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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Obama & Sanders Meet at the White House; Trump Faced with Task of Uniting the GOP; Four Killed in Tel Aviv Terror Attack; Cavs Dominate Warriors, 120-90. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired June 09, 2016 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: That is a very awkward moment, and that shareholder was kind of roundly criticized by other shareholders.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Understandably and justifiably so.
EARLY START continues right now.
(MUSIC)
ROMANS: In just hours, Bernie Sanders meets with President Obama at the White House. With Hillary Clinton now the presumptive nominee for president, is Sanders planning an exit strategy?
BERMAN: Donald Trump hours from meeting with top Republican fund- raisers. His job now not just to get money, but to get unity. This after days of controversial comments. Is unity even possible?
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's Thursday, June 9th, it is 5:00 a.m. on the nose in the East.
All right. The Sanders summit is upon us. In just hours, Senator Bernie Sanders flies from Vermont to Washington for a closed-door meeting with President Obama at the White House. He is still a candidate for president despite the fact that Hillary Clinton is the now presumed nominee having amassed well more than the needed number of delegates, including super delegates to secure the nomination. She also has a majority of pledged delegates.
White House insiders make it clear that the president is itching to endorse Hillary Clinton and soon. But today, it will be more about body language and soft persuasion, more of a listening situation with Bernie Sanders than any direct call to drop out.
Michelle Kosinski has the inside scoop from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John and Christine. Right, the White House is being so careful about this. It also makes
me say, come on now. I mean, even now, they're not saying that Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee, because for them, it's all about respecting the process still, respecting Bernie Sander's decision-making and his supporters who ultimately, of course, they would like to see vote for Hillary Clinton.
So, last night, the president taped an appearance with Jimmy Fallon. Here is how he kind of framed things.
JIMMY FALLON, COMEDIAN/TV HOST: Is Bernie going to endorse Hillary?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'm sure they're going to have a conversation.
FALLON: Is he ever going to drop out? Or is he going to just stay in? It's like --
OBAMA: I'm going to be talking to him tomorrow. He's going to be coming to the White House.
And the main role I'm going to be playing in this process is to remind the American people this is a serious job. You know, this is not reality TV. My hope is, is that over the next couple weeks, we are able to pull things together.
And what happens during primaries, you get a little ouchy. Everybody does.
KOSINSKI: So, this meeting today between Bernie Sanders and President Obama here at the White House, and keep in mind this is the third time they had discussion in the past week.
Publicly, the White House says the president wants to congratulate Sanders, to talk about building on the progress he's already made on the issues. How he might play an important role and continuing to engage in the debate.
But behind the scene, we know the president wants to hear Sanders out, that this is likely to be a long meeting, at least an hour. And that ultimately, that's how the White House will decide moving forward, that they're going to hash out a plan of how to move forward.
Even if Sanders, though, wants to say in the race a while longer, and the White House doesn't necessarily see him staying in up to the convention, but the White House might not wait for him to fully leave the race before President Obama endorses Hillary Clinton, because they respect the process, you know, they might do something softer, maybe announcing something on social media before you see one of those big events where the president is standing there with Hillary Clinton.
Again, the White House wants to keep this as inclusive and positive as possible -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right. Michelle, thanks so much.
Donald Trump has his big day ahead of him with dollar signs all over it. He meets this afternoon in New York with top fund-raisers in 50 states. These folks are feeling jittery these days.
This meeting comes at a time which is delicate for Donald Trump. A lot of party leaders are nervous or flat-out angry about Donald Trump's claim that a federal judge is biased against him because of the judge's Mexican heritage.
House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump's comment the textbook definition of racism. Racism, yet, Ryan is asking anew for party unity. In other words, unity with Donald Trump.
Senior political reporter Manu Raju has new reporting from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine.
Now, there are several GOP camps forming on Capitol Hill. There are Republican leaders who say, look, the voters have chosen Donald Trump and he would be a much better president than Hillary Clinton. And then, there are Republicans in that never Trump movement like Ben Sasse, a senator from Nebraska, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, a congressman who did not hold back about Donald Trump when I had a chance to talk to him yesterday.
REP. REID RIBBLE (R), WISCONSIN: His comments over the weekend are authenticating what I believe is the man's core character. And, you know, something walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's likely to be a duck.
[05:05:00] And if you continue to say what I believe are racist statements, you are likely to be a racist.
RAJU: Then, there are Republicans who are running in tough re- election races. This is where you're going to find the most distance from Donald Trump. Yesterday, Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said he's going to wait and see how this campaign plays out before he determines whether he can actually support Donald Trump.
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire both said they would support, but not endorse the nominee, (INAUDIBLE) distinction there, but really an implicit warning that Trump could lose their backing.
And yesterday, I got a chance to catch up with Trump's biggest rival on the campaign, Ted Cruz, who told me, quote, "Time will tell on whether he would back Trump this year." So, we'll see if Trump's new tone and whether his speech will win over Republicans, particularly ones who are skeptical of him. But right now, a lot of folks are nervous -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ROMANS: All right. Manu Raju, nice to see you this morning. Thank you.
Let's break down the efforts to shift into general election mode. I want to bring in "Newsday" columnist, best selling author, Ellis Henican.
Good morning. Good morning.
ELLIS HENICAN, NEWSDAY COLUMNIST: Good morning, guys. How are you?
ROMANS: I want to play some sound back to back here. One is Hillary Clinton talking to Anderson how she thinks Bernie Sanders supporters will get behind her. And then, there's Jeff Weaver, who works for Bernie Sanders and has a different, very different take about where we are, this milestone where we are in the campaign.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I really believe a lot of Senator Sanders supporters will join us in making sure Trump doesn't get anywhere near the White House.
JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN: No one is the nominee. The nominee is elected at the convention.
REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) presumptive nominee?
WEAVER: That's a term of art that the media uses. I don't know that has any real meaning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So, I mean, I feel like they have not moved on to the stage of acceptance, that final stage of grief yet.
HENICAN: Still the grief stage. Listen, campaigns, Christine, are hugely emotional and ego-driven and passionate experiences. Losing is tough. So, it's hard to pivot from that narcissistic belief that I can be president to, oh, no, this other person.
BERMAN: Which, by the way, you need. You need if you are ever going to have a chance of winning, you need that narcissistic ego.
HENICAN: Most candidates start as long shots. I mean, certainly Bernie Sanders -- no one gave him. He and his wife, I think, were the only two people who believed that I'm not sure that he did.
BERMAN: Well, Jeff Weaver. It's his wife and Jeff Weaver. Manager. I think.
ROMANS: What they accomplished is amazing. It is hard to give up that momentum. HENICAN: And it's frankly, it's likely to have huge impact going
forward on the Democrat Party. Four years from now, the nominee philosophically is probably a lot closer to Bernie Sanders than to Hillary Clinton.
BERMAN: You're talking about this meeting at the White House today. President Obama who has not officially endorsed Hillary Clinton, but has done everything but that. I mean, the White House has been talking about the endorsement for five days. We know it is out there.
But what does President Obama say to Sanders?
HENICAN: Well, it's a delicate dance, right? When you go to someone's house for a visit, right, you bring something. You grow up learning that?
BERMAN: Absolutely.
HENICAN: What's Bernie bringing, right? What's he going to bring? That's really the question. And I don't think it's an explicit exit strategy yet.
So, clearly, Clinton needs the passionate supporters of the Sanders campaign. Not so much they go to Trump, but that they will stay home or they won't get a little engage. So, it's got to be a little, it's a soft sell, right?
ROMANS: And he's got to listen.
HENICAN: He's got to listen.
And is Bernie in the mood to listen? I didn't feel that in the speech Tuesday night.
BERMAN: I don't know. I don't know that I agree. I think he gave himself a chance to stay in the race through the District of Columbia primary. But, you know, didn't want to get out of the race in California. He made clear he is not attacking Hillary. He wants to beat Donald Trump. He started stepping on that off-ramp.
HENICAN: That is an important distinction, because there are a number of ways to stay in the race. One of them is to stop those direct personal attacks on Hillary. It could be damaging.
ROMANS: I think it is fair to say the president is itching to get into this. The president itching to go head-to-head with Trump and endorse Hillary Clinton. He is talking to Jimmy Fallon last night. Listen to this sort of funny bit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON, COMEDIAN/TV HOST: Has Donald Trump called you for advice or talked to you at all? First of all, you are giving him good advice so far, if you have.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes. FALLON: Has he called and talked to you? I would call --
OBAMA: No, he hasn't. No. Not that I know of.
FALLON: Do you think the Republicans are happy with their choice?
OBAMA: We are, but I don't know how they feel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: That was effective. Sounds like he is just waiting to get into this thing.
HENICAN: You know, I've got to introduce one small notion of caution, right? I mean, I kind of felt the same way.
[05:10:01] But so did 16 other Republican candidates for president. I mean, Donald -- don't assume he's done yet. It has been a rough week. He still has got some skills out there.
BERMAN: Well, it will be interesting to see. I mean, the Democrats want President Obama out there to galvanize their base. But you know, there is a way for Donald Trump to use the president to galvanize his own base. He made it clear in his speech Tuesday night, he's going to go after President Obama as well.
HENICAN: Yes. Now, and the interesting piece is how personal will Hillary be? We have seen her sort of sound better on the stump in the past week. Will she able to maintain that? Will she get that personal contact that she lacks with some voters out there? And Barack Obama is a huge help with that.
ROMANS: Yes. Some of those progressive voters who go for Bernie Sanders, the president way heal things for them. You are right. Galvanize Donald Trump's base at the same time.
All right. Ellis, talk to you soon.
HENICAN: Great to see you, guys.
ROMANS: Breaking overnight, Hamas praising a deadly terror attack in Israel. Police now searching for two suspects. We go live to Tel Aviv right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:15:22] BERMAN: New this morning, Hamas is praising the deadly terror attack in Tel Aviv that killed four people and wounded five others. Just hours ago, the Israelis announced 83,000 entry permits for Palestinians have been frozen. Two Palestinian gunmen disguised rather as Hasidic Jews. They're now in custody for the killings at a restaurant.
This morning, there are reports Israeli authorities wanted that marketplace shutdown back in April because of security flaws.
I want to bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann who is live more from that marketplace in Tel Aviv.
Good morning, Oren.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
And we'll talk about those security concerns in just one moment. But right now, the new minister of defense has showed up here. He walked in a few minutes ago and holding an impromptu press conference here in the back. That is where the terror attacks started.
A few moments ago, he was sitting outside sipping a cup of coffee. So far, he has been quiet so far. It has been Prime Minister Netanyahu out front on this one, promising to attack the attackers. And we have seen the beginning of the Israeli response. The IDF confirming they ares operating in the southern West Bank. We also know that Cogat, the coordinator of government activities, has frozen those 83,000 Palestinian permits, as you mentioned. They also froze 204 permits of relatives of the suspects as well as freezing visits of Gazans to Jerusalem and freezing other Ramadan visits, a time when normally Israel has eased restrictions, travel restrictions on Palestinians.
Now, let's get back to security. The beauty of this market, the reason you see people out here is the reason for the security concerns. It's because it's such an open air market, accessible from all sides, unlike some of the other buildings in this area, the ministry of defense obviously has very tight security, as does a mall in the area.
But the Sarona Market here is very open. That's what made it a soft target for terror attack last night.
Hamas released a statement attack praising that attack. Their statement, "Wednesday's night operation in Tel Aviv is the first good news to our people in our persistent struggle in the month of Ramadan and the first of many surprises that will be waiting for Israeli occupying forces this month."
That statement released early this morning. Again, we have seen the Israeli response, restricting travel to and from the West Bank for Palestinians.
Benjamin Netanyahu promising to attack the attackers. Police issued a gag order on the suspects.
We do have information about the victims. Four Israelis killed last night. We know two men and two women, those two women in their 30s. One of those men in is 40s, the other man in his 50s. Those funerals set to begin later today -- John.
BERMAN: Even as Israelis are already back clearly in that marketplace right behind you.
Oren Liebermann in Tel Aviv, thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. Eighteen minutes past the hour. The Dow above 18,000. S&P near a record high. But corporate America
is worried about politics. Political uncertainty hitting big business.
It is causing a stall in hiring and expansion. Political risks have caused them to hold back on spending. More than a third say it has prevented them from making acquisitions. Another third say it has stopped them from hiring.
So, what are the executives so afraid of? The most popular response was the upcoming election, 61 percent listing this a concern. Washington gridlock, number two, followed by proposed regulations, minimum wage, tax reform.
The survey did not specifically ask about presumptive nominees Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. But some CFOs penciled in those names. The biggest fear among the European CFOs, the Brexit vote later this month. Watch for that.
BERMAN: All right. LeBron lives and so do the Cavaliers. A huge win in Cleveland for game three in the finals. A huge loss for the Warriors.
Andy Scholes with this morning's bleacher report, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:23:45] BERMAN: With the season on the line, the Cleveland Cavaliers laid it on the line. They kept it with an amazing game three of the NBA finals.
ROMANS: Andy Scholes has more in this morning's bleacher report.
Hey, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys. You know, the Cavs at home versus the Cavs on the road. It's really like night and day, they are unbeaten during these playoffs when playing in Cleveland, and the Cavs opening up a 17--point lead in the first quarter last night. Kyrie Irving having his best game of the finals, scoring 30 points.
And LeBron said this is a must-win game for the Cavs and he certainly played like it. Signature play of the game was the steal by LeBron and he gets his back for the one-handed alley-hoop slam. LeBron had the game high 32 points.
And for the third straight game, we got a blowout in the finals as the Cavs get back in the series with a 120-90 win.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: It was just good basketball. It was a good flow and everyone felt like they were part of tonight's win. So, it was a collective team win.
STEVE KERR, WARRIORS HEAD COACH: We were not ready to play. Obviously, they just punched us right in the mouth from the beginning.
STEPHEN CURRY, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: For me to do I need to do to help my team, I had to play 200 times better, especially in the first quarter.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
SCHOLES: Maria Sharapova says she is determined to fight a two-year ban for doping. The International Tennis Federation suspending Sharapova for testing positive not once, but twice in 2016 for the banned substance meldonium. The drug is used to increase endurance and energy level. And Sharapova claimed to use the drug for medical reasons in 2006 and was unaware it was put in the banned list on January 1st.
All right. Finally, Snoop Dogg is now a member of the terrible first pitch club. He threw out the first pitch in San Diego before the Braves and Padres game yesterday. It was high and outside.
BERMAN: I get it.
SCHOLES: Guys, I'll be blunt here. One of the worst first pitching I have seen. It was chronically bad.
BERMAN: Oh, boy. Along those lines, I will say, Andy, three of the first things you don't want to do is bounce it. You can miss the catcher. That is not as humiliating. As long as you get it past or to the catcher, that is okay.
SCHOLES: Everything looked good until it left his hand. At least 50 cent has the worst first pitch of all time. Snoop Dogg doesn't have to worry.
ROMANS: There's a whole genre of bad first pitches.
SCHOLES: All right. Andy, thank you so much.
ROMANS: In just hours, President Obama meets with Bernie Sanders at the White House. Will he urge the Democratic presidential candidate to concede to Hillary Clinton? What the president said about it overnight, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
