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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

GOP Debate: Republicans Attack Each Other; ISIS Takes Credit for Jakarta Attack; Sailors Explain Capture By Iran. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 15, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:16] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Republicans running for president going after each other on the debate stage, sharpening attacks throughout the night turned personal. We're breaking down the big moments and reaction this morning to the big debate.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Alison Kosik. Jumping the gun, I'm so excited to get in. It is January 15th at 4:00 a.m. in the East.

There were no more Mr. Nice guys at last night's Republican debate in South Carolina. At least nowhere near center stage. Gone was the air of courtesy from earlier debates that we've seen. Instead, with the first votes in Iowa just over two weeks away, at least four of the candidates, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie, they mostly just went for it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Back in September, my friend Donald said he had his lawyers look at this from ever which way. There was no issue there. There was nothing to this birther issue. Now, since September, the Constitution hasn't changed. But the poll numbers have.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's a big question mark on your head and you can't do that to the party. You can't.

CRUZ: I spent my entire life defending the constitution before the U.S. Supreme Court. And I'll tell you, I'm not going to be taking legal advice from Donald Trump.

TRUMP: You don't have to.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ted Cruz, you used to say you support doubling the green cards. Now you say you are against it. You used to support a 500 percent increase in the number of guest workers. Now, you say that you're against it.

CRUZ: I appreciate you dumping your research folder on the debate stage.

RUBIO: That was your record.

CRUZ: But I will say at least half of the things Marco said are flat out false.

RUBIO: Unfortunately, Governor Christie endorsed the ideas that Barack Obama, whether it's Common Core or gun control or the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I stood on the stage and watched Marco and rather indignantly and look at Governor Bush and said someone told you because we are run for the same office, that criticizing me will get you to that office. It appears that the same someone has been whispering at old Marco's ear, too.

TRUMP: We don't need a weak person being president of the United States, OK? That's what we get if it were Jeb. I'll tell you what, we don't need that.

CRUZ: I guess I can frame it another way. Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I'm just saying.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

KOSIK: And in the end, though, all eyes were on the two candidates at the top of the polls, Trump and Cruz.

Chief political correspondent Dana Bash has more on that from South Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Alison, it is official, the bromance between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump is over. The two went at it, it became clear watching them in the debate that they are at a two-man race, at least for the top right now, especially when it comes to Iowa. And on the issue of whether or noted Cruz is eligible to be president, one that Donald Trump brings up over and over and over again.

At the end of the debate, by the end, it seems that Trump kind of bested Cruz on the whole issue that Cruz tried to hit him with which is the New York issue, saying he has a New York attitude. Cruz was asked what that meant. He didn't really answer. Trump came back talking about the 9/11 New York that he knew. The post-9/11 New York, the way New Yorkers came together. That's what Mr. Trump talked to me about after the debate.

TRUMP: He made a terrible statement that insulted 20 million people. I was there during this death and destruction. The World Trade Center came down, two 110-storey buildings, and I was there. And New Yorkers were the bravest people that I and many others have ever seen. I was down there the day after, and I want to tell you, I have never seen a sight like it in my life.

Thousands of people killed. Two massive buildings down. And the way New York came back and rebuilt and did it with grace, I mean, with just absolute grace. You can't make a comment like that about New York.

BASH: Now, Trump left here and went to Iowa. He's going to do some stops there in the morning. That is a place Trump really wants to win to stop Cruz's momentum. The two of them are neck and neck in polls there.

The question is going to be, whether or not Trump can get the voters out who might not have ever caucused before? It is not something that is an easy thing to do. You don't just go and check a box in a ballot box. You have to go, you have to stand for hours.

And so, the Trump campaign insists they will get new caucus- goers. They're going to get people out to the caucuses that have never been there before. But the bottom line is, Donald Trump has to make sure that happens and has an organization that hasn't been seen when it comes to the Republicans in Iowa -- Alison and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:05:07] KOSIK: All right, Dana.

And, of course, you can see all of Dana's interview with Donald Trump coming up. He's got more to say about Ted Cruz's birther issue and paying for the campaign out of his own pocket. That is on "NEW DAY" this morning at 6:00 a.m.

ROMANS: All right. So, a lot happened last night. Let's sort through the debate and bring in CNN politics reporter Tom LoBianco.

Thanks for joining us so early.

First, give me your initial impression. You know, who did well here? Who didn't register on the debate stage and the tone? The tone got very personal. What's your initial reaction here?

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, it clearly was the Donald Trump and Ted Cruz show. There's no doubt about that. You know, people are still picking through deciding who won the battles and who won the war.

Who was the ghost here? John Kasich. You know, we didn't hear much from him.

Undercard winner by default was Rand Paul by not showing up, ironically.

But look at the two frontrunners here, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. This was the battle royale, we have been waiting for, on the birther issue and New York values. They really dominated the night.

KOSIK: Trump actually had a moment there on stage to flush out more of his birther argument. I want you to listen to what he said and we'll come back on the back end.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are running. We are running. He does great. I win. I choose him as my vice presidential candidate and the Democrats sue because we can't take him along for the ride.

I don't like that, OK? The fact is and if for some reason he beats the rest of the field, he beats the rest of the field. See they don't like that. They don't like that. No, they don't like that he beats the rest of the field because they want me.

MODERATOR: Why are you raising this issue now?

TRUMP: Because now he is doing a little bit better. No, I didn't care before. It's true. No, it's true.

Look, he never had a chance. Now he's doing better. He's got probably a 4 percent or 5 percent chance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: So, we hear Trump focusing on the citizenship of Cruz and how relevant that is as he continues to make the run for president. Did this -- was this issue put to bet on stage last night?

LOBIANCO: Not at all. As Lawrence Tribe said on our air, shortly afterwards, Lawrence Tribe, the Harvard professor, who Donald Trump has been citing consistently throughout this and was Ted Cruz's law professor at Harvard, said, you know, quote, "If he put it to bed, he was certainly alone." OK?

So, that's all -- the bar is very low for Trump on this. All he had to do was raise the question and keep it going. You know, it was the moderator who brought up the question. Trump breathed air into it. Cruz had to kill it. Cruz is the one who had to completely destroy it.

But let's look ahead. So, here's a case. The two of them, he might win this immediate one, Trump that is, by keeping it alive, but there is something worse for Trump out there right now which is the prospect of the two-man race. You can't destroy Cruz too badly. If he does, then he faces real some peril in head-to-head match ups with Cruz further down the line.

KOSIK: Does this really matter to voters in the end? Think about the issues we face in the country.

LOBIANCO: Sure. We have seen movement in the polls in Iowa as Cruz pointed out. As the numbers changed, you saw this attack come up about a week and a half ago. Trump has nailed it consistently since then.

It has had an effect in Iowa. Cruz is still leading there, but not by nearly as much as he was a few weeks ago. It is moving voters at least in Iowa. It's effective.

ROMANS: Let's talk a little bit about an attack this week from Ted Cruz on Donald Trump about New York values. A lot of people wondering what he exactly meant by New York values and was that such a bad thing for a conservative base. Listen to the Cruz/Trump exchange on that last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay marriage, focused around money and the media.

TRUMP: New York is a great place. It's got great people. It's got great people. It's got loving people, wonderful people.

When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York.

[04:10:03] And I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Donald Trump taking that New York values comment and really masterfully -- looking like a politician, quite frankly, and not a businessman, able to turn that around. "The New York Daily News", look at this, "Drop Dead, Ted." "Hey, Cruz, you don't like New York values? Go back to Canada."

Ouch.

LOBIANCO: Oh, man, headlines written only the way they can.

ROMASN: Does this -- is this New York values thing then, does this work for Ted Cruz or for Donald Trump?

LOBIANCO: A lot of us were talking about that yesterday around the office. You know, this is -- in politics, we call this dog whistle. It's going to mean something different to the different audiences. It is really targeted at an Iowa audience.

You know, I used to work in Indiana, and Ted Cruz might have had to explain this on stage last night, but for a lot of folks in the Midwest, you don't have to explain this. It evokes a certain feeling. That is what he is going for with that Iowa crowd right now.

So, he won just by bringing it up. In a sense, the bar was low for Trump when he is bringing up the birther question. The bar is low for Cruz bringing up New York values. Effective attacks from both really.

ROMANS: All right. We'll talk to you soon. I think you are coming back in a half hour. You're coming back in a half for us?

LOBIANCO: Sounds about right, guys.

KOSIK: He has more to talk about, absolutely.

ROMANS: I know.

Mr. LoBianco, nice to see you. We'll talk to you again in a minute.

All right. Time for an early start on your money right now. Stocks futures are lower. Markets in Europe are down. In Asia, the Shanghai Composite is posting another huge loss.

Part of the gloom this morning, oil trading back below $30 a barrel. But yesterday, OK, so yesterday, big gains for stocks on Thursday. Investors staging I guess you can call it a relief rally.

But look at the chart right there we were showing. The week has been wild. Two decent gains on Monday and Tuesday. A big loss followed by the biggest gain of the year.

Here is where the market is today. Dow dropped 6 percent this year. That is more than 1,000 points even with Thursday's rally. NASDAQ is the biggest loser so far this year, 7.8 percent. And the S&P 500 is off almost 6 percent. About half of the companies in the S&P are in a bear market.

KOSIK: And you are seeing all of the major indices in a middle of a correction.

ROMANS: That's right.

KOSIK: Ten percent off their recent highs. Yes, you need sort of the seatbelt to watch.

New arrests in the ISIS attack in Jakarta that targeted westerners. Heightened security throughout the city this morning. We're going to take you there live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:16:17] ROMANS: Welcome back.

Security forces in Indonesia have arrested three suspected terrorists in connection with Thursday's deadly bomb blast in Jakarta. The attack killed two people and wounded 24 others. ISISS is taking credit for the operations, signaling a troubling expansion by the terror organization, into the most heavily populated Muslim country in the world.

I want to go live to Jakarta and bring in CNN's Saima Mohsin.

Arrests have been made, Saima. Bring us up to date.

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there have been some early morning raids, arrests were made. But police cannot confirm yet, Christine, if these are men linked to those attacks yesterday.

Now, police have also told CNN that they were expecting an attack of some kind around Christmas or New Year, and that's why they've been carrying out raids throughout December 2015 ands being on high alert since the beginning of the year.

But several arrests they made. They named their main terror suspects, the man they believe to be recruiting and financing young men like the ones that carried out the attacks yesterday, to carry attacks out in Indonesia in the name of ISIS, Bahrun Naim. He's believed to have known to authorities for many years, but fled to Syria. He is apparently conducting these attacks or recruiting at least from Raqqa in Syria.

Now, there's been a strong reaction against the attacks yesterday as you rightly mentioned. This is the world's largest Muslim population, 250 million people live in Indonesia, 200 million of them are Muslims.

Now, the Muslims that I'm in the Grand Mosque, the Muslims that have come here today for Friday prayer speaking out against these people, calling them the infidels, saying they don't know Islam. The imam today, Christine, saying that terrorism is a crime against humanity, that these men no nothing of Islam that carry out the attacks. That Islam is not meant to scare or spread fear through violence.

So, a lot of people coming out and speaking, including this afternoon, a major inter-faith harmony meeting among Buddhists, Hindus, the Christian church here well, the Catholics and Protestants with Islamic scholars -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Saima Mohsin for us in Jakarta at the Grand Mosque, thank you.

KOSIK: A Sacramento man California has been indicted for lying about his links to terrorism. Iraqi born Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab is accused of making false statements when he said he went to Turkey in 2013 to visit his grandmother. Prosecutors say he went to Syria after Turkey to join a militant group. Al-Jayab is one of two Iraqi born immigrants who were arrested last week in California and Texas.

The Obama administration taking new steps to take on climate change. Officials today are going to be announcing a moratorium on new coal mining leases on public lands, part of the overhaul and how the government manages coal resources. Some 40 percent of the coal produced in the U.S. comes from federal lands. The new plan would require government officials to consider how burning coal could impact climate change.

ROMANS: Planned Parenthood filing suit against the Center for Medical Progress. That's the anti-abortion activists who produced heavily edited undercover videos showing officials discussing the sale of fetal tissue. The videos led Republican lawmakers to try unsuccessfully to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding. Planned Parenthood insists it does not profit from the sale of tissue donations for medical research. Its suit claims the anti-abortion activists set up a bogus tissue procurement company and then lied their way into private meetings that were illegally taped.

KOSIK: Health officials are investigating whether contaminated water in Flint, Michigan is linked to Legionnaires' disease. This comes after the government announced that Legionnaires cases has spiked in the county since Flint switched from the Detroit water supply and began drawing its water from the Flint River two years ago.

[04:20:13] Eighty-seven people were sickened in two separate outbreaks of Legionnaires disease, 10 of them died.

ROMANS: And, of course, the big issue there, too, is the lead in that drinking water. Children have been drinking water tainted with lead for months. Two years.

KOSIK: So many -- so many people affected. And you don't know the everlasting effects of that.

ROMANS: To save money and switch water, they ended up basically --

KOSIK: That's the kind of thing that boil --

ROMANS: -- burdening the community for generations to come with the damage from lead for those children.

KOSIK: New details this morning on how 10 American sailors ended up in Iranian waters as the country moves closer to international sanctions being lifted. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: Happening now. A Navy probe into how just ten U.S. sailors wound up in the Iran's Revolutionary Guard. The sailors were in two small boats when they were captured in Iranian territorial waters. The Navy says preliminary statements the sailors gave after their release indicate some combination of navigational error and engine trouble.

[04:25:08] Iranian state TV broadcasts video of one sailor apologizing for their mistake, which Republicans are blasting as an outrage, and a humiliation for the U.S.

That puts the State Department spokesman John Kirby on the defensive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: What we're most happy about here in the State Department is we were able to get them home in less than 24 hours. Ten fingers, 10 toes, nobody hurt, all safe. And we got our boats back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: The criticism comes just days before the administration hoped to celebrate implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. The Iran announced Thursday the core of the reactor for the crucial step for implementation. For the latest now, let's bring in CNN's Frederik Pleitgen.

You know, Iran's detainment of these U.S. sailors really revving up the debate over this nuclear deal, isn't it?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly is, Alison, because one of the things that's been happening is that you do have some serious political tensions between the U.S. and Iran in many fields. You had the detention of the sailors. You had the Iranian Revolutionary Guard navy apparently fired a rocket close to the American aircraft carrier.

But at the same time, you do have this progress on the nuclear front, where we do expect the International Atomic Energy Agency to announce probably today that Iran is in compliance with all the things that it needs to do to get sanctions against the country lifted.

Now, that process will probably happen over the weekend, and that process will be significant. The Iranians believe they have access to $50 billion worth of frozen assets, that they will sell oil internationally again, being able to up their input by about 500,000 barrels a day and also, their banks are going to do business internationally again, which, of course, is big for investors. Now, a lot of companies are waiting to see if this nuclear agreement is holding or will hold to send their people back in and try to make investments.

However, the Iranians expect a much stronger economy very quickly and that, of course, has a lot of people internationally in Israel, in Saudi Arabia, but in the U.S. as well worried. They believe that an economically much stronger Iran could also become a big problem on the political and military front internationally as well, Alison.

KOSIK: But you continue to see this issue of whether or not Iran can be trusted and then you see this incident with the U.S. sailors. You've got Senator John McCain saying this detention he calls an arrest was a violation of the Geneva Conventions, not to mention the pictures Iran took and are putting out there of these U.S. sailors. As John McCain says, humiliating the U.S. Would -- and then with John McCain saying basically, the Obama administration looking the other way when it comes to Iran.

PLEITGEN: Yes. You know, it is a very, very difficult political debate. Certainly one of the things that really struck people on was the fact there were photos of these sailors, also with their hands over their head as Iranians entered the boat. There's absolutely no question that a lot of people are very, very angry about what happened.

However, we also see that there is a political process going on with the U.S. and Iranians at this point in time. The fact that these sailors were released in 24 hours is certainly something that is very significant. At the same time, you do also have Iranian hardliners that continue to play hard ball, that continue to say things against the U.S., that continue to do things like put out videos of the sailors and firing shots close to a U.S. aircraft carrier.

There is still a possibility that the detente in relations between the U.S. and Iran could go away. However, the governments right now, Obama administration and Rouhani administration are trying to make this work. We'll see if it actually lasts.

KOSIK: All right. A huge step, Iran, the sanctions being lifted in a matter of days.

Frederik Pleitgen, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. A heated night on the Republican presidential debate stage. Candidates go after each other. We're breaking down the night's best moments and who came out on top, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)