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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Crucial Wisconsin Primary Today; Panama Papers: Denials, Investigation & Outrage; Villanova Wins Title in Buzzer-Beating Finish; Hunt Underway for Islamic Radicals at Large. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired April 05, 2016 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:30:37] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Is today the day where everything changes? Wisconsin votes and both frontrunners, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, they could be in some trouble.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN ANCHOR: Denials and outraged after linked documents link world leaders to secret bank accounts. Is this how the super wealthy are hiding billions?

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

BERMAN: For the championship! Yes, that really happened. A buzzer beater in one of the greatest college basketball games ever played.

Yes, we have a new champion. Congratulations, Villanova.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ALESCI: And I'm Cristina Alesci. It's 31 minutes past the hour.

And in just hours, voters in Wisconsin head to the polls. Today could be a true turning point, a day of reckoning for Donald Trump. And he's trailing Ted Cruz by as much as ten points in polls. But overnight, a defiant Trump said he will pull off a surprise victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And everybody said that's the end of Trump. It's over for Trump.

You know how many times I have been given the end? Like -- I've given the last rites. How many times? Like ten? Every week, it's the end of Trump.

And they walk in, sir, I don't know what happened, but your poll numbers went through the roof.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALESCI: Well, CNN politics reporter Sara Murray is with the Trump campaign in Wisconsin, and she's got the latest. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Cristina.

Donald Trump spent his last hours before the Wisconsin primary barnstorming the state. He held three campaign events yesterday. And for Trump, it was back to basics. Coming after a rocky week, he decided to focus his energies on his GOP opponents. He hit Ted Cruz hard in this stops across the street, and he also went after John Kasich, calling him to step aside and get out of race.

TRUMP: He takes my votes away more than Cruz. I don't like it. I don't think it's right. I don't think it's appropriate. But you know what? If we have to live with him, we still beat him easily, OK, folks? I mean, OK?

MURRAY: Now, he also brought some reinforcements on the campaign trail. Here in Milwaukee, he was joined by his wife Melania Trump.

MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: As you know by now, when you attack him, he will punch back ten times harder, no matter who you are, a man or woman, he treats everyone equal. He's a fighter. And if you elect him to be your president, he will fight for you and for our country.

MURRAY: Back to you, John and Cristina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Thanks to Sara Murray for that.

Ted Cruz, he is also predicting a victory in Wisconsin today, and he has the polls on his side. A Cruz win in that state would significantly increase the odds of a contested Republican convention in Cleveland, which Cruz also said he would win. What's more, Ted Cruz is giving a dire warning to any notion of bringing in a last minute contender out of an open convention, someone like House Speaker Paul Ryan. Now, Ryan still continues to claim that he doesn't want the job. Ted Cruz says any effort to crown an outsider would lead to a voter revolt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I do believe people put my name in this thing. I say, get my name out of it. If you want to be president, I say you should go run for president, and that's just the way I see it.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This fevered pipe dream in Washington that at the convention, they will parachute in some white knight who will save the Washington establishment, it is nothing less than a pipe dream. It ain't going to happen. If it did, the people would quite rightly revolt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Revolt.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is in Wisconsin. She has the latest with the Cruz campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Cristina.

Well, Senator Cruz is setting expectations very high for tonight, predicting an outright win here in Wisconsin, and projecting confidence of what that potentially win would mean for the path forward, what that would mean for the broader implications on the state of the race. I caught up with the senator as he toured this cheese shop. He sampled a lot of the collections of Wisconsin's cheeses and he said point-blank that Wisconsin will be a turning point.

[04:35:00] Here's what he had to say.

CRUZ: Donald Trump announced at a rally, he predicted a big win here in Wisconsin. Well, that may be true. But I do think the people of Wisconsin are going to decide that. And I hope the people of Wisconsin have a different result, and I think if they do, it will make a powerful statement across the country.

Number one, it will continue to add to our delegates, and we are seeing state after state after state, our delegates are growing. But number two, I think it will have a powerful impact on the states that are coming up.

SERFATY: So there you see Senator Cruz already trying to craft the argument that a potential win here in Wisconsin could give him a lot of momentum, but that would not be temporary or passing. He later went on to say, so really trying to paint Donald Trump's candidacy as being one on a downward slope. Of course, we should point out that Senator Cruz has a very steep climb himself on the path to 1,237 -- John and Cristina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALESCI: Thanks, Sunlen, in Wisconsin for us.

This morning, the Republican in third place, John Kasich is digging in his heels. Both Trump and Cruz think Kasich's presence in the race is hurting them. And both have called for Kasich to drop out. But the Ohio governor is pushing back harder than ever, saying he's not going anywhere.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not getting out. Why would I get out? Particularly when Trump is worried I would get his votes which I knew I could do. We are going to be fine. They spent, I don't know, million dollars including smearing me. Ted -- Senator Ted, the smear artist, he -- you know, they are attacking me in Wisconsin. For a guy that's not doing very well, they sure are worried about me and spending a lot of money trying to knock me out, but they're not going to be successful in that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: John Kasich right there.

Now, on the Democratic side, after weeks of intense negotiations, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, they have finally agreed for a new debate. They will meet in Brooklyn on April 14th, five days ahead of the New York primary. This is the debate sponsored by CNN and New York one moderated by Wolf Blitzer.

But, today, the Democrats are facing off in Wisconsin. Bernie Sanders leads in the polls there.

Senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar has more from Milwaukee.

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Cristina.

Here in Wisconsin, Bernie Sanders is hoping that labor support and college students will help deliver a win in the Wisconsin primary. He is talking a very big game in the Badger State.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have won six of the last seven caucuses and primaries.

(CHEERS)

And not only have we won them, we have won every one by landslide victories. And tomorrow, tomorrow if there turnout here in Wisconsin, if there is a record-breaking turnout here in Wisconsin, we are going to win here as well.

(CHEERS)

KEILAR: The Clinton campaign is also managing expectation, sending out a fundraising letter to its supporters asking for donations. She is behind in most polls in Wisconsin and that Bernie Sanders has out- raised her in the last three months.

They are certainly concentrating more on New York. You see Hillary Clinton very concerned that she holds on to the majority of the 247 delegates at stake on aril 19th. She made a last-minute swing through Wisconsin this weekend, but mostly, she's spending her time in New York -- John and Cristina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALESCI: Well, Hillary needs to up her money game. And that brings us to your money. Dow futures are slipping on oil, now back below $36 a barrel. Markets in Europe are down. Shares in Asia sinking overnight.

On to Apple, it's about to hit a major milestone, selling its 1 billionth iPhone. The first device went on sale in June 2007. By the end of 2015, Apple had sold 896 million iPhones. If Wall Street forecasts are accurate, Apple will sell the 1 billionth iPhone in July. But that could come sooner if the sales of the new Apple iPhone SE are stronger than expected.

Apple has sold more iPhones, of course, than iPads, Macs and iPods combined dating back to 1993. By its help, the iPhone bought in enough revenue last year to place fifth on the Fortune 500 list. A very big success for the company.

BERMAN: It is already called one of the greatest games played in the history of men's college basketball. It was all tied up with a few seconds left. Villanova has the ball. Kris Jenkins with that, a buzzer-beating, championship-winning three-point shot.

[04:40:07] Villanova beats North Carolina by three, their second title ever, their first win in 31 years. What was so amazing about this, you see Roy Williams, the coach of the North Tar Heels there and Coach Jay Wright of Villanova. He's like, yes, I just won a championship, who cares?

North Carolina had just tied the game a few seconds before that three. They had their own three-pointer with 13 seconds left. This was a stunning finish. Congratulations to them. I imagine they might being having a fun morning in Villanova.

ALESCI: Such an awesome finish.

All right. Up next, denials and outrage after a huge data leak reveals how world leaders and super wealthy could be hiding billions.

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[04:45:01] ALESCI: New fallout this morning from the explosive "Panama Papers". There are more than 11 million leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm exposing how some of the most powerful people allegedly used offshore accounts to dodge taxes and hide their wealth.

The prime minister of Iceland is one of 12 current or former political leaders implicated in the document dump so far. And now, he is facing mounting pressure to resign.

Let's get it latest from Nina dos Santos. She joins us from London.

Nina, already, major fallout here.

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and worldwide, Cristina.

You mentioned the prime minister of Iceland. I should actually point out that there were protests on the streets of Reykjavik. Remember that Iceland is not a huge country. It has about 330,000 inhabitants. A number of people gathering on the streets of the capital city of that island, as you can see from these pictures earlier, demanding that this man resign.

Now, it is emerged in the leak of this Panama papers that it seems as though he served as director on the board of the shell company which was set up in Panama to house the assets, stakes in big Icelandic banks, et cetera, that were owned by his wife. The allegation is here is he didn't declare those interests to the Icelandic parliament.

And he is not the only leader who's facing tough these days. Vladimir Putin has emerged as one of the biggest figures that could have been linked to some of these Panamanian offshore accounts, although he explicitly isn't actually featured in many of the paperwork that is being divulged. There are allegations that he managed to funnel up to $2 billion to a whole network of offshore companies fronted by friends of his, including a close family friend who is a cellist, Sergei Roldugin, and also his judo master, no less.

And then I also want to point out that Xi Jinping, the president of China, who's done so much to try and tackle corruption, and in his probes back in his own country. Again, red faces all around in China. I might point that, in fact, CNN's feed is currently blocked in China because we are reporting this kind of information.

Xi Jinping, according to the "Panama Papers", his brother-in-law, it seems, was one of eight officials to emerge to be a director of a shell company or at least linked to the shell company operating out of Panama.

Now, I might point out here, Cristina, that actually being a director of one of the companies isn't in itself illegal. Setting up an offshore company isn't illegal. But it's what you do with the money inside that shell company, whether you declare it to authorities to pay appropriate tax on it and what kind of money you put in. If it's from the proceeds of crime, for instance, and undeclared money or money subject to international sanctions, that's when it crosses the borderline law.

So, as you can imagine, authorities the world over are taking a look at these Panama papers and they're likely to investigate them thoroughly.

ALESCI: And, Nina, I'm assuming the response from some of these political leaders has been somewhat defining. I know the Kremlin came out with a statement earlier.

DOS SANTOS: Yes, the Kremlin came out and dismissed all of this with an angry response, saying, quote, "It is allegations of fibs." So, basically lies.

I might point out what is interesting about the Kremlin's response is that actually Dmitry Peskov, the personal spokesperson of Vladimir Putin himself, he's very angry about this because it has emerged in the "Panama Papers", according to "The Financial Times" that's had a look at them, that his own wife.

So, the wife of the spokesman of Vladimir Putin seems to be a director of one of the offshore entities. That in itself is illegal inside Russia. The spouse of a director on one of the companies cannot sit on the board of one of these companies. So, we're getting more and more reaction as the days proceed. Just

yesterday, Mauricio Macri, the newly elected president of Argentina had to come out and denied that he actually owned a stake in a Bahamian stake which apparently he served on board of directors about ten years ago.

So, we are getting many, many different rebuttals and refusals and eyebrows raised. But either way, as you can bet, there's 11.5 million files to go through on nearly a quarter of a million companies. There's going to be far more information to trickle through throughout the course of the week.

ALESCI: Big story for sure. Thank you so much, Nina.

BERMAN: The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge by conservatives in Texas. This is a closely watched voting rights case. The justices voted to uphold the method used to draw legislative districts in all 50 states, which involves counting every resident and not just eligible voters. This decision is viewed as a victory for the Obama administration, which successfully argued that a win for the plaintiffs would have shifted power from urban areas to rural neighborhoods across the country.

ALESCI: And Republican Senator Chuck Grassley has agreed to meet for breakfast with President Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. But Senator Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, still insists he will not hold a nomination hearing.

[04:50:01] Instead, Grassley says he plans to explain to Judge Garland why the Senate will not considering hearings until the next president takes office.

BERMAN: Later this morning, lawmakers in Alabama are expected to introduce a resolution to impeach the state's governor. Governor Robert Bentley is asking for God's forgiveness but refusing to resign in a wake of a sex scandal involving his senior political adviser Rebekah Mason. Mason stepped down last week and she and the governor deny having an affair despite getting caught on tape engaging in steamy conversations.

ALESCI: And in Mississippi, the governor has four days to decide whether to sign a so-called Religious Freedom bill into law. Now, critics say the measure would allow businesses and government agencies to deny services to gays and lesbians based on their religious beliefs. One state lawmaker calls it the most hateful bill he has seen in 33 years in legislature. Several corporations are pressuring Governor Phil Bryant to kill the bill.

BERMAN: New details this morning in the deadly Amtrak train derailment near Philadelphia. The source close to the investigation tells CNN there's a strong evidence crash made a, quote, "colossal mistake by being on the wrong train line. Train smashing the backhoe they were using, traveling 106 miles an hour in a 110-mile-per-hour zone. Thirty-seven passengers were also injured in that incident.

ALESCI: And one of the biggest corporate mergers in history could be at risk. That's thanks to new rules. We'll get an early start on your money, next.

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[04:55:42] ALESCI: The number of U.S. Special Operation troops fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq could increase in the coming weeks. That's according to two defense officials. A third tells CNN that discussions are expected to start as early as today at the White House. The goal: to lay the groundwork for local forces to retake both Raqqah and Mosul, partly in order to deny ISIS a base of operations for planning external attacks.

BERMAN: Chilling new word this morning, the number of radical Islamists linked to the Paris and Brussels terror attacks are still on the loose. This is raising security concerns throughout Europe. Wide searches underway in that continent for more than a dozen fugitives wanted in the Paris and Brussels attacks or tried in abstentia for jihadist links.

We want to go live to Brussels to bring in CNN's Alexandra Field for the very latest on this, this big search right now -- Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, the number keeps getting bigger. At this point, we know that authorities are looking for at least a dozen who are still at large. These are people who were tried in jihadist case in Belgium but in absentia. So, authorities are looking at what kinds of links they could have to the Paris or Brussels terror cells.

More directly related to the Paris and Brussels attacks, however, we know that authorities are still looking for eight more people who they believe were closely tied to those attacks. Seven of those eight people are believed to have direct connections to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is widely known as the ringleader of the Paris attacks or Salah Abdeslam. He was the remaining suspected Paris suspect who is found in Belgium just last month hiding out here in Brussels. He is now awaiting extradition to Paris.

At the same time, we know that in Brussels, this hunt continues for the two outstanding potential suspected bombers in the Brussels attacks. There was a third person who was seen on airport surveillance video. Authorities have not tracked down that person. He's potentially believed to have been one of the suspects involved in that attack. They are also looking for a second possible suspect who may have been involved in the attack at the metro -- John.

BERMAN: All right. The search goes. Alexandra Field, thanks so much.

ALESCI: Let's get an early start on your money.

FIELD: Thank you.

ALESCI: A global selloff is under way. Dow futures are lower. Oil prices weighing on stocks here in the U.S. slipping back below $36 a barrel. Markets in Europe opening with losses. Shares in Asia tanked overnight after Japan's top banker said interest rates could go even lower, and to negative territory.

In another big money story, the Treasury Department could be derailing one of the biggest corporate mergers of all time. A major move to stop so-called corporate inversions just unveiled yesterday. Inversions are when a company moves headquarters overseas, in many cases to avoid paying U.S. taxes. It put the $150 billion merger of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Allergan up in the air.

The Treasury Department and the IRS say their goals are to limit inversions and target unfair tax deductions. Plus, allow audits on certain financial transactions and require new documentation for some kind of debt.

Now, here's the critical point. Critics of inversion say they take jobs and tax dollars overseas. But companies use them to increase profits and value for shareholders. So, that's the tension. But shares of Allergan are down some 20 percent in pre-market trading. A big story on Wall Street.

BERMAN: Big story indeed.

You hear something about inversion on the campaign trail. Something a lot of voters don't understand. But when they learn about it, they don't like it.

ALESCI: Furious, furious.

BERMAN: All right. EARLY START continues right now.

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BERMAN: Could today be the day when everything changes? A critical primary in Wisconsin. A primary that could spell trouble for the frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

ALESCI: Investigation and outrage around the world. Leaked documents revealing a trove of offshore accounts. How world leaders and the super wealthy are hiding their money.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

BERMAN: Money. Money. Right there. A last second shot. What did it do? It wins the championship for Villanova.