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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
The President's Perspective; Trump Tees Off; Let the Games Begin. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired August 05, 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 looking to reset his campaign launching new attacks on Hillary Clinton.
[05:00:04] He is firing salvos at Hillary Clinton. But another questionable accusation has critics pounding. We'll tell you what he said.
And the eyes of the world on Rio. The games of the XXXI Olympiad just hours away. We will talk about the opening ceremony and beyond. We are live in Rio.
I guess it is at 8:00 Eastern. They will delay it by an hour to curate, NBC.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Curate, interesting word there.
ROMANS: Yes, I wish I curate, but we're live here.
Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. It is Friday, August 5, 5:00 a.m. in the East.
And, first up, President Obama slamming critics who suggest he paid a ransom to Iran for the release of four American hostages. In a wide- ranging news conference, the president strongly denied that charged, calling the entire process open and transparent. He seemed most anxious to discuss Donald Trump's recent claim that the presidential election in November could somehow be rigged.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't really know where to start on answering this question. Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean? The federal government doesn't run the election process. States and cities and communities across the country, they are the one who set up the voting systems and booths. If Mr. Trump is suggesting there is a conspiracy theory that is being propagated across the country, including in places like Texas where typically it's not Democrats in charge of voting booths, that's ridiculous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: As for that $400 million cash payment, the U.S. made to Iran, the president says there was no ransom and there was no scandal. Insisting his administration has been transparent all along.
We've got more now from CNN's White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, George and Christine.
Right, this was a wide-ranging press conference. The transfer of that cash to Iran was going to come up. The president sounding annoyed and wanted to put it to rest.
Listen.
OBAMA: We announced these payments in January, many months ago. There wasn't a secret. We announced them, to all of you. Josh did a briefing on them.
This wasn't some nefarious deal. We were completely open with everybody about it. It's interesting to me how suddenly this became a story again. We do not pay ransom for hostages.
KOSINSKI: The president there did not tell us anything we didn't already know. He is right. The administration announced this transfer of money back in January. Everybody reported on it then. It's just the recent release of these details seem to convey maybe a sense of urgency that this plane-load of cash had to get to Iran just before the prisoners were released.
It reminds us of the questions, the answers to which have not been completely clear. Was there urgency? Did the money need to get there then? And does it bother the president that the timing of this allowed Iran to call it a ransom and if that money hadn't been there on time, would those prisoners then have been released?
Now, hat may not be something we ever learn the answer to -- George and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Donald Trump is back on the trail and back on message. At a rally in Maine, Trump refocused his attacks on Hillary Clinton, blasting his Democratic rival for what he calls a dangerous and weak position on immigration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton wants to have them come in by the hundreds of thousands. Just remember. This has nothing to do with politics, folks. This is a whole different level. This has to do with pure, raw stupidity. She has made everybody less safe. Those 33,000 e-mails are potentially a danger to our country.
We're both supposed to be briefed in the not too distant future. I am saying you can't brief her. You can't brief her. Let's protest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So, Trump did stumble, again claiming he has seen, he has seen video of the cash payment made by the U.S. to Iran, even though his campaign admits that video does not exist.
Listen to Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know it was interesting because a tape was made. You saw that with the airplane coming in. Nice plane. The airplane coming in and the money coming off, I guess. Right? That was given to us, has to be, by the Iranians.
[05:05:00] You know why the tape was given to us? Because they want to embarrass our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: All right. Let's bring Greg Valliere. He's political economist and chief strategist of Verizon Investments, and CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", Brian Stelter.
Greg, great to see you. I've dying to get your thoughts on, you now, what people inside the beltway are saying about this last week for Trump.
I mean, we hear him saying, you know, you have seen the picture of the video of the plane. Nice plane.
HOWELL: Nice plane he's saying.
ROMANS: You know, the campaign admits there is no such thing. Is Trump more disciplined and focused on the attack here? Are they managing their candidate?
GREG VALLIERE, POLITICAL ECONOMIST & CHIEF STRATEGIST, HORIZON INVESTMENTS: Well, one day does not make a trend, Christine. He sounded a little more presidential in the last day or so. But I've got to tell you, I don't want to get too premature this morning. I think people will start talking about the "L" word -- landslide.
I mean, these polls are really quite shocking in the last 48 hours. Including I think one by you guys showing that Hillary Clinton is way, way ahead. I'm not sure she is ahead by double digits, but it is starting to feel like she is really pulling into a substantial lead.
One other point, this has real implications for the House and especially the Senate. If she wins overwhelmingly, I think the Senate will flip back to the Democrats. ROMANS: Greg, we have seen him focusing on Hillary Clinton and
President Obama, what terrible president Barack Obama has been. Hillary Clinton, you know, she is the founder of ISIS. The president's approval rating is the highest of his presidency.
HOWELL: Yes, Reagan-esque, in fact.
VALLIERE: He looks like Winston Churchill compared to most of these people. I mean, he's had a pretty good run. And I think that that's still another reason why she's helped. She is mainly helped by the extraordinary gaffes and miscalculations by Trump.
ROMANS: So, it's here as an excellent candidate. It's Trump's self destruction is what you're saying.
VALLIERE: More of the latter than the former, yes.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Which is why so many people are voting against or choosing against as opposed of choosing for somebody. Look at the latest Real Clear Politics average of the ten, you know, most reliable polls that have come out in recent days and Clinton has about seven points on top of Trump. Some of these polls are showing as far as 15 points. Those might be outliers.
But all of the polls have her outside the margin of error.
HOWELL: In fact, let's bring up the list of polls. We show the battleground states. You see how far ahead Hillary Clinton is right now. This is a snapshot. Look at that, up 15 points, 9 points, 6 points, 6 points.
STELTER: And as always, these matter more than the national polls. We get distracted by the national polls. These battleground states are where the election is decided. And this is why Clinton is spending so much time in states like Pennsylvania.
HOWELL: But, Brian, so we're heard Trump talk about the possibility of a rigged election. And I just want to play President Obama's response to that. Listen here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I have never heard somebody complain about being cheated before the game was over, or before the score's even tallied. So, my suggestion would be -- you know, go out there and try to win the election. If Mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on Election Day and ends up losing, then, you know, maybe he can raise some questions. That doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: So, that's the president's response to the possibility of the rigged election. The polls are what they are. We just saw the snapshot.
So, Brian, this question to you, this concept of a rigged election that Trump is suggesting. What is that sort of play right now?
STELTER: I think we have to be careful talking about it, because it is so preposterous. We know that there are very few cases of voter fraud in this country. Donald Trump by all the current polls is not ahead. We know that Donald Trump is a conspiratorial thinker. Think about back five years ago when he was talking about Obama's citizenship, questioning his citizenship. Donald Trump embraced the birther movement five years ago.
In some ways, that was put him on the national stage as a political figure. Given that Donald Trump has this tendency toward conspiracy theories, he needs to be careful talking about his idea of a rigged election. There is just nothing to back it up.
ROMANS: Greg?
STELTER: By talking about it, he might be trying to delegitimize one of our most important institutions.
HOWELL: But those words, yes, like you say, those words matter because when you say that here in the United States, other countries that may have questionable elections can look and say, well, Donald Trump said that about your system.
ROMANS: Greg?
VALLIERE: But here is the most amazing thing, guys. By him saying that, it is an implicit concession that he's going to lose. In this town, I've got to tell you, everyone already on August 5th is starting to talk about the postmortem. Who lost the election? Was it Paul Ryan? Was it Ted Cruz? Already within the Republican Party, people are conceding that they're going to lose and looking at who they should blame.
ROMANS: Interesting.
STELTER: Of course, we've got, what is it, 95 days?
ROMANS: A lot can happen.
STELTER: Just a little caveat.
ROMANS: Greg, all this drama about Donald Trump overshadows Hillary Clinton's vulnerabilities. And you say she does have a lot of vulnerabilities.
VALLIERE: Well, I'm sure Julian Assange will be heard from again. He's got more e-mails to release. The economy, as you know, looked pretty weak last Friday. We get another big number at 8:30 today.
So, I mean, there are numbers where she is still vulnerable. But, again, I think this race has turned in the last week. It's going to be awfully tough for him to come back.
ROMANS: It will be interesting. Greg writes says every man for himself. That is what the GOP is right now. What do you say -- inside scoop in the GOP is do what you got to do to
get reelected in November down ballot.
VALLIERE: Yes, if you are Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, you do what you have to do. If you have to throw him under a bus, you'll do it.
ROMANS: Interesting. All right. Greg Valliere, Brian Stelter, we'll be back to you in few minutes.
HOWELL: Greg, thank you, and Brian.
ROMANS: Thanks, guys. Thanks for getting up so early on Friday morning. Greg is up early because of the jobs report today.
Global markets mostly higher this morning after the Bank of England rolled out an aggressive stimulus package designed to offset Brexit. Brexit, by the way, is something that the government there thinks could kill 250,000 jobs and 50/50 chance of recession now.
Big government jobs report here. What can we expect? A CNN Money Survey forecast 182,000 jobs added, 4.8 percent unemployment rate.
You know, jobs have been volatile for about couple of months. May only added 11,000 jobs and there was a boom in June. July's prediction is more in line with the average this year. Solid, but weaker than the previous two years when the U.S. regularly added around 200,000 jobs each month.
So, is job growth slowing? Well, as the unemployment rate drops and wages are picking up, economists say, yes, jobs growth is slowing and wage grow while low has been edging up this year. Also, cheap gas, really cheap oil has been blamed for 195,000 job cuts since prices started falling in mid-2014.
HOWELL: You know, we were talking about vulnerabilities in the Clinton campaign. That will definitely play a role in that.
ROMANS: Absolutely, absolutely.
HOWELL: We got dangerous weather to talk about tearing through the south. What's in store for the weekend? Details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:16:25] HOWELL: Welcome back.
Egypt claims it has killed the leader of the ISIS affiliate in the Sinai peninsula. Military officials say the leader was taken out in a series of air strikes on Thursday. Nearly four dozen insurgents were killed and a number of ammunitions sites were also destroyed there. The Egyptian army not specifying how they know the ISIS leader is dead. There is no response from the terror group.
ROMANS: A North Carolina man is in federal custody, accused of trying to recruit people for ISIS inspired attacks. Thirty-five-year-old Erick Hendricks was arrested Thursday, charged with providing material support to the terrorist group, authorities say Hendricks is linked to the failed attack in Garland, Texas, last year, on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest.
A tornado ripping through parts of New Orleans. Take a look at this video. You can see debris flying toward the car. Twister touched down Thursday afternoon with winds gusting up to 80-mile-per-hour. At least half a dozens homes and buildings were damaged.
The force caused the roof of this building to cave in. So far, no word of injuries or deaths.
I want to get the very latest forecast from meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, there were seven tornadoes in total across the United States. One of which happened to be near the city center of New Orleans. Can you believe that? They average one tornado through the month of August. It happened to be yesterday. There were also stronger storms out west that created damage.
This is coming from Phoenix, Arizona. Strong downbursts are associated with the thunderstorms. Thanks to the southwest monsoon that forms across the region. By the way, another chance of stronger storms later today, and the potential of flash flooding that exists across corners and as far west as southern Nevada as well.
As we look to the Deep South, temperatures starting to soar with the humidity levels from Arkansas and to Louisiana, as well as Alabama and parts of Tennessee and Kentucky. Breaking the 100-degree mark in Dallas today, if you are in the nation's capital, 87, 83 degrees in New York.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Derek, thank you for that.
HOWELL: Derek, thank you.
They are getting ready for gold in Rio. The final countdown to the start of the Summer Olympics, but the question is are they ready?
Coy Wire is live for us in Brazil, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:23:12] HOWELL: The Rio Olympics, we are hours away from the official start.
And on the eve of tonight's opening ceremony, the IOC banned 118 Russian athletes from competing because of doping. The committee's ruling was a victory for Team Russia.
CNN's Coy Wire live for us in Rio this morning to explain.
Coy, good morning.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, George.
We are talking less than 24 hours from the opening ceremony. You have hundreds of athletes who've been driving of this moment, training for this moment for years, not knowing whether or not they even be able to compete. Can you imagine?
Three hundred eighty-nine Russian athletes entered the games. Nearly a third of them now officially banned from competing in Rio. Sounds awful in some ways, but it is a win of sorts, George, as you alluded.
For Russia, the World Anti-Doping Agency blasted them uncovering the state-run doping program, sporting federations around the world, calling for a complete ban. Yet, 2/3 of athletes for Russia are able to compete. For Russian boxing, volleyball, judo teams and wrestling. They will have 40 percent less athletes about the 2012 games. You can believe all eyes are on them.
The opening ceremony is tonight. Expect 3 billion people around the world tuning in. Ever see photos of carnival in Rio? Imagine that fit for a world wide stage, unforgettable night of music, samba dancing and passion, all of that.
Who's going to light the cauldron? Organizers kept a tight lip on that. People think it will be Brazilian soccer star and legend Pele. Organizers say our event is going to will be cool because that's what we're all about.
[05:25:04] Start time is 7:00 a.m. Eastern.
Now, we have a quick happy update to tell you about for the Nigerian men's soccer team, after stranded in Atlanta for several days, the team finally made it to Brazil yesterday. They had less than seven hours from when they arrived here to play Japan. The team played inspired. They get a win and a wild one, 5-4 victory. What a story.
George, the weather here, the food, it is not that great. You are not missing much. Christina --
HOWELL: What?
WIRE: Surely, I jest. You can see that I have my Speedo on. I'm ready to go jump in the drink after this hit.
(LAUGHTER)
HOWELL: Looks totally fun out there.
Coy, thank you. We'll stay in touch.
BERMAN: All right. Twenty-five minutes past the hour.
Donald Trump, national security, ISIS, Iran, President Obama tackling those topics and more before heading out on vacation. Answers you don't want to miss, next.
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