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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Obama's Executive Action on Guns; Iowa Caucus: Down the Stretch They Come; Will Markets Respond? Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 05, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:15] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama going it alone on guns. Executive action set to be rolled out today. The plans, the early reaction, the controversy.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The clock is ticking. Twenty-seven days until the first votes in Iowa and presidential candidates are making their final push. Hillary Clinton taking fire and not just from Republicans.

BERMAN: We have our eye on the markets this morning. New jitters, a brutal start to 2016 all around the world. It could hit you where it hurts -- your wallet.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. Wow. It is January 5th. It's 4:00 a.m. in the East.

Let's get started. In just hours here, President Obama will officially announce his executive action on guns.

But we already know the general shape of the plan. After meeting with the attorney general, on the FBI director and the Oval Office, the president previewed his gun violence plans for reporters, much of it doing with background checks and he took to Twitter to get off the first shots in the PR war.

Here's one several tweets aimed squarely at the NRA. "The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage, but they can't hold America hostage. We can't accept this carnage in our communities."

In many ways, the president's plan is narrow and limited. Some parts bypass Capitol Hill, but many require congressional funding and approval.

Even so, the plan, no surprise, is infuriating Republicans. They are vowing to stop it in courts, in Congress, and in the Oval Office, if they win it.

CNN's Michelle Kosinski has more from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John and Christine.

Right, you look at this, and you can see the administration trying to make every change they possibly can because these are executive actions and not acts of Congress. Immediately, you see those limits that they are up against. I mean, they are presented as proposals or guidance or encouragements. By no means are these new laws.

The biggest deal is background checks. The White House now says if you are in the business of selling guns, whether that is two guns a year or 200,000, whether you're selling at gun shows or on the dark web, you need to register and all of your buyers need background checks. There will be harsh penalties if you don't do that. But the question is out there. How's the federal government going to make you do that and how they're going to track you down if you don't?

The White House also sent a letter now to every state governor, urging them to make sure more information goes into the background check system. Things like people who might be disqualified for mental illness or convictions over domestic violence, to make sure that information goes in. But again, enforcement is a question.

The White House now, too, wants to beef up the background check system itself with a lot more funding, more hiring, much more funding for mental health treatment in this country, but again, those are acts. Congress ultimately would have to approve that funding -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Michelle, thanks so much.

Reaction to this gun proposal was swift from both sides. Hillary Clinton, she applauded the president and promised she would keep, even expand his plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am so proud of what the president announced today. What the president will be doing in the next week is an executive order. The next president on the very first day could wipe it away. You know, I won't wipe it away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Former member of Congress, Gabrielle Giffords, gravely wounded five years ago in a shooting rampage that led six people, she tweeted, "Thank you, POTUS, Mr. President, for standing up to the gun lobby when Congress won't and ensuring fewer guns fall into the wrong hands."

Now, on the other side, Ted Cruz promised to reverse any executive orders on guns if elected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The president is expected to roll out sweeping new executive orders trying to take away our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Well, President Obama may have a phone and may have a pen, but if you live by the pen, you die by the pen and my pen has got an eraser.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: House Speaker Paul Ryan slammed the executive action at a statement. He said, "The president is at minimum subverting the legislative branch and potentially overturning its will. His proposals to restrict gun rights were debated by the United States Senate where they were rejected." Ryan said, "No president should be able to reverse legislative failure by executive fiat, not even incrementally."

Now, a special programming note. This Thursday at 8:00 p.m., President Obama will join Anderson Cooper for an exclusive live town hall event about guns in America. One hot topic will be the executive actions he's announcing today and he will take questions from a live studio audience.

[04:05:05] And it's a town hall on guns in America with President Obama moderated by Anderson this Thursday night, 8:00 p.m., only on CNN.

ROMANS: New attacks this morning in the race for president. The focus for much of the Republican field now squarely focusing on Donald Trump. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is trying to paint Trump as unprepared for the presidency.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Show time is over, everybody. We are not electing an entertainer in chief. Showmanship is fun, but it is not the kind of leadership that will truly change America. If we're going to turn our frustration and anger with D.C. insiders, the politicians of yesterday and the carnival barkers of today into something that actually will change American lives for the better, we must elect someone who has been tested.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: For his part, Trump is focusing his attacks on Hillary Clinton.

We get more this morning from CNN's Sara Murray. She's in Lowell, Massachusetts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine.

Donald Trump rallied a crowd of thousands here in Massachusetts last night, but he didn't unleash any of its recent attacks against Bill Clinton, holding back on criticizing those past infidelities. But he did go after Hillary Clinton, predicting that if she is elected, her presidency could be even worse than President Barack Obama.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We don't need four more years of Obama. And that's what you're getting with Hillary. That's what you're getting. No, that's what you're getting. And I believe it might be even worse, if you want to know the truth. It might be worse, OK? We don't need that.

MURRAY: Now, skipping over those Bill Clinton attacks could be a shrewd move for Trump. A number of voters lined up to see him in Massachusetts told me they wanted to see Trump talk about the issues, talk about the border with Mexico, talk about foreign policy. They didn't want to see their politicians dredging up past fidelities, whether they belong to the Clintons or to Donald Trump.

And you'll note that I am in Massachusetts where Trump held this big rally last night, not in Iowa or New Hampshire. That is part of the Trump campaign strategy to keep their eye not just on first two nominating contests, but also on states that won't vote until March 1st. But rest assured, Trump is back on the trail today, this time in New Hampshire.

Back to you, John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Sara Murray in Lowell, Massachusetts.

The Lowell media does bleed into southern New Hampshire. So, people there surely got a chance to see that Trump rally.

Now, Hillary Clinton responded to Trump rally by not responding at all. Asked what she thinks about Trump's claim that she and President Obama created ISIS, Hillary Clinton had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I adopted a New Year's resolution. I'm going to let him live in his alternative reality and I'm not going to respond.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Today, Hillary Clinton, she will continue to push through Iowa. She's got multiple events across the state.

Bill Clinton, he made his solo debut on the stump. He gave two speeches in New Hampshire, mainly focused on personal stories about his wife, although he did describe the entire Republican field as, quote, "kind of scary".

It was interesting. People describing Clinton speeches as more subdued than they're used from the big dog. I think "The Washington Post" or "The Wall Street Journal" said the big dog was fixed when he was on the stump, yesterday, campaigning for his wife very interesting to see.

As for her primary opponent, Bernie Sanders will be in New York today. He delivers a speech on financial industry reforms. Sanders previewed the speech last night in New Hampshire while portraying Hillary Clinton as being in the pocket of the big banks.

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

Can global markets regain their footing? Stock futures slightly lower. Chinese stocks could not rebound from a horrid, horrid Monday. There is the tally right now. Stocks in Shanghai posted more slimmer losses, but still adding to Monday's terrible historic drop.

Tensions in the Middle East adding to the fear on Wall Street. That's likely not going to go away. But you can see, London and Paris have managed to rebound. That's encouraging for American investors to see if they can stem the slide today.

Yesterday, really horrible. The Dow dropped as many as 467 points Monday. Closed down 267. That's about 1.5 percent. It is 4 percent away from a classic correction, defined as a decline from 10 percent from a recent high. But a lot of selling to start the year.

The Dow dipped below 17,000 for the first time since October. That is just a psychological level. But still, it shows you the market having trouble here to start the New Year. Get used to it. It could be a rough first quarter as we go through a lot of new economic data. Jobs report on Friday.

And these concerns about China, it was a big driver for investors last year. It is a main worry for Wall Street. One trigger for the selloff, bad manufacturing report following years of wildly strong growth in China.

[04:10:00] What's going on with the Chinese economy and markets? Can the governments, bad as they are, even be believed?

For the very latest, I want to bring CNN's Matt Rivers in Beijing.

First, Matt, it looks as though there wasn't a renewal of major selling. But Chinese markets did not -- did not rebound.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, they did not rebound from yesterday's major, major selloff. However, they were certainly not nearly as volatile as they were during the day on Monday. The stock markets here were managed to be stabilized throughout the day today, just closing slightly from where they opened this morning. That's in part because of the government coming out this morning with some fairly strong responses to yesterday's events.

One of the things they promised was that there would be no large selloffs later this week, thanks in part to a ban being lifted on a major shareholders being able to sell their stakes in listed companies. They said they would manage those selloffs. And then, they also injected the equivalent of about $20 billion U.S. dollars in liquidity into Chinese markets.

So, they did that early this morning, talking about it in a statement. And that seemed to calm investors down here in China after what was a wild day here yesterday.

ROMANS: I've got to ask you, Matt, you know, I guess the injection of the Chinese government with money and with new measures into how the stock market operates. Is that -- is that giving more confidence to investors or is it undermining confidence of investors? What are people saying?

RIVERS: Oh, I think it depends on who you ask really. I mean, if you look at what it did today, I think it did, according to most of analysts that we've spoken to throughout the day, it did tend to calm investors down. That said, in the long term, what does that say when the government, every time something goes wrong with the market, what does it say that the government has to come in with what some would call heavy handed approaches, how sustainable is that moving forward and how worrying is that to investors just taking off 2016?

ROMANS: All right. Matt Rivers for us in Beijing this morning, and again, a very dramatic day on Monday.

John Berman, we will see if things can settle down here today. We know for 2016, for U.S. investors, China's soft landing or hard landing is in its economy critical to your 401(k).

BERMAN: Yes, a lot of people think it's a lot grayer outlook today than it might have been a few years ago. So, we'll see how that goes.

All right. Christine, thanks so much.

All right. Coming up for us, there is breaking news. A new Arab nation pulling its ambassador from Iran. The dangerous diplomatic conflict there getting hotter by the minute. How far will it go? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:41] ROMANS: Welcome back to EARLY START.

The Middle East growing more dangerous this morning. Just moments ago, Kuwait joining the UAE in recalling its ambassador to Tehran. Key Saudi allies Bahrain and Sudan also severing ties with Iran. Russia is now stepping in, offering to mediate this mess.

I want to bring in CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen. He is monitoring development live from London.

And the recriminations and the recalls continue, Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they certainly do. I mean, Kuwait is the third nation that is recalling its ambassador. You have Bahrain, you have Sudan, you also actually have the United Arab Emirates as well.

So, certainly, this is a pattern that continues. Meantime, the Iranians for their part, also continuing to heavily criticize the Saudis. One of the Iranian government spokespeople came out and said that it would be to the detriment of the Saudis themselves and nations who support them if they sever ties with the Iranians. Of course, the Saudis went up and upped the ante yesterday as well, cutting also economic ties, stopping flights between Saudi Arabia and Iran and banning Saudi citizens from traveling to Iran.

Now, we can certainly see this as a point of escalation. In the meantime, as you said, the Russians now are stepping in and offering to mediate in the conflict. That is something that many people don't really give much of a realistic chance because, of course, we know that the Russians in Syria are part of a bombing campaign on the part of Bashar al Assad, who is on the side of the Iranians. So, certainly, the Saudis are reluctant to accept Russians as mediators. But right now, it seems as though the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia is escalating rather than deescalating, Christine.

ROMANS: So, you know, I mean, except for the Russians, is there an obvious off ramp here to escalating tensions? Because, you know, a Shia-Sunni divide with proxy wars and, you know, completing interests, I mean, clearly, an off-ramp is what you got to find here.

PLEITGEN: There certainly does need to be an off ramp. And at this point in time, it doesn't appear any sort of country that would be able to mediate with these nations.

The U.S. says it doesn't want to step in and be a referee between those two countries. However, it is calling on both countries to get back to diplomacy. The Turks are doing the same thing. The E.U. is calling for the tempers to be toned down. But at this point in time, it seems as though that simply isn't happening and you're absolutely right. It is certainly a situation that could be detrimental to the crisis in Syria, to Iraq and Yemen as well. So, certainly, a big issue.

ROMANS: The U.S. with a long standing relationship with Saudi Arabia, but new relationship with Iran, very difficult position diplomatically.

Fred Pleitgen following it for us, thanks, Fred.

BERMAN: All right. Just in to CNN this morning, an arrest following a deadly bus fire in northern China that killed 17 people and injured 32 others. Chinese authorities confirm they have taken a suspect into custody. He has been identified as Ma Yongping.

The incident took place in the town of Yinchuan. Flames engulfed the packed bus at 7:00 a.m. local time outside a mall. Police are not revealing the possible motive.

ROMANS: All right. Another blow for embattled Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Advocates for a recall election get a big boost. We're going to tell you who's supporting the effort and the harsh words he has for Chicago's mayor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:22:32] ROMANS: Freezing temperatures in the east will give way to a warm up, but will that last? Let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Christine and John, good morning.

The incredibly cold pattern here is shaping up. And you take a look at these readings. The current temps this morning in New York City, 12 degrees. Feels like 4 when you factor the wind. Minus eight around Boston. Caribou, wind chills down to 20 below zero. And again, just the sign of things to come for parts of the country in the next coming couple of days.

High temperatures get up to the lower 30s around New York City, in Washington. Of course, this time, a couple weeks ago, we were talking about the 70s across this region.

And speaking of warm weather, take a look at Jacksonville, Florida. December 29th, 83 degrees, hovered in the mid-80s, onto the last of days of 2015. Since then, the bottom has dropped, temps cooling off some 30 degrees with the high now into the mid-50s and around 60 degrees. But again, a short lived pattern.

Take a look at the cold air exit the picture. But Thursday afternoon into Friday evening, mild weather sets in. But notice a little sign of cooler air filtering in.

By Saturday and Sunday and eventually into next week, some of the coldest weather in several years for portions of the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest. In fact, some areas could be 15 to 25 below average.

Look at Minneapolis. You go in from about 32 to 34 down to high temperatures that would struggle to get up above zero by this weekend.

So, incredible pattern ahead of guys.

BERMAN: All right. Pedram, thanks so much.

On the subject of the weather, a stunning cold shoulder this morning from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner, says he would sign pending legislation to allow Chicago voters to recall future mayors. The bill would not apply to the sitting mayor for his handling of the police-involved shootings.

(BEGIN VIJDDEO CLIP)

GOV. BRUCE RAUNER (R), ILLINOIS: I am disappointed in the mayor and in the state's attorney for Cook County. Very disappointed. I'm not going to say more than that right now because there is a lot of investigation going on. But I'm very disappointed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The Justice Department is conducting a civil rights investigating into the Chicago police department. A spokesperson for Mayor Emanuel says his focus is not on his political fate, but ON reforming the culture of policing in the city. ROMANS: A county sheriff in Oregon is demanding armed militia members

end their occupation of a federal wildlife refugee, now entering a fourth day. But they say they are not going anywhere anytime soon. The flash point for the takeover has been the treatment of two ranchers, Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, who are convicted of ransom, served time briefly, and then resentenced to longer prison terms. The Hammonds turned themselves in on Monday at a federal prison in California.

[04:25:01] These activists are demanding an investigation into whether ranchers are being forced off their land illegally so it can be declared a government wildlife sanctuary.

BERMAN: Tonya Couch, the mother of the affluenza teen, is expected today in court today in Los Angeles for a hearing on her extradition to Texas. She is charged with helping her son flee to Mexico in a violation for the probation he received for a drunk driving crash that killed four people.

Now, Ethan Couch remains in Mexico. He is fighting extradition. His attorney says it may be a couple of months before Ethan Couch is sent back to the United States.

ROMANS: Fired South Carolina police officer Michael Slager is free on bail this morning. Slager is charged with murder in a shooting death of Walter Scott last April. Video showed Scott was shot in the back as he ran away following a traffic stop. A judge placed Slager under house arrest as a condition of his bail. His trial is set to begin October 31st.

BERMAN: All right. Sports news, three NFL teams are looking to relocate to Los Angeles, but the league says it will support one new stadium that will be shared by two teams in the Los Angeles market. The St. Louis Rams, they used to play in Los Angeles, the Oakland Raiders, they used to play in Los Angeles, the San Diego Chargers, they too play in southern California. They all filed applications Monday to relocate for the 2016 season.

NFL owners are expected to decide at a league meeting next week which team or teams will move there if any.

Sort of stunning that there is no team in Los Angeles right now. Next year, there could be two.

All right. The end of the era for the NFL's New York giants. Head coach Tom Coughlin announced his resignation. The 69-year-old Coughlin coached the Giants for 12 seasons. He won two Super Bowl titles. The dude's a good coach.

There had been speculation Coughlin would be fired after a third straight losing season. He said in a statement it was in the best interest of the organization that he steps down. He says he is not done coaching, though. Some teams are going to get a good coach.

ROMANS: All right. President Obama preparing to layout his executive actions on gun control to the nation. More background checks, mental health funding and more. Will it help curb the gun epidemic plaguing the country?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)