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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump on the Defensive; Clinton and Sanders Hit the Campaign Trail; ISIS Attacks Baghdad Gas Plant; Trump Breaks with Obama on Brexit; Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired May 16, 2016 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:19] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump on defense as new reports about his past raise new questions about how he does business and how he treats women.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Clinton and Sanders battling ahead of Tuesday's contest in Kentucky and Oregon. The heated rhetoric coming from the candidates and their supporters.
BERMAN: More than 100 people dead in just the past few days. ISIS claims responsibility for violence rocking Iraq.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: Nice to see you all this morning. I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, May 16th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.
Up first, a rough weekend for Donald Trump capped off by a parting shot by President Obama. Trump still denying he posed as his own PR man decades ago. Now fighting back against the "New York Times" report about his past behavior with men. A report Trump calls a hit piece. And listen to President Obama take a not-so-veiled swipe at Trump at a commencement address at Rutgers University Sunday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. It is not cool to not know what you're talking about. That's not keeping it real or telling it like it is. That's not challenging political correctness. That's just not knowing what you're talking about and yet we become confused about this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: There's a lot more where that came from.
The "Dump Trump" movement is still very much alive within the GOP. Some conservatives are still trying to recruit an independent candidate. Even Mark Cuban claims he was approached. And while he thinks it would be fun he says to tangle with Trump, Cuban says it's just too late to step in.
More now from CNN's Kristen Holmes. KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: John and Christine, Donald
Trump wrapped up a week spent on the defensive here at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, where he watched his youngest daughter, Tiffany, graduate.
The presumptive GOP nominee's efforts to unite his party were clouded after audio released in "The Washington Post" questioned whether or not the billionaire had posed as his own spokesperson in 1991 in order to talk to reporters about his love life. Trump denies allegations that it's his voice on the tape.
The Trump campaign is also under fire over Trump's refusal to release his tax returns. He says he will not release those returns until an audit is complete.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CONVENTION MANAGER: He has said he will release his tax returns. Never has changed his position. What he has said is he's under audit now and once the audit is completed he will release the tax returns.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": Why not release the ones from before the audit? Why not release? If 2015 -- first of all, the IRS says you can release them to the public even if they're under audit.
MANAFORT: And --
TAPPER: But why not release 2014, 2013, 2012 and just put this issue to rest?
MANAFORT: Well, as I understand it the audit is going on for the last eight years, so going back eight years' worth of tax returns. And anything beyond eight years is not going to be reflective of anything other than interest on the part of the media.
TAPPER: You're saying that the audit is for eight years' worth of returns?
MANAFORT: That's what I'm led to believe, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: While more and more Republicans are gathering behind Trump, not all are convinced. Some conservatives still looking for an independent candidate that might go up against Trump in November. Ryan and Trump aides will sit down together as the campaign continues its efforts to unite the party -- John and Christine.
BERMAN: Those third party searches, though, everyone involved admitting they are running out of options. They're having a hard time finding anyone to come forward.
Three minutes after the hour, Donald Trump sounding warnings about the risk of a 9/11 style attack. He says if the U.S. keeps allowing Syrians refugees into the country, it is courting disaster. He made these comments in an interview with the National Border Patrol Council.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bad things will happen. A lot of bad things will happen. There will be attacks that you wouldn't believe. There will be attacks by the people that are right coming into our country because I have no doubt in my mind. I mean you look at it, they have cell phones. So they don't have money, they don't have anything. They have cell phone. Who pays their monthly charges, right? They have cell phones with the flags, the ISIS flags on them. And then we're supposed to say, isn't this wonderful that we're taking them in?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: The union for the National Border Control Agents had never endorsed a presidential candidate until it announced in March that it is backing Trump.
ROMANS: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigning hard ahead of primary contests in Oregon and Kentucky on Tuesday. Over the weekend, Nevada allocated its Democratic delegates with 20 going to Clinton, 15 to Sanders. And things went downhill from there.
Sanders supporters outraged by a delegate system in Nevada that they claim was rigged in Clinton's favor.
[04:05:03] Things so unruly police were called in. And then security at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, they finally kicked everyone out.
We get more from CNN's Scott McLean.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, good morning. Despite the fact that Hillary Clinton has a nearly insurmountable lead in the Democratic delegate race, she's campaigning hard in Kentucky. She had four events there on Sunday and will have another three today. Clinton has lost two states in a row to Bernie Sanders and wants to make sure Kentucky isn't number three.
Now while she's still battling Sanders, enemy number one is Donald Trump. Clinton went after him for his recent suggestion that he would be open to allowing Japan and South Korea to have their own nuclear weapons to protect themselves from North Korean aggression.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And along comes Donald Trump and says, well, he doesn't really care. Let them all have nuclear weapons. He says he would use nuclear weapons. This is -- this is scary, dangerous talk. This is the talk of a loose cannon who is making statements and creating confusion. We can't afford that.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MCLEAN: Sanders was also in Kentucky yesterday. Again making the case that he is the stronger candidate to take on Trump in the general.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All of the polling that is out there, in virtually every national poll and in every statewide poll, we do much better against Trump than does Secretary Clinton.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLEAN: Now Clinton does have work to do in the bluegrass state. Controversial comments she made about coal miners in March have made Kentucky's coal country hostile territory for her despite an apology. Sunday she made sure to point out that she has a plan to make sure that coal miners are not left behind in the future. Today Bernie Sanders is heading to Puerto Rico even though it doesn't vote for another three weeks -- John, Christine.
BERMAN: All right. Scott McLean, thanks so much.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will meet Wednesday with prominent members of the conservative media including Glenn Beck and Dana Perino. Zuckerberg says he will address claims by former Facebook employees that the company suppressed conservative news stories at its trending section. Facebook officials have already stated publicly that an internal investigation has turned up no evidence to back up those claims.
ROMANS: Donald Trump is now ramping up fundraising ahead of the general election. Trump could not self-fund his campaign even if he wanted to because he doesn't have the cash flow to do it. Now that's according to analysis from the "Wall Street Journal." Trump says he'll need $1 billion to fund his bid for the White House. That's more than the $775 million President Obama spent on his reelection campaign in 2012. It's more than double what Mitt Romney spent during that election. Trump will be in New Jersey this week raising money for the state's Republican Party and for supporter and Governor Chris Christie.
He's also hired a Goldman Sachs veteran as a new finance chief who spent a day in Las Vegas last week courting big donors. So far Trump has loaned himself more than $36 million. He has raised $12 million from individual donors and spent nearly all of that money.
BERMAN: He has said, by the way, not going to pay himself back. There was some controversy last week because there were reports that he wouldn't, you know, say assertively that I may not just take some of these donations back. Now he says no, he's going to loan that campaign. It's spent. It's done. It's gone.
All right. Eight minutes after the hour, "Captain America Civil War" conquers the box office again. The Marvel superhero epic earned about $72.6 million over the weekend. It has already brought in $940 million worldwide.
ROMANS: Wow.
BERMAN: Which is a lot. "Jungle Book" held on in second place, $17.8 million. And George Clooney and Julia Roberts, their film, "Money Monster" was the highest grossing new film and earned $15 million.
ROMANS: All right. Fire in the sky over Baghdad. ISIS militants storming a gas plant in a latest attack on that city. We got that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:12:54] BERMAN: All right. This morning, ISIS is claiming responsibility for an assault on a gas plant in Baghdad. A total of 10 people, seven police officers and three guards, were two suicide car bombs barrel through.
CNN's Jomana Karadsheh tracking the latest developments for us from Amman in Jordan.
Jomana, what are you learning?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, according to security officials in Iraq, at about 5:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, ISIS launched attack on the gas plant in Taji. That's in the northern outskirts of Baghdad. The first suicide car bomber struck at the entrance of the plant. Opening the way for a second suicide car bomber to detonate inside that facility. And it was followed by a number of militants. At least six who made their way into the gas plant and clashes broke out for several hours between security forces who managed to finally, after a few hours, to repel this attack by the ISIS militants. Now the Baghdad governor was very critical of authorities saying that the security forces at this facility were poorly armed -- inadequately armed with light weapons and the quick reaction force took more than two hours to arrive.
But this is not an isolated incident. This is the latest in a series of these attacks that we are seeing. High-profile attacks that have been taking place in Iraq over the past couple of weeks claimed by ISIS. The concern of course is coming during that political crisis in the country. Many are concerned that ISIS is exploiting this to try and reignite the sectarian war in the country. But U.S. and Iraqi officials are saying that this is ISIS reacting to recent losses.
Brett McGurk, President Obama's special envoy for the Global Coalition Against ISIS, was here in Amman and he addressed these recent attacks. Here is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRETT MCGURK, SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY FOR THE GLOBAL COALITION TO COUNTER ISIL: And now, the caliphate, as they call it, this perverse caliphate, is shrinking. So they are very much on the defensive. They have not retaken any territory, really, since their operations in Ramadi, going all the way back to May. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KARADSHEH: And U.S. officials say that ISIS has lost 45 percent of its territory that it controlled ones in Iraq and 20 percent in Syria, but as we've seen over the past couple of weeks, John, it still has the ability to carry out these deadly and devastating attacks nearly on a daily basis.
[04:15:09] BERMAN: And it still holds the second largest city in Iraq, Mosul.
Jomana Karadsheh for us in Jordan. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: George Zimmerman now trying to sell the gun he used to kill Trayvon Martin for a third time. The owner of the auction site telling CNN the listing is expected to go live at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday with a starting price of $100,000 and a buy it now price of $500,000. Zimmerman's previous attempt was hijacked by fake accounts posting insanely high bids hitting $65 million at one point Friday.
ROMANS: NTSB investigators are now on the scene of a deadly charter bus crash in south Texas. Eight people were killed, 44 others injured when the bus veered off a highway and rolled over Saturday 45 miles north of Laredo. OGA Charters was ordered twice in 2015 to remove one of their buses from service because of brake problems. It is not clear if that is the same bus that crashed this weekend.
ROMANS: The Coast Guard is suspending the search for a cruise ship passenger who fell overboard. The Carnival says video from its Liberty cruise ship appears to show 33-year-old Samantha Broger climbing up on a deck railing, sitting then falling backward into the Gulf of Mexico early on Friday morning. Coast Guard planes from Alabama and Texas covered a combined search area of more than 4300 square miles in their search for her.
BERMAN: A woman in South Florida attacked by a shark managed to make it back to dry land. There is a twist to this. The shark would not let go. Look at this. The two-foot nurse shark clamped down on all its form. It stayed clamped even after it died. The shark died. It was still biting this woman. The 23-year-old woman was sent to the hospital with the shark still attached. She is said to be in stable condition.
ROMANS: That's the stuff of nightmares. It's right there. Wow.
BERMAN: I'm having one right now.
ROMANS: Heavy flooding, a big threat to the Gulf Coast states and an increased risk of severe storms today.
Let's get the latest from meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John and Christine, good morning to you both.
(WEATHER REPORT) JAVAHERI: Guys?
BERMAN: All right, Pedram. Thanks so much.
And we are getting word right now that just over the last two minutes there have been a series of water rescues launched in Corpus Christi. So some serious flash flooding happening right now on the Texas coast. We'll keep you updated on what happens there as soon as we can.
All right, Donald Trump with a surprising interview about what the United States should do overseas dealing with a key European ally. Is this businessman shaking up the business of the U.S.? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:23:10] BERMAN: New this morning, Donald Trump says if he becomes president, brings trade status with the United States would not be hurt at all if Britain decides to leave the European Union. Just last month President Obama warned British officials they would move to the back of the queue and trade negotiations if they backed out of the EU. This a really hot subject right now in England as well as the entire European community. But Trump says he will treat the Brits fantastically whether they stay or go.
Let's go live to London and bring in CNN's Nic Robertson.
Nic, all of a sudden this is a very contentious issue. It's been that way for a long time in the U.K. but now, you know, U.S. politicians are being drawn in.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Absolutely. And I think the British people here, they are getting to hear for the first time really what Donald Trump as a president might mean for them and for the -- this very intense campaign that's going on right now in the U.K. for whether Britain should remain in the European Union or the leave the European Union.
What he said here may be very, very welcome for all those politicians who are saying, hey, no, President Obama, when he came here and said that we would have to go to the back of the line to negotiate a trade deal with the United States if Britain left. This is going to be a very, very welcomed news for them. This is what Donald Trump said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I just speak for myself. I don't want anybody to even, you know, change their opinion. Personally, I wouldn't do it. I mean, a lot of the migration and a lot of the acceptance of people is because of the European Union. I think that's been a disaster.
PIERS MORGAN, "GOOD MORNING BRITAIN": So you would prefer Britain, personally, to pull out? TRUMP: Me, I have no preference. I'm -- you know, I have big
investments in Britain, but I have no preference. I think if I were from Britain I would probably not want it. I'd want to go back to a different system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Now there were a couple of rather insights there as well that will be interesting for the British people. He said that his relationship with David Cameron, the prime minister, wasn't or would not likely be a particularly good one.
[04:25:08] He was very critical of the new Muslim mayor in London, Sadiq Khan. Sadiq Khan has criticized Donald Trump in the past. Trump was asked about that in the interview. And he said look, Sadiq is being nasty. Let's judge him on how he performs as a mayor. But there was -- there were very interesting -- something interesting here for the British people to wake up and hear this morning from the potential new president in the United States.
BERMAN: Yes. Very interesting. All right, Nic Robertson for us. Thanks so much, Nic.
ROMANS: A suspicious device that forced the cancellation of a Manchester United soccer match on Sunday turned out to be a harmless training device, A training device left behind in a bathroom by a private security firm that was working with bomb-sniffing dogs. The discovery forced the evacuation of Old Trafford Stadium moments before a key match with AFC Bournemouth? I think that's how you say it. The game has been rescheduled for tomorrow night.
BERMAN: Well done.
All right. New details about how Donald Trump does business and treats women. Some really interesting reports out over the weekend. What will this mean on the campaign trail this morning? We'll tell you next.
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