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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Snow Storm Hits the East Coast; The Race for President: Trump's New Strategy; "Affluenza" Teen to Return to U.S. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired December 30, 2015 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:31:02] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Historic flooding as a massive winter storm barrels across the country. The death toll rising this morning. We are tracking the damage and what comes next.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump announcing he is changing his strategy in the race for president. What can we expect from him next?

ROMANS: The affluenza teen expected back in the U.S. in just hours. What we are learning ability his time in Mexico and what penalties he could face.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

KOSIK: Good morning. I'm Alison Kosik. It's 30 minutes past the hour.

Breaking overnight, officials say almost 50 people have been killed in weather-related accidents in the past week and while the storms are over, the flooding downstream is about to get worse. More than 18 million Americans in 13 states now living under flood warnings and for some, it's already too late.

A newspaper reporter caught this cabin here floating down the Merrimac River in rural Missouri.

Across the state, residents have been warned of major to historic flooding over the next few days into early next week. They're preparing for the worst. One place where the worst is expected is West Alton, Missouri, just north of St. Louis. And that's where CNN's Alina Machado is, with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alison and Christine, high water is already blocking several roads in and around West Alton, Missouri. And the situation is expected to get much worse before they improve.

And just 70 miles from here, there are several homes and businesses already underwater in Union, Missouri. Authorities there telling CNN that they had to rescue at least two people who got caught up in the rising flood waters. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is asking people to please avoid driving

through roads that are covered with water.

GOV. JAY NIXON (D), MISSOURI: The amount of rain we received in some places in excess of a foot has caused river levels not only to rise rapidly, but to go to places they've never been before. Now that the rain has moved out, the threat has changed. But it is not by any means over.

MACHADO: The mayor of West Alton, Missouri, has already issued a voluntary evacuation order and most people has followed that order. But he says about 50 residents have decided to ride this one out -- Alison and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Alina Machado for us, thank you for that.

Illinois also hit by severe flood. This inundated road is in a residential neighborhood in Wood River. City workers filling in, piling up sandbags along the Mississippi River to protect against that flooding.

KOSIK: Areas of the Arkansas River which flows into the Mississippi, topping flood levels, they hit in the spring by a foot. Forecasters warn it's going to stay eight feet above flood stage through Thursday night at least.

ROMANS: Well, that same storm system doing serious damage in Michigan. You can see this tree flatten a car in Detroit. Elsewhere the city, more trees toppling over, crushing homes, blocking roads, all blamed on the roaring wind.

Listen to what happened to one woman and her family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone was sitting watching TV. We heard a sound. We thought it was a large car crash. It lasted about 30 to 40 seconds. We went to the front door and seen this big tree on the front porch and know that we can't get out of the house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Glad she's OK. Meantime, the Northeast hit with a snowstorm. About five inches fell in Vermont. Three people died when their SUV crashed head on into a tractor-trailer. This happened in Killington. At least four others were injured.

This what you are looking at is a scene in Albany, New York. Cars taking their time as the flakes fell. The area hit with at least six inches of snow.

ROMANS: People ought to practice. It's been so long without any real snow.

KOSIK: It really has.

ROMANS: Storms and icing conditions still causing travel headaches. Already, there are almost 200 flight delays and cancellations in the U.S. On Monday, we saw the worst of it. The weather affected about 7,600 flights. Sorry if that was you stuck in the waiting room.

KOSIK: All right. Now with the rain and the snow, mostly behind us. What's ahead for the millions in the flood warning zones?

[04:35:02] Let's go to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

Good morning.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, Alison and Christine.

You know, an incredible pattern the last several days here. We saw an incredible number of tornadoes, an usual number of large tornadoes across much of the United States, of course, the record heat that was lying across this region. And you take a look, river gauges now, over 400 reporting flooding. They are all indicating in the red and also orange and purple colors there on the circles.

But if you take a look at this take place in the past couple of days, we know of 18 million people underneath these flood watches and flood warnings. And this sort of a pattern has a trickle down effect and laying down the ground here on the floor map, I'll show you what we are talking about, because we seen this occur before.

In 1993, the benchmark here when it comes to tremendous flooding, we had overtopping of levees taking place across this region. They have a tremendous amount of water now up and over the levees. And you put enough force in, and enough stress on these levees, you will cause them to fail, you will cause them to break apart, and they have even more water take place.

Now, here's what happens: when you release pressure in certain spots, of course, it inundates communities close by, it relieves the stress on a widespread area when it comes to levees, itself, of course, with the flooding, one of the main concerns we have is the fatalities associated with it, because flooding in the United States is one of the top weather related killers. You look at a 30-year average, flooding takes about 81 lives per year. We have tornadoes come in second there at about 72.

And, of course, with flooding as well, at least in 2014 and years passed, we've seen the large number of these fatalities occur, as people are being displaced, people are being evacuated, and they go down roads that are certainly possibly closed or have already taken on water. Nearly 70 percent of flooding fatalities take place because of people driving. You take a look at fishing, being outside and walking into a flooded area, falling into flooded regions certainly causes fatalities as well.

But this is what concerns we have right now when it comes to widespread flooding that is going to be taking place and it's going to take place over a several day period, Christine, Alison, of course, with a lot of people being moved out of their homes and trying to find shelter, trying to move on to different places, being on the roads is a very, very dangerous thing.

ROMANS: It doesn't take much water, even gently running water to really be dangerous, right, for a car?

JAVAHERI: Yes, that's right. Ankle deep water. I always say, moving at three to five miles per hour, an average stream there, that will begin to move your vehicle. You get that up to knee high. You are moving the vehicle and its entirety. It has no chance of stopping anymore. The force of that water increases dramatically.

Water levels are ten feet in some places above the previous record.

ROMANS: And people think they know how deep something is --

KOSIK: It's very deceiving.

ROMANS: It's just a few inches, and it isn't.

All right, Pedram Javaheri. Thanks for that really important context.

All right. Political news breaking overnight. Former New York Governor George Pataki ending his presidential nomination. He never broke out of single digits in the polls. As a result, he never broke out on the main stage in the Republican debate.

He struggled to draw attention in a crowded field of candidates by attacking front runner Donald Trump. Pataki used his equal time, matching Trump's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" to announce he was dropping out. He used that time to take a final shot at the front runner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE PATAKI (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, tonight is the end of my journey for the White House as I suspend my campaign for president. I'm confident we can elect the right person, someone who will bring us together, and who understands that politicians including the president must be the people's servant and not their master.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: And Donald Trump is making a major change in strategy even though he's already the front runner. Trump is detailing plans to spend millions of dollars on ads. It's an effort to lock in wins in early voting states.

Trump's new tactic is the basis for his latest taunt on Twitter. Some of which is this. He says, "I have spent almost nothing on my run for president and am in 1st place. Jeb Bush spent $59 million and done. Run the country my way."

Another tweet reads, "My campaign for president is $35 million under budget. I have spent very little and am in 1st place. Now, I will spend big in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina."

For the latest on Trump's plans, let's bring in senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Alison, Donald Trump is still the undisputed Republican frontrunner. He says so himself at every campaign rally he does. I can tell you, he is not taking a holiday break. He'll appear tonight in South Carolina after stopping here in Iowa on Tuesday night and he was in New Hampshire on Monday.

Donald Trump is clearly taking nothing for granted. He is also looking over his shoulder at some of his Republican rivals. He'll start a major advertising campaign last week. He explained for the first time Tuesday night in Omaha.

Let's take a listen.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So I'm going to be doing big ads in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and they're going to be very substantial and I think they're very well done. I've seen the first two or three of them. We're very proud of them.

[04:40:00] We're going to be talking about a lot of things, including the border, including trade, including ISIS and security for the country. We're going to be talking about a lot of things in these commercials.

ZELENY: Now, those television commercials will start next week. He says he will spend at least $2 million a week going into the Iowa caucuses November 1st, followed by the New Hampshire primary. It is a change of strategy for Donald Trump. So far he has not appeared on television advertising.

That is changing. He is trying to turn his supporters at big rallies like this here in Iowa, into actual caucus-going voters. That is his challenge here, trying to get his supporters out to the polls.

We'll see if he does it in less than five weeks -- Christine and Alison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Jeff Zeleny in Council Bluffs for us, thanks, Jeff.

Hillary Clinton sticking to her plan to ignore attacks from Donald Trump. Campaigning in New Hampshire, she declined to answer reporters' questions about Trump. Clinton is campaigning hard in the Granite State. She is trying to pull out an upset victory against Bernie Sanders who is ahead in the New Hampshire polls.

In a town hall there, Clinton did answer questions about ISIS, declaring for first time the terror group's killing of religious minorities, including Christian, amounts to genocide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am sure now we have enough evidence. What is happening is genocide, deliberately aimed at destroying not only the lives but wiping out the existence of Christian and other religious minorities in the Middle East, in territory controlled by ISIS.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Other candidates also stumping in the early primary and caucus states, trying to build momentum going into the home stretch before voting begins. Marco Rubio and Chris Christie holding town halls all over Iowa. Jeb Bush and Donald Trump both holding campaign events in South Carolina, and the severe weather taking Ted Cruz to his home state of Texas where he is going to be touring the tornado damage in the Dallas suburb of Rowlett.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this Wednesday morning.

U.S. stock futures are down, as oil keeps tumbling, oil prices down more than 2 percent right now. There are only two trading days left in the year. Stocks basically flat for the year. Yesterday's rise during light trade volume was enough to put the S&P500 up for the year, just barely.

Music streaming service Spotify is being sued for a $150 million in royalties. The suit filed by guitarist and vocalist David Lowery claims the distributing rights holders of some songs have not been paid by Spotify. The company says it plans to pay every penny of those, but sometimes the data necessary to confirm rights holders is missing, wrong or incomplete. Megastars Taylor Swift and Adele have kept their music off Spotify. Some have criticized streaming for poorly compensating artists.

KOSIK: The so-called affluenza teenager back in the U.S. today after weeks on the run. But what charges will he now be facing, next?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:59] ROMANS: No longer a fugitive. The so-called affluenza teen is expected to return to the U.S. today after his capture in Mexico. Ethan Couch violated his probation in the drunk driving manslaughter case and fled along with his mother. The question now is what will they both face within they are brought back to Texas later today?

CNN's Ed Lavandera has the details for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Alison, Texas authorities are awaiting the return of Ethan Couch and his mother Tonya Couch. They were captured Monday afternoon in the Mexican resort town on the Pacific Ocean of Puerto Vallarta. Authorities took them into custody.

We are told by Mexican officials that they did not resist. That they were not armed, but they were taken into custody and are now in the process of being brought back to the United States. It's not exactly clear how long that process is going to take.

But when Tonya Couch arrives back here in the United States, she will be charged with interfering with the apprehension of a fugitive. That is a felony charge. She now faces up to ten years in prison.

And now, other authorities here are trying to figure out just exactly what to do with Ethan Couch. Obviously, he has been the source -- his case has been the source of frustration for many people here in the Ft. Worth area, especially the families that were killed in that drunken car crash back in 2013.

Prosecutors here in Ft. Worth are trying to move Ethan Couch's case from the juvenile system into the adult system. As it stands right now, the most jail time he could probably face in the jail time that he could face is about up to four months, and prosecutors say they do not believe that that is enough. That's why they're trying to move his case from the juvenile system to the adult system.

There is a hearing scheduled for that on January 19th of next year. So, we'll take some time before we really hear the future fate of Ethan Couch. Right now, these Texas authorities are waiting on both of them to be brought back from Mexico here to the Ft. Worth area -- Christine and Alison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: All right. Ed, we will be watching. They're being brought back today to Texas.

Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke pleading not guilty to six counts of murder and one count of official misconduct in the shooting death of a black teenager last year. Laquan McDonald's shooting was captured on dash-cam video. The shooting sparking protests and had led to calls now for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign. Van Dyke's attorney says he may request a change of venue for the trial.

ROMANS: In Cleveland, a second day over a grand jury's decision not to indict two police officers in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. More than 100 demonstrators marched through downtown streets and disrupted traffic on Tuesday. Much of their anger is directed at the county prosecutor who oversaw the shooting investigation, which ended Monday with the announcement that Officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback would face no criminal charges.

KOSIK: Less All right. Less than 24 hours and counting now until the crystal ball drops welcoming 2016. A million people expected to crowd into New York's Times Square for New Year's Eve. Officials are saying that there's going to be a high level of security with 6,000 police guarding the revelers.

The mayor says Times Square will be one of the safest places on Earth. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: There's been a lot of chatter. There's been a lot of traffic in terms of information around the world related to terror. But there is not a credible threat directed at New York. There is not a threat that's been corroborated in a meaningful way. We have been in constant touch with the FBI and with Homeland Security and other agencies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Still, Mayor de Blasio says those ringing in the New Year should remain vigilant.

ROMANS: All right. A record year at the box office, "Star Wars" was not the biggest force behind it. Big money at the movies, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:52:56] ROMANS: The U.S. led coalition against ISIS says it killed ten of the terror group senior leaders over the last month. One was this man, Charaffe Al Mouadan. Officials say the Syrian-based ISIS leader had a direct link to the ring leader of the November Paris attacks that left 130 people dead. A coalition spokesman says Al Mouadan was killed in an airstrike December 24th and that like several of the other ISIS officials killed, he was, quote, "actively planning additional attacks against the West".

KOSIK: New details emerging behind the suspects behind a foiled New Year's plot in Belgium. The men are members of a Muslim biker gang with a history of links to terror investigation. It's a part of a growing trend in Europe. What's becoming known as gangster jihadism, where Muslims are radicalized in prison and spreading the ideology to old friends when they get out.

Let's go to CNN's Eric McLaughlin live with more.

Are authorities able to tell how close this plot was ready to go?

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alison. What's unclear at this moment, authorities say, that this is still very much under investigation and are not giving out too many details. But we are hearing more about these two individuals who have yet to be named and their affiliation.

A senior counterterrorism official in Belgium saying they were a part of the Muslim biker gang called the Kamikaze Riders, and it's believed that they had a criminal past that includes robbery. It is believed they are a part of a wider group becoming known to authorities as the band of crazies as a group of up to 30 individuals believe to have been radicalized, some of which also members of this biker gang.

As officials saying that authorities became alarmed and decided to move in after learning that these two suspects had been discussing the possibility of carrying out a New Year's attacks on key locations inside Belgium, including the Grand Place, which is this very ornate historic site right in the heart of the city center.

[04:55:03] Authorities were concerned at the ease with which these individuals could acquire weapons given their criminal past. And that's when they decided to conduct a number of raids across different sites in Belgium. Now, during those raids, they did not find any explosives and they did not find weapons.

But they say that what they did find was computer equipment, military style uniforms as well as ISIS propaganda. And authorities are saying that it is believed this plot was ISIS inspired but not ISIS directed, and that's a real critical distinction, because they do not believe these individuals had direct links to militants inside Syria, which is a very different scenario than we saw play out in say the Paris attacks and there is, as you say, this concern about the connection between criminality and radicalization.

And it's a growing question, a growing problem for officials here in Europe in terms of what more they can do about that.

KOSIK: All right. Erin McLaughlin, thanks for that report.

ROMANS: All right. Fifty-six minutes past the hour.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says he may request additional troops in the coming year to assist beleaguered Afghan forces. Army General John Campbell telling "USA Today" that maintaining the current force of nearly 10,000 troops for training and conducting counterterrorism raid is vital. Campbell says the planned troop reduction to 5,500 by January 2017 should be put off as long as possible.

KOSIK: American spies reportedly keeping their eyes and ears on Israeli, according to "The Wall Street Journal". The U.S. intercepted communications between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides, as well as conversations with members of Congress. It came when Netanyahu was taking his campaign against the Iran nuclear deal to Capitol Hill.

A close call on the high seas. The U.S. aircraft carrier coming within 1,500 yards of an Iranian rocket while operating in the Strait of Hormuz. Pentagon officials say the USS Harry Truman was moving through the strait while Iran's Revolutionary Guards were conducting a live exercise in the area. This happening last weekend. They describe what happened as, quote, "uncharacteristic of most interactions between the U.S. and Iranians."

ROMANS: Fifty-seven minutes past the hour. Let's get an early start on your money.

U.S. stock futures down, oil keeps tumbling. Oil prices down another 2 percent right now. There are only two trading days left in the year. Stocks for the year, basically flat.

Yesterday's rise during light trading volume was enough to put the S&P 500 up for the year, but just barely. Getting into the top 1 percent got a little easier. It took about

$429,000 to make into this elite group back in 2013. That's a new IRS data showing this. That's down from $435,000 a year earlier. Thanks to a slew of tax changes.

To get into a more exclusive club, the top 0.1 percent, it took $1.9 million and $9.5 million to join the even more elite. With such high incomes, can you imagine the tax bill? The top 1 percent earned 19 percent of all income and paid 38 percent of all federal income taxes. All that new data from the IRS.

It was a record year at the box office, thanks to Force, dinosaurs and stranded astronauts. The 2015 U.S. box office crossed the $11 billion mark for the first time in history, that was thanks in large part to a big end of the year push from this little film no one heard of called "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", it shattered records, brought in $540 in the last few weeks.

But the record breaking stretched out over the year, that's thanks to films like "Jurassic World" and "The Martian". I have not seen "The Martian".

KOSIK: Oh, my gosh. "The Martian" was so good. It's almost like a comedy. I highly recommend it.

ROMANS: All right. I'll put that on my New Year's list. Thanks, Alison.

KOSIK: EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC)

ROMANS: A deadly rare winter storm flooding the Midwest. The death toll rising. It is only going to get worse.

KOSIK: The race for president shrinking this morning. George Pataki calling it quits. But not without a few parting words.

ROMANS: The affluenza teen expected pack in the U.S. in just a matter of hours. What we're learning about how he spent his time in Mexico.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

KOSIK: And I'm Alison Kosik. It's Wednesday, December 30th, it's 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And breaking overnight, officials say almost 50 people have been killed in weather-related accidents in the past week. And while the storms are over, the flooding downstream is about to get worse. More than 18 million Americans in 13 states now living under flood warnings and for some, it's already too late.

A newspaper reporter catching this cabin on video here floating down the Merrimac River in rural Missouri.

Across the state, residents have been warned to -- warned of major to historic flooding over the next few days. That can go into early next week. They are preparing for the worse. One place where the worse is expected is West Alton, Missouri, just north of St. Louis.