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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Primary Day in West Virginia, Nebraska; Civil War in the GOP; Sanders Versus Clinton; Deadly Tornadoes Rip Across Plains. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 10, 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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[04:30:29] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. In just a couple hours, voters head to the polls in West Virginia and Nebraska. Now, the Republicans have their presumptive nominee. Doesn't mean party leaders are happy about it. Can Donald Trump end this rift in the Republican Party?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Close race in West Virginia between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Could today's primary hurt Clinton's chances of the nomination?

BERMAN: Deadly tornadoes rip across the plains. Homes, buildings obliterated, and more severe weather headed to the region.

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

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is about 31 minutes past the hour this Tuesday morning.

Breaking overnight. At least two people are dead after tornadoes tear across Oklahoma. Look at that twister. Destroying homes, flattening entire neighborhoods. We are gathering the latest information. We're going to have an update from the scene in just a few minutes.

BERMAN: On Twitter last night, I was getting updates from Oklahoma, because I was assigned up from covering tornadoes in the past. And they were saying, this is serious. This is no joke. You know, take cover. Take cover. There are high levels of concerns over those storms. We're going to get back to that in a minute.

But first, in just hours, voters from both parties head to the polls in West Virginia and Nebraska. It's Republicans only, in what is now essentially an uncontested primary. This morning, the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, he's likely getting ready for meetings on Capitol Hill set for this Thursday.

Now, Trump supporter, Ben Carson, a surgeon, is now working as an advance man. He wants a preliminary meeting with Paul Ryan before Donald Trump sits down with the House speaker. Both Trump and Ryan now seem to be trying a more conciliatory tone. This after Ryan first stated he's not ready to support Trump. Then Trump suggested he is open to dumping Ryan as chairman of the convention. Now, they are both playing nicer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've always liked him. He called me not so long ago, I don't know, a number of weeks ago, but he called me and he was very supportive, was very nice. I thought everything was fine and then, I got blindsided. So, we'll see. I mean, look, I'll see what happens.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: If he is the nominee, I'll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention. The point is, we just need to get to know each other and my goal is to help put together a unified party that sticks to our principles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Trump is getting a bit of a chilly reception from lawmakers returning to Capitol Hill for the first time there's been a presumptive Republican nominee.

Let's get to CNN's Sara Murray.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

Well, West Virginia and Nebraska have their Republican primaries today. But it's a whole lot less exciting on the Republican side as Donald Trump is the only candidate left in the race. Now, as he settles in to becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, he is still giving some members of the Republican Party heartburn, economists and experts sort of raised their eyebrows as Donald Trump has taken a number of different positions on debt lately, at one point suggesting that maybe the U.S. wouldn't make debt payments in full if you were president. He flipped up on the minimum wage and said there's plenty of room to negotiate when it comes to his tax proposals.

INTERVIEWER: Do you want taxes to go up or down?

TRUMP: They will go up a little bit and they may go up, you know --

INTERVIEWER: But they are going down in your plan.

TRUMP: No, no, in my plan, they're going down. But by the time, it's negotiated, they'll go up.

If I increase for the wealthy, that means they are still going to be paying less than they pay now. I'm not talking about increasing from this point. I'm talking about increasing from my tax proposal.

MURRAY: Now, all of this could make it tougher for Donald Trump to reach unity within the Republican Party. And as of now, the next chapter of that will come later this week. He's schedule to meet with Paul Ryan on Thursday in Washington, D.C. Who knows? Maybe the debt and the federal budget will be at the top of this list. We know that has been high on Paul Ryan's priority. Back to you guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Getting a lot of attention his economic policies and his comments about them, evolving comments about them.

All right. Donald Trump telling "The New York Times." he is happy that London elected the first Muslim mayor. . He says Mayor-elect Sadiq Khan could be an exception to his proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering United States. Trump's enthusiasm does not seem mutual. Khan told "TIME" magazine right after his election, "If Donald Trump becomes, I'll be stopped from going there by virtue of my faith, which means I can't engage with American mayors and swap ideas."

BERMAN: New attacks from Donald Trump directed at Hillary Clinton over the issue of Bill Clinton's infidelity. Trump suggests that Hillary Clinton has no credibility to question Trump's own treatment of women.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He was impeached. He was impeached, and then he lied about it.

[04:35:01] He said nothing happened with Monica Lewinsky. And then he said, sorry, folks, it actually did happen. And the guy was impeached for lying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Clinton is firmly rejecting any effort to draw her into this whole discussion. This as she keeps up her battle against Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. Clinton enters today's primary in West Virginia primary as an underdog. This afternoon CNN town hall last month when she said was going to, quote, "put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."

Jeff Zeleny has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, another election day. Today, West Virginia, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders still facing off head to head. But Hillary Clinton focusing on a different Virginia, the northern suburbs of Virginia, a key election battle ground in the fall campaign.

She's already looking forward to the general election battle with fall against Donald Trump. Now, Donald Trump has been trying to engage her. He's called her an enabler. He said that she was actually disrespectful of women some 20 years ago. Of course, all those women form Bill Clinton sex scandals, the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Now, Hillary Clinton not being drawn into this at all. We caught up with her on Monday in northern Virginia to ask how she'll respond.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm answering him on what voters care about. I'm answering him on the differences between our records, our experience, what we want to do for our country. How important it is to try to unify the country and I have been very clear that a lot of his rhetoric is not only reckless, it's dangerous.

ZELENY: Repeatedly, Hillary Clinton saying she has nothing to say about that. She wants to focus on issues alone.

Of course, the audience for this: women voters. Pivotal women voters, the most critical piece of this electorate.

Now, Donald Trump believes this is the way to win over women voters. Democrats disagree. The Clinton believes this is playing into the Democrats hands. They believe it emboldens her and enhances her. That, of course, is an open question here.

But Hillary Clinton not responding. The question we don't know is, how will Bill Clinton respond? Will he be engaged in this? Will he be able to stay out of the fray on this? That's something we'll have to watch for as he is campaigning.

But all eyes tonight on West Virginia to see if Bernie Sanders will continue his most recent winning streak. Again, it doesn't matter, though, the delegate fight is in Hillary Clinton's favor -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Facebook under the microscope this morning for alleged political bias. An anonymous former contractor for the social media giant told the tech site Gizmodo that he witnessed co-workers suppressed stories about popular conservative topics from Facebook's trending topics section. Facebook rejected this charge in a series of statement, saying it takes allegations of bias very seriously and that there is no evidence of what that was the former worker described actually happened. If it had happened, it would have violated company guidelines.

ROMANS: Donald Trump says he is concerned about the middle class, but his tax plan would give the wealthy much bigger breaks. Trump stirred up a fire storm when he said the taxes for the wealthy would likely go up during negotiations with Congress. Now, he later clarified he is open to raising the top rate for the rich, but they would still pay less than they do now.

So, digging into Trump's proposal here. Trump's proposal cuts the current seven tax brackets down to four. Individuals making less than $25,000 a year would pay no income tax. Middle income earners would pay 10 percent to 20 percent. That would their tax bracket. And those making more than $150,000, would pay the top rate of 25 percent.

Now, that top rate, 25 percent, is a significant drop from the current 39.6 percent. Trump would also eliminate the estate tax which effects the very wealthy and he would end the alternative minimum tax, which is applied to many affluent families.

Some of the tax analysts looking at this and saying the rich actually get a pretty big tax cut under a President Trump. A bigger tax cut than the middle class. He is concerned about the middle class. A tax cut for everyone. But it is the very rich seeing the biggest tax cuts.

BERMAN: All right. Tornadoes tearing across the plains. Two dead. Homes and buildings destroyed. Terrifying pictures and more severe weather could be on the way. That's next.

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[04:43:24] BERMAN: All right. At least two people are dead after a tornado outbreak tore across the Great Plains. Look at this. Look at this twister just carving its way through Elmore City, Oklahoma. There's huge concern yesterday. Emergency alerts going throughout the entire region telling people to get off the roads and take cover. Those folks not getting off the roads.

Romans, who has lived through many a tornado in her native Iowa, says it is common to be on the road like this. You know, you can look like you're trying to get away. It looks like you are driving toward it as you are driving away. Let's hope that's what those people are doing out there on those cars. They seem awfully close to that tornado.

This is one of the cities where forecasters declared warnings, meaning the tornado had been spotted. So much destruction. All these neighborhoods just ripped to shreds.

ROMANS: Is there more severe weather ahead today? We want to get straight to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for that.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John and Christine, yes, this is a multi-day event. So, we think a couple more days of severe weather.

I want to share the photos from Lincoln, Nebraska, on Monday. Look at these baseball-sized hail stones that left damage on top of the Nebraska state patrol vehicle. They posted the vehicles, cruisers are not immune to the severe weather across the region, where we had almost 100 severe hail reports and more than 120 severe weather reports coming in across the central U.S.

Of course, several of them getting up to this impressive video where we had wedge tornadoes on the ground among the top of the charts there. Notice thunderstorms begin to blossom into the afternoon hours. I think parts of the Tennessee Valley and main threat zones like Louisville and Nashville, as well work your way to the south.

Dallas and Austin could see some severe storms.

[04:45:02] I think the vast majority concern for winds and hail, as opposed to tornadoes. But we introduce the risk of tornadoes there some time on Wednesday afternoon, places like Springfield, St. Louis, Joplin and OKC would be in line for that Wednesday afternoon. So, here's what it look like as far as the temperatures. How about 94 in Dallas by this afternoon? Temps in St. Louis, 80 degrees in New York City. A crisp, mild 61 degree afternoon, guys.

BERMAN: All right. Pedram, thanks so much.

Firefighters in Alberta, Canada, still struggling to contain a devastating wildfire that's already destroyed 2,400 buildings and homes. Four hundred thousand acres of have burned. More than 90,000 people evacuated.

Now, the good news is the daytime temperatures are cooling and the humidity is up. This gives firefighters a chance to battle the blaze, but it's really little comfort for the evacuees who are not being told when they cannot return home or whether they still have homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELISSA GALANT, EVACUEE: We don't know when we can go back and you don't know when you're going to see our kids again. It's tough. You just try to do the best you can. Just try to stay positive and just tell them that everything's going to be OK. But, really, you don't know if everything's going to be OK. It's emotional for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Authorities say 10 percent of the town of Fort McMurray is gone, burned to the ground.

Let's get more now from CNN's Dan Simon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, I have covered a lot of wildfires and this right up there with some of the worst destruction I had ever seen. The first neighborhoods I went to is called Beacon Hill, sort of your typical middle class neighborhood with dozens if not hundreds of home. I didn't see a single home left standing. Same of the second neighborhood I went to. Homes burned down to their foundations, lots of twisted metal and wreckage, burned out cars, things of that nature.

Another thing that stood out as I was driving around town is the burned out landscape. Alberta is pretty this time of year with lots of lush greenery and it became clear immediately that it's going to take a long time for those trees to come back -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Dan Simon, thank you for that.

New dueling lawsuits between the federal government and North Carolina over the state's new bathroom law in the state. Attorney General Loretta Lynch says trying to force trans genders to use the bathrooms that corresponded to the sex on their birth certificates is the civil rights struggle of this era. She calls the measure state sponsored discrimination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORETTA LYNCH, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The legislature and the governor placed North Carolina in direct opposition to federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex and gender identity. More to the point, they created state-sponsored discrimination against transgender individuals who simply seek to engage in the most private of functions in a place of safety and security, a right taken for granted by most of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: North Carolina's public university system is splitting with its state government. It is defying this bathroom measure. It has told the Justice Department it intends to do business complying with federal law and not with state law.

More now from CNN's Martin Savidge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Good morning, Christine.

You know, Monday was supposed to be the deadline when the state of North Carolina was to remedy the violations the U.S. government said it found in the so-called bathroom law. North Carolina didn't make any kind fix. Instead, they filed a lawsuit against the federal government.

They are specifically asking for clarification here. The U.S. government says that that law is a solution of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. North Carolina says that is a gross overreach of federal power here. They believe the transgenders are a kind of protected class. Thereby, their rights aren't being violated by this law. Well, that was how the state filed it suit.

Now, later in the day, we have the U.S. government come forward and file action against North Carolina. And they are basically seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent what they call further violations of federal law and to grant such additional relief, well, essentially, to give the Justice Department a blank check to do whatever it needs to do to bring North Carolina into following the federal law.

Two different opinions here, clearly going to be decided in a federal court. But how high will it go? Some suggested it may go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and that the implications go far beyond North Carolina -- John and Christine.

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BERMAN: It would be very interesting to see how this case winds its way up the system and how quickly as well. All right. We have one programming note. A special "AC360" town hall

tomorrow night on opioid addiction. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins Anderson for "Prescription Addiction: Made in America", this is Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m., right here on CNN.

ROMANS: All right. Stocks have been stalling the past few days, but big-name companies on the move today. Will the market break out of its funk? We're going to get an early start on your money, next.

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[04:54:08] BERMAN: Kim Jong-un has a new title. The North Korean leader was named chairman of the Workers Party in a rare congressional session.

CNN's Will Ripley was one of only a handful of journalists granted access to the first political event of its kind in North Korea in nearly four decades. He joins us now live this morning from Pyongyang.

Will, really interesting sight there.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, John.

North Korea is an interesting place as a journalist. It's also a frustrating place as a journalist because the government controls everywhere we go when we're out trying to shoot stories. We cannot travel freely in this country, and, often, minders are very insistent about where the camera can be pointed, what we can see, what we can't see, although they have no editorial about how we write the story, or what I'm saying to you on live TV right now.

So, covering this Congress, the most important political event in North Korea in 36 years has been difficult for us in the international media because we had no access to the hall other than what we were seeing on state media.

[04:55:05] And we made those complaints known to the authorities. So, yesterday, a group of us, a small group of us were put on a bus. We didn't know where we were going and we ended up after a 90-minute security check right there, looking at the supreme leader of this country, Kim Jong-un, receiving his brand new title from first secretary to chairman of the workers party of Korea. Five thousand people in that room, John, and it was a unanimous vote. Not surprising in this country. Votes are always unanimous.

So, he now has new party leadership and title to push forward with this agenda to develop nuclear weapons and also try to grow this country's economy. But the nuclear program, a main priority of his, a big concern.

And in fact, in the parade that I was at today, a parade to celebrate the promotion. One of the floats in the parade was about the nuclear program. It showed a big nuclear missile with citizens dancing and waving and waving flags and flowers and chanting to their leader, "Long live Kim Jong-un", is what they keep saying -- John. BERMAN: Everything there is so clearly deliberate and intending to

send a message. Will Ripley, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. Breaking overnight, a deadly knife attack near Munich, Germany. One man is dead, three other people injured. Authorities are investigation reports that the suspect shouted "Allahu Akbar", "God is great" in Arabic.

The motive is unknown. The suspect, a young man, is in custody.

BERMAN: Notorious drug king pin El Chapo now a big step closer to being tried in the United States. Mexican judicial council ruled on Monday that Joaquin Guzman can be extradited from Mexico to the United States to face federal trafficking charges. This happened as nearly as next month. But the Mexican newspaper reports his legal team can delay it for a year with appeals.

A chaotic twist to that power struggle in Brazil. The acting house speaker trying to stop tomorrow's impeachment vote in the Senate, saying last month's vote in the House was technically flawed and should not count. Brazil Supreme Court may have to step in. The president, Dilma Rousseff, is accused of breaking Brazil's budget rules by borrowing money from state banks to fill the budget gap.

You know, tough times in Brazil. Battling Zika outbreak with the Olympics coming. Political mayhem. Budget in crisis. Economy in slowdown. Yikes!

ROMANS: Everything has changed dramatically in Brazil since they got the Olympics. So interesting.

Let's get an early start on your money. Up arrows across the globe this morning. Dow futures pointing to solid gains at the open. Stock markets in Europe are rising. Shares in Asia posting gains overnight, and oil is higher. Above 43 bucks a barrel.

You know, it's been a relatively calm past few days for stocks. The Dow managing to hold on to gains for the year. The average is up resounding 1.6 percent so far this year. S&P is positive. NASDAQ is still down for the year, down more than 5 percent. Still a lot better than it was back in February.

We are watching shares of McDonald's this morning this morning. The stock hit an all-time high yesterday. It is up more than 10 percent this year, an amazing 55 percent since CEO Steve Easterbrook took over in January.

BERMAN: That is stunning. That is stunning.

ROMANS: Look, he was responsible for revamping the company's menu. All-daybreak fast. I guess the world is bullish on all day breakfast, also, customizable burgers and healthier options.

So, what is next for McDonald's? Expansion in Asia. The company hopes to add more than 1,500 new McDonald's restaurants in China, Hong Kong and Korea over the next five years. McDonald's currently has more than 2,800 locations in these three markets.

But shares of Gap could get crushed today. That stock is down 13 percent in pre-market trading. Gap has plunged 45 percent over the past year for the gap. Sales were down for April and for the firs quarter.

Gap is warning that its next earnings report will likely be disappointing. That's basically reverse of the McDonald's we saw. Most of the company's brands are struggling, including Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy.

You know, increased competition from past fashion brands like H&M, Forever 21, Zara, making the prospects of a turnaround much more difficult. Someone told me this morning that, you know, to get new product into the Banana Republic store takes something like maybe a year. They think have to really far. Past fashion, they're turning stuff out more like quarterly.

BERMAN: Gray days for khaki. You could say, when it comes to the Gap and Banana Republic.

EARLY START continues right now.

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BERMAN: This morning, voters in West Virginia and Nebraska head to the polls. Now, Donald Trump, he's the presumptive nominee already. He seems to have the nomination locked up. It doesn't mean the party likes it. Will the war in the GOP end soon?

ROMANS: Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, the under dog in the West Virginia primary? Could she pull out a win? And how does it matter in the long run?

BERMAN: Stunning pictures from Oklahoma. Two people dead. Homes destroyed. Cars overturned. Tornadoes tear across the Plains overnight. Leaving so much destruction behind.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Tuesday, May 10th. It is 5:00 a.m. on the nose in the East.

Breaking overnight: at least two people are dead after tornadoes tear across Oklahoma.