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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
GOP Candidates on the Attack; NORAD Radar Blimp Goes Rogue; Royals Take 2-0 Lead in World Series. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 29, 2015 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:00:39] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Kablam! The sparks flying, punches landed at the Republican debate late last night. The reaction from the campaigns in the spin room. What they said about each other and more importantly what they said about the media. The party leader is fuming this morning.
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: With two hours sleep, I'm Christine Romans. This Thursday, October 29th, 5:00 a.m. in the East.
A big night last night, and this morning, the accusations are flying after the prickly squirm in your seat Republican debate. The candidates sharpened their attacks last night in Boulder, Colorado, going after the media and going after each other.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just resign and let someone else take the job.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only reason you are doing this now is because we are running for the same position. Someone convinced you it is appropriate to attack me.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He was so nice. He was such a nice guy. And he said, oh, I'm never going to attack. But then his poll numbers tanked. He's got very -- that's why he's on the end.
DEBATE MODERATOR: The leading Republican candidate when you look at the average of national polls right now is Donald Trump. When you look at him, do you see someone with the moral authority to unite the country?
(BOOS)
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, there's few questions I got, the last thing I need to do is give him some more time. I love Donald Trump. He is a good man. I'm wearing a Trump tie tonight. Get over that one.
DEBATE MODERATOR: To be fair, you were on the home page of their web site with the logo over your shoulder.
BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If somebody put me on their home page, they did it without my permission.
DEBATE MODERATOR: Does that not speak to your vetting process or judgment in any way?
CARSON: No, it speaks to the fact --
(BOOS)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We had $19 trillion in debt. We have people out of work. We have ISIS and al Qaeda attacking us and we're talking about fantasy football?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: All right. For the very latest, let's bring in CNN's Sara Murray. She's in Boulder this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.
The stakes were high for a number of the candidates on the stage here in Boulder, Colorado, last night. It was the third Republican debate and they wasted no time. They came out swinging early on.
Perhaps the most memorable moment, though, was Jeb Bush, going on the attack against the man he calls his friend, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, for missing votes to run for president.
BUSH: But, Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six- year term. And you should be showing up to work. I mean, literally, the Senate, what is it, like a French work week? You get like three days where you have to show up. You can campaign or just resign and let someone else take the job.
RUBIO: Over the last few weeks, I've listened to Jeb as you walked around the country and said you're modeling your campaign after John McCain, that you're going to launch a furious comeback the way he did, by fighting hard in New Hampshire and places like that, carrying your own bag at the airport. You know how many votes John McCain missed when he was carrying that furious comeback that you're now modeling under?
(CROSSTALK)
RUBIO: Jeb, I don't remember you ever complaining about John McCain's vote record. The only reason why you're doing it now is because we're running for the same position and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you.
MURRAY: And the immediate reaction from the moment is attack may have back fired on Jeb Bush. Marco Rubio may have best capitalized on that moment.
Now, even though Donald Trump and Ben Carson are the frontrunners in the Republican field right now, the fireworks did not come from them. You had to look further out on the debate stage to candidates like Senator Ted Cruz. He is running in a very conservative land at the party and looking for support from Trump and Carson. He did that by going after the media.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media. This is not a cage match.
And you look at the questions, Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don't you resign? Jeb Bush, why are your numbers fallen?
How about talking about the substantive issue people care about?
(APPLAUSE)
MURRAY: Cruz wasn't the only candidate unhappy with the debate last night. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus came to the spin room immediately after saying he is disappointed with CNBC.
Back to you, John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right. Sara Murray, thank you so much.
Let's talk about the winners and losers. CNN politics reporter Jeremy Diamond got a great piece up on CNN Politics right now. Read it at your leisure, but see Jeremy with us right now.
Jeremy, we are talking about the winners and losers.
[05:05:00] Ted Cruz probably had his breakout moment of the campaign. Doing what? Attacking the media. We played one bit of it there. Let's play a bit more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUZ: The questions that are being asked shouldn't be trying to get people to tear into each other. It should be, what are your substantive solutions --
(CROSSTALK)
MODERATOR: I asked you about the debt limit, no answer.
CRUZ: You want me to answer that question? I will be happy to answer the question.
(CROSSTALK)
MODERATOR: We are moving on.
MODERATOR: I have a question for you on the same subject.
(CROSSTALK)
CRUZ: You don't want to hear the answer, John?
(CROSSTALK)
MODERATOR: You used your time on something else.
CRUZ: You are not interested in an answer?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So you could hear the tension. You could hear the disgust. That might work with the conservative audience that is fed up with the mainstream media, Jeremy.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS: Yes, it will work extremely well. You know, last night, we saw Ted Cruz, the college debater. Let's not forget he was a champion debater in college during his time in Princeton. In past debates, he has done pretty well. But last night, he did extremely well.
He delivered the kind of lines where he stood there and waited for his turn and when his turn came, he had this whole line set up about the questions and the comic book villain line. These will play well with the conservative audience he is catering to.
ROMANS: Let's talk about Marco Rubio. He had a good night. He took an attack from Jeb Bush and turned it around. He took the criticism from the "Sun Sentinel". Let's listen about how he defended and turned around that criticism from the media to his benefit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: I read that editorial today with a great amusement. It's actually evidence of the bias that exists in the American media today.
MODERATOR: Do you hate your job?
RUBIO: Let me answer your question on the "Sun Sentinel" editorial today. Back in 2004, one of my predecessors to the Senate by the name of Bob Graham, a Democrat, ran for president, missing over 30 percent of his votes. I don't recall them calling for his resignation.
MODERATOR: Is that a statement?
RUBIO: Later that year, in 2004, John Kerry ran for president and missed close to 60 to 70 percent of his votes. I don't recall "The Sun-Sentinel", in fact, the "Sun Sentinel" endorsed him.
In 2008, Barack Obama missed 60 percent or 70 percent of his votes. And the same newspaper endorsed him again. So, this is another example of the double standards that exists in this country between the mainstream media and the conservative media.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: And Marco Rubio making the most of that moment.
DIAMOND: Yes, was there a candidate last night who did not go after the mainstream media or moderators? It seems like all of them had their turn. It is something that will play well with that audience.
You know, Rubio has been seen as one of the establishment favorites and alternative to Jeb Bush whose campaign has been struggling. Rubio is trying to claim another mantle. He is trying to claim the conservative mantle. He took shots noting he should wait his turn a bit. He's a little bit young and he should hold off, saying those are the things the establishment in Washington says.
So, he was able to train his sights on a lot of different targets. Not just Republicans, establishment Republicans, but also Hillary Clinton who he also took on last night, showing that he is prepared to be that nominee and that standard for the party and fight into the general election.
BERMAN: And he was prepared to take on Jeb Bush. We played it a while ago about his voting record. A lot of people think Rubio got the better end of that exchange by far. You could hear the dejection overnight some Jeb Bush supporters. Our own Ana Navarro said she was glum after watching that debate.
After the debate, Dana Bash actually caught up with Jeb Bush and asked him if he was upset about the debate performance. Let's listen to what he said to Dana.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You see him quite frustrated.
BUSH: No, not frustrated.
BASH: No?
BUSH: No. I wish I've gotten questions on -- you know, I got to answer questions on things that are on the minds of people, you know, entitlement challenges, the debt. I got fantasy football, you know? It's important, I guess.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: The interesting thing is Jeb actually answered the question about fantasy football and bragged his team is 7-0.
Chris Christie did what the other candidates did. Attack the notion. In that, you see, perhaps, where Jeb is different than this younger group of candidates.
DIAMOND: You know, Chris Christie did exactly what Jeb Bush failed to do all night. He jumped right in when Jeb Bush finished answering that question. Jeb Bush gave a rambling answer kind of about regulation and this and that. Chris Christie jumps in and showed Jeb Bush how he should have answered the question if you want to get a moment in the night.
Chris Christie said, why are we talking about fantasy football? You've got ISIS running around, you've got al Qaeda, we've got all these problems and we're talking about fantasy football.
[05:10:02] So, that was Chris Christie's best moment of the night without a doubt. It underscored how much Jeb Bush needs to improve his debate performances if he's going to continue in the race and if he's going to try to become the party's nominee.
ROMANS: Can we look at the numbers again? The numbers each candidate was allowed to speak or allowed to elbow in.
BERMAN: No, allowed to. They seized.
DIAMOND: Managed to elbow in, yes, that's right.
ROMANS: Yes, Fiorina with 10 minutes, I guarantee you, she did not have more questions than everyone else.
Fiorina managed to get the most air time, if you will, last night. I wonder if she will capitalize it like the last time she was on the debate stage.
DIAMOND: Yes, you know, I'm not sure that that was going to be the case. I don't know she had a moment last night like she had in the second Republican debate when she first made it to the main stage where she was really -- that was her moment last time and she galvanized supporters and pulled new supporters who are starting to get to know her.
Remember, you know, she is the pretty new face to the national political scene. She ran for the Senate in California. But this was her first time. So, last night, I don't know she had the moment to show supporters and showed them she is confident and she can move forward and be one of the strongest candidates in the race. I'm not sure she did exactly what she needed to. I guess we will see in the polls.
ROMANS: All right. Jeremy Diamond, so nice to see you. Again, the piece is great. We're going to will tweet out a link to that. Everyone should read it when you got a chance this morning. Really stacks up the winners and losers.
BERMAN: We didn't talk about Donald Trump and Ben Carson either, which tells you something.
ROMANS: Well, Ben Carson called out for his involvement with Mannatech, the diet supplement maker settled for $7 million in 2009 over claims its products could cure cancer and autism. And CNBC moderator Carl Quintanilla called him out after it settled with the government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARSON: It is absolutely absurd to say I had any kind of a relationship with them. Do I take the product? Yes. I think it is a good product.
CARL QUINTANILLA, CNBC MODERATOR: To be fair, were you on the home page of the web site with the logo over your shoulder.
CARSON: If somebody put me on the home page, they did it without my permission.
QUINTANILLA: Does that speak to your vetting process or judgment in any way?
CARSON: No, it speaks to the fact that I don't know --
(BOOS)
CARSON: See, they know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So his image appeared on the web site last year. You can see this is a video. He has done videos for the company Mannatech. He has been paid to do speeches for the company. He also credited the company's products for his cancer symptoms disappearing.
BERMAN: We've got a lot more about the debate coming up. But there is other news, namely about the blimp, the military blimp that broke free and drifting over Pennsylvania, the commotion that this caused. Man, oh, man. We'll have the latest, next.
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[05:16:40] BERMAN: Military investigators waiting for daylight this morning. They're trying to figure out how and why an air defense blimp came loose from the moorings in Maryland, drifting 130 miles into central Pennsylvania before crash landing in the woods. This blacked out power to thousands of people.
Now officials want to know what happened. Why this blimp went rogue. Why the blimp went on the lam.
CNN's Boris Sanchez with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, we are in Anthony Township in Pennsylvania.
And behind me, you see that roadblock. Officials have set up a perimeter around the blimp. It's about a half mile from this roadblock. And as you can see, the conditions are getting worse here. The rain is coming. It's very dark. It's a rural area. So, there isn't much light.
Investigators are hoping to collect evidence that might lead them to answers as to how the blimp got loose and then how it went down. We don't have a straight answer on that yet. We know there is a mechanism on the blimp to help itself deflate in case it gets loose.
But it's unclear if the mechanism was activated. We know the F- 16 jets that were following this thing were armed. But according to CNN's Barbara Starr, those F-16 jets did not fire on the blimp. So, it's not clear how the blimp went down.
We're also trying to find out how it got loose in the first place. This is simply not supposed to happen. The blimp is supposed to withstand hurricane-force winds. As you can see, the weather on the East Coast isn't great, but it's not something to the magnitude of a hurricane. So, it will be interesting to see exactly how that blimp got loose -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Boris, thank you. New details were coming out minute by minute yesterday. I was riveted. F16, a blimp, the schools. I mean, the whole story is just so weird.
BERMAN: Blimp on the lam.
ROMANS: You will stick to that?
BERMAN: Yes, all day.
The Kansas City royals. Two wins. They're taking a 2-0 series lead in the World Series. Andy Scholes with the details in the bleacher report next.
ROMANS: Did you know Wal-Mart is the - largest grocer in the U.S.? Many people don't associate the retailer with fresh produce.
CNNMoney's Cristina Alesci finds how Wal-Mart is trying to change that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF WAINWRIGHT, TAYLOR ORCHARDS: We're third and fourth generation farmers. We have been farming since the '30s. We are in the heart of Georgia.
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you are not one of the thousands of people living in Reynolds, Georgia. You are probably buying Jeff's peaches at Wal-Mart.
DOM WENNINGER, VP, PRODUCE & FLORAL, WALMAR US: Te peaches were grown two and a half hours away from here. Wal-Mart committed to doubling the amount of produce locally by 2015.
ALESCI (on camera): But hold on a second. Not many people think about Wal-Mart when you talk about fresh produce. Why is that?
WENNINGER: People don't realize but Wal-Mart sells more produce than anybody else in the country.
ALESCI: Wal-Mart's scale helps lower costs for the retailer. Consumers want more than lower prices these days. Americans associate local with all manner of goodness. Supporting nearby farmers and freshness and even health. What does local mean? Retailers define it differently. For Wal-Mart, local vegetables are grown in the same state they are sold.
WENNINGER: We will be over $7 million in produce that is grown and sold in the state by the end of the year.
[05:20:04] ALESCI: But is Wal-Mart's attempt of super sizing local any better than its competition? Amazon and now Google have also identified local as the way to win new customers.
WENNINGER: I love to grocery shop. There's nothing better than to walk in to a grocery store and particularly walking through produce.
ALESCI: Yes. I get it. After all, you can't smell a peach online.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. The moderators did not affect the World Series game two last night. Hot bats, unstoppable pitching. Mets now down to this.
ROMANS: Yes. There was another big game last night. Andy Scholes has more on this morning's bleacher report.
Hey, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys.
This Royals lineup is tough. They wear teams down by putting the ball in play. Their latest victim, Jacob DeGrom. He pitched well through the first four innings of game two. But in the fifth, the Royals got to him for four runs. Two coming with the error up the middle and single.
And that was all Royal starter Johnny Cueto need. He dedicated his performance to Edinson Volquez's father who passed away on Tuesday. Royals win game two easily, 7-1. They now lead the series 2-0.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC HOSMER, ROYALS FIRST BASEMAN: You have to keep your foot on the gas and keep pushing. That team and staff have the ability to rail off a couple good outings in a row and offense has the ability to get hot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: The series now shifts to New York. Game three is Friday night.
All right. The NBA, Lakers opening the season against the Timberwolves. Nice game with both teams honoring Flip Saunders who passed away this week.
[05:25:00] This is Kobe's 20th season with the Lakers. The NBA record for the franchise. It was vintage Kobe early. He had 15 points in the first half. Finished with 24 for the game. The Lakers would fall by a final of 112-111.
Guys, back to the world series. We like to leave you with the stat of the day. When the team goes up 2-0 in the World Series, they go on to win 80 percent of the time. That being said, the last time the Mets won it in '86, they were down 2-0 to the Red Sox. So, they've done this before.
BERMAN: Andy, the time before '86, do you remember the time before '86? '85, it was the Royals.
SCHOLES: '85, Royals.
And the last time was the Yankees against the braves. New York has a history of coming back from 2-0.
BERMAN: Indeed. These are fantastic stats.
Andy Scholes, thank you so much.
ROMANS: I will file that in the fascination file.
BERMAN: No!
ROMANS: I know, you're my sportsman, that's all I need.
Let's talk about politics. Republicans sharpening their attacks at the debate. Who came out on top? We are breaking down the winners and losers next.
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ROMANS: Republican presidential candidates lash out at each other and lash out at debate moderators. A night filled with fireworks that left party leaders fuming this morning. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
ROMANS: I'm John Berman. Thirty minutes past the hour right now.
This morning, the acquisitions flying and the umbrage being taken. A prickly squirm in your seat Republican debate, wow. The candidates sharpened attacks on each other last night in Boulder, Colorado, but really went off after the media as well. The first is Jeb Bush going after Marco Rubio on his voting record.
