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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Fires Back at Clinton; Clinton Mocks Trump in Foreign Policy Address; Prince Died of Drug Overdose; Zoo Ramps Up Security Around Gorilla Exhibit; Iraqis Halt Advance Into Fallujah; Aired 4:30- 5a ET
Aired June 03, 2016 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:31:48] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton should be in jail. Leveling new attacks after Clinton's scathing critique of his incoherent foreign policies. Using his own words against him, Clinton calls him too thin skinned to know the nuclear codes and unfit to be president.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: It's getting hot out there.
Breaking news. Five soldiers killed, four more missing as deadly floods ravage parts of Texas. And there is more rain on the way.
ROMANS: And we now know what killed Prince. But the investigation into how he obtained the powerful painkiller 50 times more powerful than heroin. The investigation far from over.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
MARQUEZ: And I am Miguel Marquez, in for John Berman, who's enjoying National Donor Day. It is 32 minutes past the hour.
It is getting very, very ugly out there, folks. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump lashing out at each other on the campaign trail in California. Slinging insults at every turn. Trump hoping to turn the traditionally blue states red in November and he just picked up a key endorsement from Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House. Surprise, surprise. Announcing he is voting for Trump in the fall after an awkward three-week courtship. Awkward indeed.
Meanwhile, more protests at the Trump rally in San Jose last night. American flags and "Make America Great Again" hats set on fire. Pro and anti-Trump demonstrators separated by riot police.
More now on the bitter war of words between candidates from CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, in response to Hillary Clinton's fiery foreign policy speech, Donald Trump blasted right back, accusing the former secretary of state of delivering a political address that had little to do with world affairs.
In her speech, Clinton said that Trump is so dangerous he should not be allowed near the nation's nuclear codes. Trump called those jabs pathetic.
Here's more of what he had to say at a speech in San Jose.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I watched Hillary today. It was pathetic. It was pathetic. It was so sad to watch. And you know, she's up there and it was supposed to be a foreign policy speech. It was a political speech. Had nothing to do with foreign policy. She made a political speech tonight, folks, and it was pretty pathetic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Trump also told the crowd here in San Jose that Clinton should go to jail over her e-mail scandal at the State Department. He did not comment on the judge handling the Trump University case, but he told the "Wall Street Journal" that Judge Gonzalo Curiel has a conflict of interest, he said, because of his Mexican heritage.
Trump did start the event, though, here in San Jose telling the crowd, quote, "We love the Hispanics" -- Miguel and Christine.
MARQUEZ: Thanks to Jim Acosta.
Meanwhile, Trump will meet in New York Monday with Florida Governor Rick Scott. It's being called a strategy session but some people speculate Scott could be a potential running mate. The governor endorsed Trump back in March.
ROMANS: All right. Hillary Clinton delivering that big foreign policy address on Thursday, but felt a lot like a dump Trump rally. Clinton mocking her Republican rival calling him unfit to be anywhere near the nuclear codes. Using his own words against him to show what she called an incoherent foreign policy.
[04:35:03] Now for the former secretary of state this was an aggressive new persona. Four days out from the California primary.
Let's get more from CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. She's in San Diego.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Miguel. This was a character speech, perhaps more than it was a foreign policy speech, a roast, almost at times. Hillary Clinton eliciting boos and cheers and guffaws from this audience here in San Diego as she took aim at Donald Trump on, yes, some foreign policy, but mostly his temperament.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now imagine Donald Trump sitting in the situation room, making life or death decisions on behalf of the United States. Imagine him deciding whether to send your spouses or children into battle. Imagine if he had not just his Twitter account at his disposal when he's angry, but America's entire arsenal.
Do we want him making those calls? Someone thin-skinned and quick to anger, who lashes out at the smallest criticism? Do we want his finger anywhere near the button?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The timing of Hillary Clinton's speech coming as Donald Trump has criticized her on foreign policy, repeatedly using the two words "bad judgment" to talk about her involvement in Libya, her vote on the Iraq war, and also beyond foreign policy, her handling of e-mails while she was secretary of state -- Christine and Miguel.
MARQUEZ: Brianna Keilar, thank you very much.
Bernie Sanders hoping to knock off Hillary Clinton in the California primary next week. He is campaigning hard in the battle ground state trying to flip super delegates already pledged to Clinton. Several have come over to his side this week. Sanders insisting there is still a path to the nomination for him despite how slim it might be, in what he calls an unfair system.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This whole super delegates process frankly is absurd. Hillary Clinton won the support of over 400 super delegates before anybody else was in the race. Eight months before the first ballot was cast in Iowa. Does that make sense to anybody?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: Now even if Sanders wins in California, Clinton is very, very likely to surpass the delegate threshold needed to win the nomination.
ROMANS: The State Department releasing its list of the top terrorism sponsors and Iran is number one. The report also lists ISIS as the greatest threat globally. There were a total of 11,774 terrorist attacks in 92 countries in 2015. Think about it, 11,000 terrorist attacks.
Iran is being singled out by the State Department for providing training, equipment, financial support to a wide range of terror organizations. Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris this morning, meeting with the French Foreign minister to discuss anti-ISIS operations in Iraq and Syria.
MARQUEZ: Breaking news there out of flood-ravaged -- out of floor ravaged Texas. The bodies of two more missing Fort Hood soldiers have been found. That brings the number of casualties to five. The soldiers were killed after their troop carrier overturned during a training exercise Thursday morning. Search teams now combing the scene looking for four more missing soldiers.
Meantime, evacuations are underway in several neighborhoods. This Houston suburb here surrounded by water. Folks there say it is the worst flooding they have ever seen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up to the windows, the water just all the way up to the windows. There's cars floating down the street. Our house getting flooded. I've lived there my whole life. I just -- I don't want our house to be ruined.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: It is really just shocking down there.
Texas expecting more rain this weekend. The critical three days ahead here. Meteorologist Allison Chinchar live for us this morning from the CNN Weather Center. It just looks tough.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It does. And you can tell that when we take a look at the flood watches and warnings.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROMANS: All right, Allison, thank you so much for that. Gosh, well into the weekend before there's relief.
MARQUEZ: Crazy.
ROMANS: All right. Time for an EARLY START on your money. Oil prices heading to $60 a barrel? That is what Saudi Arabia's new oil minister told CNN's John Defterios in an exclusive interview yesterday following an OPEC summit. The world's largest oil-producing nations again decided not to cut production to try to force prices higher.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHALID AL FALIH, MINISTER OF PETROLEUM, SAUDI ARABIA: We came into the meeting feeling very good about the trend of the markets. Supply and demand rebalancing. And we think that the right thing to do is for OPEC to monitor the market and to let that trend continue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: All right. Translation, OPEC will keep pumping while prices slowly rebound and will like take market share from other countries in the process.
So what would $60 a barrel oil mean for you? Higher gas prices. The national average is $2.34 a gallon. That's the highest price this year. The average is up 12 cents from a month ago, but well below what drivers were paying this time last year.
When you hear a Saudi oil minister say gas prices or oil prices are going up, that's a little bit of wishful thinking, too. They really need higher oil prices because --
MARQUEZ: I'm wondering if OPEC matters anymore.
ROMANS: You know, look, people have called the United States Saudi America.
MARQUEZ: Yes.
ROMANS: When the U.S. is producing so much of its own energy so interesting.
MARQUEZ: Amazing.
ROMANS: All right. We now know what killed music icon Prince. The investigation into his death far from over this morning. Details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:45:51] ROMANS: Now we now know Prince died of an accidental drug overdose. The medical examiner reporting the powerful synthetic opioid Fentanyl was found in his system. Federal health officials say that drug is 50 times more powerful than heroin. The question this morning, how did Prince get it?
Here's CNN's Sara Sidner.
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Miguel, what killed Prince is no longer a mystery. It's spelled out in black and white in the Midwest medical examiner's report. It is a page long and gives very sparse details. But it tells us both the cause and manner of death. The manner of death was an accident. They said that he self-administered Fentanyl and that he died from Fentanyl toxicity.
What is Fentanyl? It is the strongest opioid pain killer on the market. It is 100 times -- 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. Fifty times stronger than heroin. So it is an extremely potent drug.
Now the question is, how he got it. Did he have a valid prescription? If he didn't, where did it come from? All of those things is what investigators will be looking at. And law enforcement is still in the throes of this investigation, which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration and of course the local Carver County Sheriff's Department. They are still investigating and have not put up any details on that.
But we now know what took this megastar's life and still dozens of people have been coming out to his Paisley Park compound to say their good-byes. This is not a shocker to a lot of people because of a lot of the things that have been coming out over time, that indeed they found, for example, pain medications on his body and in his home. But certainly this gives an end to exactly what killed Prince, and that was Fentanyl toxicity -- Christine, Miguel.
MARQUEZ: Sara Sidner for us, thank you.
Disturbing new details about the gunman in the murder-suicide at UCLA. Authorities say Mainak Sarkar left behind a kill list. Police say he shot and killed Professor William Klug before turning the gun on himself. He is also suspected in the shooting death of his wife. Authorities say the 38-year-old Sarkar, a former student, also planned to kill another professor. Officials say he had extra ammunition at his home.
An independent review board looking into allegations of police misconduct in Chicago is set to meet privately today with the media. Members of the Independent Police Review Authority will be focusing on the six videos considered the most sensitive and will also be releasing evidence from at least 100 other cases in the coming days. The action comes after city officials waited a year -- a year to release video of the Chicago officer gunning down this black teenager last November.
MARQUEZ: And breaking news overnight. Two military planes crash just hours apart. The pilot of a Blue Angels jet killed during a practice run for a weekend show in Tennessee. A Thunderbird F16 also crashed during a flyover at the U.S. Air Force Academy commencement ceremony in Colorado. The pilot was able to eject safely before that plane went down.
ROMANS: We could learn today whether the mother of the little boy who fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo will face criminal charges. Zoo officials beefing up security now around that exhibit which is set to reopen to the public next week.
CNN's Jessica Schneider with the very latest for us from Cincinnati.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miguel and Christine, zoo officials say they spent the last few days planning for modifications to that barrier that separates the visitors to the zoo from the gorilla exhibit. They say once those modifications are in place, they will reopen the Gorilla World exhibit on Tuesday.
Now they pointed out several differences in this new barrier. They say it will be about 42 inches high. That's about six inches higher than the three feet that the former barrier was. They also say it will have solid wood beams on top as well, and this is important, as a knotted rope netting. They say that that will prevent anyone from getting through. They do say that the 3-year-old boy went under the last rail that was there that served as the barrier.
Now the zoo is saying that it's making these modifications despite the fact that the previous barrier did pass the accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and that it adhered to all safety guidelines.
[04:50:06] So once these improvements are made, they will reopen on Tuesday. Now in the meantime, the Cincinnati Police Department has concluded its investigation and it is now on to the prosecutor. The prosecutor said that it could be as soon as today to make a final determination as to whether or not to press criminal charges -- Miguel and Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Jessica, thanks. The
You know, and the police department recommended against charges in this particular case.
MARQUEZ: I think it will be tough -- very tough to charge clearly from everything that we have heard so far. But -- but it's such a highly emotional case.
ROMANS: Yes. And the Internet stalking of this mother, I mean, I'm really kind of uncomfortable with how people went after her.
MARQUEZ: It's unfair.
ROMANS: Without really even knowing the details yet.
MARQUEZ: It's unfortunate but it was a beautiful animal that had to die.
ROMANS: Yes.
MARQUEZ: The government's monthly jobs report -- I'm going to jump right on this for you.
ROMANS: Please do. Do it.
MARQUEZ: You know, I get -- I'm so excited for this I was going to go right ahead.
ROMANS: I'll call you Mr. Money Miguel. Mr. Money Miguel. Miguel's on the money. Government jobs report due in just a few hours.
MARQUEZ: All right.
ROMANS: Will a big worker strike spoil the numbers? We will get an EARLY START on your money next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:55:16] MARQUEZ: As to the fight for Fallujah, the Iraqi military releasing new video of the air strikes pounding ISIS targets. But the ground offensive to retake the city has been halted with over 50,000 civilians caught in the crossfire and ISIS using many of them as human shields. Military officials in Iraq are struggling to come up with a plan that doesn't lead to a massacre.
CNN's Ben Wedeman tracking the latest developments live from Baghdad.
Ben, Fallujah has known so much war, so much strife. Is time, though, on the Iraqi military side here?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't think there's any question that eventually the Iraqi military will be able to retake Fallujah from ISIS , even though that group has -- held the city for more than two and a half years now.
We do have some breaking news. We just heard from Iraqi intelligence that today there was an air strike by U.S.-led coalition aircraft on what's being described as a command center in southeastern Fallujah. They say that in that command center, they believe, according to Iraqi intelligence, may have been the commander of ISIS military forces in Fallujah itself. They say that this command center was also the entrance to many of the tunnels that ISIS has built in that area. And we understand from other reports coming from the area around
Fallujah that it is that southeastern part of the city that's now going to be the focus of intensified Iraqi military operations. I should point out, they haven't been halted. They have sort of slowed down the pace of those operations trying to deal with the civilian -- the population inside.
Now we spoke to somebody from UNICEF just a little while ago who said that over the last five days, every day, around 900 civilians have been able to make it out of Fallujah. Originally they were talking about as many as 50,000 inside. But those who are coming out are apparently in very bad condition. Dehydrated, many of the children malnourished because of the lack of food in Fallujah. The city, of course, has been more or less, though not completely surrounded by the Iraqi military since last September -- Miguel.
MARQUEZ: My god. Thank you very much for keeping track of it for us. Ben Wedeman in Baghdad.
They are bracing for the worst in France and Germany where deadly flood waters continue to rise after days of torrential rain. Thousands of people near Paris are being evacuated by boat. Workers at the Louvre are scrambling to move art work to higher ground, amazingly enough. At least 10 people are dead, most of them in Germany. Forecasters expect downpours to continue throughout the weekend.
ROMANS: All right. Let's get an EARLY START on your money. Dow futures in a holding pattern because there's something big happening today. It's the government's monthly jobs report, 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. No reason to place a big bet on the stock markets, guys, until you see what that number is. Stock markets in Europe and Asia higher here. Oil is rising as well, $49 a barrel right now.
Now some economists are warning that today's jobs report could be shocking. But don't worry. It would be a one-time thing. You've got 36,000 Verizon workers who are on strike for six weeks. They were demanding, remember, better pay, improved working conditions, job security. That strike ended last Friday after the labor secretary stepped in to help reach a deal. But that lapse, that six weeks, could lower the payroll number.
But there is, we have found historically a whiplash effect. Back in August 2011, Verizon workers were on strike, the economy added kind of a sheepish 107,000 jobs that month. Then a deal was reached and then in September you see everything bounced back.
Bad timing for the Federal Reserve. They're closely watching -- today's report as it decides whether to raise interest rates.
All right. The Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in game one of the NBA Finals last night. Why is this a money story? Here's why. The league's two biggest star, they are on opposite sides. LeBron James and Steph Curry. It's a big win for Under Armour. Under Armour spent $859 million on player endorsements at the end of last year. Steph Curry is Under Armour's top athlete. The company even mentioned the strong sales of Curry's shoe line in its last earnings statement.
But Nike dropped an incredible, get this, $6.2 billion signing players to the end of 2015. LeBron James inking a lifetime deal with Nike last year. Investors are also seeing the rivalry play out in the company stock prices. They're both having a rough 2016. Nike down 12.7 percent this year. Under Armour off 12 percent. A huge swing from big games earlier in the year. But it's the Nike versus Under Armour series.
MARQUEZ: I'm going to sponsor you. A tattoo of me has to go somewhere on your belly, though.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Tattoo of Miguel.
MARQUEZ: That's right.
ROMANS: Somewhere on my belly. It is Friday.
MARQUEZ: And EARLY START continues right now.
ROMANS: Breaking overnight, Donald Trump lashing back after Hillary Clinton delivers a scathing speech on --
