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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Warns Of More Nastiness; Poll: Clinton Now 11 Points Ahead; Voter Registration Deadlines Today; Sen. McCain Disavows Trump; Late-Night Comedians Slash Trump; Record Flooding In NC After Matthew; Chicago Teachers Strike Averted; Samsung Ditches Galaxy Note 7. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired October 11, 2016 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:30] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump defiant, threatening new personal attacks against the Clintons and taking swipes now at Paul Ryan who has all but turned his back on the candidate.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton hitting back, slamming Trump for what he calls locker room talk. She's teaming up with a former vice president on the campaign trail today.
BERMAN: Stranded in the flood zone. Rescuers race to save people trapped in North Carolina after Hurricane Matthew and some rivers are still rising.
Welcome back to EARLY START everyone, I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour. Nice to see you this morning. Is you hear spinning yet? What else could possibly happen today? This morning, both presidential candidates head to Florida. Both campaigns are bracing for new attacks and maybe even new bombshells after the nuclear debate Sunday night. Donald Trump is sticking his attacks -- sticking to his attacks on Hillary Clinton over her husband's long-ago sex scandals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
If they want to release more tapes saying inappropriate things, we'll continue to talk about Bill and Hillary Clinton doing inappropriate things. There are so many of them, folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The new polls show that Trump could be in serious trouble after the release of the "ACCESS HOLLYWOOD" tape where he bragged about his ability to grab a woman's genitals and get away with it because he's so famous.
A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows Clinton with an 11-point lead. The poll was conducted after the tape came to light, but before Sunday's debate. Overnight, Trump was in Pennsylvania, a battleground state that is looking tougher and tougher for him. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine. Donald Trump, as he campaigns throughout Pennsylvania, is keeping up his defiant tone -- that scorched earth strategy as he tries to rehabilitate his campaign lashing back at Speaker of the House Paul Ryan who held a conference call with Republican lawmakers, telling them that he would no longer defend Donald Trump.
He would no longer campaign with Donald Trump, although he is not revoking his endorsement of Donald Trump. And also telling Republican lawmakers it's up to them to do how they see fit. Donald Trump lashed out in a tweet and also at his rally here in Pennsylvania where he mentioned Paul Ryan, just not by name.
TRUMP: Isn't it too bad that we don't have stronger leadership on both sides -- on both sides? I mean, you know, you have people that can't fix a budget but then they start talking about their nominee, but they can't fix the budget. Isn't it -- isn't it really sad that we don't have stronger leadership on both sides? But that will change if we win on November 8th.
SERFATY: This us versus them mentality -- Washington establishment versus him mentality is something that Donald Trump has used and leaned on many times in the past, especially during the early days of his campaign -- certainly now -- potentially helps re-motivate his tried and true core base of supporters -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right, Sunlen, thanks so much.
So what else is out there? A former "Apprentice" producer has tweeted a far worse video exists than what has already leaked from "Access Hollywood". But "Apprentice" creator, Mark Burnett, says he does not have the legal right to release footage from the show. He claims he's barred by certain contracts and he denies he threatened to sue any employee who might be thinking about leaking video.
ROMANS: Both Bill and Hillary Clinton will be in Florida today. Bill, with a series of voter registration events across the state, Hillary with a big rally in Miami. She's being joined for the very first time by a former vice president, Al Gore, who has devoted himself for years to the issue of global warming. But otherwise, you know, he's largely stayed off the political stage.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny has a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Hillary Clinton is heading to Florida today and she'll be joined on the campaign trail by someone who we've not seen in the political sphere for years. That is former vice president Al Gore. He'll be making the case at his first stop for Hillary Clinton, focusing on climate change. Also focusing on some millennial voters and others who may not be quite yet on board with her candidacy or enthused about her candidacy.
And when she was campaigning in Michigan and Ohio yesterday she was still talking about Donald Trump and all of his locker room talk.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And last night he doubled down on his excuse saying that well, it's just locker room banter. You know what's happened today, which is so interesting, is that a lot of athletes and coaches from the NBA, from Major League Baseball, from the NFL, and more have been coming forward tweeting. They've been saying no, that's not what happens in our locker rooms. And I just happen to think that our athletes and our coaches know a lot more about what happens in locker rooms than Donald Trump does.
[05:35:25] ZELENY: Now, that is a confident Hillary Clinton. She was making that case before one of the largest audiences, yet, of her campaign. Thousands upon thousands of people gathered on the campus of the Ohio State University to listen to Hillary Clinton speak, but they were also there for another reason. Today is the deadline for voter registration in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other battleground states. So when Sec. Clinton and Al Gore appear later today in Miami that will be also their central focus -- getting people signed up to vote.
We're also getting word Bill Clinton also heading back to Florida for, now, the final day of voter registration, now with 28 days to go before the election -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much.
Two thousand more emails have been posted online, apparently from the hacked account of Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta. This is the second WikiLeaks dump in four days. It covers a wide range of strategy sessions from 2015, including how to handle the release of the book "Clinton Cash" which alleged illegal activity at the Clinton Foundation. In another email, a longtime Clinton aide refers to Chelsea Clinton as a "spoiled brat".
Now, the Clinton campaign slams Donald Trump for cheering on this email release. The Clinton team claims it was engineered by Vladimir Putin. And, in fact, don't forget the U.S. intelligence says that the Russians have been behind a lot of the hacks right now on the U.S. electoral process. And the Clinton team says what folks should be focused on is the hack itself, not what's inside it.
ROMANS: OK. So, so much to talk about this morning. We're really lucky to have CNN Politics reporter Eugene Scott with us bright and early this morning.
Let's talk first about Florida. Al Gore goes to Florida. You're going to see the Clintons campaigning hard in Florida today. I wonder if when Al Gore goes to Florida a little tear goes down his cheek, you know?
EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: It has to be a rough place for him to go to without thinking about what happened. And to some degree that's what the Clinton campaign is hoping -- that he thinks about what happened, not the rough place part.
But, in part, because they want him to communicate to millennial voters and other people who are considering third party what can happen when you look at a third party option. You can lead to an administration that led to some of the things like the economic downturn and the war that a lot of Democrats said would not have happened had third party voters voted for Al Gore.
BERMAN: Look, it's a two-pronged attack for Al Gore to be there. One, it's to remind people to register to vote and how important each vote is. And Al Gore -- it's something he's talked about for 16 years. He's got some sort of canned lines about -- which I'm sure are painful -- but also climate change and global warming. A very, very big issue --
SCOTT: Right.
BERMAN: -- in Florida, not just with the storms but also with a lot of issues down there, so that's something that does resonate in that area.
Let's talk about Donald Trump, right, because Donald Trump has been on the trail. He continues to talk about the fact that he will bring up Bill Clinton if he has to and he continues to talk about the fact that he would appoint a special prosecutor if elected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: WikiLeaks -- I love WikiLeaks. We are going to get a special prosecutor to figure this deal out. I have never been so ashamed of this country as what's gone on with Hillary Clinton.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Now, this is clearly something, you know -- Donald Trump brought it up at the debate. He's now brought it up at both of his rallies. I assume this is something we will hear for the next 28 days.
SCOTT: Right, very much so. I think he will reinforce. He will get a special prosecutor if he wins, but he has to win and I don't know that this is going to help him win. This doesn't seem like it's an approach that's going to get undecided voters and Independents off the bubble to getting on him. It's not focused on the policies that he thinks will help prove that he'll be better than Hillary Clinton.
ROMANS: What about the defections in the party? I mean, yesterday we talked about Paul Ryan. He's not going to defend, obviously, the comments. He's not going to campaign with the Republican nominee. Those were heard last night in his own debate in Arizona. We heard from John McCain in very stark terms about not being able to support this candidate. Let's listen to McCain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: When Mr. Trump attacks women and demeans the women in our nation and in our society, that is a point where I just have to part company. It's not pleasant for me to renounce the nominee of my party. He won the nomination fair and square. But this is -- I have daughters. I have friends. I have so many wonderful people on my staff. They cannot be degraded and demeaned in that fashion. And so, I believe that I had to withdraw my support.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Now, Donald Trump, on Twitter, has mocked people who are, you know, withdrawing their support and he mocked Paul Ryan yesterday via Twitter. But, I mean, this really is a -- this is an existential crisis for this party.
[05:40:00] SCOTT: Yes. I covered politics in Arizona and what John McCain is echoing is the concerns of conservative voters there. And we see, as you mentioned, that it's not just Arizona, it's across the country.
And I think what the Trump campaign is going to have to do is try to convince voters not to follow their local lawmakers and stay onboard the Trump train. I don't know if he'll be able to do that and I don't know if this is the approach, continuing the attacks and the personal marriage attacks that's going to convince them to do that.
BERMAN: I will say a big part of the story in the last 24 hours, though, was the backlash against the backlash.
ROMANS: True.
BERMAN: You had a lot of House members angry --
ROMANS: True.
BERMAN: -- at Paul Ryan for turning his back on Donald Trump. There's a "New York Times" story out today that has a lot of quotes from voters in Arizona -- Trump voters who were angry at John McCain and say they're actually going to vote for the Democrat because John McCain has turned his back on Donald Trump. So it's a very tough place to be and it's unclear to me, you know, who benefits and doesn't from the back turning that's going on there.
All right, another interesting development overnight. You know, late- night comedy -- the late-night television shows -- we don't get to see them because we're sleeping. But overnight they went hard against Donald Trump and these leaked "ACCESS HOLLYWOOD" tapes. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, CBS "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": What gym does Donald Trump belong to? In my locker room we're just trying to avoid eye contact and gently encourage old man Wallace to put on a towel.
JIMMY FALLON, HOST, NBC "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON": People didn't know what was crazier. His excuse or the idea that Trump's ever been to a gym.
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, ABC "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": When guys go in a locker room -- women don't know this. We go nuts. We start using curse words, we look at pornography, we throw up on each other. It's disgusting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Old man Wallace is the clear winner there, I think.
SCOTT: They already knew.
BERMAN: You know, so a lot of jokes. What's interesting here, Eugene, though, is once it crosses into the realm of late-night comedy and becomes like a touchstone that everyone refers to, you know, it's clearly a dominant issue. And remember, if the Clinton team is hoping to reach younger voters -- if younger voters are a group that's not as enthusiastic as they should be, that might be a susceptible audience to this.
SCOTT: Definitely, and not just younger voters. I think part of the conversation that is forgotten a lot with this is we talk about how women voters respond to this. Well, there are a lot of men voters who don't like this, as well, and that's why we saw a lot of athletes come out publicly and say hey, that's not what happens in our lockers rooms. And Hillary Clinton needs those male voters and so I think she's going to take this opportunity to reach out and connect with them, hoping that they come on board.
ROMANS: I'm glad to know that locker rooms really aren't like that. I now have --
BERMAN: No, the old man Wallace thing?
ROMANS: Multiple --
BERMAN: Oh, the old man Wallace thing is what Stephen Colbert is --
ROMANS: That's true?
BERMAN: -- absolutely true.
SCOTT: Very true.
ROMANS: All right, thanks, guys. Nice to see you, Eugene.
SCOTT: Thanks.
ROMANS: All right, if Donald Trump wins the election the stock market will tank. That's according to a new analysis from forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisors. It predicts an eight percent drop by the end of the year if Trump takes the White House. If Clinton wins, this firm forecasts a two percent gain. The S&P 500 is up about 5.8 percent so far this year.
OK, the model predicts this drop because of three issues with Trump. One, the uncertainty over his economic policies, threats against Mexico and China, and then the surprise effect if Trump wins. Right now, the market is pricing in a Hillary Clinton victory so if he won you would see a big reversal.
Stock futures are down slightly this morning. The market popped yesterday, though, thanks in part to Clinton's debate performance. In general, Wall Street and corporate America -- they say they can live with Hillary Clinton. They say she's predictable. They can live with her policies.
BERMAN: It's interesting, though, because Donald Trump -- he can't use that in his campaign. He can say the Wall Street insiders want Hillary Clinton --
ROMANS: Right, exactly.
BERMAN: -- I'm for mainstream.
ROMANS: Exactly.
BERMAN: All right, hundreds of people stranded by floodwaters after Hurricane Matthew. The only way out, a boat or a helicopter. So many rescues to show you from North Carolina. That's next.
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[05:47:45] BERMAN: The floodwaters keep on rising in North Carolina. This, in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. The governor there says the flooding is likely to extend through the end of the week. So much of that state has been inundated by record flooding that washed away roads. Eighteen inches of rain fell in some areas over the weekend. Hundreds of people have been stranded in their homes. They had to be rescued by boat. In Fayetteville, there weren't that many homes spared by flash floods.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PEGGY JACOBS, HOME FLOODED BY WATER FROM NEARBY CREEK: You go in a room and there's nothing. You've got heavy furniture and that's all in pieces and it's on the other side of the room or in another room, you know. It's -- I don't understand it. There's a few things that can be cleaned and saved but just about everything's gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: There have been 27 storm-related deaths in the southeast, 12 in North Carolina alone.
ROMANS: So when can North Carolina expect these floodwaters to recede? Meteorologist Karen Maginnis has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, for the better part of the week, John and Christine, we saw Hurricane Matthew just menace the coast of Florida, Georgia, and into the Carolinas and portions of Virginia. Staggering amounts of rainfall. That rain has to go someplace. It's in the rivers, it's in the tributaries, it's in cities and towns all over.
But especially hit hard is that central North Carolina corridor along Interstate 95 and then towards the east. So many water rescues. Yes, this many days later. People who have to be rescued from their homes or their businesses. It has really been devastating. So, the water is going to take some time to recede, perhaps not until another four or five days at or above record-setting crests. And here you can see just how devastating it's been. This, this optical illusion out of Lumberton, North Carolina.
So, there'll be some dry weather. Temperatures warming up but look what lies on the horizon. Much cooler air across the Midwest. Temperatures in the 50s by Thursday -- John and Christine.
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BERMAN: All right, Karen, thanks so much. Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Chris Cuomo with us now. Good morning, sir.
ROMANS: Hello.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hello, good people. I hadn't finished writing it yet but here's what I was working on -- the alchemy of it. I was going to say that the theme for the day is hacks, OK? On the Democratic side you have the WikiLeaks hacks. What is WikiLeaks showing? Well, it's showing that there's a lot of interchange between the campaign and the media. Is it right, is it wrong? We'll report, you judge.
[05:50:15] About positions that Clinton was going to take and how they'd be finessed. About how the national party was dealt with by the Clinton campaign. So we'll take you through that.
And then hacks also applies on the Republican side because that's what people like Paul Ryan are, essentially, calling Donald Trump, saying that they're not going to defend him anymore, in Ryan's case. They're going to focus down ballot. You've got diehards coming back at Ryan. You have Donald Trump, of course, suffering no indignity, so he's going at Ryan directly, as well. And we'll see which way that's going to go.
Also, this morning we have the father of that fallen U.S. service member. His name is Khizr Kahn. You remember them from the Democratic National Convention and the resulting drama with Donald Trump. Well, the father is on this morning. He doesn't like what Donald Trump did, bringing up his son and saying he wouldn't be dead if he were president, so he wants to share his thoughts. He'll be on the show this morning. BERMAN: Interesting. We haven't heard from him for some time. He's sort of been out of the spotlight for the last month or so, so that will be interesting.
CUOMO: He is, and I'm interested to see how that fallout with you and all those WikiLeaks emails -- how that turns out for you, Berman. All that inter-patriot stuff that was going on there. Your code name "Patriot Lover". I don't know.
ROMANS: I don't even know --
BERMAN: I thought when you said how -- OK, we'll just leave that there.
ROMANS: (LAUGHING).
BERMAN: Can Chris go over the subject of hacks. On the subject of hacks, Chris Cuomo.
CUOMO: (LAUGHING).
BERMAN: Enjoy your show today.
CUOMO: That was too easy.
BERMAN: I know.
CUOMO: Too easy.
BERMAN: All right.
ROMANS: All right, thanks, Chris. Samsung Galaxy Note 7 nightmare just got worse. It's ditching the phone altogether. Remember, this is supposed to be an important premium product, an important driver of growth. Oh, it's going to kill it dead.
BERMAN: Dead.
ROMANS: Done.
BERMAN: Dead to me.
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[05:56:10] BERMAN: Breaking overnight, a teachers' strike has been averted in Chicago. The head of the teachers union announced a tentative agreement with the Chicago Public Schools. Teachers will be back in the classrooms this morning, as scheduled. Union negotiators deliberated through the night after receiving an Eleventh Hour settlement proposal from the city to avoid the strike.
ROMANS: All right, let's get an EARLY START on your money this Tuesday morning. Dow futures pointing lower. Higher oil prices lifted energy stocks in the broader market yesterday. Oil is down slightly right now trading above $51 a barrel. Stocks markets in Europe and Asia, you can see, they look like they're mixed. London and Paris now down a little bit.
Samsung is permanently discontinuing production, killing the troubled --
BERMAN: Wow.
ROMANS: -- Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. Owners will be able to trade theirs in for a different phone -- a different model. This, after a strong warning for customers last night, immediately shut it off. Turn off your Galaxy Note 7 even if it's a brand new replacement. After those replacement phones hit stores late last month customers still experienced overheating and phones catching fire. They've been contacting the company and they've been posting images like these on social media.
That prompted AT&T and T-Mobile to stop selling the devices over the weekend. Then, Samsung announce yesterday it was halting production, now killing the entire model. The FAA is asking travelers -- again, asking them not to fly with the phones. One of them caught fire on a Southwest plane last week.
BERMAN: It's a big deal. I mean, this was such a big product release. It got such great reviews but your phone can't catch on fire.
ROMANS: It's going to be one of those textbook examples of a botched product line and handling of it.
Keep an eye on shares of Twitter today. Check out this stock over the past month. It surged more than 30 percent after reports Google, Salesforce, Disney were interested in buying Twitter. Oh yes, that's right before it fell off a cliff. This is why it looks like it's down. Maybe Salesforce is the only one in the running and probably not.
The stock has tumbled 28 percent over the past five days, including an 11-percent drop yesterday. It's back up two percent in premarket trading today. But you really have to have nerves of steel in that stock today.
BERMAN: Look over the borders. Journalists across America should pool their resources and buy Twitter because we're the ones who use it.
All right, it is Donald Trump versus Paul Ryan right now in this battle for the Republican Party. "NEW DAY" starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER: I meant what I said and it is still how I feel.
TRUMP: People that can't fix a budget but then they start talking about their nominee. Isn't it really sad?
MCCAIN: I no longer support Donald Trump. CLINTON: Any of you see that debate? I'm not sure you'll ever see anything like that again.
TRUMP: If they want to release more tapes we'll continue to talk about Bill and Hillary Clinton.
CLINTON: He just doubled down on his excuse that it's just locker room banter. That is just a really weak excuse.
TRUMP: WikiLeaks -- I love WikiLeaks.
CLINTON: We now know who Donald Trump is, but the real question is who are we?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, October 11th, 6:00 in the East.
Up first, House Speaker Paul Ryan says he can no longer support Donald Trump for president. So, of course, Trump is attacking him. Now, the war of words is irrelevant but the fate of the GOP majority in the House and Senate is not. We're going to look inside that fragile situation.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So, with his poll numbers dropping, Trump is promising to ramp up attacks on Bill and Hillary Clinton if new videos are released about him. There's eight days until the final presidential debate and Election Day is exactly four weeks from today.
CUOMO: What?
CAMEROTA: Yes. CNN has every angle covered for you. Let's begin with chief political correspondent Dana Bash. She is live in Washington. The clock is ticking, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, I think it can tick a lot faster for all us. The question, at this point, among a lot of Republicans who I talked to is, is there another shoe to drop? Is there another videotape that even Donald Trump suggested might be out there? And that is one of the many reasons why the House Speaker, Paul Ryan, did a conference call with his rank and file yesterday morning.
