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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Demands Apology For ISIS "Lie"; Grand Jury: No Indictments In Sandra Bland's Death; Lindsey Graham Drops Out Of GOP Race; Six U.S. Service Members Killed In Afghanistan; Woman Held In Las Vegas Strip Rampage; Seventy Eight People Missing After China Landslide. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired December 22, 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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[05:31:22] BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Boris Sanchez.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. It's 31 minutes past the hour. Donald Trump is 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.

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. It's disgusting. We want to be very straight up. OK? Everything that's been involved in Hillary has been losses. Even a race with Obama, I don't know who would be worse. She was going to beat. She was favored to win and she lost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Meantime, the Clinton campaign pushing back against Trump's demands for an apology. The Republican says Clinton was lying when she called him an ISIS recruitment tool. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is traveling with the Trump campaign and she has the latest for us.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Boris and Christine. Donald Trump is really trying to capitalize on the comments made by Hillary Clinton, claims she made in Saturday's debate that ISIS is using Donald Trump in videos to recruit fighters.

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: You see Hillary. Did you watch that? What happened to her? 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 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. 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 she will apologize. Her spokesman saying, quote, "hell no," Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing. For Trump, this line of attack against Hillary Clinton really helps him fire up his base.

And although he will be having a 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.

SANCHEZ: All right, Sunlen, thank you for that.

Breaking overnight, a Texas grand jury is deciding not to indict anyone in connection with Sandra Bland's death. The 28-year-old 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 in July. Police say she committed suicide and her family disputes that. The grand jury will reconvene in early January to take up remaining issues in the case.

In the meantime, Democratic Bernie Sanders slamming the decision saying, quote, "There is 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."

ROMANS: Let's talk about the political action of the day and the week. Let's bring in political reporter, Eric Bradner. Good morning. Let's start with that story we were just telling you about. You know Bernie Sanders has weighed in on the Sandra Bland statement.

You heard what he said. He thinks she would be alive if she were a white woman. Do you think the Sandra Bland story -- what do you think he is trying to capture about the sad case? No indictments in that case.

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: All of the Democratic candidates have weighed in at certain points over the course of the campaign on the Sandra Bland case.

[05:35:02]It's something that they are definitely highlighting in an effort to appeal to African-Americans, which is something that Bernie Sanders has made a particular emphasis lately. You might remember he recently toured Atlanta and went to campaign rallies there with the rapper, Killer Mike, right. So this is an issue that the Democratic candidates know is an important to a big portion of their base and trying to speak to it in a way that politicians haven't before.

It is a particular challenge for someone like Sanders who does have a lot of appeal in wider more liberal states like Iowa and New Hampshire, but really needs to grow that nationally if he will have a chance to beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

SANCHEZ: All right, Eric, moving to this dispute between Trump and Hillary Clinton, Trump asking for an apology after she called him an ISIS recruiter because of videos of him were being shown to people, that fact kind of in the gray.

Donald Trump, again demanding that apology, but the Clinton campaign saying, quote, "Hell no." Here is a statement they put out saying, "Hillary Clinton will not be apologizing to Donald Trump for correctly pointing out how his hateful rhetoric only helps ISIS recruit more terrorists."

It seems like both of them are standing their ground on this, Clinton not really giving any leeway. A big part of this has to be because she doesn't really expect to get many supporters from Trump's camp over to her side, right?

BRADNER: Right. Hillary Clinton knows as popular as Donald Trump might be with the Republican base, he still got serious problems expanding that appeal to independents and Democrats.

You can see more evidence last night that the Clinton campaign was not going to back off its attacks on Trump when the Clinton campaign chairman went on a Twitter rant where he quoted all sorts of national security experts pointing out that Trump's comments are a recruiting tool for ISIS.

Now that is not assertion of facts that Clinton made with the video in the debate. It does indicate that they feel like her comments were grounded in enough reality that she has no reason to back off this criticism of Donald Trump.

Trump feels the same way about Hillary Clinton. He has no problems going after her because his base loves it. Two candidates who both know they have a lot to gain by demonstrating strength to their bases.

It really revs up their bases. It gives them a boogie man, perhaps, in a way that no other opponent could. Believe it or not, it is kind of good for both of them in that sense.

ROMANS: It is also the visual posturing of two frontrunners who are now acting as though their party's nominee. They are giving you what you would like to see in the months ahead. We have a lot of early state voting.

I want to talk about Lindsey Graham. It is a smaller Republican field. Not in that much smaller, Boris, but smaller Republican field. He had a wide ranging exit interview with our Kate Baldwin yesterday.

I want to play something he said specifically, a warning, if you will, a direct shout at Donald Trump. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You are doing really well. I'm impressed with your campaign. The only way we can win is if the Republicans put a coalition together. You need to start thinking about policies that will actually work.

You may wind up being the nominee of the party. The Republican Party future maybe in your hands, but the future of the country will be in your hands if you are president of the United States. This is not a game show. This is not a reality show.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Eric, the conventional wisdom in the Republican establishment has really changed over the past few months because more and more people are now starting to envision what a nominee Trump and what a President Trump would look like.

BRADNER: Yes, absolutely, you have seen stories within the last few days about establishment Republicans wondering if they can rally behind Ted Cruz, somebody who made his bones insulting the establishment and fighting it on Capitol Hill at every turn.

Just because they see Donald Trump as, you know, for a long time, they saw someone who would eventually fade or go away. There is just no way he would last all the way through Iowa and New Hampshire.

It sure looks like there's nothing slowing him down, nothing dragging him down. What you heard from Lindsey Graham was a plea. Candidates like Graham and Jeb Bush who have gone after Donald Trump on the campaign trail in the past few days have been calling on Trump to be more responsible in part because they don't have any better ideas. The establishment is a bit flummoxed.

[05:40:02]You know, not really finding the strategy to slow Trump down. It looks like there is no one single candidate at this point who can really take him on in a one-on-one way.

So Lindsey Graham was throwing his hands up saying, what can we do? It was a rather dire call from him. He's been sounding alarms about the seriousness of foreign policy throughout this entire campaign. That was a parting way to do it with a call for his party's frontrunner.

SANCHEZ: All right, Eric Bradner helping us to look at politics in a different light. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: So much to talk about. We love you get up early with us, Eric. Thank you.

All right, 40 minutes past the hour. This morning we are learning new details about that Taliban suicide attack that killed six U.S. service members serving as part of the NATO mission supporting Afghan forces.

It's a sign of increasing violence in Afghanistan. There have been 25 now American deaths this year. One year after the U.S. officially ended the combat operations there.

CNN's Alexandra Field has the latest. We know this was a motorcycle suicide attack, this terrorist seeking a group of American and Afghan military members.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. It was a joint patrol that was targeted and resulted in the death of six Americans and three other Americans were injured. Among those killed in the attack, a former New York City Police Department detective, Joseph Lemm.

He was also an Air National Guardsman, who had served two tours of duty in Afghanistan, one tour of duty in Iraq. Christine, as you pointed out, there are more than 12,000 NATO service members who are in Afghanistan as part of the operations to provide support in that country.

Some 10,000 U.S. service members remain in Afghanistan. President Obama said earlier this year that troop levels will stay at that level until the end of 2016 or beginning of 2017.

While Afghan security forces are in fact in charge of security for that country, President Obama said that U.S. troops would be there to bolster them to provide support.

It was something that he felt was important for U.S. troops to continue to do. Once that number draws down, perhaps at the end of 2016 or 2017, the president says troop levels will be around 5,500. There is an extended commitment from U.S. troops in that country -- Christine.

ROMANS: Still commitment and a very dangerous situation for those service members and families. Thank you for that. Alexandra Field for us in South Korea this morning.

SANCHEZ: Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl set for his arraignment at hearing today. He is facing a court martial on charges of desertion and endangering fellow soldiers after leaving his Afghanistan Army base in 2009. He was captured by the Taliban and held for five years until a controversial prisoner swap.

ROMANS: It's just about 43 minutes past the hour, time for an EARLY START on your money. You can see stocks are up around the world. U.S. stock futures down a bit. The Dow yesterday added 123 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed about 1 percent higher, trying to bounce back from last week's pretty steep losses.

A key to the stability in the stock market right now is this pause in oil's bear market. That is crude oil over the past year. Crude oil is up a bit, at $36 a barrel.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigating another outbreak of E. coli linked to Chipotle, this outbreak is linked to Kansas, North Dakota, and Oklahoma.

Those are three states not included in the earlier outbreak that left dozens in nine states ill, about 140 people also got sick after norovirus episode at a Chipotle in Boston. Chipotle has already started implementing new food safety measures.

All right, new information this morning revealed about the woman police say drove into dozens of people on the Vegas strip killing a mother of three. We have that next.

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ROMANS: All right, a judge could decide as early as today whether to proceed with the case against a 24-year-old Oregon woman, who allegedly slammed into dozens of pedestrians on the Las Vegas strip killing a young mother from Arizona, and wounding several others. We get the latest from CNN correspondent, Ryan Young.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Boris, the big question here for a lot of people is why did this have to happen? That suspect was taken into custody. So many witnessed this, they will not get it out of their minds. So many witnesses talked about the idea of the woman ramming into the people over and over again. It was something they were horrified to see.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Busting through people. There were just thudding. The sound was -- I would say 30 maybe. I thought it may be faster. It seemed like it was going fast. People were flying. This child I saw literally hit. The sound I'll never forget. It is horrible. It never stopped. It wasn't hitting cars. It was hitting people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: The sheriff's office tells us Lakeisha Holloway will be charged with murder. There will be a court appearance tomorrow. There will be a probable cause hearing where the judge will look at the evidence in the case. The 3-year-old child in the car is in protective custody.

What the sheriff's office believes is the woman was homeless for a short period of time after a dispute within her life. 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 the case. At this point, people are still trying to figure out what happened that led this woman to the strip before she started ramming into people -- Boris and Christine.

SANCHEZ: Ryan, thank you. The Baltimore officer whose trial in the death of Freddie Gray ended in a hung jury goes back before the judge today. Officials say William Porter will be retried in June. Porter was the first of six officers to be tried in connection with Gray's death from a spinal injury while he was in police custody. That proceeding ended in a mistrial.

ROMANS: 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, quote, "danger to the community."

The 24-year-old is accused of buying rifles that Farook and 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 is accused of entering into a sham marriage with a member of Farook's extended family. He has not entered a plea. He is due back in court next month.

SANCHEZ: Let's take a look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Alisyn Camerota joins us now. Good morning, Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Good morning. Great to see you. We will talk a lot about Donald Trump's attack on Hillary Clinton. Is it presidential to talk about bathroom breaks and use vulgar terms during campaign rallies? We are going to hear from Trump's campaign on that.

[05:50:03]Plus we have brand new polling that gives us a new look at the state of the Republican race. We will show you those numbers.

Also, the Taliban claiming responsibility for the deaths of six American troops, what does this attack tell us about the Taliban's strength? Our military experts will have answers.

SANCHEZ: We'll see you then. Thank you.

ROMANS: More people getting rid of the high speed internet in their homes. I'll tell you why in EARLY START on your money next.

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SANCHEZ: Frantic rescue operations ongoing in China to find nearly 80 people missing after a manmade mountain of construction waste collapses. We are now learning the company in charge of that waste dump alerted the local government about safety concerns almost a year ago.

CNN's Matt Rivers is live in Shenzhen for us with the latest. Good morning, Matt. We know that company in January filed a report with the municipal government saying that the acceleration of the urbanization made it impossible to keep up with all the trash they were producing. Do you think we will find out why no one did anything about it?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is a very good question. In China, that is a question that we really can't answer. The things we find out are really because the Chinese government wants them to be found out.

That said, that report about the company talking about a lack of action on the government's part. That was in Chinese state media.

We have also seen conflicting reports in Chinese state media talking to people from Shenzhen who said they saw truck after truck after truck over the past year come into the site and dump lots and lots of waste making it unstable.

The fault will be determined down the road. For now, the focus behind me is trying to rescue two and a half days after the landslide happened anyone trapped in the rubble.

[05:55:05]We know that a handful of people have been rescued so far. There are thousands of people here in Shenzhen trying their best to save anyone who still may be trapped although the odds of that happening shrink as ever hour goes by.

SANCHEZ: A somber reality there, obviously it's still a rescue operation. How much longer do you think before it becomes a recovery operation?

RIVERS: Even just tonight as the sun went down, we saw a noticeable difference in traffic. The entryway behind me is where we saw excavators and dump trucks and rescuers in and out of the site. As the sunset, the traffic dropped off noticeably.

There are not as many lights in that area as we saw even when we got here this morning when it was dark in the early morning hours. The Chinese government has not officially said this has moved to the recovery operation.

But the evidence here, things are starting to slow down at the scene. The evidence seems to point to a changing of the type of operation that this is here in Shenzhen.

SANCHEZ: Very difficult task ahead. Matt Rivers reporting live. Thank you.

ROMANS: Breaking news this morning. Iraq's armed forces launched an attack to retake the city of Ramadi from ISIS militants. Military spokesperson said Iraqi forces are fighting their way toward the government complex in Central Ramadi. They are in the city center.

This official says intelligence estimates pegged member of ISIS militants dug in at 250 to 300. Earlier, a spokesman said ISIS was preventing civilians from leaving Ramadi to use them as human shields.

SANCHEZ: The flow of Syrian refugees to the west has reached crisis levels. The organization now saying more than 1 million people came to Europe through so-called irregular means in 2015.

Most fleeing conflict coming in through Greece with the aim of building global response, the president is planning a U.N. summit on the global migrant crisis for next year.

Administration officials say the summit during the annual general assembly will cap the president's work on the refugee crisis during his final year in office. ROMANS: It is 57 minutes past the hour, time for an EARLY START on your money this Tuesday morning. Stocks close higher in Asia. European shares higher, but U.S. stock futures look a little more shaky. Yesterday, the Dow added 123 points.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also closed about 1 percent higher, trying to claw back from ugly losses last week. A key to the stability in stocks is the pause in the oil's bear market. Barrel of crude is up 1 percent sitting at $36 a barrel.

Broadband internet use is on the way down according to a Pew study, 67 percent of Americans have high speed internet at home today compared to 70 percent two years ago. Broadband services are too expensive and more people are using their smartphones to access internet. They said they can get everything they want on their phones.

Apple is pushing back against pressure to soften encryption on its products after those attacks in San Bernardino and Paris. Politicians are asking for more access to iPhone communications.

But Apple CEO Tim Cook says it cannot give government's back door access to iChat and Facetime conversations without leaving the phone vulnerable to hackers. You will hear more about that as we talk about how to fight ISIS and communication of ISIS, where is the line between privacy and security?

SANCHEZ: The encryption battle continues. The race for president taking a nasty turn, "NEW DAY" starts right now.

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GRAHAM: I'll suspend my campaign. I will not suspend my desire to help the country.

TRUMP: Everyone who goes against me. She's terrible. Donald Trump is on video. She's a liar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hanging from a noose made from a plastic bag from her cell in a county jail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The grand jury did not return an indictment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We feel the grand jury process and the secretive of it is reflective of our experience.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were two guys on the windshield.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The suspect, Lakeisha Holloway, repeatedly drove over pedestrians.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The 24-year-old woman from Oregon charged with murder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The big question from a lot of people is why did this have to happen?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, December 22nd, 6:00 in the east. Mich is off. We've reached a new low. You would never mock a woman for going to the bathroom or use a really vulgar "f" word to describe her as an opponent would you? Well, wait until you hear where the Clinton-Trump feud has sunk to and sadly it maybe be boosting at least one in the polls.