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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Two U.S. Swimmers Pulled Off Plane by Brazilian Police; Shake- Up at the Top of Team Trump; Clinton Mocks Trump Campaign Reboot; Highlight from Rio Olympics; Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 18, 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] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A big Olympic controversy brewing in Rio. Two American swimmers yanked off a plane. They have to stay in Brazil as questions emerge about an armed robbery they reported days earlier. Why is there a count of that robbery now in doubt and what U.S. officials are saying about it?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump's latest campaign reboot, it is off and running. What his new top advisers are saying and how soon we might see a new version of Trump being Trump on the campaign trail?

Good morning. And welcome to EARLY START. I'm George Howell.

ROMANS: Nice to see you again this morning, George.

HOWELL: Good to be here.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Thursday, August 18th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. We begin with breaking news from the Olympics overnight.

Brazilian police pulling two American swimmers off their plane back to the U.S. and seizing their passports. Also attempting to serve a warrant on medal winner Ryan Lochte, only to discover he has already left Brazil.

And police are trying to find another teammate, James Feigen, whose exact whereabouts are unclear. Authorities say they want to question all four of these Olympic swimmers about their report they were robbed by gunmen -- by men dressed as police officers. Investigators questioning the truthfulness of that report based on an apparent inconsistencies in the swimmer's statements and on surveillance video purporting to show their behavior after the alleged robbery.

For the very latest want to bring in CNN's Nick Paton Walsh in Rio for us.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine and George, this remarkable story has yet another extraordinary turn to it. Two of the swimmers who have not been questioned by Brazilian police who were involved in this remarkable incident in the early hours of Sunday morning where they said they were robbed by men dressed as police as they left a nightclub.

These two individuals, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, have been taken off a plane back to the United States by Brazilian police. Now as far as we understand from a police source near the airport, they have been questioned. Their passports have been taken from them. They'll be allowed to go around Brazil, but still it's not quite clear when those passports will be given back to them.

And this is yet another remarkable developments in this story. Earlier today, we heard from a Rio judge that Ryan Lochte, probably one of the most famous American swimmers here at the games, and his fellow swimmer James Feigen had given statements to the Brazilian police which the judge had thought really weren't consistent enough and aroused their suspicions and caused this judge to issue a search and seizure warrant for the men and for their passports in theory to stop them leaving the country as well.

Now Ryan Lochte is back in the United States. His lawyer said he left as he's scheduled before these warrants were issued. That he had cooperated with anybody who sought to ask him questions. And in fact at this stage, there's nobody reaching out to him to ask him to cooperate further.

But we're dealing with a very confused picture of what happened in the early hours of that Sunday morning. Many Brazilians and the police spokesperson we talked to today are wondering, how was it these men experienced an armed robbery, apparently, by police -- people dressed as police carrying weapons, yet still emerged from that incident carrying in their own admission their cell phones. And if you look at the CCTV, which the judge cited in that court statement, pointing out how they seemed, in her impression, unshaken after their ordeal.

You see in that video, too, they are carrying some pretty high value items. That left many Brazilians and some police suspicious. How do you get through an armed robbery in Brazil and still keep things like that in your possession?

It's added to a growing number of questions that the police have sought answers to. That led to the court papers this morning. Now two athletes taken off the plane, athletes from the ream at the top of the medals table right now. And it's going to be their word, frankly, against Rio authorities. It seems at the moment simply questions being asked right now. No suggestion of any major wrongdoing, but a very confusing and frankly bleak moment for an already blighted games -- Christine, George.

HOWELL: Nick, thank you.

An attorney for Ryan Lochte is defending the swimmer. Speaking to CNN overnight, he pins the controversy on the host nation saying in part, quote, "When you have one of America's athletes who comes out and said something happened to him, it happens to people there every day, that doesn't look good for a country trying to have a successful Olympics."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Committee confirms the swimmers' detention and release from a statement overnight, saying that Conger and Bentz will continue discussions with Brazilian law enforcement today. The USOC adding that James Feigen is also in touch with police and will make further statements today. The U.S. State Department also saying that it is looking into the case but otherwise tight-lipped at this point, releasing this statement, quote, "We have seen media reports of two U.S. citizen athletes were detained. We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance."

[04:05:07] Of course we'll have more from Rio on the actual games themselves including the American sweep of the medals in the women's 100-meter hurdles later this half hour.

ROMANS: All right. Turning now to the race for president. The Trump campaign's latest reboot now under way. New details emerging this morning about what led to the shakeup and how it went down. Sources telling CNN that Donald Trump's son in law, Jared Kushner, cut short his vacation, calling a meeting that included current campaign chair, Paul Manafort, and two new top officials who Trump is bringing in, pollster Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager, and Breitbart News honcho Steve Bannon, to be Trump's new campaign CEO.

Sources say Manafort is being, quote, "sidelined." Even so he sent out a staff memo calling the revamp an exciting day for Team Trump.

For the very latest on all of this let's go to CNN's Sara Murray. She's covering the Trump campaign.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Christine and George.

It is yet another reset for the Trump campaign. Now the reason Trump did all of this sources tell us is because he was frustrated with the direction his campaign was taking. He didn't feel like he could necessarily trust the advisers around him and he felt like he was straying from this outsider image in trying to please the Washington establishment, particularly the Republican establishment.

Today we'll get our first test of what this new leadership looks like. Donald Trump is campaigning in North Carolina. And some sources have said look, this new regime means that Trump can get back to basics. He can hold these big ruckus political rallies, he can go with his gut instinct, he can speak off the cuff.

But when I spoke to Kellyanne Conway, the newly minted campaign manager, last night she added a note of caution to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: We are trying to remind everybody of two things. One, it is the issues that Americans want to hear about. They want to hear about combating terrorism, bolstering national security, doing better than Obamacare that Americans still don't support. Of course, he'll be talking about immigration and education in the next couple of weeks.

And number two, reminding everybody, there are two candidates in the race. Not one. That this election is somehow becoming a referendum on Donald Trump, as if you are going to go into the ballot box and it's going to say, Donald Trump, yes or no. It's not. Hillary Clinton's name will be on the ballot, and I know her people and her supporters are protecting her by not letting allowing her to talk to the press. I'm happy to talk to you, but apparently, she doesn't respect you the way we do. She wouldn't even give you a press conference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: So we will see if a new set of advisers and maybe a slightly different Donald Trump on the stump will be enough to turn around what a pretty unfortunate polling numbers for him right now in basically all of the battleground states.

Now Kellyanne Conway says there is no reason to panic yet. It's only August. It's not October. But that might be cold comfort to a number of Republican establishment folks and Republican operatives who are getting increasingly worried about the direction of the polling.

Back to you, guys.

HOWELL: Sara, thanks.

On the Democratic side of things, Hillary Clinton is mocking the Trump campaign overhaul. She also targeted Trump's economic plans as welfare for the wealthy. At a campaign rally in Ohio Clinton pitched her own tax plan spotlighting her proposal to tax the wealthiest of Americans who as she said have made all the income gains in the last 15 years. Her campaign also fending off questions about the State Department under Clinton's leadership and whether it showed favoritism to the Clinton Foundation donors.

We get the latest now from CNN's Joe Johns in Cleveland.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: George and Christine, Hillary Clinton here in Cleveland hammering the Republican nominee for choosing the head of the conservative news site Breitbart to lead the presidential campaign.

Mrs. Clinton making the case that no matter what Donald Trump may change in his presidential campaign, he will still be Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's fair to say that Donald Trump has shown us who he is. He can hire and fire anybody he wants from his campaign. They can make him read new words from a teleprompter, but he is still the same man who insults Gold Star families, demeans women, mocks people with disabilities, and thinks he knows more about ISIS than our generals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign was responding to new documents suggesting that shortly after Mrs. Clinton stepped down as secretary of state, the State Department considered a land deal linked to a billionaire who had given $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. The campaign put out a statement saying there was no quid pro quo, the deal never happened, and blasting Citizens United. The group that brought the information to light.

Mrs. Clinton also continues to go after Donald Trump on why he won't release his income tax returns, folding her attacks on his economic plan into an argument suggesting he is out for himself in this election -- George and Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Joe Johns. Thank you, Joe.

A substantial amount of material from the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation just delivered to Congress by the FBI appears to be unclassified and could be made public.

[04:10:06] Now that is according to the Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley. He has ordered Senate staffers to separate the classified and unclassified material in order to release as much information as possible. Those documents include notes from FBI agents who monitored interviews of Clinton and her top aide Huma Abedin. The Clinton campaign says it favors releasing the FBI material to the public.

In money news, Target is spending $20 million to expand bathroom options in all of its stores. The moves comes after complaints and some small protests at some stores over Target's bathroom policy. Its bathroom policy let's transgender customers and employees use whatever bathroom they feel comfortable with. Now some others, though, are voicing support of that policy.

So Target's solution is to make separate bathrooms for any customers who need more privacy like parents with small children, transgender people who don't want to use the public restroom or people who are uncomfortable with the possibility of having a transgender person with them in the bathroom.

Target says it's all about inclusion. It wants every customer to feel comfortable in its stores. The stock, by the way, yesterday down 6 percent. Big drop yesterday after it reported a big drop in sales last quarter. Target says there's no evidence bathroom policies are keeping people from shopping there. But still a big move for Target stock yesterday.

And I've got to tell you, there's a lot of conversation online late yesterday on Target's announcement that it will be spending $20 million to give these bathroom options. Just the latest sort of in the bathroom wars, I guess.

HOWELL: All right. A story we're following. Trouble with the new program to fight the spread of Zika in Florida. A plan is ready to roll out, but many residents there, they are against it. We explain why next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:52] HOWELL: Welcome back. A test plan to fight the Zika virus through releasing genetically modified male mosquitoes has hit a snag. The Food and Drug Administration approved the experiment earlier this month for the Florida Keys but residents of Key Haven protested, claiming that they are being treated like lab rats.

A non-binding resolution will now be on the November ballot, delaying the start of that program. Health officials there believe the modified male mosquitoes will mate with females -- wild females with their offsprings engineered to die before reaching adulthood.

ROMANS: The Washington Monument remains close for repairs again today. It's all because of an elevator malfunction that forced more than 80 visitors to walk down nearly 500 feet of stairs in sweltering heat yesterday. It is the fourth time the elevator has broken down this summer. Just last weekend an electrical short circuit stranded 135 people at the top of the 555-foot tall monument.

HOWELL: That had to be unpleasant.

ROMANS: Yes.

HOWELL: The Blue Cut Fire near San Bernardino, California, it's spreading so fast officials there are now warning that more than 80,000 residents who evacuated their homes but those homes may be gone when they eventually return to those neighborhoods.

Take a look now at this time lapse video taken Tuesday night shows the fire growing from five acres to 25,000 acres in 24 hours forcing the evacuation of nearly 35,000 homes. It's not clear how many structures have already burned.

ROMANS: All right. So what about any relief ahead for those firefighters today? They really need it. I want to bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for that.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Christine and George.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOWELL: Pedram, thank you.

There are questions about two American swimmers detained in Rio days after they claimed they were victims of an armed robbery. Is that controversy casting a cloud over the games? We are live in Rio next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:23:08] ROMANS: Good morning. Welcome back. American athletes reacting this morning after two American swimmers are pulled off a plane and forced to stay in Brazil as their account of an armed robbery in Rio now comes into question. How will these mystifying developments affect morale for Team USA?

CNN's Christina Macfarlane live in Rio with more. Good morning, Christina.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN WORLD SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. And as you can imagine, it's a rather confusing picture here in Rio. Some people questioning why Ryan Lochte left the country before allowing Brazilian justice to run its course. But it doesn't seem to be not affecting the athletes.

Now we spoke to one U.S. athlete close to Lochte on Wednesday who said he's been trying to reach out to Lochte, but hadn't heard back. I think the athletes here just want him to focus on the competition and try and distance himself a bit from the situation, and it certainly doesn't seem to have affected any of the performances on Wednesday.

Among other things we saw USA take gold and silver in the long jump, and silver in the team of question. But the results of day 12 by far was the women's clean sweep of the 100-meter hurdles. It's the first time in Olympic history the U.S. have taken gold, silver and bronze. Brianna Rollins leading the pack with Nia Ali in close second and Kristi Castlin putting in a storming final 15 meters. In a well timed lean to take bronze. Afterwards they said they had been inspired by their team mate Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles.

And let's face it, who wouldn't be?

Now Usain Bolt is having far too much fun at these Olympic Games. He cruised to victory in the 200-meter semifinal on Wednesday night, laughing as he crossed the line, and even joking with the Canadian Andre De Grasse who finished in second. An indication I think that he could be set to take not only Olympic gold on Thursday night, but also perhaps break his own world record. It currently stands at 19.19 seconds. That's what he set back in 2009 and in what was a big shock, his two main rivals, Justin Gatlin of the USA, and Jamaican teammate Johan Blake failed to qualify for the finals. So it's all on Usain Bolt on Thursday night.

[04:25:11] Meanwhile in the basketball arena, it's going to be a familiar foe for Team USA who will play Spain in the men's Olympic semifinal. They of course played them in the last two Olympic finals. But they were soon to get off the mark against Argentina in the quarter final until Kevin Durant steps up putting away 27 points drilling nine shots from the field for 105-78 victory. So it will be the number one seed versus the number two seed in the semifinal and of course Spain looking to upset the 14-time champions. Well, good luck.

Now it wasn't gold, but Kerri Walsh Jennings wasn't complaining when she picked up her fourth successive Olympic medal on Wednesday alongside teammate April Ross. Now they beat Brazil's number one duo in the bronze in the beach volleyball.

And elsewhere Brazil missed out again on the gold medal when Germany triumphed in front of the packed Brazilian crowd. Just behind us down the beach here. Walsh Jennings, however, hinting that perhaps she wasn't done with the sport yet, saying that 42 years of age doesn't sound that old to her and that's of course the age she'd be if she comes back and competes in Tokyo 2020.

Now looking ahead, we have the battle of the so-called super humans to come later on Thursday. And it will come down close with USA's Ashton Eaton in prime position to become the first man to successful defend his Olympic decathlon gold medal since 1952 if he can get the job done today. Eaton put in a fine performance on Wednesday in the 400 meters expanding his lead to 121 points at the midway stage. And he still has five events to come this Thursday.

Guys, I don't know why anyone wants to do the decathlon. It sounds absolutely exhausting.

(LAUGHTER)

HOWELL: It does, doesn't it?

ROMANS: I think so. It really does. I got tell you, Kerry Walsh Jennings, you know, 40 is the new 30 so we hope to see her for a long time to come.

Thanks so much, Christina.

HOWELL: Decathlon.

ROMANS: Wow.

HOWELL: Well, it is not all fun and games in Rio. As we have been reporting two members of the U.S. swim team taken off their flight back home by police. What's next for them?

EARLY START continues after the break.

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