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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Tornadoes Rip Across Mississippi, Tennessee & Arkansas, Killing 7; Trump to Clinton: Be Careful; U.S. Embassy Warns of "Possible Threats"; NBA Players Speak Out Against Gun Violence. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired December 24, 2015 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00] BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Watch this twister tearing across the landscape in northern Mississippi.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man. I hope it's not hitting houses.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Unfortunately, it did hit houses. Major damage reported to homes, vehicles and power lines along the tornado's path.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We actually did see it happen. He actually looked out the window and saw the grass circling and tons -- well, it wasn't really trash, but tons of our Mr. Manson's house blowing into the yard to the interstate, which is just quite a ways over that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Parts of the neighbor's home flying in their yard.
Mississippi emergency officials say four people were killed in the state and 40 injured. In one case, a 7-year-old boy in a car with his family died when a tornado came through.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: And just north of there, across the state line in southern Tennessee, authorities reported two people dead and two missing when an apparent tornado tore through Perry County ripping apart three homes with the residents still inside.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were in the house. We heard the wind picking up. We dashed to the storm shelter. We had 45 seconds and it just hit. We walked out of the storm shelter, everything was gone.
REPORTER: What does it look like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looks like a waste land. There's nothing left.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: In Arkansas, a teen dies after fierce winds and heavy rain uprooted this massive tree and toppled it over her house. This image says it all. You see the small part of the trunk coming outs of the window there. A neighbor down the block says the storm was so intense, she immediately ran for cover.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything was just moving sideways and the sound of the wind and I just jumped and I ran.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Four other people inside the home, including an 18-month-old girl, fortunately survived. The baby was taken to the hospital and is said to be doing OK.
KOSIK: Meantime, Alabama hit with massive flooding. Looks like a lake formed in the center of the neighborhood. Highways were shutdown after nearly three feet of water fell there. And large hail pounded homes.
Look at the size of it. Hail stones. That's the size of the person's hand. Amazing.
SANCHEZ: Take a look at the trailer ripped to shreds in Illinois. Winds so strong, it looks like the trailer was made of paper falling apart. Widespread damage reported through the state with power knocked out to thousands.
KOSIK: Let's get more now on this crazy weather.
Let's bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
You know, this is not the kind of weather we expect to see in winter.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. The beginning of winter a couple of days ago. It certainly should not be as warm as it is right now.
The conditions are ripe for severe weather. You know, in the last few minutes, a tornado warning issued across portions of Hawkinsville. That has been allowed to expire, but the storm system had indicated rotation there on radar imagery and certainly from the town of Hawkinsville to Hersh. That is allowed to expire.
But 22 tornado reports so far across the country. Over 200 storm- related damage reports. Alison touched on this, the rarity of getting the tornadoes this time of year because in the month of December, this is what you expect for any given month of December. We pick up all of that in one day. The sad part is the fatalities associated. We are on pace for a historically quiet year. From January 1st to this Tuesday, there'd only been ten fatalities
associated with tornadoes, seven potentially now occurring, of course, on Wednesday afternoon. That is 40 percent of the annual total. You see the lowest of all time. You see we were close before this event. Highest of all time,
Again, the threat for severe weather is still in place. About 50 million people from Houston all the way up to parts of D.C. The severity will be much less this afternoon than yesterday afternoon. The main threat is damaging winds.
But take a look at this. The heat certainly is on across much of the eastern side of the country. Record temperatures that are being shattered by some 10 and in some areas, close to 15 degrees, with Boston making it up close to 70 degrees this afternoon.
And even into the morning hours, it is so warm that New York City's record high temperature for Christmas Eve was 61 degrees. It exceeded that at midnight at 67. They broke the record at midnight, in one of the shorter days of the year, and the longest nights of the year, no sunlight to tell you about of course, and the condition so warm, it was one the shorter days of the year and longest nights of the year.
The conditions so warm and are you setting records in the early morning hours before the sun even comes up.
KOSIK: And I bet you, I left my jacket in the car. I'm in New York, by the way. I left my jacket in the car. It's December.
SANCHEZ: We were talking about Hawaiian shirts on Christmas. The storms, though, are the nasty side of that.
Pedram, thank you.
JAVAHERI: Yes. Thanks.
KOSIK: All right. Big changes for millions of people traveling this holiday season. AAA says about 5.8 million are planning to fly the next couple weeks. They may notice new procedures in the airport screening line.
[05:05:02] TSA agents can now order passengers to go through the body scanner, even those who ask for a full body pat-down instead. The TSA says security consideration warrant the change on a case by case basis. It says the scanners can catch non-metallic bombs that a pat- down may miss.
SANCHEZ: The race for the White House now. This morning, Hillary Clinton putting accusations of sexism directly on Donald Trump in the wake of his crass language about her 2008 primary loss and use of the restroom. Trump again defending those remarks on FOX News last night on FOX News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, to me, it was to mean she got beaten badly. I mean, that's what happened with Hillary. She got beaten badly. But to me, that's really a reference to getting beaten and really -- you know, decisively.
And when I said it, nobody in the audience thought anything about it. They clapped. They didn't view that as being a horrible thing. And then, all of a sudden, I get back in and people are calling about it. And, you know, when they checked it out, some pretty quality people have been using that term over the years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, Clinton's campaign is ramping up as trump's poll numbers are soaring.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has the latest from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Boris and Alison.
Well, Donald Trump now has a dominating lead in the Republican field.
This new CNN/ORC poll shows that Trump on top with 39 percent. That's more than double his closest opponent Ted Cruz. And Trump's lead is even more definitive when measured by the depth of his support on issue after issue, on handling the economy, on immigration and ISIS.
Voters all said Trump is the best equipped candidate by a commanding margin. Now, meanwhile, Trump is in this war of words with Hillary Clinton. Clinton speaking out responding to Trump's vulgar rhetoric about here, saying she thinks Trump has a penchant of sexism.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really deplore the tone of his campaign and the inflammatory rhetoric that he is using to divide people.
SERFATY: Now, Donald Trump is hitting back tweeting out, quote, "Hillary, when you complain about a penchant for sexism, who are you referring to? I have great respect for women. Be careful."
Now, Clinton also notably saying in that interview that she doesn't want to personally respond to Trump personally because he thrives on that kind of exchange -- Boris and Alison.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: All right. Sunlen, thank you for that.
Ted Cruz turning his feud with the media over a cartoon into a fundraising opportunity. "The Washington Post" cartoon mocked his daughters in an ad depicting them and organ grinding monkeys. Cruz and others blasted the cartoon which "The Post" then removed from its website. Now, Cruz has sent out an e-mail saying that the cartoon proves the liberal media is desperate to attack and destroy him and his family, and then he asks for donations. Cruz was asked about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: You circulated this e-mail fundraising emails today that had "The Washington Post" editorial at the top of it. Do you think that's hypocritical that you're blasting the media for that and then using it to raise money?
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Listen, I appreciate that number one the media yesterday decides the right thing to do is target my girls, to attack a 5-year-old and 7-year-old and now coming back and turning yet another attack. You know, thank you for that sentiment. But let me suggest a simple rule that everyone ought to follow: leave the kids alone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: Ben Carson is falling to 10 percent in the latest CNN/ORC poll. Tied for third with Marco Rubio. Carson's plunge from second place, it sparked reports like one in the "Washington Post" of big campaign shakeups, including budget and staff cuts.
But Carson told CNN's Don Lemon last night that no such cuts are planned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: "The Washington Post", quite frankly, had their story already written before they talked to me. And they were convinced that I was going to fire everybody and we were going to just go in a different direction. That's absolutely not true.
I said, you know, we are constantly looking at everything and we're going to continue to look at everything. No one is ever 100 percent guaranteed they were always going to be there. And that as the organization grows and our responsibilities grow, you know, some things may have to change. We may have to add some people. We may have to change some people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: Carson says expenses are dropping now his campaign is past what he calls the costly start-up phase.
SANCHEZ: His campaign is spending a lot of money at a report came out this week. But in October, they raised $8 million, but spent $8.7 million. He has to get expenses in a row.
[05:10:00] KOSIK: That's not good budgeting.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
Breaking news this morning: armed police on the scene of a popular tourist area in China. The U.S. embassy warning Americans about possible threats, next. (COMEMRCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: There is worrying news this morning for westerners in China. British and American embassies in Beijing are warning of possible threats of westerners visiting a popular shopping district in the capital around Christmas.
Joining us now live with the latest, CNN's Alexandra Field.
Good morning, Alex.
Beijing also put out an alert. But there is a big difference between the alert that Beijing put out and what U.K. and American embassies are saying, right?
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And now, we can add the French to the list as well. They are all talking about the same area, which is the Sanlitun shopping area. It's an area that's popular with tourists. It's an upscale shopping area.
You have three different alerts that went out. The U.S. and British both put out their own warnings saying westerners could face potential threats. They asked their citizens and government employees to exercise caution and vigilance. Well, they could not say what the threats were or they did not say what the threats were. Just lining up the possibility there were threats against westerners.
Then, you have the French embassy with the warning citing the American embassy's warning. At the same time, Beijing public security office went ahead and raised the alert level in Beijing to a heightened alert level, the yellow security level. That is not the highest, but it is heightened.
And what they did is they got on social media. They put out this warning to citizens, that they would be moving up to the yellow level, which means that security officers are stationed at medium and large sized malls across the city. But Beijing public security office also said there would be a heavier concentration in the Sanlitun area of armed officers.
Boris, the difference that you alluded, as we were speaking earlier is this -- they did not say there were possible threats to Westerners.
[05:15:07] They just said this heightened security level was necessary because of the large crowds gathering as a result of the holiday season, last minute Christmas shopping and other entertainment opportunities that are going on throughout the city. So, while the embassies have been clear there are possible threats to Westerners, Beijing public security office just saying that this is a function of the larger crowds gathering .
SANCHEZ: Now, Alex, this area is actually been a site where violence has taken place before. In August, a man with a sword attacked a Chinese man or a Chinese woman and a French man I believe. What is like there? What else do we know about this area? FIELD: What we know is it is very unusual to see this level of
security there. That was an incident that seemed to be a personal incident that unfolded there. There's really no clear understanding of the threat to the Westerners in this area. If it is internal or external threat, what exactly it all means?
But certainly, when you take a look at these images, a very popular and upscale stores and you see these heavily armed officers outside of them, it is jarring. It is a quite unusual. It is a step that is not common in Beijing to go up to the yellow security level. It is something you see in other cities, perhaps, during high traffic times like the holiday season, but in Beijing, you would see officers armed in this way in public spaces in the number when there are high level political meetings going on or during other politically sensitive times.
SANCHEZ: All right. Alex Field reporting on the heightened alert in that area -- thank you.
KOSIK: Happening now: the battle to retake Ramadi from ISIS. Iraqi forces are within a mile of the government compound in the strategic city just 70 miles from Baghdad. But a military spokesperson says the progress is slow as specialists dismantle thousands of improvised explosive devices one by one.
CNN's Robyn Kriel is following events for us live from London and joins us now with the latest.
Robyn, it's more and more likely that Iraqi forces can really retake Ramadi. It certainly is not a sure thing.
ROBYN KRIEL, CNN AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: It's not a sure thing. The other question, Alison, is how long will they hold Ramadi? When in the lead up to this assault, ISIS -- a number of ISIS fighters are reported to blend into the population and left with those along with thousands of civilians decided to leave Ramadi and not stick it out for the assaults. A number of forces were to stay along the fighters to try to battle to the death against Iraqi security forces.
But the question is, what will happen to those insurgents? Likely in what we've seen the past battles like this, they will launch counter assaults like small scale attacks, suicide bombs, things like that, just general insecurity or they could launch a full scale counter assault as we saw in May when they seized the town of Ramadi from the Kurdish and Iraqi forces.
KOSIK: And the brutality that ISIS has. ISIS dropped leaflets in Fallujah stating if Ramadi were to fall to Iraqi forces, that anyone on ISIS' side should put on Iraqi uniforms and commit atrocities. So, just another example of how ISIS really wants to hold on to Ramadi.
KRIEL: Well, and how important Ramadi is to ISIS in terms of propaganda coup. It really was a propaganda coup for the terror group when it seized it back in May and an incredible propaganda embarrassment for the Iraqis and Americans who pumped billions of dollars into the Iraqi forces, as well as trained them and equipped them. So hugely embarrassing for the Iraqis, even though the people who were fighting in al Anbar were telling Baghdad and the U.S. that they needed more ammunition and they literally run out of ammunition and had no choice but to allow the city to fall to ISIS.
It has been a brutal, you described the brutality, it has been a brutal seven months for those living in Ramadi. ISIS tactics are extremely brutal and relying heavily on the documentation to scare the population into obedience and subservience.
KOSIK: And using Ramadi citizens as human shields as well. Robyn Kriel, thanks so much for that.
Western security officials sounding the alarm over ISIS's ability to forge and perfect Iraqi and Syrian passports. "The Wall Street Journal" reports the terrorist group likely obtained equipment when it took control of major cities in Syria and Iraq. At least one of the Paris attackers was registered in Greece using a fake Syrian passport.
SANCHEZ: And reflecting America's very difficult relations with Syria, there is a new report that indicates the Obama administration spent years pursuing secret communications with people close to Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
[05:20:09] "The Wall Street Journal" reports that the backchannel talks were part of a failed effort to limit violence in Syria and to get Assad to step down. "The Journal" says the U.S. tried to encourage a military coup against Assad without success.
KOSIK: Time for an early start on your money. Markets around the world. Europe is mixed, but major indices in China and Japan closed lower. It looks like U.S. futures are taking a cue from that performance.
And as far as the day goes, it's going to be a short session on Wall Street, volume likely to be light. U.S. markets are closing at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and they're close tomorrow for Christmas Day.
A little breather today, it wouldn't be such a big surprise, considering the Dow surged 185 points yesterday. That marks nine straight days of triple digit moves for the Dow. But, excuse me, the S&P 500 is back in the black.
The key to the market's come back is a stabilization in oil prices. Crude oil trading above $37 a barrel right now.
I like to see those lower oil prices. I like to see lower gas prices.
SANCHEZ: Yes, and Christmas wish.
KOSIK: Come true.
Another big blow to daily fantasy sports. Which state is the latest to ban the popular gaming sites over questions of legality? Andy Scholes has the latest in this morning's bleacher report, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: The NBA is going to take center stage Christmas Day. Great lineup. My Miami Heat taking on the Pelicans.
[05:25:01] The finals rematch, the Cavs and Warriors.
But this year, the NBA is using the platform to speak out against gun violence.
KOSIK: Andy Scholes has more on this morning's bleacher report.
Good morning.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys.
The NBA stars Steph Curry, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Joakim Noah partnered with everytown.org to put together a public service announcement about gun violence. Spike Lee directed the PSA. The NBA stars, they speak about their experiences, along with people who have been affected directly by gun violence.
And here is a portion of it. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPH CURRY, NBA STAR: I heard about a shooting involving a 3-year- old girl over the summer. My daughter Riley is that age.
CARMELO ANTHONY, NBA STAR: The gun should never be an option.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're Americans. We don't have to live like this.
JOAKIM NOAH, NBA STAR: We can all make a difference.
CROWD: In the United States, 88 people died of gun violence every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: President Obama tweeted saying he's proud of the NBA for standing up against gun violence. You can see more interviews with the players on the web site everytown.org.
Odell Beckham Jr.'s one-game suspension was upheld yesterday. The Giant star was banned for a game for this helmet to helmet hit on Josh Norman this past Sunday. Beckham apologized for his actions on Twitter. He's going to miss the Giants game this Sunday at Minnesota.
Illinois is joining New York, dropping the axe on daily fantasy sports. The attorney general says the games are considered illegal gambling, but notes the state legislature is considering a way to exempt the sites like DraftKings and FanDuel from gambling laws. New York made a similar decision last month. That decision is being fought. And, of course, is expected in Illinois.
All right. Have you seen "Star Wars" yet? If not and you live in Cleveland, you can get a free ticket. Browns tight end Gary Barnidge is renting out an entire theater for himself and some teammates tonight. And he took to Twitter to tell fans that they are welcome to join on a first come, first serve basis.
Pretty cool, guys. Have you seen "Star Wars", yet?
KOSIK: I have not. I have been waiting from this moment to go wait in line --
SCHOLES: In Cleveland?
KOSIK: Exactly. Get a ticket --
SCHOLES: I tell you what. It is the best "Star Wars" movie of all of them. I was so pumped up when I left the theater. It was so awesome.
KOSIK: I need to see it.
SANCHEZ: All right. Andy, thank you.
SCHOLES: All right.
SANCHEZ: Seven people killed as severe storms pound the South and Midwest. The damage done and what is still on the way, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
