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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
GOP Leaders Anxious About Trump; Clinton And Sanders Campaign In California; Memorial Service For Ali On Friday; Tropical Storm Colin Develops In Atlantic; Warriors Dismantle Cavs. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired June 06, 2016 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: -- welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday. It is June 6th, 5 a.m. exactly in the east. Good morning, everyone. Maybe you are up late in California.
Breaking overnight, Hillary Clinton inching closer to the Democratic nomination with the win in Puerto Rico. Six states, including California are up for grabs on Tuesday. Clinton is now an estimated 29 delegates shy of the 2,383 she needs to clinch.
Even though she is certain to blow passed that number by tomorrow night, Bernie Sanders is still predicting a contested convention no matter what happens on the final Super Tuesday of the primary season. His only chance is to flip hundreds of superdelegates already pledged to Clinton.
We get more from CNN senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny in California.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, a final full day of campaigning today for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders here in California. Making one last push for those 475 delegates at stake in Tuesday's primary.
Hillary Clinton making the case again and again about one rival, but it is Donald Trump she is talking about over and over how he is not qualified to be president. She is barely mentioning Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail.
She had a closing rally in Sacramento on Sunday night. This is her final message to voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to finish strong here in California. It means the world to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: Bernie Sanders making the case to his supporters here in California as well. Telling them that they can still change the direction of this Democratic race for the presidency. With Puerto Rico in the bag, now only six more states to vote on Tuesday, followed by the District of Columbia next week, then this race is over.
Bernie Sanders trying to keep this argument alive that he will need superdelegates to pull them over to his side. Increasingly that is an uphill battle. This is what he told voters last night in San Diego.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Any objective analyst of the current campaign understands that the energy and the grassroots activism in this campaign is with us, not Hillary Clinton.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: The outcome of this Democratic presidential nomination does not hinge on California, but a Clinton win here in California would certainly cool the argument Bernie Sanders is trying to make that he can still take this to the convention.
That's why all eyes today still on California as both campaigns and candidates fight here until the end for those 475 delegates at stake -- John and Christine.
BERMAN: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much. On the Republican side, you can hear Republican leaders and donors getting nervous about Donald Trump's attacks on the judge in the Trump University civil case.
House and Senate Republicans, they have very publicly criticized Trump for claiming that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, born in Indiana, is bias because of his Mexican heritage. Now party leaders, they say they know they need to win over Latino voters in November.
And they are urging Trump to change his tone, but CNN's Jake Tapper sat down with Donald Trump. It certainly that doesn't seem like that's going to happen.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, is still campaigning hard here in California ahead of the Tuesday primary with no major Republican candidate still in the race and enough pledge delegates to secure the nomination at the Cleveland convention next month.
He is rallying the party as the GOP establishment is still lining up behind him, but that doesn't mean he is toning it down.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: I asked you about comments you made about the judge in the Trump University case. You said that it was a conflict of interest that he was the judge because he is a Mexican heritage although he is from Indiana. Hillary Clinton said that is a racist attack on a federal judge. DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She is so wonderful. Here is a woman that should be put in jail for what she did for her e- mails. I tell you what it has to do. I have had ruling after ruling after ruling that's been bad rulings.
I have been treated unfairly. Before him, we had another judge. If that judge was still there, this case would have been over two years ago.
Let me just tell you. I have had horrible rulings. I've been treated very unfairly by this judge. Now this judge is of Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall. OK, I'm building wall.
I'm going to do very well with the Hispanics, the Mexicans --
TAPPER: So no Mexican judge could ever be involved in a case that involves you?
TRUMP: Well, no, he is a member of the society where, you know, very pro-Mexico. That's fine. It's all fine, but I think --
TAPPER: You are calling into question his heritage.
TRUMP: -- I think he should recuse himself. You also say does he know the lawyer on the other side? Does he know the lawyer? You know, a lot of people say yes. That's another problem.
TAPPER: You are invoking his race when talking about whether or not he can do his job.
TRUMP: Jake, I'm building a wall, OK. I'm building a wall. I'm trying to keep business out of Mexico. There is nothing --
TAPPER: But he is an American.
TRUMP: He is of Mexican heritage and he's very proud of it as I am where I come from my parents.
TAPPER: Is it not when Hillary Clinton says, this is a racist attack and you reject that. If you are saying he can't do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?
TRUMP: I don't think so at all.
TAPPER: No?
TRUMP: No. He is proud of his heritage. I respect for him --
TAPPER: You are saying he can't do his job because of that.
[05:05:05]TRUMP: Look, he is proud of his heritage, OK. I'm building a wall.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: Now Trump is ready to take the fight to Hillary Clinton, who could secure enough delegates on Tuesday to become the Democrat's nominee next month at the convention in Philadelphia. If you include the superdelegates, that's a big if, of course, Clinton told me this week that she is happy to compare her record with Donald Trump's.
ROMANS: All right, Jake, thank you so much for that. Let's get more on the battle for California. Let's talk about the turmoil in the Republican Party.
I want to go live to Washington and bring in CNN politics reporter, Eugene Scott. You know, Eugene, it is the Trump playbook really to double down, right, I mean, -- Trump University, there's three lawsuits going on against it right now.
He had told his advisers, look, when this is cleared up, I want to do Trump University again. That is vintage Trump where he just, you know, pushes the criticism aside and goes even bigger.
Here's another example of going even bigger so all this concern about using race or heritage as a reason to question a judge's impartiality or judge's ruling.
Now he takes it a step further and says religion also could be a test for judicial impartiality. Listen to what he said on CBS "Face The Nation."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it were a Muslim judge, would you also feel like they would not be able to treat you fairly because of that policy of yours?
TRUMP: It's possible, yes. Yes, that would be possible, absolutely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: In fairness, he was asked that question by a reporter. He thought about it. He said yes, the same kind of thing.
EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, you know, it was a very interesting statement to people on both the left and the right. These are not things that people who are running for president usually say.
There is some concern about a person's ability to judge because of their race or the birth place of their parents or their faith.
I think one thing that is so interesting about his concern about a judge being Muslim is that there are people who are supporting Donald Trump because they believe he will nominate judges who have Judeo Christian believes.
So there seems to be some concern about faith in one area, but not in other areas.
BERMAN: So there are Republican leaders now, I mean, most Republican leaders, everyone we almost certainly speak on this subject condemning Donald Trump's comments on Judge Curiel right now. Mitch McConnell did and Paul Ryan did. This morning at about 7 minutes ago, the Clinton campaign released this video trying to highlight this acrimony within the Republican Party. Look at the video from the Clinton campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He says that when he questions whether the judge can be fair because of his Mexican heritage that is not racist. Do you agree?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, I don't condone the comments.
PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER (via telephone): I completely disagree with that thinking behind that.
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICS COMMENTATOR: I'm livid about it. If this is his strategy to win over Hispanics, he has a hell of a wake-up call coming to him in November.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Again, this video from the Clinton campaign, but those words all from Republicans, Eugene.
SCOTT: Yes. I mean, it has been really interesting. There is so much talk about the need to unify the party, and if this is so, there's quite a long to go before many leaders like consistently begin to back Trump and the things that he is saying.
I think one thing, though, that is fascinating is just some of these push backs seemed to be a bit tempered aside from Ms. Ana Navarro's that was quite passionate. It will be really interesting to see if people go further in their critics of Donald Trump.
ROMANS: We expect nothing less than passion from Ana Navarro. Let's talk about the Democrats here quickly. Tomorrow's a very big day for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders says he will hang in to a contested convention. He would have to flip a lot of superdelegates to do that. We saw Bill Clinton on the stump yesterday. He's been careful about not making news, as he says, campaigning for his wife. He was being heckled by Sanders supporters. He got a little testy back. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: I don't want to pick a fight. I would be screaming too. If you figure this out, there are toast for Election Day. Have a good time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Have a good time because you're toast for Election Day. Sanders supporters are all fired up this morning. SCOTT: Yes, very much so especially because they don't agree with him. I mean, we have seen Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders say this weekend that he will push for a contested convention as he still believes there is a chance that superdelegates can come over to support him.
So it makes a lot of sense. No one is surprised that the former president believes that Hillary Clinton will clinch the nomination. He is getting push back as we saw because not everyone buys into that at this point.
[05:10:03]BERMAN: Eugene Scott, thanks so much. One final point here, if you are counting on a David French candidacy, a third party candidacy, David French, the "National Review" writer and lawyer says he will not run as a third party candidate, though, he still thinks someone should. Thanks, Eugene.
ROMANS: All right, Eugene, thank you. It's 10 minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money. So we've had a weekend now to process that terrible jobs report. What's happening? Dow futures are up slightly. Stock markets in Europe are higher.
Asian stock markets closed mixed. Crude oil holding steady at $49 a barrel. So did Friday's jobs report shocker kill the fed's plan to raise interest rates this summer? Investors think so.
The probability that the fed will raise rates at its meeting next week is now just 4 percent. It was 21 percent before Friday's jobs numbers. The chances of a rate hike in July are down to 31 percent.
Look at September, most believe September is the most likely about 48 percent right now. All eyes will be on Federal Reserve chair, Janet Yellen. She is giving a speech this afternoon in Philadelphia.
You know, a lot of people thought this would be the exclamation point on her case for raising rates. But now you have this new data that shows a weakness in the jobs market.
The Boston Federal Reserve president, though, speaking in Finland, he said, they will examine Friday's jobs report, but it could be an anomaly.
He was pointing out that it's been real snap back in growth from the first quarter. A weak winter and this Boston fed president speaking in Finland overnight saying, look, it's been pretty remarkable how strong the economy snapped back. Almost everything is there for a fed rate hike, but this anomaly on Friday was something --
BERMAN: Let's what Janet Yellen says.
ROMANS: We will. All right, 11 minutes past the hour. The world is mourning the loss of an iconic fighter. The memorial planned for Muhammad Ali ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:15:58]
BERMAN: Muhammad Ali is home. The body of the champ back in his native Louisville, Kentucky. Memorial services already taking place across the city in just a huge celebration of his life planned now for Friday. CNN's Martin Savidge has the details.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Good morning, Christine. Muhammad Ali has finally come back home and the efforts to memorialize his life are fully under way. There was last night an inter faith service that was organized by the Islamic community.
There are other services that are being talked about today. But of course, the big events are for the latter part of the week. Thursday is set aside primarily for the family of Muhammad Ali. Friday, that is the day where the world can celebrate his life.
In fact, Louisville, Kentucky, has put out the welcome mat for the world to come because they know that their hometown son has been shared by so many people and so many other places.
It will begin at 9:00 a.m. with a motorcade procession. It will wind through the streets of Louisville. Sometimes on highways and sometimes on side streets. That's designed to allow as many people as possible to get their final farewell.
At 2:00 though, there is going to be an interfaith service, among those who will eulogize, former President Bill Clinton. About 20,000 people may be able to squeeze into that facility. It will be remarkable.
These plans have been years in the making. We're told that it is not just from the family and not just from the city, but also one of those who helped make the plans was Muhammad Ali himself -- John and Christine.
ROMANS: A tropical depression in the Atlantic has strengthened into Tropical Storm Colin overnight. That means thunderstorms today from the gulf coast all the way to New England. Here is CNN's meteorologist, Pedram Javaheri.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John and Christine, good morning to you, guys both. Yes, a lot of active weather right around the gulf coast this afternoon. Of course, this is the third storm of the season coming in after Bonnie last week.
This is now the earliest third storm of the season in record history, June 12st, 1887, the last time a third storm occurred this early, of course. Now we're talking about June 5 for the most recent storm of Colin being formed right there across the northern portion of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Tropical storm warnings had been in place across the big bend of Florida across the east coast of Florida and the eastern Georgia as well. But tremendous amount of moisture surging right in towards Port (inaudible) eventually out towards Southern Georgia and on into parts of the Carolinas as well. With all this is severe weather threat does exists. Generally speaking, it's going to be for hail, damaging winds and you can't rule out an isolated tornado across this region as well.
But by this afternoon, this evening, we think landfall around the northwest corner of Florida and then it will push right off portions of the Carolinas. A very quick moving disturbance. It will move offshore rather quickly.
Once it moves out, the rainfall stops early mid portion week. Extreme heat really begin to expand towards the eastern portion of the country and parts of the Upper Midwest.
Look at this, Minneapolis, from 66 up to 94 degrees later this week. So certainly watching a big time heat wave developing across parts of the country as well, guys.
ROMANS: All right, interesting. Thanks, Pedram. Game two of the NBA finals looked a lot like game one. The Golden State Warriors manhandling Cleveland and now the Cavaliers might have to carry on without one of their big three. Coy Wire with this mornings' "Bleacher Report" next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:23:43]
BERMAN: So the Golden State Warriors played a basketball game last night. Not much anyone else did, though. Coy Wire has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report." Hey, Coy.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine. The Warriors now just two wins away from calling themselves back-to- back NBA champs. Before game two, they honored the greatest champ of all time. Moment of silence for Muhammad Ali.
Game time, Warriors gave the Cavs the old rope-a-dope. Cleveland comes out swinging, but Draymond Green landing the punches. Green does some accounting subtracting expenses from growth profit, nothing but net, 28 points for Green.
If going down 2-0 wasn't bad enough for Cleveland, their big man, Kevin Love goes down. Takes an elbow to the head and was placed on the NBA's concussion protocol. Now questionable for Wednesday's game three in Cleveland.
The Super Bowl champs, Denver Broncos will be without cornerback, Aqib Talib today, while being honored at the White House. Talib is being treated at the Dallas Hospital after being shot in his lower right leg.
Reportedly the incident happened at a Dallas area nightclub. Broncos say they expect Talib to make a full recovery. They have been in touch with the NFL on the matter.
Novak Djokovic beating Andy Murray yesterday and finally catching that elusive French Open title. The only major of the four that he hadn't won.
[05:25:02]But he has now completed a career grand slam and he can become the first man in nearly 50 years to win all four majors in a row dating back to the last year's French Open finals. He has won 28 grand slam matches in row.
Christine and John, if Djokovic can win gold at the Olympics in Rio this summer that means he will have the golden slam. Something that no man in the history of tennis has ever achieved.
BERMAN: He's good at tennis. Novak Djokovic is.
WIRE: He's pretty good. I would like to challenge him in table tennis.
BERMAN: Quickly, can the Cavaliers -- have any chance left in this finals?
WIRE: They have to win in Cleveland, John. If they don't -- if they go down 3-0, there's no way they are going to be able to come back in this one. You know, there are three teams in NBA history who have ever comeback from a 2-0 deficit in finals. We'll see if the Cavs can be the fourth to do it.
ROMANS: All right, nice to see you, Coy. Happy Monday.
Bernie Sanders vowing Super Tuesday won't be the end of his campaign. Promising a contested convention as Donald Trump faces new criticism from within his own party. We're breaking it all down next.
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