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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Obama to Campaign with Clinton Next Week; Can Donald Trump United the GOP?; NBA Finals: Cavs Look to Even Series. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired June 10, 2016 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Democrats unite. President Obama with an impassioned endorsement of Hillary Clinton while Vice President Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren go on the attack against Donald Trump.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump on the campaign trail to unite the Republican base starting with evangelicals. His strategy ahead, and what he promised top party donors.
All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
KOSIK: Good morning. I'm Alison Kosik. It's Friday, June 10th.
[05:00:00] It's 5:00 a.m. in the East.
And this morning, top Democrats are closing ranks behind Hillary Clinton in a highly choreographed effort to elevate Clinton as the party's presumptive nominee and disarm her Democratic rival. President Obama met with Bernie Sanders at the White House. Two hours later, the Clinton campaign dropped a web video unveiling the president's long anticipated endorsement of Secretary Clinton.
White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alison and Christine.
Right, to see this play out was truly remarkable. Here we have a presidential endorsement in a video on Twitter that was released by the Hillary Clinton campaign. When has that ever happened?
It was recorded on Tuesday. It was well-produced. You could hear the music behind it there.
So, it was clear the White House wanted to let the meeting play out, private meeting between the president and Bernie Sanders at the White House yesterday. It was a lengthy meeting. Let the discussion happen. Let the president hear out Bernie Sanders and work on a path forward. How will he be engaged? How will he work with the White House and Hillary Clinton? Then, as soon as that meeting was over, bam, within two hours, the
endorsement was out. And the president wasn't holding back.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know how hard this job can be. That's why I know Hillary will be so good at it. In fact, I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.
She's got the courage, the compassion and the heart to get the job done. And I say that as somebody who had to debate her more than 20 times. I'm with her. I am fired up. I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary.
KOSINSKI: The White House is wasting no time on that either. I mean, now the president is free, unleashed. She's hitting the campaign trail on Wednesday with Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin.
And for Democrats right now, it's all about unity. I mean, they want Sanders many supporters to ultimately support Hillary Clinton. They feel that Sanders voice will be crucial in that to rally them, to ultimately go to her side. As well as the voice of President Obama who is such a powerful influence on the younger voters -- Alison and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Thanks, Michelle.
As Democrats move to unite, Donald Trump has an issue to get Republicans to line up behind him. House Speaker Paul Ryan repeating his message that Republicans who support a conservative agenda must back the presumptive nominee even if they don't agree with everything he says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We have a far better chance of putting these ideas in place with a Trump presidency than Clinton presidency.
WKOW ANCHOR: Do you worry at all that people are going to hear to the next few weeks and think, well, getting your agenda passing the law is more important to you than, you know, how our nation looks, how our president acts over the next four years?
RYAN: Yes. That's a legitimate question, I think. That's why I condemned his comments as clearly as I can. I have spoken to him about it. I spoken to him about other issues and things he said in the past, and I think this has to change. He has to fix this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Today, Trump will work to rally the Republican base headlining the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference heavily attended by evangelical voters. Then, Trump heads to Richmond for a rally tonight at 8:00. Two stops on the busy schedule Trump promised dozens of top party donors on Thursday he would keep up to beat Clinton in November.
All right. Joining to us break it all down, CNN politics reporter Tal Kopan in our Washington bureau.
So much to cover yesterday. You finally have this big show of unity among Democrats for Hillary Clinton. I mean, really, a big move from all corners. You know, Senator Elizabeth Warren who has been the only female senator holdout who had not officially endorse months ago Hillary Clinton.
This is what she says. "I'm ready to jump in the fight and make sure that Hillary Clinton is the next president of the United States and be sure that Donald Trump gets nowhere near the White House. I'm supporting Hillary Clinton because she's a fighter, a fighter with guts.
And then she and Joe Biden go on to attack Donald Trump. Team Trump has been trying to put the judge controversy behind him and move forward to unify, and Democrats are not going to let that happen. Listen to what she said about Donald Trump, really getting a lot of attention this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: He has personally, personally directed his army of campaign surrogates to step up their own public attacks on Judge Curiel. Trump is picking on someone who is ethically bound not to defend himself, exactly what you would expect from a thin-skinned, racist bully.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: How effective will Elizabeth Warren be now she is in the corner of Hillary Clinton, even as Bernie Sanders is still holding on?
TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, she has been sort of auditioning for the role of attack dog for some time now.
[05:05:02] She's been going on some Twitter rants against Donald Trump that have clearly gotten under his skin a little bit he has returned in kind on Twitter and they've gone back and forth a bit.
On the one hand, I think there was a long stretch during the primary that Hillary Clinton would have loved some of these endorsements and they held out, the president and vice president and Elizabeth Warren, they held out, they held out, until it really was clear that Bernie Sanders was ready to find down the campaign. The upside of that waiting period, she is hitting this general election running full steam with this coterie of really powerful group of Democrats behind her really showing their claws and ready to go after Donald Trump.
KOSIK: So, as we see Elizabeth Warren rally behind Hillary Clinton, we see the RNC coming out with its statement saying to its effect, calling her a sellout, referring to -- calling Elizabeth Warren a sellout, referring to Hillary Clinton speeches on Wall Street, about her ties to the fossil fuel industry. The RNC saying, you know, with Elizabeth Warren standing behind Hillary, she is standing for everything that she has stood against.
KOPAN: Yes, it's interesting and it's unclear whether this will be a line of attack. And, of course, swirling below all of this is the speculation about whether Elizabeth Warren could be on Hillary Clinton's short list for vice president. Warren's credentials on Wall Street, on consumer issues, really being a purest on the topics that propelled her to the Senate could really help Hillary Clinton recruit some of that base of Bernie Sanders that really believed in those issues that he spoke so deeply about.
It's sort of a TBD. It is unclear if she is on the short list, although Senate Democrats surely seems to hope that she is.
ROMANS: Another sort of powerful moment for Democrats is Joe Biden and his full throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton and his attack against Donald Trump. Listen to what he said again about the judge controversy that Republicans would like to put behind them, but the Democrats are not going to let them do that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES I find Donald Trump's conduct in this regard reprehensible. Evidenced by the bipartisan condemnation of the action for what it is, a dangerous attack on a vital pillar of democracy, the independent judiciary by threats of intimidation and undercutting the legitimacy of a judge by suggesting that because of his heritage, he is incapable of being fair. In addition to this, it is racist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: We had seen some muted praise from Republican establishment types for the new Donald Trump performance after California that he is looking forward and talking about helping his party. Not letting his party down.
Do you think that Donald Trump is going to be able to get beyond this judge thing even if you have Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and others out there continually bringing it up?
KOPAN: If Donald Trump wants to get beyond this, I think to a certain extent, he will. He continues to double down on it. If he sort of let's it go away, Democrats can continue to bring it up. It will lose resonance at some point. If he continues to make these comments, he will continue to give the ammunition.
You know, a truism in politics, or everything, is timing is everything. And when you're talking about the rollout of the general election, this is sort of the first week that we've had of this general election match up, Trump has come in bruised and battered from these comments that he made, while Hillary Clinton has a sort of triumphant moment of a historical candidacy, with all these endorsements coming and giving her wind in her sails.
So, it's a difficult week for him, but I highly doubt that this particular controversy is going to be one that we are talking about, you know, for months, months and months. There will be other things that come up for sure.
ROMANS: Interesting. All right. Tal, thank you for joining us. We'll talk to you in a bit.
KOSIK: We'll see you in a little bit, about 20 minutes.
KOPAN: Yes.
ROMANS: The Friday twofer from Tal.
All right. Time for an early start on your money. Stocks around the world are lower, dragging Dow futures down with them. The selling trigger fears about global growth. You see some talking about Brexit. That vote coming up June 23rd.
Stock markets lower, but investors piling into the safety of U.S. treasury bonds, driving the yield down to the lowest since February. Puerto Rico is one step closer to the government bailout. Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill to help the island avoid collapse.
This is being hailed as a bipartisan compromise. President Obama and Hillary ton support it. So does House speaker Paul Ryan. It could make it through the Senate and to the president's desk before the July Fourth recess.
Puerto Rico, of course, is more than $70 billion in debt. It has defaulted three times in the past year, has a $2 billion payment due on July 1st.
[05:10:01] KOSIK: A big relief that it needs.
All right. In just hours, a final farewell to iconic fighter Muhammad Ali. Thousands expected this morning, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: A final farewell today for the greatest, Muhammad Ali. It begins with the 16 to 18-car procession through the streets of his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. That will be followed by a huge celebration of Ali's life, an interfaith service with Bill Clinton and Billy Crystal among others, delivering eulogies.
President Obama remembering the champ reflecting on a pair of Ali boxing gloves he has displayed at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I don't know how good of a boxer I am. I have had to slug it out here a little bit here in Washington. There have been times where I have been the underdog just like the champ. There have been times where I got beat up a little bit and had to come back. And that says resilience.
[05:15:01] That's what these boxing gloves represent to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Please join CNN at 1:30 Eastern Time this afternoon for our live special coverage. "The Greatest: Remembering Muhammad Ali". It's anchored by Don Lemon.
On Thursday, thousands attended a Muslim prayer service where Ali was memorialized as the people's champ.
KOSIK: Outrage is growing over the sentence of a former Stanford student athlete that -- what he received for raping a woman who was intoxicated and unconscious. More than a million people have signed online petitions, calling for the Judge Aaron Persky to be removed from the bench.
Vice President Joe Biden even adding his voice in an open letter to the victim published on "BuzzFeed". In it, he expressed his furious anger, said he is awed by the victim's courage for speaking out.
The defendant, Brock Turner, got just six months in jail. Now it appears he will spend less time behind bars.
We get more now from CNN's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are at the Santa Clara County jail where the former Stanford athlete is serving out his short jail term. We are told that Brock Turner is in protective custody given the high profile nature of the crime. He was originally sentenced to six months in jail, but now we know it is just going to be three months. Oftentimes, California inmates are released early as long as there are not behavior problems and they get released because of jail overcrowding.
As you can imagine, people on the Stanford campus are outraged over this. We talked to several students. Here is sampling of what some of them had to say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people say it's white privilege and I would agree. It also has to do with class and money and resources that people have here. So, I don't think it's fair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After reading the letter from the victim, it really sounds that it's not really like giving her justice in that sense. And that's really sad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think in general, justice is not served when it comes to this issue. Just that this is bringing that to the limelight.
SIMON: This is being felt so widely on campus that graduating seniors are planning some sort of demonstration during this weekend's commencement. We are also learning a bit more about Brock Turner's past.
In his letter to the judge, he characterized himself as someone who is a bit naive, somebody who grew up in a small town in Ohio who had no experience when it came to drugs and alcohol. But, apparently, prosecutors say that is an outright lie. On his cell phone, they uncovered text messages and photos that reveal that he did in fact use alcohol and drugs, even in high school. Some of the drugs included high potency, concentrated marijuana and LSD.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Dan Simon, thanks for that.
Part of the outrage in this case , of course, the growing outrage every day is from the rapist to the rapist's father and others, they only seem to talk about the drinking culture and not take responsibility for the rape itself.
The other thing that is interesting that I found, 24 rapes each year the past two or three years in Stanford. That is one every other week. Surprised me the prevalence of rape culture on campus.
KOSIK: It really makes you wonder, if we become so desensitized in a society to rape and to following up the right way, meaning investigating and handing out the right sentences to those who are convicted.
ROMANS: Anyway, eighteen minutes past the hour.
Dylann Roof, the suspect charged with fatally shooting nine people at an historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina last year, wants a judge, not a jury to decide his fate. Attorneys for the 22- year-old Roof say he is willing to waive his right to a jury trial, but it appears prosecutors won't consent. Roof's trial is scheduled to begin in November. The government will seek the death penalty.
KOSIK: Day two of testimony of the latest Freddie Gray trial. Baltimore police officer Caesar Goodson faces the most serious charges, including second-degree murder. Now, Freddie Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury riding in the back of Goodson's police wagon. Prosecutors have yet to secure a conviction in the case, which prompted riots in the city.
In all, six Baltimore police officers were charged, the first trial ended in a hung jury. A second officer was acquitted last month.
ROMANS: All right. The big Stanley Cup celebration in Pittsburgh is on hold. The San Jose Sharks staving off elimination last night. Andy Scholes with the bleacher report next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:23:46] KOSIK: The Sharks staying afloat in the Stanley Cup finals with the win over the Penguins last night.
ROMANS: Andy Scholes, of course, has more, bright and early this morning, in the bleacher report.
Hey, Andy. ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys.
You know, one of the hardest things to do, guys, is win on the road when you're facing elimination. With their backs against the wall, the Sharks squashed the Penguin's party last night.
Check out the scene outside the arena. Thousands of fans in Pittsburgh ready to celebrate a championship. There were more fans outside than inside. One minute into the game, the sharks on the board. Burns and his beard put them up 1-0. Martin Jones, he's a hero for San Jose. He has the most saves in a Stanley Cup Finals game in nearly 50 years. Sharks win, 4-2, to send the series back to the Bay.
All right. Major League Baseball handing out fines for the bench clearing brawl with the Orioles and Royals. Ventura suspended nine games for hitting Machado. Machado received a four-game ban. Both players have appealed.
All right. The city of Cleveland will once again be rocking tonight for game four of the NBA finals.
[05:25:00] Like game three, LeBron says this is a must-win for the Cavs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: It's the same mindset. We cannot go out 3-1 going into their building. So, it is a do-or-die game for us still.
STEPHEN CURRY, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: We're 2-1. We're up 2-1 right now. The story is still unfolding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Tip-off tonight at 9:00 Eastern. This game could decide this series. The Cavs cannot afford to go down 3-1 heading back to the Bay.
KOSIK: I am gearing up for this game tonight. I don't know about you.
ROMANS: You can see the pressure on their faces, you know? Just the pressure of this.
All right. Thanks so much, Andy.
SCHOLES: All right.
Nice to see you. Democrats united behind Hillary Clinton. President Obama giving an impassioned endorsement as other party leaders go on the attack against Donald Trump.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROMANS: Democrats united behind Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump. President Obama's impassioned endorsement as party leaders unleashed their wrath.
