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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Republicans Debate Goes on Without Trump; Sanders and Clinton, Neck and Neck; More Arrests in Oregon Wildlife Refuge Battle; Iranian and French Presidents Meet Today; Zika Virus Could Become Pandemic; Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 28, 2016 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:01] MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Itching to know. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders locked in a dead heat in Iowa. Their new strategies to win over undecided voters.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight. New arrests in the Oregon militia standoff as the occupation leader urges protesters to go home.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
MARQUEZ: And I'm Miguel Marquez. It is 30 minutes past the hour.
Tonight, seven Republicans debate each other in Iowa minus Donald Trump for the first time. Trump pulling out of the FOX News debate citing bias on the part of co-moderator Megyn Kelly.
Last night Bill O'Reilly urged Trump to think about changing his mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS HOST: Will you just consider -- I want you to consider, all right. Think about it. Say, look, I might come back, forgive, go forward, answer the questions, look out for the folks. Just want you to consider it. You owe me milkshakes. I'll take them off the ledger if you consider it.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, even though you and I had an agreement that you wouldn't ask me that, which we did, I will therefore forget that you asked me that. But it's up to FOX, it's not up to me, Bill. What they did was --
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: You're actually telling the truth there.
TRUMP: We had an agreement. You're actually breaking --
O'REILLY: You're actually telling the truth that I said --
TRUMP: Because I told you up front, I said, don't ask me that question.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: So Donald Trump still trying to executive produce every one of his own appearance. It's like he wants to be able to make --
MARQUEZ: He is not backing down.
ROMANS: Right.
MARQUEZ: It is his way or the highway.
Now Trump campaigning late into the night last night barely mentioning the debate feud.
CNN's Jim Acosta has much more.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, during a rally here in South Carolina, Donald Trump largely steered clear of the controversy surrounding his decision to drop out of tonight's FOX News GOP debate.
His campaign essentially made it official, issuing a press release saying, Trump will appear at a rival event during the debate, an event aimed at raising money for veteran's groups.
Trump would only say very briefly during his rally here in South Carolina that he felt he's been treated very unfairly by FOX News at previous debates.
Here's more of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Can you believe we've already had six debates? Can you believe -- when I did this I never debated before. I create jobs, I do deals, I do buildings, I do stuff all over the world. I never debated. So I get on the stage like a number of months ago for the first debate, I had no idea and it worked out fine. I got a very unfair question from somebody but we don't even talk about that. We don't talk about that. I refuse to -- I refuse to -- I refuse to talk about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Asked whether Trump could appear at both his rally and the debate in Iowa, Trump's campaign manager told CNN that it wasn't feasible as the events are happening at the same time. Talking to some Trump supporters down here in South Carolina, they sound like they'll be watching him later tonight and not the debate -- Christine and Miguel.
ROMANS: Trump's Republican rivals kept up their relentless ridicule of his decision to withdraw from the debate. Listen to them dish it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Apparently, Mr. Trump considers Megyn Kelly very, very scary. And you know, Donald is a fragile soul. I mean, she might ask a mean question and who knows what could happen? I mean, his hair could stand on end.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Of all the press is here, 90 percent of their coverage is on this whole thing. Oh, Donald Trump is not going to show up. Ted Cruz is challenging him to a one- on-one, mano-a-mano debate. Interesting sideshow.
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That just seems kind of weird and the fact that he thinks he's being treated unfairly when he's going to be president of the United States? Life's unfair. You know.
BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And whether you've been treated unfairly or not is really relatively irrelevant. I've certainly have been treated unfairly with all these lies that have all been disproven. But nevertheless, you know, that goes with the territory. That prepares you for the White House.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Donald Trump's main addition that he's brought to the debate this year has been silliness, bombast and empty rhetoric and, you know, calling people names and so I don't think he's added much of substance the whole year so I don't think he'll be missed.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's a big mistake by Donald and I said that. You know, things don't always go your way. You remember, I got sent down to the undercard debate by FOX Business News. I didn't think it was fair, but I didn't whine and moan and complain and walk away. I went to the debate. I argued my points. That's what a leader does. You go in and you fight to reverse it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Carly Fiorina, who is on the undercard debate, not the main stage, tweeted a challenge for Trump to debate her one-on-one at his own event. "Upping the ante, I'm free tomorrow at 8:00 p.m., Donald Trump. My campaign will give $2 million to veterans' causes to debate at Drake U."
MARQUEZ: Well, on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in a dead heat amazingly enough in Iowa polls with just four days to go until voters head to the caucuses.
[04:35:05] Clinton pivoting away from the attacks she's been aiming at Sanders recently, offering instead a positive upbeat message that also borrows a little of Sanders' populist thunder. Sanders rising in the polls saying he believes if he will win Iowa, if there is a big turnaround.
Senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar has the latest on the Democratic race from Iowa.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, Bernie Sanders began his day meeting with President Obama in the Oval Office just days after the president gave such high praise of Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders giving the opportunity to say that the president was putting his finger on the scale for Hillary Clinton, but he didn't. He said he thought the president and the vice president are being fair.
Meanwhile here in Mason City, getting a little star power from Susan Sarandon as he riled up his supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SARANDON, ACTRESS: That he is consistent, that he is principled and that he is incredibly brave.
(CHEERS)
SARANDON: I've come here because for me gender is not what's important. Issues are what's important.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think anybody who objectively and fairly looks at our campaign versus our opponents' campaign, knows that the energy, the enthusiasm, the momentum is with us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton spent the evening fundraising on the East Coast. Bernie Sanders tried to draw some contrast about tweeting out Bernie Sanders speaking tonight in Mason City, Iowa. Hillary Clinton at investment firm fundraising in Philadelphia. She was at a fundraiser with Jon Bon Jovi a multi-billion-dollar firm, handing the baton to her husband Bill Clinton to campaign here in Iowa. Actually across town from Bernie Sanders right here in Mason City -- Christine and Miguel.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Brianna.
Time for an EARLY START on your money. The Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy slowed down at the end of last year. That assessment shook markets around the world. Asian shares finished mostly lower. European shares are down a bit, too.
U.S. stock futures trying to move higher. The Fed's assessment slammed the Dow down 223 points. Now the Feds did not raise interest rates. The Feds stopped short of saying all this volatility will change its plans to raise rates at least four times this year. Of course many doubt the Fed will do all four rate hikes if this volatility endures.
The Dow and Nasdaq are both down 8 percent this year. The Nasdaq -- the Dow and S&P, rather the Nasdaq, look at that, it's almost down 11 percent.
MARQUEZ: Don't buy stocks.
ROMANS: So let's talk -- there you go. So let's talk about something that's moving higher. Facebook shares climbing before the bell right now. Facebook wowed investors with soaring sales. Good profit. User growth. Mobile ads a winner.
During the last three months of 2015, Facebook made $1.6 billion in profit. More than double a year earlier. Facebook has also managed to keep adding new people and is making more money off each one of them at the same time. The Facebook story, earning story was quite different from what we saw yesterday from Apple.
Apple shares down about 6 percent. Apple talking about the hit it took from currency. Some analysts this morning saying Facebook even more impressive because it also had those currency worries.
MARQUEZ: Right. That's right.
ROMANS: And managed to post this good profit growth.
MARQUEZ: But amazing with Apple. I think it made so much money yet the stock goes down.
ROMANS: Well, because a lot of people are talking about peak Apple. You know, Apple peaked. So that's the big theory right now. They said that the core of Apple business model, the hyper --
MARQUEZ: I see what you did there.
ROMANS: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. You see that?
MARQUEZ: Amazing.
ROMANS: All right. Breaking news overnight. The standoff between the FBI and militiamen in Oregon winding down. New arrests as the leader calls for protesters to stand down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:42:22] ROMANS: We have breaking developments for you overnight in that wildlife refuge occupation in Oregon. Three men who had been hunkered down there arrested overnight by the FBI. Turning themselves in after reaching a checkpoint as they headed away from the refuge. This after the so-called protest leader asked his followers to end the nearly month-long occupation following his arrest on Tuesday.
Let's get more now on all this from CNN's Dan Simon in Oregon.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, things here at the scene remain very tense as you still have armed occupiers at that refuge and it's unclear when this may come to an end but we should tell you that Ammon Bundy, the leader of the occupation, through his lawyer, is telling everyone who is still there to go home, in his words, they should go home and hug their families.
But right now who knows if they are going to heed that call. Obviously, nobody wants to see a repeat of bloodshed after you had one of the occupiers killed during that traffic stop.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMMON BUNDY, LEADER OF OREGON OCCUPATION: They continued to ignore us and pushed us to the point where we felt we had to make a stand to defend our rights. BRIANA BUNDY, WIFE OF AMMON BUNDY: We were willing to sacrifice our
lives, but the fact that it was someone that we love so much that is not a family member that was also willing to sacrifice his life.
SHERIFF DAVID WARD, HARNEY COUNTY, OREGON: It's time for everybody in this illegal occupation to move on. There doesn't have to be bloodshed in our community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON: As things remain fragile here, one particular note is that the federal complaint which was unsealed today, mentions that authorities had reason to believe that the occupiers had explosives and night vision goggles. That's the first time we've heard that. But we should point out that we don't know if officials were actually able to verify the presence of explosives -- Miguel and Christine.
MARQUEZ: Thanks to Dan Simon out in Oregon.
Three inmates who escaped from a Southern California jail are still at large, but five alleged gang members have been arrested in connection with the jailbreak. Police aren't identifying the suspects or saying why they were taken into custody. Officials believe the three escaped prisoners had help from the outside. A $200,000 reward being offered for information leading to their capture.
ROMANS: Melodie Gliniewicz, the wife of disgraced Fox Lake, Illinois, police officer Joe Gliniewicz, is now charged with being an accomplice of her late husband's theft of charitable funds. Prosecutors say the couple used money from the Police Explorer Post for personal expenses. Her lawyers claim she was a victim of her husband's secret actions. Gliniewicz killed himself last year. He stages his suicide to make it appear as if he was killed while pursuing three suspects.
MARQUEZ: Unbelievable case.
[04:45:01] The Justice Department and officials in Ferguson, Missouri, reaching a deal to revamp police operations in the city. It requires all Ferguson officers to be outfitted with body cameras and calls for new FX training and a more diverse police force. The agreement coming 10 months after a Justice Department report detailed racially biased policing in Ferguson. That report was prompted by the Michael Brown shooting.
Attorneys for two anti-abortion activists now facing felony charges for secretly taping Planned Parenthood officials, say their clients are whistleblowers and deserve protection, not prosecution. They claimed Sandra Merit and David Daleiden were indicted by a, quote, "runaway grand jury," in Texas and are asking the D.A. to appoint a special prosecutor to look into that case. The grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing concerning the sale of fetal tissue and instead indicted those two.
MARQUEZ: Calls for Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to resign have been growing along with criticism of how he's handled the water crisis in Flint. Filmmaker and Flint native Michael Moore taking it a step farther, calling for his arrest. Moore telling CNN the crisis is squarely in the governor's lap.
Meantime, state lawmakers are set to approve $28 million in assistance for Flint, while the governor says it is not clear how many children may have been harmed by lead contamination in drinking the water. He sat down with CNN's Poppy Harlow.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you. The governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, saying that the Flint water crisis is a terrible tragedy. Vowing to do everything he can to try to solve the crisis.
For many of the people here in Flint, though, it is too little and far too late. The governor has said that at least 100 children have tested positive for lead poisoning. What that does to the body is it can lower IQ, it has lifelong effects on children. It can lead to criminality and it can also be multigenerational.
So when we sat down with the governor, we wanted to know, is there an update? How many more children have been affected?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RICK SNYDER (R), MICHIGAN: That's the problem here is, we know the ones with higher levels to do appropriate follow-up care. So clearly we need to establish the right medical protocols. The public health pieces and educational process things. To watch these kids for years, they didn't have higher blood levels in terms of a blood test because they could be affected.
HARLOW: So they're -- you're saying there was 100 children as of now who have tested for these high levels of lead.
SNYDER: Yes.
HARLOW: But because it's harder to test for it after an extended period of time, there may be many, many more?
SNYDER: There could be many more. And we're assuming that.
HARLOW: You're assuming many more?
SNYDER: Yes.
HARLOW: So say we're sitting back here in five years, will those lead pipes be replaced?
SNYDER: I hope a lot of work has been done on that topic. It's too soon to tell because I can't tell you how many pipes and where they are. But as a practical matter, we should be working on that very clearly.
HARLOW: But would it be the safest thing, Governor? I mean, given what they've through?
SNYDER: Yes. It's the safest thing. It's the question of how to work through it and the best -- to make sure we're getting all the resources because I view this lead down construction, the water systems is credible.
HARLOW: Well, what would stand in the way of that other than money? What would stand in the way of replacing them?
SNYDER: Well, you would get a statewide issue, too, in terms of lead pipes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: So as you heard right now, the immediate plan is not to replace all of the lead pipes in the short term. It is something they are looking at. The doctor, the pediatrician here in Flint who really discovered the lead in the water told me she believes it will take a commitment of $100 million by the state to the people of Flint just to help the children who have been affected by the lead. That means making sure they get the proper nutrition, the early education that is needed, also the mental health services.
I asked the governor if he will commit $100 million to that. He said to me, we are making sure that they get what they need. Back to you.
ROMANS: That story is just so heart breaking on 100 levels.
MARQUEZ: It's shocking that it's happening in this country and this day and age.
ROMANS: We've spent a generation trying to get lead out of the air, from their tailpipes, lead out of paint, right, so that we can protect kids because we know what lead exposure does.
MARQUEZ: It's incredible.
ROMANS: You here these kids are like drinking lead out of a straw.
MARQUEZ: In this year. Clean water in America. So there's that.
Severe weather today and the possibility of another big snowstorm next week. Let's bring in meteorologist Derek Van Dam for the latest.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Christine and Miguel.
(WEATHER REPORT)
[04:50:30] VAN DAM: Back to you.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Derek. OK. Another for-profit college accused of lying to its students. The big claims about job placement, yes, that wasn't true and why the government isn't buying them, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARQUEZ: The president of Iran meeting this morning with his French counterpart in Paris. The next stop on the Iranian delegation's five- day European tour aimed at reasserting Iran's place in the global marketplace. It is President Hassan Rouhani's first trip abroad since signing the
nuclear deal that ended the tight economic sanctions. There's talk the French visit could lead to a big passenger jet deal with Airbus. But with Iranian elections fast approaching, there is also concern it could change the political winds, could blow shut Iran's new open door to world trade.
Senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is standing by with -- live in Tehran.
Fred, amazing to see the Iranians straight out of that deal on the world market selling Iran.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Miguel. They are absolutely bullish in their attitude and they say they want foreign investment in their country as fast as possible. On the one hand, you have that passenger jet deal that we believe will be announced today where Iran wants to buy more than 100 aircraft from Airbus. The Iranians have also announced that down the line they want to buy Boeing jets as well.
And only a couple of minutes ago, they also announced that French automaker Peugeot has decided to return to Iran.
[04:55:05] That is a $400 million deal that was inked today in Paris as well. So the Iranians want to get their economy up to speed as fast as possible. I actually spoke to one of the top economic adviser of President Rouhani just yesterday and he said that he wants to assure America that American companies can invest in Iran as well. He says that they will make no difference between the Americans and the Europeans.
But at the same time, you're right, the political situation here in this country still somewhat fragile. There is a very, very important election coming up soon. Moderates here in this country, accused conservatives of disqualifying. A lot of moderate candidates. The conservatives say quite frankly that is not true. Nevertheless, the people here in Iran I can tell you very much looking forward to those elections because they also see them as a referendum on the nuclear agreement and Iran's new course as we can see of opening up to the West as well -- Miguel.
MARQUEZ: Such fast changes happening in Iran. Amazing, amazing to have you there. Thanks, Fred Pleitgen.
ROMANS: All right. The Zika virus has the potential to become an explosive pandemic. That's the word from two U.S. based scientists. They've called on the World Health Organization to convene an emergency meeting on the virus. The mosquito-borne illness believed to be linked to severe birth defects in Brazil. A recent study finds the virus could spread across the U.S.
CNN's Shasta Darlington picks up the story for us.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. Good morning, Miguel. We're here in Recife, this is ground zero for the pandemic sweeping across the Americas. It's the first place the Zika virus was detected. It's also the first place where doctors first made a link between the virus and a sudden surge in birth defects.
I'm talking about microcephaly. Babies born with small heads and underdeveloped brains. In fact, more than 4,000 babies have been born with microcephaly here in Brazil, a third of them in this state, to the point the doctors and health officials are urging women to put off getting pregnant if at all possible.
And talking to the mothers here, many of them teenagers, you really get a sense of the heartache and the financial burden that they're facing. There are no vaccines, no cure, efforts are really focused on trying to eradicate the mosquito that transmits the virus. So they're sending 200,000 soldiers, door-to-door here in Brazil, to educate families, eliminate the pools of standing water where mosquitoes breed. And of course fumigate.
And with the Olympics just six months away, officials in Rio de Janeiro are also trying to minimize risks. That means inspecting Olympic venues on a daily basis. The problem is, experts say they're probably just looking at the tip of the iceberg -- Miguel, Christine.
ROMANS: All right, thanks for that, Shasta Darlington.
Let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. U.S. stock futures turning higher after a horrid performance yesterday after the Federal Reserve says the economy slowed down at the end of the year. The Fed showing some worry over slow growth abroad. But kept to its game plan as expected. The Fed did not raise interest rates, but suggested a march rate hike is still in play.
The Dow and the S&P 500, this year, look at this, both down more than -- about 8 percent. The Nasdaq has plunged almost 11 percent. Real bad day for Apple yesterday. You had -- you know, your guidance from Apple and Boeing actually that worried the market.
6.4 million homeowners are still seriously under water. That's according to a brand new report out this morning. Yes, that's a huge improvement from recent years. Look at that. Cut in half from the peak in 2012. But still a large number. That's about 11 percent of properties with mortgages are under water.
The cities with the highest shares of underwater homes, Las Vegas, Lakeland, Florida, Cleveland, Akron, Ohio, and Orlando. There's a hope that raising home prices will continue to improve that situation.
Another for-profit college in trouble with the government. The Federal Trade Commission says DeVry University deceived students about their chances of getting a job and increasing their income after graduation. For example, the college reported that 90 percent of grads since 1975 found jobs in their field within six months. The FTC says that is deceptive and the college must notify current and prospective students. Shares of the college's parent company fell 15 percent on the news.
We also had the Department of Education coming down pretty hard on these for-profit colleges, saying, you know, you need to show what your after-college placement is and what earnings are, one year out, 10 years out, so that people will have a choice. They can decide about the return of investment.
MARQUEZ: It is so aggressive on television advertisement in places.
ROMANS: Yes. That's right. That's right.
MARQUEZ: Now EARLY START continues right now.
ROMANS: In just hours, Republicans running for president face off on the debate stage. Except for one guy, the frontrunner. What Donald Trump will be doing instead.
MARQUEZ: Can't hardly wait.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in a dead heat in Iowa. Their new strategies to bring in undecided voters.
ROMANS: And breaking overnight. New arrests in the Oregon militia standoff. We've got those brand new details ahead.
Good morning, welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
MARQUEZ: And I -- I'm Miguel Marquez.
ROMANS: You are. You're kind of like taller than --
MARQUEZ: Well, if only. It is Thursday, January 28th, 5:00 a.m. --
(END)
