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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Working to Make Up Lost Ground; Trump's Bromance with Putin; Going For Gold in Rio. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired August 08, 2016 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:14] RYAN NOBLES, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump trailing Hillary Clinton in the polls and striking back on the trail. But can he regain momentum?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Team USA breaking records in Rio. The Olympics in full swing. Who won gold and who crashed?
NOBLES: Storms across the world, leaving dozens dead in Mexico and Macedonia as the south braces for its own massive downpour.
Good morning, and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Ryan Nobles.
KOSIK: Good morning. I'm Alison Kosik. It's Monday, August 8th, it's 4:00 a.m. in the East.
And happening today. Donald Trump set to unveil his plan for boosting the U.S. economy. In a speech to the Detroit Economic Club, the Republican nominee is expected to add some details to his proposal for broad tax cuts while reducing the federal debt.
Hillary Clinton laid low over the weekend enjoying a bump in the polls following the Democratic convention and a tumultuous week for Trump.
Trump, meantime, was in full attack mode trying to make up lost ground. Leading Republicans say they are not sure Trump can win in some crucial swing states.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOVERNOR JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: He is going to win parts of Ohio where people are really hurting. There will be sections he will win because people are angry, frustrated and haven't heard any answers. But I still think it's difficult if you are dividing to be able to win in Ohio. I think it is really, really difficult.
SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: Particularly here in Arizona, the statements he made out of the gate when he got into the campaign about those crossing the border being rapists and whatnot. That just doesn't sit well. And then to refer to a judge born in Indiana as a Mexican, you know, in a pejorative way, it just -- you know, you can't expect to win Arizona when you make statements like that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any chance that Hillary Clinton could win in Arizona?
FLAKE: In 1996, Bill Clinton won Arizona. Yes, it is possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSIK: For more, let's turn to CNN's Scott McLean. He's in Washington.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ryan, Alison, Donald Trump has a lot of work to do to catch up with Hillary Clinton. A new ABC News/"Washington Post" poll shows Clinton with a sizable 8-point lead over Trump, a similar margin to other recent surveys including CNN.
Clinton benefitted from a bump after the Democratic National Convention and Trump is coming off a week filled with one controversy after another. Republicans have been pushing Trump to focus his energy on Hillary Clinton. And this weekend, he seemed to get the message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's a liar. She is a horrible, horrible human being. She's incompetent. She's incompetent. And I don't think that you can even think of allowing this woman to become the president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLEAN: Trump is also going after Hillary Clinton's recent attempt to clarify an answer she had given about her private e-mail server. Clinton had said that FBI Director James Comey found her public statements about that private server were truthful. But that comment has been widely debunked because Comey never actually passed judgment on that specific point.
Clinton has tried to defend herself by saying that she may have short- circuited on her initial answer. The Trump campaign, they're seizing on that phrase.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Unstable Hillary Clinton, and you saw that. Did you saw that where she basically short circuited?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLEAN: Clinton herself was out of the public eye this weekend, but on Sunday her running mate, Tim Kaine, defended her on the e-mail issue and said a Clinton-Kaine administration would be more open.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TIM KAINE (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She said it was a mistake. We -- I am not presumptuous enough to start thinking about how I'm going to do things after November. But I know that this is something that she's learned from and we're going to be real transparent absolutely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLEAN: Today, Donald Trump will be in Detroit to tout his economic plan. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, she'll start a two-day trip to the key battleground state of Florida where last week a poll showed her with a lead -- Ryan, Alison.
KOSIK: All right. Our thanks to Scott McLean for that.
Time for an EARLY START on your money. As we mentioned, Donald Trump is expected to unveil his economic agenda today. So what do we know about his economic vision for the country? Well, on trade, he has said he wants to renegotiate deals like NAFTA and slap heavy tariffs on goods from China -- and other countries.
On taxes, Trump put a four-page plan back in September saying he would cut the number of income tax rates to four, increase the standard deduction and repeal the estate tax and alternative minimum tax. Now analysts say that could add $10 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. So we're going to see today if he winds it, dialing back any of those cuts today.
[04:05:08] Finally on the minimum wage, Trump has changed his position a few times. Just last month, he said he'd be open to raising it to $10 an hour.
NOBLES: And new this morning, one of Jeb Bush's sons breaking with his never-Trump dad and backing Donald Trump for president. At a meeting of Republican activists, Texas land commissioner, George P. Bush called for the party to unite behind its nominee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE P. BUSH, JEB BUSH'S SON: You know, from Team Bush, it is a bitter pill to swallow. But you know what? You get back up and you help the man that won, and you make sure that we stop Hillary Clinton.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: Jeb Bush is so strongly opposed to Trump. He says he won't vote for the nominee in November. Jeb, his brother George W. and their father George H.W. Bush all skipped the party convention in Cleveland.
KOSIK: House Speaker Paul Ryan barnstorming his district today with just one day to go before the Wisconsin primary. Ryan facing an underfunded primary challenger who exchanged compliments with Donald Trump on Twitter. That was before Trump formally endorsed Ryan on Friday in the name of party unity. Trump's decision to withhold his endorsement of the House speaker until the last minute triggered widespread anxiety among Republican leaders. Ryan is expected to win the primary.
NOBLES: President Obama reaching an historic milestone Sunday. Had nothing with legislation or news conference or anything political for that matter. Nope. It was the president playing his 300th round of golf on vacation in Martha's Vineyard. As he reaches the end of his term, we're now learning a closely guarded secret the president's golf handicap, Mr. Obama giving the scoop to the Golf Channel, telling him he is an honest 13. And that is a pretty good handicap.
KOSIK: I wonder if he's had time to actually work on his golf game. You know, being president, you're kind of busy, right?
NOBLES: About 300 rounds over eight years. He got at least a little bit of work in there.
KOSIK: Sounds good.
Michael Phelps winning his 19th gold medal. Team USA is off to a great start in Rio. What you missed from the Olympics. That's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:11:17] NOBLES: Donald Trump's so-called bromance with Vladimir Putin is turning into a big question hanging over his campaign. The two men have paid each other compliments in the media. Trump has made remarks about NATO and Crimea that could have only provoked smiles in the Kremlin. Meantime parts of Russian state media are embracing Trump, painting him as an eccentric billionaire ready to deal with Moscow.
Senior international correspondent Matthew Chance joins us now live from Moscow.
Now, Matthew, what do we know about Putin's feelings for Trump?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know that much. And I mean, it's not like he's been out there really praising Donald Trump. It would be unfair to say he has. But he has made some positive comments about Donald Trump. He's called him a colorful character. That's been misquoted, I think, by some in the Trump camp for saying that he called him brilliant. He never did. He called him colorful and an eccentric billionaire.
That's a line that's been followed by the state media here in Russia as well. A lot of analysts I have spoken to here are saying, look, you know, Trump, because he's made all these pronouncements on foreign policy that are seen as being sympathetic to the Russian point of view on Crimea which Russia annexed from Ukraine a couple of years ago on sanctions and things like that, he's seen as somebody who would be more positive from a Russian point of view where it to become the U.S. president.
But not everyone thinks that. I mean, I think there's a lot of people in Russia and certainly some officials as well, that think Clinton would be more advantageous for Russia simply because she is more predictable in her tough, anti-Russian line, is what the Kremlin would say, whereas Donald Trump, yes, he is making these positive statements at the moment, but he's also regarded as very unpredictable and that's not something that Kremlin and Russia in general really wants to see in an American president. NOBLES: And, Matthew, you've tracked the coverage of Donald Trump in
Russian media. And he might be getting actually better coverage in Russia than he has here in the United States.
CHANCE: I think there's -- I think there's no question about that. I mean, yes, he is definitely the favored candidate in the Russian state media. I mean, he's seen as somebody again who's very positive in his pronouncements about Russia.
And look, one of the reasons I've heard for this, explained to me by political analysts, political observers here is that look, first of all, he voices these sympathetic positions. But even if he is elected and he doesn't carry out those sympathetic policies toward Russia, he is seen as a very disruptive force by the Russians. He's seen as somebody who can destabilize the American political system and that's something that, you know, I think the Kremlin would say is in its interest.
NOBLES: All right. Matthew Chance, live for us in Moscow this morning. Matthew, thank you.
KOSIK: Breaking overnight. The 83-year-old emperor of Japan says that if his health gets worse, he fears he won't be able to fulfill his duties. In an extremely rare televised address, Emperor Akihito told his people earlier this morning that he's currently in good health, but that his fitness level is gradually declining. Japanese Prime Minister Abe said after the speech that he'll think very seriously about how to ease the emperor's burden. This is the only -- this is only the third time a Japanese emperor has ever made a speech on broadcast media.
NOBLES: Iran's government revealing it executed a nuclear scientist for treason. Officials say Shahram Amiri was convicted of spying for the United States. Amiri vanished banished back in 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the U.S. claiming he'd been abducted and interrogated by the CIA. At the time, U.S. officials said Amiri defected voluntarily. In 2011, he returned to Iran where he was later tried and convicted of giving vital information to the enemy, America, the great Satan.
[04:15:01] KOSIK: In Kabul, Afghanistan, two lecturers at the American University have been abducted at gun point. An Afghan security official says one of the teachers was American, the other was Australian. The official says two armed kidnappers stopped the car and took the men away with them. Local media reports say the attackers were wearing Afghan security uniforms. It is unclear who is behind the kidnapping.
NOBLES: And an awful story this morning. Authorities investigating a tragic accident at a Kansas water park. A 10-year-old boy was killed Sunday while riding on what's billed as the world's tallest water slide. The victim, Caleb Schwab, is the son of a Kansas state legislator. The family released a statement saying, quote, "Since the day he was born, he brought abundant joy to our family and all those he came into contact with." The slide, which drops riders almost 170 feet at 65 miles an hour has been shutdown while investigators try to determine what happened. The Schlitterbahn water park will be closed again today.
KOSIK: In Mexico the death toll is rising from the remnants of Tropical Storm Early. At least 40 people have been killed following landslides in eastern Mexico. Hurricane center forecasters expect more heavy rain in the region which could produce more flash floods and mudslides.
NOBLES: Meantime, a state of emergency declared in the capital of Macedonia hit by torrential rain and flooding. At least 21 people have been killed. The government is being criticized for a slow response to the crisis. Some areas of the country getting more than three times as much rainfall in a day as they usually get in a month and there is more rain in the forecast.
KOSIK: And speaking of rain in the southeastern U.S., heavy rainfall and possible flooding in the forecast as well.
Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us with the latest. Good morning.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Ryan and Alison, good morning to you both.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KOSIK: All right. Pedram, thanks for that.
The Olympics are in full swing. All of the winners and losers so far. What to watch today. That's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:22:32] NOBLES: It is day three of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. And it could be another big day for the Americans in the pool after Michael Phelps swam to his 19th career gold Sunday and Katie Ledecky continued her world dominance. It was also a great start for the U.S. women in gymnastics.
CNN's Christina MacFarlane is following all the developments. She's live for us this morning in Rio. So much to talk about already, Christina.
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN WORLD SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: So much to talk about, Ryan. I never know where to start these days with these Olympics. But USA swimming Michael Phelps back with a bang. He -- we weren't sure whether we were going to see him in the men's 4x100 meters last night but it's a good thing he did show up because the French, defending champions, were actually leading the race after the first leg. Then Phelps jumped into the pool and he pulled his team out ahead and there they stayed for the rest of the event to take the first men's gold medal for Team USA in the pool.
And of course, as you say, Michael Phelps' 19th gold medal and his 23rd overall. It could be the first of five more Olympic gold that we see from him. Incredible to think as well that he had retired from the sport just four years ago. Great to see him back. Now the first USA medal of the night, however, went to Katie Ledecky.
She is of course set to be one of the big stars here in Rio. And you'll remember her from that breakout moment back in London 2012 when as a 15-year-old she won gold. She had a lot of expectation on her shoulders since then. And well, just last night, she did not disappoint. She won the women's 400 meter freestyle, smashing her own record in the process and taking the first in potentially three individual medals as well.
And another athlete who promised so much last night and delivered was U.S. gymnast Simone Biles. So was in action with her team for the first time in the competition. And her performance was so spectacular in the individual results, that the other athletes in the field actually bowed down and gave her praise. Her incredible score at the end of the night after three events was 62.366.
And the Americans really ran away with the competition last night. By almost 10 points in qualifying. And they'll be back, of course, in the team event to compete in just two days time on Tuesday.
Now I want to bring you a brief update on the story we saw earlier today on the Dutch cyclist who suffered a horrific crash in the women's road race. I don't know if you saw this, but Annemiek van Vleuten was actually leading the race here coming into the final stretch.
[04:25:07] She was 10 kilometers to go when she just crashed from her bike. She went head over heels, over the front of her handle bars, and landed on her neck. She was instantly knocked unconscious and the rest of the cyclists flew by, unfortunately. Now we have heard from the Dutch team in the last few hours, an update on her situation. She has -- she's said to have a severe concussion and three small fractures in her spine. But she is stable so good to hear after a dramatic day of action here on day two.
NOBLES: All right. Christina MacFarlane in Rio for us this morning. Thank you.
KOSIK: So he never said the word retirement, but Alex Rodriguez is saying good-bye. A-Rod will play his last game as a New York Yankee this Friday and will then take a position as special adviser and instructor with the team. He made the announcement at a news conference on Sunday. The Yanks will release the 41-year-old Rodriguez after Friday's game. But he's still going to be receiving his full $21 million salary through the end of next year. And what a tearful retirement announcement it was.
NOBLES: Yes. You know, he's had a lot of controversy in his career, obviously.
KOSIK: Yes.
NOBLES: But it seems to be he is going out on his terms.
KOSIK: He certainly is. NOBLES: Hillary Clinton riding high in the polls, but Donald Trump is
not sitting back. He is now calling her unstable. The latest on their contentious race to the presidency when we come back.
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