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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Tail Found Three Miles From Other Wreckage; Differing Reports On In-Flight Explosion; Trump Slams Republican Rivals; Jeb Bush: "I'm Not Quitting"; U.S. Stock Futures Higher. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired November 04, 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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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What caused a Russian jetliner with 224 people onboard to crash, suddenly? New clues this morning on the investigation, we are going live.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Donald Trump on the attack, telling his competitors, it's time to drop out of the race for president. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Nice to see you. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Intriguing new clues, but few answers this morning on what brought down a Russian airliner flying from Sharm el-Sheik in Egypt to St. Petersburg. It killed all 224 people onboard.
A U.S. official tells CNN that a heat flash detected by a military satellite happened midair. That leaves open the possibility of a bomb on board Metrojet Flight 9268.
There are some reports in Russian media that the bodies of victims recovered so far show no signs of explosive impact. That could point perhaps toward engine or structural failure at the cause.
But adding to the confusion this morning, other media reports say that somebody who did show evidence of an explosion. This morning, investigators have finished their field work. An Egyptian official say data is already being recovered from the plane's black boxes. There could be more answers coming soon.
CNN Erin McLaughlin is live in Sharm el-Sheik. Erin, I do understand they've expanded the search, though, this morning.
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. They've expanded the search area to 15 square miles around that wreckage. This morning, a focus of the investigation is on the tail of the plane, Russian state media this morning reporting that the tail was found some three miles away from the bulk of the wreckage.
They say it was found unburned. That's potentially significant because of what happened in 2001. The same plane's tail struck a runway in Cairo and required repairs and some experts say that those kind of repairs, if done improperly, could lead to problems, even decades later. At the same time, we've already heard from airlines officials saying, that plane was in pristine condition and it passed all of its maintenance checks. There is lots of conflicting information, very few answers.
Egyptian officials urging people not to speculate. President Al-Sisi prior to his visit to London calling reports that a bomb downed the plane, reports that it was down by some sort of missile speculative saying that the ISIS claim of responsibility, he said is pure propaganda.
Meanwhile, at the crash site, the search continues, investigative work continues. Pictures taken from the site yesterday show a Russian team of investigators arriving, analyzing the debris guarded by the Egyptian military.
Important to remember, that is in an area of an Islamic insurgency. Of course, key to solving this mystery, the black boxes, the voice recorder, the flight data recorder.
Egyptian authorities say that they are analyzing that with the help of the Russians and other international parties. No time table, though, as when we will get information from that analysis.
BERMAN: But it could be very soon. Erin McLaughlin for us from Sharm el-Sheikh, thanks so much.
KOSIK: An outpouring of grief in Russia this morning over the 224 victims of the crash, but although a handful of them are Russian. Officials in St. Petersburg say 33 bodies have been identified so far. Today, Russian nationalists hold a rally to mourn the victims on the country's annual day of national unity.
For the latest from St. Petersburg, let's turn to international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, another tough day for the families of victims, the process of identifying the bodies continues. What they are hearing in Russian media at the moment, two different versions of potentially what killed their loved ones.
Did the plane break apart in the air because the tail section fell off because of a faulty repair after a tail strike, an accident to the air frame a few years ago or was it because of a bomb onboard?
A St. Petersburg newspaper, the oldest newspaper here in St. Petersburg, widely respected, reports that the injuries fall into two categories, those in the front of the aircraft, they say, have got burns and trauma-type injuries, indicative of falling from the sky.
[05:35:05]Those at the rear of the aircraft have explosive trauma injury, pieces of metal fragments in the body. They're quoting their sources, and of course, here in St. Petersburg the forensic teams are examining the bodies, the potential there, for more information being provided. The task state news agency here says however what they understand from their sources is that there has been no explosive residue found on the bodies. There has been no indication of explosive damage to the bodies.
So what people are hearing in Russia, and what would be very painful for the families right now is not knowing precisely what brought down that aircraft, two different possibilities -- John, Alison.
KOSIK: OK, Nic, thanks for that. Time for an EARLY START on your money, seeing lots of green arrows this morning, Asian, European markets higher so are U.S. stock futures. Yesterday, stocks closed up as well, the Dow climbing 89 points. The S&P 500 closed higher, nearly erasing all of the losses we saw hit over the summer. Right now, sitting just 21 points shy of its record highs.
Regulators are slapping Japan's Takata Corporation with a huge fine for selling botched airbags, a $70 million penalty for selling the defected airbags, and then an extra $130 million if Takata fails to follow safety measures going forward.
It's at the root of a massive recall tied to seven deaths in the U.S. The defective airbags could explode when activated. Honda announced overnight it will stop using Takata air bags in any of its new cars.
This is a huge blow to this auto parts manufacturer. Its stock really getting slammed, following the most since last year in October, 2014, shares fell at least 13 percent.
BERMAN: I'm surprised it's not more. Honda saying it's not enough is a big development there.
All right, breaking news overnight, Republicans pick up a see state house, winning a huge governor's race plus a big development in the battle to legalize marijuana, a different type of outcome that we've been seeing. Stay with us.
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BERMAN: All right, breaking election news overnight. A huge win for Republicans in Kentucky, millionaire businessman, Matt Bevin, elected governor there, the second time in four decades the Republican has won the state house. Bevin is a Tea Party favorite, an outsider, drawing comparisons to Donald Trump.
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MATT BEVIN (R), KENTUCKY-GOVERNOR ELECT: This is a great night for the Republican Party in the state of Kentucky. I'm also -- I'm also grateful for the fact that even more importantly, this is a great night for conservatives in the state of Kentucky.
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BERMAN: In Mississippi the incumbent governor, Republican Phil Bryant, he won easily being reelected there.
KOSIK: Also breaking overnight, a ballot proposal to legalize marijuana goes down in defeat in Ohio. Voters soundly rejected the initiative that would have legalized recreational and medicinal use of pot, but would also have limited commercial growing rights.
Just a small group of investors that included former boy band star, Nick Lachey, and fashion designer, Nanette Lapore, and cast of characters investing in this effort.
BERMAN: Breaking overnight in Houston, voters there repealed an ordinance designed to protect lesbian, gay and transgender people from discrimination. The equal rights ordinance offered broad protections covering housing, employment, and other areas.
The measure has drawn national attention with Hillary Clinton endorsing it last week. Opponents said it would allow men claiming to be women to use women's bathroom impose some kind of risk, but overturned there by voters.
Donald Trump lashing out at his opponents. Hillary Clinton edging out Bernie Sanders in a new key state poll. Big drama in the race for president next.
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[05:46:15]
KOSIK: There are a lot of dramatic developments this morning in the race for president. Donald Trump back on the attack with harsh words for most of his rivals and a new poll that shows Ben Carson may be a stronger candidate than Trump against Hillary Clinton.
And good news for Clinton in a different poll that puts her ahead of Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire after months where sanders led in most polls there.
Joining us now to walk through all of these developments is Zach Wolf, managing editor of CNNpolitics.com. Zach, let's start with Donald Trump, really, just taking punches at his opponents, trying to eliminate them. Listen to what he said.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When the e-mail problem came up, Bernie Sanders lost his whole campaign. What he did was so stupid from the standpoint. Marco Rubio's personal finances are discredited.
No, his personal finances, all you have to do is look at his credit card. He is a disaster with his credit cards. My Jeb impression? No, I don't want to do that. I don't like showing a person sleeping at a podium.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KOSIK: But here's the thing, you look at a new NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll showing that Trump obviously no longer leading. Is this an effective strategy to just try to eliminate his opponents, or is this maybe seemed a little desperate?
ZACHARY WOLF, CNN MANAGING EDITOR, CNNPOLITICS.COM: Well, I mean, I don' know if we can call it desperate, if you compare this Trump to the Trump that sort of shot onto the political scene and surprised everything. I'm not sure there is anything different about the two.
He was criticizing people back then. He is criticizing people now. The only thing that has changed is his standing in the polls. By the way, he's still really has a lot of support in polls. It's not so much that he's lost a ton.
It's that people like Ben Carson have gained support. He's still right up there neck and neck at the top of the Republican field. So certainly not desperate, not necessarily a change, but he's definitely Donald Trump.
KOSIK: And you make a good point there because Donald Trump is stealing the spotlight from Jeb Bush. Something that just comes up, you know, constantly. He talked with our Jamie Gangel, listen to what he said.
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JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's run for president twice and quit. I've run for governor in the biggest swing state and won twice. I know how to win, I've done it. I actually know how to govern, which is going to be an attribute when we get closer to the election.
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN ANCHOR: So for the record, for Donald Trump, you are not quitting?
BUSH: No, I mean, do we have to talk about Donald Trump? No, I'm not quitting.
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KOSIK: And it's always about Donald Trump, you know, with Jeb Bush, it's all about the fix-it campaign now. It's all about rebooting his campaign. What does he have to do to really come back?
WOLF: Well, you hear him there, why do we have to talk about Donald Trump? He kind of channels the entire Republican establishment and a lot of them I think are still thinking that, why do we have to talk about Donald Trump?
Because he's at or near the top of so many polls, and Jeb Bush has to grapple with that fact. He's trying to change his strategy a little bit, trying to make himself look a little bit tougher, and a little bit more proactive.
He is, you know, Donald Trump says he is low energy. Well, Jeb Bush is trying to counteract that by appearing really high energy, talking act how he eats nails for breakfast. I don't think he is being serious with that, but you know, it's a kind of thing he is saying.
He needs to do something. Trump is still near the top of polls. Other people are coming up. Jeb Bush is near the bottom of some polls now so he really has to do something to change the conversation right now. That's what he is trying to do.
KOSIK: But it's still early in the political season. I mean, there is time for things to really change around, isn't there?
WOLF: There is, you know, I think a lot of thing is that Trump has a base of support and that it might not change that much and that the vast majority of Republicans, or at least half of the Republicans, have yet to come home to whoever the ultimate candidate will be.
[05:50:10]If it's Trump, if it's Carson, if it's Bush, so things will change a lot in the months to come. They haven't quite started to change yet. For Jeb Bush, they have been changing in the wrong direction.
KOSIK: We didn't even talk about Hillary Clinton. In a Monmouth University poll, she is coming out ahead of Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire. So, really, a lot of changes here, thanks so much, Zachary Wolf, managing editor of CNNpolitics.com.
WOLF: Thank you.
KOSIK: If you missed your daily dose of Jon Stewart on TV, you are in luck. We'll get an EARLY START on your money next.
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KOSIK: Welcome back. President Obama plans to take action on the Keystone oil pipeline before he leaves office. Even though the company behind the project wants a final decision delayed. TransCanada is asking the State Department to suspend its year- long evaluation of the pipeline.
The White House suggests that request is nothing more than politics at play because the president is widely expected to reject the proposal as soon as this month.
[05:55:01]Breaking news in Northern Illinois, a police officer whose death in September sparked a huge manhunt apparently committed suicide. The results of an investigation are out now and the Lake County Sheriff's Office has called a news conference for later today.
A law enforcement official tells CNN, the sheriff will announce that Lieutenant Charles Joseph Gliniewicz died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was a U.S. Army veteran known by friends and colleagues as GI Joe.
He radioed for backup on September 1st, telling dispatchers, he was chasing three suspicious men. His body was found later, 50 yards from his squad car. A Georgia inmate back behind bars this morning after escaping while being transferred between jails, Jim Edward Lowrie, used his leg shackles to smashup a patrol car window. About 100 officers searched for him throughout Tuesday afternoon. Lowrie was charged with felony, murder in June, when any officer crashed his patrol car in hot pursuit.
Thick fog, blanketing parts of the country, let's go to meteorologist, Allison Chinchar.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: If you are planning on heading out this morning, you got a flight to catch, you may want to check with your carriers, especially in cities like Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta and Charlotte, where visibility will be incredibly low throughout the morning.
It's not just those cities. We are talking Nashville, Memphis and St. Louis also dealing with near zero visibilities. On the west coast, we are still dealing with a very powerful storm that brought much needed rain and snow to California.
Now the system will eventually beginning to push off to the east, and when it does, it will change from a snow-maker to a severe maker. We are talking about threat for damaging winds and isolated tornadoes when we transition into Thursday and Friday of this week, again, stretching across much of the mid-west and the southern plain states.
After that system moves through, we've got some much colder air that will be moving in out behind it so Thursday into the upper mid-west, Friday, and then gradually into the north east by Saturday.
A huge temperature change, take a look at this, 66 today in Minneapolis, down to 47 on Friday. Detroit 73 today, will be down to 64 by Friday.
KOSIK: Sounds good, thanks, Allison. Let's get an EARLY START on your money, seeing green arrows across the board, Asian and European markets are higher so are U.S. stocks futures. Yesterday, stocks closed higher. The Dow climbing 89 points and the S&P 500 closing higher as well, nearly erasing all of its losses during the summer. The S&P 500 just 21 points shy of its record high.
Some good news, if you are a parent sending your kids off to college, soaring college tuition prices, may finally be coming to an end. There is a new report out by the College Board saying the sticker practice is for the upcoming school year increased by about 3 percent.
That's the same amount in the past two years, compare that to the height of the recession, tuition at public colleges increased almost 10 percent during that time.
But the costs of going to college still remains high, students starting college this year will still pay three times more than they would have in 1985.
So you say you missed the biting humor on Jon Stewart, you are in luck, the former host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," he just signed a four-year deal with HBO.
First he will create content that will appear on the company's digital outlet like HBO Now and HBO Go, and while you may not see him on screen, you'll hear him. Stewart will narrate the pieces.
Breaking overnight, Election Day bringing big wins for Republicans, "NEW DAY" starts now.
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BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our strength is in our unity.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has a really interesting story, but I wouldn't call him charismatic.
TRUMP: If you add Ben and myself, we are beating every by a lot.
BUSH: I never felt like I was a frontrunner because he hadn't earned it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uncharacteristic sounds on the cockpit voice recorder.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.S. satellite detected this heat flash while the plane was still in flight. ISIS has given no proof it was responsible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are as many ways to put a bomb on the plane as there are people at the airport that touched that plane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz was found shot-to-death in a wooded area.
BERMAN: The Northern Illinois police officer's death sparked a huge manhunt. He apparently he committed suicide.
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CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, November 4th, 6:00 in the east. Up first, a big night for the GOP, the Republican Party looming large in the elections.
Kentucky electing its second Republican governor in 40 years. His name is Matt Bevin. He promises to protect religious freedom and roll back Obamacare. The party also holding on to ordaining statehouses.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: There were also some notable ballot measures and they went in the way of conservatives, voters in Houston rejecting an initiative on gay rights, Ohio rejecting marijuana. We'll look at the implications for the 2016 race.
Plus, we will get reaction from GOP candidate, Donald Trump, when he joins us live in the 7:00 hour. Stick around for that.
