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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

CNN Republican Town Hall in Wisconsin; Trump Defends Campaign Manager Arrested for Battery; Scaling Back U.S. Commitment to NATO; Brussels Death Toll Now 32; High Profile SCOTUS Rulings Expected; Janet Yellen's Speech Turns Stocks Around. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 30, 2016 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00] ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Alison Kosik. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Breaking overnight, the three remaining Republican candidates taking the CNN town hall stage in Wisconsin, the state that holds the next presidential primary on Tuesday.

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich taking questions from voters on topics ranging from terrorism to jobs. Front-runner Trump defending his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who was arrested and charged with simple battery after roughly grabbing the arm of a reporter. Trump says he won't fire Lewandowski and he even mocked the reporter, Michelle Fields.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It would be so easy for me to terminate this man, ruin his life, ruin his family -- he's got four beautiful children in New Hampshire -- ruin his whole everything and say you're fired, OK? I've fired many people, especially on "THE APPRENTICE", but look what she says -- Michelle Fields -- and who, by the way -- she's not a baby, OK? In her own words exactly, "I was jolted backwards." Well, she wasn't. I mean, she's standing there. "Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm" -- tightly -- "and yanked me down." She wasn't yanked down. She was like -- she didn't even have any expression.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Interesting to see him using notes. This is a guy that rarely uses a teleprompter but felt like he had to have notes on that subject. Trump also walking away from his pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee, repeating that he's been treated very unfairly by the Republican Party. In fact, all three candidates -- all three of them stepping back from the pledge. Cruz refusing to say he'd back Donald Trump if he becomes the nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

sen. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and attacks my family. I think that is going beyond the line. I think our wives, I think our kids should be off limits. They don't belong in the attack. Donald is not going to be the GOP nominee. We're going to be it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Trump and Cruz both challenged on their rhetoric in the so- called war of wives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I didn't start it. I didn't start it.

ANDERSON COOPER, MODERATOR, CNN TOWN HALL: But, that's -- sir, with all due respect, that's the argument of a 5-year-old.

TRUMP: I didn't start it. No, it's not the --

COOPER: Yes, the argument of a 5-year-old is he started it.

TRUMP: Excuse me, you would say that. That's the problem with our country.

COOPER: Every parent knows a kid who says he started it.

TRUMP: That's the kid -- the 5-year-old. Excuse me. No, no, no, that's the problem. Exactly that thinking is the problem this country has.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Meantime, John Kasich -- well, he tried to stay above the fray.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

gov. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can say all kinds of things to get people stirred up but leaders don't do that. Leaders tell people the way that they see it, even if means for a while you're unpopular.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, helping us break all of this down this morning, CNN's political analyst Josh Rogin is back. He's a columnist for Bloomberg View and joins us now from our Washington bureau. Good morning, Josh.

KOSIK: Morning, Josh.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Morning.

ROMANS: So much good stuff last night. I want to talk about the Corey Lewandowski situation. He was arrested -- charged for simple battery. The Jupiter police have been looking into this event. Now we have this video that shows pretty clearly what happened there.

The narrative from the campaign has been didn't touch her, didn't happen, she made it up, and now you see this video.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

Pretty clearly, Corey Lewandowski reaching out. There's the reporter. There you see it. So they charged him with simple battery. And I've got to tell you, Donald Trump in kind of vintage Donald Trump form, really kind of doubling down and almost mocking this reporter. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And by the way, she was grabbing me. Am I supposed to press charges against her? Oh, my arm is hurting.

COOPER: You are suggesting you might.

TRUMP: Anderson, my arm is just killing me. It's never been the same.

COOPER: You've suggested you might.

TRUMP: Excuse me, excuse me. I didn't suggest.

COOPER: Oh yes, you did.

TRUMP: I tweeted. No, no, I tweeted should I press charges?

COOPER: Are you going to?

TRUMP: I don't know, maybe I should, right, because you know what? She was grabbing me. And just so you understand, she was off base because she went through the secret service. She had a pen in her hand, which secret service is not liking because they don't what it is -- whether it's a little bomb.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A little bomb. So listen, fact-checking Donald Trump for the past almost year has been incredibly difficult because sometimes the facts just don't even -- they're just wrong -- just completely wrong. In this case now, fact-checking Donald Trump a little bit easier because there's this video.

ROGIN: Right, and you have two totally incompatible versions of what happened there. One is that Corey Lewandowski assaulted Michelle Fields. The other is that Michelle Fields assaulted Donald Trump and was a threat to him because she might have had a pen bomb, and created her own bruises and then later claimed --

These are two totally irreconcilable versions of events, but there will be an arbiter. There's now a charge, there's a police investigation, there will be an adjudication of that charge, and that will be the final word. And what's probably most shocking about what the Trump campaign has been saying is that even if Corey Lewandowski is convicted of battery they're still going to stand behind him and still keep him on.

This is Trump not only rejecting the evidence that we can see and the claims of this woman who claims to have been victimized, but also the police investigation that's ongoing. So this won't get settled until the police investigation is settled, and even then you can expect the Trump campaign to just deny whatever facts are put into evidence.

[05:35:00] KOSIK: The discussion about nuclear proliferation with Donald Trump -- that jumped out at me, as well. Donald Trump seems to be a little all over the place and I don't know if I heard him correctly, but he said he would be OK if Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia had nuclear weapons even though he thinks this is the biggest issue in the world. I want you to listen to him and we'll talk on the back end.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: At some point, we have to say you know what? We're better if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea. We're better off, frankly, if South Korea is going to start to protect itself. We have to --

COOPER: Saudi Arabia, too?

TRUMP: Saudi Arabia, absolutely.

COOPER: You wouldn't have a problem with them having nuclear weapons?

TRUMP: No, not nuclear weapons, but they have to protect themselves or they have to pay us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: OK, so I took a beat there and I thought what?

ROGIN: Right, so there's two things. There's the logical disconnect, right? You can't be for non-proliferation, which means no more countries get nuclear weapons, and at the same time say oh, it's probably OK that all of these countries get nuclear weapons. Those are two totally opposite views that Trump expressed in the same exact interview, so that's a logic problem.

The bigger problem here is that most nuclear experts on both sides of the aisle totally disagree with the basis of what Trump said. It's actually safer for the United States to have nuclear weapons and use its nuclear umbrella to protect countries that don't, rather than have nuclear weapons in the hands of all of these countries.

That increases the risk, increases the destabilization of the region, causes an arms race in Asia between all of these countries, including China, which is the exact thing that we don't want. So he's wrong on the facts, he's wrong on the policy.

On the overall ideology, which is that America should do less and these countries should do more, there is some support for that and that makes sense, but he loses the power of the argument when he gets the facts wrong and I think that's what people in the foreign policy community who I talk to everyday take the most issue with. ROMANS: We talk so tough on China. It's such a huge economic rival and China's eating our lunch, and China is just killing us. They're killing us. They're killing us. And then he's backing away from some of the alliances that are incredibly, incredibly important if you want to counter China in its own backyard.

ROGIN: Right. So he's also expressed such positive words about the relationship with Russia and negative words about really strong NATO allies, including Brussels, which he called a horrendous place. This is really a mark of the way that Trump sees the world and it's fascinating that he wants to build relationships with countries like Russia, confront countries like China, and abandon countries in Europe, and that's a unique position in foreign policy. But again, when you get into these interviews, and most of these views came out in a 100-minute interview of The New York Times --

ROMANS: Right.

ROGIN: -- you find that there's not a lot of their there and that's probably the most disturbing part. People had assumed that as the campaign would go on and that as Trump studied up on these issues we'd see some more meat on these policies, but the more you dig the less you find.

And when he's making these broad predictions about what he would do as president that has an effect and people around the world hear that and they factor that into their planning, and they ask people like me when we travel around the world, what does a Trump presidency mean?

And the bottom line is you don't know because he's so all over the map and his policies are sort of contradictory and incomprehensible that it injects a level of instability and risk into the future of these relationships that is wholly unpredictable and that's the reaction that most world leaders who I've talked to have had.

KOSIK: A big moment from last night. All of the candidates agree on something. They're all backing off their pledge to support to the GOP nominee. Listen to them tell Anderson what they were thinking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Do you still stand by the pledge to support whoever the nominee, even if it's Donald Trump?

CRUZ: Well, Anderson, as you mentioned, what I said is true. I'm not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and attacks my family.

TRUMP: Honestly, he doesn't have to support me. I'm not asking for his support. I want the people's support because he -- honestly, I don't want --

COOPER: Do you consider your pledge to whoever the Republican nominee is?

TRUMP: Look, no, I don't anyway. Look -- COOPER: You don't?

TRUMP: No, we'll see who it is.

KASICH: If the nominee is somebody that I think is really hurting the country and dividing the country, I can't stand behind them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Backing off his party loyalty pledge has huge, huge implications, doesn't it?

ROGIN: Well, that's exactly right and this is a public acknowledgement of what's going on behind the scenes. What's going on behind the scenes is that the entire GOP establishment -- the other campaigns and a lot of their Super PACs, and in every Trump movement -- their strategy is to deny Trump 1,237 delegates and their best hope is to get to a convention where Trump will have more votes than anyone else and still deny him the nomination.

The Trump campaign realized that after Louisiana where they won the election but lost the delegate count, and they see that as fundamentally unfair, and that's what Trump is talking about. The whole idea that he would be treated fairly is now out the window and, therefore, everybody's making these adjustments to their messaging, to their campaign. And now it's about stopping Trump from getting the nomination any way possible, including rule changes at the RNC if you look at what the Cruz campaign is doing.

[05:40:00] They're very savvy about it and they're ahead of the Trump campaign and that's a real thing. And the Trump campaign is preparing the message to say if and when this happens that he's been mistreated, and that's exactly what the debate will be at the convention in Cleveland.

KOSIK: All right, Josh Rogin, thanks so much for breaking all this down for us.

ROGIN: Thank you.

ROMANS: Nice to see you this morning, Josh, thanks.

Time for an EARLY START on your money. Jobs and the economy the top issue for primary voters. The U.S. has lost 5 million manufacturing jobs since the year 2000. Those are Labor Department statistics. The conventional wisdom, of course, was always for years now that America would transition from low-skilled factory to highly-skilled, high-tech manufacturing in service sector jobs.

Manufacturing, of course, still remains a key part of the U.S. economy but it is not the employment powerhouse it once was. In 1960, about one in four American workers had a job in manufacturing. Today that number is one in 10. And those jobs that are left there -- they're harder to get. Most require highly-skilled workers with specific technical skills or degrees. This was the focus of last night's town hall. Also, dairy producers and farmers asking Donald Trump and Ted Cruz what they would do to get Americans back to work in highly-skilled factory jobs. Cruz says education is key and focusing funds on vocational training. Trump says the key, fixing bad trade deals.

KOSIK: Daily raids throughout Brussels, the city on edge, with two bombers and at least eight other terrorists on the run. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:45:00] KOSIK: It's 45 minutes after the hour. Authorities in Brussels trying desperately to find two unidentified suspects linked to last week's deadly terror attacks. The death toll from those bombings now stands at 32, with the FBI heavily involved in the case now, analyzing phones and analyzing hard drives seized by Brussels police. American Airlines announcing all of its flights to and from Brussels are canceled through April 7th.

Let's go live now to Brussels and bring in Alexandra Field for the very latest. Good morning, Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning there, Alison. People here in Brussels know that these raids will continue for the foreseeable future until authorities can track down the two men they are still looking for a week after these attacks. We're talking about the third suspected bomber from the airport and a second possible suspect who may have been involved in the Metro attack.

On top of those two prime suspects who police continue to search for, we know that authorities across Europe are also trying to find eight people with suspected links to both the Brussels attacks or the Paris attacks.

So people who have been living in this city for months under a heightened terror threat level with extra security forces on the ground realize that this is something that's going to continue. We've seen the police carry out these raids across the city. They'll cast a wide net -- bring in a lot of people. Over the weekend we saw three people charged as a result of some of those raids that unfolded.

European Union institutions have reopened following the Easter holiday here in Brussels, but it is again with heightened security that's become the norm in this city where people are still grieving. They're still mourning the loss of so many lives. Thirty-two people killed, 94 people still in the hospital, and an airport still shut down.

Alison, we're told it could be months before that airport is back open in a fully-operational way but we do know that airport officials are trying to get it open, at least in part, but first they've got to figure out how they can best secure it for anyone who's coming through there -- Alison.

KOSIK: Things trying to get back to normal but certainly everybody unsettled there still. Alexandra Field reporting live from Brussels. Thanks. ROMANS: All right, Supreme Court decisions in high-profile cases could be handed down starting later this morning, including a possible ruling on the contraception coverage mandate in Obamacare. The death of Judge Antonin Scalia is already having a big impact. Organized labor celebrating a big win on Tuesday as the justices split four to four in a case involving a public union's right to collect fees from workers who don't want to join. That tie leaves a lower court ruling favoring unions intact.

KOSIK: Mark Kirk is the first Republican senator to break ranks and meet with Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, and the Illinois lawmaker is blasting his party's leadership for stonewalling the nomination process. Senator Kirk calling for a rational, adult, and open-minded consideration of the president's pick to replace Justice Scalia. He believes 15 or 16 other GOP senators may follow his lead.

ROMANS: North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory facing intense and growing fire over a controversial new state law that eliminates discrimination protections for gays and lesbians. The ACLU just sued McCrory. Bank of America -- its headquarters is in Charlotte -- is now publically condemning the measure as bad for business, joining 80 other corporations -- a list that's growing. Gov. McCrory is not backing down. He calls the opposition a "smear campaign". He insists the measure does not remove any existing protections.

KOSIK: Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Michaela Pereira joining us now. Good morning, Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Well, hello friends. Boy, we've got a lot to talk about, obviously, from last night's big town hall. Seemingly an about-face from all three Republicans at our latest CNN town hall -- the trio refusing to keep a commitment to back the eventual party nominee.

Now, all of this comes after a big day in Donald Trump's campaign. (Video playing) His manager -- his campaign manager was arrested for this and allegedly assaulting a reporter. We have this video of the incident and, of course, we've got all of the reaction to last night's town hall moderated by Anderson Cooper.

Also, we're going to have the latest view on the terror attacks in Brussels. We'll look at the manhunt underway and security concerns abroad. All of this ahead of a big CNN special tonight examining the terror attacks in Paris and the fallout and the push for global security.

ROMANS: A lot to get to.

PEREIRA: Yes.

ROMANS: All right, thank you so much.

KOSIK: Nice to see you, Michaela. All right, this woman's speech -- you know what it did? It turned stocks around yesterday. What Janet Yellen revealed to investors. An early start on your money coming up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:54:00] KOSIK: New questions being raised about the state of airport security in Egypt after a man authorities call mentally unstable with a criminal record hijacked an EgyptAir flight wearing what looks like an explosive vest. No one was injured and Tuesday's incident, while disturbing, was not linked to terrorism but there is still this question. How did he get on the plane? How was he able to rush the cockpit in a post-9-11, post-Sharm el-Sheikh world?

CNN's Ian Lee has been on the story from the start and joins us live from Cairo with the latest. So, can we understand that this was a ticketed passenger? How did he get on this flight?

IAN LEE, CNN REPORTER: That's right, he was a ticketed passenger. The Egyptian governments have released the video of him going through not just one, but two checkpoints, seeing his luggage scanned. That one, going through a metal detector just before even checking in at the counter.

And then another video where his handbag goes through a scanner and then he walks through another metal detector. And this time you can see a security officer patting him down, checking for him -- there seems to be a conversation between the hijacker and the security officer.

[05:55:00] We do not know the details of that. Was he questioning him about what he was wearing? But Egyptian officials said that he had nothing on him that was illegal that would prevent him from boarding the flight. Despite all that, this does raise a lot of security concerns because he did make it on that flight. He did say he had a bomb, which turned out to fake, which created a lot of panic in the air and also on the ground.

Authorities treating this as if it were a bomb, but the negotiators also are saying a little bit about his mental state, calling him disturb. Saying his demands very greatly during the negotiations from dealing with his ex-wife to talking to EU officials. They were able to take him into custody and everyone -- all 69 other passengers and crew -- made it back to Egypt safely.

KOSIK: It was certainly a tense situation for many hours, thankfully ending peacefully. CNN's Ian Lee reporting live from Cairo, thanks.

ROMANS: All right, the Pentagon ordering American military families out of Turkey -- out of southern Turkey right now. The Pentagon citing an ongoing threat of an ISIS attack there. The Pentagon saying the decision to move 670 U.S. family members and civilians happened in consultation with the government of Turkey. The U.S. State Department and the Secretary of Defense must be moved from the Incirlik Air Force base there which is under the highest level of forced protection for the U.S. military bases for weeks.

KOSIK: President Obama hosting dozens of world leaders in Washington tomorrow for a nuclear security summit. Topping the agenda, preventing ISIS from obtaining nuclear materials for weapons. The president also plans to convene a trilateral meeting with Japan and South Korea, hoping to improve relations between the two Asian nations. The president will also sit down with China's president to discuss climate change and North Korea's recent provocation.

ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money. Stock markets are higher around the world. U.S. futures also pointing up here after a great day on Wall Street. The Dow added 97 points, ending the day at the highest level of the year. Apple led the rally. Apple up more than 2 percent. The S&P 500 also turned positive for the year.

It was Janet Yellen -- this woman pulling stocks out of a slump, speaking at the Economic Club of New York. The Fed, she said - the Central Bank -- will move cautiously on interest rate hikes. Yellen was optimistic about the U.S. economy but worried about the global economy. On the top of her worry list, the economic slowdown in China and low oil prices. Yellen's speech hinting that a rate hike at the Fed's meeting next month seems unlikely.

Delta pilots asking for a big raise -- a 40 percent pay increase. That pay raise would bring back salaries to 2004 levels. That's according to the pilot's union. Pilots took steep pay cuts when Delta filed for bankruptcy. The union says Delta can now afford the pay raise since it posted record profits last year. It's been a very good for airline profits, in general.

KOSIK: It has been. Republican presidential candidates breaking their promise to support whoever wins the nomination. "NEW DAY" begins right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Do you consider nominating whoever the Republican nominee is?

TRUMP: Look, no, I don't think (ph). KASICH: If the nominee is somebody that I think has really hurt the

country, I can't stand behind them.

CRUZ: I'm not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife.

COOPER: You're running for President of the United States.

TRUMP: Excuse me, I didn't start it.

KASICH: Our children are watching. This is America.

CRUZ: Just when you don't think it can get any uglier, it gets uglier.

TRUMP: I almost fell to the ground. I almost fell to the ground. She didn't almost fall to the ground.

KOSIK: Trump defending his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.

TRUMP: She was grabbing me. Am I supposed to press charges against her? ROMANS: Authorities in Brussels trying desperately to find two unidentified suspects.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators are keeping the pressure on,on all fronts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is huge concern that there may be more attacks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. What a morning it is here. It's Wednesday, March 30th, 6:00 in the east. Chris is off. Don Lemon joins us.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Great to have you here to talk about all the news because we begin with the Republican revolt at last night's CNN town hall in Milwaukee. The ironclad commitment that each candidate had made last fall to support the party's nominee is over.

Donald Trump reversing his commitment, saying he's being treated unfairly by the RNC and the party's establishment. Ted Cruz also appeared to pull out of the pledge, saying he cannot support someone who attacks his wife and family. John Kasich adding that he cannot support someone who is hurting and dividing the country.

LEMON: If that's not enough, as Trump defends -- this is going on as Trump defends his embattled campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, after he was arrested and charged with simple battery for allegedly grabbing and bruising a reporter.