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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
President To Meet With Bernie Sanders Today; GOP Struggles To Unify Behind Trump; Four Killed In Tel Aviv Terror Attack; Labor Dept.: 5.78 Million Open Positions In May; Stanford Rape Defendant's Letter Blames Binge Drinking & Party Culture; "Lady CFO" Comment Draws Backlash. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired June 09, 2016 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Bernie Sanders and President Obama meeting at the White House days after Hillary Clinton clinched the delegates needed to become the Democratic nominee for president. Will Sanders be urged to concede?
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump -- he meets with the money folks this morning. Fundraisers coming to Trump Tower -- a big lunch today. Can he unite the Republican Party after all the controversy?
ROMANS: Breaking overnight, Hamas praising a deadly terror attack in Israel. We'll take you there with brand new information this morning.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: Nice to see you. I'm John Berman.
Thirty-one minutes past the hour. The Bernie summit, it is time. In just hours Sen. Bernie Sanders flies from Vermont to Washington for a closed-door meeting with President Obama at the White House.
Bernie Sanders is still a candidate for president despite the fact that Hillary Clinton is now the presumed nominee, having amassed well more than the needed number of delegates, including superdelegates, to secure the nomination. She also does have a majority of the pledged delegates.
Now, White House insiders have made clear that the president -- he is itching to endorse Hillary Clinton officially and soon, but today it will be more about body language, soft persuasion. More of a listening situation with Bernie Sanders than any direct call to drop out.
Michelle Kosinski has all the inside details 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 almost makes me say "come on, now". 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 Sanders' 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's how he kind of framed things.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": 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 he's going to stay in? (LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: I'm going to be talking to him tomorrow. He's going to be coming to the White House. The main role I'm going to be playing in this process is to remind the American people that this is a serious job. You know, this is not reality T.V. My hope is that over the next couple of weeks we're able to pull things together. And what happens during primaries is you get a little ouchy -- everybody does.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: So this meeting today between Bernie Sanders and President Obama here at the White House -- and keep in mind, this will be the third time that they've had a discussion in the last 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 in continuing to engage in the debate.
But behind the scenes we know the president wants to hear Sanders out. That this is likely to be a pretty 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 stay in the race a while longer, 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.
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)
ROMANS: All right, Michelle Kosinski at the White House. Thanks, Michelle.
Donald Trump has his own big day ahead of him and it has dollar signs all over it. He meets this afternoon in New York with top fundraisers from 50 states -- folks who might be feeling a little jittery. These meetings come at a very delicate time for Trump.
Many party leaders are nervous or flat out angry about Trump's claim a federal judge is biased against him because the judge's parents were born in Mexico. House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump's comments a textbook definition of racism, though he's asking anew for party unity. In other words, unity with Donald Trump.
Senior political reporter, Manu Raju, has the inside story 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 will be a much better president than Hillary Clinton.
Then there are Republicans in that #NeverTrump movement, like Ben Sasse, the 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 the chance to talk to him yesterday.
[05:35:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. REID RIBBLE, (R) WISCONSIN: His comments over the weekend are authenticating what I believe is the man's core character. And, you know, if something walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's likely to be a duck. And if you continue to say what I believe are racist statements, you're likely to be a racist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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, Sen. Pat Toomey, of Pennsylvania, said that 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 that they would support but not endorse the nominee. Trying to create a 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 "time will tell" of whether he'll even 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 very nervous -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right, thanks, Manu. I want to talk about all this now. Let's bring in "Newsday" columnist, best-selling author Ellis Henican. Ellis, great to have you here with us this morning.
ELLIS HENICAN, BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, "NEWSDAY" COLUMNIST: Good morning, guys. Good morning.
BERMAN: Thanks so much. Big day at the White House. Bernie Sanders going to the Oval Office and going to meet with the president. The name of the game is unity. The White House wants it, Hillary Clinton wants it. The question is does Bernie Sanders want it? Does he want to line up behind Hillary Clinton? Hillary Clinton talked to Anderson last night. This is what she said about the Bernie Sanders supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I really believe a lot of Sen. Sanders' supporters will join us in making sure Donald Trump doesn't get anywhere near the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So, is she right? I mean, are the Sanders folks just going to line up behind her? What needs to happen now?
HENICAN: First of all, unity requires a dance, right? You don't just show up and get unified. We're getting several important steps in that dance today, right? This really is the flattery confab today, right? The president tells Bernie Sanders what a wonderful thing he's done and how important he's been to bring new people into the Democratic Party and raise these all-important issues. And he hopes with that soft sell that Bernie starts inching toward an exit.
BERMAN: Sort of the music in the dance.
HENICAN: Yes, yes.
ROMANS: He will put the music in the dance. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is already looking toward her next big speech and it's going to be something like what she did with foreign policy, contrasting Donald Trump's temperament on foreign policy to her own. But it will not be foreign policy, it will be the economy, and this is going to be really important in her next move here.
This is what she said in a"The Wall Street Journal" interview yesterday. "While he may have some catchy soundbites, his statements on the economy are dangerously incoherent. They are deeply misguided, and they reflect an individual who is temperamentally unfit to manage the American economy."
I've heard some of those words before. Temperamentally unfit --
HENICAN: All right, incoherent.
ROMANS: -- dangerously incoherent on foreign policy. Now, she's goings to contrast him on the economy.
HENICAN: Well, the foreign policy speech was maybe the best speech he's given in the campaign and the reason was it was only half a foreign policy speech, right? It was also a very personal and political speech.
ROMANS: Right.
HENICAN: He actually got up there and seemed to feel something, including a lot of ridicule for Donald Trump. If she can take that tone and apply that to the economy she may actually be onto something.
ROMANS: It's interesting, though, when you look at the polls, he again and again gets the higher marks on managing the economy even though, for example, on an infrastructure bank and on student loans she's the one with the more detailed proposals out there. But his brand and his reputation is something that, at least in the polls, the American people seems to favor.
BERMAN: That doesn't mean they like the proposals. Just because she has proposals doesn't mean people like them.
ROMANS: Right.
BERMAN: There's also that, right?
HENICAN: But, you know, it's a lot easier to just say I'm a business guy and look at these big buildings with my name on them.
ROMANS: Right.
HENICAN: That's something people can understand.
ROMANS: Image, image.
HENICAN: Right. Infrastructure banks -- who know what they -- what is that?
BERMAN: It's interesting. Hillary Clinton is going to make her speeches about Donald Trump. Donald Trump scheduled to give a big speech next week -- next Monday -- exclusively on the Clintons. So really, all they're doing is talking about each other, which is pretty interesting.
HENICAN: We are in a unique position this year where the strongest argument that each candidate today has seems to be how terrible the other person is, right? That's really the thing that's worked so far.
BERMAN: So, the guy who's currently in the White House, President Barack Obama -- he's itching to get into this race. We know he wants to endorse Hillary Clinton formally and soon. Why? He wants to take on Donald Trump much more forcefully than he has already.
So yesterday, President Obama sat down with Jimmy Fallon. An interview that will air in its entirety, I think, tonight.
HENICAN: That's right.
BERMAN: But, you know, he talked to Fallon about Donald Trump -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FALLON: Has Donald Trump called you for advice or talked to you at all? First of all, you've given him some pretty good advice so far if you have.
OBAMA: Yes.
FALLON: But, has he called and talked to you? I would call you if I was running.
OBAMA: No. No, he hasn't, no. (LAUGHTER) 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)
[05:40:00] HENICAN: His timing is great, by the way.
BERMAN: He's good at the comedy stuff. After eight years he knows what he's doing as far as that goes. But he wants in on this game, and soon.
HENICAN: For sure. And you know, he's already been in on it. I know he hasn't endorsed anyone yet but he's given some pretty tough speeches and some pretty tough press conference commentary. He's itching to jump in.
ROMANS: Really quickly, Donald Trump meeting with fundraisers. How much trouble is he going to have? How much is he a disadvantage in fundraising right now?
HENICAN: Well, a lot. I mean, a lot of people aren't opening their wallets. But Donald says hey, what do I need it for? I get so much free publicity.
ROMANS: That's true.
HENICAN: Who needs a billion dollars when you have the media?
BERMAN: One other thing to watch today, Elizabeth Warren. She is going to give a speech.
ROMANS: That's right.
BERMAN: She, also, expected to go after Donald Trump and maybe come as close as she has yet to endorsing Hillary Clinton formally. Thanks, Ellis.
HENICAN: Yes, appreciate it. Good to see you.
ROMANS: Thanks, Ellis, again. BERMAN: All right, breaking overnight, Hamas praising a deadly terror attack in Israel. We have new reporting from Tel Aviv, live right after the break.
[05:41:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:45:00]
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 as Hasidic Jews, they are in custody this morning for the killings at the upscale Sarona Market.
I want to bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann. He is live at that market this morning which is bustling with people, Oren.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is quite stunning how fast. Just over 12 hours after this terror attack there are people here. It looks like a regular day. Of course, we know from what we have seen -- the surveillance video we've seen and the people we've spoken to -- it is very much not a regular day at this market after what happened last night.
Now, I do want to talk about what just happened here. The minister of defense was here just a moment ago. He gave a short statement. This is the first major event he's dealing with, as he was sworn in only a few weeks ago. And the important part of his statement was that he said this would not end with words only, and we've already seen the beginning of it, the Israeli response and Israeli military response.
The military announcing just a short time ago that they will send two extra battalions into the West Bank for security reasons. You also mentioned that COGAT, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, has frozen 83,000 Palestinian permits for them to enter from the West Bank into Israel. COGAT has also frozen Gazan visits to Jerusalem, as well as Ramadan visits during this time of year. Additionally, COGAT has frozen 204 permits for relatives of the two suspects in this case.
Now, police have issued a gag order here so we can't give information about the investigation. All we're allowed to say is that the two Palestinian suspects in this case are from the West Bank. Now, we do have information about the victims here. We know that it was two women and two women. The four Israelis that were killed here last night was two women in their thirties, one man in his forties, one man in his fifties.
The mayor of Tel Aviv urging the city to pause to remember, but also, as you can see here behind me, to go on with their lives and not let terror disrupt Tel Aviv -- John.
BERMAN: You've got a lot of people out there this morning undeterred. Oren Liebermann for us in Tel Aviv. Thanks so much, Oren.
ROMANS: All right, forty-seven minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money. America has a record high number of job openings. That means employers are starting to hire again, but it also signals a problem. Businesses say they can't find the skilled workers to fill those spots.
A mismatch between the workers who are available and the jobs that are available -- 5.78 million job openings according to the most recent data from the Labor department. That matches the high reached in July of last year.
Another way to look at it -- this is my favorite chart in the job market. There are now 1.3 unemployed workers for every job position open. That figured spiked to more than six during the recession. Imagine, to get a job you had to beat out five other people. The major industries looking for workers, trade, transportation, and manufacturing. All of those have tens of thousands of open positions nationwide.
Many economists say the U.S. is at near full employment and that some are feeling the Federal Reserve is not acting fast enough in raising interest rates. More than two-thirds of economists surveyed by "CNN MONEY" feel the Fed is behind the curve. Janet Yellen, too cautious for some time now, finds herself in this position where rates should have been higher already.
BERMAN: She has big shoulders, though.
ROMANS: She sure does. So, another person who has big shoulders.
BERMAN: I'll take Janet Yellen in that scrap, I'll tell you that right now.
ROMANS: Cuomo, Janet Yellen.
BERMAN: Chris Cuomo here this morning. Good morning.
ROMANS: Both native New Yorkers.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": I would, too, Berman. Berman, you like my tie? Of course, you do. Moving on, the big meeting at the White House today. President Obama sitting down with Bernie Sanders. Can he be convinced to concede the nomination to Hillary Clinton or is this infighting going to drag on? And by the way, we'll take a look at whether or not that's really a bad thing.
On the other side, party leaders hoping this gentler Donald Trump sticks around. Can he keep it under control? And what's next for the Trump campaign? We're going to talk about the 2016 race with another billionaire businessman, Mark Cuban.
Also, the light sentence for a former Stanford swimmer convicted in a rape case. Why did this happen? To a lot of people it doesn't seem to make sense. We're going to get you inside the case and see if there was a bias towards the assailant instead of the victim. My friends, that's what we have.
ROMANS: All right, thanks, Chris.
BERMAN: I do like his tie. He knows I like all of his ties. He has great ties.
ROMANS: He has nice ties. He's got good taste.
CUOMO: Haven't I given you a tie?
BERMAN: Yes, I wear it all the time. I actually wear it all the time.
CUOMO: Not today. Not today.
BERMAN: You've got to take a day off. It's like a change up in the fastball -- all right.
ROMANS: All right, thanks, Chris. A shareholder of one of Silicon Valley's most respected companies ignited a firestorm on Twitter yesterday, call the CFO a "lady CFO". I'll tell you what company and who that CFO is next.
[05:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:54:00] BERMAN: New backlash this morning against the judge who sentenced a former Stanford student-athlete to six months in jail for raping an intoxicated and unconscious woman on campus last year. The lead prosecutor says while he strongly disagrees with the sentence, he does not believe that Judge Aaron Persky should be removed from the bench. New details are emerging this morning, including a letter written by the defendant, Brock Turner, asking for leniency.
Let's get more now from CNN's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, despite being found guilty it seems clear that the defendant in this case, Brock Turner, is not acknowledging that he assaulted the victim. He says his actions that night were the result of binge drinking and the party culture on college campuses.
He said this to the judge when asking for a lenient sentence. "One decision has the potential to change your entire life. I know I can impact and change people's attitudes towards the culture surrounded by binge drinking and sexual promiscuity that protrudes through what people think is at the core of being a college student."
[05:55:00] In the meantime, it is a bit ironic that the judge in this case, Aaron Persky, just got a brand new six-year term. He was supposed to face re-election on Tuesday, but because nobody was challenging him he automatically got that new term. Of course, there is this effort underway to recall him. You'll need about 70,000 signatures for his name to appear on a recall ballot.
There's also an effort underway on change.org. More than 660,000 people have signed a petition asking for the judge to be recalled. But now there is pushback among some of Aaron Persky's supporters. We spoke to a public defender who says the judge is a good person and that he does not deserve to be recalled.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right, Dan Simon, thanks so much. At noon today there will be a Muslim prayer service for Muhammad Ali. The service for Ali's body will be prepared for burial is at Louisville's Freedom Hall. The event is open to the public. About 18,000 people might attend. And on Friday afternoon a memorial service for Ali is scheduled. Bill Clinton, Billy Crystal, Bryant Gumbel -- they will deliver the eulogies.
ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. Dow futures are lower right now, in sync with losses overnight in Asia. It was a weak open in Europe. Oil prices have turned lower but still holding above $51 a barrel.
The big three U.S. stock market gauges are at or near significant milestones. The S&P 500 just 11 points away from a record high. The Dow closed above 18,000. The Nasdaq, closing in on 5,000. You know, these are psychological levels but for perspective look at that Dow number. The low in February was 15,503. The Nasdaq dropped down to 4,200, so you can see the recovery here.
BERMAN: That stack of cash some investors made is not psychological.
ROMANS: Absolutely, no. People keep saying how terrible the economy is and look what's happening in the markets here. The energy sector is leading the gains. It's up 15 percent over the past three months. Commercial services -- that's like advertising and marketing firms -- also up big, followed by utilities and health services. Really a disconnect between what you're seeing from investors and what you're seeing from the polls.
A shareholder calls a Google executive "lady CFO". Eyes roll, Twitter erupts around a tech industry already struggling with gender diversity. A "USA Today" tech reporter covering that shareholder meeting tweeted this. "Actual quote from $GOOGL shareholder. My first question is to the lady CFO. My second question is to Mr. Drummond."
That lady CFO is Ruth Porat, a finance rock star -- rock star. She's been Alphabet's CFO since May of last year. She was the CFO at Morgan Stanley, leading the bank through a little small thing called the financial crisis, scoring big business with top tech firms. This "lady CFO" has degrees from Wharton, the London School of Economics, and Stanford.
It gets better. The comment came right after a vote where shareholders rejected disclosing more information about gender pay gaps. Google's been working pretty hard and spending a lot of money to improve its diversity and grow its female workforce, actually trying to disrupt the diversity problem in Silicon Valley, trying to use the best minds to figure out how do you get more women at the top. And they have a woman at the top, and a shareholder called her a "lady CFO". I haven't heard that in a long time.
BERMAN: No, you would say I want to hear from the dude general counsel. All right, Bernie Sanders and President Obama -- they will meet at the White House just hours from now. What's going to go on inside the Oval Office? "NEW DAY" starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Bernie Sanders meets with President Obama at the White House.
OBAMA: Bernie Sanders brought enormous energy. It made Hillary a better candidate.
CLINTON: I really believe a lot of Sen. Sanders' supporters will join us.
OBAMA: We want the Republican nominee to be somebody who could do the job if they win.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) MAJORITY LEADER: He needs to begin to act like a presidential candidate.
BERMAN: Hamas is praising the deadly terror attack in Tel Aviv that killed four people.
LIEBERMANN: The two suspects are Palestinians from the West Bank.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: This is a savage crime done by criminal terrorists who don't value human life.
NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST, "NANCY GRACE": Just a slap on the wrist for raping an unconscious co-ed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was really disgusted. Six months is way too short. He has shown no remorse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, June 9th, 6:00 in the east, and we are going to talk more about this Stanford rape case decision. A lot of people are saying well, the judge decided, but it doesn't make sense to so many people. It's worth a deeper look.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We have two Stanford students on with us who are very upset about that sentence and they'll tell us what they want the school to do.
CUOMO: Also, we're just hours away from President Obama meeting with Bernie Sanders at the White House this morning. What's the message going to be? Is it going to be unity? How do they have to temper it? We're going to get you inside what we believe that conversation to be about. Obviously, the party wants to move towards Clinton.
CAMEROTA: We'll be a fly on the wall for that this morning. This, as Republicans try to rein in Donald Trump after a firestorm of criticism for his attacks on the federal judge. Will his measured tone last?
We have the 2016 race covered the way only CNN can, so let's begin with Athena Jones. She's live in Washington. Good morning, Athena.
