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; One Person Killed, Seven Injured In Baltimore Shooting; Biden Kicking Off 2020 Presidential Campaign; Moore, There Is A Smear Campaign Against Him; Former GOP Senator Richard Lugar Dead at 87; Deadly Crane Collapse; New York Giants Sixth-Round Pick Shot After Draft; Avengers Endgame Shatters Box Office Records; Apple Removes And Restricts Third Party Screen Time Apps; Sri Lanka Remains On High Alert; CNN Business, This Week On Wall Street. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired April 29, 2019 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will not let anyone or anything take us down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE BRIGGS, 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)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN HOST: Big relief in Virginia, five men rescued after days trapped in a cave.
BRIGGS: 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) ROMANS: Yes, we are. A record shattering opening weekend for
Avengers End Game, more than a billion dollars in ticket sales. You saw it. Terrific.
BRIGGS: It is outstanding.
ROMANS: I'm sad that the whole thing is over, but I haven't seen it yet, so I'm still looking forward to that. Welcome back to "Early Start," I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: It's good to have you back. Two weeks since you have been here.
ROMANS: I know.
BRIGGS: There are tears in that film, but there's a lot of laughing. It's hysterical. It's not just sad. I'm Dave Briggs, happy Monday everybody, 4:32 Eastern Time. We begin, however, with some powerful words in the face of hate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RABBI YISROEL GOLDSTEIN, CHABD 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)
BRIGGS: 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.
ROMANS: 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)
ROMANS: Eight-year-old Noya Dehan 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.
[04:35:09] 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.
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)
BRIGGS: Sarah, thanks.
A combat veteran, Oscar Stewart getting credit for saving lives and chasing off the synagogue shooter.
(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)
BRIGGS: 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.
ROMANS: 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.
BRIGGS: "The New York Times" promising significant changes after publishing an anti-Semitic cartoon in its international edition. The paper says, it's 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 initially apologize.
ROMANS: Now CNN has learned 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 blasts the newspaper, writing in a column entitled a despicable cartoon in the times.
BRIGGS: 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)
BRIGGS: 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)
BRIGGS: The group had plans to camp in the cave until Sunday, but a heavy downpour Saturday night complicated those plans.
ROMANS: All right. 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)
ROMANS: Investigators are trying to determine whether those cookouts on opposite sides of the street were somehow connected.
BRIGGS: Joe Biden kicks off his 2020 campaign in Pittsburgh today. He'll 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.
[04:40:00] 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.
ROMANS: Attorney General Bill Barr is warning Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, he may not show up for this week's highly anticipated hearing. It seems he is not happy with the format Chairman Jerry Nadler is proposing. Nadler wants every member of his panel to have one round of questioning, followed by a q and a, involving committee councils from both parties.
BRIGGS: that's the sticking point for Barr and skipping this week's hearing were dramatically escalate the fight for oversight between the Trump administration and House Democrats. Nadler telling CNN Barr will not dictate the format of the judiciary committee, but he is not ruling out a deal by Thursday.
ROMANS: All right. A source tells CNN four Boeing employees called an FAA whistle blower hot line to report problems with the 737 Max airliners. Among the complaints of 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 Boeing 737 Max airliners crashes that killed 346 people.
BRIGGS: The hot line 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 for the first time since the 737 max jets were grounded worldwide. ROMANS: All right. Stephen Moore says there's been a smear campaign
against him. Trump's controversial pick to serve on the fed board, of course has come under fire for his closeness to the president and reversing his opposition to low interest rates. Last week, Moore said his opponents are quote, pulling a Kavanaugh against me when speaking about criticism over his past writing about women and gender equality. Moore appeared on ABC this week, Sunday night to address some of that criticism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN MOORE, SENIOR ECONOMIC ANALYST, CNN: When it comes to wages and, you know, gender equity, I want that to be decided by the market. I don't want government to intervene in those kinds of things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Moore also has said he was embarrassed by some of his past writings disparaging women. He called his past writings humor columns, but added that some of them just weren't funny and he regrets them. Last week, White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow says the administration supports Moore as his background check continues.
BRIGGS: Long time Senator Richard Lugar has died. The Indiana Republican served in the Senate from 1977 into 2013 and was a highly respected foreign policy leader. Lugar was a road scholar and served in the navy before becoming mayor of Indianapolis. Former President Obama remembering the late Senator as a problem solver rather than a partisan and praising him for his increasing global safety through his nuclear nonproliferation work.
Lugar leaves behind his wife Charlene and four sons. He was 87. Not just Obama, but Pete Buttigieg, running for president called him a mentor, a time when we had mentors were from the opposite party. A throw back to a very different time in our politics.
ROMANS: Right. Certainly we thank his family for his lifetime of public service.
BRIGGS: Indeed.
ROMANS: Forty-three minutes past the hour. This weekend's deadly crane collapse in Seattle caught on video. Friends remembering a college student killed in the disaster.
[04:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIGGS: Caught on video. Construction crane collapsing and falling from a building in downtown Seattle. Four people were killed. Two were crane operators, two were in cars crushed by the crane below. 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 right now. By the way, Seattle has more cranes in operation than any city in the United States.
ROMANS: And the New York Giants, 6th round pick shot just hours after being drafted. Police say Corey Ballentine of Washburn University, was wounded in an off campus shooting Saturday night in Topeka, Kansas. One of his teammate 23 year old Dwayne Simons was killed in that shooting incident. Ballantyne is expected to make a full recovery. The Giants had spoken to him and said, they are still gathering information.
BRIGGS: The owner of the Kansas City chiefs says Tyreek Hill will not be with the team for the foreseeable future. An audio recording between Hill and his fiance suggests the star wide receiver broke his 3-year-old's arm.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is terrified of you, and you say that he respects you, but it's not respect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He respects me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's terrifying. He is terrified of you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to be terrified of me too, dumb.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: CNN is not independently authenticated that audio. It was obtained and published Thursday by CNN affiliate, KCTV.
ROMANS: Prosecutors say Hill and his fiance Crystal Espinal will not be criminally charged in the investigation of their child's welfare. But the chiefs plan to take their time deciding on Hill's future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARK HUNT, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS OWNER: We were deeply disturbed by the audio. He is not with the organization at this point, and we would expect that will be the case until we have a chance to work our way through whatever information we're able to get.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Hill's legal representatives in the NFL, did not respond to our request for comment. And CNN has not been able to reach the fiance Espinal.
BRIGGS: All right. Some severe weather in the plains, now the Midwest bracing for potentially dangerous storms. Pedram Javaheri has your forecast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[04:50:05] PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Dave and Christine, good morning, guys, yes, right around the south central states, that is the area of interest here, about 4 million people underneath the risk of severe weather. And it was not this time last week, the energy similar it was firing off. Once again, the wind, the hail, becomes the predominant threat to a lesser extent tornadoes in this area does include OKC there going into the overnight hours of tonight.
And notice the fire -- the storms don't really get fired up here until at least 6, 7, or 8:00 p.m. and throughout the overnight hours, we see these storms really takes shape, and often times it does make it more of a dangerous scenario, when we have reduced visibility, of course into the overnight of the storms move across the region.
But notice the Midwest, the Great Lakes, another round of wet weather, get up into the upper peninsula of Michigan there and still going to see wintry weather in store across this region, and really just a wild pattern of temperatures as you would expect it for the spring season.
How about the 40's and 50's, the first couple of days of the week in Chicago before the 60's return and in Washington, go from 65 to 84, back down to the 70's. Climb up to almost 90 by later into the week. Guys?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the End Game now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: All right. A record smashing $1.2 billion worldwide opening for Marvel studios Avengers End Game. Did you know there's this little movie that they made?
BRIGGS: I've heard.
ROMANS: This makes it the only film in history to break the $1 billion mark for its opening. It's really remarkable and you know, that is not the only record the movie shattered, pulled in $350 million domestically this weekend, blowing away the previous mark set by Infinity War by over $90 million. I mean, I think they have really crafted this rollout perfectly. I haven't seen the film, you say it's fantastic. I mean, the End Game really -- they tied it up with a nice little bow.
BRIGGS: Have you seen all the others?
ROMANS: I have. Some of them.
BRIGGS: OK, a lot of people are going to see this one --
ROMANS: (Inaudible), several times.
BRIGGS: People are going to see this one blind. I think that is what makes it very different from a lot of --
ROMANS: Do you think it's possible to see it blind and understand what's happening?
BRIGGS: I think you could be entertained, but to understand it, no. You really need to see, not all of them, but six or seven at least.
ROMANS: All right. Don't tell me anything more. After 52 minutes past the hour, Apple wrote about a new feature designed to track and limit screen time, and then it started policing the competition. CNN Business has the details next.
[04:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIGGS: 4:56 Eastern Time and Sri Lanka remains on high alert. More than a week after 253 people were killed and more than 500 injured in suicide attacks on Easter Sunday. Government officials warn there could be more attacks in the coming days and now face coverings have been banned in public. CNN's Nikhil Kumar live in the capital of Sri Lanka with the latest. Good morning.
NIKHIL KUMAR, CNN NEW DELHI'S BUSINESS CHIEF: Good morning, Dave. That is right, this is still a country on edge. The fear over here is palpable. More than one week on since those devastating Easter Sunday. One of the authorities saying that there is still a very real risk of attack. Since Saturday night they have arrested almost 50 people as they try to get ahead of the threat. A threat which really came home to people when they raided a series of safe houses on Friday evening. They uncovered a massive hall of explosives, 150 explosives sticks, 100,000 ball bearings, a drone, ISIS flags, other paraphernalia, all which underlined just how serious the threat still is, one week from those attacks.
And as communities here mourn, they' still trying to digest the reality that this country is now faced with. Remember, this is a country that went through an almost three decade long civil war. Check points, curfews were very common then. They're back now. As part of the steps to try and get ahead, they said the president here yesterday announced that the burka, which is worn by some Muslim women, that will be banned from today. Now, the top body of Islamic clerics has endorsed that, saying that we want to get behind the women -- behind the government in stamping down on this threat. Dave.
BRIGGS: All right, it's about 2:30 there in the capital of Sri Lanka. Nikhil Kumar, thank you.
ROMANS: The death toll from cyclone Kenneth climbing to nine with five people killed in Mozambique and four in the Comoros, remnants of the storm remain a threat for much of northern Mozambique as heavy rains and flooding pound the region. On Sunday, the U.N. humanitarian chief released an additional $12 million to help with storm recovery efforts. Let's get a check on CNN Business. This Monday morning, global
markets are mixed right now. Japan's markets closed until May 6th for a long holiday there. On Wall Street though, futures are pointing up just a little bit here. You know, stocks closed higher on Friday, a record setting week, really, both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ rallied to record closing highs.
A lot of stuff to keep in mind this week. The U.S.-China trade deal could be near. Trade representative Robert Lighthizer and the treasure secretary Steven Mnuchin, they go to Beijing for negotiations tomorrow. The Federal Reserve meets Wednesday. Tuesday and Wednesday on interest rates, investors will listen for clues about where rates are headed next.
With the economy so strong, how long will the Fed remain so patient? And Friday, the April job's report is due. Remember March hiring rebound to the economy added 195,000 -- 196,000 new jobs, and employment health steady at 3.8 percent.
Apple rolled out some new features designed to attract and limit screen time. Then it started policing the competition. "The New York Times" reports that Apple removed or restricted at least eleven of the 17 most downloaded screen time and parental control apps. Several developers have said that they had been forced to gut key features in order to remain in the app store. An Apple spokesperson told the Times, that it treats all apps the same including those that compete with our own services.
BRIGGS: Amid an hour and 36 are already it, 4:59 a.m. That's bad news.
ROMANS: Well done.
END
