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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Terror Arrests Across Europe; Pakistan Blast Kills At Least 69; Syria Retakes Palmyra; Trump Denies Planting Cruz Story; Syracuse Headed To Final Four After Beating Virginia. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 28, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:03] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I will tell you conservative groups are inundating the governor's office saying sign it. These big companies who have been wooed by Georgia to come and do business, the Hollywood of the south are saying don't sign it. A lot of pressure on the governor.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: We'll see if the governor reacts to that.

All right, EARLY START continues now.

(HEADLINES)

KOSIK: Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.

ROMANS: Nice to see you. I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, March 28th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the east. This morning, new terror arrests across Europe, many of them connected to the Brussels and Paris attacks. Suggesting the ISIS terror network is much bigger and more widespread and in more cities than we knew.

The manhunt expanding for two Brussels bombing suspects still on the run and tension rising in Belgium. Far right protesters storming the memorial site for the Brussels victims and clashing with riot police who pushed them back with water cannons.

We are learning more about the four Americans killed in the Brussels attacks including Justin and Stephanie Shults. Their families received condolence calls from President Obama on Sunday.

CNN's Michael Holmes is in Brussels for us with the very latest on the investigation and who was arrested where and what led authorities to them. Bring us up to speed, Michael.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I will by bringing you some new information that we just gotten, Christine. Authorities have raised the death toll now from 31 to 34. We understand that does include the three suicide bombers we know about.

The death toll was 28 plus the three suicide bombers. Now it is 31 plus the three suicide bombers. New information there. You mentioned the raids. There have been many of them over the last 24 hours, 13 in Brussels alone on Sunday.

More people taken into custody as part of the investigation into the attacks. We know after a tip-off from French investigators, a 32- year-old French citizen was arrested in the Netherlands on Sunday.

That arrest tied to the arrest of another man picked up last week who was described as being in the advance stages of planning a terror attack on French soil.

We also saw that Algerian picked in Italy over the weekend accused of making false documents. This all points to the breadth and complexity of the web of ISIS operatives or sympathizers.

Now we saw those ugly scenes in the square behind me, the Place De La Borst. The memorial site. This group marching and chanting things like "this is our home" as they confronted women in head scarves.

We saw some Nazi salutes there. It's fair to say that most of them were pretty much soccer hooligans or skinheads. Riot police did break it up, a water cannon used at one point.

As I say, skinheads, troublemakers, but emblematic of what we have seen throughout parts of Europe and that is the growing right wing.

Having success politically it must be said in many countries and supported by those who are opposing sometimes fiercely, the migrant and refugee populations in their own communities. Let's remember, we did see similar protests after the Paris attacks last year -- Christine.

ROMANS: Yes, we did. An ugly turn, no question. Michael Holmes, thank you for that. And again, the death toll revised higher.

CNN takes you inside the inner circle Paris attacks suspect, Salah Abdeslam and his suicide bomber brother, Ibrahim. New video showing them partying at a Brussels nightclub months before the attack. What their friends are telling CNN, we have that for you at 5:30 Eastern Time.

KOSIK: A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban claiming responsibility for a suicide blast that killed at least 69 people, many of them women and children. A spokesman for the group says it intentionally targeted Christians in a park in the city of Lahore gathered to celebrate Easter.

Let's bring in CNN's Ravi Agrawal for the latest live for us from New Delhi. What can you tell us more about this attack?

RAVI AGRAWAL, CNN INDIA BUREAU CHIEF: The attack took place on Sunday evening in a park in Lahore in Pakistan. This happened at 6:45 p.m. A lot of people were hanging out there for Easter Sunday celebrations. We expect that a lot of people at the park were Christians.

[05:05:07]But perhaps worst of all was the fact that there was a playground right nearby and amusement parks. Many of the people who were killed were actually young children and women were killed.

Lahore and Pakistanis waking up this morning and grieving as they realize the scale and scope of this attack, and the cost that they are having to look at now. The claimants of the responsibility so far are a splinter group called the (inaudible) and this group splintered away from the Pakistani Taliban about two years ago. They're seen as extremist group that does not flinch to attack minorities or flinch the attacking women and children.

It is openly declared that its target was Christians and the government today on Monday has said that it is doing everything it can to combat this group. It has already run operations in five different Pakistani cities. Pakistanis will be looking for more in the hours ahead.

KOSIK: What a horrific attack on such a holy holiday. Ravi Agrawal reporting live from New Delhi, thanks.

ROMANS: The ancient city of Palmyra is back under control of the Syrian government. ISIS occupied Palmyra and the priceless ruins for most of the past year, but now government troops say the extremists have been driven out. A strategic triumph for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

CNN's Arwa Damon tracking the very latest developments for us on this story live from Istanbul. It is the testament to the fire power, the air power of the Russians as well helping Bashar al-Assad here.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It really is, Christine. In the advance of all of this, Russian air strikes reportedly up in the hundreds which then allowed for regime forces along with any number of militias that fight alongside them to get into Palmyra.

Not much in terms of an actual confrontation when it comes to fighting that took place with ISIS, although some battles did emerge. But all in all, a fairly easy and relatively easy victory for the Syrian government.

One that President Bashar al-Assad is using to make a very clear point. That is that his and the Russian strategy is one that is clearly proving to be working, especially when compared to that of the U.S. and the coalition that it does lead.

Palmyra, one of the country's most historic cities along with, of course, the UNESCO declared ruins that are nearby it. They damaged by ISIS. That reportedly bombed a number of temples as well as shrines and other areas they occupied.

In the initial days, ISIS took over, beheading an elderly gentleman, one of the leading archaeologist experts on the site. This is not just a strategic victory, but a highly symbolic one for the regime as well.

ROMANS: All right, Arwa Damon, thank you for that for us this morning from Istanbul. Thanks.

KOSIK: Republican presidential frontrunners blaming each other for a nasty tabloid story. The race getting even dirtier next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:12:26]

ROMANS: All right, the feud between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz more personal than ever this morning. On top of the candidates' wives being dragged into this fight, Cruz is now blaming Trump for planting an ugly supermarket tabloid story about him. Trump denying that claim, but adding he has no idea whether the story about Cruz is true or not.

Joining us to break down the mud fight and all the political action over the weekend, senior digital politics correspondent, Chris Moody. Good morning, Chris.

You know, just really eke and ugly and muddy and bad. It seems to be dominating the Republican side of the field over the weekend. Let's listen to Donald Trump talking about the tabloid story and then Ted Cruz's reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): I don't care. The "National Enquirer" did a story. It was their story. It wasn't my story. It was about Ted Cruz. I have no idea whether it was right or not. They actually have a very good record of being right. I have absolutely no idea. Frankly, I said I hope it's not right.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He hasn't campaigned for a week. He's been hiding in Trump Tower. But late at night, he sends tweets attacking my wife, attacking Heidi. It is inappropriate. It is wrong. It is frankly disgusting to see a candidate attacking the spouse of another. It is a sign of just how scared Donald is right now because he doesn't want to discuss the substance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Is there an off-ramp from the scandal that we can start talking about policy or is this going to consume the oxygen on the Republican side here for the next day or two?

CHRIS MOODY, CNN SENIOR DIGITAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: One consistent theme about this campaign is when you thought it could not get dirtier, it gets a lot muddier real fast. If you listen to what Donald Trump said, he is an expert in talking out of two sides of his mouth.

On one hand he says, I hope it's not true, but then winks and nods, says, he might be true. Also Donald Trump's ally, who is not officially with the campaign, but his ally, Roger Stone, was quoted by name in that "National Inquirer" story, the hit job against Ted Cruz.

Now I don't know how you take something like that and turn it into policy debate, but obviously hopefully it shifts toward that way next week as the candidates head and focus to Wisconsin. But you know, this all started, I guess you could say, a couple weeks ago when there was a super PAC ad in Utah that showed a nude photo of Donald Trump's wife several years ago when she was a model before they were married.

And then Donald Trump responded by tweeting a side by side photo of his wife and Ted Cruz's wife, and it just got uglier and uglier from there. Hopefully, we can find that on-ramp. It doesn't look like Donald Trump has done talking about that Ted Cruz story.

[05:15:03]We saw his campaign folks tweeting about it over the weekend and trying to suggest that Ted Cruz was lying. It is not necessarily going to get much better if you are looking for a clean policy debate.

KOSIK: All right, Chris, let's go back to that calendar of what's to come and we know that Bernie Sanders had a huge weekend, really gained a lot of momentum. But then there's reality of the math, the math doesn't lie. Is Bernie Sanders expected to really carry this through to the convention?

MOODY: Bernie Sanders had probably the best night of his entire campaign on Saturday. He won those Pacific Northwest states and Hawaii. It wasn't just that he won, it was by the margin of which he won, by scores and scores of percentages ahead of Hillary Clinton.

Really sending a message to the Clinton campaign that there are people in the Democratic Party, lots of people that are eager to get out and vote that are liberal. That espoused what Sanders believes is further left than Hillary Clinton often is likely to go.

You raise a good point. Can he pull this off nationally? That's where it gets a little more difficult. We head into Wisconsin. That's going to be a huge battle ground for the Republicans and the Democrats.

Bernie sanders is looking to take that huge massive lead he had over the weekend and turn it into momentum and make the argument saying I'm coming up. This is really the momentum. He is going to really try to pull away super delegates.

There is more than 400 of them who are for Hillary Clinton. He will have to repeat what he did on the weekend in the next contest.

Now unfortunately for Bernie Sanders, after Wisconsin, we are heading further east into real Hillary Clinton territory. We're talking New York. Bernie Sanders is originally from New York, but it's her adopted state. She should be very strong there.

Pennsylvania, Maryland, hundreds of delegates at stake there. That's where Hillary Clinton will need to shut this thing down if she is going to. But that's also where Bernie Sanders, if he beats her in New York, can make a real case that he's hot on her heels.

KOSIK: Yes, it's going to be questionable whether he can keep that momentum with that kind of pressure. All right, Chris Moody, we are going to come back to you a little later in the show to talk about more politics.

On Tuesday night, the final three Republican candidates will be in Milwaukee for a CNN town hall moderated by Anderson Cooper. That's live at 8:00 p.m. Eastern only right here on CNN.

ROMANS: It's 17 minutes past the hour. Perfect time for an EARLY START on your money this Monday morning. Dow futures checking they are higher. It's a long holiday weekend, a three-day weekend. Oil is up as well.

Stock markets in Asia mixed. Markets in Europe are closed for the Easter holiday. There is no way to predict where the stock market will go over the next four years, but investors think Hillary Clinton would be better for stocks than Donald Trump.

The 25 percent say Clinton would be best for their investments. This is according to a brand new survey by TD Ameritrade, 20 percent say Trump, 19 percent don't know which potential nominee will be best for stocks. The rest were split between all the other candidates.

Experts say Clinton may have the edge because she is more predictable compared with the uncertainty that could come with a Trump presidency. Think trade war with China.

Historically, Democrats have been better for the stock market performance, by the way, but experts say that is more about luck than better policies.

The S&P 500 has gained an average of 9.7 percent annually under Democrats since 1945 compared with 6.7 percent under Republican presidents.

KOSIK: Four teams left in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. Only one top seed advancing to the final four with the tenth seed making it for the first time ever. Coy Wire with this morning's "Bleacher Report." That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:12]

KOSIK: OK. College basketball's final four is set.

ROMANS: Coy Wire has more on who is heading to Houston in this morning's "Bleacher Report." Good morning, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Good morning, Christine and Alison. Just three games remaining in the college basketball season. If those games are anything like last night's games, we're in for quite a treat.

Syracuse looked like they were down and out against number one seed Virginia. London Perrantes nailed five three-pointers in the first half and Syracuse was down by 16 points at one point.

In the second half, on Easter Sunday, they resurrected themselves. Syracuse turned up the heat defensively in the second half. They put Virginia in the pressure cooker situation and it worked.

Virginia had six turnovers in the second half. Syracuse had none. The Orange turning the turnovers into points. Syracuse's Malachi Richardson led the way with 23. Orange outscored UVA 29 to 8 over the last 9.5 minutes to get the win, 68-62. Syracuse now the first ten seed to make the final four.

They are going to take on North Carolina. The Tar Heels were trading three-pointers with Notre Dame in the first half game last night. They would eventually come back and win this one, 88-74, led by senior Brice Johnson. He had a huge game, 25 points and 12 rebounds.

UNC heads to the final four for a NCAA-record 19th time. You can catch all of this action Saturday night on our sister channel, TBS. The first national semifinal is going to be Villanova and Oklahoma. A pair of two seeds who knocked off number ones to get there.

Then in the late game, ACC rematch of ten seeder Syracuse against North Carolina. These winners are going to play for all the marbles on Monday night April 4th on TBS.

[05:25:04] We will take a look at the CNN anchor bracket challenge. Mr. Andy Scholes leading the way. Christine, you don't want to see that. Neither do I, my goodness, we're hurting down there, Christine.

KOSIK: That's the reason I didn't fill out a bracket. I didn't want the humiliation. Sorry, Christine.

WIRE: I think you are the true winner in all of this, Alison. Don't fill it out. I'll follow your lead next year. This hurt being the sports dude and I'm all the way at the bottom.

ROMANS: But you and Berman actually know -- I guess that's good for me because you and Berman actually know what you're talking about. We're right there together.

WIRE: That's right. I'm glad I'm here for you, Christine.

ROMANS: Thanks, Coy.

All right, 25 minutes past the hour. Arrests across four countries in Europe as the terror network widens. Could it be much larger than previously known? We have that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Terror crackdown across Europe. New raids, new arrests linked to the Brussels attack.