Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Big Shakeup in the Republican Field; San Bernardino Massacre Investigation; Patriots and Panthers Clinch Playoff Spot. Aired 5- 5:30a ET

Aired December 14, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:02] ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: A big shake-up in the polls just one day before the CNN Republican presidential debate. Which candidate is now becoming the focus of his competitors?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama trying to reassure the public in the war against ISIS. Meeting with military leaders this morning. Is the president's strategy working?

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

KOSIK: And I'm Alison Kosik. It's Monday, December 14th. It's 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And count them. Nine candidates are converging on the Venetian Theater in Las Vegas tomorrow for the fifth Republican debate right here on CNN. It's the last debate of the year with only 48 days left until voting begins at the Iowa caucuses. The focus certainly going to be on national security in the wake of the Paris and San Bernardino terror attacks and with Donald Trump still taking fire over his Muslim exclusion plan.

CNN's Athena Jones is in Las Vegas with the latest.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm coming to you from the Venetian Theater right here on the Las Vegas Strip. This is where it will all go down on Tuesday night. And we're in the middle of rehearsals right now but you can see here the main stage has been set. We now know the nine candidates who made the cut for the primetime debate. They are, in order, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Rand Paul.

Trump is center stage once again. He is still the frontrunner nationally but his frontrunner status is being challenged by Cruz in the state of Iowa. Three new polls now showing the Texas senator leading there.

Now CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash, along with Salem Radio's Hugh Hewitt, are spending a lot of time over the next several days in the cone of silence, finalizing debate questions for this huge production. There will be 17 cameras and an invite-only audience of about 1400 people filling this theater on Tuesday night. Of course this will be the last debate of the year. The last chance for these candidates to make a strong impression with voters heading into the holiday season. Millions will be watching. So the big question, will Donald Trump

attack Ted Cruz? Will Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz get into it? Will Ben Carson and Jeb Bush and others have breakout performances that can boost their poll numbers? We'll be watching to see what happens.

KOSIK: Yes, we will be watching, Athena.

Four Republicans fill out the undercard debate. They are George Pataki, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Lindsey Graham. The undercard beginning at 6:00 right here on CNN. That's 6:00 Eastern.

ROMANS: 6:00 Eastern. All right. As Athena mentioned, there has been a big shakeup in the Republican race with Ted Cruz suddenly soaring to first in Iowa and second in national polls.

Joining us this morning to break down the newly reconfigured political field, CNN Politics reporter Eric Bradner.

Good morning, or is it night? I don't know. You're in Vegas. It's 2:00 in the morning. Either you've just come from the tables or you're just getting ready to go. So let me --

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS DIGITAL REPORTER: Yes, it's a little closer to bedtime than morning here, yes.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: No one sleeps in Vegas. That's why there are no -- there are no clocks, there are no windows so you'll never know what it is.

Let's take a look at --

(LAUGHTER)

Well, speak for yourself, my dead. Let's take a look at some of these -- the Iowa poll, in particular the "Des Moines Register"-Bloomberg poll. I mean, you've got Ted Cruz. His appeal to his -- his hard work trying to reach evangelicals in Iowa and Christian voters in Iowa seems to be working. He is now a full 10 percentage points above the former frontrunner Donald Trump in Iowa. Then we polled that nationally, though. You've got Donald Trump still sitting here on top tier, but Ted Cruz narrowing the gap. Just a five-point gap now. Marco Rubio, number three there and Ben Carson dropping to fourth.

What do you make of this reconfigured field here as we head into this debate tomorrow night?

BRADNER: Yes. So Ted Cruz is really peaking at the right time. You know, just six weeks out from the first votes in Iowa. And he's gotten some endorsements from key evangelical leaders there. But what this means is he is now all of a sudden wearing a huge target. People have been taking the shots at Donald Trump. Just hasn't really worked out, right? I mean, Trump is sort of Teflon. Everything bounced off him.

But now Cruz is the one all of the candidates are looking at. On the Sunday shows yesterday, you saw Trump taking shots at Cruz for his style in the Senate, sort of saying look, he's the crazy one, right? Marco Rubio criticized Cruz for votes on budgets and defense. And even Ben Carson was going after Cruz, calling him sort of a typical politician.

So all of the other leading candidates are sort of showing that they view Cruz as not a frontrunner, then certainly a really big player all of a sudden because they're all focusing on him. They are training their ire on him rather than Donald Trump. So Ted Cruz is suddenly a force to be reckoned with. Really peaking at the right time here.

KOSIK: Exactly. And there's been a lot of back and forth on Twitter between Trump and Cruz. You know, if you've been following Twitter, it's sort of -- there is the entertainment value there. But those polls, those polls, you know, speak volumes, although some people would wonder, Eric, which is more important, the Iowa poll or the national poll?

BRADNER: Right. It's a really good question. And the Iowa poll is especially important because to win the nomination, traditionally, you have to win one of the early voting states. Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina.

[05:05:13] If you can't win one of those states, it's a really tough road to the nomination. And the reason for that is -- you know, there might not be a ton of delegates on the line in Iowa, but there's certainly a sense of momentum. A win in Iowa or a win in New Hampshire can really boost a candidate's standing nationally. You can see those national numbers start to change dramatically.

There have been candidates who struggled in those early states, but said no, wait, wait until we get into the big ones. And it just never worked out. I mean, Rudy Giuliani in 2008 said wait until Florida. That kind of comes to mind. So these early states are really important in terms of changing the momentum nationally.

The national polls are important, but it is the early states that can really shake up those national polls. So that's why this is such big news for Cruz.

KOSIK: And no wonder you're seeing Trump really come out with his dukes up. I wonder, to go to -- something that Trump said about Cruz, as he feels Cruz nipping at his heels. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think he's qualified to be president.

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS CHANNEL: Why not?

TRUMP: Because I don't think he has the right temperament. I don't think he's got the right judgment.

WALLACE: What's wrong with his temperament? TRUMP: Well, you look at the way he's dealt with the Senate, where he

goes in there like a -- you know, frankly like a little bit of a maniac. You're never going to get things done that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black there?

(LAUGHTER)

KOSIK: Come on.

BRADNER: That's an irony, right? It really is. No, actually this is -- you know, in this campaign Ted Cruz seems like the nice one because he's sort of followed Donald Trump, he's been like the kinder, gentler, perhaps more conservative version of Donald Trump. But Ted Cruz is the one who was starting fights with Republican leadership as soon as he got to the Senate. This is somebody who's known on Capitol Hill as provoking a lot of like interim party fights. Fighting with Republicans over whether he used, you know, spending showdowns to try to defund Obamacare. That sort of thing. So yes, it's a little bit of the pot pun.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: He's still not sort of hammering him, though. I mean, Ted Cruz, and he comes back, still he calls him my friend Donald Trump in a tweet. He says, "In honor of my friend, at real Donald Trump and good hearted maniacs everywhere." And he plays --

(CROSSTALK)

KOSIK: "Flashdance."

ROMANS: "Flashdance." I mean --

BRADNER: Yes.

ROMANS: That's going to be stuck in my head, Eric, all day. This song, I'm not going to get rid of this song. So this could -- so what do you make of the comeback? What do you make of this comeback?

BRADNER: Yes, yes -- no. So Ted Cruz, for someone who's like so willing to fight with Republicans on Capitol Hill, he is just bear hugging Donald Trump. In fact, that's the word that he used in some audio that was leaked last week. He is -- he's bear hugging Donald Trump. He's sticking so close to him, avoiding fights no matter what it takes because Ted Cruz's path to the nomination involves at some point sort of inheriting these Donald Trump supporters.

He sees insults and Trump competing for the same pool of people. And that's why he's like not willing to fight with Trump no matter what. Even if they trade sort of minor shots occasionally, Cruz is willing to sort of back off and smooth things out.

ROMANS: Right. BRADNER: And Trump sees that and Trump sort of respects that and

won't really go after Cruz. Trump considers himself a counter- puncher. He will say the nasty things about people, but only after they've insulted him. And he sees -- he sees Cruz backing off and then sort of says, OK, well, you know, now's not the time to fight with him. These two are going to have to face off, they're going to have to really clash at some point.

ROMANS: And it's going to be so interesting.

KOSIK: I think it's going to be on the debate stage tomorrow night.

ROMANS: We'll have to see. There is -- the stage is set. CNN has announced who's on the stage. You could see Rand Paul is there, so is Chris Christie added to that mix.

And Eric, you have 36 hours, 50 minutes and 54 second to figure out whether it's night or day in Vegas and get ready.

BRADNER: Yes.

ROMANS: Thank you so much, sir. Nice to see you. Thanks for getting up early for us.

All right. Nine minutes past the hour. Investigators combing a lake for clues in the California terror attacks. We've got new developments next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:32] KOSIK: FBI dive teams wrapping up a three-day search at the bottom of a lake just north of San Bernardino, California. They were looking for evidence that might have been dumped there by Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. Those are the two who murdered 14 people earlier this month. But investigators recovered nothing related to the investigation.

We get more now from CNN's Ana Cabrera in San Bernardino.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Alison, we are here at the makeshift memorial set up near where the shooting happened. This is a tribute to the 14 people who lost their lives. Their funerals have begun and many of them have been laid to rest now.

This as the Department of Environmental Health where many of them worked is set to reopen today. And as the community moves forward and tries to heal, the investigation continues. Over the weekend, investigators wrapped up their search of a murky lake near the crime scene and we've learned it yielded no evidence that was connected to this case but they aren't giving up finding that missing hard drive or the data that was on it.

In fact they will now be working with Internet providers to try to pull some of the records connected to the killers' IP addresses.

Now we're also learning more about their online communications. The "New York Times" reporting American law enforcement sources have found social media postings made by Tashfeen Malik, one of the killers, prior to her even coming into the U.S. Now according to the "New York Times" these postings talk about violent jihad that she supports and even wants to be part of it.

[05:15:03] And they are saying she made no effort to conceal her views yet it wasn't caught through the background checks that she had prior to getting her visa when she came here in 2014.

And why was that the case? Because they weren't checking social media. U.S. officials say that just wasn't part of the screening process. She had three background checks that did not look at social media.

Since that time, we have learned that U.S. officials are looking at social media as part of their screening process for visas for applicants of specific countries. It just wasn't happening at that time. And now the Obama administration has ordered a thorough review of the visa application process -- Christine, Alison.

ROMANS: All right, Ana Cabrera. Thank you for that, Ana.

Happening today, President Obama dropping by the Pentagon for a progress report on the war against ISIS. The White House says he will meet with his national security team for an update. But no major policy announcement are expected. But the president will follow the meeting with some public remarks. It's the next phase in his campaign to reassure a nervous American public that his counterterrorism strategy is working.

In his weekly media address, the president highlighted the killing of two ISIS leaders by U.S. strikes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our airstrikes are hitting ISIL harder than ever in Iraq and Syria. We're taking out more of their fighters and leaders, their weapons, their oil tankers. Our special operations forces are on the ground because we are going to hunt down these terrorists wherever they try to hide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The next stop in the president's reassurance campaign is a visit to the National Counterterrorism Center on Thursday.

KOSIK: Secretary of State John Kerry in Europe meeting with world leaders to secure a peace deal in Libya and stop the spread of ISIS there. Representatives of 17 nations, including Libya's two rival governments expected to sign an agreement Wednesday in Morocco. The Libyans will then have 40 days to form a unity government. Kerry heads to Moscow Wednesday. There he's going to be meeting with President Vladimir Putin to discuss the crisis in Syria and Russia's military buildup in Ukraine.

ROMANS: All right. It is a huge week for your money. An important week here. European shares are up. U.S. stock futures are higher, too. What's the big deal? The Federal Reserve's big interest rate decision comes Wednesday. Unless the Fed surprises absolutely everyone. Higher interest rates are finally here. It has not been smooth sailing leading up to this expected first rate hike in a decade. The Dow finished down 3.3 percent last week. Both the Dow and the S&P are down for the year.

You know, the reason, though, it's not about the Fed actually. It's oil. Oil prices in steep decline. Hammered in recent weeks. Down 11 percent just last week alone. For one week move, that's unbelievable. Hovering around $35 a barrel this morning, near a seven-year low. You've got supply booming, global demand is weakening. And those weak, weak energy prices are really shaking up investors' outlook.

So, look, interest rates are going to start rising gradually. It will likely be a small move this week, but still a milestone. And as they go up, as those rates go up, nearly everyone will feel it. If you were on the fence about buying a home, you know, and rates are the reason that you're waiting --

KOSIK: Kind of want to step up and get to it.

ROMANS: Yes. But rates I think are going to rise very, very slowly. And I think they'll rise slowly next week.

KOSIK: There's no need to panic.

ROMANS: Yes. So you'll still have a pretty decent chance to lock in a rate next year, too. But if you're refinancing now, do it.

KOSIK: All right. The playoff chase coming into focus in the NFL. The defending champion, Patriots, punching their ticket to the post season while the Carolina Panthers try to stay perfect. Coy Wire has this morning's "Bleacher Report" next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:51] KOSIK: In last -- last night's primetime game, I'm all tongue tied, Tom Brady and the Patriots showed that they are back in the driver's seat and heading toward the playoffs. Coy Wire has more on last night's huge win in the "Bleacher Report."

ROMANS: Good morning.

KOSIK: Good morning.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: Good morning, Alison and Christine. There are only a few things you can count on in life. The sun rising in the east and definitely the Patriots in the playoffs. New England traveled to Texas to take on the Texans. An injury bug had bitten Tom Brady's boys lately. The big reason why they were looking to avoid their first three-game losing streak since 2002. Well, Brady had Rob Gronkowski and Gronk does what he does best. The Pats flanked the Texans, 27-6. Clinching a playoff spot for the seventh straight season. Now Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers, they seem to be getting

better and better as their perfect season continues. Newton went for the knockout early against my former team the Falcons. Come on, man. The guy has put 21 points on the board in the first quarter. Two of the haymakers here. From Ted Ginn, Jr. They would go on to win 38-0. They clinched a first round bye in the playoffs. Carolina now only the ninth team in NFL history to go 13-0. And that's worth dabbing about.

All right. Johnny Manziel, he's had more ups and downs in his career than an elevator operator. The Browns' quarterback back in the starting lineup. And things didn't start out so well. He threw this snug interception in the first half. And then he would go on and punish himself and the tablet on the sidelines. Manziel would come back and totally redeem himself. He played one of the better games of his NFL career. Cleveland goes on to beat the Niners, 24-10. That's their first win since October 11th, snapping a seven-game losing streak.

Finally Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook is a human highlight reel. Seven tenths of a second remaining in the half, then he puts on a one-man show. Watch this again. He sinks the fade away jumper, it bounces off Rodney Hood's back.

KOSIK: My god.

ROMANS: What?

WIRE: He catches it. Doesn't even need his teammates, guys. The Thunder were still down 13 to the Jazz. But that would spark a second half comeback. Fuel to that fire, though, check this out.

[05:25:01] This would spark the epic comeback. A fan from half-court for $20,000. Money. No one had made that shot in two years at Thunders' game.

KOSIK: Awesome.

WIRE: So everybody in the house went wild. The best part, the Thunder would storm back to beat the Jazz in overtime, 104-98.

Christine, Alison, pretty cool stuff.

ROMANS: I love it.

KOSIK: Very cool. Money for the money shot.

ROMANS: I love it when the regular guy gets 20,000 grand. I just love that. It's like it just works, it works. What a great gimmick. All right. Thanks so much, Coy.

WIRE: Absolutely. You're welcome, guys.

ROMANS: All right. A big shakeup in the polls causing a new feud among Republicans running for president just one day ahead of CNN's debate. Yes, if you want to countdown with us, it's right there. You've got 36 hours, folks.

We're breaking it all down, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: A big shake up in the polls. Just one day to go before the CNN Republican presidential debate. Which candidate is now being targeted by his competitor?

KOSIK: President Obama meeting with military advisers in just hours from now, working to reassure the public that the White House strategy in the war against ISIS is working.

Happy Monday and welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.

ROMANS: It is Monday. I'm Christine Romans.