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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Violence Flares At Trump Rallies; RNC Reacts To Violence At Trump Rallies; Trump To Appear Before Pro-Israel Group; Priebus: "This Is A Delegate-Driven Process"; President Obama's Historic Trip To Cuba; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Taking Over 3 Cuban Hotels; Airbnb: 4,000 Cuban Rooms Ready; Salah Abdeslam Told Investigators He Planned To "Restart Something"; U.S. Marine Louis Cardin Killed In Rocket Attack In Iraq. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 21, 2016 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:31:00] MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours Donald Trump meets with top Republicans, ready to make the case he's their best candidate for president, while defending violence at his rallies. We're breaking it all down.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, President Obama in Cuba, the first time a sitting U.S. president has visited the country in 88 years -- a historic visit that's promising plenty of controversy.

MARQUEZ: And the captured Paris attacker now revealing more attacks were planned. What we're learning this morning.

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

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It's so nice to see you this morning.

MARQUEZ: Very good to see you.

ROMANS: Thirty-one minutes past the hour. Up first, mayhem at Donald Trump's rallies over the weekend. The Republican front-runner's campaign staff vowing to beef up security at future events after two more incidents of violence over the weekend.

Now, Trump also hopes to put out a few political fires today. He'll meet with two dozen influential Republican leaders in Washington, hoping to mend fences with the party establishment, and he'll speak to a pro-Israel group that's been anything but pro-Trump.

We get more this morning from CNN's Chris Frates.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Miguel and Christine. Later today, Donald Trump, who has been criticized for not being a big enough friend of Israel, will give a closely-watched speech on this Mideast policy to a pro-Israel group, AIPAC. And a number of rabbis and Jewish religious leaders are expected to protest that speech by walking out because they believe Trump is promoting hatred. Of course, Trump has dismissed similar charges in the past, and those

expected protests later today -- the come after a wild weekend that found Trump's campaign manager once again facing charges he manhandled someone at a Trump event and saw another protester sucker punched. Yesterday, Trump seemed to defend his campaign manager and credit his actions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because security at the arena, the police were a little bit lax and he had signs -- they had signs up in that area that were horrendous. I give him credit for having spirit. He wanted them to take down those horrible profanity- laced signs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: This is not the first time Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has come under fire. Earlier this month a reporter accused Lewandowski of grabbing her by the arm and yanking her backwards as she tried to ask Trump a question at a news conference. The reporter has filed a criminal complaint against Lewandowski. He has denied touching her at all and denies any of the charges.

Now, this has all caused Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, to weigh in on Sunday, saying he thinks law enforcement professionals, not campaign officials, should deal with protesters. And also this weekend, a man at Trump's Tucson rally sucker punched and kicked the protester being escorted out by security. That man was arrested for misdemeanor assault -- Miguel, Christine.

MARQUEZ: Thanks to Chris for that.

Let's go live to Washington and bring in Wall Street Journal White House Correspondent, Colleen McCain Nelson, up bright and early for us. Good morning.

COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON, "WALL STREET JOURNAL" WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

MARQUEZ: For me, it is all about the numbers here. Mr. Trump has said that well, maybe he'll make it, maybe he won't, but maybe he might, and he could, and possibly -- but the chairman of the RNC, Reince Priebus, who will be on "NEW DAY" today at 8:00, said this about the possibility of a brokered convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: The minority of delegates doesn't rule for the majority so this is a delegate- driven process. This is the first time in a long time people actually cared about delegate count, but delegates matter. And so the majority of voting delegates in our party choose the nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MARQUEZ: That sounds a lot like he saying there is going to be a contested convention.

NELSON: Well, these are really interesting comments from Reince Priebus because for a long time he was saying that a brokered convention -- a contested convention -- was kind of a far-fetched possibility. He didn't really want to engage on the subject. He said I think we'll have a nominee. And now, he's saying just the opposite and suggesting that a contested convention is a very real possibility.

[05:35:00] And, Donald Trump is hedging a little bit on whether he can get to the magic number, 1,237 delegates, and he's saying if I get close that should be good enough. I should get the nomination even if I don't hit the magic number. And it was interesting to hear Reince Priebus say no, the minority will not speak for the majority. You need to get the majority of delegates and otherwise you may not get the nomination.

And it's also worth noting he went on to say that he doesn't expect someone who's not running for president to end up getting the nomination. He said he thinks that, ultimately, the Republican nominee will either be Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or John Kasich. But, he didn't say well, if Donald Trump gets close that will be good enough. He should automatically be the nominee.

MARQUEZ: Boy, laying the groundwork -- amazing.

ROMANS: Oh, yes. Trump, today, is going to outline his Middle East policy to a pro-Israel group. He's also going to talk to Republican leaders, making his case for why he is their guy. All of this happening as over the weekend there were these incidents of violence again at a big Trump gathering. Protesters blocking a road to a big Trump rally. You had a sucker punch that was seen around the world, and Donald Trump says this about the violence at those events.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: These are professional agitators and I think that somebody should say that when a road is blocked going into the event so that people have to wait sometimes hours to get in --I think that's very fair and there should be blame there, too. When signs are put up -- lifted up with tremendous profanity on them -- I mean, the worst profanity -- and you have television cameras all over the place and people see these signs -- I think maybe those people have some blame and should suffer some blame, also.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So, you had one -- that guy in the white shirt right there was actually arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge for hitting a guy. Does this help or hurt Donald Trump here? I mean, there's so much energy in these events, quite frankly. It just seems that -- I don't know. Does it help him or hurt him?

NELSON: Well, that's a great question and any other candidate you would think that it would hurt them, but so far it has not stopped Donald Trump from winning primaries and caucuses. He continues to do well with his particular base. One could certainly question whether this will ultimately help him in the general election if he emerges as the Republican nominee.

But, he is sticking to his guns. He continues to refuse to condemn the actions of his supporters who have been violent. He continues to shift the blame and say well, the protesters are bad dudes and the protesters should be called out. He also talked this weekend about saying security was too lax. That was part of the problem.

But, even though he says he doesn't condone violence, he doesn't go so far as to condemn the people who have actually thrown the punches, kicked the protesters. He doesn't say what that guy did was wrong, and so --

ROMANS: He blames the media, and this weekend he did, too. He uses these as another reason to blame the media for not blaming the protesters -- instead, blaming the punch-throwers.

NELSON: Exactly. He says why isn't the media calling out those who protest? And so, he certainly is a fan of blaming the media and he continues to do that. And, as you saw, his campaign manager also was accused of laying hands on another protester. And even though there was video where it appeared pretty clear that his campaign manager grabbed a protester by the collar, Trump said that didn't happen. He said he admires his campaign manager's spirit.

MARQUEZ: So, against all of this backdrop, here's the anti- establishment candidate going before the Republican establishment today. What does he need to tell them?

NELSON: That's a great question. He definitely has a steep hill to climb with the Republican establishment. A lot of them still seem to be kind of in the denial phase of this even as he gets closer and closer to the nomination. Chris Christie came out and endorsed Donald Trump a couple of weeks ago, a few members of Congress have endorsed Donald Trump, but the rest of the Republican establishment certainly is not rallying to his cause.

In fact, they're doing the opposite. They're still making plans to try to figure out how they can stop him. They're making plans for Super PACs to spend millions of dollars to try to say, anybody but Trump. And so, at this point, he needs to do a lot of work to convince them that he would actually be a standard bearer for the Republican Party. That he would represent conservative values. At this point, Republican officials remain pretty dubious of that.

MARQUEZ: Colleen McCain Nelson, we expect you to be in that meeting listening in and then report back to us tomorrow. Thank you very, very much.

NELSON: Nice to see you.

MARQUEZ: Good to see you.

NELSON: Thank you. MARQUEZ: On the eve of tomorrow's western Tuesday races all five presidential hopefuls sit down with CNN's Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer. You can see the interviews tonight, 8:00 p.m. eastern, right here on CNN.

ROMANS: And Reince Priebus, I'm told, is going to be on "NEW DAY" this morning.

MARQUEZ: Eight o'clock hour, and John Kasich.

ROMANS: Oh, awesome.

MARQUEZ: It's going to be a great hour.

[05:40:00] ROMANS: OK, so a lot going on this morning. All right, history unfolding in Havana. President Obama going where no sitting president has gone for 88 years, arriving in Cuba's capital Sunday. The president's historic trip is the latest and most prominent sign of a new normal in relations between these two countries.

He'll meet with Cuba's president, who is expected to raise concerns about human rights in his speech to the Cuban people. Let's get more on the president's trip from CNN's Jim Acosta in Cuba.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, changes in the air here in Cuba as President Obama prepares to spend his first full day here on the island. Later today he will lay a wreath at the memorial remembering the Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti, and then later on in the day he'll hold a formal bilateral meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro.

As for last night, the president toured Old Havana with the first family and also stopped by the old cathedral in this city. That was after he talked to the embassy staff for the United States, here in Cuba, where he talked about the significance of this trip. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's been nearly 90 years since a U.S. president stepped foot in Cuba. It is wonderful to be here. Back in 1928, President Coolidge came on a battleship. It took him three days to get here. It only took me three hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Tomorrow, the president will give a speech to the Cuban people. The White House says the president will be talking about expanding human rights for Cuban people, talking about freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. And then, the president will wind down his trip with a baseball game between the Cuban National team and the Tampa Bay Rays -- Christine and Miguel.

ROMANS: All right, thanks for that Jim. A U.S. hotel chain will operate in Cuba for the first time in 60 years. Starwood Hotels and Resorts says it signed deals to take over three properties. It will renovate the Hotel Inglaterra -- turn another hotel into a budget- friendly Four Points location. Starwood will also take over the palatial Hotel Santa Isabel. It's popular among celebrities and has hosted former President Jimmy Carter.

Starwood operates a handful of brands including Sheraton, Westin, and W. Room rental service Airbnb, is also doing business in Cuba, tweeting overnight "4,000 Cuban hosts are opening their doors to the world," after it received special approval from the Obama administration. Now, it is still technically illegal for U.S. citizens to visit Cuba, but flights from major airlines are starting soon and it's becoming easier to travel there. There are fewer and fewer restrictions on Americans traveling there.

MARQUEZ: I just want to stay in an Airbnb in Cuba.

ROMANS: I know, wouldn't that be cool?

MARQUEZ: It would be cool. It would be an adventure, I think.

ROMANS: It would be cool. So, anyway -- the Chinese were doing a lot of investment in Cuba, so the U.S. is kind of playing second fiddle there.

MARQUEZ: Yes, its own back yard.

ROMANS: The captured Paris terror suspect revealing more attacks were in the pipeline. That's not all we're learning new this morning. We've got that next.

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[07:47:00] MARQUEZ: Authorities in Belgium say Salah Abdeslam, the lone surviving suspect in the Paris massacre, is talking to investigators and was apparently planning a new attack before he was captured last week. Officials are taking the claim of a new attack very seriously. They say a cache of heavy weapons was found leading up to Abdeslam's arrest.

CNN's Nima Elbagir is following developments. She is in Belgium live and Nima, I understand you have some breaking news on the investigation.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, authorities here have now released the identity of a man they believe to be a key conspirator in the Paris attacks. We knew him only by his alias, Soufiane Kayal. At the time, counterterror officials here told CNN that cell phone intercepts had him giving the instructions to Abaaoud, the Paris attack ringleader.

They've now identified him as (INAUDIBLE) and have released his identity because as they are intensifying their manhunt for this conspirator, they're asking the Belgian public to help them. This, of course, against that backdrop of revelations that you just described about a new and broader network created around Salah Abdeslam potentially to launch new attacks here in Brussels. This really is a race against time for authorities here, Miguel, as they pursue the remaining conspirators and ward off fears of a new attack.

MARQUEZ: Amazing that the Belgian authorities were not able to find him very quickly. I would hope they are all over that neighborhood and all over that town at this point.

ELBAGIR: This really has been one of the criticisms of the Belgian authorities -- that they repeatedly have failed to get penetration into these communities, and specifically into the Molenbeek, which was the site of that first raid, you remember, right after the Paris attacks. For him to be found just a street away from his childhood home gives you a real sense of really how little in the way of human intelligence the authorities have had for far too long here.

But with this new name that's being released into the public domain, they're clearly trying to amass as much public support for this broader (ph) fight as possible to really fend off potential incidences like Abdeslam in the future where the community around them isn't giving up the information that's needed -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Nima Elbagir for us in Belgium. Excellent reporting, as always. Thank you.

ROMANS: All right, let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Chris Cuomo joins us now from Havana, Cuba. Good morning.

MARQUEZ: Lucky guy, Chris Cuomo. I'm sorry, are we interrupting you there?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Not at all. I'm actually getting the newspapers ready for you guys because as we all know we've been covering Cuba for a long time, right? Every journalist in this business is able to say that -- at least in this generation and the generation before us. These are the state-run newspapers, OK? It's not like the media in the United States. No surprise there.

[07:50:00] But, here is the surprise. You're going to hear dates. Not in 88 years, not since 1928, not since Calvin Coolidge has a U.S. president been on Cuban soil. That's all a distraction. The word is never. This was never supposed to happen. This is part of fueling the power of the revolution -- what the revolution was about. The evil imperialist United States government.

And now, on the cover of the government newspaper, President Barack Obama in Havana, and not here to plunder or drive a stake through the heart of the revolution. This was never supposed to happen. You cannot exaggerate the impact on the Cuban people. And one of the interesting things yesterday was yes, it was rainy and windy here when he arrived, but the streets weren't that full.

And there are two good reasons for that. They didn't spread the word that Obama was coming here like when the Pope came and people knew for weeks to get ready, and there was some discouragement of people coming in here. So, we're going to give you the whole context this morning. This history that was made with President Obama coming here and the plus and minus on that. It was an unpopular mission back home in the United States. It was not met with the fanfare here that some expected. What progress can be made? We'll take you through all the different channels, but certainly it's exciting to be here on a day that many thought would never have come.

ROMANS: Never, never.

MARQUEZ: Fascinating. Fascinating trip.

ROMANS: All right, thanks, Chris.

MARQUEZ: Thanks, Chris.

ROMANS: All right, the Dow Jones industrial average on a 6-day winning streak. Will we make it seven? We'll get an EARLY START on your money, next.

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[05:56:00] MARQUEZ: The Pentagon has identified the U.S. Marine who was killed by an ISIS rocket attack this weekend in Iraq. Officials say 27-year-old Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin from Temecula, California, died when a coalition base in Northern Iraq came under fire from ISIS.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is live in Amman, Jordan. Jomana, what do we know about this base where this Marine was killed?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miguel, on Saturday two rockets fired by ISIS targeted this base near the town of Makhmur in northern Iraq. That's south of the city of Mosul, as you mentioned, killing one Marine and wounding several others.

Now, the U.S. hadn't made any official announcements about the existence of this so-called firebase. These are bases that are usually set up in remote locations providing artillery cover and support for infantry troops.

But, U.S. defense officials are telling CNN now that in the past couple of weeks about 200 Marines set up this firebase in Northern Iraq with two main missions. One, to provide artillery cover and support for a nearby coalition base where about 5,000 Iraqi forces are being trained for that eventual operation to try and retake the city of Mosul. And they are also there to provide cover for when Iraqi forces make their advance towards the city of Mosul.

Now, according to defense officials, they believe the assumption here is that in the past few days, as these Marines set up the camp -- when the base went into operation in the last few days, they were firing some practice rounds and this is possibly how ISIS figured out that U.S. forces were in the area and targeted the base, really underscoring the dangers facing U.S. forces even in that limited combat role -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Wow, really interesting, and it sounds like that effort to retake Mosul is coming soon. Jomana Karadsheh in Amman, Jordan for us. Thank you.

ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning, 57 minutes past the hour. Stock futures point lower right now. The Dow, though, riding a 6-day winning streak. Oil probably behind the softness this morning, and futures is back below $39 a barrel. Stock markets in Europe trading mixed. Stock in Shanghai finished with a solid gain.

The S&P 500 starts today with gains for the year, finally. The Dow is now up 1 percent for 2016. The S&P 500 turned positive on Friday. NASDAQ still down 4 percent. Here's what the recovery in the S&P 500 looks like. The top performing sectors -- telecommunications, utilities, energy, and industrials. Look at the telecom and utilities. Those are huge returns. Utilities, historically, a safe place for investors. Energy's rebound impressive. That sector, of course, suffered deep losses to start the year as oil crashed.

Of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones industrial average, 17 are now higher. Here are the biggest gainers in the Dow this year. Verizon up 16 percent, Caterpillar rising 11 percent, 3M gaining almost 10 percent, Walmart up 9.2 percent so far this year.

MARQUEZ: Wow.

ROMANS: I know.

MARQUEZ: It's up. Up, up, up.

ROMANS: I know -- for now.

MARQUEZ: Donald Trump for now. Donald Trump trying to smooth things over with the Republican establishment as more violence erupts at his weekend rallies. "NEW DAY" starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We don't condone violence.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are better in America when we're together.

TRUMP: Security at the arena -- the police were a little bit lax.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump continues that pattern of spreading hatred.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do not believe that real change is going to come from a candidate like Sec. Clinton.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For all of our challenges, I've never had more faith in our future.

OBAMA: For the first time ever, Air Force One has landed in Cuba.

CUOMO: They are all talking about change. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's way past time for us to be here in Cuba and be friends.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The dramatic capture of the so-called eighth Paris attacker.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 26-year-old was captured after a gunfight with Belgian authorities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were more attacks about to be launched.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your nuevo dia, new day here in Havana, Cuba. It's Monday, March 21st, 6:00 in the east. I'm Chris Cuomo live in Havana, where history is unfolding before our eyes.