Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
California Synagogue Shooting, Religiously Motivated Hate; Five Rescued From Virginia Cave; Whistleblower Call Out Boeing 737 Max; Avengers Breaks Billion Dollar Mark; New York Times Vows Changes In Wake Of Anti-Semitism Cartoon; Five Men Trapped In Virginia Cave Rescued; Suspect Linked To Seven Tennessee Murders in Custody; Man Charged With Stealing $16K Sculpture In NYC; Deadly Crane Collapse; Avengers Endgame Shatters Box Office Records; Sri Lanka Remains On High Alert; Trump Repeats False Abortion Claim; North Forced Out Of NRA Amid Power Struggle; U.S. Economy Posts Strong First Quarter. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired April 29, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will not let anyone or anything take us down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: Defiance from a California rabbi and his congregation, the latest to be targeted in a string of religious attacks. The woman who was killed will be buried today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lord watched over us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: Big relief in Virginia, five men rescued after days trapped in a cave.
ROMANS: Did Boeing's problems run deeper than first thought? Four whistleblowers say the 737 Max was plagued by issues, including the wiring of a key sensors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the End Game now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: And the record shattering opening weekend for Avengers Endgame. More than a billion dollars in global ticket sales, shattering records, unimaginable success.
ROMANS: A billion. A 10-year journey, I know you have seen it. Don't tell me yet.
BRIGGS: All I can say is its terrific.
ROMANS: Is it?
BRIGGS: It's worth seeing, even if you haven't seen the other 21 or 20.
ROMANS: Billion dollars.
BRIGGS: Good morning everyone, happy Monday, and welcome to "Early Start," I'm Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans, it is Monday, April 29th, it is 4:00 a.m. in the East. A powerful words in the face of hate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RABBI YISROEL GOLDSTEIN, CHABAD POWAY: A young man standing with a rifle pointing right at me and I look at him, he had sunglasses on, I couldn't see his eyes, I couldn't see his soul. We need to battle darkness with light, no matter how dark the world is, we need to think of light, a little bit of light pushes away a lot of darkness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A wounded rabbi from California describing what it was like to stare down a gunman, one day after the nation's latest deadly hate crime. Three people wounded, one killed in the synagogue shooting near San Diego.
BRIGGS: There will be a funeral today for 60-year-old Lori Kaye, witnesses say her husband, a doctor, tried desperately to save her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He start to do some CPR. We saw the hole in her chest. His wife, and he cannot do anything. It's very, very difficult.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was friendly. She was welcoming. She was one of those people that you want to know as a friend. When I think of her, I can only (inaudible). All that I can say the community lost a great soul.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Eight-year-old Noya Dahan was honored at a vigil last night. She and her uncle were injured in that shooting. Noya's uncle helped lead children to safety after he was shot. CNN's Sarah Sidner spoke to the girl and her father.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, the City of Poway
trying to figure out how to heal after tragedy struck the synagogue. We sat down with Noya and her father Israel, who told us that they had just fled another part of California, because their home, their garage, their car had swastikas written on them. They were afraid because of antisemitism, they came here for a sense of safety. To the rabbi who was here, who welcomed them and told them to come, this was a great place for them to be and then they experienced terror once again.
ISRAEL DAHAN, DAUGHTER INJURED IN SHOOTING: The second I saw the rabbi running into the shooter with his fingers been cut and bleeding all over, then I saw him shooting in our -- lady that she passed away, terrible feeling, what I can say. It's scary that we need to live like this. It's just unbelievable.
NOYA DAHAN, HIT WITH SHRAPNEL IN THE FACE: My uncle, he was holding my hand, and he was like grabbing me and stuff, and the person who was shooting, he was aiming at him. So it hit him and the, like, where it's like went like that, it hit me too.
SIDNER: What were you thinking then? Did it hurt?
N. DAHAN: In the first place when it was like gushing blood, I didn't even feel it. Then after like they wiped it, and then the blood was off, and it was like, it felt like I had the giant bruise ever.
[04:05:04] SIDNER: While the physical wounds are healing, all of the victims have been released from the hospital. There are certainly mental and emotional wounds that will continue for some time. The Dahan family is trying to figure out whether they can stay. But what they are hoping and what they believe their rabbi is capable of even with his injuries is bringing all of the broken pieces of this community together, so they can be whole again. Dave, Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Sara, thank you for that. A combat veteran credited for saving lives and chasing off the synagogue shooter, Iraq war vet Oscar Stewart said when he heard gunfire, he instinctively ran directly toward it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSCAR STEWART, CHASED ATTACKER: I heard gunshots. I saw everybody running, so I ran to the lobby where the guy was with the gun, and I saw him discharge two more rounds. As he was discharging the rounds, I ran up to him, and I yelled at him, and he dropped his weapon, and he ran out and I chased him out of the sanctuary.
I was in the military, and I think that is what I just -- I ran to fire, that is what I did. I'm not -- I didn't plan it, I didn't think about it. It's just what I did. I chased him out into the street, into his car. I punched his car.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Stewart wasn't the only one chasing the suspect. An off duty
border patrol agent also pursued the 19-year-old. He was eventually captured and is now charged with murder.
BRIGGS: Saturday's attack is just the latest in a string of assaults on houses of worship worldwide. One of them, an arson attack on a mosque in Escondido. Law enforcement officials are investigating whether the synagogue shooter is behind that as well. The synagogue attack came on the last day of Passover, days before holocaust Remembrance Day, and six months to the day after 11 people were massacred at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg.
ROMANS: "The New York Times" is promising significant changes this morning after publishing an anti-Semitic cartoon in its international edition. The paper says, it is deeply sorry about a cartoon depicting Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu with the Star of David as a dog on a leash held by a blind President Trump.
Earlier the Times released a statement saying it was wrong to run a cartoon that contained anti-Semitic tropes, but it did not apologize then.
BRIGGS: CNN has learned the New York Times staffers were alarmed by the cartoon and dismayed by the initial response. The "Times" said the decision to run the syndicated cartoon was made by a single editor working without adequate oversight. Brett Stevens, one of the papers op-ed columnist blasted the newspaper, writing in a column entitled a despicable cartoon in the times.
ROMANS: All right. Five men trapped in a cave in southwest Virginia have been rescued.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huh?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lord watched over us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Emergency crews from four states raced around the clock Sunday to save them. Six men entered the cave in the town of Cleveland Friday at 7:00 p.m. One of the men who emerged from the cave early yesterday morning said the others were having difficulty getting out. He said they were exhausted and starting to have problems with hypothermia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILLY CHRIMES, VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCE MANAGEMENT: This cave was very technical, very restricted passage ways and so it was very tough to access.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: The group had plans to camp in the cave until Sunday, but a
heavy downpour Saturday night complicated those plans as they release.
BRIGGS: One person is dead. Seven others injured after gunfire broke out at a neighborhood cookout in West Baltimore last night. The city's police commissioner calling the shooting tragic and cowardly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL HARRISON, BALTIMORE POLICE COMMISIONER: There was a black male who approached the intersection and began firing indiscriminately into the crowd. There was a second shooter, perhaps firing back, but it is still unknown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Investigators are trying to determine whether those cookouts on opposite sides of the street were somehow connected.
ROMANS: All right. Joe Biden kicks off his 2020 presidential campaign in Pittsburgh today. He will host a meet and greet at a Union Hall before heading to Iowa Tuesday and Wednesday and then South Carolina. Biden's team says it raised $6.3 million in the first 24 hours after his campaign launch and that tops the first day haul of all the other Democratic candidates.
Biden aides also touting new support for the former vice president with 65,000 donations coming from individuals who have not been on previous e-mail lists.
BRIGGS: President Trump again pushing a false narrative on late term abortions. During his weekend rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, he criticized Democratic Governor Tony Ebbers plans to veto an anti- abortion bill. It would send doctors to prison for life if they failed to take care for babies born alive after a failed abortion, but the president sees it this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The baby is born, the mother meets with the doctor, they take care of the baby, they wrap the baby beautifully, and then the doctor and the mother determine whether or not they will execute the baby. I don't think so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:10:13] BRIGGS: That is not true. It is also not the president's first lie. "The Washington Post" fact checker now says he has made more than 10,000 false and/or misleading statements since taking office.
ROMANS: All right. A bitter power struggle at the top of the NRA leading to the ouster of Oliver North as president. North telling members of the group conventions in Indianapolis, he will not be re- nominated following the dispute with NRA CEO LaPierre. North was elected last year to be NRA president at the time, LaPierre called him hands down the absolute best choice. On Friday, the "Wall Street Journal" reported LaPierre accused North of trying to drive him out of the organization. The NRA's full 76 member board meets today. They're expected to elect their next president.
BRIGGS: A source telling CNN, four Boeing employees called a FAA whistleblower hotline to report problems with the 737 Max, among the complaints, a previously unreported issue, involving damage to the wiring of the angle of attack sensor by a foreign object. The FAA tells CNN, it may be opening up an entirely new investigative angle into what went wrong in the crashes of two 737 Max airliners that killed 346 people.
The hotline submissions were from both current and former Boeing employees who also describe problems with the airliner's anti-stall system. Today, Boeing board will face shareholders for a meeting the first time since the 737 Max jets were grounded worldwide.
ROMANS: And that should be interesting. All right. The U.S. economy posted a strong first quarter growing by 3.2 percent. That number will be revised twice more at least. But for now, it is a powerful tail wind for President Trump.
Resilience is still the word in the stock market, the DOW was up 1 percent this month. Almost 14 percent this year, its 2.5 percent and 17 percent for the S&P 500. And look at this, for the month, the NASDAQ up 4 percent, up 27 percent for the year. These are phenomenal numbers, considering the stock market volatility at the beginning of the year and government shut down. A few thing are happening here, probably most importantly the fed is on hold. Trump and his allies will take credit for that, of course.
Second, it looks like a U.S./China deal could be near, at least they are still talking there. And third, the earnings season is plugging along with very few nasty surprises. The 10-year-old bull market still looking spry, at least for now. So, what should we be watching for any hiccups in those U.S. China trade talks? A worst thing that the U.S.-Europe trade relationship, May 18th, a critical deadline there for E.U. auto tariffs and look for any inkling of inflation from an overheating economy. There are no signs of that yet, but Friday's job report will be critical to see if wage inflation is building.
We'll get a fed meeting this week as well and I think the financial times put it best, if the economy is so strong, will the feds stay patient and for how long. The president can say the economy --
BRIGGS: Backed into the corner by a president.
ROMANS: Right. The economy is maybe the best ever the president says, well, then shouldn't we be raising interest rates. .
BRIGGS: Theoretically.
ROMANS: Theoretically we should be. We will see.
BRIGGS: All right, ahead, this weekend's deadly carne collapse in Seattle caught on video. Friends remembering a college student killed in the disaster.
[04:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: A suspect is in custody after seven people were found dead in two rural Tennessee homes. Investigators are calling the incidents related homicides. The bodies of four people were found at a house about an hour of northeast of Nashville. A fifth person was found dead in another home nearby.
On Sunday, two more victims were discovered in the same home as the first four victims. Police tracked down the suspect identified as 25 year-old Michael Cummins, his motive and relationship to the victims is now under investigation.
BRIGGS: Caught on video, a construction crane collapsing and falling from the building in downtown Seattle. Four people were killed. Two were crane operators. Two were in cars crushed by the crane. One of those victims, Sarah Wong, a freshman at Seattle Pacific University.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want people to remember how loving and caring of a person she was, and to show that love to everyone that she comes across and to show that joy that is infectious to other people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Three other people including a 4-month-old were injured. The crane fell from a building under construction on the new Google Seattle campus. A full and thorough investigation is underway.
ROMANS: A brazen theft in broad daylight ends with an arrest in New York. 61 year-old Zoltan Genc, taken into custody in charge after $16,000 sculpture was taken from an art gallery near Central Park. He allegedly entered the gallery's Bartow Thursday afternoon. Surveillance video shows a man carrying a sculpture and walking out the door. The work by French artist Fred (Inaudible) features a shopping basket made of gold chain and filled with silver bottles. Genc has been charged with theft.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the End Game now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: A record smashing $1.2 billion worldwide the opening weekend for Marvel studios Avengers Endgame, and that makes it the only film in history to break the billion dollar mark for its opening. That is not the only record the movie shattered. Avengers Endgame pulled in $350 million domestically this weekend, blowing past the previous mark set by last year's Infinity War by over $90 million.
ROMANS: Just unbelievable.
BRIGGS: No spoilers. ROMANS: Please.
BRIGGS: Please don't spoil it. There's a running back an NFL running back -- Sean McCoy put out a bit of a spoiler there and boy did he get some angry words.
ROMANS: yes, he got the blowback. I was watching people -- I was in L.A. this weekend, I was watching people come out of this huge movie theater on Hollywood boulevard and the people who were going in to see it were wearing noise cancelling headphones, they didn't want to hear anything the people leaving the theater were saying about it. I will also say a lot of people were crying their eyes out on the way out and others where --
[04:20:12] BRIGGS: I did cry.
ROMANS: -- very just like they had just absorb the 182 minutes of history.
All right, 20 minutes past the hour, folks. Is a ban on Burkas to ensure security in Sri Lanka? The ban takes effect today with the nation under threat of more attacks, we're going live in Sri Lanka, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Sri Lanka remains on high alert a more than a week after 253 people were killed and more than 500 injured in suicide attacks on Easter Sunday.
[04:25:05] Government officials warn there could be more attacks in the coming days and now they face coverings have been banned in public. CNN's Nikhil Kumar is live in Colombo, Sri Lanka with the latest. Tell us what is happening.
NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI'S BUSINESS CHIEF: Well, Christine, over here, today is Monday, more than one week as you said since those devastating Easter Sunday attacks and this is a country still very much on edge. Since Saturday night, at least 48 people have been arrested as the authorities here try to get ahead of what they say is a very serious and continuing threat of further attacks. We had a picture of just how big a threat it is on Friday when there was a shootout in eastern Sri Lanka when forces raided a series of safe houses, they have uncovered a massive whole of explosives, 150 explosives sticks, 160,000 ball bearings, a drone, ISIS flags, other paraphernalia, all of which underlined the severity of the threat which is why yesterday on Sunday, one week on, the catholic community here was told not to go back into churches to pray and to worship.
Instead, the arch bishop of Colombo did a service at his house, which was broadcast on national television so that worshippers could join in from home safely. So, it is still very much a very fluid situation here. The burka ban announced yesterday by the president's office comes into force today, a controversial move, but a move that the top body of Islamic clerics over here has endorsed. They say they want to get ahead of the threat as much as the government. Christine? ROMANS: All right Nikhil, thank you so much for that from Sri Lanka
this morning.
BRIGGS: Of course places of worship here also under attack. A woman killed on a California synagogue will be laid to rest today, her rabbi wounded in the shooting and refusing to back down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOLDSTEIN: Terrorism like this will not take us down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
