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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

GOP Debate: Carson & Trump Ahead of the Pack; Violent Student Arrest: Will the Officer Be Fired?; World Series Drama; China Summons U.S. Ambassador. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 28, 2015 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:57] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just hours from now, the Republicans will take the debate stage in a forum in a way they have never done so before with Ben Carson on top of the national poll. What does it mean?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: New information revealed on an arrest caught on camera. Will that police officer be fired?

BERMAN: So, kind of the strangest game in World Series history. We're talking inside the park home runs, 9th inning dramatics, and an electronic blackout that practically ruined the whole game for millions of viewers. Wow.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: It was like five hours of newsworthy.

I'm Christine Romans. Thirty-one minutes past the hour this morning. We'll get to that moment. But let's start with politics.

In just hours, Republican candidates take the stage for a crucial debate, the first one with Ben Carson on top in a national poll. Look at this, the neurosurgeon jumped ahead of Donald Trump in a new CBS/"New York Times" poll. He now leads by 4 points. But that was enough to put Donald Trump in uncharted territory campaigning in Iowa. Donald Trump on the defensive.

CNN's Sara Murray was there. She has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

Donald Trump showed up here in Sioux City, Iowa, yesterday, with some more bad news from the latest polls. A new CBS/"New York Times" poll shows Donald Trump is trailing Dr. Ben Carson by 4 percent nationwide. It comes after a string of polls show Trump is also behind here in Iowa. Now, Trump took the stage here on the Hawkeye States, pressing his supporters to work even harder and said he's not giving up on victory here. DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: From the time I announced,

I've been at the top of the polls, almost at the top -- you know, we're doing well. Iowa, will you get your numbers up, please?

(APPLAUSE)

Would you get these numbers up? I promise you, I will do such a good job.

MURRAY: Trump also took a couple swipes at Carson last night, basically saying he couldn't believe his competition. All this, of course, is going to come to a head on the debate stage in Boulder tonight. This is the debate where Trump's campaign really feels like the candidate is in his wheel house. It's focused on economic and policy issues and Trump can put a spotlight on his business record, something he believes will shine when he's up head to head against Ben Carson.

Back to you, John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right, Sara. Thanks so much.

So, one interesting dynamic to watch tonight, Ohio Governor John Kasich down around 34 percent in the polls. He is fed up and apparently not afraid to talk about it all of a sudden. He says he's flat out tired at some of the ideas his Republican candidates are pushing. He calls them crazy, ridiculous, hysterical.

You got to listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've about had it with these people. We got one person saying we ought to have a 10 percent flat tax that will drive up the deficit in this country by trillions of dollars that my daughters will spend the rest of their lives having to pay off. You know what I say to them is why don't we have no taxes? Just get rid of them all, and a chicken in every pot on top of it.

We've got one guy says we ought to take 10 million or 11 million people and pick 'em up. I don't know where we're going into their homes, their apartments? We're going to pick them up, and we're going to take them to the border and scream at them to get out of our country?

What has happened to our party? What has happened to the conservative movement?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You know, the funny thing was, when he said no taxes at all. You can hear people say, yes, that's a great idea. No taxes at all.

ROMANS: His point was that that's all ridiculous.

BERMAN: Yes.

ROMANS: New this morning, one of Florida's largest newspapers calling on Senator Marco Rubio to step down. While he runs for president, Rubio has accumulated the worst attendance record in the Senate. Rubio tells "The Washington Post" he is frustrated by the slow moving Senate. A long-time friend told "The Post", he, quote, "hates" it there.

An editorial in this morning's south Florida "Sun Sentinel" says, "If you hate your job, senator, follow the honorable lead of House Speaker John Boehner and resign it. Let us select someone who wants to be there and earn an honest dollar for an honest day's work."

[04:35:04] Rubio told CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" on Sunday that he is running for president, so the votes they take in the Senate are actually meaningful again. This paper you pointed out endorsed him.

BERMAN: Yes, 2010.

Breaking overnight: Hillary Clinton said that as president, he would let big banks fail if they got into trouble. Overnight, Clinton told Stephen Colbert that she would not rescue the failing banks the way that George Bush did at the end of his administration. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": If you are president --

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes.

COLBERT: -- and the banks are failing. Do we let them fail this time?

CLINTON: Yes. Yes.

COLBERT: We let them fail this time?

CLINTON: Yes. Yes.

COLBERT: Wow.

CLINTON: First of all, under Dodd-Frank, that is what will happen, because we now have stress tests. I'm going to impose a risk fee on the big bank if they engage in what risky behavior. They have to know, their shareholders have to know that, yes, they will fail. And if they're do big to fail, ten under my plan and others that have been proposed, they may have to be broken up because if you can't manage it, then it's more likely to fail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Nothing makes a late comedy show like a healthy bank regulation. That's what I would like to say. Clinton surged to a huge 41-point lead over Bernie Sanders in Iowa. This is a new Monmouth University poll. This follows her performance before the House Benghazi Committee. Vice President Biden's decision not to enter the race, look at that, 65 percent, choice of nearly two- thirds of Iowa caucus goers like the likely Democratic caucus goers.

ROMANS: There is major action on Capitol Hill today. House Republicans leaders are scrambling to lock down enough votes to pass the bipartisan budget agreement reached between outgoing Speaker John Boehner, congressional Democrats and the White House. Now, House leaders believe there are enough votes to pass the bill, as soon as today, despite furious opposition from some Republicans, some Republicans who feel Boehner gave away too much to Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's an actual bipartisan compromised, which hasn't been happening in Washington a lot lately.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The agreement isn't perfect by any means. But the alternative was a clean debt ceiling increase, without any additional support for our troops and without any entitlement reforms. So, this is a good deal.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's hard for me not to use profanity in describing it. It's a bill that shows careless disregard for debt. It will raise the debt with no limit. It basically is a blank check to the president and to Congress to raise as much money and spend as much money you want through March, 2017.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Also today, House Republicans expected to nominate Paul Ryan as the next speaker. Ryan was not directly involved in negotiations over the budget deal. He says the secretive backroom process to reach the agreement, quote, "stinks". But it does give him a clean slate to start with.

BERMAN: Exactly. I think he will put up with the stench.

A group of House Republicans making a last-ditch effort to impeach the head of the IRS. Republicans in the House Oversight Committee introduced a resolution calling for the ouster of John Koskinen. They say he misled the committee and destroyed emails as the panel probed IRS targeting of conservative groups back in 2012. Koskinen promised a Senate committee Tuesday that the agency would do better after preserving like e-mails.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning. European and Asian stocks lower. U.S. stocks futures a bit more upbeat, not very much, though. We got a Federal Reserve meeting today. No interest rate hike is expected. We will get a read on the economy and possible clues about the likelihood of a possible rate hike. John, you know, some of the -- some of the information of late pointed

to a slow down, especially in the industrial sector in August and September. We will closely watch to see if the Feds have something about that.

Apple has done it again, profits jumped 31 percent last quarter, sales boomed. Apple sold 48 million iPhone, the money grew 36 percent. Customers bought a record number of Macs, 5.7 million, services like Apple Music and its other category, that includes TV and watches, iPads, though, continue to be the weak spot there.

Apple sales in China doubled even as the economy struggles. Here is a stunning fact. The number just blows my mind. At the end of the quarter, Apple had $206 billion cash in the bank. Think about. That that's enough to give every American $600 each or it's bicker than market caps like five or six of your favorite brands put together. It's just unbelievable.

BERMAN: It's crazy.

ROMANS: I got about 16 bucks in my pocket right now.

BERMAN: The World Series, I think it's still going on right now, game one. Just a bonkers game last night. The Royals won a marathon over the Mets 5-4 in 14 innings. The game was five hours and 19 minutes long. That's the longest game one in World Series history. I can't even talk it was so long.

[04:40:02] The Royals Alex Gordon, he put the game into extra innings with that. A clutch game tying home run to the bottom of the night, off of Mets closer Jeurys Famili, who had not allowed to run the entire post-season. It was his first blown save since July.

Now, high drama in this game not necessarily on the field. It had to do with generators. FOX News knocked off the air in the 4th inning. The network says electronics failure involving primary and backup generator led to the power outage. The game was delayed by about six minutes, because neither team had retaking ability. But once they got underway, it was still another 20 minutes before the Fox broadcast actually came back.

People missed parts of this game. The World Series, parts of it not televised.

It was another interesting twist. A sad twist, involving Royals starting pitcher Edinson Volquez. His father died earlier in the day in the Dominican Republic.

Now, there are conflicting reports whether Volquez actually knew before he left the mound. The Royals now say he has left to be with his family. It is not clear when he will rejoin the team. Obviously, our thoughts are with him.

Game two of that series is tonight in Kansas City.

ROMANS: All right. A federal investigation launched into that violent student arrest caught on camera. You've seen this video. Will that officer be fired? His boss speaks to CNN next.

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BERMAN: In just a few hours in South Carolina, the Richland County sheriff will decide whether Officer Ben Fields will keep his job.

[04:45:00] Fields is the school resource officer caught on video throwing a high school student to the ground.

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, the FBI and U.S. attorney in South Carolina, they have agreed to look into the events surrounding that arrest. We are also now hearing from other students who are in that classroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIYA KENNY, STUDENT: We've heard about his reputation. We heard he is a really, I don't want to say -- yes, I don't want to say dangerous man to get involved with, you know, on that level. So when he came into the classroom, I immediately told my classmates, get your phones out, get your phones out, I think this is going to go downhill and they did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: CNN Miguel Marquez is in South Carolina has more for us -- Miguel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, an emotional day here in Columbia, South Carolina, with people and parents of students coming to grips with this video. It's really shocking a lot of people in this area.

A board meeting was held last night and most of the parents who attended that board didn't express a lot of anger. But some did. They were as particularly angry about that relationship across the country between police officer and the African community.

They also talk about the church shooting here in South Carolina earlier in the year. That's so very fresh in people's minds. They see this video in that context now and it is really created a lot of anger, a lot of fear, that if board and the sheriff doesn't deal with this in a direct way, there are going to be consequences.

So far, we have seen none of that sort of angry protest in this episode. The sheriff here has very quick to respond, calling for an independent investigation, which the FBI is now going to do, and even say that in 24 hours, he will have a decision on Deputy Fields' fate.

LEON LOTT, RICHLAND COUNTY SHERIFF: This is something not only people at Richland County but the world wants to know what's going to happen to him. Is he going to be deployed or is he going to be terminated? I think I want everybody to make a very quick decision but also be fair and do a thorough investigation. That's what we have done. DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Can you tell us which way you are leaning?

LOTT: No. Really, I don't think that's proper for me to describe which way I'm leaning at this point. I think the video is very explicit, that's probably pretty much speaks for itself.

MARQUEZ: One other thing the sheriff said during that press conference. It came as a bit of a surprised, there has been allegations that this was racially motivated. The sheriff said, look, we've never seen that sort of behavior out of this officer. I've never seen this out of this deputy, and I just want to tell you all, he's had a long-term relationship with an African-American woman. So, if it would cut either way, said this sheriff, I don't think it would cut in the favor of a young woman that this deputy is accused of assaulting -- John, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Miguel, thank you for that.

Breaking overnight, sharp words from China. China summoning the U.S. ambassador, furious over a navy warship that sailed into international waters claimed by the Chinese. We are live with this diplomatic ruffled feather next.

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[04:51:55] BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, serious diplomatic tension as China calls out the U.S. ambassador to that country. A U.S. naval ship passed within miles of an artificial island built and claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea.

China's ambassador to the U.S. tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the U.S. challenge to its territorial claim are quote, "a very serious provocation politically and militarily."

CNN's Steven Jiang has the very latest for us from Beijing.

You know, the U.S. defense secretary yesterday, Steven, barely wanted to admit the U.S. passed within 12 miles of the island. But it was a clear message to U.S. allies, Japan and the Philippines in that region.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN PRODUCER: That's right, John.

The U.S. basically is telling China it does not recognize its claim of these territories of manmade islands. But as you mentioned, the U.S. ambassador to China, Max Baucus, was summoned here and got a severe dressing down.

Now, the message he received was very consistent with what Chinese officials have been saying that U.S. action violated Chinese sovereignty and harm its national security. Beijing wants Washington to correct its mistakes or face consequences.

Now, interestingly, John, before this mission, Chinese officials have been telling me privately how frustrated and perplexed they felt about the U.S. insistence in going ahead with this plan, especially so soon after what they perceived to be a very successful visit to the U.S. by the Chinese president. They say, of course, both sides see eye to eye with this issue, but dialogue and consultation are the way to go. It's resolved differences, not confrontation.

In a way, China sees itself as a victim here. That probably explains why their response is so quick and angry.

BERMAN: A victim as they build artificial islands and try to arm them like it's a military base. That's interesting.

What's the next step here for China, Steven?

JIANG: Well, they have dropped some hints, John. A foreign ministry said on Tuesday, this action by the U.S. may force the Chinese to conclude it will need to strengthen or hasten its build up of certain capabilities. That is certainly a reference to military capabilities.

Now, what does that mean? More island building? More artillery positions, or more aircrafts in the air? We don't know yet. But this certainly raised the prospect of rising tensions in the region, as well as possible miscalculation on either side.

So, that's really something nobody wants to see the conflict between the world's reigning and emerging superpowers -- John.

BERMAN: Steven Jiang for us in Beijing, thank you so much, Steven.

ROMANS: All right. Apple profits booming. But it's not all good news in tech land. I'll tell you which stock is tanking, next.

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[04:58:37] ROMANS: All right. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an early start on your money this morning.

U.S. stock futures are up a bit right now. But the big news today will come from the Federal Reserve. No interest rate hike is expected.

Look for any clues about the Fed's read of the U.S. economy this fall, any clues about whether there could be a December increase in interest rates only about 30 percent of market participants think the Feds will raise rates this year, even though Janet Yellen said all year now, it will be appropriate to raise rates. So, a lot of consternation about the timing there.

Some big merger news driving stocks this morning. Walgreens wants to buy Rite Aid for $17.2 billion and three Chinese firms are reportedly vying for a chance to buy Starwood Hotels, which operates the W and Sheraton brands.

Apple still booming with start-up like growth. Look at this. Profits jumped 31 percent last quarter. Sales soared. Apple sold 48 million iPhones, a record 5.7 million Macs. They just do not run out of customers. The company also posted big growth in services like Apple music in its other category that includes Apple TVs and watches. IPads, the weak spot here.

This is crucial, Apple sales in China doubled even as the economy faces hurdles. So, a lot of folks watching Apple in China. Sales there doubled.

It's not all rosy in the tech world. Twitter shares tanking. Twitter down 12 percent before the bell. The company got its founder back, Jack Dorsey, he's now the CEO. But he still has major problems when it comes to user growth. Twitter added just 3 million new users in the past quarter, issued a sluggish outlook going forward.