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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump To Name His VP Pick Friday; Conflicting Stories In Castile's Death; Alton Sterling's Son To Meet With Obama; Tom Brady 'Deflategate' Petition Denied. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired July 14, 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] ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: V.P. Frenzy in Indiana. Donald Trump one day away from announcing his 2016 running mate, with Trump stuck in Indianapolis who flew in for the last minute interviews.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Cleveland preparing for protests, or even worse, days ahead of the Republican convention. How the city is planning to keep people safe.
KOSIK: Breaking overnight, a stunning open at the ESPY Awards. The NBA's biggest stars lead the call to end gun violence. Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Alison Kosik.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. It is Thursday, July 14, Bastille Day. 5:00 am in the East.
Breaking overnight -- Donald Trump announced he is just one day away now from revealing his choice of a running mate. He did it on Twitter, writing, I will be making the announcement of my vice presidential pick on Friday at 11:00 am in Manhattan. Details to follow. Details like who that person is. Trump spent Wednesday in a whirlwind of meetings, phone calls, and intense conversations with the finalists, talking on the phone with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Stuck in Indianapolis, allegedly because of a blown tire on his plane. He spent some extra time with Indiana Governor Mike Pence. They had dinner on Tuesday, breakfast on Wednesday.
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions flew from Washington for an audience with the presumptive nominee. Now Sessions could just be an adviser, or perhaps he could still be a candidate for a VP.
Former house speaker, Newt Gingrich -- he decided he better get to Indianapolis too. He asked for this meeting in Indianapolis. He says he now believes that the competition is down to a two-man race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: I would say that he clearly, I think, is down to two, as he hinted in talking to Bret Baier. And Mike Pence is a great personal friend. We worked together on many projects over the years. He had a fine career in the U.S. House. He ended up as the fourth ranking Republican in the House. Really did a fine job. He was a very good governor of Indiana. And at the same time, I think Mike would say he's a good friend of mine. He probably would be similarly glowing if he was on the show talking about me. So I think Trump has a tough call because he has got two really good, but really different choices. And I think it will be interesting to see. Certainly I'm one of the people that's sitting by the phone waiting tomorrow to see what he decides.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: You just don't hear this kind of public campaign, this much talk for people who want to be the vice presidential pick. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is with the Trump campaign, has the latest on this whole process.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Alison. Well, Donald Trump holding just a flurry of meetings here at this hotel in Indianapolis, Indiana on Tuesday, where he is still actively deliberating over his vice presidential pick. He has not made a decision yet. Sources telling CNN that right now, his gut is with Chris Christie, but there are many people both within his campaign and within his family, influential voices, who are also pushing for Newt Gingrich and Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Now the Indiana governor spoke shortly after that meeting where he said that nothing has been offered or accepted. He is continuing to play it coy. Here is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: It was just very warm. Just one family meeting with another. We were really honored to have not only Mr. Trump, but a number of his children, son-in-law join us at the governor's residence. It's great to have them in Indiana. Great to have a chance to break bread. Nothing was offered. Nothing was accepted. But we had a great conversation about the country, the challenges facing America, and my firm belief that Donald Trump is going to provide the kind of leadership that America needs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SERFATY: And Donald Trump also taking a meeting with Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama who flew here from Washington, D.C. midday on Tuesday. Sessions had been vetted by the Trump campaign, listed as a potential vice presidential contender, but sources telling CNN that was not the nature of this meeting. It was more of an advisory role, very clearly trusted, and could give advice to Donald Trump as he weighs these final options and inches towards his final decision. John and Alison --
KOSIK: All right, Sunlen. Thank you for that. Let's bring in CNN Politics Digital managing editor, Zachary Wolf, to discuss politics this morning. Good morning to you.
ZACHARY WOLF, CNN POLITICS DIGITAL MANAGING EDITOR: Good Morning.
KOSIK: So the veepstakes, top on everybody's minds. It is interesting that we are kind of seeing the sausage being made with this. Usually, it seems like it's done in the dark of night and we don't see how the decision making happens. So I'm going to put you on the spot here. Knowing what we've heard over, let's say, the past 24 hours, between Gingrich and Pence, who do you think that Trump is going to pick as his running mate?
WOLF: I don't know. He's done a good job of kind of playing with the media. You know, him and his surrogates. It's down to two people. It's down to three people. It's back to two people. It could be Christie. It could be Pence. And we'll throw a little Newt Gingrich in there for flavor.
[05:05:01] So they've done an excellent job of being close to the vets. It's not clear that he's made his decision. We know that he's going to announce it on Friday, but he's clearly down to these two finalists who kind of represent very different things for him. Pence could help him more with social conservatives. Christie's probably not going to bring too many voters in, but he is more I guess simpatico with Trump and Trump's outlook. So those are all things to take into consideration. I'm not a betting man, in this case, especially not with Donald Trump.
BERMAN: A brave stance from Zach Wolf. I think I've covered like five of these things and I haven't been right once. So it's safe not to make a bet. What is safe is to say, I've never seen anything like this before where you have the candidate talking so openly about it, and also the people who are trying to be the running mates talking so openly about it. Let's listen to Donald Trump. He's talking about Chris Christie first.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I tell you, Chris Christie is somebody I've liked a long time. He is a total professional. He's a good guy, by the way. A lot of people don't understand that. But I'm narrowing it down. I'm at three, potentially four. But in my own mind, I probably am thinking about two.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So that's the candidate himself talking about it more than I've ever heard before. And then, it's the potential people in the running talking about it too. Listen to Newt Gingrich last night with pirate references.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GINGRICH: In many ways, Donald Trump is like a pirate. He's outside the normal system. He gets things done. He's bold. He's actually like a figure out of a movie. In a lot of ways, my entire career has been a little bit like a pirate. I have taken on the establishment of both parties. I have been very prepared to fight in the media. One of the really hard questions he's got to weigh on the way to California is, do you really want a two-pirate ticket?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Arrr! Zach Wolf, that's all I can say to you. A two-pirate ticket. Can it work?
WOLF: I guess another way to look at it is there can only be one captain on the ship. You can only have one alpha. This is something you come back to with Donald Trump again and again. Who would really want to be his running mate? In a lot of ways, because he's going to be the one calling the shots, he's going to be the one making decisions, and vice president is a traditionally sort of sideline role, but at the same time, you're up there, you're on the ticket, you're at these conventions -- you are the other very public face of the ticket, so you have to really support him and believe in him, I think, in order to want this job.
KOSIK: And only one guy can wear the patch.
BERMAN: That's very true.
KOSIK: All right, so "The New York Times", Zach, kind of came out with a list of who could be speaking at the Republican convention. Do you think that Donald Trump is having a problem drawing people to come speak?
WOLF: You know, certainly, he is amongst establishment sort of conservatives. Republicans, a lot of people, former presidents, fromer Republican candidates, these are people who have said that they are not going to go to the Republican convention. So it's going to look a lot different. In that "Times" report, they had Tim Tebow, for instance. They had people like that who are potentially household names, but not necessarily for political reasons. So that will be very interesting to see. Not on the list, I saw Sarah Palin, even though she was an early backer of Trump. So it will definitely be a different and very showman-like week next week. Still not completely sure who's going to be there.
BERMAN: It's very fascinating that we don't know who's going to be there. We're just four days away or something like that. Zach Wolf, we got a lot of ground to cover between now and Monday. I'm glad you're going to be here with us. Thanks so much, Zach.
WOLF: Thank you.
KOSIK: The Minnesota man shot and killed by police last week will be laid to rest today as we learn new information about the final moments of his life. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: The heartbreak continues in Dallas. Families, friends, and police from across the country are honoring three of the slain Dallas police officers at funeral services. Michael Smith, Lorne Ahrens, and Brent Thompson were laid to rest on Wednesday. Funerals for two others, Michael Krol and Patrick Zamarripa, will be held tomorrow and Saturday.
