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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Taking Shots at Hillary; Suicide Bomber Kills 6 US Soldiers in Afghanistan; New Information in Vegas Crowd Crash; Texas Police Continue Search for Ethan Couch; Clean Up Begins in Shenzhen, China. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired December 22, 2015 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:30:23] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump on the attack launching new insults at Hillary Clinton and it's getting very personal.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, six U.S. soldiers killed by a terrorist in Afghanistan. New information on the attack and the safety of American troops there.
ROMANS: And we have new information about the woman who accused of plowing into dozens of pedestrians on the Vegas strip. Way may have motivated that attack.
Welcome to "Early Start." I'm Christine Romans.
SANCHEZ: And I'm Boris Sanchez. Happy to be here Christine.
We're half past the hour and we start with Donald Trump taking the 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 Obama. And he stopped himself in the middle of the attack on Clinton for the late return after a bathroom break on Saturday night's debate. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know where she went. It's disgusting. I don't want to talk about it. 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 is been loses if you took a look. Even a raise 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)
SANCHEZ: Meantime, the Clinton campaign is pushing back against Trump demand for an apology following Saturday night Democratic debate. The Republican says that Clinton was lying when she called him an ISIS recruitment tool.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is traveling with Trump and has latest.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL 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 Trump in videos to recruit fighters. Now Donald Trump wasting no time. Hitting right back calling Clinton a liar since these claims that she made, there is no evidence to confirm them and demanding an apology.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And you see Hillary. I mean, did you watch that? 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. It turned out to be a lie. She's a liar. It turned out to be a lie. Turned out to be a lie. And the last person that she wants to run against is me, believe 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 Trumps rhetoric as on social media as a tool for propaganda.
Now the Clinton campaign asked if they will apologize, if she will apologize. Her spokesperson saying quote "Hell no." Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing. Now for Trump, this line of attack against Hillary Clinton really helps him fire up his base.
And although he will be have a little Christmas vacation with his family in Florida for the next week, I suspect this is not the last we've heard from Trump on this. Boris and Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Sunlen Serfaty in Michigan now with the Trump campaign. Thank you, Sunlen.
Another shake up in the Republican presidential contest this morning. As South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham announces he is dropping out. He is known for his ready wit and his hawkish foreign policy stances. Graham never really caught on even among establishment Republicans. Throughout his campaign, he polled in the low single digits.
Now in an exit interview with our Kate Boldwin, Graham is criticizing the party two-tier debate structure. Those numbers kept him on the under card stage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The people like what I say, but not many people hear it. This whole process started in a kind of strange way. You could not get on the main stage unless you polled at a certain level. If you never run before, that is hard. If you don't come from a political family, that is hard. If you come from a small state, versus a state, that's pretty hard. If you got a lot of money you're going to do better. So here is what I would advise the Republican Party to do in the future. Never do this again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Word from another Republican candidate 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. The spokesman told the journal of the campaign spent more than it raised because it prepaid for some direct mail and advertising. The documents also show the Carson campaign was spending most of its income to reach new donors.
ROMANS: Even with the Graham following earlier. The Republican out the door, there are so plenty of candidates to go around folks.
[04:35:02] This morning Ted Cruz headlines a rally in Knoxville, Tennessee. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, it will all be something in New Hampshire with town halls all over the state.
Some Democrats will duel today in Iowa. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are holding town halls across the state. Hillary Clinton will end up this afternoon this evening in Bettendorf to say will Clinton's last day on the trail before Christmas.
SANCHEZ: This morning we're learning new details about a Taliban suicide attack that killed six U.S. service forces serving as part of NATO mission supporting Afghanistan forces. It's a sign of increasing violence in Afghanistan one year after the U.S. officially ended combat operations there.
CNN's Alexandra Field is following developments and and joins us now. Alex, the Taliban taking credit for the attack via Twitter. What exactly happened?
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we know that this happened in the middle of the afternoon on a Monday. A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle in Bagram. Targeting a joint patrol of Afghanistan security forces And NATO's security forces.u.s. Six service members killed in the attack. All six of them Americans, Three other is also wounded, we're learning that.
Among the dead was former New York City policy detective Joseph Lemm along with being a veteran of the police force, he'd also search two tours of duty in Afghanistan, one tour duty in Iraq has air national guards man. They currently some 12,000 NATO. Service members who are in the country, 25 of them, have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, Boris.
SANCHEZ: You mentioned the thousands of NATO soldiers that are still there. There have been pleas for help or assistance as the Taliban continues to make advances. How concerned are officials about keeping those troops out of harm's way?
FIELD: Look, the Afghan security forces are in charge of the country's security. But there is a NATO team now which includes a small number of U.K. service members who have deployed to Helmand Province as the Taliban ratchets up their attacks in the area specifically in the Sangin district for a local officials are saying the Taliban has taken control of nearly the entire district. It's a strategic area, it also holds a great deal deal significance because it's a place that British and U.S. forces fought to secure for years before handing over operations to Afghan just a year ago. Boris.
SANCHEZ: All right, Alex Field reporting live in situation in Afghanistan. Thank you. >
ROMANS: Iraq 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., their intelligence estimate had the number of ISIS militants dug into the city center at 200 to 300. A defense ministry spokesman says, ISIS is preventing civilians from leaving Ramadi in order to using them as human shields.
SANCHEZ: With the flow of Syrian refugees to the west. The crisis levels, President Obama is planning a U.N. summit on the global migrant crisis for next year. The 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 to garner more humanitarian aid from other countries and private sector as well.
ROMANS: Iran blaming Israel for a New U.S. law requiring anyone who is visiting Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan from visiting the United States without a visa. This new security measure follows ISIS attack in Paris and in San Bernardino.
Now, Iran which strongly opposes ISIS claim it was added to that list after a congressional lobbying by Israel. Secretary of State John Kerry has reassured Iran though the White House can waive the visa requirement in individual cases.
SANCHEZ: The army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl set for arraignment out of hearing today. He is facing a court martial on charges of desertion and endangering fellow soldiers after leaving his Afghanistan army base in 2008. He was captured by the Tilaban and held for five years until a controversial prisoner swap.
ROMANS: All right about 39 minutes past the hour this Tuesday morning, it's time for an early start on your money folks. Stocks are up in Asia. European shares are higher. U.S. futures are down just a little bit here. Yesterday was a good day for the Dow at 123 points. The S&P 500, the Nasdaq also closed about 1 percent higher trying to claw back from last weeks loses.
A key to the stability in stock is the pause in oil bare market. A bare look crude right now up about 1 percent sitting above $36 a barrel, right now.
The Centers for Disease Control, the CDC investigating another outbreak of E. Coli linked to Chipotle. The outbreak is linked to Kansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma. Three states not included in an earlier outbreak. That left dozen in nine states ill. About 140 people also got sick after norovirus and episode of norovirus had Chipotle in Boston. Chipotle has already starting implementing new food safety measures.
SANCHEZ: This is really starting to hurt their brand.
ROMANS: Yeah, it is, really.
SANCHEZ: New information revealed about the woman police say drove into dozens of people on the Las Vegas Strip.
[04:40:02] Details on that next.
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ROMANS: A judge could decide as early as today whether they proceed with the case against the 24-year-old Oregon woman who allegedly slammed into dozen of people on the Vegas Strip, killing a young mother from Arizona and wounding several others.
We get the latest now from CNN Correspondent Ryan Young.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Boris. Look, the big question here from a lot of people is why did this have to happen? Of course that suspect was taken into custody. But so many people witnessed this. They won't be able to get that out of their minds. In fact, so many witnesses talked about the idea of this woman ramming into the people over and over again. And that something they were horrified to see.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUSTIN COCHRANE WITNESS: The was busting through people. There was just thudding. And the sound was -- so I'd say 30 maybe. I thought it might be a little faster, but it seemed like it was going pretty faster. People were flying. This child that I saw literally hit. The sound I'll never forget. It is horrible. And it just never stopped. Those people who wasn't hitting cars. It was hitting people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: The sheriff's tell us that Lakeisha Holloway will be charged with murder. There will be court appearance tomorrow. They'll be a probably cost 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 was in protective custody.
What the sheriff's department believes is this woman was homeless for a short period of time 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 on those 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 ramming into people. Boris and Christine.
SANCHEZ: All right, Ryan, thank you.
Breaking overnight. A Texas grand jury deciding not to indict anyone in connection with Sandra Bland's death, the 28-year-old who was found hanging from a noose made from a plastic bag in her cell the Waller County jail. She was incarcerated after allegedly assaulting an officer during a traffic stop in July.
[04:45:10] Police say she committed suicide, but her family disputes that. The grand jury will reconvene in early January to take up any remaining issues in the case. In the meantime, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders slamming the decision saying "There's no doubt in my mind that she, like too many other African-Americans who die in police custody, would be alive today if she were a white woman."
ROMANS: The Baltimore officer who's trial in the death of Freddie Gray ended in hung jury goes before a judge today. Official say William Porter will be retried in June. Porter was the first of six officers to be tried and connection with Grays death from a spinal injury while in police custody. That proceeding ended in a mistrial.
SANCHEZ: 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 protest band 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 for Black Lives Matter say regardless of any legal issues, this protest will go on as planned.
ROMAN: A friend of the San Bernardino attackers Syed Rizwan Farook, is being held without bail. A federal judge ruled in Monday that Enrique Marquez remains "Danger to the community."
The 24-year-old accused of buying riffles Farook and Tashfeen Malik used in that attack and 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, he's accused of entering into a sham marriage with the member of Farook extended family. He has not enter a plea, he's do back in court next month.
SANCHEZ: The hunt is on for the mom of the so called "affluenza teen." Texas official have released photos of this pickup trunk belonging to Tonya Couch. She and her son Ethan have been missing for more than a week.
You probably remember Ethan was 16-year-old when he killed four pedestrian in a drunk driving crash. And his lawyer at the time told the court the teenager didn't understand the consequence of his actions because of his parent's wealth. A syndrome his lawyer called affluenza. Ethan was sentence to 10 years probation in 2013, but he is apparently failed to check in with authorities for at least a week. A requirement under his sentence. Authorities say they are doing all they can to track down both Ethan and his mother Tonya.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERIFF DEE ANDERSON, 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. We don't have solid information. What we're doing is trying to keep everything centralize and know what everyone is doing, which is very difficult when the case is spread out so far.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Authorities believe Ethan took off after the Tarrant County district attorney office became proving this video that surfaced online allegedly showing drinking at a party. They believe he likely fled the country and right now it's unclear if his mom is with him.
ROMANS: All right, Bill Cosby hitting another one of his accusers with a defamation lawsuit. This time the comedian targeting supermodel Beverly Johnson. Cosby said he never drugged and never tried to rape her in his New York home in the mid 1980s. The lawsuit says Johnson joined the dozens of women making these accusations against him to promote her career and sell her own memoir.
SANCHEZ: Forget the ugly sweaters. Get your board shorts, Hawaiian shirts, sandals ready for Christmas. We could see Christmas eve...
ROMANS: Sunscreen.
SANCHEZ: ... we could see Christmas eve in the 70s. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has the details.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Boris and Christine, good morning guys. Yes, you know, we know the 70s are in the four cast across parts of the country and into the northeast. But of course just a couple of hours ago we tansitioned into the northern hemisphere entering the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year is upon us. Good news with this is if you like longer days, beginning tomorrow every single day gets longer. We don't need that the warmer temperatures up.
Look what happened in New York City, we shot up to 72 degrees on Thursday afternoon with cloudy conditions. Christmas day, some showers come in. Temperatures drop in the 60s. But I want you to notice something here. See these temperatures? The overnight low temperatures from Christmas eve and into Christmas morning, they're about 20 degrees above what your afternoon high temperatures should be. Incredible warmth across parts of the northeastern U.S.
31 to 32 degrees above what is normal are on D.C. even Atlanta at 74 degrees. They should be down in the lower 50s. And again, this is in line with what you expect el nino season when it comes to a mild December. That remains to be true for January across the northern states and also in February, while the southern states transition out of the warmth into cooler temperatures.
And of course we know we've set over 6,000 record warm temperatures. Across that for the month of December, across the country, but the pattern guys will not be sunny, it'll be a lot of rainfall headed our way. So if you have travel plans, keep that in mind with the shaggy (ph) setup across the eastern side of the country.
ROMANS: I do know a guy who has big travel plans this week. He's name is Santa Claus.
SANCHEZ: Yeah.
[04:50:01] ROMANS: And I'm wonder if this is going to effects the sled. You are from Florida. Santa manages comes although there is no snow.
SANCHEZ: I guess he's got an SUV, a wagon, you know, maybe new holiday (ph) drags over just surrounded...
ROMANS: I think beautiful. Nice, nice.
All right, 50 minutes past the hour. I'm breaking up for now. The falcon lands to overwhelming applause, the scene is incredible.
SpaceX confirming their rocket landed safely at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This is the first time in history a large rocket has delivered a spacecraft to orbit and returned to earth intact. Elon musk says, excuse me reusable rockets are key to exploring space on the cheap. Development could enable more mission and make exploration as far as Mars on more a realistic goal, very cool.
SANCHEZ: Yes, sooner it'll be in Millennium Falcon and there will be Wookies, and Chewbacca. We're almost there.
ROMANS: Different (ph) a Falcon. What were people are getting ready to the high speed internet in their home we're going to tell you why in Early Start and new money is next.
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SANCHEZ: Frantic rescue operations ongoing in China they find nearly 80 people missing after a manmade mountain of construction waste collapses. Now learning the company in charge of that waste dumped (ph) alerted the local government about safety concerns almost a year ago.
CNN's Matt Rivers is live in Shenzhen for us. Good morning, Matt. The company filed a report with the municipal govern in January saying "The acceleration of urbanization is making an impossible to keep up with the amount of trash they are producing. So why was nothing done?
[04:55:00] MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the question that everyone here is wondering. Including the 4,000 or so rescue personnel that are out here in a very dangerous situation trying to find the roughly 80 or so people that remain missing at this point, night is falling in China and so that makes their job that much tougher.
We do know that the figures, if there is any good news, here there were 91 people missing not long ago. 15 people have since actually reached out to authorities and to tell them that they were not involved in the incident. So the number is going down. But that said, every hour that goes by, every day that goes by, this is now two and a half days after this happened, the likelihood of finding someone alive beneath the rubble gets that much smaller.
SANCHEZ: So very somber news there. Just looking at the video of that wreck, that kind of area all around where the landslide happened is impressive. How long could rescue operations take to complete?
RIVERS: They are expected to take several weeks. Now, right now it is still deemed officially a rescue operation. Not a recovery operation. But that moniker will likely change in the next 24 to 48 hours or so. For now, though this is a rescue operation. But it will take weeks and weeks and weeks to clean this up. 380,000 square meters is the total size of the landslide.
And then of course, after that, the big question that everyone has here is what caused this and how can we prevent it from happening in the future? Whether we get to the bottom of that or not, this is China, after all, where things are not always on the up and up. Boris.
SANCHEZ: Very good point. Matt reporting in Shenzhen. Thank you.
Air France passenger is now out of custody after being detained in connection with the fake bomb found in the bathroom on the flight from Mauritius. France official 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 passenger eventually brought to France on a different jet.
ROMANS: Let's get an Early Start on your money this Tuesday morning. Stocks are up in Asia. So European shares here in U.S. futures stock, futures pointing down a little bit. But we'll see what happens at the opening bell. Because yesterday was a good day.
The Dow added 125 points, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also closed about one percent higher. The market is still trying to bounce back from last week's losses. A key to stability is stock these days is the pause. A pause in oil's bear market. You've got a barrel of crude right now up 1 percent sitting above $36, right now.
Broadband internet use is on the way down. That's according to a Pew study. 67 percent of Americans have high speed internet at home today that's compared to 70 percent two years ago. So what's changed? Well, customers say broadband services are too expensive and more people are using their smartphones to the access internet.
Apple pushing back against pressure in soften encryption on it's product after the attacks in San Bernardino and Paris politician are pressing for more access to iPhone communications. But Apple's CEO Tim Cook says, it's just not that simple. He says Apple cannot give government back to access to iChat and FaceTime conversations without leaving the phone vulnerable to hackers.
SANCHEZ: As more and more of these attacks happening you've got to walk that fine tightrope of security versus privacy.
Early Start continues right now.
ROMANS: Donald Trump in Michigan on the attack launching new insults at Hillary Clinton and it's getting very personal.
SANCHEZ: Six U.S. troops killed by a terrorist in Afghanistan. But we're now learning about the attack.
ROMANS: And we have new information on the woman accused of mowing down dozens of pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip. That killing a mother of three. What police believe led to that assault.
Good morning. And welcome to "Early Start." I'm Christine Romans. Nice to be with you.
SANCHEZ: I'm Boris Sanchez. It's Tuesday December 22nd just before 5:00 a.m. on the east coast.
We start with 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 returned from a bathroom break during Saturday night's debate. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I know where she went. It's disgusting. I don't want to talk about it. 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 is been loses if you took a look. Even a raise 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)
SANCHEZ: Meantime, the Clinton campaign is pushing back against Trump's demands for an apology. Following Saturday night Democratic debate, the Republican said that Clinton was lying when she called him an ISIS recruitment tool.
CNN Sunlen Serfaty is traveling with the Trump campaign she has the latest.
[05:00:05] SERFATY: 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 --
