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Bill Cosby Charged With Sexual Assault; All-Time Record Flooding In Missouri; Stocks Flat For 2015; Belgium Charges Man With Terrorism; New Year's Holiday Threats Prompt More Security; Major Strategy Shift For Bush Campaign; Trump Slamming Hillary As "Low Energy" Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired December 31, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: -- university employee, Andrea Constand, 12 years ago. The local prosecutor at the time declined to charge the actor citing insufficient evidence. Constand sued Cosby and settled in 2006.

Now following the parade of recent allegations and accusations against Cosby, his deposition in Constand's suit has been unsealed providing a new prosecutor with new evidence.

CNN's Jean Casarez was at Cosby's arraignment. She has the very latest for us.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Alison, Bill Cosby was not late to the arraignment yesterday right here at this very small courthouse in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

When defendant Cosby entered the courtroom, he appeared as though he could not see well. His attorney had his arm and really help him step by step get to the defense counsel and sat him down in his seat.

The magistrate judge took the stand a short time later. Really apprised Mr. Cosby of the criminal charges against him, alleged aggravated and indecent assault. Explaining the various theories of the prosecution.

She also told him bail was set at $1 million, the 10 percent he would have to pay. Cosby didn't say anything. He didn't have any emotion that came out through his eyes. He just was intently looking.

She was talking about the conditions of bail saying that he could not have any contact with the accuser, the complainant. At one point, he said with who. She said with the complainant.

He seemed to understand. She said do you understand what I'm telling you. He said yes. He gave up his passport. His attorney had it and gave it to the prosecutor as is one of the conditions of bail.

The judge ended by saying, Mr. Cosby, good luck. Bill Cosby said matter of fact, but very respectfully, thank you. And the victim, Andrea Constand, at this point we believe remains in Canada.

Her attorney told me that she was told one day ahead of time that charges would be brought in. She is just so grateful I am told that this district attorney is believing and has confidence in her -- Christine, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: All right, Jean Casarez, thanks for that report. Other Cosby accusers are weighing in applauding the news that an alleged victim will get her day in court. The lawyer for former supermodel, Janice Dickinson, releasing a statement.

It says this, "Though he is a very wealthy and famous celebrity, Mr. Cosby should be subject to the same criminal and civil laws as everyone else. Mr. Cosby's arrest today is a highly significant chapter in his accusers' long journey toward justice."

It goes on to say, "Every woman who stands up against Mr. Cosby does so in solidarity with the other fifty women who have now had the courage to speak out against him."

And supermodel, Beverly Johnson, tweeted about karma writing, "When it comes down to it, truth is simple. There is nothing that we give to others that does not come back to us in some shape or form."

ROMANS: Attorneys for Cosby immediately slammed the prosecution of their client as political. Their statement says, quote, "The charge by the Montgomery County District Attorney's office came as no surprise, filed 12 years after the alleged incident and coming on the heels of a hotly contested election for this county's DA during which this case was made the focal point.

Make no mistake, we intend to mount a vigorous defense against this unjustified charge and we expect that Mr. Cosby will be exonerated by a court of law." Cosby faces ten years in prison if convicted.

KOSIK: There is no rain in the forecast for Missouri, but historic flooding under way there this morning is only expected to get worse. Overnight, state officials closing parts of a major interstate south of St. Louis so they could push sand bagging efforts to the limit.

They are hoping to keep the interstate open as long as possible. Now Missouri Governor Jay Nixon says the Mississippi River expected to crest later today will hit all-time record levels. This is a new benchmark here.

CNN accompanying the governor as he toured the flood ravaged area by helicopter. He saw houses, neighborhoods, and schools all under water, many ruined.

Rescue efforts are underway across the state as well. Watch this carefully as this man is trying to save his dog. The dog is stranded on the rooftop. He falls into the water. He was OK though, dramatic video there of that rescue.

Check out this truck here. It was towed up and out of the water. Look at how that water is coming out of the truck after being submerged in the water. Governor Nixon discussed the magnitude of the damage he saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR JAY NIXON (D), MISSOURI: Until you see the magnitude of it, it's sometimes difficult to feel the damages plus we want to make sure that we understand the breath of this and where the water is moving.

Because all of this water is headed down to another place in the state of Missouri. If you are winning fights here, it allows to us measure and be prepared downstream in places like Perriville and from the south.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:35:01]ROMANS: For Missouri, this is literally the new high water mark, the flood of '3, the December of '82, this is bigger. More than 12 million people are under flood warnings now in 19 states now. You can see them they are extremely unusual for this time of year.

For the latest forecast I want to bring in meteorologist, Allison Chinchar -- Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning to you. We have 352 rivers that reporting either at or above flood stage. Now one of the good pieces of information is that the rain is over in these areas. They can finally begin to dry back out.

Here is the look at the future radar. The same system that brought all of the flooding rains finally going to make its way out over the open Atlantic. We have some areas of lake-effect snow for parts of the Midwest and northeast.

Otherwise, a lot of areas getting a chance to dry out. Behind that system, as much colder air, we are going from 63 yesterday in New Orleans to 57 for the high today, 66 in Atlanta yesterday down to 58 and going from 80 to 76 in Tallahassee.

Cooler across many areas, 28 for the high today in Chicago, 34 in Detroit, only 47 degrees in New York. Tonight for New Year's Eve forecast will be about 40 degrees, mostly cloudy skies, but relatively light winds.

ROMANS: Allison, thank you for that.

Time for an EARLY START on your money this morning. Last chance to trade stocks for the year. U.S. stock futures are barely moving. The big story, another huge drop in oil yesterday, a 3 percent slump in oil prices yesterday. Oil now down more than 30 percent for the year, just a remarkable move in one year for a commodity.

Puerto Rico will default on its bond payments for the second time. The island owes $1 billion to creditors on January 4th. The governor says it will fall short by $37 million. Puerto Rico faces about $73 billion in total debt.

Happy New Year. How about a raise? Minimum wage workers in 13 states will see more in their paychecks at some point next year plus workers in 10 additional states get a small cost of living increase. Currently 29 states and the District of Columbia have a minimum wage above the federal rate of $7.25. In some places it's much higher. The so-called fight for 15, a $15 minimum wage, it once seemed like a really farfetched goal.

But in 2015, 14 states and cities approved a $15 minimum wage to take effect gradually. Another 13 will likely consider the issue in the new year.

KOSIK: Everybody getting ready for New Year's Eve in an unprecedented show of force as New York City is preparing for the big New Year's Eve ball drop in Times Square. This is a security theme playing out around the world. Details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:40:52]

ROMANS: Breaking news this morning. Police in Belgium leveling terror charges against a tenth person in connection with last month's Paris attacks. Ten cell phones also collected as we learn a phone discarded after the Paris attacks at the Bataclan was in communication with someone in Belgium on that day.

CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, joining us live in Brussels. From the beginning, investigators zeroing in on Brussels and the Molenbek neighborhood, and this terror cell, this connection between Jihadis in Belgium and the Paris terrorist attacks. What is the very latest, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Christine, that is where this latest arrest took place yesterday in the Molenbek neighborhood, again, an area where they've been searching right after the Paris terror attacks.

This tenth person here now arrested and charged with terrorist murder. The membership or participation terrorist organization connected with the Paris terror attack. The ten cell phones found.

They are not clear yet according to officials if they are the same cell phones that text messages were sent from outside the Bataclan restaurant where one of the largest killing sprees took place in that Paris terror attack.

Whether the messages were sent from the cell phone found outside of there were sent to these cell phones discovered here during the arrest just yesterday.

But what we know is 25 text messages sent from this one cell phone in the 24 hours leading up to the attack at the Bataclan Theater and the last text message was one that said we are ready to start.

So this now appears to be part of the investigation going forward here by the authorities here in Belgium. What we are also learning here from the prime minister saying that he judges the situation now. The uncertainty around the potential acts and intentions by terrorists to be changing hour by hour. He says that they are more professional than they've been in the past.

The mayor here has decided to cancel the New Year's Eve fireworks celebrations. A big tradition here. This is a big issue in Belgium. The cancellation of this display is a real concern and disappointment for the people of Brussels.

This is something that we are seeing wider across Europe. The scaling down of celebrations to see in the New Year. Here, cancellation of the fireworks -- Christine.

ROMANS: Authorities want to be sure they can keep everyone safe and with all of these terror investigations, in that case, they not sure they can. Thanks so much for that, Nic Robertson.

KOSIK: Meantime, here in the U.S., the New Year's Eve celebrations still scheduled to go on despite learning that President Obama was made aware of the threats to New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

The NYPD responding with an unprecedented deployment for the annual Times Square celebration. Miguel Marquez has the latest.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Alison, this is it, the crossroads of the world. Despite there not being any credible threats will soon be turned into the most secure streets in the world. The ball will drop right down there, the famous New Year's Eve ball.

More than 1 million revelers will pile into the blocks of Times Square here. Police taking no chances, though, saying even though there is no credible threat, they will plan for anything that comes at them.

Six thousand police just for these few blocks alone. Tens of thousands of law enforcement across the entire city to protect events happening throughout in New York City. What was one parties and good times are now considered soft targets.

The threat of ISIS has changed everything for cities like New York. They will have to throw everything at it, from the land, from sea, from underground in the subways. Even from the air over the city to protect the entire city during the New Year's Eve celebrations.

They will have lots of bomb-sniffing dogs out and available. They will have radiation detectors, chemical detectors, and thousands of cameras as well to keep tabs on things.

The mayor of New York saying that because of Paris and San Bernardino, it has changed the way they look at security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[05:45:05]MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We pride ourselves in the city. We are the best prepared city in the country. The best prepared city to prevent terrorism and to deal with any event should it occur.

There will be a tremendous number of officers who you will see. There will be many officers you won't see. There will be obvious security measures you will see and a number of measures you won't see. What we can assure you is that the preparations are extraordinary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: New York City is saying that that special response team is able to respond to dozens of incidents at a time that's because of the San Bernardino and Paris attacks. They want to be able to hone in and be able to respond to any sort of small attacks in several locations at the same time.

This will be the biggest security operation ever with 800 additional officers. New York City says it is prepared for whatever may come -- Alison and Christine.

KOSIK: OK, Miguel Marquez, thanks for that. Authorities have their hands full out there. It gets crazy out there.

ROMANS: It does. Let's take a look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Alisyn Camerota joins us now. The last 24 hours, Alisyn, it is almost unbelievable the amount of news that has broken.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Absolutely. So we will be following-up on all of those stories, Christine. Great to see you, guys, and Alison.

Straight ahead on NEW DAY, the mother of affluenza teen, Ethan Couch, back in the U.S. She left Mexico overnight. She landed in Los Angeles this morning. She could be facing up to ten years behind bars for helping her son, Ethan, leave the country. Now the teenager is still in Mexico so we'll tell you why it could take some time to bring him back to Texas.

And also, an extraordinary show of force tonight as you just saw in New York's Times Square. Six thousand police officers assigned to patrol Times Square for New Year's Eve. We will tell you about the terror threats facing the big apple and two other big American cities.

Also we will have all of the latest for you on Bill Cosby. We will speak to a couple of his alleged victims about how they felt yesterday seeing him walk into that courtroom.

KOSIK: All right, a lot going on.

ROMANS: Nice to see you, Alisyn. Thank you. Happy New Year.

All right, Twitter promising a tough new stance on violent tweets. Amid criticism for failing to stop extremists from using the social network. What are these new rules? We'll get an EARLY START on your money next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:50:23]

ROMANS: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announcing major changes in police training and department policies that include having a taser in every police cruiser. The changes follow a series of officer involved shootings and claims that police are too quick to fire their weapons.

Emanuel says the moves are designed to rebuild trust between communities and the officers sworn to protect and serve. We get more this morning from CNN's Rosa Flores.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alison and Christine, the Chicago mayor put it like this, he says that he wants to inject humanity into policy. Let me get you up to speed here. He says that 21 percent of the cruisers out on the street with police officers actually have tasers.

That totals to about 700 units with tasers. He wants to double that to 1,400 tasers out in the streets of Chicago. Now that also comes also with trainings for police officers. Not only on how to use those tasers, but on how to deescalate the situation when they are out patrolling the streets.

What they want to do is they want to simmer down the situation so that less use of deadly force is actually used. Here's how the mayor put it in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL (D), CHICAGO: There's a difference between whether someone can use a gun and when they should use a gun. And we as a city must train for that difference. We will improve communication between officers and individuals to make these encounters less confrontational and more conversational.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now this is not happening in a vacuum. In the background, the United States Department of Justice is also investigating the patterns and practices of the Chicago Police Department and one of the things they're looking at, specifically, is training -- Alison, Christine.

KOSIK: All right, Rosa, thanks for that.

Turning to politics, Jeb Bush with a major strategy shift ahead of the new year, scrapping a major TV ad buy and putting people on the ground in early voting states to try to boost his campaign.

He is trying to overcome the low energy label slapped on him by Donald Trump who is now throwing that statement at his top Democratic opponent.

Eric Bradner, reporter for CNN Politics is here this morning with us. So what do you think? Is Jeb Bush actually taking Donald Trump's advice? You know, he's going ahead and kind of resetting his strategy and taking that money from TV and putting it into his people on the ground.

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: This is not a decision that any campaign wants to have to make. Jeb Bush's is a fund raising machine, able to generating what seems like endless sums of money. Now he has having to really pull back.

That raises questions about how much money his campaign actually has on hand, but this also shows that establishment Republican candidates, people like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich, those types, are really all in on New Hampshire.

This is devoting more and more resources to actually talking to New Hampshire voters on the ground. It shows that is sort of the one state that these candidates are identifying as the real opportunity.

It is not great news for Jeb. It shows that his campaign is making a lot of tough financial decisions at this stage.

ROMANS: Let's talk about financial decisions in the fourth quarter fundraising total. The most recent fourth quarter fundraising numbers, interesting on the top of this list you have Ben Carson at $23 million he pulled in.

Ted Cruz coming in second at $20 million. Ben Carson, the last couple of weeks, had not garnered a lot of headlines. He's not been garnering a lot of buzz, but he is or was raising a lot of money.

BRADNER: Yes, absolutely. This is really surprising because Ben Carson has had a rough quarter. He has been hit by questions about whether his stories about his childhood is accurate. You see his poll numbers really take a dip.

You've almost seen Ted Cruz and Ben Carson switch places as the other top tier Republican candidate. This is really great news for Carson. We will learn more about his campaign within about a month because Iowa is really key for him.

It's a state where he should do well. It's probably the best early state for him. So this might kind of turn around a period of weeks of really bad stories for him. It's jarring only because it conflicts with what we know about where the momentum in the race is headed right now.

KOSIK: All right, Donald Trump taking another jab at Hillary Clinton actually bringing back a phrase he used for Jeb Bush. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Low energy can be applied to Hillary. I just don't like to use the same thing twice on one of my enemies, right, because I consider them enemies? We view this as war. Don't we view this as war? It's war. It's war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:55:08]KOSIK: Low energy. Are those fighting words? Is that what those are?

BRADNER: They are. I actually think the second half of that sound bite is more interesting where he says it's war. I mean, Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat for declaring Republicans to be her enemies. Now Donald Trump is doing the exact same thing.

This is a great piece of evidence. The two frontrunners in this race are not really as concerned about the middle, right. They are not appealing to independents and moderates. They are more about really revving up their bases.

They see that as their opportunity to win this race. So, yes, I mean, we have seen this Trump/Clinton battle or war as he calls it really escalate with Trump going after Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton is going to be draw even more into this as she returns to the campaign trail. No doubt.

ROMANS: He said this is more showbizness than politics. He is saying this is more war than politics although war can be politics. Is this a major campaign downshift for the rest of the weekend do you think?

BRANDER: You know, most of the candidates are down today. They will take this holiday as a last opportunity to get a bit of family time and you will see them all really ramp into high gear. It is a dead sprint through January to the Iowa caucuses.

ROMANS: All right, get some rest, Eric Bradner, because we have a lot going on in the next 300 days. All right, thank you so much. Nice to see you. Thanks for getting up for us. Have a happy New Year.

Let's get an EARLY START on your money right now, the last chance to trade stocks for the year. U.S. stock futures barely moving. The big story, another huge drop in oil, a 3 percent slump in oil prices yesterday.

Oil is now down more than 30 percent for the year. That is a big move for commodity. Let me give you a progress report for stocks this year. Ending the year basically where they started. Stocks moved sideways most of the year except for a decline, a recovery in the fall. Right now, the S&P 500 is up just 0.2 percent for 2015.

California's equal pay laws are getting even tougher. The state already requires equal pay for men and women doing the same job. But starting January 1st, equal wages will be required for men and women who do substantially similar work regardless of formal job description.

The law also prohibits employers from firing workers who disclose the pay of coworkers to other employees. Equal pay advocates plan to use this law for model for legislation in seven other states.

Twitter is changing its policy on violent posts. The company said Tuesday it is taking steps to identify users who tweet hateful and violent speech and kick them off the social network.

The update also bans people from using multiple accounts to avoid suspension that is so aggravating. Social networks have faced a lot of criticism for failing to stop terrorists from using social media to communicate. This marks the first time Twitter has said users who tweeted threatening things could be removed from the network --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: It is real, real hateful things. Yes, many saying that it's about time Twitter ahead and changed its policy. Hopefully people will chill out a little bit. They hide behind that anonymity.

ROMANS: All right, bombshell felony sex assault charges against Bill Cosby. How are his lawyers and his alleged victims responding? "NEW DAY" has that part of the story right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bill Cosby made two sexual advances at her that were rejected.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bill Cosby charged.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twelve years after the alleged incident.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He could go to prison for ten years if convicted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wasn't really sure whether or not a criminal case would ever be filed against Mr. Cosby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two suspects were arrested in Turkey with suicide bombing gear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brussels canceled its New Year's festivities and fireworks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six thousand police officers just here in Times Square.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their ambition is just to kill as many people as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New Year's Eve in New York City will be the safest place in the world to be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The waters are still rising.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At this point, we are waiting on the county to decide whether or not we have to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What looks like the river behind me that is actually the highway.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: NEW DAY last day. Our coined day phrase. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Thursday, December 31st. Happy New Year's Eve morning. It's 6:00 in the east. Chris is off. John Berman joins us. Great to have you with us.

We begin this morning with Bill Cosby, for the first time after decades of accusations on Wednesday, the disgraced comedian faced sexual assault charges.

The charges coming just before the statute of limitations would have expired. At least 50 women have accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting them. Cosby maintains any incident were consensual.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Cosby is free on bail and back at home in his Massachusetts home this morning. His lawyers say they're going to mount a vigorous defense and claim that Cosby is the victim of a political prosecution. What will all of this case mean for the other accusers?

We're going to begin our coverage now with CNN's Jean Casarez. She is live in Alcon's Park, Pennsylvania. Jean, good morning.