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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Poll: Trump's Lead Shrinking; Accused Vegas Driver Charged with Murder; Survivor Rescued Days After Landslide. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 23, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:16] BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump suspending his attacks against Hillary Clinton as a new poll shows his lead. The Republican frontrunner is shrinking.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The woman accused of mowing down dozens of pedestrians on the Vegas Strip, she is charged with murder, and just hours now from facing a judge.

SANCHEZ: Breaking overnight, days after a passive landslide in China, a survivor is pulled from the rubble. We're there live.

ROMANS: It's amazing story.

SANCHEZ: It is.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Boris Sanchez.

ROMANS: Nice to see you this morning, Boris.

I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, December 23rd. It is 4:00 am in the East.

We begin this morning with a tightening lead in the Republican presidential race. Donald Trump now just four points ahead of Ted Cruz in the latest poll -- a good reason for Cruz to agree with Trump's recent statement that the Republican contest is turning into a two-man race. That is a picture that pointedly leaves out Marco Rubio, who's now polling third. It's also a matchup that Cruz says gives, quote, "a good choice to the American people".

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has the very latest from the Cruz campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

Well, Ted Cruz feeling some momentum coming from this new national poll showing that he is chipping away at Donald Trump's dominance. Trump is still in the lead. But his lead over Ted Cruz is getting smaller. This Quinnipiac poll showing that Cruz has gained eight points in the past four weeks and is now within striking distance of Donald Trump, meaning basically that the two are the front runners. Now, Ted Cruz here in Tennessee says that this brings him

encouragement and made this interesting prediction on where he says the race going.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did think it was interesting. Donald said a couple days ago that he thought the Republican race could come down just to him and me. I think he may be right. If you look at the polling numbers, we are surging in the polls. And Donald may be right this is turning more and more into a two-man race between Donald Trump and me. I think if that's the case, the decision will be made by the voters.

SERFATY: And today in Oklahoma City, Ted Cruz will wrap up his week- long tour of Super Tuesday states that vote if early March. This has been a core part of the Cruz campaign strategy to focus on the long haul. It's right now all about looking ahead -- Christine and Boris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: It seems to be working for him. Sunlen, thank you.

Hillary Clinton responding indirectly to Donald Trump's controversial comments about her, saying that no one should be able to bully his way into the Oval Office. His remarks came at a town hall in Iowa, where a ten-year-old girl asked her what she would do about bullying. Clinton responded that bullying is more widespread and she, herself, has faced more than a share of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need more love and kindness in our country. I think we are not treating each other with the respect and the --

(APPLAUSE)

And the care that we should show toward each other. And that's why it's important to stand up to bullies, wherever they are and why we shouldn't let anybody bully his way into the presidency, because that is not who we are as Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Trump, meantime, defended his controversial description of Clinton's 2008 primary loss to President Obama in a tweet. He wrote, quote, "Once again, the mainstream media is dishonest. It's, that word, is not vulgar. When I said that word, I meant beaten badly."

ROMANS: Jeb Bush using the feud between Clinton and Trump to take both of them criticized Trump's language, while predicting that Clinton will play that controversy to her own advantage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's great at being the victim. You know, the school enhancer victimology status. This is what -- this is what she loves doing. Trump is not going to be president because he says these things, it turns people off. For crying out loud, we're two days before Christmas. Lighten up, man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Bush's comments come on as he and Trump embarked on a Twitter war. Here's just one of a series of harsh remarks tweeted by Trump, "Weak and low energy, Jeb Bush, his campaign is a disaster. He is now doing ads against me where he tries to look like a tough guy."

Here's Bush's reply, "Based on his tweets, Donald Trump gets upset for being called out for his unserious Hillaryesque foreign policy views."

SANCHEZ: To another standoff now, "The Washington Post" waving the white flag over a cartoon of all things. Cruz ran a political ad showing him reading satirical Christmas stories to his daughters. That sparked an editorial cartoon from "The Post's" Ann Telnaes, depicting the kids as organ grinders monkeys doing their father's bidding.

[04:05:04] An outraged Cruz tweeted, quote, "Classy, 'The Washington Post' makes fun of my girls. Stick with attacking me."

Telnaes replied, "Ted Cruz has put his children in a political ad. Don't start screaming when editorial cartoonists draw them as well." But in the end, "The Post" pulled the cartoon off its Web site, replacing it with a note from the editor saying, quote, "It's generally been the policy of our editorial section to leave children out of it. I understand why Ann thought an exception to the policy was warranted, but I do not agree."

ROMANS: Big changes likely for the next Republican debate host Fox Business Network changing the criteria for the main stage in the undercard debate based on new thresholds the candidates must meet in national or early state polling. This is how things shake out based on current trends, just six candidates on the main stage -- Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie. The others in the race sat down with the undercard, Rand Paul, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and George Pataki.

The FOX Business debate is set for January 14th. It is in South Carolina.

Now, Donald Trump said big tax cuts, four pages, he laid this out a while ago. You know, they come at a big cost. There is brand-new analysis by the Tax Policy Center, they've been looking over this plan several weeks now and they have determined this -- that the plan would reduce taxes for everyone. Cut taxes for everyone.

But the super rich could see the biggest benefit. Middle income households see it cut by an average $2,700, that's 4.9 percent, a tax cut for the middle class of 4.9 percent. The top 0.1 percent, the very richest, their taxes cut on average of 19 percent of their after- tax income. When Trump put out that four-page tax plan back in September, he said

it would not increase deficits. But the Tax Policy Center estimates Trump's plan would increase deficits by at least $9.5 trillion over a decade and another $15 trillion in the next.

So, how will Trump cut spending to cover the increased deficit? He has already said he will not touch Medicare or Social Security. So, that leaves cutting big amounts of defense and domestic spending combined.

Of course, Donald Trump, Boris, has said the economy will grow like crazy under his plan. With the Donald Trump presidency, with the CEO Trump running the thing, you would have big job growth and economic growth that it would pay for it. Tax Policy Center finds otherwise.

SANCHEZ: Right. He certainly believes softening taxes on the rich might create more business.

ROMANS: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

Happening now: U.S. commandos are in Syria working against ISIS. CNN has learned a small contingent of Special Operation troops are there advising local fighters. U.S. officials declining to say exactly how many or where they are. But this contingent is among up to 50 Special Operation Forces. The president approved to advise Syrian fighters.

Battles are raging this morning in the key Iraqi city of Ramadi, as Iraqi forces fight to retake the devastated capital of Anbar province from ISIS. ISIS fighters captured that city back in May. It was a key propaganda victory and a strategic foothold, just 70 miles from Baghdad.

CNN's Robyn Kriel is following developments for us from London.

And, Robyn, we know, 24 hours ago, we were hearing from Iraqi officials that Iraqi terrorism troops were moving into the city center. We know that ISIS had been holding civilians in town, not allowing people for days to evacuate. What's the status today?

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, the first fighting ongoing following the Iraqi army's assault dawn raid yesterday, a very -- what sounds like a daring complex raid first of all having to build a temporary bridge over a canal to breach the southeastern portion of the city center.

Now, the Iraqis are claiming to have made gains within the city and to have raised the Iraqi flag in some parts of the city. But they are trying, Christine, to advance on the city center, key strategic locations within the city center that they can finally claim that they have regained control of Ramadi City.

Now, what we understand, those are government buildings that they are going for. There are about 250 to 300 ISIS hard line fighters that will remain within the city. And you can imagine, given the fact that there are allegedly human shields, we do also have that concern from the United States, that there are up to 10,000 civilians held captive by ISIS. They were not allowed to leave, despite the fact that the U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi forces have warned them that this onslaught of the assault was coming. They were not permitted to leave by ISIS.

So, this is progression very slowly and carefully to avoid things like civilian casualties, of course, by mistake shooting civilians or having them get in the way of the fight, but also avoiding things like booby traps. ISIS has been entrenched in the city for months, so they would have had time to build rat holes and set up snipers to allow them to counterassault once these troops arrive.

[04:10:03] As I said, 250 to 300 ISIS fighters remaining on the ground there, likely to try and fight until the death.

ROMANS: And we've heard reports that they've actually booby trapped buildings to collapse on advancing forces once they entered the building.

Quickly, what is the U.S. role, the coalition role in this airstrike? The strategic help, what is the U.S. and its allies doing?

KRIEL: The U.S. and allies are taking a secondary role, but still hugely strategic for the Iraqi defenses, and with the renewed vigor, the same sort of vigor that we saw in Sinjar, especially, kind of an up tempo operation since the November 13th attacks on Paris. So, they have seen launching airstrikes just outside the city of Ramadi. They've also, we understand, that they have some involvement in the building of the temporary bridge and training the Iraqi troops on exactly how to launch a complex assault of this kind.

So, a number, Christine, targeting key ISIS locations. We understand they had weapons caches yesterday and that they also hit some command post, ISIS command posts outside. Twenty ISIS militants killed in this fight, thus far. That's according to Iraqis and dozens of vehicles and as I said, command post, weapons caches destroyed in the fight as well.

ROMANS: All right. Robyn Kriel for us in London, following that advance on Ramadi -- thank you for that.

SANCHEZ: We are learning about another painful black eye for the U.S. Secret Service. An agent's gun, badge, radio, handcuffs and a flash drive stolen right out of his personal vehicle near Secret Service headquarters in downtown Washington if broad daylight. The agent is not identified in a police report. And Secret Service declined to comment.

Over the last few years, the agency has been hit by a string of scandals related to agent behavior and security lapses.

ROMANS: All right. The administration is touting encouraging news about Obamacare. A new report says that the mid-way point in the sign up period, more people are getting coverage through the healthcare.gov Web site. Among them, more young adults. Federal figures show 18.4 million people had signed up or renewed by

December 19. Among the problems revealed in the report, ongoing challenges verifying the citizenship and income of applicants for subsidized coverage.

SANCHEZ: The woman accused of plowing into the Las Vegas Strip faces a judge in a few hours, what we are learning about this suspect, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: The 24-year-old woman suspected of intentionally ramming her car into a crowd of pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip will go before a judge today. Lakeisha Holloway charged with killing a young mom in Arizona and injuring more than 30 others.

CNN correspondent Stephanie Elam has the very latest -- Stephanie.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Boris.

The woman who police say intentionally plowed her car into a packed sidewalk on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday evening, killing one and injuring more than 30 others is now facing three felony charges. Those charges include one count of murder with a deadly weapon, one count of child abuse, neglect or endangerment, that one because her three-year-old daughter was in the backseat of the car during the incident, and one count of leaving the scene of an accident.

We are learning more about the woman who we have known as Lakeisha Holloway. She legally changed her name in October to Paris Paradise Morton. Not clear why the police are charging her under her former name instead of her current name. But we do know she is expected to make her first court appearance later this morning and we understands that some of her family members are expected to attend -- Christine and Boris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Thank you for that, Stephanie Elam in Vegas.

We are getting our first look at the visa application allowing the female San Bernardino shooter access to the United States. This is a 21-page document filled out by gunman Syed Rizwan Farook. It gave no hint of violent jihad.

On the application, the U.S.-born, U.S. citizen born in Chicago, he claimed that he and his fiance meet in person in Saudi Arabia after chatting online. House Republicans are questioning whether red flags were missed on this application, pointing to passport stamps fake that cast doubt on whether Farook and Malik actually did meet in Saudi Arabia.

SANCHEZ: Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl entered no plea during his arraignment Tuesday. The 29-year-old officer did not indicate a preference for a jury or a bench trial. He is facing two serious charges for deserting his base in 2009. You might recall, Bergdahl was held by the Taliban for five years. He was finally released last year in a controversial prisoner swap for five Guantanamo Bay detainees. His next hearing is set for January 12th.

Kentucky's new governor, Matt Bevin, is ordering clerks names be removed from all marriage license. The action comes following the controversy involving this woman, the Rowan County clerk Kim Davis. Remember, she was jailed after refusing to issue licenses to gay couples. But officials with the ACLU say Bevin's actions further complicate things and state law requires clerk's names on those licenses.

SANCHEZ: Well, we have been looking forward to potentially barbequing on Christmas with the nice warm weather we've seen.

ROMANS: It's a good idea.

SANCHEZ: Not a bad one.

But across the country, some are facing the potential of storms, millions with the looming threat of severe weather, even tornadoes.

Let's bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

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

Yes, it also feels like spring in December, right? The moisture content is extremely high, the temperature is extremely warm, and its driving mechanism in the jet stream, aloft also there to support some of these storms with humidities that are 70 to 90 percent widespread. The Storm Prediction Center, a scale of one to five, giving this a three for the severity of the storms, strong damaging wind a threat across the area indicated here in the center of your screen. And notice tornadoes, some potentially strong.

The concern is the timing of these storms, later in the evening hours, as we approach sunset and we take you through the afternoon, certainly plenty of wet weather. But notice this area of interest, this line of thunderstorms begin popping up in individualized cells come in. That's what we're concerned with, and they have all of their energy to themselves. They can spawn tornadoes, again, some of them being strong. So, we are watching that carefully.

The fatalities are a record low of only 10 fatalities for the entire year in tornadoes. We hope to keep it that way. And we leave you with this incredible temperatures as well, supporting all of this -- 77 in Jackson, making it to the lower 70s across parts of the mid- Atlantic as well, guys.

ROMANS: Gosh, wearing sun dresses for Christmas Eve.

SANCHEZ: Wouldn't you?

ROMANS: I know. Thousands of people wondering just what they saw in the night sky Tuesday after this mysterious -- look at this -- this is a mysterious bright light that appeared over California and Nevada. A lot of people captured this and were talking about it. It turns out it was not a meteor, or an alien invasion. I'm sad to say. Officials say it was simply a piece of Russian space debris entering the atmosphere. And there was a good 30s seconds, Boris, of that thing just glowing and moving across --

SANCHEZ: Impressive video. I thought my calls to Mars have finally been answered.

ROMANS: Yes, no, I'm afraid not.

SANCHEZ: Breaking overnight, a survivor pulled from the rubble. This is really a miraculous story. Days after a massive landslide in China, a survivor.

[04:20:01] We're live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: The heroic efforts of thousands of rescue workers digging at a landslide in Shenzhen, China, rewarded with a discovery of a survivor buried under tons of debris. The 19-year-old under rubble for more than 60 hours. He was badly weakened and dehydrated but he was alive.

For the latest, let's bring in CNN's Matt Rivers live for us this morning in Shenzhen.

Good morning, Matt.

Considering the size of this landslide, it's 94 acres. That's about 60 to be fields. This is really a miracle.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is. It incredibly improbable that rescuers were able to find this young man, but really, they were able to find him because of his actions. He was actually trapped inside a small part of a building that got buried.

Thankfully, he had an air pocket in there and somehow he was in a room where there were snacks, according to state media, so he survived for several days eating snacks and staying calm. And then once he heard rescuers in the distance, he took a metal object and started banging on a rock to alert them to signs of life. They discovered him around 3:00 a.m. local time here. It took them several hours to get him out of the ground, but they eventually did. And somehow, he is in stable condition in a local hospital.

SANCHEZ: Now, Matt, we understand it's been difficult for Chinese authorities to get an exact number of those missing, because many of them are migrant workers. They have trouble contacting them to try to get ahold of them. Do we have any updates on the progress to find those that are missing? [04:25:07] RIVERS: Well, initially the numbers stood at 91 people

missing, which actually dropped by 15 over the time that we've been here, simply because migrant workers called in and said, I'm actually not trapped, I just hadn't checked in with authorities.

But as of now, this number is holding in the mid-70s or so, according to state media. It's very difficult to get information out of the Chinese government. They usually release it through state media. But for the last several 12 hours or so, it has held in these mid-70s figure.

So that's what rescue officials are working on right now at the moment.

SANCHEZ: A video of the area nearby certainly sobering. Matt Rivers, thank you.

ROMANS: We are learning more this morning about that awe-inspiring act of courage in Eastern Africa where Kenyan Muslims put their lives on the line for Christians traveling with them when their bus was ambushed by al-Shabaab terrorists.

CNN's David McKenzie has been following the story. He's got details of this -- just amazing story.

And, David, you know, it puts chills down my spine when I hear the details of these people giving head scarves to Christian women, to essentially fool the attackers and to save them.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Christine, good morning.

You know, this has touched a nerve around the worm. The sheer bravery and selflessness of these Kenyans when they were traveling on that bus towards Mandera, the northeast part of the country and the border of Somalia when there was this ambush by al Shabaab gunmen, there were survivors, many more in the bushes behind that. They acted quickly, gave head scarves to the Christians on board, hid others under backs in the back of the bus, and then said to those gunmen, "We are all Muslim. If you want to kill us, kill us all."

And the stakes couldn't have been higher. Previous attacks like this, this is what has happened, al Shabaab has separated out the Christians and the Muslims, kill the Christians to try and sow a division in that part of the country and certainly in Kenya and around the world just as we approach Christmas for Christians, an extraordinary act of bravery -- Christine.

ROMANS: We've seen al Shabaab this sort, you know, we've seen these groups do this sort of thing to try to sell division. It's interesting to see division is not their response, at least in this case instead, it is unity. Thank you so much, David McKenzie, for that story this week.

SANCHEZ: Incredibly brave show of solidarity, despite religious differences to show bravery in the face of terror. ROMANS: Right.

SANCHEZ: Donald Trump defending his harsh remarks about Hillary Clinton as his lead shrinks in a poll. New drama in the race for president, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)