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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Donald Trump Accused of Inciting Violence at Rallies; Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Met with Voters Face-to-Face; Attackers Target Busy Transportation Hub in Ankara. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired March 14, 2016 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:16] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: An unbelievable weekend on the campaign trail. Donald Trump accused overnight of inciting violence at his campaign rallies. Why his competitors say no, he's responsible for the chaos.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in a CNN town hall. They too go after Donald Trump calling him a political arsonist and a pathological liar.
ROMANS: Dozens killed in two separate terror attacks. Civilians and Westerners targeted. We've got live team coverage breaking down new information this morning.
Good morning. Good Monday morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: Nice to see you today. I'm John Berman. It is Monday, March 14th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.
And the race for president at a boiling point this morning with the controversy over violence at Donald Trump rallies overwhelming both sides of the race.
Breaking overnight. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, they slammed Donald Trump, accusing him at a CNN town hall of inciting violence on the campaign trail. Trump now says he would consider footing the legal bills of a supporter who sucker punched a protester, that was in North Carolina last week. Donald Trump is also now explaining why he canceled a Chicago rally amid clashes between pro and anti-Trump groups. Trump is blaming Bernie Sanders and his supporters for the chaos there. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are firing back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All Americans should be concerned. It's clear that Donald Trump is running a very cynical campaign, pitting groups of Americans against one another. He is trafficking in hate and fear. He is playing to our worst instincts rather than our -- angels of our better nature. He actually incites violence in the way that he urges his audience on, you know, talking about punching people, offering to pay legal bills.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump is literally inciting violence with his supporters. He is saying if you go out and beat somebody up, that's OK. I'll pay the legal fees. That is an outrage. And I would hope that Mr. Trump tones it down big time and tells his supporters that violence is not acceptable in the American political process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: That was Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton last night.
Overnight Donald Trump defended his campaign and the rhetoric. He held a rally in Florida. He now holds a pretty comfortable lead in Florida, 21 points ahead of Marco Rubio. That's from the latest NBC News-"Wall Street Journal" poll.
CNN's Sara Murray was at the late-night rally with Donald Trump and has more.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine. Just days before the Florida primary, Donald Trump was here rallying the crowd and taking aim at the home state senator, Marco Rubio, calling him an absentee politician.
But even here in Florida, Donald Trump also went after Ohio Governor John Kasich and he overhauled his planned events on Monday to add an event in Ohio, a clear sign that he now thinks that John Kasich is a bigger threat to his prospects than Marco Rubio is here in Florida.
But, of course, Trump is coming off a very newsy weekend. He had to cancel an event in Chicago on Friday after there were so many protesters. The campaign did not feel like they could go forward. He addressed that in Boca last night, saying he believes he made the right decision.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We had an interesting week. On Friday, we went to Chicago. We had 25,000 people coming. No, it's OK. We had 25,000 people coming. We had some -- I would say they were -- let's be nice -- protesters, OK? Let's say -- well, let's call them protesters.
And we had a decision to make. We had to make this decision. We want peace, we want happiness. We want everybody to go home really happy, really peaceful. So we said, you know what we'll do? We'll postpone it, and it was a very wise decision. We've been given a lot of credit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MURRAY: Now in light of the number of protesters that have been appearing at Trump events, we have seen a strong security presence. But here in Florida last night there were relatively few interruptions.
Back to you, John and Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Sara Murray, very busy weekend for her. We are now hearing from the man at the center of mayhem at a different
Trump rally. Secret Service agents swiftly tackled Thomas DiMassimo when he tried to rush the stage where Donald Trump was speaking in Ohio on Saturday. 22-year-old DiMassimo arrested, charged with disorderly conduct, and, quote, "inducing panic in the crowd." He tells CNN he wasn't aiming to attack Trump. He just wanted to send a message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:05:09] THOMAS DIMASSIMO, TRUMP BARRICADE JUMPER: I was thinking that I could get up on stage and take his podium away from him and take his mike away from him, and send a message to all the people out in the country who wouldn't consider themselves racists, who wouldn't consider themselves approving of what type of violence Donald Trump is allowing at his rallies. And send them a message that we can be strong. We can find our strength and we can stand up against Donald Trump, and against this new wave he is ushering in of truly just violent white supremacist ideas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Now Trump accused DiMassimo of having links to ISIS. In a tweet, he called him a maniac including a link to footage of DiMassimo's protesting. A video that displays the ISIS flag. DiMassimo seen in the video was doctored, he has no ties to ISIS. He speaks only English and has never left the United States.
BERMAN: Donald Trump's Republican rivals, they are also blasting Donald Trump for appearing to condone violence at his rallies. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some of these people are professional disruptors, OK. They get hired, they get paid to be rude and nasty. I'm not excusing that. But I'm also not excusing the fact that you have a leading contender for president telling people in his audience go ahead and punch someone in the face, I'll pay your legal bill. That's not excusable attitude, because let me tell you, that is wrong. If our kids did it, that is disastrous if a president does it.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No question that Donald Trump has created a toxic atmosphere pitting one group against another and name-calling and all those kinds of things. Now I think there are people that would go to a rally, who would look to disrupt. But look, the environment is there and he needs to back off of this and start being more aspirational, telling people we can get it together.
You can go into a room and get people depressed, and down and angry, or you can walk into that room with the same people and you can lift them and give them hope. And I think we need to be hopeful in America, not depressed.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: All right. A huge day out on the campaign trail today. Donald Trump, he makes stops in North Carolina, Ohio and also Florida. He actually canceled one event in Florida and added extra one in Ohio because it is so close in Ohio.
Marco Rubio trailing big in his home state, he's just going all in Florida right now. He loses there, he's all but done.
Ted Cruz will stump in Illinois and Missouri. This on the eve of just huge voting tomorrow. Winner-take-all votes in Florida and Ohio. Big voting in North Carolina, Missouri and Illinois as well.
John Kasich, you see him here, he's actually going to be joined on the trail today in Ohio by Mitt Romney. Not endorsing Governor Kasich, but Mitt Romney very much engaged in this stop Trump movement. A new "Wall Street Journal"-NBC News poll has John Kasich six points ahead of Donald Trump in his home state.
ROMANS: All right. Violence at Trump rallies, a top concern at the Democratic town hall last night on CNN. Bernie Sanders even calling Trump a, quote, "pathological liar" for trying to connect unrest at Trump events to the Sanders campaign.
CNN Politics reporter Eric Bradner was at that town hall. He joins us now.
Good morning, Eric. You know, I would say that violence and conflict this weekend on the stump really was the story of the weekend. Last night these two Democrats at the town hall asked about it. Let's listen to Bernie Sanders talking about how Trump is a liar.
ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS DIGITAL REPORTER: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: Donald Trump is a pathological liar.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: We have never -- our campaign does not believe and never will encourage anybody to disrupt anything. We have millions of supporters. People do what they do. People have the right to protest. I happen not to believe that people should disrupt anybody's meetings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Now the Trump campaign has turned sort of this violence, these conflicts in these campaign events into somehow an attack from Bernie Sanders supporters on Donald Trump's right to free speech. I don't think Donald Trump's right to free speech has been a pinch on all of this. You hear me? He's had more air time than anybody else.
BERMAN: There were a lot of protests. There were a lot of protesters at his event Friday night. I mean, there were hundreds of protesters on Friday night who want to keep him from speaking. ROMANS: In Chicago. In Chicago. Were they Bernie Sanders protesters
-- Bernie Sanders supporters? Sanders says no.
BRADNER: Yes, I mean, Bernie Sanders is saying that he can't account for everyone that votes for him. Right? He said look, I didn't send anybody to do this. I'm -- he discourages violence. He is defending people's right to protest. He's saying, look, you know, I've been standing on picket lines my entire life. But he says that it's completely unreasonable for -- you know, for any one person to be blamed for the actions of an entire group of protesters.
At the same time, both he and Hillary Clinton were really pinning the blame on Donald Trump for sort of inciting this. For using the kind of rhetoric that has triggered these clashes.
[04:10:06] And so the Democrats were not triggering the blame themselves even if Trump is putting it on Sanders.
BERMAN: What's interesting to me is how the events with Donald Trump really overshadowed both sides of the campaign, on the Republican race and the Democratic race. The CNN town hall last night where there was a huge amount of focus on Donald Trump and both candidates, they were really racing to differentiate themselves and make a stand -- and take a stand on that violence that we've seen. Hillary Clinton even went so far as to, you know, equated it to her time as secretary of state and her relationship with foreign leaders. Listen to what she said.
All right. Let me read it out loud.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Messages from leaders. I'm having foreign leaders ask if they can endorse me to stop Donald Trump. And I think whoever goes up against Donald Trump better be ready, and I feel I am the best prepared and ready candidate to take him on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Now this is a case worth not pivoting to the general election for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. I think it's recognizing the environment that's out there and what's being discussed, you know, across the country right now.
BRADNER: That's absolutely right. It was fascinating to see these two who are still locked in a really competitive primary race just sort of dropping their attacks on each other and focusing on Trump. Basically making the argument to Democratic primary voters that they are going to best be able to take on Trump in a general election.
Clinton, it was fascinating to hear her. She claimed that foreign leaders are calling her, you know, asking if they can endorse her. She is saying that she's been a target of Republican attacks for 25 years. Therefore she can stand up to Trump. Where Sanders is citing his own poll numbers, saying that he would expose Trump's economic arguments as unpopular. But they were both clearly jockeying to be the Democrat best able to confront Trump. And that reveals a lot about the state of the race and the dominance that Trump has right now.
ROMANS: All right. Eric Bradner, thanks for that.
We have so much to talk about this morning. You know, and the big day tomorrow where you've got dozens and dozens of delegates up for grabs.
BERMAN: Hundreds. Yes. It crazy.
ROMANS: Hundreds.
BERMAN: Winner-take-all states, Florida and Ohio.
ROMANS: Yes, it's going to be -- that's going to be really exciting so that's tomorrow and a lot of discussion about where we're positioned heading into tomorrow. We're going to talk about that with you in a few minutes. Again thanks.
All right. Two deadly terror attacks in less than 24 hours. Dozens dead, more than 100 injured in a car bomb in Turkey. As al Qaeda gunmen target resort hotels frequented by Westerners. Live team coverage next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:16:50] ROMANS: Turkish authorities say it is too early to discuss who was responsible for a deadly car bomb that killed at least 37 people injured, dozens more last night. This blast ripped through a busy -- a busy square in the capital. The attackers targeting a transportation hub with bus stops and a metro station. Scores of police firefighters and emergency personnel rushing to the scene.
Want to get the very latest this morning from CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon. She is live for us.
Good morning, Arwa.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. And you can see the police cordoned behind me as well as that white sheet that has been pulled across the road. We were able to catch a brief glimpse from one corner of it showing the rest of this road just filled with broken glass and debris from that massive blast.
The attack carried out by eight terrorist organization, which one the government suspects at this stage, they are not disclosing, saying that they want to wait for the investigation, too. And we have seen a handful of forensic experts moving in and out of the scene of where the blast took place, killing at least 37 people. Among them, according to government authorities, one or two of the attackers.
The attackers driving this vehicle laden with explosives and then detonating it very close to one of the main bus stops here. And this is one of the main boulevard that runs through Ankara. And this central part of this city there are shops on the other side of the street. Around the corner there are tons of open air cafes and restaurants. This is where you come on a Sunday evening at around the time when the blast did take place at about 6:45 p.m. local to take a walk, to go out, to grab something at the end of your weekend.
And the day that the attack took place, on Sunday, happen to also coincide with the same day that across Turkey students go in to take their entrance exam to get to universities. So a lot of them would have been out presumably finally trying to relax a little bit after months of cramming for this exam.
Now Ankara has been in a state of heightened alert for quite some time now especially following an attack that took place less than a month ago. And this instance -- and that instance, targeting a convoy of military personnel. That attack was blamed by the government on the Kurdish separatists group, the PKK. Prior to that, twin suicide bombing ripping through a rally here in October. That attack was blamed on ISIS.
But most certainly, this underscores just how vulnerable Turkey is at this junction. Just how devastating to the civilian population this violence continues to be -- Christine.
ROMANS: Just more violence there. All right. Thanks so much for that, Arwa Damon, this morning.
BERMAN: All right. This morning the president of Ivory Coast is appealing for calm after a brutal terrorist attack Sunday that left 16 people dead. Authorities say gunmen opened fire at three separate beach resort hotels near the capital. The North African affiliate of al Qaeda is claiming responsibility.
CNN's Robyn Kriel following developments for us this morning. Good morning, Robyn.
ROBYN KRIEL, CNN AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, John. It would be around midday on what was described in midday in the Ivory Coast as a very hot Sunday.
[04:20:04] And this particular beach, the Grand-Bassam beach, is about a 20-minute to 30-minute drive from the financial hub of Cote d'Ivoire. A lot of people would have driven out on their Sunday, they would have been enjoying on the beach. They would have been sunbathing. People would have been and in the water as well as eating in the beach side cafes when these gunshots rang out. According to the Cote d'Ivoire government, six attackers killed in total. According to an eyewitness, the gunshots rang out steadily for about 15 minutes and people were running screaming down the beach. Screaming, "They're jihadists, they're jihadists."
Now we do know that the government has now basically cordoned off that area. They were searching for more gunmen last night, but to our knowledge have not found any.
Ivory Coast went through some election violence back in 2012, but has really been trying to improve its security situation there as this will have devastating consequences for the tourism industry there, particularly along the beach.
This beach popular with wealthy Ivoirians as well Westerners. So we do know that of the 16 people killed, four of those are Europeans, according to Reuters news agency. One of those is French. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an al Qaeda affiliate who are responsible for hotel attacks in Bamako and in Mali -- neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso have claimed responsibility for this attack -- John.
BERMAN: Our Robyn Kriel, watching the developments for us there. A scary weekend in Ivory Coast. Thanks, Robyn.
ROMANS: All right. 21 minutes past the hour this Monday morning. Storms turning deadly in the south. There's more severe weather on the way. We'll tell you about it next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:26:06] BERMAN: All right. The south battered by deadly storms and historic flooding. Bracing for more extreme weather now. This is a look at some of the damage suffered overnight in Little Rock, in Kansas. That state was hit by hail, severe winds and possibly a few tornados. A powerful storm system has claimed at least four lives including three in Louisiana which had been drenched by nearly two feet of rain.
ROMANS: All right. Time for an EARLY START on your money to start the week. The Dow was one solid gain away from breaking even for the year. After Friday's rally the blue chip down just 1.2 percent this year edging up from what was at one point a 10 percent loss.
Stocks relieved by rising oil prices, easing concerns about slowing growth in China and some upbeat economic news here. The S&P 500 still down about 1 percent. Nasdaq still down 5.1 percent for the year.
Here's where we stand right now. Futures are slightly lower. Oil is slipping as well. Stock markets in Europe as you can see moving higher and shares in Asia started the week with a rally.
BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight. The controversy over events at Donald Trump rallies. The violence on both sides taking over both sides of the race now.
We'll have the latest next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
