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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Rally Violence Controversy; Clinton and Sanders Face Voters at Ohio Town Hall; Turkey Rocked by Deadly Car Bomb Blast; Ivory Coast Terror Attack. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired March 14, 2016 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:31:24] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, Donald Trump blasted overnight by both Democrats and Republicans over the tone, the tenor at his rallies, the violence there, and his response to the whole thing. Donald Trump, he blames the protesters. We talked to one who was arrested.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders with tough new criticism of Donald Trump on the CNN town hall stage last night. What voters wanted to hear from the Democrats running for president.
BERMAN: Dozens killed in separate terror attacks from a major city bombing to an attack on Western hotels. We have live team coverage ahead.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It's Monday morning. Happy Monday. A very good weekend. 32 minutes past the hour.
The race for president frankly at a boiling point over -- with the controversy over violence at Donald Trump rallies overwhelming both sides of this race.
Breaking overnight, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders 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 -- watch it there -- sucker punched a protester, and he's now explaining why he canceled a Chicago rally amid clashes between pro and anti-Trump groups. Now Trump is blaming Bernie Sanders and Sanders' supporters for the chaos there. Both Hillary Clinton and Sanders 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)
ROMANS: Overnight Donald Trump defended his campaign and his rhetoric at a rally in Florida. He now holds a comfortable lead in the state, 21 points, 21 points ahead of Marco Rubio in the latest "Wall Street Journal" poll.
CNN's Sara Murray was at Trump's late night rally. She's got more for us this morning.
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.
[04:35:02] 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.
BERMAN: All right, Sara. Thank you so much. 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.
I got to say, this is really frightening, when a major presidential candidate gets rushed on the stage on either side of the race.
Twenty-two-year-old DiMassimo was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, and inducing panic in the crowd. Now he tells CNN that he wasn't aiming to attack Trump. He just wanted to send a message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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)
BERMAN: Again, you've got to remember that presidential candidates have been shot at and assassinated, you know, before --
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: You have Robert Kennedy, you have George Wallace. It's a serious matter when people jumped on the stage.
ROMANS: There are a lot of people criticizing him this morning because he talked very specifically about how he watched the Secret Service agents and waited to see how they were looking away and found his moment to jump up there. And, you know, Secret Service has a very tough job, especially we're talking about thousands of people in an airport hangar. So that protester getting a lot of criticism this morning from Trump supporters and others who say, OK, now just jumping on the stage probably is not going to advance the cause of civility.
BERMAN: Whish is a separate issue than the tone that Donald Trump has set in his rallies.
ROMANS: Totally separate.
BERMAN: I mean, Donald Trump has said what he said. It's a different issue.
ROMANS: Yes. Absolutely.
All right. Donald Trump's Republican rivals are also blasting Trump for appearing to condone violence at his rallies. Listen.
(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)
ROMANS: The big show is tomorrow. The candidates have a busy day ahead. Trump makes stops in North Carolina, Ohio and Florida today. Rubio putting all of his eggs in one basket, campaigning in his home state of Florida. Ted Cruz will stump in Illinois and Missouri on the eve of Super Tuesday part three and Kasich will be in Ohio joined by Mitt Romney. A new "Wall Street Journal"-NBC News poll has him six points ahead of Donald Trump in his home state.
BERMAN: Yes. Mitt Romney campaigning with John Kasich. That is an interesting thing. Mitt Romney said he'd campaign with anyone who's not Donald Trump. John Kasich does seem to have the best shot right now with taking out Donald Trump at least in one of the states that votes tomorrow, leading Trump in the polls in Ohio.
All right. You saw the Democratic town hall on CNN last night. Donald Trump very much a focus of that event.
Let's bring in CNN Politics Eric Bradner right now to talk about what happened there.
Eric, you know, we saw Bernie Sanders call Donald Trump a pathological liar. We saw Hillary Clinton say Donald Trump was a political arsonist for what he's been saying on the campaign trail. But they also both went after him on substance as well.
Listen to what Bernie Sanders had to say about where Donald Trump stands on some of the issues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: This is a guy who is a billionaire, but doesn't think we should raise the minimum wage above $7.25 an hour. This is a guy who goes on the Republican TV debate and says wages in America are too low. Tell that to the people in Ohio. Their wages are too low.
[04:40:04] This is a guy who believes in defiance of all science that climate change is a hoax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Bernie Sanders supporters, some of them, and Donald Trump supporters, many of them, they have this overlap in where they think that the American middle class has been gutted out by trade policies and globalization, and the American worker has got -- has received the raw end of the deal on that.
Now Bernie Sanders, Eric, trying to fine tune that, saying wait a minute, this guy, my opponent is not -- he's not good for American workers.
ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS DIGITAL REPORTER: That's right. Bernie Sanders has really never liked this idea that populists -- supporters of him and supporters of Donald Trump have a little bit in common, especially on the trade issue. He is very resistant to that. And so he's laying out this series of issues on which both he and frankly Hillary Clinton think Democrats have an advantage. They think that the majority of the electorate is with them on these issues.
Hillary Clinton is making it a bit more personal. She is talking about how, you know, people she worked with when she was a diplomat are calling her and asking -- thinking to supporter her over Donald Trump. She is talking about how she suffered the slings and arrows from Republicans for 25 years. But Sanders is focusing on policy. He is saying that he would more effectively highlight all of these positions Trump has taken with the idea being they would prove to be unpopular in a general election even if they're popular in a Republican primary.
BERMAN: Again, you know, we've been talking a lot about the violence on the campaign trail. To a certain extent, that overshadowed the event. Both candidates talked about that. But there were also some other very powerful moments. Hillary Clinton faced a question from a man who spent 39 years in prison for a crime he did commit and was asked flat-out --
ROMANS: On death row.
BERMAN: Yes. On death row. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excuse me. I'm sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK, brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I came perilously close to my own execution. I would like to know how can you still take your stance on the death penalty.
CLINTON: At this point, given the challenges we face from terrorist activities, primarily in our country, that end up under federal jurisdiction, for very limited purposes, I think it can still be held in reserve for those.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: But she did go on to say that at the state level, she wouldn't mind if, you know, the states did away with the death penalty.
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: Or the courts did away with death penalty at the state level. But more than anything this just shows why these town halls are valuable. You see these moments you won't otherwise see and you see genuine interaction between voters and the candidates. And you see the candidates think. You know, you often don't necessarily see the wheels turn in their heads.
BRADNER: Yes. Absolutely. I mean, we all get sort of tired of this endless campaign, right, that goes on for two years. It's like event after event after event, debate after debate. But these really truly human moments that we see in these town halls, I think really show the value of them. Show that, you know, in these forums, people really can connect with the candidates. And it was fascinating to see Hillary Clinton sort of thinking through her answer on that. This seems to be an issue where she truly has spent a lot of time thinking about it and evolving.
You know, I remember earlier town halls, some of the off-the-wall questions that got thrown her way provided some of the most insightful answers. So yes, we always look for these truly unexpected moments with voters. Genuine moments. Things that sort of knock candidates off their talking points and really stop you.
And I was in -- I was in the hall last night. And I'm telling you, you could hear a pin drop while that man was asking his question.
ROMANS: It's so interesting. I mean, you have to define themselves vis-a-vis each other and then there -- you've got the big elephant in the room which is these Donald Trump this weekend that has so much violence and so much controversy. Just a fascinating, fascinating moment in the political calendar. No question.
Eric Bradner, thank you for that this morning. Live from Columbus, Ohio.
Let's talk more about the trade part of this last night. Bernie Sanders slamming trade agreements at CNN's Democratic town hall last night. He says they are hurting the nation's manufacturing sector.
You know, technology, consumer voracious demand for cheap stuff also contributing here but Sanders was spot on with his numbers when he said the U.S. has lost 60,000 factories since 2001. There were more than 352,000 manufacturing establishments back in 2001. They employed 16 million people. By the year 2013, that figure had dropped to 292,000 and just 11.3 million people working at those companies. Now trade, one of the hottest issues on the campaign trail. Donald
Trump bringing up similar arguments on the Republican side. And as you know, exit polls in primary states show their claims are resonating with voters.
[04:45:03] You know, the manufacturing situation is complicated than just bad trade deals. I would say, John, and I've been saying this all weekend that globalization was happening with or without free trade deals. I mean, you talk to people who've been working on those free trade deals. They'll say this is sort of like the rules of the road to survive globalization. But on the campaign trail, no one wants to hear that. They want to hear that trade deals are bad and your candidate is going to fix them. Unbelievable.
BERMAN: Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, North Carolina.
ROMANS: Big deal.
BERMAN: All states with big manufacturing base or used to have a big manufacturing base. And all states will vote tomorrow. So it'll be interesting to see.
ROMANS: Yes.
BERMAN: According to the hour right now, two deadly terror attacks less than 24 hours. Dozens dead. More than 100 injured in a major city bombing. This is al Qaeda affiliated gunmen who target hotels filled with Westerners. We have live team coverage ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Turkish authorities are saying it is too early to discuss who is responsible for a deadly car bomb that killed at least 37 people and injured dozens more last night.
[04:50:08] The blast ripped through a busy square in the capital Ankara. The attackers targeted a transportation hub with bus stops and a metro transportation. Scores of police, firefighters and emergency personnel, they rushed to the scene.
Let's get the very latest from CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon live this morning in Ankara. Good morning, Arwa.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. You can see the police cordoned behind us as well as that sheet that has been pulled across the boulevard. Now yes, this area was a transportation hub. Very crowded at the time of the attack at 6:45 in the evening but this is also one of the capital's main thoroughfare. It's a very popular boulevard. The kind that you come to just walk around and go shopping, window shopping, goes sit at one of the many outdoor open air restaurants and cafes that exist here.
According to authorities, the attacker or attackers drove a vehicle laden with explosives and then detonated it very close to the bus stop. The images that have come out show the skeleton of a bus remaining as well as fairly extensive damage done to vehicles. At least 37 people dead. Among them, according to government authorities, one or two of the attackers. 125 wounded. 19 of them in critical condition.
This is yet another attack that has really shaken Turkey to its core underscoring how vulnerable the country and the population is at this stage. The government saying that they do believe a terrorist organization is behind this. Not disclosing who until they have completed their investigation -- John.
BERMAN: All right. Arwa, a scary scene this weekend. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. This morning the president of Ivory Coast is appealing for calm after a terrorist attack Sunday left 16 people dead. Authorities say gunmen opened fire at three separate beach resort hotels near the capital. The African affiliated al Qaeda claiming responsibility.
CNN's Robyn Kriel is following developments for us. She is live in Nairobi, Kenya for us this morning.
Robyn, what do we know.
ROBYN KRIEL, CNN AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: Well, this isn't the first of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in West Africa's attack of this nature, Christine. They have also launched attacks against soft targets, hotels specifically, Bamako, Mali in November last year killing dozens of people including Westerners and in Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, in January of this year, also a hotel and a cafe popular with Westerners, killing a number of people.
So this really the third high profile attack in about five months from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. And analysts saying that this is due to the fact that they're trying to compete with ISIS on some levels, trying to compete in terms of publicity as well as operational capacity, but also just goes to show the porousness of some of these borders that allow these groups most of which sprung up from the fighting in Mali really in the last few years and they are able to move to areas considered much safer.
Burkina Faro never really seeing a terrorist attack like this and of course Cote d'Ivoire that has -- although it had some election violence in 2012, never really seen an attack like this either. It did occur -- as you said, it killed 16 people, 14 civilians and two soldiers, those six terrorists according to the Ivorian government neutralized. And we have a correspondent who is on his way there to bring us up-to-date reports very shortly.
ROMANS: All right. Robyn Kriel, thanks for keeping on top of it for us. Robyn, this morning for us from Nairobi, Kenya.
All right. The Dow, Dow Jones Industrial Average just one rally from turning positive for the year. Will it happen today?
BERMAN: I'd love that. That would be great. I'd say yes.
ROMANS: We'll get an EARLY START on your money next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:52:59] ROMANS: All right. Let's get an EARLY START on your money this Monday morning. Stock futures down slightly this morning. Oil is to blame. It's falling. Stock markets in Europe are higher. Asia finished with a strong rally overnight.
Now the Dow is just 1.2 percent away from breaking even for the -- that's not a bad loss for the year.
BERMAN: Not bad.
ROMANS: Just forget February. It's gained an incredible 1500 points in the past four weeks. Imagine out of 1500-point rally. The S&P 500 is 1 percent away from break even. Nasdaq got more work to do. It's down more than 5 percent this year.
All right. In last night's CNN's Democratic town hall, Bernie Sanders claimed the U.S. has the worst distribution of wealth of any major country on earth. We crunched those numbers. We want to tell you that is true. The richest 10 percent of Americans controlled 75 percent of the nation's wealth in 2014. The only other country that comes close is Switzerland where the top 10 percent owned 71 percent of the wealth. Sweden and Denmark, interestingly further behind about 60 percent there.
BERMAN: A lot of Legos.
ROMANS: The average among developed nations is around 50 percent. Don't bring Legos into it.
Hillary Clinton also brought some facts to the town hall last night. I want to look at that those for you. She says poverty fell drastically under her husband's presidency. We crunched those numbers. The percentage of Americans in poverty rose to 15.1 percent by the time George H.W. Bush left office in 1993. During Bill Clinton's two terms, it dropped to 11.3 percent. The poverty rate. The lowest rate since the '70s. That figure then rose again under George W. Bush and then under President Obama, look, it hasn't fared much better, climbing to 14.8 percent.
Now Clinton says that's because the previous Bush administration left President Obama with the worst financial crisis since the Great Recession.
I'll tell you they always fight about these poverty statistics. Who's at fault for them. But at least on those raw numbers there, that is true. 14.8 percent poverty rate.
BERMAN: All right. EARLY START continues right now.
Huge new controversy on the campaign trail. Donald Trump accused of inciting violence at his campaign rallies. He says you know it's not me, it's you.
