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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Lashes Back at Media Over Second Amendment Comments; Hillary to Lay Out Economic Plan; Poor ISIS Intel?; Going for Gold in Rio; Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 11, 2016 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:00] DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: That's it for us tonight. I'm Don Lemon. "EARLY START" begins right now.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump refusing to budge. He says he wasn't trying to incite violence with comments about the Second Amendment. Now he's lashing out against the reaction.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton now responding to Trump's comments as she prepares to lay out her vision for the economy. How will it be different from Trump's plan? And she can keep her campaign on message in the face of new e-mail questions?

NOBLES: And another gold in the pool for Team USA. The women's relay team with plenty to celebrate, but one individual swimmer missing out on her chance for Olympic glory. We will tell you who.

Good morning. And welcome to EARLY START. I'm Ryan Nobles.

KOSIK: Good morning. I'm Alison Kosik. It's Thursday, August 11th. It's 4:00 a.m. in the East. Thanks for waking up with us.

And this morning Donald Trump not backing down in the face of fierce criticism over his suggestion that his gun rights advocates could do something to stop Hillary Clinton from -- as he put it -- abolishing the Second Amendment. Critics say Trump was inciting violence against Clinton. Trump says he was just trying to unify gun owners and at a Florida rally Wednesday, he went after the media for its coverage of the controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The biggest rigger of the system is the media. The media is rigged. Is rigged. It's crooked as hell.

(CROWD BOOING)

TRUMP: And look at the way they covered that story yesterday. Was that disgusting? Hillary Clinton wants to decimate our Second Amendment. Wants to decimate. We have to protect our Second Amendment, folks. It's under siege.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KOSIK: A Secret Service official tells CNN that the agency has spoken to the Trump campaign more than once about the Second Amendment remark. Trump flatly denying that in a tweet saying, "No such conversation ever happened." And still more drama around the Republican campaign as a man scales Trump Tower, demanding a meeting with the nominee.

More on how all that ended in just a moment, but let's begin with our coverage with Jim Acosta.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Ryan and Alison, one day after Donald Trump ignited a controversy with his comments about Second Amendment people being able to do something about Hillary Clinton, he was tossing out more red meat at this rally here in Florida. At one point during this event, he referred to the president as Barack Hussein Obama and described him as the founder of ISIS. Here's more of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: ISIS is honoring President Obama. He is the founder of ISIS. He is the founder of ISIS. He's the founder. He founded ISIS. OK. He's the founder. He founded ISIS. And I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Trump did address the controversy created by his comments on Second Amendment supporters. He described the media coverage as disgusting. In response to that, the crowd chanted, lock them up, as in the media -- Ryan and Alison.

NOBLES: Jim, thank you.

The man who climbed to the 21st floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan now undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. Police have not yet released the name of the 19-year-old. We do know he is from Virginia. His dramatic climb using high power suction cups went on for three hours. Officers tried to talk him down before they finally cornered him by removing window panes and lowering window washing platforms. Emergency personnel, as you see here, dragging him into the building.

The man explained his motives in this cryptic YouTube video simply saying that he wants a private audience with Donald Trump. The climber is expected to face several state charges later today.

KOSIK: Happening today, Hillary Clinton will lay out her economic plan at a speech in Detroit on the heels of Donald Trump doing the same thing earlier this week in the same city. But that's where the similarities end. Where Trump spotlighted his pro-business agenda, Clinton is expected to focus on policies aimed at helping the American worker. Wednesday Clinton's attention was on Trump's Second Amendment comment.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more from Detroit. JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Alison and Ryan,

Hillary Clinton will be delivering an economic address here in Michigan today. She will be focusing on the economy in Macomb County. That is the county home to so many Reagan Democrats. Those Democrats who have shifted Republican over the years. She is hoping to win them back with her economic message.

Now it's no coincidence that Donald Trump was here in Detroit as well earlier this week also giving his economic message. This is a central theme of this campaign. No surprise. Hillary Clinton has been running behind Donald Trump on the economy until the conventions and then we saw a switch in our CNN polling.

[04:05:01] Between the conventions, Donald Trump still was leading by nearly 10 points over Hillary Clinton on the economy. Now she holds a two-point lead on the economy over Trump. She is continuing to make that economic argument and she will do so today in Warren, Michigan. But as she campaigned in Iowa on Wednesday, she addressed for the first time those comments from Donald Trump that some critics said incited violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Words matter, my friends. And if you are running to be president or you are president of the United States, words can have tremendous consequences. Yesterday, we witnessed the latest in a long line of casual comments from Donald Trump that crossed the line. Every single one of these incidents shows us that Donald Trump simply does not have the temperament to be president and commander-in-chief of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: The Clinton campaign also trying to fundraise off Donald Trump's comments, sending out a fundraising appeal asking supporters to have her back. But today here in Michigan, she'll be talking all about the economy. That's where campaign advisers believe this election will be won or lost. Not on all these extraneous things this campaign seems to bring up -- Alison and Ryan.

NOBLES: Jeff, thanks.

New e-mails raising questions about the relationship between the State Department during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state and the Clinton Foundation. The conservative group Judicial Watch releasing nearly 300 pages of State Department e-mails obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The heavily redacted e- mails show foundation officials lobbying Secretary Clinton's aides to give someone a job and put to foundation donors in touched with department officials.

Donald Trump accusing Clinton of engaging in a pay-for-play. The Clinton campaign spokesman rejecting that charge in a statement saying, quote, "This is a classic Trump playbook move. Make a false statement that overreaches and hope it changes the conversation from his comments yesterday casually inciting violence."

KOSIK: So Hillary Clinton giving her economic speech in Michigan from a manufacturing plant that got its start making auto parts then shifted into the aerospace industry. Now she's likely going to be using examples like that to contrast Donald Trump's economic vision. Clinton was harshly critical of his plans saying repackaging -- it's just a repackaging of trickledown economics and that it will not work for all Americans.

Now there are five new programs in Clinton's plan. All focusing on families and the middle class. They include paid family leave especially for new parents. Universal preschool for every 4-year-old in America. Debt-free college for lower and middle income families. She would be looking to expand Social Security and raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Now there is one thing Clinton and Trump agree on, and that's infrastructure spending. Clinton proposes spending $275 billion over four years. Mostly funded from higher taxes on the rich. Trump says he'll go ahead and double that amount, but doesn't give specifics on how he'd pay for it.

NOBLES: Was critical intelligence about ISIS are just in to suggest the fight against the terror group is going better than it actually is? Findings of a congressional investigation still to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:12:33] NOBLES: The campaign against ISIS may not be going as well as we have been told. According to an investigation by Republican members of Congress, intelligence reports from U.S. Central Command on the anti-ISIS campaign have been, quote, "overly optimistic at best."

We get more from CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Ryan, Alison, this has been a report in the works for several months now. Republican congressional investigators looking at allegations that at the U.S. Central Command, CENTCOM, the part of the military that runs the war against ISIS, they may have cooked the books on intelligence. And now we've had a look at the report.

Let me read you just one of the findings from this report. It says, and I quote, "CENTCOM produced intelligence that was also significantly more optimistic than that of the other parts of the intelligence community and typically more optimistic than actual events warranted."

So, Central Command, the military, between 2014 and 2015, coming up with rosier intelligence, a better outlook about the fight against ISIS than the rest of the intelligence community had.

Why did they do this? Well, the report found that at Central Command military -- top military commanders were relying more on the intelligence from the field than the intelligence from their own analysts and that that was skewing part of the picture. Now there are new commanders at Central Command, new analysts, new

leaders in the command. They say they're trying to make sure that everything's in order now but this is not the last word. There is an inspector general investigation, a separate investigation, underway and no final word yet on what that review may find -- Alison, Ryan.

KOSIK: All right, Barbara Starr, thanks for that.

And the State Department slamming U.S. allies for having laws that infringe on religious freedoms. Its annual report on global religious freedom cites concerns over laws targeting blasphemy and discrimination against minorities' faith, particularly in Muslim countries like Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia. Those among -- those are among those countries singled out for criticism.

NOBLES: With the U.S. engaged in air wards against ISIS in Iraq, Syria, and Libya, the Air Force has a desperate need for jet fighter pilots. Officials expect to be short 700 fighter pilots by year's end.

[04:15:05] A sharp increase from back in March when they said they just needed over 500 to carry out current missions. Now the military plans to increase retention bonuses to get pilots to stay in the service longer.

KOSIK: The federal government is set to authorize more research into the medical benefits of marijuana. An announcement with details is expected to come out today. According to published reports, the government is not willing to consider a request to reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses. Right now it is classified as a Schedule 1 drug and is considered dangerous and highly addictive with no medical benefits.

NOBLES: A veteran Arkansas police officer shot and killed in a five- hour standoff with a gunman. It began Wednesday morning when the father of 35-year-old Billy Monroe Jones called 911 to report his son had pulled a gun on him. Over 200 officers responded to the home taking frequent fire from Jones before he surrendered. Deputy Bill Cooper suffered a gunshot wound to the neck and he did not survive surgery. Another officer was wounded.

KOSIK: A 73-year-old librarian attending a citizen's police academy course in Florida accidentally shot and killed by an officer during a role playing activity. Mary Knowlton of Punta Gorda volunteered to be a victim in a shoot or don't shoot scenario during the two-hour class when she was struck by a live round. The entire community and police officials are stunned by the tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM LEWIS, PUNTA GORDA CHIEF OF POLICE: We were unaware that any live ammunition was available to the officer at the time.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But how does that happen? How do you go unaware? LEWIS: That is a great question. And the investigation is going to

detail exactly how all those details were missed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Mary Knowlton's husband of 55 years was in the classroom and witnessed his wife's shooting death. State police are investigating.

NOBLES: Heavy rain and new flooding threats across the Gulf Coast as a heat wave builds in the northeast. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam has your forecast.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Alison and Ryan.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VAN DAM: Back to you.

NOBLES: All right, thanks, Derek.

Highs and lows in the pool for Team USA. Another gold medal, but some bitter disappointment for one prominent swimmer. We are live in Rio next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:22:44] KOSIK: And it's yet another gold medal for the U.S. in the pool at the Rio Olympics with Katie Ledecky anchoring the victory in the women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay. Also Wednesday a close call for the USA dream team in men's basketball and tonight Americans will be prospecting for more gold with swimming Michael Phelps and gymnast Simone Biles taking center stage.

CNN's Christina MacFarlane following all the action live from Rio. Good morning.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN WORLD SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alison. Yes, it was gold number 11 for the USA thanks to the exploits, as you say, of Katie Ledecky who anchored this women's side to the win in the 4x200-meter free relay. And they couldn't have done it without her, I'll tell you, because she got in the pool, she came from a second behind and she ended up winning the race by almost two clear seconds. How incredible is that from this lady?

It her fourth Olympic medal. Her third gold overall. And I'll tell you, we could be seeing her fourth here on Friday but she is going to be competing in the 800-meter freestyle. That is the race she won as a 15-year-old back in London 2012. She's hotly tipped to take that one, of course. And across town, her teammate, Lilly King was competing in the 200-meter breast stroke. Now unfortunately she went out of that race while her Russian rival, Yulia Efimova, who we've heard so much about in the past 24 hours, well, she did go through to the finals.

So that jewel in the pool is done. But I'll tell you the storyline isn't. On Wednesday, Lilly King saying she was happy to be the poster girl for clean sports after her comments about doping and her comments about Efimova's doping past. Showing here I think that athletes not afraid to voice their opinions after the sports' governing body decided to let Russian athletes to compete here in Rio.

Now you may have seen the U.S. men's basketball team smiling and taking selfies with Michael Phelps just 24 hours earlier. Well, on Wednesday, they had a rather more serious matter to attend to on the basketball court after they were held by the Australia's men's basketball team. Now going into half time, Australia actually led the U.S. men's basketball team by 54-49. It's the first time Australia -- sorry, it's the first time the United States have trailed in an Olympic match for 12 years.

However, it was Carmelo Anthony who got the job done, pulling his team back into it, scoring nine three-pointers to get them to the final score and a win for the United States 98-88.

[04:25:12] And I was in that basketball arena and I can tell you, it was seriously close.

Now looking ahead to Thursday's play, all eyes back on the pool and back on the battle of the roommates. I am of course talking about Michael Phelps against Ryan Lochte. They have been sharing an apartment here in Rio and they're going to be going up against each other in the 200-meter freestyle. Well, on Wednesday that semifinal was played out and it was Phelps who have the bragging rights. He took the win just ahead of Lochte in a win of 1:55.78. So can Lochte come back? We'll have to see later on today.

The other big storyline of Thursday is set to be in the gymnastics arena. And two of the women's final five going up against each other in the women's individual all around -- individual all around team event. Now that of course is going to be Aly Raisman up against Simone Biles. Simon Biles, as we know, looking to become the first gymnast to win five gold medals in one Olympic Games.

But let's not forget, Raisman is pretty experienced herself. She's 22 years of age and she has, of course, competed in two Olympic Games. So spotless performances, I think, expected of both of them.

And, Alison, I just want to bring you one update from a rather green issue we've been here at the Olympics. I'm not talking about the environment, of course. I'm talking about the swimming pool. You may have seen yesterday that this synchronized diving pool turned green. Well, today, the water polo swimming pool there actually turned green as well. Now they sit alongside each other.

I went down and had a looked at the pool earlier today. I can tell you it was vivid green. And we found out that this was in fact caused by a buildup of algae in the swimming pool. The organizers confirming that it was due to warm temperatures and wind. And it was something they hadn't accounted for. No threat to the athletes of course, but people here are calling it the swamp of the Olympics.

(LAUGHTER) KOSIK: Well, the mystery solved. That was literally just going to ask about the mystery of the green water. It's like they're swimming in a pond.

NOBLES: Yes. Yes. More green, instead of flesh. All right, thank you, Christina. Live in Rio.

MACFARLANE: OK.

NOBLES: Drama in the race for 2016. Donald Trump with new attacks on Hillary Clinton over the e-mail controversy. Clinton responding to Trump's possible incitement of gun owners.

We have all the latest back and forth when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)