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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Eight Dead, 11 Hurt In NYC Terror Attack; L.A. Dodgers Rally To Force A World Series Game 7; Tech's Top Five Worth $3 Trillion. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired November 01, 2017 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:37] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY: Important additional measures are being taken for people's safety but the bottom line is we are going to go about our business in the city. We are not going to be deterred.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Defiance from leaders and citizens of New York City in the hours after a terror attack near the World Trade Center. Now, the attacker claims he did it for ISIS.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Alex Marquardt. It is almost 31 minutes past the hour.
There is tightened security here in New York City this morning as victims and their families face the aftermath of a deadly truck attack in lower Manhattan. Officials are calling it terrorism and we have learned that the suspect left a note claiming that he did it in the name of ISIS.
ROMANS: The attack killed eight people and injured 11 others. Sources identify the suspect as this man, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, and at this point investigators believe he acted alone.
He launched his attack in broad daylight on a crowded bike path along the Hudson River, mowing down cyclists and pedestrians for 16 blocks.
MARQUARDT: Sixteen blocks. It was the deadliest terror attack in New York City since 9/11 and it ended in the shadow of the World Trade Center.
That is where we find our Jean Casarez live this morning with more on the suspect and his victims -- Jean.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and we do know that the suspect in this case, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov is at Bellevue Hospital here in New York City after undergoing emergency surgery last night. He was shot by a New York police officer after exiting that truck brandishing what appeared to be two weapons. He was shot in the abdomen. Now, there were victims here that were not so lucky. He allegedly plowed into victims.
Eight people lost their lives yesterday afternoon here in New York City as he drove down a busy bike path in downtown Manhattan, mowing down people. Eight people lost their lives, as I said. Eleven people were injured.
We do know more about those victims. Five of the victims that are now deceased were citizens of Argentina and they were here celebrating their 30th high school reunion. One was a Belgian national. We don't know the identities of the other two victims or the 11 people, and whether they are still in the hospital.
We have, though, associated this suspect with three different residencies -- states that he lived in at points of time here in the United States.
First of all, his license appears to be from Florida. Law enforcement tell us we also know that in 2013 he lived in Ohio. He married a woman from Uzbekistan, also a 19-year-old, in Ohio in Cuyahoga County. And we also know most recently he lived, at least periodically, in New Jersey.
And that is where a law enforcement source tells CNN that he rented a truck very shortly before the attack yesterday afternoon. It was 3:05. He was driving down that busy bike path mowing down people, and it was over almost before it began.
But in the aftermath, as we said, lives have been changed forever. Friends and relatives will no longer have those people that are so dear to them for the holidays.
And law enforcement believes that he acted alone. Witnesses say he yelled out Allahu Akbar when he exited his vehicle. And the two weapons they believed he had, one was a pellet gun and another was a paintbrush gun.
He is currently in the hospital -- Christine, Alex.
MARQUARDT: Yes, he's in the hospital and it's so rare that the authorities were able to take someone like this alive. There's no word yet on what he has told the authorities. They will certainly be having a lot of questions for him.
Our thanks to Jean.
ROMANS: All right. The attack comes at a hectic time in New York. It happened just hours before last night's busy Halloween parade, all while the city gears up for Sunday's big marathon and next week's mayoral election.
Governor Andrew Cuomo assuring New Yorkers there is no broader threat to be concerned about.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: There's no evidence to suggest a wider plot or a wider scheme, but the actions of one individual who meant to cause pain and harm and probably death, and the resulting terror, and that was the purpose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:35:00] MARQUARDT: President Trump is, of course, from here in New York City and his wife Melania was in the city as this attack unfolded.
The president has tweeted his condolences and prayers for the victims and then he added this. "I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already extreme vetting program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this."
Now, we have to note that the suspect is originally from Uzbekistan, a country that is not included on the president's travel ban.
We have heard from the president of Uzbekistan this morning. He says his country will use what he called all forces and means necessary to help with this investigation.
Now, joining us to unpack all of this is our CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank, live in our London bureau. Paul, welcome back.
We have seen so many of these types of attacks unfolding in the Middle East and in Europe over the course of the past few years. The U.S., to a large extent, has been spared. We've just thrown up that map there. You can see all of those attacks involving vehicles since 2014.
Are you at all surprised that this type of attack has moved across the pond and is now striking the U.S.?
PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST, EDITOR IN CHIEF, CTC SENTINEL: Not all surprised and, in fact, we saw, as that graphic shows, there was an attack about a year ago in Ohio State -- Columbus, Ohio.
A vehicle-ramming attack in which the perpetrator was killed. Somebody who was inspired by ISIS. So this is not the first time that we've seen this in the United States.
But this is a tactic which is spreading. ISIS think that it's very effective in terms of creating a lot of casualties, in terms of creating a lot of headlines for them. And in some of these attacks there've been really high casualty counts.
With the Nice attack in France in the summer of 2016, there were 86 people who were killed. There have been a couple of car-ramming attacks -- vehicle-ramming attacks in the U.K. this year. There was the Berlin attack which involved an attack in Sweden in April which involved an Uzbek who had become radicalized and was inspired by ISIS.
And it's seen as so useful by ISIS because it's just a question of needing to go out and hire a truck, use one's own vehicle, and so very, very difficult to protect against. And somebody who wants to launch an attack like this can just look around to see where there's a point of vulnerability. And it's really impossible for police departments -- for city planners to put up bollards absolutely everywhere in the urban landscape of the United States.
And in Europe they can protect certain areas where there are a lot of crowds but you can't protect every possible place that pedestrians might walk.
And so we're going to see more of these kind of attacks. In fact, ISIS has carried on -- it's encouraged, exactly, these kind of attacks. And they put out also, about a year ago, a call for sympathizers in the United States to launch exactly these kind of attacks ahead of the Macy's day parade.
And some of the instructions in that particular publication where there were striking similarities between what we saw play out on the streets of New York yesterday right down to this note claiming affiliation -- allegiance to ISIS. That's something that they said you absolutely have to do --
MARQUARDT: Right.
CRUIKSHANK: -- to help us claim ownership of these kind of attacks.
ROMANS: We know, Paul, he was an Uber driver in New Jersey for maybe six months at least. We know that he had been a truck driver in Missouri, Ohio. He's got a Florida driver's license, we're told -- identification from Florida.
And we know he came from Uzbekistan in 2010 on a diversity immigrant visa. This is a visa program that's very hard to get in the country. I mean, he's literally won the lottery to be able to get here.
What do we know about where he's from and potential ties to terror -- radical Islamic terror from Uzbekistan?
CRUICKSHANK: Well, first of all, the big question is going to be where was he radicalized, when was he radicalized? And there's been assessments done by DHS that when it comes to foreign-born violent extremists in the United States most of them are radicalized after coming to the United States. Very few before coming into the United States. So we'll see what was at play in this case.
But certainly, authorities are going to be looking at whether he had connections to Jihadi groups overseas. There is a significant problem with Jihadism in Uzbekistan. That's been going on for some decades.
There are two major Jihadi groups there, one affiliated to ISIS, one affiliated to al Qaeda. Both those groups have big presences in Syria and Iraq. There are up to 1,500 Uzbeks that have traveled there.
[05:40:05] There have been Uzbeks who've got involved in a significant number of terrorism cases. People from Uzbekistan and Central Asia involved in a truck attack in Sweden, involved in the Istanbul nightclub bombing on New Year's Eve, involved in the St. Petersburg metro attack.
And here in the United States, there was a major counterterrorism investigation centered on Brooklyn, New York which was launched in 2014 into a group of Uzbek extremists. People from Uzbekistan and Central Asia who were planning to go and travel to join ISIS and discussing shooting President Obama, discussing launching an attack on Coney Island.
Six people have been indicted in that case. There have been a number of guilty pleas.
And so one big question if you look at the geography of this is could this attacker have connections to people already involved in Islamic extremism in the United States. Could he have been on the radar screen of past U.S. counterterrorism investigations?
And we've seen that in past cases, whether it's the Boston bombing, the Fort Hood shooting, the Orlando shooting. There was an assessment open investigation. In some cases opened that they were on the radar screen with authorities.
Will we see that this was the case again this time around?
And I think just on the points of whether there could be a wider conspiracy here it is far too early, I think, to make declarative statements on that because investigators will want to look at all kind of connections he could have had to all kinds of people, including the possibility that he may have been communicating over encrypted apps with people in terms of planning this attack.
That's also been a feature of a number of terrorism plots in the United States. Very difficult for authorities these days to assess that because these messages are encrypted and are hard to see in real time, Christine.
MARQUARDT: All right. And we know that Saipov has been in the U.S. since 2010 so presumably at some point, it was during those seven years that he did get radicalized here in the U.S.
ROMANS: Yes.
MARQUARDT: Our thanks to Paul Cruickshank in our London bureau.
ROMANS: Thank you, sir.
All right, to money now. Washington is grilling Silicon Valley about its role in the 2016 election. Lawyers from Facebook, Twitter, and Google testifying in the first of three hearings this week, facing some tough questions about Russian meddling during the election, especially over their ability to track who buys ads on their sites.
Senator John Kennedy asked this to Facebook's general counsel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R), LOUISIANA: You have five million advertisers that change every month, every minute, probably every second. You don't have the ability to know who every one of those advertisers is, do you?
COLIN STRETCH, GENERAL COUNSEL, FACEBOOK: To your question about seeing essentially behind the platform to understand if there are shell corporations, of course, the answer is no, we cannot see behind the activity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: These companies -- big tech have been harshly criticized for allowing misinformation to run rampant in 2016. For really not even seeing the threat and realizing it way too late and not doing better. The scale of the Russian influence on their platforms was huge.
On Facebook, more than half of the U.S. population -- voting population -- saw posts from a Kremlin-linked troll farm. Twitter identified about 2,700 accounts linked to the same group.
Now, these tech companies are promising to do better but on Capitol Hill, they're not convinced.
MARQUARDT: They're not.
There will be a Hollywood ending in the World Series, but will it be the Astros or the Dodgers raising the championship trophy after tonight's game seven? Coy Wire with this morning's "Bleacher Report" coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:47:57] MARQUARDT: The Dodgers rallied to beat the Astros and force a winner-take-all game seven in the World Series.
Coy Wire has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report." Hey, Coy.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Alex.
Now, it's going to be tough to top Christine's Cubbies last year in their epic win but this baseball season and World Series is possibly for the ages. Houston versus Los Angeles all coming down to one final game tonight.
The Dodgers hosted a moment of silence before game six to honor those affected by the terror attack in New York.
But then it was game on. Houston's George Springer, cover boy of the 2014 "Sports Illustrated," predicts the Astros will win it all this year. He gave Houston fans some hope with this home run at the top of the third.
With Astros ace pitcher Justin Verlander on the mound some thought one run would be enough for the win, but Chris Taylor thought otherwise. A double in the sixth ties the game and the next batter, Corey Seager, would bat another run in to give the Dodgers the lead. In the very next inning the unlikely hero steps in, 25-year-old Joc Peterson. He hits a home run, his third of this World Series, extending the lead to three to one.
This guy was sent down to the minors in August. He was on the bench for the Dodgers' first series in the playoffs. Now, the kid from Palo Alto is money.
Dodgers win three to one and that's impressive, right? Well, former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda told current manager Dave Roberts you haven't won anything yet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE ROBERTS, MANAGER, LOS ANGELES DODGERS: Hey, Tommy.
TOMMY LASORDA, FORMER MANAGER, LOS ANGELES DODGERS: You haven't done (expletive) until you win tomorrow.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Thanks for the words of encouragement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: There you have it.
Tonight, a first-ever World Series game seven at Dodger Stadium. It's the third-oldest stadium in baseball in the majors. Winner-take-all finale set for 8:20 eastern. It's going to be awesome.
All right, the first college football playoff rankings came out on Halloween night and it was a trick for Alabama fans but a treat for Bulldog nation. Georgia, the top-ranked team by the selection committee. Alabama came in at number two.
Notre Dame and Clemson are numbers three and four, while Oklahoma and Ohio State sit at five and six, just outside the coveted top four playoff spots.
[05:50:11] Oh, the Cleveland Browns. They're so bad this season that not only have they not won a game, they apparently can't even make a trade right.
According to reports, the Browns were celebrating a trade with Cincinnati in which they would have acquired quarterback A.J. McCarron, but in the excitement they forgot to hit send on the confirmation e-mail. The trade deadline was 4:00 p.m. Cincinnati filed the paperwork at 3:55 but the Browns somehow missed the deadline.
They eventually attempted to make the transaction official --
ROMANS: Whoa.
WIRE: -- but the NFL rejected the trade. Somebody in Cleveland is in the doghouse.
MARQUARDT: Yes, forgot.
ROMANS: Oh, wow. All right, Coy Wire. Thanks so much for that. Nice to see you this morning, Coy.
WIRE: You, too.
ROMANS: All right.
Big tech facing some grueling questions on Capitol Hill but investors -- investors don't care. They love these companies. Tech's top five now worth more than $3 trillion.
Details on "CNN Money Stream," next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:55:10] ROMANS: All right. A teacher in California recovering this morning after she was held hostage by a parent for nearly seven hours. Authorities say the man barged into his child's elementary school in Riverside, east of Los Angeles. The "L.A. Times" reports the intruder punched a male teacher before taking a female teacher hostage.
MARQUARDT: Officers eventually were able to force their way into the classroom, shooting the suspect and freeing the teacher. She was taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure. The condition of the parent is unknown.
Classes at that school have been canceled for the rest of the week. There is no word on a motive.
ROMANS: A Utah nurse caught on video being handcuffed and dragged by police has settled her dispute with the police for $500,000. That incident drew national attention. It happened when the nurse, Alex Wubbels, refused to let law enforcement draw blood from an unconscious patient back in July.
The nurse was following hospital policy and told the police that. She told Detective Jeff Payne he needed a warrant or the consent of the patient to draw the blood.
Payne was ultimately fired after an internal investigation found he violated department policies.
MARQUARDT: And, T.V. host Wendy Williams says she's just fine this morning after a scary moment on her show on Tuesday. Williams was wearing a Statue of Liberty costume during her program's Halloween contest when she fainted live on T.V.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WENDY WILLIAMS, HOST, "THE WENDY WILLIAMS SHOW": Let's get started. Our first guest -- (Williams faints).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: You can see there at the end the show cut to a commercial break. Afterwards, Williams explained that she became what she called overheated in her costume. She acknowledged that she did pass out, then added quote, "I'm a champ and I'm back."
ROMANS: We wish her well.
Let's get a check on "CNN Money Stream" this morning.
Global stock markets higher after Wall Street finished off a very strong October. Look at this. All three major indices had their best monthly gains since February. Right now, stocks are higher.
You know, stocks also helped yesterday by Apple. Shares hit a record high on positive reviews of its much anticipated iPhone 10, while strong earnings from Mondelez and Kellogg boosted the S&P 500.
So far, third-quarter earnings have been better than predicted. More than half the S&P 500 companies have reported and profit growth is up seven percent. Analysts expected only 5.9 percent.
Tesla's Model 3 delays may land the company in court. The Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, warned that ramping up Model 3 production would be difficult.
This also prompted at least one shareholder lawsuit alleging that Tesla and Musk improperly hid the company's problems from investors. Six other law firms are planning class-action suits.
Tesla only built 260 of its Model 3 cars during the third quarter, not the planned 1,500. Tesla claims that a handful of the assembly lines have taken longer to activate than expected.
All right. Tech's top five now worth more than $3 trillion. Shares for Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet -- that's the parent company of Google -- look at how they have skyrocketed this year, all up more than 30 percent. All five stocks trading either at or near all-time highs.
The stocks are surging even as tech executives face tough questions on Capitol Hill about Russian meddling using their platforms. But, Wall Street has largely brushed aside those concerns about Russia focusing instead on these company's huge profits and growth potential for all of them.
Those tech stocks have just done so well. The stock market overall has done well, you know, over the past year or so but those tech stocks this year, unbelievable.
MARQUARDT: Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos, now the richest man in the world, I think.
ROMANS: Yes, that's right.
MARQUARDT: Some $90 billion. ROMANS: That's right.
MARQUARDT: The others not doing too poorly either.
ROMANS: You're right.
Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
MARQUARDT: And, I'm Alex Marquardt. "NEW DAY" starts right now.
