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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Campaign Explains Source Of Graphic Critics Call Anti- Semitic; 2016 Veepstakes; Global Markets Lower Over Renewed Brexit Concerns; String of Terror Attacks in Muslim World Through Ramadan; Renters Pay More For Less; Mega Millions Reaches $449M. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired July 05, 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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[05:31:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump blasting the media and defending a tweet attacking Hillary Clinton, many are calling anti-Semitic.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama on the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton for the very first time. Can the president help the presumptive Democratic nominee's sliding poll numbers?
ROMANS: New terror attacks killing hundreds of people as ISIS urges followers to attack anywhere they can. Live team coverage breaking it all down. Welcome back, good morning. Welcome back to EARLY START, I'm Christine Romans.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. Thirty-one minutes past the hour and breaking overnight, the Trump campaign under fire and now offering an explanation for how a graphic that some are calling anti-Semitic ended up on Donald Trump's Twitter feed.The image you see here accusing Hillary Clinton of corruption shows a pile of cash and a six-pointed star. It appeared on a white supremacist message board two weeks ago.
But last night, after being pressed on the issue through the weekend, the Trump campaign's social media director posted a statement on Facebook saying that the graphic "was not created by the campaign nor was it sourced from an anti-Semitic site. It was lifted from an anti- Hillary Twitter user where countless images appear." It goes on to say "As the social media director for the campaign, I would never offend anyone and therefore chose to remove the image." Critics, though, are still hammering Trump over that graphic.
CNN's Sara Murray has this report.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Christine and George. Donald Trump is still dealing with this firestorm after he put out a tweet that appeared previously on a white supremacist message board. It slammed Hillary Clinton as 'Crooked Hillary' but it also included a six-pointed star that evokes the Star of David and, therefore, anti-Semitic imagery. Trump did put out a statement trying to turn this around on Hillary Clinton. Now, in that statement he said "These false attacks by Hillary Clinton trying to link the Star of David with a basic star, often used by sheriffs who deal with criminals and criminal behavior, showing an inscription that says 'Crooked Hillary is the most corrupt candidate ever' with anti-Semitism is ridiculous. Clinton, through her surrogates, is just to trying to divert attention from the dishonest behavior of herself and her husband."
And, of course, the Clinton campaign was highly critical of that tweet, saying it shows a pattern of behavior of Donald Trump, sort of highlighting these extremists. Now, for Trump's part, he's also been trying to turn attention away from this scandal to the veepstakes. He met yesterday with Iowa senator Joni Ernst. What's not clear is how interested she would be in taking this V.P. job, or even whether the Trump campaign is very serious about considering her for that second in command slot, but aides say that the meeting went very well. Back to you guys.
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ROMANS: All right, Sara, thank you for that. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton stumping in the crucial swing state of North Carolina today. Clinton campaigning with President Obama for the very first time, starting in Washington this morning and then hitching a ride on Air Force Once to Charlotte.
The president hoping his renewed popularity rubs off on Clinton. A new poll says maybe she needs the help. The USA Today/Suffolk University survey shows her six points ahead of Trump. Six points ahead -- that's a significant narrowing, though, of her double-digit lead in the same poll two months ago.
For the very latest on that let's turn to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty in Washington.
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SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and George. Well, coming off this weekend's FBI interview over her use of a private email server as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will try to take back control of the narrative today. She will be campaigning for the first time with President Obama in Charlotte, North Carolina.
And giving her visit a bit more presidential flair, Clinton will actually hitch a ride down there with President Obama on Air Force One, which Donald Trump quickly seized on tweeting quickly last night, "Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary? She is flying with him. Who pays?"
[05:35:00] Now, North Carolina, as a setting for today, is a strategic move for the Clinton campaign. They see that state as the biggest must-win for the Trump campaign, so certainly trying to undercut him a bit there. Now, aides to Clinton tell CNN they do expect Obama, today, to tell
the story of his 'rival to friend' relationship with Sec. of State Clinton, as well as, likely, laying into Donald Trump. They expect him to echo the message that Clinton has been pushing herself, that Trump is unqualified for the presidency -- Christine and George.
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ROMANS: All right.
HOWELL: It was quite a weekend.
ROMANS: Sunlen, thank you for that -- exactly. Let's discuss the campaign. Let's discuss all that happened this weekend with CNN politics reporter Eugene Scott. He's live for us this morning from our --
HOWELL: Where do we start?
ROMANS: -- Washington bureau. Good morning.
EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning.
ROMANS: So let's start with this tweet that's since been deleted by the campaign but it's a -- I want to look at the original tweet there, "Crooked Hillary makes history." And then Trump eventually giving this statement.
"These false attacks by Hillary Clinton trying to link the Star of David with a basic star often used by sheriffs who deal with criminals and criminal behavior, showing an inscription that says 'Crooked Hillary is the most corrupt candidate ever' with anti-Semitism is ridiculous. Clinton, through her surrogates, is just trying to divert attention from the dishonest behavior of herself and her husband."
Now, the social media director for the Trump campaign has since said they have taken it down, they don't want to offend anybody. What do you make of this controversy?
SCOTT: I think a lot of people are just primarily confused as to why it took so long for the Trump campaign to respond to it. This tweet went up, Ibelieve, Saturday morning. I was working here on that day and we didn't get the official response, the latest updated response, until last night and I think that's confusing to a lot of people.
We don't know if it's a staffing issue. We know that his staff is significantly smaller than Clinton's, or if it is just an unwillingness to be sensitive to the issues and the concerns of the electorate. People don't understand why media constantly was contacting the Trump campaign, as well as supporters and critics, and there was no response or no effort to address it as quickly as possible. You would just think that someone who is on Twitter as much as Donald Trump would have responded.
HOWELL: But let's talk about the bigger picture here because, again, you see these unforced errors at the time same time. This, quite frankly, could have been a good week for Donald Trump. You saw Hillary Clinton being interviewed by the FBI. You saw her husband, Bill Clinton, and the attorney general meeting on the airport tarmac. That was, you know, problematic for the Clinton campaign. Yet, this tweet overshadowed it all with the headlines.
SCOTT: Absolutely, yes. You mentioned this was not a good week for the Clinton campaign and it should have been smooth sailing for the Trump campaign, but here we are. We've spent 48 hours in the last news cycle revisiting an issue that the Trump campaign has had before in terms of its interaction with the Jewish community, as well as other marginalized groups.
And there's some concern about whether or not this is a pattern of behavior. If there's a level of insensitivity or a lack of awareness that could lead to poor policymaking and leadership if he were elected, ultimately.
ROMANS: Let's talk about policymaking, and leadership, and V.P. picks.
SCOTT: Sure.
ROMANS: Talk to us a little bit about the names that are still swirling around there.
HOWELL: There are so many.
ROMANS: It's that time in the cycle when we start talking about --
SCOTT: Yes.
ROMANS: -- will it be Sherrod Brown, Tim Kaine? Who will it be?
SCOTT: Yes, yes. You mentioned that Trump was just meeting with Joni Ernst, and he also met with Mike Pence this weekend, and Gingrich was talking about it. We've gotten that story up on "CNN POLITICS". And, of course, there's also Chris Christie.
And on the Clinton side it's so diverse, the potential names. We've got Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Tim Kaine, Julian Castro. It's not really clear yet who it will be but it's interesting to see what both sides are saying what they need and what gaps the V.P. candidate will pick.
As you know, Donald Trump is looking for someone who is familiar with Washington and who can be strong in the areas which he is weak, which is lawmaking, and leadership, and familiarity with policymaking. And Hillary Clinton has made it very clear that it is not someone who can connect her with one the groups that she's not doing well with that she's looking to add onto her team, but someone that she can just work with closely and who can --
ROMANS: Right.
SCOTT: -- take over as soon as possible if something were to happen to her. HOWELL: The time is coming where they will have to make those picks.
SCOTT: Sure.
HOWELL: Eugene Scott, thank you so much for your time today.
SCOTT: Thank you guys.
ROMANS: All right, 39 minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money. Global stock markets lower this morning on renewed Brexit concerns. An increasingly unpredictable political scene in the U.K. caused Asian and European markets to fall after a several-day rebound in markets over the last week. Markets in the U.S. were closed yesterday for the Fourth of July holiday, but futures are lower this morning as we head into the first trading day of the second half of the year.
It has been a wild first six months. Stocks saw the worst start to a calendar year in U.S. history. Then the market turned in a strong rally until the Brexit vote in late June. At the halfway point, the Dow and the S&P 500 are both up nearly three percent for the year, while the Nasdaq is down the same amount.
[05:40:00] So, are we in store for a big swing through the remainder of the year? Well, experts say periods of high volatility tend to be clustered together. This week investors will have to deal with both the meeting of the European Central Bank -- that's tomorrow -- and then Friday is the June jobs report and that will be really interesting to watch because the May report was so weak, and surprisingly weak. A lot of folks wondering if the U.S. economy revved up a little bit ahead of you (ph) this summer.
HOWELL: It will be interesting to see. Around the world, hundreds of people killed in new attacks. This, as Ramadan draws to a close. A new wave of terrorism that could strike anywhere. CNN has live team coverage next.
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[05:44:15] ROMANS: Hi, welcome back. A string of major terror attacks in the Muslim world leaving hundreds dead as the holy month of Ramadan comes to an end. ISIS said to be responsible for bombings in Turkey, Bangladesh, and Iraq. Those strikes followed by suicide bombings in three Saudi Arabian cities over a 24-hour period, including a bombing near the U.S. Consulate in Jeddah.
We are covering these developments from Baghdad, to Dhaka, to the Saudi attacks the way only CNN can beginning with CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson. He is in London for us -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Christine, these attacks in Saudi Arabia -- absolutely unusual that you have three attacks of this type in one day. They began with that attack at the U.S. Consulate. [05:45:00] There, it was a Pakistani who the Saudi Interior Ministry
identified as the suicide bomber there. They say he was a driver who had been working in the country for the past 12 years, married, living with his wife and mother-in-law.
They give no reason why they say that he was motivated to do this but the police, at the time, spotted him behaving in an odd fashion, approached him, he detonated his suicide vest. And then later the police discovered three more explosives inside his vehicle, so that was perhaps a near miss for the U.S. Consulate there in Jeddah.
But later in the day two attacks on opposite sides of the country timed almost at exactly the same time. The one in the west of the country targeting a security checkpoint in the city of Medina. This is Islam's second holiest site. This will be keenly felt, by the way, by the Saudi security services all the way up to the king here.
This will be an embarrassment for the Saudis that they can be targeted in this place that so many pilgrims -- millions and millions of pilgrims from around the world -- come to go on the Hajj, the holy pilgrimage and that's one of the sites -- that's one of the cities that they go to. Four Saudi security officers killer there, several others injured.
Meanwhile, in the east of the country, a Shia mosque was the target there. We're told the suicide bomber tried to get to the mosque, he was stopped. He detonated his explosives -- didn't injure anyone. But no claim of responsibility, but three attacks in one day absolutely out of the ordinary.
The targets -- you've got to look at it and say this is a sort of target that ISIS has been targeting in Saudi Arabia in the recent past -- George.
HOWELL: Our internationaldiplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, live for us in London. Thank you, Nic, for your reporting. Moving on now to Baghdad. The death toll there keeps rising from a suicide truck bombing in the Iraqi capital. At least 200 people there killed, 175 wounded in this huge blast.
CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is following this story live for us live this day in Amman, Jordan. And Jomana, this is the deadliest single attack in Iraq since 2003.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: George, a really devastating attack and it's been more than 48 hours since that suicide truck bombing struck this commercial district in the heart of Baghdad. And up until now, rescue workers are still on the scene. They are still digging through the rubble trying to find more bodies and even body parts.
We're hearing from our teams on the ground that family members are still showing up on the scene, still searching for their loved ones who went missing during the attack. So many heartbreaking stories about the victims of this attack. Parents who are showing up looking for their children, including one couple. Their teenage son was there celebrating his birthday at a cafe with friends and they lost touch with him and they came searching for him. And so many other stories like that.
As you mentioned, 215 people killed. So many lives lost, including children who were out with their families celebrating the end of the school year, preparing for their Eid festival that comes at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Shopping for that when they were caught up in this violence. More than 100 other people wounded in this attack.
As you mentioned, the single deadliest attack we have seen in Iraq since 2003 and definitely this kind of large-scale suicide truck bombing is something we have not seen in Baghdad in years, since the height of the sectarian violence in that country. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack and this is coming at a time when we've heard from U.S. and Iraqi officials about how much territory ISIS has lost in Iraq, most recently the city of Fallujah.
But definitely here a tragic and unfortunate reminder that the group still has the ability to carry out these sort of devastating attacks while it has lost ground. So really, another reminder here that the fight against ISIS cannot only be won military. Back to you, Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Jomana Karadsheh for us this morning following that story. Now to Bangladesh and the terror attack in Dhaka. ISIS claiming responsibility, but officials say the attack was carried out by homegrown militants.
Let's bring in CNN's Alexandra Field. She is live from Dhaka, Bangladesh for us this morning -- Alexandra.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. We are learning more of the hideous details of what happened inside that restaurant during that lengthy attack. It lasted some 11 hours. We've just spoken to the owner of the Holey Artisan Bakery and cafe, the site of the carnage. He says that he was at the restaurant shortly before the attack started.
He left once he realized what was going on. He was on the phone with his employees. By that time, part of the staff had run upstairs to escape from the gunmen. They were on a rooftop that they had to jump from in order to save their lives. He says the rest of his staff was hiding in another part of the restaurant until the gunmen came to find them. Listen to what happened next.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was hiding in there. From what we know, the gunmen came in here. They shot 32 (ph) people.
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FIELD: He describes the fact that part of his staff was hiding in the bakery. The gunmen came and found them and led them to the restaurant. By the time the staff was brought into the restaurant so many of the victims had already been killed. They were led past dead bodies lying on the ground.
The owner of the bakery says he can't imagine what it would be like to open up another restaurant. He says he simply couldn't bear the responsibility for something like this happening again. He opened the place about two years ago. It was meant to be an oasis, a place of calm with a big garden. A place where locals and Expats could come together and share communal tables. That was his vision. That vision very much interrupted now -- George.
HOWELL: That siege that lasted some 13 hours. Alexandra Field, live for us in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Thank you for your reporting.
All right, time to take a look now at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Alisyn Camerota joins us now, live. Alisyn, good morning.
ROMANS: Good morning.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hi, George. Hi, Christine. Great to see you guys. So, Donald Trump's campaign making a star turn this morning. Who writes this stuff? The presumptive Republican nominee for president lashing out at claims that this six-pointed star, you see here, used to attack Hillary Clinton could be considered anti-Semitic. So we will bring you the latest on why Trump says he will not apologize for that.
Also, President Obama will be out on the campaign trail for the first time with Hillary Clinton. So our panel will break down the president's role in the 2016 election and whether it will actually help Hillary.
So, we have those stories and so much more coming up when John Berman and I join you in nine minutes.
ROMANS: Oh, the Bermaninator. All right, fantastic. All right, thank you so much.
HOWELL: Thank you.
ROMANS: If you rent an apartment you may be paying more money for less space. We have the gory details on an early start to your money, next.
[05:52:00]
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[05:55:00] HOWELL: In the city of Chicago, the July 4th holiday -- it amounted to another bloody weekend on that city's streets. Despite a beefed-up police presence there were at least 32 people shot in the city from Friday until Monday morning. Two of the people shot died. Final tolls for the four-day period are set to be released later this morning. Just last year in Chicago 10 people were killed and 55 others wounded during the Independence Day holiday. ROMANS: We are learning more this morning about the police response to the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last month. A report by the Seminole County sheriff's office details what deputies experienced when they arrived on the scene.
Nearly a dozen officers jumped into service alongside Orlando police. Deputies reported seeing wounded and dead victims all over the floor of the club and they improvised medical transport in pick-up trucks. The gunman killed 49 people inside the Pulse nightclub.
HOWELL: The highest ranking police officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray goes on trial this morning in Baltimore. Lieutenant Brian Rice faces manslaughter, assault, reckless endangerment, and misconduct charges.
Today, there will be a hearing on pretrial motions. Jury selection is scheduled for Wednesday. That is, if the officer chooses a jury trial over a bench trial. All of the officers of those tried, there have been two acquittals and one mistrial.
ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money this morning. The markets in the U.S. were closed yesterday for the Fourth of July, but futures this morning lower as we head into the first trading day of the second half of the year. It has been a wild first six months -- big drops, then big rallies. Right now, the Dow and the S&P 500 are both up nearly three percent for the year. The Nasdaq and the Dow -- the Nasdaq, rather, is down the same amount.
Investors this week -- well, they've got to deal with the meeting of the European Central Bank, that's tomorrow. And then, there's the June U.S. jobs report that is on Friday. That will likely tell us about the health of the American job market.
If you rent a home -- if you are a renter you may be paying more money for less space. A new report finds that the square footage for apartments in 2016 is smaller than 10 years ago, but costs more. The average rent has climbed to almost $1,300. Compare that to $966 -- that was five years ago. If that seems steep you can always look into buying. Mortgage rates are at a three-year low.
Then there's always a lottery ticket, right? The Mega Millions jackpot reached $449 million Friday when the drawing failed to produce a winner. The jackpot has swelled to become the seventh biggest of all time, and while the odds are really against you, one in 259 million, you still have time to enter before the next drawing Tuesday at 11:00 p.m. This is not my suggested retirement planning tool but, you know, heck, millions of people are going to do it anyway.
HOWELL: But I swear, it is always that random guy at a random gas station that wins the ticket. It just always happens like that. Donald Trump -- he is defending his tweet that drew charges of anti- Semitism. "NEW DAY" starts right now.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump is not apologizing for the controversial tweet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The imagery evoking anti-Semitic stereotypes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a pattern that, to us, is perplexing, troubling, and wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is nothing anti-Semitic about Mr. Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hillary Clinton will appear on the campaign trail with President Obama.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can the president help her sliding poll numbers?
KARADSHEH: The single deadliest terror attack in Iraq since 2003.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very bloody, deadly last few days of the holy month of Ramadan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we're going to see, unfortunately, a lot more of this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would be surprising to me that ISIL is not trying to hit us in our homeland.
HOWELL: America's most spectacular shows. In New York, one million spectators lining the East River for a spectacular show.
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ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
CAMEROTA: Good to see those fireworks. They look spectacular. I don't suppose you stayed up late.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I heard them. They woke me up. I didn't see them.
CAMEROTA: My night, also, was abbreviated so it's nice to see them and recap them this morning for you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your new day. It's Tuesday, July 5th, 6:00 on the east. Chris is off this morning. John Berman joins me. Great to have you.
BERMAN: Nice to see you.
CAMEROTA: So, up first, Donald Trump on defense over that deleted tweet with a graphic that many saw as anti-Semitic. Trump slammed, though, the dishonest media for this controversy.
BERMAN: And this all comes as both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton head to the swing state of North Carolina today, and for Hillary Clinton this is a crucial campaign first. Her first joint appearance on the stump with President Obama.
CNN has complete coverage of the 2016 race. We want to begin with Jason Carroll. Good morning, Jason. JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John. More on that controversial tweet. Donald Trump weighing in on the issue. No apology from the presumptive nominee for offending Jewish groups, but we do now know who inside the campaign was apparently responsible for the tweet.
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CARROLL: Donald Trump firing back at critics who say the star shape in the tweet his campaign posted evokes anti-Semitic imagery, calling the attacks false and ridiculous.
