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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Terror Attacks Against Westerners in Jakarta; Three Lottery Winners; GOP Debate Preview; Manziel Out in Cleveland?. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 14, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: -- right now. Fluctuations all around the world.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely.

[05:00:03] BERMAN: All right, but Early Start continues right now.

UNKNOWN MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

ROMANS: Breaking news, a deadly terror attack targeting westerners, a series of explosions. The gun battle rocking Jakarta. We are live with new developments.

Good morning and welcome to Early Start, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. It is Thursday, January 14th. It is 5:00 A.M. in the East. We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world.

The breaking news this morning. A series of coordinated gun and bomb attacks in the heart of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, overnight. At least seven people now are dead. Officials say that includes several of the attackers and one of those killed, also a foreigner. So far, there has been no claim of responsibility, but there are questions this morning about whether there is ISIS involvement.

CNN's Kathy Quiano is in Jakarta for us with the latest on the street there. Kathy, what are you learning?

KATHY QUIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well John, we're getting new information from the national police spokesman and he just said that the number of people dead is six now, five of them attackers and one foreign national. There was also another civilian who was seriously injured. About 20 people have also been - had also suffered serious and minor injuries from the explosions and the gun fight that happened here in central Jakarta earlier on.

He also said that all in all, about five explosions. There were five devices that actually exploded during the attacks. But police later on found five unexploded bombs in the area and this is when they were sweeping in the building that they thought one of the armed suspects had gone into. Now that operation has winded down. Police have swept through the

area, although, security is still very, very tight. We are about 150 meters away from the actual site here. Traffic is now flowing through the streets. Activities seem to be back to normal but still it is a city on the edge here, John.

BERMAN: And that street, describe to me the location of these attacks and whether or not it is obvious exactly what was targeted?

QUIANO: Well, we know for a fact that one of the explosions happened in the Starbucks Cafe that was in an office building and this is in a very busy intersection where a lot of the cafes and restaurants are open 24 hours. So it's busy anytime of the day. But across that is the small police outpost. So this is on an island that separates two main lanes of this huge thoroughfare, one of Indian - Jakarta's main thoroughfares, so those were attacked.

We know that, you know, from restriction and knowledge with the terror expert here in Indonesia, that the nature of attacks in Indonesia had changed over the years. There were major attacks on the JW Marriott here in Jakarta, seven years ago the Australian Embassy as well. These were huge prompts that blew up but this one as police are not saying on what kind of explosives were actually used. They seemed to be low intensity, low explosives but the shift was from western foreign targets to police and government authorities.

Now we're seeing that here as well. There was attack on the police post, but there was also an attack on a commercial establishment. And again this might be a new transfer for Indonesia, which has not been a stranger to major attacks by terror groups.

BERMAN: All right, Kathy Quiano for us on the streets in Jakarta. Kathy, thank you so much.

ROMANS: All right Christian Hubel works in a skyscraper with a clear view of the site of the attacks here. We spoke to him a short time ago from Jakarta. He told us what he saw.

CHRISTIAN HUBEL, WITNESS: We heard a rather big noise by then some like an explosion but at the first step we thought it was like both from the construction site next to our building, but then we realized there was a huge smoke cloud on the street like 500 meters away. And then with the second and the third and up to five or six explosions we heard within a few minutes and then we realized, there must be something going on and it must be really serious.

ROMANS: How long did this go on? Was this a period of minutes? Was it a half hour? How quickly were authorities on the scene?

HUBEL: The explosions where maybe within 30 minutes but the whole scene looked like is going on for at least two hours because when the police arrived and a lot of people were standing around the scene, suddenly everybody was running away. So it looks like, maybe there was still one terrorist or something like that. And then after it took maybe two hours until the police now is cleaning up the whole scene. [05:05:07] BERMAN: All right. Helping us now breakdown all the

developments in Jakarta. I want to bring in CNN military analyst, Cedric Leighton, a former member of the Joint Chief of Staff, former Deputy Director of the NSA.

Cedric, thank you for being with us. We see this attack in Jakarta. We have seen attacks in Indonesia before. This is coordinated. There are a lot of officials saying this looks like it could be an ISIS style attack with coordination with bombs and gunfire all at the same time. What do you see?

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST, FORMER MEMBER JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFFS: Well, John, I think that when you see the different types of the methods that they are using, you know, with the bomb attacks as well as the rapid fire, you know, use of machine guns and kind of this almost military style series of tactics. It almost reminds you a little bit of Paris. And so I'm thinking that what ISIS is doing right now is they're basically instructing their cells all over the world to use several different kinds of tactics as they commit these attacks. So you'll see small arms fire. You'll see machine guns possibly being used or some automatic weapons of one type or another. And of course, you'll see bombs.

So they're trying to in essence go for, you know, some kind of trifecta where they go in after multiple targets at the same time and when they do that, they're basically trying to sow the seeds of panic and, you know, in essence of overtax the emergency services and of course, you know, make sure that, you know, people are herded into certain areas as they try to escape from one attack and go to another location.

ROMANS: It has been sort of an evolving strategy quite frankly, because you go back, you know, some folks this morning are saying this has -- it looks as though these terrorists were trying to launch a Paris-style attack, multiple locations as you point out, but very concentrated here. Different style of attack, you know, starting with bombs but then also with guns and getting people where they are gathering and unaware as, you know, the Starbucks for example. But remember the Mumbai attacks, really I think where the first time we saw that where it was really somebody roving with a gun. He was able -- in an important area that was able to really, you know, really have sharp casualties. Casualties here, the five terrorists are dead, but so far, it looks as if the casualties are nothing on the scale of Paris or Mumbai.

LEIGHTON: That's right and so what this speaks to is maybe two things. One, the efficacy of the Indonesian police who work in this particular case and that speaking to that from two standpoints the way in which they have exerted pressure on various terror groups in Indonesia to actually force them to use smaller scale weapons or smaller scale bombs. That's one thing. And then the other part of it is, the fact that the response seems to have been a -- it's hard to tell this really jumped to but it seems to have been fairly quick from the authorities and that also forces action in certain ways. And the other aspect of this, Christine, I think is this and that is that the different terrorists are basically being forced to act very quickly and the fact they are acting quickly sometimes diminishes their efficacy from a tactical standpoint.

BERMAN: You know it is interesting right now, the Indonesian response, at least what we are hearing from the officials right now already is early in five or the six dead could in fact be the attackers. So it was not an effective attack and it does appear at least right now there was an effective response.

But we'll talk about what the goals of ISIS again. We don't know if this was an ISIS attack, but what goals does ISIS might have and designs they might have in South Asia? Indonesia, of course is the most populous Muslim nation in the world.

LEIGHTON: That is right, John. It is absolutely the most populous nation in the world. And it is a very mild form of Islam. It is not a strict sect like Wahhabism for example and Saud Arabia. The Indonesians are very tolerant -- generally very tolerant people and what ISIS is trying to do is they're trying to sow the seeds of discord. Indonesia established an early vibrant democracy after the '90s. And they were able to keep that democracy. They've been able to keep that democracy basically for these past two decades or so.

[05:09:38] And ISIS sees Indonesia as being an area where they can actually make some headway, where they can actually use this large Muslim population as a baseline from which to expand into the rest of Southeast Asia because they also have groups in the Philippines. Many of the Philippine Guerilla groups in the Philippines are fairly close to Indonesia and the language is similar to Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia. They are similar languages and what they are doing is they're trying to use Indonesia's jumping offpoint to affect things in the Philippines and in Malaysia, another Muslim nation, that would surround Singapore, which of course is the bastion of capitalism and democracy in that part of Southeast Asia.

So they are very willing to go after these areas and that could have a significant economic impact on the rest of the world because if you cut off the supply lines that go through the Straits of Malacca, for example, you could really end up affecting everything from the flow of oil to the flow of goods and services from and to Asia.

BERMAN: All right, Colonel Cedric Leighton for us, helping us to figure out what's going on in Indonesia. You're seeing pictures of it right now. This terror attacks overnight. The very latest, six people apparently killed. That's what Indonesian officials tell us, five of those dead who have been attackers.

ROMANS: All right we're going to be following that terror attack in Jakarta all morning long but first, the race for president intensifies. Republicans get ready to take the debate stage, tonight.

BERMAN: Plus breaking overnight, at least three big Powerball winners. That means they have to split the $1.6 billion jackpot. We're going to go live to where one of those lucky tickets was sold. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Welcome back 40 minutes past the hour. Breaking overnight. The suspense is over. At least three winning Powerball tickets were sold in Tennessee, Florida and at the 7-Eleven at December were sold at Los Angeles. Tennessee and Florida don't have stating contactors. So those two people have a flow of tax there, right.

BERMAN: That's good financial planning.

ROMANS: Good financial planning. Lottery officials confirmed those tickets matched all five numbers plus the Powerball good for a piece of the record chartering $1.6 billion pay-out.

CNN's Sara Sidner standing by live at the 7-Eleven in Chino Hill California where one of those life changing ticket was sold.

[05:15:58] And, you know, we could get another maybe -- it's just three people who will share this. What kind of -- let's put the numbers with the money depending on what you say the taxes are. We're taking about which at $200 million each after tax. That's heck of a lot of money, Sarah.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is - it's a lot of money like that's not chump change. We should also talk about each store owner gets a certain amount. Here in California they get a million, in Florida I think it's around 100,000 so there's a big disparity there. But this is life changing. I do want to talk about them on CNNMoney.com. They went to look at how many people don't go in after they learn that, I didn't win the big jackpot so I'll check my tickets later.

They basically go, well maybe I'll jus go, forget it. There was in 2015 about 114 people who did not claim million dollar prizes because I guess they just decided, my ticket is not going to be worth the big thing so I'm not going to bother, so check your tickets because on this huge jackpots, there's a lot of people who win that million dollar prize. They don't get the whole thing but they get five of the six numbers. It's worth checking the tickets and something to point out.

Now when it comes to the owners, the owner of this store is very charming and very excited because dozens and dozens of people showed up to cheer the store on, just excited about the fact that Chino Hills was one of the places that sold the ticket and here's what he had to say about that.

(Begin Video Clip)

SIDNER: What do you think about the crowd that just showed up here?

BALBIR ATWAL, STORE OWNER: Well I just love them and they love me.

SIDNER: What is this selling the winning ticket mean for you and your store?

ATWAL: It's the feeling really, really good. And whoever is the lucky person, I'm here. I'm thankful for that person.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SIDNER: Now I want to give you a look inside of the store right now because they have gotten more (inaudible) but of course that all the cameras are here. Everybody from every network is here but if you look back there, you will see a family standing there and that is the family of the owner. They are still here.

The owner by the way was cleaning shelves and making sure everything looks nice for anyone who comes to the store because it's 24/7. Isn't that cool?

BERMAN: It's wonderful. He's so proud and good for him.

ROMANS: I'm so, yeah, I'm so glad he got a little windfall from that, a big windfall actually.

BERMAN: And win windfall to million bucks.

ROMANS: I know that's fantastic. Tell him he wants to grow that money and not spend it. I don't want him to just spend out all that money.

BERMAN: First Christine Romans.

ROMANS: Roll the money. Roll the money.

BERMAN: And there's a good book you can read it. It's a book of "Smart is the New Rich" by Christine Romans to get his hands on.

SIDNER: That's a good advice.

ROMANS: Sarah, have fun. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right this morning, Republican Presidential candidate, they wan to win the lottery also, the electoral lottery. They're preparing for tonight's debate in North Charleston South Carolina on the main stage at 9 p.m. There will be Donald Trump. He's in the center. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio beside him. Chris Christie, Ben Carson also, there are Jed Bush and John Kasich round up the main stage.

The first debate will be at six. Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina and Rick Santorum, Rand Paul there designated by the red ex. He has declined to attend. He said he's not going to go. He believes he deserves to be on the main stage. Joining as now the preview of tonight's debate.

CNN Political Reporter, Tom LoBianco in our Washington Bureau. Tom what do you expect to see tonight?

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Sure, the establishment candidates at this point, you know, we've seen this already where the field is really kind of -- it's breaking apart into this tiers, right? And you really have Trump and Cruz kind of breaking away so if you're Rubio, if you're Christie, if, you know, even if your Kasich, you got to find the way to punch through and it's so - it's a tough dynamic for them because what you're seeing is, right this in this game of musical chairs, right? You see people like Rand Paul who are shoe-ins for the main stage, you know just a few months ago. Now, getting, you know, getting left on the undercard debate and he even saying, you know, the heck with it. I'm walking away, you know, I'm not -- I'm a top tier candidate even if you don't recognize me as such.

So they -- the island is shrinking, all right. And you need to -- and you need to find some way to punch through and this is all -- it's all natural things but I mean it's so -- it's so much more easily perceived when you see it like that.

ROMANS: Yeah.

LOBIANCO: You know.

ROMANS: Interesting. Let's talk about Trump and Cruz. So you talk about these tiers of candidates, Trump and Cruz clearly are in that top tier of candidates at the moment. They have uphold out ahead here and Donald Trump, he is -- he is not letting go of this citizenship matter. Listen to what he said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some of the greatest lawyers from Harvard, a very good lawyer right? Laurence Tribe said, "It's not a settled matter." Supposing he runs and everybody is spanking on him and then the courts rule that he can run. That's not so good. What do you do? Conceive the election to Hillary Clinton with the crazy Bernie?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Is this working? Is this in particularly in Iowa? Is this strategy working for him?

[05:20:00] LOBIANCO: Absolutely. The polling shows that Cruz is taking a hit. So Cruz is still up a few points at this plan, you know, I think it was like 25, 22, yeah. So there is, he's up by a bit but not as much as he was just a few weeks ago so what's interesting about this dynamic and we've seen this throughout the race is that Trump really, you know, you can look at it as a ceiling, you can look at it as a floor but his support is really pretty stable and in this kind -- and this really depends on what happens in the race.

You know, do you have a candidate? If you have a candidate, 22 percent is enough to win. If you got two candidates, 22 percent does not get you anywhere. Do you know and what's happening is they have made a determination that cutting into Cruz, you know, maybe Cruz, does win in Iowa, but at least if you cut in to him and then going strong and to New Hampshire you look so much better and this birther, the second birther attack if you will. You know, it have to be Obama, a birther staff is working. It's showing in the polls.

BERMAN: All right, Tom LoBianco for us. We're going to talk to you again in a little bit. We're going to talk about this new story in the New York Times about Ted Cruz, his finances, loans he did not dispose when he first ran for Senate. That's coming up in a little bit. Thanks Tom. LOBIANCO: Thanks.

BERMAN: Meanwhile it's a big change in the NFL Cleveland Browns have a new coach again and they may have an old quarterback.

The New York Giants are about to name a new coach, Andy Scholes with the very latest and pleased to report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:25:00] BERMAN: The Cleveland Browns hire Hue Jackson to be their next head coach. His hiring may be the end for the Johnny Manziel era in Cleveland.

ROMANS: Andy Scholes have more in reporting's. Please report, hey Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey good morning guys. Hue Jackson is the big head coach of the past eight for the Browns. It's now his job to try to turn around the Cleveland team that hasn't had a winning record since 2007.

According to multiple reports during the interview process Jackson told the Browns owners he would prefer to not have Johnny Manziel has his quarterback and they said, "That would not be a problem."

Now when Jackson was asked about Manziel during his huge conference yesterday, he did not commit to moving on with the world without Manziel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNNY JACKSON, NEW BROWNS HEAD COACH: I don't know Johnny personally. I know who he is but at the same time I think I have to give everybody on our football team the fair opportunity to see who they are till the truly learn who they are and then make decisions from there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: The New York Giants are also reportedly close to hiring Ben McAdoo as their new head coach. McAdoo was Giants offensive coordinator black season.

And the Golden State Warriors on the road taking on the Nuggets last night after trailing by as many as 11 in the fourth quarter. Steph Curry started to lead of the comeback. He hit two just ridiculous threes. The last one right here gaining the Warriors within two with 37 seconds left but Blake pops in three at the buzzer would be no good.

Nuggets fall off, the offset 112-110 and Warriors fall to 36 and 3 on the season. I think things got cheapy between the Mav's and the Thunder in the Okalahoma City. Russell Westbrook versus J.J. Barea to get into it right here and Charlie Villanueva runs in and check this out. He put his hand around Westbrook's throat. Villanueva was ejected from the game. Westbrook, he would get a second technical foul later in the game was also ejected. Thunder would though go on to win this game easily by final 108-89.

On Sunday the Broncos will host the dealers in the NFL playoff to this game will be extra special for Denver Warriors receiver Demaryius Thomas because it might be the first time his mother gets to watch him play football in person. Thomas's mother Katina Smith has been in prison since 1999 on a non-violent drug charge.

In July President Obama reduced her sentence and she was released from custody in November. And guys Thomas said he's working right now in getting his mother to Denver so she can watch the game and obviously if she makes it there it's going to be a pretty special day to the entire Thomas.

ROMANS: After 17 years I guess we do some...

BERMAN: One turn. 2:31

ROMANS: Wow. All right. Andy Scholes thank you.

SCHOLES: All right.

ROMANS: Breaking news this morning. A deadly terror attack targeting westerners would tell you where it is. We got live details next.

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