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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump: Our System is Totally Rigged; Cellphone Video Captures Deadly Police Confrontation; Cubs Entire Infield Name Starters. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired July 06, 2016 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump attacking Hillary Clinton and the FBI after no charges, no charges are recommended in Clinton's e-mails controversy, claiming a rigged system and accusing the Clintons of bribery.
[05:00:03] GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Protests break out overnight, disturbing video capturing the moment two police officers pin down a man and shot and kill him. CNN is certainly following this story this morning.
Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm George Howell.
ROMANS: Nice to see you again, George. I'm Christine Romans. It's Wednesday, July 6th, it's 5:00 a.m. in the East.
And now, it's not just Hillary Clinton but also the FBI drawing the ire of Donald Trump in his newest attack. The presumptive Republican nominee calling the system totally rigged. This after the FBI Director James Comey recommends no charges against Clinton for the way she handled her e-mail as secretary of state. Trump on the campaign trail late last night in North Carolina telling thousands that Clinton must have bribed Comey's boss, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, to avoid jail time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I mean, the attorney general is sitting there saying, you know, if I get Hillary off the hook, I'm going to have four more years or eight more years, but if she loses, I'm out of a job.
It's a bribe. It's a disgrace. It's a disgrace.
She is laughing at the stupidity of our system. She is laughing and so is her husband Bill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The Trump campaign seizing on a political opening against his rival. Let's get the very latest from that from CNN politics reporter Sara Murray, she is traveling with the Trump campaign in North Carolina. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Christine and George.
Well, the FBI may not be moving forward with recommending charges against Hillary Clinton but that did not stop Donald Trump from offering a searing indictment not only of Hillary Clinton but also Bill Clinton and President Obama when he was campaigning in Raleigh, North Carolina, yesterday evening.
Here is just a sampling of what he had to say about Clinton.
TRUMP: And we've got Hillary Clinton who's weak, who is ineffective, she'll never be able to do the job. Her judgment is horrible. Look at her judgment on e-mails. Who would do it? Look at her judgment.
Her judgment is horrible, all right? Her judgment is horrible. Now, who said that about Hillary? Bernie Sanders her judgment is bad. She's got bad judgment. OK?
Now, let me tell you, whether it's ISIS, whether it's trade, whether it's borders, whether it's jobs, it's going to be four more years of the same thing. The last thing we need is another Clinton or the last thing we need is another Obama/Clinton in the White House.
MURRAY: Now, Trump tried to use this as a way to drive home his message that the system is rigged against average Americans and stack in favor of people like the Clintons who put special interests ahead of common working men. But he also took some swipes at President Obama, saying looking at the White House is like watching a carnival act. And, of course, the backdrop to all of this is what continues to go on within the Trump campaign which is a hunt for V.P.
Trump appeared tonight with Tennessee Senator Bob Corker. That is someone he doesn't know particularly well, but he spent an awful lot of a good time with today, getting comfortable with one another.
Ands that's not the only veepstake tryout that we are going to see this week. He's expected to campaign with Newt Gingrich in Ohio today.
Back to you, guys.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Sara, thank you.
There are sighs of relief at the Clinton campaign this morning after FBI Director Comey announced that he is recommending against charges related to the Clinton e-mail situation because he says no reasonable prosecutor would pursue a case against her. But Comey's scathing criticism of Clinton calling her use of a private server, quote, "extremely careless" and questioning her judgment could further damage Clinton's credibility in the eyes of voters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.
Even if information is not marked "classified" in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subjects matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.
To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that's not what we're deciding now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: All right. So, here's how it all broke down. The FBI found of 30,000 e-mails that Clinton handed over to the State Department, 110 of them contained information that was classified at the time that they were sent. Of those, Comey said, a very small number were marked classified.
That contradicts Clinton's campaign that none of the e-mails were classified when she sent or received them. The Justice Department will have the say on whether or not to charge Clinton but is expected to follow the FBI's recommendation on that.
[05:05:02] ROMANS: All right. Criminal charges against Hillary Clinton look very unlikely. That hardly settles the political battle over her e-mail.
Joining us to discuss what comes next, our CNN political reporter and fellow early bird, Eugene Scott.
Good morning.
EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning.
ROMANS: And as early birds, we read a whole bunch of newspapers in the morning.
All right. So, we've got "The Washington Post", "FBI: Clinton careless, not criminal." "The Wall Street Journal," "Clinton careless, not criminal." I rarely see the same headline. And then you got the "The New York Post" which takes much more scandalous, "Clinton gets away with it again. Hill skates."
Look, this puts uncertainty behind the Hillary Clinton campaign, no question. Now this is uncertainty off the table. But it did give an opening for Donald Trump to continue to hammer this idea again and again that she's not trustworthy.
SCOTT: Yes, very much so. This did not help Hillary Clinton. I saw it yesterday on social media, someone refer to it as an indictment without an indictment. And one cannot expect, one should never have expected Donald Trump to look at Comey and go, OK, all right, that was a fair investigation. And now, I'll move on.
In fact, quite the opposite. Trump and his team were doubling down and they're rehashing their concerns about Bill Clinton's meeting last week with Loretta Lynch and other issues that lead people to just be further skeptical about Clinton, which is why we saw lawmakers call for another even investigation yesterday.
HOWELL: You know, Eugene, we're seeing Trump obviously dig in on this, repeating certain words like her judgment, her judgment, her judgment. Guilty.
Let's listen to a bit of Donald Trump here and we'll talk about it here on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Based on what was being said, she was guilty. She was guilty. And it turned out that we're not going to press charges. It's really amazing.
The laws are very explicit. Stupidity is not a reason that you're going to be innocent, OK? It's not a reason. Today is the best evidence ever that we've seen that our system is absolutely, totally rigged. It's rigged.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: So, Eugene, my question for you, it seems like we're seeing two constants, really. We're seeing Donald Trump float theories about the FBI, the system being rigged. We're seeing another constant of Hillary Clinton, this e-mail situation. That's nothing new. So, the question, will this new situation, will it move the needle really?
SCOTT: Well, I think for some people. There certainly are people who -- I think most people are convinced that something went wrong. I don't think people realized how badly things were mishandled. So, people have been a bit frustrated and disappointed and that furthers their distrust in Hillary Clinton.
I think the thing that's important to pay attention to, though, while it's very clear on all sides of judgment, it's a major concern, I think for many people, it's just kind of odd coming Trump. The idea that his judgment is better than Hillary Clinton's is not going to get a lot of support by a lot of people including Republicans. We have a great story on CNNpolitics.com about Republican women for Hillary Clinton.
So despite what Trump has said, there are people in his party who would go, yes, you obviously mishandled the situation but I'm not convinced that you would have done better.
ROMANS: There is a story line that emerged. The story line that is the president of the United States, the current president of the United States, who would like to be with the next president of the United States on the same stage in North Carolina. North Carolina a very busy state for both campaigns.
SCOTT: Yes.
ROMANS: But look, that's going to be a battleground state. This was imagery here that the campaign clearly must have been happy with, the president literally and figuratively embracing his one-time rival and his former cabinet secretary here. You know, what does the Barack Obama approval rating situation, I think it's at 52 percent right now, how does the president now help Hillary Clinton, with the e-mail controversy, at least from her perspective resolved, as Brian Fallon said yesterday, resolved, can she use rocket boosters now with the president at her side?
SCOTT: Well, she's certainly hoping so. You noticed in the speech yesterday, I felt that the president was responding indirectly to the FBI announcement by rehashing and bringing up the points that he has repeatedly mentioned about Hillary Clinton regarding her superiority to Donald Trump. He's saying things like she still remains the most qualified candidate. She is the one who's looking out for working class Americans. She is best prepared. She does more than tweet.
I think he made it very clear that regardless of what just happened she's still the best option. I think he was trying to talk to the base and people who were on the bubble and still uncertain who was approaching it to say now what do we do considering all of this.
[05:10:02] I think President Obama went ahead and said she is still the one, the best one to lead the country.
HOWELL: You know, you certainly can bet that the Clinton campaign was just wishing that the timing would have been a little different, you know, rolling out with the president, at the same time the big announcement coming out. A little awkward, I'm sure.
SCOTT: Yes.
HOWELL: Eugene Scott, thank you so much.
SCOTT: Yes.
ROMANS: All right. Hillary Clinton expected to mock Donald Trump's business practices and bankruptcies at a rally in Atlantic City, right there where his name is emblazoned on casinos.
Trump says he has used bankruptcy laws to protect his businesses and, frankly, no company has used those laws more often. Trump has filed four bankruptcies, all involving his Atlantic City hotels and casinos. The most recent in 2009 with Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump Hotel and Casino Resorts filed for bankruptcy in 2004. Two more properties filed in the early 1990s.
Now, the Trump Taj Mahal may have been the personally most painful. Trump gave up half his stake in the company. He had to sell his yacht and his airline business. His largest creditor at the time was billionaire investor Carl Icahn who is a Trump supporter and frankly controls the company. There's a strike going on, with a thousand employees are striking at that location right now.
Chapter 11 protection let the companies stay in business while shedding debt. It owes banks, employees, suppliers.
Now, Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy but no public company has filed more times over the past 30 years. And what you'll hear from Hillary Clinton is she will try to say that look, Donald Trump takes on massive debts and then when his business fails, it is the suppliers, the small businesses who are creditors, the employees and his investors who take the fall and he skates away.
HOWELL: But question, you know, for those loyal voters that are on the Trump train, these facts aside, will it matter?
ROMANS: That's exactly the question.
HOWELL: Yes.
Breaking news overnight: protests erupt after video captures the moment police shoot and kill an African-American m outside of a Baton Rouge convenience store. What led to that shooting.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:16:24] ROMANS: In just hours, the family of an African-American man in Louisiana killed by police. The family will hold a news conference at city hall in Baton Rouge. Now, the graphic cellphone video capturing the moment police shot Alton Sterling in front of a convenience store. Authorities say officers responded when an anonymous caller reported that a man selling CDs outside of a store had pointed a gun at someone.
When witnesses say the officer tried to taser the suspect but when the shot did not disable him, they tackled Sterling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
(INAUDIBLE)
(EXPLETIVES DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my goodness.
(EXPLETIVE DELETED)
CPL. L'JEAN MCKNEELY, BATON ROUGE POLICE SPOKESMAN: This is an ongoing investigation. We're going to review the video. We're going to review the audio. We have witness, nonbiased witnesses here. We're going to bring them down to our station and interview them.
MIGNON CHAMBERS, SHOOTING VICTIM'S SISTER: I really want to know really what happened about the situation because my brother didn't deserve it.
(END VIDEO CLIPS) ROMANS: And we froze that disturbing video just a split second before the fatal shot. Late last night, more than 100 people gathered outside of the store to protest the shooting. Some were carrying signs chanting "Black lives matter" and "hands up, don't shoot."
HOWELL: The University of Tennessee has settled a lawsuit filed by six women who claim they faced a hostile environment, that is after they filed a sexual assault allegation against student athletes there. According to documents obtained by ESPN, the school will pay the women more than $2.5 million. The university, though, is not admitting guilt in the settlement.
ROMANS: Sandy Hook families finally getting their day in court. Depositions are set to begin today in their lawsuit against the gun manufacturer Remington. That's the company that made the Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle Adam Lanza used to killed 20 first graders and six educators in the 2012 massacre. Now, the suit claims that the rifle was meant for the military and too dangerous to sell to civilians.
HOWELL: All right. Let's talk about what's happening in the Midwest and very strong storms slamming that part of the world. Take a look at this video. Wow, tornado that's forming in Holloway, Minnesota. Damaging winds and flooding reported throughout that state, more than 110,000 customers from the central part of Minnesota, to the Twin Cities left without power overnight. And then check out this video, a Minneapolis resident showing -- oh, just feel bad for people in that neighborhood, an overwhelmed sewage system erupting there.
ROMANS: Lots of rain.
HOWELL: Yikes.
And baseball's all star line up is all out. Starting in field for the national league has decidedly, Chicago Field, look at that, wow. Andy Scholes explains it all on bleacher report, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:23:21] ROMANS: All right. Sam Querrey is looking to do something that no American has done since 2009, that's make it to the semifinals at Wimbledon.
HOWELL: Andy Scholes has more in the bleacher report.
Good morning, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, guys.
You know, Sam Querrey pulled off the shock of the tournament last week, beating defending champ Novak Djokovic. That was a massive upset, the odds of Querrey winning that match 30 to 1. That's the same odds that the Raiders have of winning the Super Bowl this year.
Now, this is the farthest Querrey has ever been in a major. In just a few hours, he's going to take to court against Milos Raonic in the quarterfinals. The 28-year-old trying to become the first American man to win Wimbledon since Pete Sampras did it back in 2000.
All right. Major League Baseball announcing the roster for Tuesday's all-star game. The Chicago Cubs fans apparently very high on their infield. The entire Cubs infield was voted as starters for the game. That's the first time it's happened since 1963.
Five Cubs in all will start in the midsummer classic. Jake Arrietta and Jon Lester also making the squad, giving the Cubs the most all- stars with seven. The Red Sox have the most in the American league with six.
You don't see this very often, a Major League Baseball player attempting to join the Army. Brayan Pena of the St. Louis Cardinals tweeted yesterday that I'm very proud to announce with the support of my wife and family that I will be joining the Army reserve this off season. God bless America.
Now, Pena will later told that his Major League contract prohibits him from enlisting. So, while he continues to play, he will be an army ambassador. Pena was born in Havana, Cuba, and migrated to the United States.
[05:25:00] The 34-year-old is in his 12th Major League season. After this year, Pena will have made almost $9 million in salary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPH CURRY, NBA PLAYER: Selling girl scout cookies. What's going on, my man? How are you doing?
I got domino's pizza.
KIDS: Oh, my God!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: That's how I would react if I opened the door in a baseball game and Steph Curry was on the other side. Pretty awesome. This is at a Warriors basketball camp in Hawaii, guys. As you can see, Steph Curry having a good old time the off-season. You wouldn't know that he just lost the NBA finals. I guess when you sign Kevin Durant to join for the next few years, everything is all nice and shiny.
ROMANS: Look at that little kid was priceless, calling over --
SCHOLES: I think he really fainted.
ROMANS: I'm sure.
HOWELL: He really did.
ROMANS: My son has been wearing a Steph Curry jersey every day for weeks. I need an intervention.
SCHOLES: One of many.
ROMANS: Yes, exactly. All right.
HOWELL: It makes such a difference for those kids. They'll never forget it.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks.
Breaking overnight protests erupt in the streets. Cell phone video, disturbing cell phone video capturing this moment when police pinned down a man and shot and kill him. What led to this deadly confrontation?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
