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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
CNN Democratic Debates Begin Tonight; Hacker Arrested In Huge Capital One Data Breach; U.S. Teens Charged In Stabbing Death Of Italian Officer. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired July 30, 2019 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:30:55] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The final countdown to the CNN debate. The first 10 Democrats take the stage to face off tonight.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, the search for answers after the Gilroy shooting. What investigators know about the alleged gunman.
ROMANS: New details on two American teens arrested in Italy. Detectives trace the knife they say was used to kill a police officer.
SANCHEZ: Plus, Capital One hacked. One hundred million credit card applications and accounts compromised in one of the biggest data breaches ever.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Boris Sanchez in for Dave Briggs.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. Nice to see you this morning. It is 31 minutes past the hour this Tuesday morning.
And it's now just hours to go until the start of CNN's debates. Clashes among two fields of 10 presidential candidates each -- clashes that could reshape the Democratic race.
On the eve of the debates, new polling shows Joe Biden bouncing back to 34 percent, roughly his share before the first debate. And, Biden has done it almost entirely at the expense of Sen. Kamala Harris who had polled to a statistical tie with the former vice president after the earlier debate.
And with President Trump injecting race and racism into the campaign as never before, note Biden has 53 percent among black Democrats, more than twice the share of all other candidates combined. But, when Democrats were asked who has the best policy ideas they picked Sen. Elizabeth Warren over Biden by five points.
SANCHEZ: And that campaign messaging about having a plan for everything clearly paying off.
Tonight's lineup includes three of the front-runners -- that's Sen. Warren, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg.
Now, yesterday, Warren declined an opportunity to criticize her colleague Bernie Sanders ahead of the debate -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And, Bernie and I have been friends forever. We all have a chance to talk about our vision for America, to talk about our plans for America. To talk about how we see building a future in this country, and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to talk about my plans to make this America work not just for a thin slice at the top, but make it work for everyone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: And we'll see if the friendly tone sticks tonight.
Sanders, meantime, had a bit of unorthodox debate prep. He spent the day before the debate teaming up with rap artist Cardi B to shoot a campaign video, and he talked exclusively to CNN about it afterward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What Cardi B does is not only is she an enormously popular entertainer, what she is doing is speaking to young people about the important issues that are on their minds, and I applaud that very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Meantime, Mayor Pete with a sharp attack against President Trump. He spoke to CNN's Chris Cuomo last night and was honest about his belief that he has the nerve to take on President Trump -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not scared of this president. I mean, this is a guy who was working on season seven of "CELEBRITY APPRENTICE" when I was driving armored vehicles outside the wire in Afghanistan. I'm not afraid to take him on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: A different kind of toughness from Mayor Pete.
ROMANS: Yes, certainly a sound bite that resonates.
Let's bring in "CNN POLITICS" digital director Zach Wolf, live in Washington. Good morning.
SANCHEZ: Good morning.
ZACHARY WOLF, DIGITAL DIRECTOR, CNN POLITICS: Good morning.
ROMANS: You have a great piece. We're going to tweet that out to everybody to make sure that they read that. But who has to really stand out tonight? Do -- you say there could be some desperate measures here because you've got 10 tonight and 10 tomorrow and everyone thinks they have to break through.
WOLF: Yes, this is kind of the last opportunity for this massive field -- people at the periphery of the massive field to sort of make a mark before Democrats essentially call their herd next month with the -- with the next debate. So this is their opportunity, sort of, at the fringes of the -- of the debate.
In the middle, I think that between Sanders and Warren, everybody's saying they're not going to attack each other, but they do need to find a way to distinguish themselves because right now, they're sort of splitting that progressive vote. And if anybody is going to take on Joe Biden or whoever ultimately takes up the sort of central lane mantle, they're going to have to figure out who it's going to be between them.
SANCHEZ: And speaking about distinguishing themselves, Zach, we've seen different approaches to this with Sen. Bernie Sanders talking about Medicare for All against Sen. Kamala Harris' what he called Medicare for All Light. Listen to what the senator said about her plan.
[05:35:10] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: I like Kamala -- she is a friend of mine.
But her plan is not Medicare for All. The function of Medicare for All is to guarantee health care to all people as soon as possible. We think that four years is as long as it should be, not 10 years. And that's one of the reasons I disagree with Sen. Harris."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: So there's a question right now within the Democratic Party about pragmatism versus trying to hit the home run -- trying to get everything that you want on health care.
But there's also another element to this and that's President Trump and beating President Trump.
ROMANS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: So which of these approaches do you think we'll see more of tonight? Which of them, ultimately, is more successful? Having a candidate who sort of goes out there and outlines their plans or having somebody who will go out there, like we saw Mayor Pete doing, and challenge this president?
WOLF: Well, I've got -- I've got to tell you, I think everybody after that completely disastrous first debate performance by Joe Biden has been a little bit surprised to see him rebound in polling in the way he has. And I think that suggests that electability is going to be -- continue to be the top question for a lot of Democrats.
On the other hand, a lot of progressives see this as their opportunity to kind of get some big ideas into the political conversation.
And on the debate stage tonight with Warren and Sanders kind of --
ROMANS: Yes.
WOLF: -- squaring off, they'll also have a bunch of more moderate people around them. You know, Beto O'Rourke, who has cratered but could have a moment here, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and some others. So we'll sort of see a good contrast between the middle lanes and progressivism tonight.
ROMANS: It's interesting, too, as the president has sort of injected race into the debate so much for the 2020 race. When you look at those -- that Quinnipiac polling -- Biden has 53 percent among black Democratic voters.
How important is name recognition and electability, do you think, as this conversation just gets uglier and uglier?
WOLF: I think -- you know, heading into a race like this, name recognition is the single top thing. And during the race, getting name recognition is the top thing.
Biden still has it. I think even after that first debate a lot of people are still meeting these candidates. Tomorrow night when he faces off against Cory Booker on one side and Kamala Harris on the other, we could see a lot more talk about race. And it will be interesting to see if that means that some of that support, particularly under black Democrats, falls away.
But I don't think we should overlook the electability issue for a lot of minority voters, maybe even more so than for the Democrat Party -- Democratic Party as a whole. They might want Trump gone more than anyone as opposed to voting for somebody who shares attributes with them.
SANCHEZ: All right.
Now, digging in on this issue of President Trump and race, you've got a great piece, which Christine mentioned, which we're going to tweet out so folks can read. It's essentially about how you believe that President Trump is using race and stoking racial animus as a strategy for 2020.
We could look at the tweets that he sent yesterday about Rep. Elijah Cummings and Al Sharpton, and even Bernie Sanders, calling them all racists.
I do have to ask, though, because the perspective that I've gotten from folks in the White House in speaking to them is that the media is projecting a lot of sophistication to President Trump's tweets that maybe isn't there.
ROMANS: A strategy, you mean. Like an actual strategy.
SANCHEZ: Right. They don't think he's actually thought through all of these attacks and that he's simply watching Fox News and sort of giving us his instinctual response.
Do you get that sense that this is impulsive or that this is sort of 3-D chess, as some have suggested?
WOLF: I don't think that there's a checklist that he says OK, it's today. Let's go after Elijah Cummings and Baltimore. And, you know, let's go after the progressive women lawmakers tomorrow and check. I don't think that there is strategy to that level.
But there is certainly, you see in his tweets, a desire to go against people who don't look like him and who look like a lot of Democrats, and to vilify places and to use language about places that sort of stokes up his base.
So I don't think that it is sophisticated in that he is -- he is saying OK, here's what I'm going to do -- this, this, and this. But you definitely see his sort of impulsivity creating a storyline that helps him sort of stir the pot with his base.
ROMANS: Doesn't it almost feel a little bit like listening to sports radio or talk radio -- you know, where you're just kind of freewheeling with ideas and jokes and insults? I mean, in a strange way, it's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and it feels like --
SANCHEZ: Yes.
ROMANS: -- kind of like a sports radio broadcast.
SANCHEZ: Yes, and those -- that impulsiveness gets him a lot of attention and we know that he likes it and he sees the energy that it gives his crowds. So, certainly, something to keep watching for as we get closer --
[05:40:04] ROMANS: Thanks, Zach.
SANCHEZ: -- to 2020.
Thanks so much, Zach.
WOLF: Thanks.
SANCHEZ: Don't forget -- two big nights of CNN Democratic presidential debates -- 10 candidates each night -- starting at 8:00 p.m. tonight, live from Detroit, right here only on CNN.
ROMANS: All right, what's in your wallet? In one of the biggest data breaches ever, a hacker gained access to more than 100 million Capital One customer accounts and credit card applications -- 100 million.
Thirty-three-year-old Paige Thompson is accused of breaking into a Capital One server and gaining access to, specifically, 140,000 Social Security numbers, one million Canadian Social Insurance numbers, 80,000 bank account numbers. She accessed an undisclosed number of names, addresses, credit scores, credit limits, balances -- all that information. According to the Department of Justice, she worked as a tech software company -- software engineer for the cloud hosting company that Capital One was using.
Capital One said the hack happened March 22nd and 23rd and that it has fixed the vulnerability. It says the largest category of information accessed was credit card applications from 2005 through early 2019. The bank says no credit card information or login information were compromised.
Thompson was arrested Monday in connection with this breach. Her attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
Capital One says it's going to notify you if you were affected by the breach and will make free credit monitoring and identity protection available. The bank is still investigating this incident.
So, personally, I think I've had four or five offers of free --
SANCHEZ: Yes.
ROMANS: -- credit monitoring at this point, over the past few years.
SANCHEZ: Yes. I've been impacted by several of these. It feels like there are more companies that I haven't -- or rather, have been impacted by them --
ROMANS: Well --
SANCHEZ: -- than haven't, at this point.
ROMANS: And the big Equifax one. Now there's a settlement for Equifax --
SANCHEZ: Right, that's another one.
ROMANS: -- and everyone's complaining that you have to give all of your personal information to qualify for the settlement --
SANCHEZ: Right.
ROMANS: for -- to the people who lost their personal information.
SANCHEZ: Yes, and if you take the cash you can't then legally go after them afterward.
Moving on, Italian prosecutors getting ready to brief the media just minutes from now. What will they tell us about two American teens arrested and accused of killing a police officer? A live report from Rome, next.
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[05:46:15] SANCHEZ: We're learning more this morning about the three people who died in Sunday's shooting rampage at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Trevor Irby was a 2017 graduate of Keuka College in Central New York. His family says the 25-year-old moved to California to be with his fiance.
Another victim was Keyla Salazar. She was a 13-year-old from San Jose.
And the youngest victim was 6-year-old Stephen Romero who was playing in a bounce house with his mother and grandmother when all three of them were shot.
His father, Alberto Romero, says he got a panicked call from his wife and then raced off to the hospital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALBERTO ROMERO, FATHER OF STEPHEN ROMERO: I couldn't believe it was happening -- that what she was saying was a lie, maybe I was dreaming. They told me he was in critical condition and that they were working on him. And then five minutes later they told me that he was dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Romero's wife and mother-in-law both survived their injuries.
ROMANS: Police say the 19-year-old gunman who opened fire there at the festival created an Instagram account days before the shooting and posted two messages shortly before the attack. One of those messages quoted a book from the late 1800s that says "white men must rule over those of color."
Josh Campbell has the latest on the investigation from Gilroy, California.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN ANALYST, FORMER SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT, FBI: Christine and Boris, another week, another incident of mass violence here in the United States, this one taking place here in Gilroy, California.
We're told by authorities that on Sunday afternoon a 19-year-old local resident made his way to grounds behind me. This was the site of annual festival some four decades old. Officers telling us that using a tool, the suspect was able to cut his way through a fence, bypassing security protocols that were in place. Once inside, he opened fire.
Now, he was quickly engaged by law enforcement officers. Within the span of one minute he was killed, but not before taking life of his own, to include two children.
Now, this remains an ongoing investigation. There are many threads here to include the weaponry. We're told by officials that this was an AK-47-style rifle, which we've seen in a number of incidents in the United States involving a mass loss of life. We're told that the weapon was purchased legally in nearby Nevada and then brought here into California.
One other thread officers are looking at is whether this person had any assistance. There were witness accounts that perhaps there was an accomplice. That is something that officers continue to run down as we speak.
Finally, we're hearing from the FBI that they are surging resources from around the country to this location to assist with this investigation. Specifically, we're told they're bringing in victim specialists to assist with those who may have been impacted, as well as forensic examiners.
We're told that this is a massive crime scene behind us -- a large plot of territory that they have to go through and comb over in order to find spent rounds and look for any evidence that they can use to track the shooter and his movements on the day of the attack.
Again, a multi-investigation continues even as the citizens of this community continue to grieve on the tragedy that struck them here Sunday afternoon -- Christine and Boris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Josh, thanks for that.
Two teenage American tourists accused of killing an Italian police officer allegedly stabbed him 11 times with a knife brought into Italy from the United States. Police say the stabbing was the result of a drug deal gone awry.
Officer Mario Rega was buried Monday near his hometown in Naples in the same church where he was married less than two months ago.
Now, a photograph of one of the teen suspects shows him blindfolded while in custody and that is raising questions about how Italian police have handled their arrests.
Barbie Nadeau is live from Rome, tracking the latest developments. And, Barbie, we're set to hear from some of the prosecutors shortly.
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's right, we're waiting for a briefing to start. And this will be the first official word from the Carabinieri police force. These are the ones involved there. Their man is the one who was killed allegedly by these Americans.
Two of the things we're going to be listening for in this police report are a description of the knife. We understand it was a 7-inch military-style knife. And the police have told us that Finnegan Elder, one of the suspects, a 19-year-old, said it belonged to him when it was shown to him at -- during interrogation.
[05:50:13] The other thing that's vitally important is whether or not the American suspects knew that they were being confronted by police officers. They say they do not. The police say they identified themselves as Carabinieri, which is an arm of the police here. It's unclear whether the Americans knew they were police officers. The Americans, according to the investigation, so far, thought they
were being jumped or attacked in some way by drug dealers.
So those are the things we're listening for, Boris.
SANCHEZ: All right, Barbie Nadeau reporting live from Rome. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on "CNN Business" this morning.
First, a look at global markets. Asian stocks closed slightly higher. Investors waiting for clues on key rate decisions from the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve -- and progress, if there is any, on the U.S.-China trade talks. Those talks have begun in Shanghai.
On Wall Street, stocks really struggling to find some direction ahead of the central bank's meeting. The Fed starts its 2-day meeting today.
The Dow closed up about 29 points. The S&P and the Nasdaq down a little bit after records on Friday.
Again, all eyes on the Federal Reserve. The central bank kicks off its meeting today. Its decision on rates will come tomorrow afternoon. If the Fed cuts interest rates it will push down borrowing costs and rates on credit cards and other loans.
General Motors' 78-year-old transmission plant in Warren, Michigan is halting production this week. The plant is one of five in North America that GM announced would suspend operations last year.
It plans to build fewer sedans as customers demand more trucks and SUVs. The plant is being what's called unallocated, meaning it isn't completely shutting down for now, it's just no longer producing anything else once it's done with the current line of transmissions.
GM said 60 workers have transferred to other factories in the U.S.; 25 are retiring.
How about streaming your favorite shows in the middle of your Tesla? Tesla CEO Elon Musk announcing the addition of Netflix and YouTube to Tesla's driver assistant system Tuesday.
The feature only works when the car is stopped. It could be available, he said, at the end of August. Musk added when full self- driving is approved by regulators, Tesla will enable video while the car is moving.
We'll be right back.
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[05:56:40] SANCHEZ: Here's one thing to add to the list of items not to bring with you to the airport -- a military missile launcher.
TSA agents found this in a passenger's checked baggage at Baltimore- Washington International Airport. It turns out the man was returning home from military duty in Kuwait. He apparently wanted to keep the missile launcher as a souvenir.
Fortunately, it was not a live device. The weapon was turned over to the Maryland State Fire Marshal for disposal.
ROMANS: All right, 20-year-old rapper Lil Nas X makes history with his breakout hit "Oldtown Road".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIL NAS X, SINGER: Singing "Oldtown Road".
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The song, featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, now has the record for the longest consecutive run in the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 list -- 17 weeks. That surpasses -- what do you think -- 2017's Despacito --
SANCHEZ: Oh, yes.
ROMANS: -- remix featuring Justin Bieber and 1995's "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. That latest -- both of those latest 16 weeks at number one.
SANCHEZ: I'm still waiting for the "Achy, Breaky Heart" remix any day now.
Jimmy Kimmel taking jabs at CNN for the hype and the many headshots of candidates ahead of the debates, starting tonight at 8:00 p.m., only on CNN.
Here are some "Late-Night Laughs".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, ABC "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": There are a lot of Democratic candidates and CNN will air the debates over two nights. They had to split it up in two and is trying to use that abundance to get people fired up.
ANNOUNCER: This CNN Democratic presidential debates. Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, O'Rourke, Klobuchar, Ryan, Delaney, Williamson, Bullock, Biden, Harris, Booker, Yang, this white guy, your uncle, that woman from your office, Alf, Rodriguez, Castro; Gabbard, Rodriguez with a flag, Gillibrand, Inslee, Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe, Bennet, de Blasio, Hickenlooper, Loopenhicker, some kid, this woman, your neighbor, your neighbor's friend, this guy, this gal, that guy you always see at the grocery store, Sanders --
SANDERS: You did me already.
ANNOUNCER: -- and Bud.
Eighty-eight candidates, a 9-part miniseries. The CNN Democratic presidential debates, live from Detroit, July 30th and 31st, August first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh and probably again on the eighth. And then we do it all again the third week of September, only on CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe --
SANCHEZ: Yes.
ROMANS: -- is my favorite, personally.
SANCHEZ: I don't know about you, but I think Bud is going to have a great debate tonight.
ROMANS: All right, thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
SANCHEZ: And I'm Boris Sanchez. "NEW DAY" live from Detroit starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN: We all have a change to talk about our vision for American.
ROMANS: The stage is set for CNN's first night of Democratic presidential debates.
SANDERS: What we are engaged in is not just a political campaign. We are engaged in a political revolution.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump expanding his attacks against Cummings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president is combative with anybody who attacks him. He fights back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enough is enough. People are fed up with this kind of nonsense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is a special edition of NEW DAY. It is debate day. It's Tuesday, July 30th, 6:00 here in Detroit.
The matchup in Motown, the dustup in D-town.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The crowd is getting raucous already, even at this hour.
BERMAN: The 911 --
[06:00:00]
