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One Dead, 3 Injured After Synagogue Shooting in Poway, California; Five Men Trapped in Virginia Cave Rescued; Source: Boeing Whistleblowers Reported 737 Max Problems. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired April 29, 2019 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: All apps the same including those that compete with our own services.
DAVE BRIGGS, CO-HOST, EARLY START: I'll admit, an hour and 36, already at 4:59 a.m. --
ROMANS: Oh --
BRIGGS: That's bad news --
ROMANS: Well done --
BRIGGS: EARLY START continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YISROEL GOLDSTEIN, RABBI, CHABAD POWAY: We will not let anyone or anything take us down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Defiance from a California rabbi and his congregation. The latest targeted in a string of religious attacks. A woman who was killed will be buried today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Lord watched over us. The Lord watched over us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Big relief in Virginia, five men rescued after spending the weekend trapped in a cave.
BRIGGS: Big problems run deeper. First off, four whistleblowers say the 737 Max was plagued by issues, including the wiring of a key sensor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the end game now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A record shattering opening weekend for "Avengers: End Game". More than a billion dollars in ticket sales. You've seen it, 181 minutes. How many bathroom breaks did you have to take in that movie?
BRIGGS: There is no way you can get up and --
ROMANS: Really?
BRIGGS: And go to the bathroom, so get it all done beforehand --
ROMANS: Oh, do not --
BRIGGS: Not one moment --
ROMANS: Get the big coke. Good morning and welcome to EARLY START everyone, I'm Christine Romans.
BRIGGS: I'm Dave Briggs. I'll give you this spoiler, you don't need to sit and wait for the post-credit scene, there's not one. So, you can't go five minutes earlier --
ROMANS: All right --
BRIGGS: Than I did --
ROMANS: All right --
BRIGGS: Happy Monday everyone, April 29th, 5:00 a.m. in the East. We begin however with defiant words in the face of hate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOLDSTEIN: 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 another a 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: We started to do some CPR, we saw the hole in her chest, his wife, and he cannot do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is very difficult.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wendy, she was welcoming, she was probably one of those people that you want to know as a friend. When I think of her, I can only smile, despite all I can say, the community lost a great soul.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is bravery, that is Noya Dahan, everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Three-year-old Noya Dahan was honored at a vigil last night. She and her uncle were injured in the shooting. Noya's uncle helped lead children to safety after he was shot. CNN Sara Sidner spoke to the little girl and her father.
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 anti-Semitism, they came here for a sense of safety, to the rabbi who was here who welcomed them and told them to come, that this was a great place for them to be, and then they experienced terror once again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISRAEL DAHAN, DAUGHTER INJURED IN SHOOTING: The second I saw the rabbi running into the shooter with his fingers been cutting and bleeding all over the seat, and then I saw him shooting in our lady that she passed away. Terrible feeling, what can I say. It's scary that we need to live like this. It's just unbelievable.
NOYA DAHAN, INJURED IN SHOOTING: 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?
DAHAN: In the first place when it was like gushing blood, I didn't even feel it. And then after, like, they wiped it and then like the blood was off and it was like -- it felt like I had the giantest bruise ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:05:00] 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 that they can be whole again. Dave, Christine.
BRIGGS: OK, Sara, thanks. A combat veteran Oscar Stewart getting credit for saving lives and chasing off the synagogue shooter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSCAR STEWART, COMBAT VETERAN: 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 -- out of the sanctuary.
I was in the military, and I think that's what I just -- I ran to fire, that's 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 eleven people were massacred at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
BRIGGS: The "New York Times" is 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, 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: 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 a 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 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: The Lord watched over us there. The Lord watched over us.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BRIGGS: Emergency crews in 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. The group had plans to camp in the cave until Sunday, but heavy downpours Saturday night complicated those plans.
ROMANS: 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 on to South Carolina. Biden's team says it raised $6.3 million in the first 24 hours after his campaign launch.
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: A bitter power struggle at the top of the NRA, leading to the ouster of Oliver North as president. North telling members at the group's convention in Indianapolis that he will not be re-nominated following a dispute with CEO Wayne LaPierre.
North was selected last year to be NRA president. At the time, LaPierre called him hands down, the absolute best choice. But 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 are expected to elect their next president.
ROMANS: A source tells CNN four Boeing employees called an FAA whistleblower hotline 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.
BRIGGS: The FAA telling CNN it may be opening up an entirely new investigative angle into what went wrong in the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max airliners that killed 346 people. The hotline submissions were from both current and former Boeing employees who also described problems with the airliner's anti-stall system.
Today, Boeing's board will face shareholders for a meeting for the first time since the Max jets were grounded worldwide.
[05:10:00] ROMANS: All right, the U.S. economy posted a very strong first quarter, growing by 3.2 percent. Now, that number will be revised twice more at least, but for now, this is a powerful tail wind for President Trump. Resilience is still the word.
In stocks, the Dow is up 1 percent this month, almost 14 percent this year, up 2 percent this month and 17 percent for the year for the S&P 500. And look, this year, the Nasdaq up more than 27 percent. These are phenomenal numbers considering the stock market volatility.
Remember at the beginning of the year in that government shutdown, few things are happening here. Probably, most importantly, the Federal Reserve is on hold. Now, the Fed meets this week on interest rates. Second, it looks like the U.S.-China trade deal could be brewing.
Big meeting on tap in Beijing this week. Third, the earnings season plugging along with very few nasty surprises. The 10-year-old bull market still looking spry, at least for now, so what could be about a problem here. What are we watching for? Any hiccups in those U.S.- China trade talks?
A worsening of the U.S.-Europe trade relationship. We've got a May 18th critical deadline for EU auto tariffs. Any inkling of inflation from an overheating economy is something we're watching out for too. There are no signs -- no signs of that yet. But Friday's jobs report will be critical to see if wage inflation is building.
The economy is strong here, look, I mean, the president had said he wanted 3 percent economic growth --
BRIGGS: Yes --
ROMANS: He got it certainly in the most recent quarter, defying a lot of economists' expectations who thought that things might be slowing down a little bit.
BRIGGS: The president must wonder why he's at 39 percent on the latest "Washington Post" poll. On the other hand, how did Democrats talk about the economy --
ROMANS: All right --
BRIGGS: As we enter this election. Ahead of this weekend's deadly crane collapse in Seattle caught on video. Friends remembering a college student killed in the disaster.
[05:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right, caught on video. A construction crane collapsing and falling from a building in downtown Seattle. Four people 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)
CODY SUGAI, VICTIM'S CLASSMATE: 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's infectious to other people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: 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 underway. Right now, Seattle has more cranes in operation than any other city in America. BRIGGS: A suspect in custody after seven people were found dead in
two rural Tennessee homes. The bodies of four people were found at a house about an hour Northeast of Nashville, a fifth person was found dead at 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 under investigation.
ROMANS: 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 fiancee suggests the star wide receiver broke his 3-year-old son's arm.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CRYSTAL ESPINAL, TYREEK HILL'S FIANCEE: He is terrified of you and you say that he respects you, but it's not respect --
TYREEK HILL, WIDE RECEIVER, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: He respects me --
ESPINAL: It's terrified, he is terrified of you --
HILL: Girl, you need to be terrified of me, too, dumb --
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ROMANS: CNN has not independently authenticated that audio. It was obtained and published Thursday by a CNN affiliate, "KCTV".
BRIGGS: Prosecutors say Hill and his fiancee Crystal Espinal will not be criminally charged in the investigation of their child's welfare. His legal reps and the NFL did not respond to our request for comment. And CNN has not been able to reach Espinal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in the end game now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: A record smashing $1.2 billion worldwide opening for Marvel studios "Avengers: End Game". That makes it the only film in history to break the billion dollar mark for its opening. And that's not the only record this movie shattered. "Avengers: End Game" pulled in $350 million domestically this weekend, blowing away the previous mark set last year by "Infinity War" by over $90 million.
It's just kind of unbelievable. We do these Box Office numbers. This is really a big movie. Now, cinematically, what is your --
BRIGGS: It's hard to talk a lot about it without giving anything away.
ROMANS: OK -- BRIGGS: It is hysterical, you will never check your watch unless
you're thinking, I don't want this movie to end. You will cry if you indeed bleed because it's an emotional movie. But it's the character development that makes this entire series brilliant.
ROMANS: Between this and "Game of Thrones", I have so much to like plan around for the next -- don't tell me anything, but either of those things --
BRIGGS: Walk out this week, all right --
ROMANS: All right --
BRIGGS: Ahead, sports talk, Milwaukee's Ryan Brawn getting an early shower, courtesy a fan at City Field. Andy Scholes has that story in the "BLEACHER REPORT" next.
[05:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIGGS: Oh, what a terrific NBA Sunday it was. The Warriors beating the Rockets, an intense game, one that left Houston and their fans unhappy with the officiating. Andy Scholes here with the story in the "BLEACHER REPORT". Andy, I thought the rule was pretty simple, and you may be a bit biased as a Houston Rockets fan, you have to be able to come down where you shot the basketball.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: Absolutely, David, that was the most frustrating part about this whole game. You call it one way all season long, and then all of a sudden in the playoffs in the second round, you change the way the game is officiated.
And you know, this is one of the most anticipated second round match- ups ever. Rockets Warriors has an NBA finals field to it, and it's a shame that after game one, the officials were the story. Now, there was under 30 seconds to go in this one, Warriors up by two and Steph Curry hits the three to go up by five.
The Rockets had a chance to tie the game in the closing sessions, but James Harden's three would be no good. Now, Draymond Green was close to fouling him on that play, the NBA though said, that was not a foul. However, throughout the game, Warriors players were jumping into harden as he shot three's, not giving him any space to land. And Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said the refs even admitted to him, they missed a bunch of these calls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE D'ANTONI, COACH, HOUSTON ROCKETS: How many they're responsible as they just came at half time and said "we missed", that's what they told me. So, they missed a lot, that's 12 foul shots.
JAMES HARDEN, HOUSTON ROCKETS: I mean, I just want a fair chance, man, call the game how it's supposed to be called and that's it. And I'll live with the results.
(END VIDEO CLIP) [05:25:00] SCHOLES: Yes, Rockets Warriors game two is going to be
tomorrow night on "TNT". Celtics meanwhile dominating the Bucks in game one of their second round series despite all the struggles during the regular season. Boston certainly looks like they flipped a switch. They're now a perfect 5-0 in the playoffs after the 112-90 win.
And this game can be summed up in one awesome photo. That's Jaylen Brown dunking on Giannis Antetokounmpo and now the calmness in this case in that dunk. That's just pretty great.
We saw some great sportsmanship yesterday in European soccer. And Aston Villa player gets injured, and instead of kicking the ball out of bounds like usual, Leeds United, they go on to score a goal on the play. Well, that didn't sit well with their manager, Marcello Bielsa.
He then ordered his team to let Villa score a goal to tie the game and it ended up being a 1-1 tie. And now, there's a chance these two teams could meet again in the playoffs to get into the premier league. A good chance in that one that no one will be letting the other team score a goal.
All right, finally, Brewers and Mets, New York's Pete Alonso, he hit one deep to left, and watch as Ryan Braun is going to go up and try to make a catch. A Mets fan tries to catch the ball with a full cup of beer. He does not catch the ball, and the beer goes flying all over Braun.
Alonso ended up with a triple, you can actually see Braun mouth the words, come on, man. And Dave, I don't know about you when you try to catch a ball at a ball game, I don't know if the full beer cup approach would be the best way to go about it.
BRIGGS: No, but you're never planning that moment, it just kind of happens, and you're scrambling around --
SCHOLES: With a full beer --
BRIGGS: That ought to be some fan interference, he owes Braun a beer indeed. Andy Scholes, good stuff, my friend --
SCHOLES: All right --
BRIGGS: Thank you. Romans, what's coming up?
ROMANS: At 9 bucks a beer, I'd hold on to that a little more carefully --
BRIGGS: That's a very excellent --
ROMANS: Right, I mean, that's --
BRIGGS: Our business correspondent opinion.
ROMANS: Yes, all right, 27 minutes past the hour this morning. Hate hits home in the U.S. once again. A woman killed at a California synagogue will be laid to rest. Her rabbi wounded in that shooting is refusing to back down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOLDSTEIN: Terrorism like this will not take us down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:30:00]
