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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Republican Debate Goes On Without Trump; More Arrests Made In Oregon Wildlife Refuge Occupation; Michigan Lawmakers Are Set To Approve $28 Million In Relief Money For Flint; Secret Places Inside Disneyland; Iranian Elections Coming In February. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 28, 2016 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:30:41] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: In just hours, the next GOP presidential debate will take place without Donald Trump. What the frontrunner will be doing instead and what his competitors have to say about it.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking news overnight. New arrests in the Oregon militia standoff as the occupation leader urges protesters to go home.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Miguel Marquez.

ROMANS: Super nice to have you with us today.

MARQUEZ: Nice to be here. It's fantastic.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's 31 minutes past the hour. OK. So tonight, seven Republican candidates debate each other in Iowa minus Donald Trump for the first time. Trump pulling out of the Fox News debate. He's 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 milk shakes. 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 --

O'REILLY: You are actually telling the truth there. I said --

TRUMP: Because I told you up front, I said, don't ask me that question.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Donald Trump trying to control the conversation and unhappy when he almost couldn't, there. Trump campaigning late into the night, barely mentioning the debate feud.

CNN's Jim Acosta has the latest.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christina, 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 veterans groups. Trump would only say very briefly during his rally here in South Carolina that he felt he has 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 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: All right, Jim Acosta, thank you.

So who better to break down the debate controversy with us, who, who you ask, Brian Stelter. Senior media correspondent, host of "Reliable Sources". On the media and journalism beats, there is no other story at the moment than Donald Trump acting as executive producer of his own brand here going to war with Fox News and apparently in that clip we just heard, essentially saying he made a deal with Bill O'Reilly, and Bill O'Reilly broke his deal and Donald Trump is going to, he is going to direct his media appearances the way he'd like to.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: And Trump is not budging one bit. He's being very clear about this event he is holding tonight. He is counter programming the debate like only a TV producer could. He does have the mind of sort of a TV network programmer. He's very aware of how to use all these platforms from social media to television to all the rest. And he's doing this in a way that I think has Fox off guard. Fox usually has power. Fox chief, Roger Ailes, usually has control. In this case, it seems Roger Ailes has the control.

MARQUEZ: Donald Trump has the control.

STELTER: Yes, excuse me.

MARQUEZ: Here is my theory on it. You give me your take. He actually shows up at the debate creating more attention for himself and being able to, the debate host, pull their punches.

STELTER: I wouldn't rule it out.

ROMANS: Really?

STELTER: Because we are only, what is it, 15 hours away from the debate. Anything can happen. We know that when it comes to the Trump campaign. He will be in Iowa, he'll only be a few miles away from the debate. So I'm not going to rule it out. I think in the television world, we've all been wrong before when it comes to Donald Trump. So you never want to say never.

[05:35:03] But that said, he has made a commitment to raising money for veterans. Were he to not have that event tonight, that could look like he's flip flopping, he's backing out of a fund raising event. That wouldn't look good for him. So he'd have to do both events somehow.

ROMANS: So when you go backward in, what they call in the TV business, the tick tock -- the tick tock of this whole story -- could it be that the beginning of all this, Donald Trump just didn't want to debate again? And he had everything to lose, zero to gain. He has used the debate stage. He has driven ratings and taken credit for it. Driven up ad rates, maybe, and taken credit for it. Now he's done with them.

STELTER: I think many people subscribe to that theory including may inside Fox News. For Fox, they say, this is about defending their employee, Megyn Kelly. She's going to be on the debate stage tonight moderating no matter what, whether Trump is there or not. So they say they're taking a stand for journalistic independence here, making sure that a candidate can't run roughshod over the process. I think the view over at Fox is, he wanted a way to get out of the debates. He wanted a way to avoid this. He's using Megyn Kelly as an excuse because he doesn't want to go up against Ted Cruz. That gives Cruz a big opening tonight.

MARQUEZ: But he clearly seems to have a serious personal issue with Megyn Kelly and in his force, this family fight, this Fox family fight out in the open.

STELTER: Right. Something that usually maybe happens behind closed doors. In many ways, Fox, Trump, Roger Ailes, Megyn Kelly, should be natural allies. GOP's favorite network and the GOP frontrunner. But Trump time and time again continues to show that he doesn't play by those normal sorts of, not rules, but sort of standards or norms. He's creating new norms as he goes along. With this Fox fight, if he can win or appear to win against Fox, there's nobody else. There's sort of nothing else. Fox is the standard bearer for Republicans. ROMANS: So all the other, and I want to use that mash up, guys, of

all the other competitors, what they are trying to say and do -- they're trying to use this as a moment for them to breakout. Let's listen to what all of those folks have been saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Apparently, Mr. Trump considers Megyn Kelly very, very scary.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All the press is here. 90 percent of their coverage is on this whole thing. Oh, Donald Trump's not go to show up. Ted Cruz is challenging him to a one-on-one, mano a mano, debate. Interesting side show.

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.

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And whether you've been treated unfairly or not is really relatively irrelevant.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think he'll be missed.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's a big mistake by Donald and I said that. 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Could there be an issue here where these campaigns are watching their candidate on one screen and on a split screen, they're watching what Donald Trump is saying somewhere else?

STELTER: They'll be hanging on every word he says, they will. It will be a social media moment to have that split screen experience. Rubio says this is a side show but that's what I think Trump understands better than any other candidate. He is the show. He is the Trump show. It's what voters and viewers are paying attention to. You look at the Twitter traffic ever since he announced his run -- he's been off the charts compared to every other candidate. So it can be dismissed as a side show but in fact, I think it's the main event.

MARQUEZ: It is remarkable, though, that a Republican candidate could not get on without Fox news in the past and now he is testing that.

STELTER: Well it's sort of like, Trump made the debates more relevant than ever. He brought record viewership for the debates. Maybe he's also going to show the debates can be irrelevant. If he's able to make the relevant, maybe he's able to make them irrelevant as well. We'll see tonight.

ROMANS: All right. From media politics to money. Brian Stelter, thank you so much.

MARQUEZ: No sleep for the next week.

ROMANS: Maybe for the next 11 months.

Time for an EARLY START on your money. The Federal Reserve says 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 down a bit, too. While, look at U.S. stock futures managing did take a little bit higher. Now the Fed's assessment slammed the Dow 223 points. The Fed did not raise interest rates but 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 continues. Look at this. The Dow and S&P 500 are both down about 8 percent. The NASDAQ has plunged almost 11 percent.

Facebook shares up some 12 percent before the bell. Something to tell you is going up. It wowed investors with soaring sales, profit, user growth, mobile ads growth a big winner. During the last three months of 2015, Facebook topped a billion dollars in profit for the first time in history, 1.6 billion, more than double a year earlier. Facebook also managed to keep adding new people, is making more money off of each one of them at the same time. That mobile ad revenue growth, though, so key here. They want to reach young people and young people like you.

MARQUEZ: I'm going to update my status right now.

[05:39:57] ROMANS: Breaking news overnight. The standoff between the FBI and militia men in Oregon. Stand off winding down. There are new arrests to tell you about and the leader calling for protesters to stand down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Breaking developments 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 own arrest on Tuesday.

More from CNN's Dan Simon in Oregon.

[05:44:58] 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, and 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 --

DAVID WARD, SHERIFF, 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 --

ROMANS: All right, Dan Simon for us in Oregon this morning. With Michigan lawmakers set to approve $28 million in emergency assistance for Flint, the state's embattled governor, Rick Snyder, says it is not known how many children may have been harmed by the city's lead poisoned water supply.

The governor spoke with CNN's Poppy Harlow. Poppy pressed him on the criticism over his handling of this crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The kids were being poisoned by the water they were drinking here. The EPA knew about it. Your spokesman, your former spokesman knew about it in July, 2015, and sent an e-mail about it and you didn't declare a state of emergency until January of this year. Why did it take so long?

GOV. RICK SNYDER (R), MICHIGAN: Actually, I learned about it in October. And I took action immediately then, offering filters, working with people on getting water, on doing water testing. Again, we needed to do more, though. So as soon as I learned about it, we took dramatic action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Governor Snyder says it is too soon to determine how long it will take to replace the lead pipes in Flint. It's been going on for too long.

MARQUEZ: Incredible story.

ROMANS: All right, 47 minutes past the hour. Another for-profit college accused of lying to its students. The big claims about job placement and why the government isn't buying it. Disneyland. Millions of people visit the park each year, but the happiest place on earth holds some secrets only a select few ever get too see.

CNN Money's Cristina Alesci got a peak behind the curtain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Disneyland. In the 60 years since the park opened, millions of people have walked these streets. But behind every good magic trick is an even better secret. CNN Money got special access to three of the most sacred spots inside Disneyland. Three places the public can't go. This luxurious two- bedroom apartment was designed to be a special place for Walt Disney and his family inside the park. Every space in the dream suite has a little bit of magic. The flip of an ordinary switch, and animatronics swing into action. Clearly, Walt Disney had a thing for trains.

So we're sitting in a very historic part of the park. Where are we?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the Lilly Bell and she was on the rails on opening day in 1955.

ALESCI: This special train car, named after Walt's wife, Lillian, was designed to carry V.I.P.s around the park and once in a while, a lucky guest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get asked for rides. It's not easy to get on board.

ALESCI: That's because Disney has to keep access restricted. The Lilly Bell is like a museum on wheels. There's only one place in the park more hallowed. This is Walt's home away from home. A hidden apartment above Main Street, USA where the park's creator could oversee its construction from inside out. While hardly anyone gets to visit this place, a light in the window remains on, a symbol of Walt's presence here.

Disneyland transports you to another time and place but real history lives in secret spots that only a lucky few ever see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:53:41] MARQUEZ: The president of Iran, this morning, meeting 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 tight economic sanctions. The French visit already landing a deal to bring a French car company back to Iran and there's also a possibility that Iran Air could buy more than 100 planes from airbus. But with Iranian elections fast approaching, there is also concern that a change in political winds could blow shut the Iran's new open door to the world trade. Senior international correspondent, Frederik Pleitgen, is standing by

live for us in Tehran. Amazing the pace of change happening in Iran since the lifting of those sanctions. Fred --

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly the pace of change is amazing. The optimism that you see here among many people is amazing as well. I actually spoke to a couple of younger Iranians a couple of days ago nad they said, look, we really are happy with this nuclear agreement. We're happy there is going to be foreign direct investment coming back into this country. They also want technology transfers. There's a lot of educated people here who feel that they've been shackled so far by the sanctions and they obviously want all that to go away.

[05:55:00] Now of course, as you said, they are also concerned about whether or not all of this will in fact hold. Could there be a falling out between, for instance, the U.S. and Iran, and then you have Iranian politics itself, Miguel. There's a very important election coming up here soon, the parliamentary election and the moderates in parliament say that the council that vets the candidates has disqualified a lot of moderates and they believe that this is the conservatives and the hard liners trying to cement their power here in the country.

The hard liners themselves say that is not true, but certainly there is some concern about how these elections are going to move forward and many people view these elections as some of the most important in this country's history because they come so shortly after the nuclear agreement and many people see them as a referendum both on that agreement and also on Iran's current course that we're certainly seeing unfold in Europe right now as the Iran's president is drumming up investment for the country that they hope will get them a lot of profits going forward, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: What a fascinating time to be there. I'm glad you're keeping your finger on the Iranian pulse there for us. Amazing that you are there and that that story is happening as only CNN can bring it. Thanks, Fred Pleitgen, for us, in Tehran.

The Zika virus has the potential to become an explosive pandemic and are urging the world health organization to take urgent action. They say a vaccine might be ready for testing in two years, but it could be a decade before it's available to the public. Leaders of almost a dozen Latin American and Carribean nations holding a summit in Ecuador on the outbreak. Thousand of cases reported in Brazil, in Colombia. It has spread to some 20 countries. Zika infections may be linked to a rare, severe birth defect known as microcephaly.

ROMANS: All right, 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 last 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 S&P both down about 8 percent this year. The NASDAQ has plunged almost 11 percent. Apple had a terrible day yesterday, down 6 percent, after it warned that sales would slow this quarter for the first time in 13 years.

Facebook shares, though, up some 12 percent before the bell. It wowed investors with soaring sales, profit, user growth, mobile ads were strong. A big winner there during the last three months of the year. Facebook topped a billion dollars in profit for the first time ever. It made $1.6 billion, more than double a year earlier. It also managed to keep adding new people and make more money off of each one of them at the same time.

Another for-profit college in trouble with the government. The Federal Trade Commission says DeVry University deceived students about their chances at getting a job and increasing their income after graduation. For example, the college afforded 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 but from the FTC to the department of education, the Obama administration has been toughening its stance against these for-profit colleges because many, many students want to know what the return is on their investment.

MARQUEZ: Sure. Fascinating. In just hours, Republicans running for president face-off on the debate stage except for the frontrunner, Donald Trump. "NEW DAY" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have zero respect for Megyn Kelly. I don't think she's very good at what she does. I think she's highly overrated.

CRUZ: Apparently Mr. Trump considers Megyn Kelly very, very scary.

O'REILLY: Answer the questions, look out for the folks. Just want you to consider it.

TRUMP: I don't like being taken advantage of. In this case, I was being taken advantage of by Fox. I don't like that.

CHRISTIE: Things don't always go your way.

BUSH: It just seems kind of weird.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Think about it. Say look, I might come back.

TRUMP: Look at all this pundits. These geniuses. These people back there, they're morons, you're morons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can the people of Flint today, as we sit here, can they drink the water?

SNYDER: No. We don't want them to.

CROWD (chanting): Snyder must go!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor, will you resign?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's January 28, 6:00 in the East. Mich is off, J.B.'s sitting right here, and up first, Donald Trump standing firm on his plans to boycott tonight's Fox News debate. The Republican frontrunner announcing plans to host a veterans benefit in Iowa at the exact same time his rivals will be debating. Trump's war with Fox News taking center stage. Trump says this is about an eye for an eye.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, Trump's rivals accused him of being afraid to answer tough questions and they're hoping to seize on his absence tonight. Just four days until the Iowa caucuses and this race continues to heat up. So let's begin our coverage with Phil Mattingly. He's live in Des Moines, Iowa. Good morning, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. He's not bluffing.