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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Blasts GOP Delegate, Calls Process "Rigged, Crooked"; Kasich Previews 'Two Paths' Speech Telling CNN Town Hall He Can Win Contested GOP Convention; New Twist In Death Of Ex-NFL Star Will Smith; Former Taliban Commanders Flee ISIS; 40,000 Verizon Workers Plan To Strike. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 12, 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] MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich all scrounging for GOP convention delegates. How does the Republican race become anybody's game?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders -- they are going after each other just a couple of days before the big CNN Brooklyn debate.

KOSINSKI: And a CNN exclusive. ISIS defectors share their horror stories with CNN. What they witnessed while working for the terror organization. We'll be there live.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Michelle Kosinski.

BERMAN: Great to see you this morning. I'm John Berman. Thirty minutes past the hour right now. This morning, rigged, crooked, corrupt. Those words from Donald Trump. They're directed at his own party and its own nominating process.

Today, the Republican front-runner heads to upstate New York bringing his new message, blasting the party's system of selecting delegates to its convention in Cleveland. That was one big theme we heard from him overnight at a huge rally in Albany.

Trump also had some words for Hillary Clinton, saying he expects her to be the Democratic nominee despite being, in his words, guilty as hell of mishandling classified emails. For the latest, let's bring in CNN's Sara Murray with the Trump campaign.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Michelle. Donald Trump is not backing down on his criticism of the Republican nominating process. He stumbled in the delegate wrangling in places like Colorado, in places like Louisiana. Speaking here in Albany, New York last night to a crowd of thousands he suggested to them the system is rigged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So we have a rigged system. So, in Colorado they were going to vote and you saw what's happened in Colorado. It's one of the big things. It's a fix because we thought we were having an election and a number of months ago they decided to do it by you know what, right? Right? They said we'll do it by delegate. They said they're going to do it by delegate. Oh, isn't that nice? Because if I go to the voters of Colorado, we win Colorado. So it's a crooked, crooked system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now, the reality is when Donald Trump was up against Ted Cruz in Louisiana he did win, but only narrowly, only to see Ted Cruz able to out-organize him behind the scenes in some of these state conventions. That's something the Trump campaign is hoping to rectify with a couple of staff changes. Meanwhile, Trump also gave us a preview of what could be his general election message, hitting Hillary Clinton hard from the stump here in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't think the emails will take her down because she's being protected by the Democrats. It would take anybody else down but it's not going to take her down because she's being protected by the Democrats, which is a disgrace. But she's going to have to live with that when she runs because everybody knows that she is guilty as hell, OK? Everybody. Her whole life has been a bit, fat, beautiful lie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now, that shift to hitting Hillary Clinton even harder about her email scandal, about her past, is a strategic one for the Trump campaign. They feel like they're inching ever closer to becoming a presumptive nominee and they want to prepare to take on Clinton in a general election. Back to you guys.

BERMAN: All right, Sara Murray, thank you so much. You heard Donald Trump's complaining about the delegate selection process. Well, Republican chairman Reince Priebus didn't seem to like it. He seemed to fire back at the criticism. He went on Twitter overnight. Look at this. "The rules were set last year," Priebus wrote. "Nothing mysterious, nothing new. The rules have not changed. The rules are the same. Nothing different."

KOSINSKI: Oh.

BERMAN: The same thing six times right there.

KOSINSKI: I see.

BERMAN: Really seems to be hammering that point home. Also, a new interview with USA Today. Donald Trump appears to be thinking ahead a little bit, offering up a few possible choices for a running mate if he secures the nomination. He mentioned John Kasich and Marco Rubio by name. Both of those guys say they have no interest in being vice president to anybody.

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, also someone that Donald Trump mentioned. This is what Scott Walker said about it. "I literally just heard it in the car, and I laughed. It's interesting to hear that after the things that were said about me a couple weeks ago."

KOSINSKI: Oh, still smarting.

BERMAN: Yes.

KOSINSKI: Still smarting. So, joining us to assess all of this in the political battlefields, we could call it, is CNN politics reporter, Tom LoBianco, live in our Washington bureau. Good morning, Tom.

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, guys.

KOSINSKI: Watching this town hall last night this was almost a relief from what we've been seeing in the debates. No fighting, there were family present, teenage girls in the room, nobody insulting each other, and nobody trying too hard. I mean, trying to sound presidential. This was very personal. Let's listen a little bit to what Kasich's daughter said about him.

[05:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REESE KASICH, GOV. JOHN KASICH'S DAUGHTER: He is just really Godly and really, really fun and sometimes a little silly. He's really loving. He's always checking up on us. He's an honest man. Yes, I think that.

ANDERSON COOPER, MODERATOR, CNN TOWN HALL: That's nice.

R. KASICH: And he cares about everyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: Well, nothing unexpected there, certainly, but this really had a personal element to it. Tom, what do you think of that, and could something like this help Kasich right now at this point in the race?

LOBIANCO: Well, absolutely. You're down to three folks right now. You've got a real big contest coming up in New York. You've got some big mid-Atlantic contests yet to come. Nothing's been decided yet so anything that you can do where it's personalizing, it's humanizing, it adds some depth.

You know, these aren't just one-dimensional people that we're talking about here. It's not just people throwing tweets at each other. These are distinguished politicians with long careers, veteran businessmen, so having the family on stage really gives a lot of depth.

It goes beyond the mudslinging that we so often see and it also helps bring them out. It helps bring them out to talk a little bit more about what they're thinking. What's behind their policies? It's a great format and it eases them up a lot, too. You get a lot of nice quotes and thoughts out of them. KOSINSKI: Yes, it just had such a different feel.

BERMAN: And the candidates seemed to love it, too. You say it's a break from the mudslinging. Let's get back to the mudslinging right now.

KOSINSKI: Oh, all right.

BERMAN: Donald Trump complaining about the delegate rules. John Kasich, by the way, says those are the rules he will use to get the nomination. He'll do it at a contested convention. But, Ted Cruz had some more pointed words. Cruz campaigning in California. This is what he said about Donald Trump's complaints.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, you may have noticed that when Donald loses he gets very unhappy. He yells and screams and stamps his foot. He curses and yells and insults anyone nearby. Look, as we know in the state of California, wine is something best served with cheese.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: That sounds like Berman in the morning, a little bit.

BERMAN: Thank you. I appreciate that.

KOSINSKI: I was like, wait, wait, Berman?

BERMAN: You appreciate that Ted Cruz really does like cheese. I'm not making that up. Ted Cruz is a cheese lover, so for him to bring out cheese on the stump like that is a big move right there, Tom.

KOSINSKI: Such knowledge.

BERMAN: What about Donald Trump, though? On the one hand he's attacking the delegate system. On the other hand he clearly seems to have a little bit of a new focus going forward strategically. He's all in in New York with the hope that a big win here in New York could maybe right the ship a little bit in terms of the hunt for 1,237 delegates.

LOBIANCO: Yes, he's really got to get to 1,237 before the convention in Cleveland if he wants to lock this thing up. A contested convention does not look good for him, and if he can lock that in beforehand he'll be good. He's very likely to get the nomination. He needs to get above 50 percent in New York in order to make that happen. That's just the key benchmark here.

You know, it's interesting about Cruz is that there's the primary and then a lot of these convention wranglers -- your delegate wranglers. People who've done this before will tell you that there's the primary after the primary, which are these state conventions. These congressional district conventions where they're selecting who the actual delegates are. And what's funny about that is that Trump doesn't show up to these but Ted Cruz does. Cruz did Colorado last weekend, and he did North Dakota the weekend before that, and he's going to be doing Wyoming this weekend in person, with these Republican activists. A lot of these people are already pre-dedicated to him.

You don't see that as much with the Trump and the Kasich delegates, but more so with the Cruz folks, and that just really reinforces it. So, if Trump cannot clear that 1,237 he's in some very troubled waters in the national convention.

KOSINSKI: Yes, it really seems like every day now the rhetoric is the headline. It ratchets up every day. The words get nastier. Would you say, Tom, that this has officially gotten ugly? I mean, it's not just the Republicans with the attacks now, it's the Democrats. And if that's the way it is now, what is this going to look like in two or three months' time?

[05:40:00] LOBIANCO: Well -- boy, these conventions -- both conventions look like they're going to be real big battles because very rarely does it ever get this close to the convention without having a presumptive nominee in place already.

Going back to Trump talking about the Walker, Kasich, Rubio as potential V.P. picks, you could see him trying to go in and if he doesn't have the delegates that he needs, trying to get them by picking off Kasich or picking off Rubio.

If he could cut a deal to get to that 1,237 by naming his V.P. before the actual convention -- I mean, these are tactics from Lincoln's era. From when you used to have big convention battles. This is stuff they used to do in 1948, the last time you had a really big contested Republican convention. And the same is true on the Democratic side. This thing will be fought all the way to Philadelphia there.

BERMAN: All right, Tom LoBianco's predictions right there. Thanks so much, Tom.

KOSINSKI: I think we need to ramp up our language and our choice of words just so we can keep up. Anyway, there's dramatic new video surfacing this morning moments after former New Orleans Saints star Will Smith was shot and killed. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:45:00 KOSINSKI: The suspect in the apparent road rage shooting death of former NFL star Will Smith claims police have the story all wrong. (Video playing) You're looking here at new cell phone video from the crime scene Saturday night moments after Smith was allegedly shot and killed by 28-year-old Cardell Hayes.

Police say Hayes rear-ended Smith's SUV, then shot the ex-New Orleans Saints lineman after an argument broke out. But now an attorney for Hayes claims his client was the victim of a hit and run, insisting Smith was the aggressor.

We get more now from CNN's Jean Casarez.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Michelle, Cardell Hayes remains on $1 million bail this morning. The alleged facts of what happened this weekend are fairly simple. We do know that NFL former football player Will Smith and his wife had dinner with friends Saturday night at a restaurant in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

They left the restaurant about 11:15 p.m. and police say it was only about 10 blocks away from the restaurant when a vehicle rammed into, from the rear, their Mercedes SUV. Police say that words were exchanged but they also say that what happened was that Cardell Hayes took a small gun out of his vehicle and began to shoot multiple times, Will Smith, killing him at the scene. His wife was shot in the leg. She was taken to the hospital.

Will Smith was drafted in 2004 for the NFL. He played his entire career with the New Orleans Saints. He was actually with them when they won the Super Bowl in 2010, and he had received knowledge that he was going to be inducted this year into the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame -- John, Michelle.

BERMAN: All right, Jean, thanks so much. Joining us now for an EARLY START on your money, Alison Kosik.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to both of you, and I'm seeing a lot of red arrows around the world. Asian stocks closed mostly lower. European markets are in the red. So are U.S. stock futures. Stocks actually kicked off the week on a bad note. Yesterday, the Dow lost 21 points. That's about .1 percent. The S&P 500, the Nasdaq, also closed lower yesterday and actually that lower close for the S&P 500 -- that puts the Index back in negative territory for the year.

Happy equal pay day. Today marks how long into the year women need to work until their earnings can catch up to what full-time working men earned last year, meaning women have to work an extra four months just to make what men do. On average, women earn 79 cents for every dollar a man earns and that number, unfortunately, hasn't moved much since 2000.

African-American women and Hispanic women -- they earn even less. And that pay gap -- it actually quickly adds up. Women earn almost $11,000 a year less than men. That works out to be about $900 per month. Interestingly enough, when women and men start out in the workforce they actually wind up making the same, but it's maternity leave and it's women failing to ask for a higher salary that helps extend that pay gap.

BERMAN: The president intends to give a speech about that today at about 11:15. It will be interestingto hear what he has to say, Alison. Thanks so much.

KOSIK: You got it.

KOSINSKI: Thanks, Alison.

BERMAN: Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Chris Cuomo joins us now. Good morning, sir.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Michelle Kosinski, Berman, good morning. Donald Trump not backing down from his criticism of the Republican delegate selection process, calling it crooked and rigged. Meantime, John Kasich, in the first of three CNN family town halls, says he's not dropping out, he's getting stronger. And what until you hear what he says about being vice president.

We're breaking it all down with former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani. Why he says he is voting for, but not endorsing, Donald Trump.

We're also going to be following a controversial prisoner release in California. Then-governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, commuted the manslaughter sentence of his friend's son. He's now out of prison. We're talking to the parents of the victim. Do they feel cheated out of justice? Always an important question. We'll take it on here on "NEW DAY", brother and sister.

BERMAN: Interesting discussion. Thanks so much, Chris.

KOSINSKI: Thanks, Chris.

BERMAN: All right, so are you a Starbucks rewards member, and how many rewards does it take to fly? Things are about to change for you starting today. An early start on your money, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:54:00] BERMAN: We have an important CNN exclusive right now. Two rugged former Taliban fighters -- they turned to ISIS, then defected. Now, they're speaking only to CNN. They describe the terror group's tactics as too brutal to handle and the ISIS promises to help ordinary Afghans empty.

I want to bring in CNN's senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, live for us from Kabul. Nick, you spoke to these men face-to- face. They have a fascinating story to tell.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: These mean are far from gentle -- former Taliban fighters, killers themselves. But when their Taliban group was under pressure and a lot of Taliban infighting has happened in the past year, people came across the border from Pakistan. Hardened radical militants under the ISIS flag, and basically said join us or face the consequences. That's what they say.

Anyway, they took that choice and soon saw that ISIS were after their own warped ideology, after money, and in their eyes too brutal. They described the beheadings that they saw and also how those who were relatives of fighters who died weren't given up to that person's family to look after, but in fact, put them in an ISIS camp.

That was enough for these two hardened men to decide that they'd chosen the wrong side. They defected, and now they're working with the Afghan government in a program called the popular uprising program, and that's a bid to get lots of local militants and militia together to kick ISIS out of those areas.

It's working quite a lot in some territory, and it's also backed up by a lot of American firepower. ISIS are, to some degree, on the decline in the east of the country from where they were last year because of drone attacks hitting them again and again, and also some method on the ground by the Afghan military.

But they're still there. They're popping up in other areas, too. And it is staggering, frankly, to see that there are men like these two we interviewed -- former Taliban, once attacked by American airpower, now hoping American airpower will hit their own villages because their homes have ISIS living in them and they want to see those ISIS fighters dead.

That just shows you how chaotic and pragmatic the war in Afghanistan has been here and, frankly, ISIS has been a big distraction to Afghan and American security forces here that are willing to take root in the countries east.

But there's a risk of that still happening and it's distracting their resources from the more important, longer-term fight against the Taliban, who announced today that what they call the fighting season has begun. That's the more violent warm summer months. All these violent months in the past, it could get worse -- John.

BERMAN: There's so many shifting allegiances there but, as you say, one of the most significant developments, the timing here. The fighting season, as the Taliban says, has now begun. Nick Paton Walsh for us in Kabul. Thanks so much.

All right, joining us now for an EARLY START on your money, Alison Kosik -- Alison.

KOSIK: Good morning, and it's looking like sort of a rough start to the day, seeing a lot of red arrows around the world. The Asian stocks closed mostly lower. European markets are in the red. So are U.S. stock futures. And, actually, stocks kicked off the week on a bad note. The Dow lost 21 points. That's about .1 percent. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also closed lower yesterday. And you look at how the S&P 500 did yesterday closing lower, well it's back in negative territory for the year.

Verizon workers are planning to strike. Almost 40,000 Verizon employees all the way from Massachusetts to Virginia. They're preparing to walk off the job tomorrow morning. They want a new contract that limits outsourcing, increases pay, and improves working conditions. But, Verizon says they need more flexibility to manage the business, especially as the number of people who use landlines decreases.

So you like going to Starbucks and getting those rewards? Well, beginning today it's going to be a little harder for you to get that free drink. The coffee store's rewards will be based on how much customers spend, not how many times they buy things. So, instead of earning one star per visit, you're going to get two stars for every dollar you spend, so you'll have to spend about $63 dollars or 125 stars just to get your free reward. Under the old plan it took only about 12 stars.

So this is good news for latte drinkers, though, who spend more money at Starbucks. They're going to be earning their rewards much more quickly than customers who buy those plain coffees. You know, it's all about the almighty dollar to get those rewards.

BERMAN: Venti Macchiatos -- they add up. You'll get there pretty quickly.

KOSIK: I hear you.

BERMAN: All right, Alison, thanks so much.

KOSIK: You got it.

BERMAN: Donald Trump -- he claims the rules are rigged. He doesn't like the delegate selection process and he's complaining about it, blasting the party hard. Now, the party chair blasting back.

"NEW DAY" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not going to be anybody's vice president.

TRUMP: It's a rigged, disgusting, dirty system.

CRUZ: When people vote against him they're stealing the election. It's a really odd notion.

J. KASICH: They're too divisive, they're too negative. It's very hard to turn negatives around.

TRUMP: Did we do the pledge?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have noticed that under the bright spotlight, Sen. Sanders has had trouble answering questions.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Secretary Clinton and I have some very strong differences of opinion.

CLINTON: New York values are not just good for New York, they're good for America.

SANDERS: I will be damned if we're going to see the American dream die.

CASAREZ: Former Saints football player, Will Smith, gunned down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some guy was pretty frantic. It looked like things were escalating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a real tragedy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your new day. It is Tuesday, April 12th, now 6:00 in the east. The fix is in. Donald Trump insisting the Republican Party's delegate system is rigged. That's his word. Why? Because Colorado awarded all of its delegates to Cruz without a single vote being cast.

Cruz firing back, accusing Trump of whining. But the biggest prediction yet, I will win it in three. That's Ohio Gov. John Kasich saying at the CNN Town Hall last night that this race isn't going to be decided until the convention and he will win it in the third round vote.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sharpening their attacks against each other just two days ahead of the critical CNN debate in Brooklyn. We've got this 2016 race covered the way only CNN can. Let's begin with Phil Mattingly. Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn. Well, they are the rules. You might not like the rules, you might attack the rules, but most of the state Republican parties set them last year. Some of these rules have been guiding the national Republican Party for decades.