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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Clinton Clinches Democratic Nomination; Trump Not Backing Down Against Judge; Cincinnati Zoo Gorilla Exhibit To Reopen; Stanford Swimmer Brock Turner Gets 6 Months For Assaulting Unconscious Woman; U.S.-Based Forces On The Offensive In Syria And Iraq; Yellen Signals Pause In Rate Hike Plan. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired June 07, 2016 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking overnight, Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee. While you were sleeping she secured enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination, but the race not over. Millions will vote across the country today. Bernie Sanders still holding out hope that he can flip superdelegates in the months ahead.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump refusing -- refusing to back down for saying the judge ruling on the Trump University case can't be fair because of his Mexican heritage. He's facing new criticism from his own party now.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Great to see you. Thirty minutes past the hour and the breaking news this morning, Hillary Clinton -- she is the presumptive Democratic nominee. This is something that could not be said yesterday at this time and was not expected to be possible until, perhaps, this evening.
But with a strong showing in Puerto Rico -- the primary there -- and newly added superdelegates from a CNN canvas, Hillary Clinton now has a total of 2,384 delegates. That is one more than needed to win the nomination. This is an historic moment. Hillary Clinton is the first woman to become a major party's presumptive nominee, but she's not celebrating yet.
In fact, it's pretty clear she did not want this moment to happen just yet, not with voters in six states casting ballots today in the final Super Tuesday of the primary season. CNN's Brianna Keilar with the Clinton campaign in California has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine. Hillary Clinton and her campaign are not saying mission accomplished about these reports. They want to make sure that voter turnout in support of Clinton is not dampened in New Jersey and California and other states that are voting today. In fact, she was asked about these reports seven times by CNN's embed reporter, Dan Merica. He says she heard but did not respond once. And here's what she said before a crowd in Long Beach.
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HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: According to the news we are on the brink of a historic -- historic, unprecedented moment, but we still have work to do, don't we? We have six elections tomorrow and we're going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in California.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: But it's also a fine line that Hillary Clinton is walking. Her campaign actually campaigning off of this news, saying it's all thanks to you, seriously, but this primary isn't quite over. So she wants to focus on New Jersey where the campaign is feeling good, and in California where it really is up for grabs and so important for her to win this huge delegate haul of the state with 475 delegates to show some strength moving into the general election, especially as Bernie Sanders is saying that he is taking this fight all the way to the Democratic convention in late July -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Brianna. Thank you for that, Brianna. Bernie Sanders is rejecting the idea that Hillary Clinton is the Democrat's presumptive nominee. His campaign issued this statement late last night.
"Secretary Clinton does not have and will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to secure the nomination. She will be dependent on superdelegates who do not vote until July 25 and who can change their minds between now and then. Our job from until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump."
And Sanders, at his final California rally in San Francisco, made clear he was counting on victories Tuesday to carry him on to the Democratic convention.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If there is a large voter turnout, if working people and young people come out in big numbers to demand a government that represents all of us and not just the one percent, we're going to win big tomorrow. And if we can win here in California, win in South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, do well in New Jersey, we're going to go into that convention with enormous momentum.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: All right, some extraordinary developments on the Republican side of the race. Donald Trump not backing down in the face of sharp criticism, much from within his own party. Trump, of course, has attacked the federal judge in the Trump University lawsuit, a judge who was very much an American. Trump called the judge a hater, questions his fairness because of his Mexican heritage.
Now sources tell CNN that Donald Trump held a conference call with surrogates and all but ordered them to turn up the attacks on the judge. Two sources who were on the call say Trump made it clear he will not apologize. In fact, he lashed out at his own campaign for circulating a memo suggesting that supporters refrain from comment on the matter.
[05:35:00] Overnight, Trump was not apologizing on T.V. one bit. He seemed, though, to be trying to refocus discussion on other issues -- listen.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't care if the judge is Mexican or not. I'm going to do great with the Mexican people because I provide jobs, so I don't care about Mexican. But we're being treated very unfairly, Bill. Very, very unfairly.
Bill, I want to talk about how lousy the economy is. I want to talk about how badly we're doing against ISIS, how badly we're doing on the border. But every time I go into a show all they want to do is talk about Trump University.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Helping us break down these big developments for Trump, Clinton, and Sanders, CNN politics reporter Eugene Scott is in Washington for us. I want to start with Trump there because you just him telling Bill O'Reilly last night that all anybody wants to talk about on the shows in Trump University. He wants to be talking about all these others things.
But the reason there are so many questions now about Trump University is not because of the case, but because of the way Donald Trump has again and again attacked this judge. In effect, Donald Trump is the one keeping this in the headlines.
And even yesterday in this call with surrogates, it's so interesting to me that there was an internal memo circling around surrogates that said let's stop talking about Trump University. Let's go on to other things. Let's stop talking about Trump University. And Donald Trump is the one on the call who said no, no, no, no, keep up the attacks.
EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, that was very interesting to see that exchange on "FOX NEWS" because as you mentioned yesterday former Arizona governor, Jan Brewer, mentioned that she'd received a memo advising surrogates to stop talking about this Trump University issue. But Trump asked them, actually, to defend him and to double down and support him.
But then again, then he goes on "FOX NEWS" and says that he wants to talk about other things, so it's really not clear. It seems very much so that he was trying to project the interest in this issue on the media. But the fact of the matter is that there are people in the electorate who are very concerned about the idea that a leading presidential candidate could think that someone's race and heritage, and even faith, could affect their rulings.
BERMAN: Interesting to see that, to be sure, with so much criticism coming in all different parts to the party, including from the likes of Marco Rubio. You know, people ran against Donald Trump. I mean, Ted Cruz has been critical.
John Kasich put out a statement and in this video we're about to show you, Eugene, Marco Rubio is asked about Donald Trump's criticism of the judge and Marco Rubio looks like he wants to run and hide under the nearest object -- watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: I made a commitment during the race that I would support the nominee of my party and this is not the choice I wanted us to have, obviously. I ran, myself, and look, I continue to have strong disagreements with him on a bunch of issues I do not agree with.
And, quite frankly, I'm very disturbed by the way he keeps referring to this judge. He's an American born in Indiana that he continues to raise issues about and I hope he'll stop doing that. But, that's what the voters -- this is the choice the voters have given us through this primary and we'll see what happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Interesting to see and it puts Republicans in an interesting position. Paul Ryan -- we're going to hear from him today. Congress is back in session. And Republicans, including those who have lined up in support behind Donald Trump -- they will face questions about this.
SCOTT: Yes, very much so. I think Sen. Rubio referenced that he made a commitment earlier and he wants to honor that. He thinks that's what is best and what is noble. But it will be interesting to see how long he is able to keep that commitment when so many things are being said and done by Donald Trump that Marco Rubio finds problematic.
You see in that interview he ultimately, I think, blamed it on the voters. He said this is who the voters gave us, and so this is who we have to deal with. How long he will continue to deal with Donald Trump and put up with this will be telling.
ROMANS: So, let's talk about the Democrats here and Hillary Clinton making history overnight.
SCOTT: Yes.
ROMANS: This is history -- history for Hillary Clinton. But, Bernie Sanders says he is the one who has the best chance against Trump --
SCOTT: Right.
ROMANS: -- and that is what he is continuing to hit here. He says he can flip these superdelegates. And he was asked in gaggle -- a meeting with reporters -- a scrum with reporters in California yesterday about this call he received from the president. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: I have spoken to President Obama many, many times about --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you speak with his yesterday?
SANDERS: -- many issues. It's not appropriate to talk about my discussions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: History, but Bernie Sanders hanging on here.
SCOTT: Yes, very much so. It was quite a historic moment. Very significant for people who have followed issues related to women and politics even though it was downplayed quite a bit yesterday. You see Hillary Clinton did not embrace it as aggressively and proactively as people would expect, although she did choose to fundraise off of it.
[05:40:00] But, Bernie Sanders is still in the race. He still believes that he has a way of maybe helping some superdelegates come over to his side. I think what was very interesting about the clip that you just showed is he didn't even really want to talk about what the conversation between him and President Barack Obama was yesterday.
He said he's had many calls with President Obama and discussed many things. I truly believe, though, that if what he discussed yesterday was President Barack Obama's support for him, he would have shared that. But no one thinks that's what it was about.
ROMANS: I think you're talking about healing post-Tuesday.
SCOTT: Right.
ROMANS: Healing the Democratic Party, bringing in the aggressive.
BERMAN: I think they're talking about healing or president telling Bernie Sanders what exactly is going to go down this week, which we all think will be an endorsement of the presumptive nominee, which is Hillary Clinton.
And what could that do to Bernie Sanders' supporters? I imagine that there are some out there -- some of Bernie Sanders' younger, progressive supporters, who look up to the president and it would, perhaps -- that would be a way to bring a party together.
SCOTT: Yes, very much so. So, Bernie Sanders has supporters who are on team "Never Hillary", but not everybody is, and even maybe some of those can be won over. And I know that sounds absurd to some people but surely if you can believe that superdelegates can be won over to Bernie Sanders, you could believe that some Sanders supporters can be won over to Hillary Clinton.
And if anyone is able to do it -- if anyone is able to unify this party, some believe it's President Barack Obama. So the thought was that maybe he did talk to Sen. Sanders about what he's expected to do this week and how Sen. Sanders, hopefully, can help get some of his supporters board so that the Democratic Party is ultimately victorious in November over Donald Trump.
ROMANS: All right, Eugene, you better go home and get some sleep. I mean, you've got a long day, night, and morning --
SCOTT: Yes.
ROMANS: -- and so get some sleep.
SCOTT: Don't we all?
ROMANS: All right, the futon of the Washington bureau. Thank you so much. Nice to see you this morning.
All right, the Cincinnati Zoo reopens with new security after a 3- year-old fell into the gorilla pit. What the zoo is doing and what prosecutors are now saying about that case.
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[05:46:25] BERMAN: Happening today, the gorilla world exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo is set to reopen with a new, more secure barrier to keep visitors out. This comes after zoo officials had to kill Harambe the gorilla to protect a 3-year-old boy who fell into Harambe's enclosure. Prosecutors have cleared the boy's mother now of any fault.
The barrier, which had repeatedly passed inspections, will now be 42 inches high -- that's a half foot taller than before -- with solid wood beams at the top and bottom, plus a knotted rope netting at the bottom.
ROMANS: Outrage -- outrage in Northern California over the six-month sentence given to former Stanford University swimmer, Brock Turner, for raping an unconscious woman last year. In fact, that outrage has now spread around the country.
Prosecutors had asked for a six-year prison sentence for the 20-year- old Turner who was convicted back in March. A powerful impact statement from the victim was read in court last week. That impact statement has now been shared around the country millions of times.
BERMAN: You should read it. Everyone should read that. I think it's an important perspective from someone who has suffered rape and suffered sexual abuse. And it's sobering and it's important to read. ROMANS: She so eloquently wrote how she feels and what this has done to her that it think it's just a remarkable piece of writing. A recall effort was launched Monday to remove the judge, who is a Stanford alum, from the bench.
And this is one thing people are very upset about. Turner's father, the convicted rapist's father added fuel to the fire with his appeal for leniency. He told the judge his son had already paid a heavy price for "20 minutes of action".
BERMAN: The gulf coast of Florida is taking a pounding from tropical storm Colin, St. Pete beach getting the worst of it. Homes and streets underwater there. You can see the pictures here. Some saying they haven't seen flooding like this in decades. The winds were so fierce the Skyway Bridge had to be shut down. Nearly 10,000 homes are without power. Six thousand National Guard members are on standby in case evacuations are needed.
ROMANS: All right, 48 minutes past the hour. Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Alisyn Camerota joins us this Tuesday morning. Hi, there.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hi, guys. Great to see both of you together. Let me tell you what's happening on the show. As of last night, Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee. She has gotten the required number of delegates when you factor in those superdelegates. But, Bernie Sanders not giving in just yet before this final Super Tuesday. We will hear from Clinton's campaign manager on how he feels about this, this morning.
Also, Donald Trump not backing down on his criticism of that judge in the Trump University case, as well as his Mexican heritage. Trump talked a lot about that last night. We'll tell you what he said when we see you in about 10 minutes.
BERMAN: Or so.
ROMANS: All right, 10 minutes, give or take. Thank you so much, Alisyn. Nice to see you this morning.
CAMEROTA: You, too.
ROMANS: We'll be watching "NEW DAY". The war on ISIS raging in Iraq and Syria. U.S.-backed forces trying to liberate cities from those terrorists. We go there live, next.
[05:49:40]
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[05:53:45] BERMAN: Fierce fighting on two fronts in the battle against ISIS. U.S.-backed forces in Northern Syria have the terrorists surrounded on three sides in the city of Manbij. Nearly one-quarter million people are believed to be in harm's way there.
And in Iraq there are reports that civilians trying to flee the fighting in Fallujah are being shot on the spot by ISIS. Now, the U.S. is playing a key role in both battles by air and by sea. The USS Harry Truman dropping more bombs on terrorist targets than any ship in the U.S. fleet.
CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen -- he had a chance to spend time on board the Harry Truman. He joins us now live from the island of Crete this morning. Fred, give us a sense of what you saw. The scope of this operation.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly was around the clock operations, 24/7. It was interesting because we spent a lot of time on the flight deck of the Harry Truman and they might have had a break of maybe 30 or 40 minutes, but then they would start launching jets and recovering jets again. So certainly, it really was a very intense aerial campaign that we saw.
And certainly, the numbers also are something that support that as well, John. The Harry Truman has flown some 1,800 sorties over Iraq and Syria against ISIS targets, dropping some 1.5 million pounds of munitions.
[05:55:00] Now, most of them are actually 500-pound bombs because what the U.S. pilots try to do is they try to use smaller munitions and try to hit the targets more accurately to make sure that they hit ISIS, but try to stop civilian casualties from happening because as you said, there are still hundreds of thousands of people who are in harm's way in Syria and in Iraq, as well.
We've been talking about the situation in Fallujah where civilians are being shot by ISIS as they try to leave that city. Others have been brought into the city center, apparently as human shields. And yet, others are simply trying to get away. Some of them even going into refrigerators and trying to use them as floatation devices to get across the river to get to safety, so a dire situation.
The U.S., of course, is trying to work around that. Very difficult for those pilots as the fighting in places like Fallujah becomes more urban. As it gets more towards the city's center where, of course, ISIS is hiding among the population. But I can tell you one thing. The USS Harry Truman is going to be in that area of operations for a couple of more weeks and they certainly are not going to let up in the pace of operations, John.
BERMAN: All right, Frederik, a lot going on and you had a chance to see it firsthand. Thanks so much for your reporting, Fred.
ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. Dow futures building on solid gains from yesterday. Stock markets In Europe and Asia also higher. Oil is up as well. Driving the mood is a speech by Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, where she basically took a June rate hike off the table. Yellen optimistic about the U.S. economy, but worried by a sudden expected stall in hiring in May.
After her speech, the Dow ended up 133 points. Nasdaq and S&P 500 also popped. Yellen gave no clues to when the next Fed rate hike would be, but she mentioned China's slowing economy and this.
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JANET YELLEN, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRWOMAN: One development that could shift investor sentiment is the upcoming referendum in the United Kingdom. A U.K. vote to exit the European Union could have significant economic repercussions.
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ROMANS: Now, that vote takes place June 23rd, and recent polls showing rising support for the movement to leave the Eurozone.
T-Mobile wants to make investors out of its customers as a thank you. The company is offering new and existing primary account holders one share of common stock. There are about 11 million customers who are eligible. Shares of T-Mobile trading at about $43, so that's a $43 share of stock. The stock is up 10 percent this year after falling with the broader market in February.
The company has been aggressively courting customers from other cellular providers. It's also offering a new app that has free stuff every Tuesday, like Domino's pizza, Wendy's Frosties, movies rentals. So, how's that for customer appreciation?
BERMAN: I'll take the pizza.
ROMANS: The pizza or stock?
BERMAN: You take the stock, I'll take the pizza.
ROMANS: That's exactly right. I'll be richer, you'll be hungry. Wait -- I'll be hungry, but rich. You'll be --
BERMAN: I'll be full and satisfied.
ROMANS: There you go.
BERMAN: Thank you very much. All right, Hillary Clinton -- while you were sleeping she became the presumptive Democratic nominee. But you know what? It's almost as if she didn't want that title -- not just yet. So, why not? "NEW DAY" starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: We are on the brink of a historic moment.
BERMAN: Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee.
SANDERS: If the turnout is high, we will win.
CLINTON: We're going to fight hard. We still have work to do.
SANDERS: Let's assess where we are after tomorrow before we make statements based on speculation. TRUMP: This judge is of Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall. I don't care if the judge is Mexican or not. All I want him to do is give me a fair shake.
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We're both big boys. I deeply disagreed on one item.
RUBIO: When I ran for president I told everyone that this is what would happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, June 7th, 6:00 in the east. We do begin with breaking news. Overnight, Hillary Clinton makes history today as she crosses the delegate threshold to clinch the Democratic nomination. Clinton, now with a total of 2,384 in pledged and superdelegates.
However, the presumptive nominee is not celebrating just yet. She is waiting for six states to vote today in the final Super Tuesday, including of course, California and New Jersey. President Obama reportedly ready to endorse Clinton and become the campaigner in chief.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Now a lot of people are asking how did this happen? We haven't had the primaries yet. She picked up a couple of extra delegates out of Puerto Rico and there've been a lot of phone calls to the superdelegates. We'll take you through all of it this morning.
But on the other side of the race, Donald Trump has got more pressure on him to walk back his attack on a federal judge's Mexican heritage, but also just the intimidating nature of the tactic. Instead, Trump had a phone call where he said no, no, no. No apologies, double down, telling his surrogates to rev up criticism of the judge and, of course, the media.
We have the 2016 race covered the way only CNN can. Let's begin with Mr. Chris Frates, live in L.A. -- Chris.
CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Chris. Well, it's not how Hillary Clinton wanted to make history as the first woman to become the first presumptive presidential nominee of a major party.
