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Climate Change Talks Begin in Paris; Colorado Civilian Victims Identified; Ben Carson Visits Refugee Camp in Jordan; U.S. Embassy in Kabul Issues Warning of Imminent Attack; Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired November 30, 2015 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:14] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Protests breaking out as world leaders convene in Paris. Historic negotiations over how to fight climate change. We are live in Paris.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: The man accused in the deadly shootout inside of Planned Parenthood facing a judge in just hours from now as we get new information about what may have triggered the attack.
Good morning. And welcome to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik. Good morning.
ROMANS: Nice to see you this morning. Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, November 30th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.
Chaos on the streets of Paris ahead of potentially historic climate talks that begin there today. Police arrest hundreds following a battle that included protesters throwing shoes, throwing bottles, even candles police say came from the Paris attack memorial. Officers responding with tear gas.
President Obama arriving Sunday in Paris for these climate change talks. He visited the memorial at the Bataclan Theater with the French president Francois Hollande. He laid a single flower in white rose.
And now to the business of hammering out a deal to limit greenhouse gases, nearly 150 world leaders in town for two weeks of intense negotiations, and a possible deal President Obama hopes will cement his legacy. The president set to meet with the Chinese president in just hours.
Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is in Paris with the president.
Jim, what's the very latest for us this morning?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Yes, it was a somber start to this climate summit. President Obama as you said he visited the Bataclan Theater here in Paris last night where dozens of people were killed two weeks ago in those terror attacks. He observed a moment of silence with the French president at his side. And then this morning got up for the beginning of these climate talks. He has just started a meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping.
They talked about a wide array of topics including this summit but also about the recent killing of that Chinese student hostage by ISIS. The president and President Xi will be talking about -- to really sort of setting the tone for this climate summit. The idea is, according to White House officials, is if the who biggest economies in the world, the U.S. and China, can agree to limit their carbon emissions, and so can the rest of the world.
The U.S. and China did that last year, and so this is really sort of a tone setting meeting for President Obama and President Xi. And what they're aiming to do over the course of the next couple of days is really launch a summit that they hope at the conclusion in a couple of weeks from now will end with a climate agreement that will bind nearly every country on earth to a commitment to lower carbon emissions in the hopes of reducing the growth and temperatures over the next century by some four degree Celsius or, excuse me, four degree Fahrenheit. Less than that, and two degrees Celsius.
Climate scientists are not sure that's going to be enough to revert the more catastrophic effects of climate change. But the White House, the Obama administration officials who were here with the president, and he's here with the secretary of state and several other Cabinet officials, they believe this will be a good start.
The question, Christine, though, is what kind of agreement comes out of this climate summit here in Paris if it is not to the liking of Republicans back in Washington. They may try to go after this climate agreement, even though it's not a binding treaty that would require votes up on Capitol Hill. Republican members of Congress could try to limit the president's ability to execute that agreement by controlling the purse strings.
ROMANS: Right.
ACOSTA: Controlling these funds that may go to executing this agreement. So a big, big couple of days for the president. He'll be meeting with the French President Francois Hollande later on tonight. They'll also be talking about the war on ISIS -- Christine.
ROMANS: Yes. The war on ISIS. I mean, there's a lot of potential news out of this meeting. But all these world leaders, Jim, you've got the war on terror front and center here, especially since this is Paris and the potential for news on climate.
And do we expect that maybe there could be maybe a chance meeting between -- or a scheduled meeting between the Russian president and President Obama?
ACOSTA: Well, right now White House officials are saying that there is no planned bilateral meeting, a formal bilateral meeting. But as we see during these big summits, the president and Putin, when they, you know, go past each other in the hallway or meet each other at a dinner, that they often move off to the side -- to the sidelines as they call it, and have a discussion. We saw that at the G-20. Right in front of the cameras, it was quite striking. And it will be interesting to see, you know, what happens. Because at
this point, we know that President Obama and President Hollande will be meeting tonight to talk about that meeting Hollande had with Vladimir Putin back in Moscow last week. The question is whether or not Hollande can pull together this grand global coalition to go against ISIS. But all indications, are, Christine, from the White House and the Kremlin, President Obama and President Putin, they're just not there yet. But I suspect that on the sidelines of this climate summit there'll be a lot of movement in that direction if they can make it happen -- Christine.
[04:05:03] ROMANS: All right. Jim Acosta for this morning in Paris. Thanks, Jim.
KOSIK: We're getting new information about what motivated a shooting spree at a Colorado Springs' Planned Parenthood clinic. An attack that killed three and wounded nine others. Suspect Robert Lewis Dear is set to have his first court appearance this afternoon by a video link.
We're also learning about two more victims in the deadly attack. Ke'arre Stewart was an Iraq war veteran with two daughters. Jennifer Markovsky had a boy and a girl. She was a K-Mart employee originally from Hawaii. Authorities had previously announced the death of Police Officer Garrett Swasey.
For more let's go to CNN's Dan Simon in Colorado Springs.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Alison, a law enforcement source tells CNN that just after he surrendered the suspect in this case, 57-year-old Robert Dear, made a reference to, quote, "baby parts." So that's further fueling this notion that is anti-abortion views was the motivating factor behind the attack at the Planned Parenthood. But authorities say at this point it is too early to reach a conclusion.
As for the suspect's background, a portrait is emerging that he was a loner. He certainly lived in isolation in the middle of Colorado. Before that he lived in North Carolina in a very small cabin. In terms of a criminal background, we know that he had some brushes with law enforcement, but had never been convicted. In 1997, for instance, his wife at the time accused him of domestic assault. But he was never charged.
And because there is no sort of criminal violent past associated with the suspect, that's why people like the mayor in this town say it's very hard for law enforcement to keep tabs on someone like him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN SUTHERS, COLORADO SPRINGS MAYOR: We've had examples of this in the past. This guy is kind of shaping up to be a -- like a Ted Kaczynski type character. Perhaps not quite the loner, but it's very difficult for law enforcement to deal with individuals like this who don't commit serious crimes and get themselves on the radar that way. Unless a threat is posed beforehand that they can respond to. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON: Well, as authorities work to come up with a firm motive, we know that the suspect actually gave up inside the Planned Parenthood. This was after nearly six hours and also after an armored police vehicle known as a Bearcat rammed into the building. The suspect apparently thought he was cornered. He dropped his weapon and gave up -- Christine and Alison.
ROMANS: All right, Dan, thank you for that.
You know, one question hanging over this attack, whether it will complicate the fight in Congress over Planned Parenthood. That battle started when an anti-abortion group began releasing videos that claimed Planned Parenthood profits from the sale of fetal tissue. Hard line conservatives are pushing for a government shutdown if federal funding for the group is not cut off.
On Saturday, Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer called the five congressional investigations of the group to be shut down. She said it's time to stop demonizing and witch hunts. The head of the Colorado clinic suggested the fiery anti-abortion political rhetoric played a part in this attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICKI COWART, PRESIDENT, ROCKY MOUNTAIN PLANNED PARENTHOOD: We've experienced so much hateful language, hateful speech, such a negative environment has been created around the work that Planned Parenthood does, around the idea of safe and legal abortion. And we've seen that across the country from all sorts of speakers in the last few months.
I can't believe that this isn't contributing to some folks mentally unwell or not. Thinking that it's OK to target Planned Parenthood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: Meantime, many of the 2016 Republican candidates now speaking out against the attack, but they are also maintaining their opposition to Planned Parenthood, and rejecting the notion that anti-abortion rhetoric played any part in the violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I would say to anyone who tries to link this terrible tragedy to anyone who opposes abortion or opposes the sale of body parts is this is typical left-wing tactics.
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What he did is domestic terrorism. And what he did is absolutely abominable. Especially to those of us in the pro-life movement. Because there's nothing about any of us that would condone or in any way look the other way at something like this.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is an extremist and this was a man who obviously -- and they said prior to this that he was mentally disturbed. So he's a mentally disturbed person. There's no question about that.
DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's get away from the rhetoric and talk about the real problem. The real problem is that we have become coarse and hateful toward each another.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were the first presidential candidates to respond to the attacks, offering condolences, supporting Planned Parenthood, and defending abortion rights.
[04:10:03] ROMANS: All right. Breaking overnight, the University of Chicago cancelling Monday classes after an online threat of gun violence. The university president says he learned of the threat from FBI counterterrorism officials who say the individual mentioned a specific area, a specific time. The campus quad at 10:00 a.m. Monday morning. Students in campus housing are being asked to stay indoors today as much as possible.
KOSIK: A major shift in strategy at the NSA. The U.S. intelligence agency abandoning the bulk collection of telephone metadata in favor of a more focused and targeted approach. But the NSA still wants access to old data through February. The domestic spying program began after the 9/11 terror attacks. Details were leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden back in 2013.
ROMANS: Ten minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money this morning. European stocks are mostly higher. Making up for earlier losses. The Asian shares ended the day lower. U.S. stock futures slipped down just a tad here.
It's Cyber Monday. Online sales expected to top $3 billion for the very first time. Up 12 percent from a year ago. This according to Adobe. The holiday has gained more importance for retailers with big names like Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Target. They are battling to offer the best deals this year, online deals. This while Black Friday is fading. It's still an important shopping day. But you know the crowds were smaller this year. More people have moved to online shopping. And they shopped throughout the entire month. It's now Black November.
(LAUGHTER)
KOSIK: It really is. I have been shopping online Black November all November and even as early as October.
ROMANS: You're going to wake up today, folks, you're going to look at your inbox and you're going to pull your hair out.
KOSIK: Yes.
ROMANS: Because it is full of ads trying to get you to spend more money today so watch out for those -- all those cyber deals. KOSIK: All right. Ben Carson opens up about what he learned visiting
a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan and Donald Trump doubles down about what he saw on TV on 9/11.
The race for president intensifying, next.
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[04:16:07] KOSIK: OK, it's back to the campaign grind for the men and women who would-be president following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. One Republican hopeful, Ben Carson, he's been brushing up on his foreign policy learning firsthand about the plight of Syrian refugees while visiting a camp in Jordan.
We'll get more now from CNN's Sunlen Serfaty.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alison and Christine. Well, Ben Carson's trip to Jordan over the weekend comes at an important time for him as a candidate. He has been in a period of intense scrutiny over his foreign policy credentials. So certainly a big part of the strategy of him visiting. He's trying to beef up his experience, his knowledge of the region.
And he spoke about over the weekend about those conversations that he had with the Syrian refugees at that refugee camp in Jordan. And it seems like this is the key takeaway of his trip. Here's what he said he concluded after speaking to the refugees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARSON: Their true desire is to be resettled in Syria. But, you know, they're satisfied to be in the refugee camps if the refugee camps are adequately funded. Recognize that in these camps, they have schools, they have recreational facilities that are really quite nice, and they are putting in all kinds of things that make life more tolerable.
Would it be better to integrate them into the society? Yes, I certainly talked to some people about that. But, you know, you have to make progress as you go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: Donald Trump, meanwhile, he is still on the defense for the second weekend in a row over claims that he made that Muslim-Americans were celebrating in New Jersey after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And over the weekend again, he did not back down. Here's what he said on "Meet the Press."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Many, many people have seen it. So I believe that -- I have a very good memory, Chuck. I'll tell you, I have a very good memory. I saw it somewhere on television many years ago and I never forgot it. And it was on television, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: His opponent, Chris Christie, meanwhile picked up a key and much-need endorsement over the weekend from the New Hampshire Union leader. The publisher of that influential newspaper saying that Chris Christie is right for these dangerous times. This is a big get for Christie. He has in large part pinned much of his White House hopes on New Hampshire. He visits there again today -- Alison and Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Sunlen. Thank you for that.
Happening today in Baltimore, jury selection underway in the trial of William Porter. He is the first of the six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray to stand trial. Gray died one week after his arrest back in April. Prosecutors say he suffered a spinal cord injury as he was being driven in a police van. Gray's death sparked two weeks of rioting in the city.
KOSIK: The Chicago police officer charged with the first-degree murder in the death of Laquan McDonald will be in court today. Jason Van Dyke has been held without bail since his arrest. The teenager was shot 16 times. The shooting captured on dash cam video. The officer's attorney claimed the shooting was justified because Van Dyke feared for his life. The judge is expected to use the video to determine whether he should be granted bail.
ROMANS: Breaking news. A bus packed with college students overturned in Richmond, Virginia. Authorities say 35 people injured, one critically. They say 50 people on board that bus, they are mostly students from Virginia Tech, Bradford and the University of Virginia. The bus flipped over on a parkway ramp. The driver has been charged with reckless driving. Just what caused this crash is under investigation.
Our breaking news this morning. The U.S. embassy in Kabul warning an attack in Kabul is imminent. What we're learning about the new threat, next.
[04:20:02]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: We are following breaking news this morning from Afghanistan. U.S. officials citing credible reports of an imminent -- an imminent terror attack in Kabul City. The reports say this attack could happen in the next 48 hours. According to an embassy statement, there are no additional details regarding the target, the timing or the method of the planned attack. Embassy officials are strongly urging American citizens there to exercise extreme caution if they're moving around the city.
For the very latest, I want to bring in reporter Sune Engel Rasmussen there for us.
So tell us just what's happening now. I mean, are Americans, are expats sort of on lockdown here and how unique is this particular warning?
[04:25:03] SUNE ENGEL RASMUSSEN, REPORTER: Well, a warning this specific is quite unique but many foreigners in Kabul have been on lockdown for the past many months. It's been a very violent year in Afghanistan since the spring. And general embassy workers and U.N. staff have been encouraged to stay home and not to -- not go outside the compound unless it's for professional reasons over the past many months actually but a warning like this specific is rare.
ROMANS: So people have been on high alert for some time. Obviously it's very dangerous there still in Kabul City especially for Americans and expats but this particular warning that something could happen, something as planned for the next 48 hours, quite specific, although we don't know any more of the details.
Can you tell us just how big the presence is, the expatriate presence is in Kabul City?
RASMUSSEN: Well, one thing is the foreign troops. There's about 18,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan at the moment, of which almost 11,000 are American soldiers. In addition to that, there's almost three times as many contractors here from various countries. There are still a lot of U.N. agencies. Almost a thousand U.N. workers are here. And NGOs and there's few journalists. So there are still a considerable presence of foreigners in the city.
Now we don't know if this threat, we should add, is targeting -- was meant to target foreigners or it's just a major attack in the city that they don't want American citizens to be caught up in. We also don't know who is supposedly going to be behind this attack if it's not foiled, of course. So the U.S. embassy's message says nothing about this. But there is still a considerable presence of foreigners. Most of them have relocated to Kabul or to other cities in the north. There's not so many left in the provinces.
ROMANS: All right. Sune Engel Rasmussen, thank you so much for that. Live this morning for us from Kabul. Thank you. Be careful out there.
KOSIK: President Obama in Paris meeting with world leaders over how to fight climate change. We're live next.
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