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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Heat Flash Detected In Russian Jet Crash; More Victims' Bodies Arrive In Russia; GOP Debate Rebellion Falls Apart; Carson Leads In National Poll, Trump In New Hampshire; VW Emissions Scandal Threatens Porsche; Stock Futures Lower. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired November 03, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

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ALISON KOSIK, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: New clues into what may have caused the Russian passenger plane to crash killing 224 people on board. Could it have been terrorism? What investigators are saying this morning? We have live team coverage ahead.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: The GOP debate revolt crumbles. Republicans failing to agree on demands with the network host for future debates, who pulled back and what it means for the race moving forward? Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Miguel Marquez.

KOSIK: I'm Alison Kosik. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Happening now, progress in the search for a cause of the crash of Metrojet Flight 9268, a U.S. satellite detecting a heat flash over the Sinai Peninsula.

That infrared flash coming at the same time the Russian passenger jet on the way from an Egyptian resort to St. Petersburg plummeted to earth killing all 224 people onboard. Experts say the flash is significant, but by itself, does not proved or disproved claims that this was a terror attack.

For the latest on the investigation, let's bring in CNN's Ian Lee live in Cairo. Ian, you know, there is speculation about what could have brought this plane down, yet we've got investigators who have the two black boxes in their hands. How soon could we be getting information from those?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Egyptian government has urged patience when it comes to information leading to the cause of the crash. They are going over those black boxes right now. They say it could be a while before they determine exactly what happened.

That heat flash in the Sinai is the latest to come out. Egyptians have not commented on it. The Russians cannot confirm or denounce the claim. What we are seeing is from the United States saying that it occurred in a military intelligence analysts are going over it to determine if it happened in the air or on the ground.

Also, they are looking into the theories of what could have caused, it could it have been a missile, which is unlikely. ISIS doesn't have the capabilities. Could it have been a bomb? We have not seen any bomb residue on parts of the aircraft yet. Could it have been the engine blowing up causing the flash or the plane hitting the ground?

Right now, we've just don't know. But covering ISIS in Egypt over the past couple of years, one thing we've always noticed when they have had an attack like this is they come out with extra video or extra evidence to show that they in fact did carry out an attack and we have not seen this yet.

So this is different from previous claims that we've seen from the terror group. Right now, the Egyptian and Russian officials have been playing down that it was a terrorist attack. Saying it was more likely to be mechanical.

But still again, both are urging people to be patient. This investigation will take some time.

KOSIK: OK, CNN's Ian Lee reporting live from Cairo. Thanks.

MARQUEZ: Now overnight, a second plane carrying human remains from the crash arrived in Russia. A medical source in the Sinai tells CNN that most of the bodies recovered from the wreckage are intact and show no major signs of burns.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appearing in public for the first time since the crash describing it as an enormous tragedy and adding that his thoughts are with the families of the victims.

In St. Petersburg for us now is international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson. Nic, do the families there feel like they are getting everything, every scrap of information they can from the government on what happened to their loved ones?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Miguel, it's very hard to get an idea of that because they are being held by government officials here. They are in a hotel and they are, if you will, protected by government officials.

They have psychologists giving them help, they've been appointed by the government. When they arrive here, if they are flying in here to identify family members, they are told to make contact with officials at the airport so they could be helped.

So far we are not hearing criticisms and complaints coming from those family members. They are really beginning clearly once a very, very tough and difficult process for them coming to terms with the sudden loss of a loved one.

But also the very difficult process of identifying the bodies. According to Egyptian officials, 196 bodies have been returned here so far, only nine of those have been identified by family members, two of those children, both girls, one 10 years old and one 14 years old.

[05:35:07]We are told by government officials and this, of course, will be something that is very important to the families here. By the end of this day, the first families, if you will, that made the identifications, could get all of the paper work completed to release the bodies for burial, very important for the families.

But they are not speaking out as far as we know. What we have heard from in the last hour, if you will, is the president's spokesman saying that any link of the aircraft downing to terrorism is wrong.

And the speculation linking the aircraft crashed to Russia's military activities inside Syria is inappropriate speculation. So a very clear message coming from the leadership here to drop that kind of talking.

MARQUEZ: Interesting that they would come out so strongly and publicly with that statement so soon. Nic Robertson for us in St. Petersburg, thank you.

KOSIK: This morning, Republican presidential candidates big plans to put up a united front demanding more control of future debates is already beginning to fall apart, this as a pair of new polls paint a confusing picture of the GOP race. CNN's Sara Murray has the latest from the Washington.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Alison and Miguel. A new poll showed it is not Donald Trump that's leading nationwide anymore instead Ben Carson is the frontrunner in the new NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll.

He leads 29 percent to Donald Trump's 23 percent. Now Trump still has some bragging rights going for him. He leads in a new Monmouth University poll in New Hampshire. It is a wide lead. He is ahead of Ben Carson by about 10 points.

Now if these polls sound a little bit chaotic to you, it is nothing compared to what's going on right now with the Republican debate process.

After all those campaigns got together, huddled in a room, and agreed to debate rules spanning from requiring opening statements to how cool it had to be in the debate arenas, now it seems like that agreement is falling apart.

It all began when Donald Trump's campaign saying that he is going to negotiate directly with the networks. After that things started to crumble.

John Kasich said he would not sign on to a joint letter with other candidates regarding the debates. Chris Christie said the same thing and Carly Fiorina also jumped ship. So you see there it was a short lived truce between all the campaigns. Alison and Miguel, back to you.

MARQUEZ: Joining us now to break down all the latest from those campaigns is CNN's Politics digital reporter, Jeremy Diamond. Good morning, Jeremy. So the revolt was short lived.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS DIGITAL REPORTER: Absolutely. Again, let's remember these are Republican presidential candidates. I think the idea they will form a union may have been farfetched from the start.

Let's be clear. They were trying to do something. The top campaign officials from a lot of these campaigns met Sunday night and tried to talk about some ways to improve the debates to put forward a united front.

Those efforts crumbled as Donald Trump's campaign will continue to do what it has done, which is negotiate directly with the TV networks. You had some other campaigns come out and say they were not ready to sign any letters.

You know, this gives them the appearance that they are ready to take tough questions and ready to deal with the mainstream liberal media bias, et cetera, et cetera. They knew this would get messy trying to wrestle control from the RNC and TV networks. So they are certainly understanding that and trying to move pass it.

KOSIK: There is a humorous take on this. President Obama will be out of a job soon. I'm predicting comedy in his future. I want to play for you a bit of what he said. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Have you noticed that every one of the candidates say you know, Obama's weak. Putin's kicking sand in his face. When I talk to Putin -- he's going to straighten out, just looking at him. He's going to be -- and then it turns out they can't handle a bunch of CNBC moderators.

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KOSIK: You know he makes a good point there, Jeremy.

DIAMOND: You know, there has certainly been a lot of criticism headed President Obama's way. He felt he needed to respond a bit. This is an opportunity to make light of it as well.

MARQUEZ: Donald Trump falling behind in the national polls it appears, but the state polls paint a somewhat different picture. Where are we now? Obviously Trump is starting to feel the heat from Ben Carson from the right down in Iowa and up in New Hampshire. Is this a real surge for Ben Carson?

DIAMOND: Listen, Ben Carson's candidacy has been doing extremely well in recent weeks. He's raised a lot of money in recent weeks and he's also surged ahead of Trump in Iowa.

[05:40:07]First of all, the crucial -- first state of Iowa in the primary process and nationally. We saw CBS/"New York Times" poll last week and now we see this poll, but let's be clear, this NBC /"Wall Street Journal" poll doesn't paint a very different picture from last week.

And that's because most of it was taken before the debate. It certainly shows that Carson's campaign was surging ahead of Donald Trump last week. It may still be surging ahead of Trump's campaign and maybe Carson is the new national frontrunner.

But it is too early to tell. We have to see how people react after the debate on Thursday and see what is shaking out in the coming weeks.

KOSIK: All right, Donald Trump staying in the headlines coming out with a new book today. He pokes jabs and humor and focuses on the book cover, that face. What do you think of this book? Do we have insight into what kind of president he would be?

DIAMOND: You know, the first page of the book, as you would expect, is dedicated to explaining why he looks so angry on the cover of the book. He talks about all of the beautiful photographs, but this is the one he showed because he wants to show how angry and desperate this situation is right now that he has to deal with.

I have been covering the Trump campaign since its inception. I did not learn a lot from this book. I will say there are some interesting points. You know, on immigration, for example, he talks about how the vast majority of undocumented immigrants come into the country do so for the right reasons, which is interesting given Trump's heated rhetoric on the issue.

He does come across with a bit of humor in the book. He has quips throughout it. He is also trying to show a softer side talking about his family, the influence of his father and of course, showing that he is a nice guy.

You know, he has stressed that point in some speeches in the past. He certainly is trying to come across as a bit softer and show a different side as his campaign presses on.

KOSIK: All right, Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much for coming on the program today. It's been fun.

DIAMOND: Thank you.

KOSIK: A new setback for the Keystone pipeline. What is now putting the $8 billion project in limbo? That's next.

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[05:45:55]

MARQUEZ: The Keystone XL oil pipeline is officially in limbo. The TransCanada, the company behind the project, is asking the U.S. government to suspend its application for a permit beyond the 2016 election.

The firm will now go through a state review in Nebraska. Something it originally resisted. The move comes in the face of an expected rejection by the Obama administration as early as this week.

KOSIK: Time for an EARLY START on your money. Asian and European stocks are mostly lower so are U.S. stock futures. Yesterday, though, stocks kicked off November with a nice rally. The Dow climbed 165 points. That gain puts the Dow in positive

territory for the year. The S&P 500 climbed 1.2 percent. It's getting very close to its record high.

Volkswagen emission cheating scandal spreading to Porsche, U.S. regulators say 10,000 high-priced Porsche and Audi vehicles contained the cheating software. That is very small compared to the nearly 500,000 cars already cited in the U.S. and 11 million cars worldwide.

But it's just another blow to VW's credibility. It could expose the automaker to another $375 million in Clean Air Act violations. VW denies these new claims, but I'll tell you what, a lot of irate car owners of Porsche and Audi.

MARQUEZ: VW will have to do something massive to get over this. So it's a win that confidence. I don't see how they do it.

KOSIK: Absolutely. Get its reputation back.

MARQUEZ: President Obama with new help for ex-convicts struggling to reenter society after their time is served. That's coming up next.

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[05:51:10]

MARQUEZ: President Obama pushing for an overhaul of the nation's criminal justice system. He wants ex-convicts to get a second chance. He is calling on local municipalities to work with colleges and employers on job training and placement for former inmates. We get more from CNN's senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alison and Miguel, just as the Obama administration is speeding up the release of federal prisoners who are serving harsh drug sentences, the president wants U.S. companies to start hiring many of these former inmates and not hold their past crimes against them.

President Obama delivered that message after visiting a half- way house in New Jersey yesterday shining a light on a program that transitions former prisoners back into society.

The president is calling on Congress to ban the boxes it described in federal hiring. That means eliminating the section on job applications that asked about criminal records encouraging employers to seek that information later on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Now a lot of time that record disqualifies you from being a full participant in our society even if you already paid your debt to society. It means millions of Americans have difficulty even getting their foot in the door to try to get a job. Much less actually hang on to that job. That's bad for not only those individuals, but bad for the economy.

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ACOSTA: The president says that second chances would be crucial to thousands of prisoners, who were released just over the weekend after many had their drug sentences reduced -- Alison and Miguel.

KOSIK: OK, Jim Acosta, thanks for that. Questions for new moms, how does five months of paid maternity leave sound? The latest win for new parents next.

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[05:56:55]

KOSIK: I'm Alison Kosik. Let's get an EARLY START on your money. Not a great morning for stocks. Asian and European stocks are lower. So are U.S. stock futures. Yesterday, stock kicked off November with a rally.

The Dow climbed 165 points. That gain putting the Dow in a positive territory for the year. The S&P 500 climbing 1.2 percent and it's getting very close to its record high. That could change with a lot of corporate earnings coming out this week and the October jobs report on Friday.

Remember all that scathing criticism about the poor work/life balance at Amazon? Well, being a new parent got a little easier. Starting next year, new moms can take up to 20 weeks of paid leave. That is 12 more weeks then Amazon's old policy.

Plus they can ease back into a flexible working schedule. Dads can take up to six weeks of fully paid leave and employees can share their benefits with a partner who doesn't get paid leave.

Candy Crush is getting a new owner. Activision Blizzard is announcing plans overnight to acquire King Digital Entertainment for $5.9 billion. Activision is best known for traditional games like Guitar Hero and Call of Duty that are played on PCs and gaming consoles.

The buying the maker of Candy Crush, it's going to help to get a stronger foothold in mobile gaming, which is all the rage. I'm just not into it.

MARQUEZ: I like to kill zombies.

New clues in what may have caused a Russian jetliner to fall from the sky. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A heat flash seen by an American satellite high overhead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was this flash part of the plane breaking up or was it something else?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any sort of damage to the aircraft can cause a problem.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But it could have been a bomb. Anything is on the table at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, Ben Carson is the man to beat here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marco Rubio is surging.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Marco doesn't show up to vote.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The answer is not sending someone from one side of the capitol city to the other.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: They can't handle a bunch of CNBC moderators.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president wants to make it easier for ex- inmates to find jobs.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We want to make sure Americans who paid their debt to society can earn their second chance.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You can change the clocks all you want. It is still dark out. Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, November 3rd, 6:00 in the east.

Here is the story. A plane falls out of the sky, 224 lives are lost, and the mystery grows. But there is a new clue, a U.S. satellite over the desert detecting a heat flash at the time the Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 went down Saturday morning over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Now Russian airline officials ruling out human error or technical problems even though aviation experts insist it's too early to know. So the mystery is deepening as a second plane load of victims' bodies arrive back in St. Petersburg. And that's where we find CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson. What's the latest, Nic?

ROBERTSON: Alisyn, that heat signature that was picked up over the Sinai desert, there were several interpretations that could be applied to this. Was it an engine bursting into flames --