fourth quarter of this one. They were down eight in the closing seconds. They had a chance to tie it, but Joe Flacco's pass is intercepted. Cardinals win, 26-18. The Ravens are now 1-6 on the season.
Kevin Durant and Thunder get ready for the NBA season. Yesterday, they took time out of the schedule to visit the victims from Saturday's Oklahoma state homecoming parade tragedy. Durant and his teammates spent time to post pictures with the staff and patients at the UO medical center. The Thunder are going to open their season tomorrow night against the Spurs.
Don't forget the NBA season tips off tonight on TNT with the double header. LeBron James and Cavs are going to travel to Chicago to take on the Bulls. Steph Curry and the Warriors will get their championship rings before they host the Pelicans.
Guys, I figure, you know, with the NBA season starting today, World Series starting today, we should throw our predictions out there. I've got Mets in five. Houston Rockets winning an NBA championship this year.
BERMAN: I say Royals in six because Daniel Murphy turns back into Daniel Murphy. And the Royals can hit the fast ball.
I don't know about the NBA. Cavs.
ROMANS: I say the Fed will raise interest rates in early 2017. And there's a budget deal that prevents any kind of a shutdown.
BERMAN: Andy Scholes. Great to have you with us, Andy. Thanks so much.
SCHOLES: All right. Have a good one.
ROMANS: All right. Twenty-six minutes past the hour. Stunning video of the student's arrest. A teenager thrown to the ground by a school resource officer. The story behind this video, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Stunning video of a school resource officer body slamming a female student, throwing her across the room.
