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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Gloves Off At Republican Debate; ISIS Takes Credit for Jakarta Attack; Sailors Explain Capture By Iran. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired January 15, 2016 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:32:41] ALISON KOSIK, 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.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik. Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Christine Romans. Nice to have you here this Friday morning. It is 33 minutes past the hour.

You know, there were no more Mr. Nice Guys at the Republican debate in South Carolina, at least nowhere near center stage. Gone was the courtesy from earlier debates. Instead with the first votes in Iowa just over two weeks away, at least four of the candidates, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and 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. And 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 that 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 your dumping your research folder on the debate stage.

RUBIO: That was your record.

(CROSSTALK)

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

RUBIO: Unfortunately, Governor Christie has endorsed many of the ideas that Barack Obama supports, 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? Because that's what we'll 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)

[04:35:00] ROMANS: Oh, there is the New York values thing.

In the end, though, all eyes are on the two candidates 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)

ROMANS: All right, Dana Bash. Thank you, Dana. You can see all of Dana's interview with Donald Trump on "NEW DAY" at 6:00 a.m. Eastern.

KOSIK: And helping us sort through the back and forth of the debate, let's bring in CNN politics reporter Tom LoBianco.

Thanks for joining us so early, especially since you were up late watching the debate all night. So, what did you think? Who came out the victor and who came out the winner?

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: This was the Trump versus Cruz battle we have been waiting for. It is hard to pick one victor there. In a ways, they are both winners because they dominated the stage. They maintained the attention and momentum at this critical time right now, just a few weeks left before we head into Iowa.

That was huge. And you could tell by the issues that they hit on and what they played on. You know, nobody was sitting on anything. He played that clip where Cruz accused Rubio of dumping his oppo book. You know, every attack he had left in his pocket. This is the time to dump the oppo book, as they say.

ROMANS: The oppo book, which is, of course, you know, political slang for the opposition research you do on all of your candidates. Really three moments, I think, three kind of themes of that debate last night. This birther fight between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump -- Trump crushing Cruz or trying to on New York values and that Rubio slamming Cruz on the Senate record.

Let's start I guess with the birther report. That just is not going away. And Trump explaining a scenario in which he chooses Ted Cruz as his vice president and this happens. Listen.

(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)

[04:40:00] ROMANS: And, Tom, you know, that's the playbook, the Trump playbook. He takes someone's argument and turns it against them, because Ted Cruz has been saying, look, this was never an issue for you, Mr. Trump, in September when you said your lawyers had looked this up and down. Now it is an issue because I'm beating you in Iowa.

LOBIANCO: Absolutely. You know, the bar is so low for the birther question. All he has to do is bring it up and maintain it and keep on hammering away at it. It is proven effective thus far. This has cut into Cruz's lead in Iowa. He is still leading there. Not by as much as he was just a few weeks ago. So, it's working.

And take that and Trump always has a big stage. But then put him center stage on the biggest stage and make the same argument and it just drives it home further. It's a good attack for him. Cruz did the best parry that he could, but frankly, there is not much you can do with something like that.

KOSIK: And then you have Cruz using his best jab against Trump saying that Trump is somebody with New York values, saying that he is socially liberal and pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, focus on money and the media, kind of backfiring in the media.

I want to show you what "The Daily News" put out this morning. "Drop dead, Ted." And that's the Statue of Liberty with the middle finger there, we blurred this out because it is disrespectful there. But that, you know, that pretty much says it all. You think that is backfiring this retort from Cruz to Trump?

LOBIANCO: Characteristic "New York Post." It's what we call in politics a dog whistle, what Ted Cruz is doing here. He's speaking to one audience. And if you are a New Yorker or in D.C., up and down the East Coast, you might not be hearing it the same way.

He doesn't have to -- Cruz says that Donald Trump represents New York values. He doesn't have to explain what those New York values are. I do think it was interesting that when pressed about it last night, he did explain. He said in his mind, social liberalism -- it's focused on money, celebrity. These are all things that go right to the Iowa, Midwestern social conservative base.

You know, it might be back firing here, but it is the type of thing that will play well out there.

ROMANS: Interesting. Let's talk about Marco Rubio slamming Cruz's Senate record, saying really a laundry list of things that Ted had voted for. Let's listen to one of these clips.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: In fact, the only budget you have ever voted for Ted in the Senate is a budget for Rand Paul that brags about our cuts to defense. Here's the bottom line and I'll close with this -- if I'm president of the United States, and Congress tries to cut the military, I will veto that in a millisecond.

CRUZ: I'm going to get a response to that, Neil. There is no way he launches an attack --

MODERATOR: Very quick.

CRUZ: He had no fewer than 11 attacks there. I appreciate your dumping your oppo research folder on the debate stage.

RUBIO: It's your record.

TRUMP: Do you think they like each other?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Ooh.

KOSIK: Kind of funny.

ROMANS: How did that work?

LOBIANCO: You see that giant grin from Rubio? That's because he sort of hit. Frankly that was one of the issues (ph).

You know what was interesting last night was how smooth and polished and soft-spoken Cruz was. Rubio used to get the bumps out of these debates.

Rubio scored a nice hit there. You could see Cruz was not happy with it. He's like, don't throw everything you got at me. That is what he is trying to say. But it worked.

ROMANS: And Rubio said, it's not opposition research, sir. It is your record. It is your record.

All right. Tom LoBianco, so nice to see you this morning. Thank you. We will talk to you soon as we dissect all of the interesting moments from that debate.

Let's look at your money, though, right now. Time for an early start on that.

Dow futures are lower. Big rally on Thursday, thank goodness. Losses in Europe this morning. Look at that. Watching Europe getting worse. Asia posting big losses overnight. So, that volatility continues.

Back in the U.S., Goldman Sachs is paying to clean up shady deals that fueled the financial crisis. Get this: Goldman Sachs paying $5.1 billion to settle claims made by the government over a toxic mortgage deals. Those deals include a $2.4 billion civil penalty, $875 million in cash, and $1.8 billion in consumer relief.

Goldman Sachs says the consumer relief will include loan forgiveness for distressed borrowers and homeowners that are under water, plus support for affordable housing. Goldman has been accused of cobbling together home mortgage securities it knew would implode, and then selling them to unsuspecting investors. A $5 billion settlement there from Goldman Sachs, seven years after the crisis, still cleaning up -- sweeping up the broken glass from that.

[04:45:06] New arrests this morning in the ISIS attack in Jakarta. Heightened security now throughout the city. We're going to take you there live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

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

Saima, did authorities there have any indication a terror attack could be imminent?

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They did, Alison. They had warnings that this might be in the offing, particularly around Christmas and New Year. That's why they have been carrying out raids throughout December 2015 and into the New Year.

You mentioned three arrests. They have not confirmed the three people arrested are directly linked or part of the planning and recruitment of the attacks yesterday. They have yet to confirm that.

But there has been concern that something like this might take place. That is not surprising as you say. There is concern that ISIS is trying to embed itself here in Indonesia.

[04:50:02] Just to give you perspective, though. There are around 500. It is considered to be conservative estimates, but 500 men and women who have left Indonesia alone to go and fight in Iraq and Syria. It's when they return here, indoctrinated with an extremist violent mindset that the concern begins, and that's what we potentially saw yesterday.

The main suspect in all of this, Bahrun Naim, a 32-year-old man who is apparently based in Raqqa, Syria. He sends money to Indonesia to recruit young men to carry out attacks like the one we saw yesterday. But, of course, prospective again, 500 fighters over in Iraq and Syria potentially returning here, compared with 200 million Muslims here in Indonesia.

Many of them talking to me at the Grand Mosque, Alison, saying they don't speak for us, not in our name. This is not about Islam. In fact, many of them calling these attackers infidels. And imam here today saying terrorism is a crime against humanity. Indonesians Muslims do not want to support any of these kind of terrorist acts -- Alison.

KOSIK: All right. CNN's Saima Mohsin, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. New details this morning for you on how 10 American sailors ended up in Iranian waters. We've got that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

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

[04:55:07] That puts 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: And the criticism comes days before the administration hopes to celebrate implementation of the Iran nuclear deal. Iran announced Thursday the removal of the core of its nuclear reactor, a crucial step toward implementation.

Let's get more now and bring in CNN's Frederik Pleitgen on this. You know, as we are days away from implementation day, still a lot of skepticism if inspectors are going to really know if Iran is holding up its end of the deal.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, that is something that a lot of people who are skeptical have been saying, because there are parts of the agreement that allows Iran to basically police its own nuclear sites. However, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said it is satisfied with the things that Iran has been doing so far.

And the Iranians believe and it seems as though some of the administration believe as well that the IAEA is going to announce today that the Iranians have done everything they need to do to get sanctions relief in return. And, of course, if they get sanctions relief, that is something that will make Iranians a lot stronger in a very, very short time. They believe they will have access to $50 billion in assets that have been frozen, according to the sanctions. They believe they were going to be able to sell about 500,000 barrels of oil per day more than they are right now, and, of course, they also say that they are going to be able to access international monetary markets, which is something they haven't been able to do in the past.

And, of course, if you see the tensions that have been going on between the U.S. and Iran over the past couple of days over the sailors but also with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy apparently firing shots very close to the U.S. aircraft carrier, it does have some people worried. At the same time, there are many in the State Department who say, look, we have this new line, this communications line to the Iranians. It is something that has helped sort differences out.

However, there are still a lot of tensions on both sides. And certainly, the Iranian religious leadership has said that it still wants to remain confrontational towards the U.S.

KOSIK: All right. CNN's Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. Let's get an early start on your money this morning, this Friday morning. Stock futures are down, oil diving back below 30 bucks a barrel, markets in Europe are dropping. Asia finishing mixed.

We are keeping an eye on General Electric today. It's selling its appliance unit to China's Haier. The deal is worth $5.4 billion. They initially tried to sell the unit to Electrolux. That deal fell apart. G.E. has been shedding assets and trying to streamline its business in the past few years. Earlier this week, it announced it was moving its headquarters from Connecticut to Boston.

KOSIK: Amazon Prime is going on sale for this weekend. The company wants to celebrate winning two Golden Globes for "Mozart in the Jungle", one of its original shows. So, it's streaming it for free this weekend and offering a discount on prime membership, which includes Amazon instant video and music, plus a free two-day shipping on many products.

The deal offers new prime customers, new customers, one year for $73. Usually, it's 99 bucks.

KOSIK: What a deal.

ROMANS: It begins at midnight and ends Sunday at 11:59. Meant to celebrate the 73rd Golden Globe Awards last Sunday. So, a little piece of publicity almost that they bought there.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are coming to Broadway. The show is called "Nerds, A Musical-Dot Comedy." It debuts on Broadway in April and it recounts the careers of Apple's Steve Jobs and Microsoft's Bill Gates. The plot will call the competition between as they tried to dominate the computing industry.

The producers are also making an effort to incorporate technology into that show. There will be holograms and digital productions and an app to allow the audience members to interact with the play. No word on if Apple and Microsoft are playing a part.

KOSIK: That is the only show where the iPhone is welcome inside the theater while the show is going on.

ROMANS: They will not have please turn off your cell phone.

KOSIK: Exactly.

All right. EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC)

KOSIK: Republicans running for president going after each other on the debate stage. We're breaking down the big moment.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.

ROMANS: So nice to have you here this Friday morning.

KOSIK: Good morning.

ROMANS: Good morning. I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday, January 15th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

Well, you know, 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. 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)

CRUZ: Back in September, my friend Donald said he had his lawyers look at this from ever which way. And 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.

TRUMP: There's a big question mark on your head and you can't do that to the party. You really can't.