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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Voting Has Begun in New Hampshire; ISIS Wife Charged in U.S. Hostage Death; Obama Asks for $1.8B to Fight Zika Virus Spread; U.S. North Korea Satellite "Tumbling in Orbit". Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired February 09, 2016 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:30:33] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go. The voting has begun in New Hampshire, the nation's first presidential primary. Candidates making their last minute pitches across the state, sharpening their attacks on each other. Who will come out on top?

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans here in New York.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman live in Manchester, New Hampshire, this morning. Thirty minutes past the hour.

It is here. In fact, it has already started. While Christine Romans was sleeping, they voted in three tiny towns of the northern end of the state. Dixville Notch, the most famous, the first. There were a total of nine voters.

They picked John Kasich over Donald Trump in the Republican race, and Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side.

There were two other voting early towns, and just to get a sense of how close this race could be, on the Republican side, there is now a three-way tie for first place between Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich. Amazing.

As for where things stand right now, Donald Trump maintains his lead in the CNN/WMUR poll, though, you'll remember, he led in the polls before the Iowa caucuses as well, which he ended up losing to Cruz. Cruz was the target of Trump during the rally last night. Trump was criticizing Cruz for being unwilling to waterboard terrorists when a woman shouted a vulgar for wimp. Trump repeated it.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She said a terrible thing. You know what she said?

Shout it out because I don't want to --

(EXPLETIVE DELETED) TRUMP: OK. You're not allowed to say and I never expect to hear that from you again. She said -- I never expect to hear that from you again. She said he's (EXPLETIVE DELETED). That's terrible. Terrible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Donald Trump playing to the crowd there. He is also ridiculing all of his rivals.

CNN's Jim Acosta with more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, along with the snow here in New Hampshire, there's been a blizzard of insults and put-downs between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush. At one point, Trump referred to Bush as a child and Bush called Trump a liar and a whiner.

But the Trump campaign is confident about what we're going to see later on this evening. The Trump campaign told me they see a big difference between Iowa and New Hampshire. Inside that campaign, they believe Iowa was more about explaining the confusing caucus process to Iowans, whereas New Hampshire's pure getting out the vote. That's why you saw the big splashy rally in Manchester where Donald Trump actually went after Marco Rubio and his performance at the weekend debate.

Here's what he had to say.

TRUMP: I'm standing at the debate. I'm watching Marco sweating like a dog on my right. Honestly, Marco was having a hard time. And he's a nice guy. He's a nice guy.

I mean, again and again and again, after three times, you know, I have a very good memory. After three times, I said he said that about three minutes ago. Then I said, wait, wait, wait. He said that two minutes ago. After the fifth time, I said what the hell's going on over here?

ACOSTA: And Trump's closing argument is essentially what it has been all along. He is hitting the lines the audience sees every time. He is vowing to build that wall along the Mexican border, escalate the war on ISIS, and scrap Obamacare and the Iran nuclear deal -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks to you.

So, Marco Rubio trying to explain his repetitive, some might say robotic debate moments on FOX News. His Republicans rivals are not impressed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS: Is there a system by which you memorize answers? I mean, is that how you do it?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I know what I believe.

KELLY: Or is it repeated over and over so much on the campaign trail it becomes robotic (ph)?

RUBIO: It could be part of that. I mean, obviously when you said something because you are answering the same questions over and over again from people over time. But in the end, it's what I believe.

People want to brag their experience, you've got to look at the report and the results they got. Chris is a governor with a state downgraded nine times in seven years. That is part of his record. You have to answer for.

But in the end, my campaign has never been beating up on the other Republicans, because in the end, we've got to bring this party together.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you repeat something over and over again, that is a canned phrase and it validates a belief that you're not ready to be president. This started remember when he himself struggle about his accomplishments have been.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's got a lot of talent, not a lot of experience. You need to have both if you are going to be an effective president.

[04:35:01] And I think that showed on Saturday night on the stage.

SEN .TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Listen, Marco had a tough night. There's no doubt about that. But I think every voter is assessing each of the candidates and not just in any one debate, throughout the course of the entire campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. All of his rivals piling on Marco Rubio right there.

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders, he is way out in front in the latest CNN/WMUR poll, 61 percent, Hillary Clinton at 35 percent. You can see -- well, that's not the right graphic. There we go. Bernie Sanders, 61 percent, Hillary Clinton, 35 percent.

Bernie Sanders is confidently predicting a very, very good night here in New Hampshire.

The Clinton campaign has a new problem, trying to explain away a political report that both Hillary and Bill Clinton are upset with the quality of their campaign operation and they could be planning changes. Insiders say Bill Clinton is complaining of the campaign's lack of imagination and playing it too safe. Hillary Clinton denied the report saying, quote, "We are going to take

stock, but I'm confident in the people that I have."

CNN's Joe Johns has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Hillary Clinton's closing argument came here in a high school auditorium in Hudson, New Hampshire. She is down in the polls, but she was surrounded by a large crowd.

Also in attendance, former President Bill Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea Clinton. Bill Clinton has said he is concerned the campaign has lacked imagination so far. But, tonight, Hillary Clinton called on the people in the audience to imagine the world her campaign is all about.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really want you to imagine with me, imagine what we can do together. Imagine an economy that does work for everybody again.

Imagine we finally get to universal health care coverage so that every single man, woman and child has access to the quality health care that he or she needs. This is a huge, huge issue. To me, personally, it's also one of the contrasts between me and Senator Sanders.

JOHNS: One question is about how weather could affect turnout. There was a heavy snowfall on Monday. It was expected to end on Tuesday. Still there could be messy roads. That could be a factor -- even in a state where the voters take the responsibility in the first in the nation primary very seriously -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Joe Johns.

Still snowing a bit this morning, but I've got to say, the roads will certainly be clear for the voters. I do not think weather will get in the way.

Joining me now to discuss this more, Kayleigh McEnany, editor in chief of the conservative website "Political Prospect" and a Trump supporter.

Kayleigh, thanks so much for being with us.

What's going to happen today?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, POLITICAL PROSPECT: Hey, I think Trump is going to come in first. I think pretty much everyone is conceding that. Who knows? You can always be surprised. Polls were wrong in Iowa. I don't see them being wrong. He has a double digit lead.

That being said, it is a race for second. What is interesting to me in the latest CNN poll, you see Ted Cruz just three points behind Rubio. This is not Ted Cruz's state. Ted Cruz doesn't do well among independents or Democrat-leaning voters, but he is polling pretty well. What an upset that would be if Ted Cruz could pull off second place.

BERMAN: Look at those polls right there. You can see the bunching there. Rubio in second in 17, Cruz at 14, Kasich at 10, Bush at 7.

By the way, most of the poll was taken before Saturday's debate. So, there could be shifting. I talked to Kasich people. They think they are higher than this in their polls. Other polls have him much higher.

Basically if you look at all of the polls, a four-way tie for second. You bring up Ted Cruz. It's interesting, because he is running in his own lane here in New Hampshire.

MCENANY: Absolutely. And he hasn't put in the resources that would say John Kasich has. You are right to point out, John Kasich is doing very well reportedly among internal pollings that the candidates are doing. He has a formidable ground game.

Maybe the Dixville polling has him winning, although that's not a good sample sizes, just nine voters. Perhaps, that's indicative of what could happen today. If Kasich pulls, second place win, that's huge for him.

BERMAN: How can you distinguish yourself? If you are in that group, besides Ted Cruz and the Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich, how do you distinguish yourself. I mean, Jeb Bush will play this. Jeb Bush has decided that he is going to engage Donald Trump. He is the Trump batterer. Let's listen to Jeb Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a long list of things that Donald Trump says that disparages people, large groups of people, individuals like John McCain. I find it remarkable that as a candidate for president, you think that is evidence that he is a strong person. He's not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: At some point, instead of talking about Trump, do these governors need to talk about each other? Does Jeb Bush need to go after Kasich voters?

MCENANY: Simply no doubt about it, because here's the thing -- when Jeb Bush attacked Trump forcefully, I believe it was the CNN debate. After that debate, just 1 percent of people thought Jeb won.

[04:40:01] The media was saying this is his greatest night ever, Jeb attacks Trump. It didn't work for him.

But Jeb, I wish he would contrast his record of governor to that of Kasich, to that of Christie, because Jeb Bush has a conservative record. I'm a Florida voter. I remember billions of taxes being cut. He has a conservative record and he's serve himself better I think contrasting from the other governors.

BERMAN: Last question on the Republican side right now. There has been talk when Rubio thought he was surging out of Iowa, that maybe the field would be narrowed to three or four candidates going into South Carolina. We could come out of New Hampshire with more than that. I mean, this could actually muddle things more than it clarifies things.

MCENANY: Absolutely. This is Rubio's nightmare if Kasich wins. You look at polling in South Carolina, Kasich is only at 1 percent. So, Rubio's nightmare is have Kasich peeling off some of the votes, because as long as the establishment lane is divided, they can't consolidate, not good.

BERMAN: New Hampshire could be about uncertainty. And that's an unusual thing.

Let's talk about the Democrats right now. Hillary Clinton with the exact story you do not want heading into primary day, campaign shakeup, which they deny. They say they are not going to fire the campaign. They're just going to, you know, take stock.

MCENANY: Yes, absolutely. Not a good story you want heading into New Hampshire. She was never expected to win here. She's going to go forward and I think do very well in the southern states.

She should listen to Bill a bit. A few weeks ago saying Hillary's campaign should spread their resources among the southern firewall. Don't invest everything in the first two states. But again, like you said, not story you want to hear today. But when she pivots to the south, she's going to have a lot more success.

BERMAN: Pick a spread on the Democratic side.

MCENANY: Oh, 20.

BERMAN: Twenty. The Sanders campaign would be thrilled with that. I think the Clinton campaign wants low double digits, but we will see.

Kayleigh McEnany, great to have you with us. Thanks so much.

MCENANY: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: So, Christine Romans, you know, again, if you look at the Republican race right now with the early voting states, it's a three- way tie for first. It is not even 5:00 a.m. You know, Kasich, Trump and Donald Cruz all tied with a total of nine votes each.

ROMANS: Wow. It's so early, John, and it's wide open. And it's going to be interesting today.

Election fun fact for you, John Berman. Since 1968, in election year, there's only been election year with a lower unemployment rate than today, 4.9 percent. Still wages and the feeling the little guy is not getting ahead in the economy still really resonating with both campaigns, Republicans and Democrats. Interesting, right, 4.9 percent, second lowest unemployment rate.

BERMAN: What year was it? Was it '96? What is the election year with the lower unemployment rate?

ROMANS: 2000. Just before the go-go days of a big expansion and the dot-com boom. Interesting, right? Fun fact for you. So, there you go.

All right. Thanks, John. Talk to you in a minute.

BERMAN: I love that. Thank you.

ROMANS: Forty-two minutes past the hour this morning.

The wife of the ISIS leader charged with the death of the U.S. aide worker held hostage by terrorists. New details next.

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ROMANS: Welcome back.

The wife of the top ISIS leader charged by the Justice Department for her alleged role in the death of American aide worker Kayla Mueller. It is not clear whether the U.S. plans to take custody of this woman Umm Sayaff. She was captured in a U.S. raid last May. She is now in the custody of the Kurdish government in Iraq. The FBI says Sayaff kept Mueller imprison for 17 months on behalf of the ISIS leader Abu al Baghdadi, who allegedly raped her repeatedly until her death.

Homeland security and FBI officials confirm they are investigating a data breach that exposed sensitive information about nearly 30,000 of their staff members. Names and titles and contact information released online by hackers accompanied by a pro-Palestine slogans. The identities of more than half of the FBI employees, half of the FBI employees are now in the public domain. The hacker claimed to have penetrated the DHS and FBI files through a Justice Department computer.

President Obama sends his final budget proposal to Congress today. It is already dead on arrival. The plan includes a $10 a barrel tax on oil for green infrastructure and transportation projects. It includes cancer research and opioid abuse programs. But the Republican chairmen of the House and Senate budget committee, they are refusing to even grant the usual hearings to the president's budget director.

President Obama also asking Congress for $1.8 billion in emergency funding to fight the Zika virus and mosquitoes that carry it. This request coming as the Centers for Disease Control steps up its response, moving its emergency operation center to level one status. That's the highest. Due to the risk of transmission in the U.S., it means the agency will work around the clock on levels to contain the fast-spreading virus.

ROMANS: Michigan Governor Snyder declining an invitation to appear before a Democratic House Committee investigating the Flint water crisis. Snyder insists he cannot testify at Wednesday's hearing because he has a budget presentation to make to his state legislature. The Republican governor says that presentation will include significant resources to help people of Flint. The Democratic steering and policy committee does not have the power to subpoena Governor Snyder.

Four anti-government protesters are still occupying an Oregon wildlife refuge. They posted a series of YouTube videos mocking FBI agents, calling them losers. One said they will face additional charges because of barricades they built. This standoff began January 2nd. Eight protesters, including leader Ammon Bundy were arrested last month. One of the protesters was killed in a shootout with police. The four holdouts refused to leave without assurances they will not be arrested.

Time for an early start on your money. Fear once again gripping stock markets around world this morning. The Chinese markets are closed for the lunar New York.

Japan's Nikkei plunging 5.4 percent. The yield on long term bonds dropping below zero, zero percent for the first time ever. Very rare.

Investors running out of stocks and into the safety of bonds. A lot depends on the price of oil. You can see Dow futures down a little bit here. But European markets stabilizing here as oil rises 2 percent.

A brutal day on Wall Street yesterday. The Dow fell 178 points. At one point, the Dow was down more than 400 points as the fear brewed, and bank and energy stocks fell. The NASDAQ fell 1.8 percent, edging closer to bear market. Bear market drop is 20 percent from its previous highs almost there.

Oil was driving the selloff once again. Oil prices fell 3 percent. They are now below 29 bucks a barrel.

One of the bright spots, though, gold. Of course, it can rise during times of fear. Gold prices spiked 3 percent yesterday.

[04:50:02] Heavy snow brewing today in the Northeast. Let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for that.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John and Christine, good morning, guys.

We are done with one of two storms we are dealing with this week. The initial one with the blizzard like conditions in Cape Cod is all but gone over the Canadian maritime right now. Over to the west, we're watching this massive trough that's beginning to dig in, and that really is the next weather maker in line here.

That will bring in some snow showers. But really the highest threat is West Virginia on into eastern areas of Kentucky, southern Ohio, certainly southern areas of Pennsylvania as well, around the Delmarva region where I think some of those snow amounts could be highest amounts there across this region. But notice, scattered snow showers at this point, nothing really off

the charts. Nothing we have not seen before when it comes to this time of year. Some of the observation points could bring in 8 to 12 inches in West Virginia and work toward Philly, 4 to 6 inches. Locally higher amounts expected across that region as well.

But the other story is the cold air you're feeling across this region. Dramatic shift from what is already very cold to how about arctic in nature as you take a look at the air push across New England by Saturday into Sunday. At that point, easily, the coldest air of the season in D.C. with temperatures dropping to 19 degrees for an overnight low. Should be at 46 degrees for the high this time of year.

Central Park, how about this, by Saturday night into Sunday, the best we can do is right around 5 degrees in Central Park. It warms up to a balmy 23 as we head in for Valentine's Day on Sunday.

Guys, back to you.

ROMANS: All right, Pedram, stay inside, I guess, if you're in New York City. Thanks for that.

A brutal day on Wall Street yesterday. Bank stocks hammered. Energy companies tanking. The Dow plunging.

Can markets turn it around this morning? An early start on your money, next.

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ROMANS: Whatever purpose that North Korean satellite may have had, it is useless now.

[04:55:03] U.S. defense officials say it is tumbling in orbit and incapable of functioning in any useful way. This is the second time Pyongyang has tried, but failed to put a satellite into a stable orbit.

Sunday's rocket launched triggered, of course, a wave of condemnation. The U.S. believes the launch was a cover for a ballistic missile test. And now, the U.N. Security Council promising new punitive sanctions against North Korea.

CNN's Paula Hancocks following developments from Seoul, South Korea, for us.

Good morning, Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.

Well, just in the past few minutes, we have fresh photos from the South Korean military showing parts of the rocket they say they found them in the waters off Korea. This is part of the rocket that North Korea launched on Sunday. They are hoping they could learn something of the capability of North Korea from this.

Now, they have been analyzing this for a day. We understand that they say they believe this is the same kind of rocket as it was back in December of 2012. They don't believe there are too many differences. But the intelligence agencies believe there are improvements in the satellite itself.

One interesting point they say is they believe a self destruction detonator that was within the first stage. The booster. So, it blew up, exploded in 270 pieces, presumably so North Korea could tell no one could analyze it and find their capability was.

Now, Kim Jong-un is still celebrating what he considers a great success with this satellite launch. There were fireworks in Pyongyang, people on the street celebrating.

And then, just early this morning, Tuesday local time, Monday night, D.C. time, President Obama spoke to the South Korean President Park Geun-hye. They talked about this U.N. sanctions, what a need there was for these sanctions, but also that they could go it alone, that they may have multilateral sanctions outside the United Nations to make sure that Pyongyang is punished for what it did -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Paula Hancocks for us this morning from Seoul -- thank you for that.

Breaking news this morning: at least 90 people injured in riots in Hong Kong, set off when police tried to shutdown sidewalk vendors selling food illegally. Officials say protesters threw bricks, bottle and other subjects at police who responded with gunfire, batons, pepper spray. No one reported killed but 54 people have been arrested at last count.

Let's get an early start on your money this morning. Another bout of fear spreading through global stock markets this morning. Now, Chinese markets are closed for the lunar new year. But look at Japan's Nikkei plunging 5.4 percent.

European markets mostly lower here right now. U.S. stock futures leaning lower after a brutal day on Wall Street yesterday, the Dow down 178 points, had been down 400 almost. The NASDAQ fell 1.8 percent. It is edging ever closer to a bear market. That would be a 20 percent drop from its previous high.

Oil driving that selloff. Once again prices fell 3 percent, dipping below $29 a barrel. Watching oil very carefully this morning, if it stabilizes, that could turn the mood of the stock market around.

The big losers on Wall Street yesterday, energy companies. Look at this, Baker Hughes down nearly 5 percent. Transocean, 7 percent. That's nothing compared to Chesapeake Energy. It fell 51 percent on rumors it was filing for bankruptcy.

The company issued a statement saying, no, that's not the case. Not a bankruptcy filing imminent. The stock closed down 33 percent for the day. So, that is very bad news for oil companies, right? Well, those oil

prices is great news for drivers. The natural average for a gallon of regular, now, $1.72, down more than 20 cents in just the past month, 20 cents in a month. Some in the country are getting close to $1 a gallon. A 7-Eleven in Oklahoma City which is selling a gallon of a regular for $1.11.

Fifty-eight minutes past the hour. EARLY START continues right now.

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ROMANS: Happening now: voters in New Hampshire, they have begun casting ballots in the first in the nation primary. The candidates campaigning hard across the state. Making their last minute, last second pitches to voters. We are live.

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

BERMAN: Great to see everyone. John Berman here live in Manchester, New Hampshire. It is Tuesday, primary day, first in the nation primary day, February 9th, 5:00 a.m. in the East.

They started voting here in New Hampshire while were you sleeping. They voted in three tiny towns of the northern of the end of the state.

Dixville Notch is probably the most famous. There were a total of nine voters. They picked John Kasich over Donald Trump in the Republican race. Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic side.

You know, it is funny, if you add the two other towns, there is a three-way tie for first in the Republican race. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and John Kasich all tied with nine votes, as we sit here at 5:00. The rest of the polls around the states start opening at 6:00 a.m.

As for where things stand in the race, heading into today, Donald Trump kept his lead in the latest CNN/WMUR poll, though you will remember, he led in all of the polls before the Iowa caucuses which he ended up losing to Ted Cruz.