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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Donald Trump Courts Evangelical Vote; Donald Trump Goes Easy on Ted Cruz; Clinton Stumps in Iowa; Sanders, in Alabama; Iran's Prisoners Reunited With Families; Flint Water Crisis; Glenn Frey Dies at 67; Belgian Linked to Paris Terror Arrested; Security Tightened Around "El Chapo". Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired January 19, 2016 - 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: The race for the president getting down to the wire. Early state voting begins in less than two weeks. Candidates pulling out all the stops to swing voters their way.
[05:30:22] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Americans freed from Iran; they have been reunited with their families in Germany. You have got to listen to the stories they've been telling. Just amazing.
ROMANS: Eagles legend Glenn Frey dead at the age of 67. Fans paying tribute this morning. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: Nice to see you. I'm John Berman. 30 minutes past the hour and new this morning, the battle for votes and souls.
Donald Trump with an aggressive push, maybe too aggressive, for evangelical votes which can be so crucial in Iowa. Iowa votes less than two weeks from today. Speaking to students at Liberty University in Virginia, Trump trying to quote the school's official bible verse. He drew both applause, and maybe some unintended laughter when he said the verse was from two Corinthians and not second Corinthians.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Two Corinthians, right? Two Corinthians, 3:17, that's the whole ballgame. Where the spirit of the lord, right? Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Trump also seemed to be adjusting his message to evangelicals with what he chose not to say. Chief political correspondent, Dana Bash has more on that from New Hampshire.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, usually when we're reporting from Trump rallies, or in this case, the remnant of a Trump rally, talking about what he said. Things that are controversial or things that kind of are making waves across the conservative movement or even across the country. But this time I'm going to tell you the news is what Trump didn't say after the weekend he spent going after Ted Cruz, calling him nasty and had a twitter tirade on a whole host of issues. Here in New Hampshire, earlier in the day in Virginia, not one word about Ted Cruz at all.
Now, we don't know why. I asked his campaign manager and I didn't get an answer but it could perhaps be because Donald Trump has been getting some blow-back from influential conservative voices. Talk radio hosts who, conservative voters here in New Hampshire and Iowa and elsewhere, really listen to. They have been saying, hold on a second, Donald Trump. Be careful not to go after Ted Cruz too much because from their perspective, Cruz is one of them. He is a genuine conservative and if Trump continues to do that, Trump could risk alienating voters that he might need and could potentially get. So it is a different dynamic than what we've seen over the past six months when Donald Trump went after Lindsey Graham, it hurt Lindsey Graham. When he went after Jeb Bush, it appeared to hurt Jeb Bush. But Cruz is a different situation because the two of them are going for similar voters and have voices who are important to both of them. So, it will be interesting to see later today if Trump continues to kind of zip his lips, if you will, when it comes to Ted Cruz. John and Christine --
ROMANS: All right, Dana, thank you for that. Joining us this morning to break down all of this fun stuff, CNN politics reporter, Tom LoBianco. He's live in our Washington bureau. Good morning. I got a quick question about this mis-citing the two Corinthians or second Corinthians. Do you think Evangelicals care about that?
TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well that's a great question. Before he spoke there, Jerry Falwell Junior was speaking with the students there, making the point that he might not be with us on all of the religious issues, he might not be with us 100 percent, but he's the kind of guy that could be a champion for social religious conservative values.
That kind of goes to this flip. He's doing OK with evangelicals, but not great. It's clearly Ted Cruz's strength and this is one of those reasons. When he misquotes the bible, when he mis-cites a passage, it shows a lack of authenticity. Just like very early in the campaign for him when he had problems talking about what his favorite passage was. It raises questions and it creates "ins" for Cruz, especially.
BERMAN: You know, it's interesting. There's a lot of reporting in "The New York Times" in the last few days about evangelical voters saying, they don't vote as a monolith. They're not necessarily voting to test your bible knowledge. They're not looking for you to quote verses. But the authenticity point, that is something that's very interesting. Including the Cruz campaign is honing in on that because Ted Cruz on the stump -- by the way, in an event where he wasn't necessarily asked questions from voters, he sort of volunteered this information in New Hampshire. Essentially says, Donald Trump is not the conservative he claims to be. He's no converted republican like Ronald Reagan was. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm pretty sure that Ronald Reagan didn't write a huge check to Rahm Emanuel in December of 2010. After, by the way, the big tea party wave. We need a leader who is prepared to do what is ever needed to keep this country safe and that typically doesn't include spending your time on Twitter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So Cruz clearly going after that point now as hard as he can.
LOBIANCO: Absolutely. You know, what is interesting about this, you mentioned Reagan, a lot of times, Trump supporters will mention to you that Reagan used to be a democrat and he had this conversion. But for Trump, it feels a little bit more like a last minute conversion. Through Obama, he was hitting him on the birther issue, on the birth certificate. But he's had such a strong past with liberal issues.
And as we were talking about earlier, what happens with this is that the opposition groups, the opposition researchers, all the opposing candidates soften the ground with this information. There will be stories out there about this. And these are questions that have been planted that are now being raised by Cruz, the most crucial opponent for Trump, at the most critical time just before the caucuses.
ROMANS: Interesting. Let's talk a little bit about the democrats here. Hillary Clinton made a comment yesterday that John likened to asking for a pair of slacks for Christmas. Sensible, not stylish. Listen to what Hillary Clinton said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't want to overpromise. I don't want to come out with theories and concepts that may or may not be possible. We don't need any more of that. What we need is a sensible, achievable agenda where we roll up our sleeves and we work together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So not the hope and change stuff. The get it done stuff. That's what she's selling.
LOBIANCO: Right. To play on John's incredible humor, right? Some people want slacks and other people want cardigans. You know, she's making this argument --it's a variation on the experience argument. Although, it's hard to tell whether that's the right argument right now. If this were happening on the republican side -- and this is what is so interesting about this -- a lot of the dynamics are the same between the democratic and republican primary base, the electorate. If this were happening on the republican side, there wouldn't be a chance for it because there would be so many other establishment candidates she would be fighting with for this.
And Sanders, if he was carrying 40 percent walking into the first primary, the first caucuses, would be dominating. But because it is a head-to-head match up, you can do something like that and be successful. You know, she's really, she started the new year with the Sanders threat and it's real. They are adjusting. They're trying to figure out how to deal with it. And sensible with slacks is one way.
ROMANS: All right. Tom LoBianco, thank you so much. It's nice to talk to you this morning. Have a great day.
LOBIANCO: Thanks, guys.
ROMANS: 38 minutes past the hour. This morning, the American prisoners newly released by Iran are enjoying time reunited with their families. Three of them, including Washington Post reporter, Jason Rezaian, are receiving medical treatment at Ramstein air base in Germany. Student Matthew Trevithick, he's already back home, he's in Boston. Meantime, Iranian officials are angrily denouncing brand new sanctions put in place over ballistic missile tests Iran conducted last year.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen joins us now live with the very latest.
And Fred, reading in the Washington Post this morning, this account of Jason Rezaian, he sat down for a couple hours in a conference room with his two editors and he told them about being in a 49 days of solitary confinement, of being in a three by three cell, which to me sounds like a cage. To walking around an eight foot courtyard just to try to stay alive. Remarkable.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly is remarkable, that piece that he wrote with the Washington -- that interview that he gave to his managing editors there at the Washington Post. And some of the things that were detailed in there certainly are very concerning. It's really something that we've been speaking to his representatives here, to his family here. They are also concerned about some of the long term effects that could have.
Nevertheless, we are hearing, for instance, from his brother, from Ali Rezaian. He's saying that Jason is in very good spirits. He's saying that Jason also mentally feels very good, physically feels very good. But at the same time, of course, all three men have to undergo the process or protocol here where they speak to the specialists, where they get a medical evaluation to make sure that they don't feel worse down the line because some of these things can have very long term effects. It was interesting, I just spoke to Representative Jared Huffman a couple of minutes ago and he said that Jason was very strong and that the Iranians wanted to break Jason Rezaian. They failed. That is certainly the vibe that we're not just getting from the friends and family of Jason Rezaian but also from Amir Hekmati, from Saeed Abedini as well.
But of course, it is also clear that these months, and in some cases years of detention were really tough on these three men and that is, of course, of great concern here for the folks at Landstuhl regional medical center.
ROMANS: And Fred, the doctors there though, they have a lot of experience dealing with this reintegration. There is a formula. I have to assume that they've done this, they know what they're doing.
PLEITGEN: Well they certainly do. They certainly have a lot of experience doing this. We have to keep in mind that these are some of the best and foremost specialists on this field in the world. They've been dealing, for instance, with the cases of Bowe Bergdahl, who was released after years of captivity by the Taliban.
They've also dealt with a lot of U.S. troops coming through here after Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, there was a lot of post-traumatic stress involved in that as well. So these are definitely specialists who know exactly what they're doing. And they were the ones who said, we shouldn't rush this process. I remember talking to Jason Rezaian's brother yesterday where he said he'd been here at the base for half a day and he still hadn't been able to see Jason. They knew that this is something that shouldn't be rushed, that they wanted to take this easy and that in the long term, will help these three gentlemen to reintegrate once they get to America.
ROMANS: You can only imagine. All you want to do is put your arms around your loved one but the doctors are saying, let us do our jobs. Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much for that. Keep us posted on their progress, Fred.
BERMAN: All right, coming up for us, Twitter. Outage. Breakdown around the world. What's going on with that? Plus, Michigan's governor calling the water crisis a disaster as protestors demand his resignation. New developments, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Anger over tainted lead poisoned water in Flint, Michigan that may have been in the water supply for more than a year. That anger is being felt on the campaign trail this morning. Hillary Clinton blasting Governor Rick Snyder for his handling of the crisis. Which, the governor admits, the crisis is a disaster, but he's rejecting calls for his resignation. Meantime, two new class action lawsuits by Flint residents, those are expected to be announced today as Governor Snyder prepares a major address.
CNN's Sara Ganim is there.
SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Governor Rick Snyder speaking tonight at his State of the State address is expected to address potential solutions to this Flint water crisis. On Monday, he told "The National Journal", it's not unfair to call this his Hurricane Katrina. He talked about a lack of trust between himself and the people of Tlint because of this issue saying this: "Trust is something that once you lose it, it's much harder to earn it back. So that's the point we're at." That's something we're certainly hearing from residents when we talk to them. Continued protests on Monday in Flint and in the city of Ann Arbor where the governor has a residence.
Protesters not just calling for his resignation, but also calling for his arrest. They're angry at the way that this has played out and angry that they continue to have to pay for the water that they say is not safe to drink. Most of all, what we're hearing from people when we talk to them on the ground here in Flint, is they want to hear how the governor plans to fix this. They're hoping for those solutions tonight. John and Christine.
ROMANS: And we'll be watching. Thank you, Sara. The Michigan governor is expected to address another crisis in his State of the State address. The toxic condition of Detroit's public school facilities. The city is bracing for another day of planned teacher sickouts over the hazardous conditions in many school buildings. Detroit school officials say they're working on the complaints. They plan to inspect all schools. Teachers, support staff, parents, they say the cycle of neglect has a devastating impact on students.
The San Francisco open bay bridge has now reopened following a protest against what demonstrators call police brutality. The bridge was shutdown for a time on Monday. The California highway patrol arrested 25 demonstrators. They chained themselves and their vehicles across all five Westbound lanes freezing traffic for about a half hour. The spokesperson for the group says their action was a strong, courageous stand in solidarity on the Martin Luther King holiday.
The so-called affluenza teen, Ethan Couch is still in Mexico fighting his return to the U.S. At a hearing this morning in Texas, prosecutors will argue for his case to be moved from juvenile to adult court. Couch violated probation in a drunk driving crash that killed four people. He fled to Mexico with his mother. Tonya Couch is charged with helping him escape. She is out on bail. Mothers Against Drunk Driving plans to present a petition with 40,000 signatures demanding Couch be held accountable as an adult.
This morning, the music industry and millions of Eagles fans are remembering Glenn Frey, a co-founder and leader of the iconic rock group who died Monday at the age of 67. Don Henley, also a founding member of the Eagles, who wrote many of their biggest hits with Frey, says in a statement, Glenn was the one who started it all. The man with the plan. Frey, Henley, and the other members of the Eagles started out in the early 70s as a singer, Linda Ronstadt's back up band. Soon they were on their own, spinning out hit after monster hit. "Taking It Easy", "Lying Eyes", "Hotel California", "Desperado", another good one. Some of them with Frey on lead vocals.
CNN's Sara Sidner has more on the passing of a true rock legend.
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, we're inside Amoeba record store which is the largest independent record store in all of America and they are certainly here feeling very sorrowful that Glenn Frey has died. There are a few records up there with "Take It Easy" on the record. You can look at his tenure, his history in the music business and it is absolutely amazing. He is an icon. And if you talk to anyone who worked with him, they will tell you he was a perfectionist, perfectionist. I mean, there was zero room for error. He wanted things to be perfect so that when he went on stage and the Eagles performed, the fans got everything they wanted and expected. And he was very serious about the business, but he apparently was also a joker. He was the guy who liked to joke and do a lot of pranks on some of his members of the band. But it turns out, according to his publicist, that he died of complications from several things including pneumonia and acute ulcerative colitis. He has certainly lived a rock star's lifestyle if you ask anyone who knew him. But his loss is a great loss for the industry itself because he brought so much. He was not only a guitarist, he wrote many of the songs, he sang on many of the songs. He was a lead vocalist on some of the songs. He was also, you might not know this, an actor. He acted actually in "Miami Vice." Had an incredible career. Dying at 67 just doesn't seem right, especially to his fans. John, Christine.
ROMANS: Sara, thank you for that. You are absolutely right. All right, Twitter is currently down, broken, out of service for some users. If you can't read it on Twitter, well, we'll tell you what the company is saying ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back. A new arrest this morning in connection with November's terror attacks in Paris. A Belgian man of Moroccan descent was taken into custody in Morocco. French and Moroccan authorities have identified him as a 26-year-old Gelel Attar.
Going to get straight to CNN's Erin McLaughlin. Erin, what are you learning about this man?
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Christine, Attar is 26 years old. The same age from the same Brussels neighborhood as Salah Abdeslam, the so-called eighth Paris attacker, one of the most wanted men in Europe, on the run since the Paris attack. It is also believed, according to a French source, that Attar traveled to Syria all the way back in 2013 in the company of a man named Shakib Akrew. Now Akrew is known to authorities, believed to have been the one who blew himself up in that police raid in the Paris apartment following the Paris attacks. It is also believed that Attar, while he was in Syria, met the ringleader from the Paris attack so he clearly had high level connections within ISIS within Syria and, keeping that in mind, plenty of questions being raised this morning as to how he managed to get from Syria to Morocco. Moroccan authorities are saying that he traveled through Turkey. He made his way to Germany. Then Belgium, then the Netherlands, then Morocco. Plenty of people wondering how he managed to accomplish that given his known associates, given his track record, how he managed to do that undetected.
ROMANS: All right, Erin McLaughlin for us this morning tracking that new arrest. Thank you for that.
Germany wants to make its open door refugee policy a little less open this morning. Members of the country's ruling party are calling for Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia to be designated as so-called safe countries. The move will make it legally easier for Germany to refuse asylum and deport migrants who come from those countries. Migrants from North Africa were blamed for the rampant attacks on women in Cologne on new year's eve.
New details of the security around El Chapo shows Mexican prison officials are taking no chances this time. Newspaper "El Universal" reports the drug lord is being guarded by dogs trained to detect his scent. There are also hundreds of cameras and no blind spots like the one that facilitated his escape over the summer. Motion sensors that can detect underground activity are also now in place.
Let's get an EARLY START on your money this Tuesday morning. Global stock markets are higher. U.S. stocks look like they will rally too. The enthusiasm, the relief, really, after a new report from China sparked buying. Official word overnight, China's economy is growing at the slowest rate in 25 years. GDP 6.9 percent for 2015 but investors are pleased it wasn't worse. China has seen much higher growth rates over the past few years. The slow down has roiled international markets in recent months. That's because China's economy is a driver of global growth. China's government trying to shift its economy away from exports and heavy investment in infrastructure and toward the service sector and consumer demand. Forecasts call for even slower growth this year.
Twitter is currently down for some users across the globe. Many are getting this error message when they try to log on this morning saying something is technically wrong. The social media network went down at 3:30 am Eastern. It remains unavailable on computers and some mobile devices. Twitter says it is aware of the problem and is working toward a resolution. No word yet on the cause. Users are voicing their frustrations on Facebook. Twitter saying in a statement, that it can't Tweet, and it is trying to fix the problem.
Attacks are flying in the race for president. "NEW DAY" picks up that story right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to protect Christianity. Two Corinthians 3:17. That's the whole ballgame.
CRUZ: Ronald Reagan did not spend the first sixty years of his life supporting democratic politicians.
CLINTON: What we need is a sensible, achievable agenda.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well guess what? That inevitable candidate ain't so inevitable today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The American prisoners' first moments of freedom and first family reunions.
ALI REZAIAN: Right now, he's got to focus on getting himself better.
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: I thought we did have an agreement well before implementation day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Millions of Eagles fans are remembering Glenn Frey.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has certainly lived a rock star's lifestyle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. A little Eagles for you this morning. It's Tuesday, January 19th, 6:00 in the East. Chris is off today. John Berman joins us. Great to have you here, John. Up first, Donald Trump looking for some forgiveness after a biblical flub on the campaign trail. The republican frontrunner bungling the book of Corinthians while at Liberty College in Virginia. This as Trump tries to court evangelicals with three campaign events today in Iowa.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Donald Trump's main competition there, Ted Cruz, brushing aside Trump's conservative credentials dispelling comparisons to another democrat to republican, Ronald Reagan. Trump, once again, raising questions, more questions, about Cruz's eligibility to be president. The 2016 race heating up. Just 13 days to the Iowa caucuses.
Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Sunlen Serfaty live in New Hampshire. Hi, Sunlen.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Michaela. Well Ted Cruz is now really starting to try to frame this race for voters as a choice between he and Donald Trump, saying that more and more, this race is coming down to a two-man race. This intense feud that has emerged between them, really fueling both candidates' fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump trumpeting his faith.
TRUMP: I wrote "The Art of The Deal", I wrote many best sellers. I always say, a deep, deep second to the bible. The bible is the best. The bible. The bible blows it away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Giving the convocation at Liberty University in an attempt to connect with evangelicals.
