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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Taking Shots at Hillary; New Information in Vegas Crowd Crash; Texas Police Continue Search for Ethan Couch; Clean Up Begins in Shenzhen, China. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 22, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:17] BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump on the attack, launching new insults at Hillary Clinton and it's getting very personal.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Six U.S. troops killed by a terrorist in Afghanistan, what we're learning this morning about that attack.

SANCHEZ: And new information on the woman accused of mowing down dozens of pedestrians on the Las Vegas strip. What police believe led to that assault.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START.

I'm Boris Sanchez.

ROMANS: Nice to see this morning Boris.

I'm Christine Romans.

It is Tuesday. It is December 22nd, 4:00 a.m. in the east.

Let's begin with politics. First, Donald Trump taking his attacks on Hillary Clinton to a whole new level, in a speech last night in Michigan, Trump used vulgar language to describe Clinton's 2008 primary loss to Barack Obama. And he stopped himself in the middle of an attack on Clinton for her late return from a bathroom break during Saturday night's debate, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know where she went. It's disgusting. I don't want to talk about it. No, it's too disgusting. Don't say it. It's disgusting, let's not talk -- we want to be very, very straight up, OK.

Everything that's been involved in Hillary's losses, you take a look. Even her race to Obama, she was going to beat Obama. I don't know who would be worse, I don't know, how does it get worse? But she was going to beat, she was favored to win and she got schlonged, she lost.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Clinton campaign is pushing back against Trump's demand for an apology, he's demanding she apologize, the Republican says Clinton was lying when she called him an ISIS recruitment tool.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, she is traveling with the Trump campaign. And she brings us the latest this morning.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Boris and Christine.

Well, Donald Trump is really trying to capitalize on these comments made by Hillary Clinton claims that she made in Saturday's debate that ISIS is using Donald Trump in videos to recruit fighters.

Donald Trump really wasting no time hitting right back calling Clinton a liar, since the claims that she made, there's no evidence to confirm them and demanding an apology.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And you see Hillary, I mean did you -- what happened to her? Now she's terrible. She's terrible.

Donald Trump is on video and ISIS is using him on the video to recruit. And it turned out to be a lie. She's a liar. No, it turned out to be a lie. It turned out to be a lie. And the last person that she wants to run against is me, believe me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And the Clinton campaign is pushing right back defending her claim. They said she wasn't referring to a specific video, but rather ISIS using Trump's rhetoric on social media as a tool for propaganda.

Now the Clinton campaign asked if they will apologize, if she will apologize her spokesman saying "Hell no, Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing."

Now for Trump, this line of attack against Hillary Clinton really, helped him fire up his base. And although he will be having a little Christmas vacation with his family in Florida for the next week, I suspect this is not the last we heard from Trump on this. Boris and Christine?

SANCHEZ: Probably not Sunlen, thank you.

Another shake up in the Republican presidential contest this morning is South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham announces he is dropping out, known for his ready wit, and hawkish foreign policy stances.

Graham never really caught on even among establishment Republican throughout his campaign. He polled in the low single digits.

And now in an exit interview with CNN's Kate Bolduan. Graham is criticizing the party's two tier debate structure based on poll numbers that kept him on the under card stage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some people like what I say, but not many people hear it.

This whole process started in a kind of strange way. You couldn't get on the main stage unless you polled at a certain level. Well if you never run before, it's pretty hard and fury. If you don't come from a political family, that's pretty hard. If you come from a small state versus a large state, that's hard. If you got a lot of money, you'll going to do better.

So here's what I would advise for Republican Party to do in the future, never do this again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Those words this morning that the Ben Carson campaign is bleeding cash according to internal budget documents reviewed by the Wall Street journal.

The Carson campaign raised $8.8 million in October and spent &700,000 more than that.

Spokesman told the journal that the campaign spent more than it raised because it prepaid for some direct mail and advertising.

The documents show that Carson campaign was spending most of its income to reach new donors.

SANCHEZ: And with Lindsey Graham following earlier Republicans out the door, there still plenty of candidates to go around.

This morning, Ted Cruz headlines a rally in Knoxville Tennessee. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Marco Rubio will all be stumping in New Hampshire with town halls all over the state.

[04:05:05] And some Democrats will do in Iowa today, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton holding town halls there.

Today will be Clinton's last day on the trail actually before Christmas.

ROMANS: Hillary Clinton is raking in money from Wall Street in her attempts to downplay it are under fire.

In Saturday night's debate Clinton said "About 3 percent of my donations come from people in the finance and investment world. You can go to opensecrets.org and check that.

While OpenSecrets added for December (ph) and its verdicts. Clinton was wrong on those numbers it says 7.2 percent of Clinton donations come from Wall Street. So where did Clinton get the 3 percent from -- some fuzzy math says OpenSecrets.

Clinton has received $2 million from Wall Street. And yes, that's workout to just under 3 percent of her donations. But OpenSecrets added that donations from Wall Street commercial banks and super pacs, all that makes up 7.2 percent of her fund raising total.

SANCHEZ: This morning, we're learning new details about a Taliban suicide attack that killed six U.S. service members serving as part of a NATO mission supporting Afghan force.

It's a sign of increasing violence in Afghanistan, one year after the U.S. officially ended combat operations there.

CNN Alexandra Field is following developments and joins us now with the latest.

Alex, we understand one of the victims was an NY -- New York City police officer, in should say, what else do we know about what happened?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right this is an attack that was carried out in Bagram by a suicide bomber who was riding a motorcycle. The target was a joint patrol between Afghan security forces and NATO coalition forces.

Six Americans killed, three others injured among them that former NYPD Detective Joseph Lemm. He was not only a veteran of New York's police force, he had also served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and another tour of duty in Iraq.

With these six deaths, there had now been 25 NATO service members killed in Afghanistan just this year. There are currently 12,000 NATO service members in the country. Boris.

SANCHEZ: And Alex, there are reports often pleas for help as the Taliban continues to make aggressive advances in the Helmand province. How concerned are officials about the situation there?

FIELD: Well concerned enough that we're learning this morning that a small number of British troops have deployed to Helmand province as part of a NATO team that will act not the combat role since we in the advisory role for afghan security forces after fighting with the Taliban has intensified particularly over the last few days, you got local officials in Helmand province who are expressing great concerns about the Taliban in roads there, they're specifically concerned about the Sangin district where local officials say the Taliban has taken over nearly the entire district.

This is a strategically important area as it provides routes to the north. It's also an area that American and British forces worked to secure for years before NATO handed over security operations to the afghan's just a year ago. Boris.

SANCHEZ: And tough to believe after all these years we're still struggling in Afghanistan.

Alex Field, reporting live, thank you.

Iraq's armed forces announcing plans to retake the city of Ramadi from ISIS militants "Within the coming hours, a top army official tells Iraqi state T.V. that their intelligence estimates pegged the number of ISIS militants dug into the city center at 200 to 300.

But defense ministry spokesman says ISIS is preventing civilians from leaving Ramadi and get this -- in order to use them as human shields.

ROMANS: With the flow of Syrian refugees to the west at crisis levels, President Obama is planning a U.N. summit on the global migrant crisis next year.

Administration official say the summit during the annual general assembly will cap the president's work on the refugee crisis during his final year in office. They say the president will lead a vigorous effort as they call it to garner more humanitarian aid from other countries and private sector.

SANCHEZ: Iran is blaming Israel for a new U.S. law requiring anyone who was visited Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan from visiting the United States without a visa.

The new security measure follows ISIS in attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. Iran would strongly opposes ISIS claims. It was added to the list after congressional law being by Israel.

The Secretary of State John Kerry has reassured Iran the White House can waive the visa requirement in certain individual cases.

ROMANS: Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl is set for this arraignment at a hearing today, he is facing a court martial on charges of desertion and endangering fellow soldiers after leaving his Afghanistan army base back in 2009.

He was captured by the Taliban he was held for five years until this what you're seeing there that controversial prisoner swap.

SANCHEZ: New information about the woman accused of plowing into dozens of pedestrians on the Vegas strip.

[04:09:41] Details on that next.

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SANCHEZ: A judge could decide as early as today whether to proceed with the case against the 24-year-old Oregon woman who allegedly slammed into dozens of people on the Las Vegas strip killing a young mom from Arizona and wounding several others including children.

The latest now from CNN Correspondent, Ryan Young.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Boris, look the big question here for a lot of people is why did this have to happen? Of course that suspect was taken in to custody.

But so many people witnessed this, they won't be able to get that out on their minds. In fact so many witnesses talked about the idea of this woman ramming into the people over and over again. And it's something they were horrified to see.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN COCHRANE, WITNESS: There was busting their people. They were just thudding, the sound was -- so I'd 30 maybe. And I was thought it might be a little faster. But it seemed like it was going pretty fast.

People were flying. This child I saw literally hit. And the sound, I'll never forget. It's horrible. And it's just never stopped. It was people -- he wasn't hitting cars, it was hitting people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: And there she is, tell us that Lakeisha Holloway will be charged with murder. There will be a court appearance tomorrow. There'll be a palpable cause here and the judge will look over some of the evidence that's involved in this case.

The 3-year-old child that was inside that car, we do know is in protective custody. What the sheriff's department believes is this woman was homeless for a short period after having some sort of dispute within her life, and that at some point, she came here to the strip and started driving her car into people.

They are leaving the idea of terrorism still open in this case, but at this point, people are still trying to figure out exactly what happened that led this woman to the strip before she started to ramming into the people. Boris and Christine?

ROMANS: All right Ryan, thank you for that. Keep us posted.

Breaking over night, a Texas grand jury deciding not to indict anyone in connection with Sandra Bland's death, she was the 28-year-old, he was found hanging from a noose made from a plastic bag in her cell at the Wahler County Jail.

She was incarcerated after allegedly assaulting an officer during a traffic stop. Police say she committed suicide. Her family disputes that.

[04:15:06] The grand jury will reconvene in early January to take up the remaining issues in the case. The video of her being yelled at to get out of her car was widely, widely, widely seen.

Democratic Candidate Bernie Sanders is slamming the decision saying "There's no doubt in my mind that she, like too many African-Americans who die in police custody, would be alive today if she were a white woman."

SANCHEZ: The Baltimore officer who's trial in the death of Freddie Gray ended in a hung jury goes back before a judge today.

Official say William Porter will be retried in June, remember Porter was the first of six officers to be tried in connection with Gray's death of a spinal injury when he was in police custody. That proceeding ended in a mistrial.

ROMANS: A judge today expected to rule on whether a temporary restraining order should be granted against leaders of Black Lives Matter. The Mall of America is calling for a protest ban saying the group is using social media to organize a demonstration at the mall on Wednesday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Leaders of Black Lives Matter say regardless of any legal issues, the protest will go on as planned.

SANCHEZ: A friend of the San Bernardino attacker Syed Rizwan Farook is being held without bail.

A federal judge ruled Monday that Enrique Marquez remains a "Danger to the community."

The 24-year-old is accused of buying the riffles that Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik used in the attack that killed 14 people at a social services center earlier this month before they died in a shootout with police.

Marquez, also allegedly planned two other terror attacks with Farook and entered into a sham marriage with a member of Farook's extended family. He has not entered a plea and is due back in court next month.

ROMANS: The hunt is on for the mother of the so called "Affluenza teen."

Texas officials have released photos of a pickup truck belonging to Tonya Couch. She and her son Ethan have been missing for more a week.

Ethan was 16-years-old when he killed four pedestrians in a drunk driving crash.

His lawyer at the time -- his lawyer told the court the teenager did not understand the consequences of his actions because his parents wealth, A syndrome which his lawyer termed "Affluenza."

Ethan was sentenced to 10 years probation, in 2013 but he's apparently failed to check in with authorities for at least a week, that is a requirement under his sentence.

Authorities say they're doing all they can to track down both Ethan and his mother.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEE ANDERSON, SHERIFF, TARRANT COUNTY, TX.: We have literally over the past few days run down hundreds and hundreds of leads. Those leads continue to pour in. I know the big question all of you have is do we know where he is and have we located him?

Unfortunately, the answer to that is, no, we have not. But we don't have any solid information.

What we're doing is trying to keep everything centralized and know what everyone is doing, which is very difficult when the case is spread out so far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Authorities believe Ethan took off after the Tarrant County district attorney's office began probing this a video that surface online, allegedly showing him drinking at a party. They believe he likely fled the country.

Right now, it's unclear if his mom Tonya is with him.

SANCHEZ: Bill Cosby is hitting another one of his accusers with a defamation lawsuit. This time the comedian is targeting super model Beverly Johnson.

Cosby said he never drugged and tried to rape her at his New York home in the mid-1980s. The lawsuit said "Johnson joined a dozen of other women making accusations against him to promote her career and sell her memoir.

ROMANS: All right, its 18 minutes passed the hour this morning.

The northeast could see Christmas Eve temperatures in the 70s. I'm telling you, you got to wear the Hawaiian shirt.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has the latest.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Christine and Boris, good morning guys.

Yes, this is one of the more remarkable temperature trends I have ever seen when it comes to the later portion of December.

Pretty expansive area type pressure, let me look at this temperatures, we're talking 32 degrees above what is considered normal across Washington, D.C. a pair of 7's there on Christmas Eve, could make it up to about room temperature around New York City, a 31 above normal.

Now to put this in perspective take New York City's average temperature in July in the lower 80s, at 31 degrees to it. You're talking well into the 100 that is how anomalous these temperatures are above normal. And in fact in New York City on Christmas Eve a little bit warmer than Los Angeles were it should be close to 70, of course we should be close to 40 degrees.

And it kind of shows the flip flop nature of all of this, this has been the theme across this part of the country of course and really much of the eastern side of the U.S. with over 6,000 record warm temperatures set so far in month December.

All of this comes with a southerly flow in place. Meaning the moisture is there, the humidity is quite high it will certainly rain heavier times across the Deep South. It will squeeze out an inch or so around the Delmarva on portions of New England as well.

But the trend again as impressive as you will ever see it hopefully you enjoy it. It stays pretty warm for the next couple days. And we think more of the reality check there some time early next week possible in the forecast. ROMANS: All the reality check.

SANCHEZ: It's coming.

ROMANS: I think it's awesome. People are saving so much money on their heating oil bills. And the northeast right now usually you got the furnace just cranking and you just don't, so.

[04:20:05] SANCHEZ: I just still don't know how to match the Hawaiian shirt to the tie. It's going to be interesting. I don't know if the bosses will approve either but.

ROMANS: Oh, I dare you to try.

All right, breaking overnight, the Falcon lands to overwhelming applause, the scene incredible.

SpaceX confirming the rocket landed safely at Cape Canaveral airport station. It's the first time in history a large rocket has delivered a spacecraft to orbit and returned to earth in tact.

CEO Elon Musk have reusable rockets, a key to exploring space on the cheap, other development could enable more missions and makes exploration as far as Mars a more realistic goal.

SANCHEZ: A great celebration after several attempts, they finally got it to work.

A massive rescue effort is under way after a landslide buries dozens of people in China.

We will take you there live after the break.

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ROMANS: All right, to China now, where there are frantic rescue operations still ongoing.

They're trying to find nearly 80 people missing after this manmade mountain of waste collapses. We're now learning that the company in charge of the waste dump alerted the local government about safety concerns about almost a year ago.

CNN's Matt Rivers is live in Shenzhen for us with the very latest.

And just, just an unbelievable sight behind you.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, you are absolutely right. It was an unbelievable event here on Sunday, late morning local time. That pile of waste you are referring to is a mixture of earth and construction debris dumped and piled up nearly 20 story high according to state media here.

[04:25:12] And this is the aftermath just behind me. Let me give you a quick look of the live scene here. The area that rescue officials are combing through roughly 380,000 square meters, there are dozens of excavators out there, we are told by Chinese officials there are over 4,000 rescue personnel trying their best to see if there is anyone still alive in that rubble. But it is now two and a half days on after this incident happened. And so as each hour goes on, the chances of finding someone alive, becomes that much less.

ROMANS: Obviously, it's a human tragedy there Matt. And, you know, these industrial accidents all too frequent in China. A country that is growing so rapidly, it's economy has growing so rapidly for years. And in many cases you've got companies and municipal governments that really cutting corners.

How long could rescue operations take to complete here?

RIVERS: They could take weeks to finish up the clean up here. This is an absolutely massive scene behind me, but going to your point about industrial accidents. This accident does appeared to be completely preventible.

Now, whether it was because were not enough government inspections or because the company was negligent, we're not really sure at this point. The Chinese officials are not saying. But at the very least this clean up could take weeks.

Hopefully there are rescues before this clean up is all set and done. Christine.

ROMANS: Certainly hopefully they can find some people alive there and give some hope.

Thank you so much for that, Matt Rivers. Keep us posted.

SANCHEZ: Air France passenger is now out of police custody after being detained in connection with a fake bomb found in the bathroom on a flight from Mauritius.

French officials say the man who alerted police about the device and his wife were questioned, but neither were charged. The flight was force to land in Kenya with passengers eventually brought to France on a different jet.

ROMANS: All right, Donald Trump with new personal and vulgar insults for Hillary Clinton, the race for president.

All the latest next.

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