Return to Transcripts main page

EARLY START

Captured Killer Tells All; Another Black Church Burns: Latest In Series of Fires; Greece Defaults on Loans. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired July 1, 2015 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:14] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Stunning new details on just how two killers broke out of prison -- their months of planning, and why their first escape route wasn't good enough. More prison workers now suspended as well. The very latest ahead.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight: another black church burns, flames. The FBI investigates six other recent church fires across the South and the possibility of arson.

ROMANS: Greece defaults on its debt, failing to pay its $1.7 billion loan, something no developed country has ever done. How will this affect markets around the world? You might be surprised. We are live.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: Good to see you this morning. I'm John Berman. It is Wednesday, July 1st. Welcome to July! It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.

And new this morning, captured prison escapee David Sweat is recovering quickly from two gunshot wounds, his condition upgraded to fair, and he is apparently spilling big time, revealing key details about how security broke down at the Clinton facility in Upstate New York. Sweat says that he and Richard Matt actually practiced their escape the night before they broke out. He says they reached a manhole but decided it was not isolated enough so they picked a different manhole on the night of the real escape.

Let's get more from national correspondent Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, David Sweat's condition has been upgraded to fair and he is telling investigators a lot, filling in many details about the escape, telling investigators that he was the, quote/unquote, "mastermind" of the whole escape plan and that falls in step from what we are hearing from a source who tells me that David Sweat had a reputation at the prison of being somewhat technically minded and the smarter of the two.

He also said they did a dry run the night before and they had been planning this up to six months. They only used those hacksaw blades to cut a hole in the prison wall and through a pipe to lead them to freedom. He also talked about who was involved and who was not involved -- meaning Joyce Mitchell, he says, was involved. She was supposed to be the getaway driver. But Gene Palmer, that prison guard here, the one who smuggled in that piece of frozen hamburger meat -- well, according to David sweat, he says Palmer knew nothing of the escape plan.

Also, someone is coming to his defense. His mother who says her son is not the only one to blame for the breakout.

PAMELA SWEAT, PRISON ESCAPEE'S MOTHER: I still say to this day, is that woman and whoever else was involved and didn't give them that stuff, those guys never would have broke out of jail. So, I kind of -- you know, I blame them, as well as the two guys, David and the other guy.

CARROLL: And, John and Christine, we're also getting new details about Richard Matt and what happened up until his very final moments. Apparently, he found some things on the way when he was out on the loose. He found things like food, pop tarts and M&Ms, but also liquor, some sort of grape-flavored liquor that he apparently was drinking just before he was shot.

He also had a shotgun that he fired several times in a trailer. One of those bullets striking a vehicle that was passing by. And that's what triggered the whole thing.

Also, we are getting a picture coming to us, also a very gruesome picture, some viewers might find it disturbing just a few moments after Richard Matt had been shot. He was wearing boots, he was wearing a green jacket and dark pants. The coroner saying it looked as if he was dressed to be hidden there in the woods. He was a man who lived a very, very violent life and he came to a violent end -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Jason Carroll -- thank you for that, Jason.

There's already been a shake-up in prison leadership, at least for the moment, while the state inspector general investigates the escape. Three top Clinton correctional officials are on paid leave, along with nine members of the security staff. Meanwhile, the brother of the sheriff's deputy who David Sweat was in prison of killing is furious at all of the privileges Sweat had on that prison's honor block.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN TARSIA, BROTHER OF DEPUTY WHO SWEAT KILLED: We were told that he would look in cells, the cell the whole time and that is all he would ever do is look at a cell, look at walls, come out for half an hour a day, you know, and put in a cage like a dog, which he is. He was able to use computer and talk to his friends, relatives, and have people come and see him, and that really caved us up on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: The lawyer for prison tailor Joyce Mitchell says she is ecstatic that the manhunt is over and that no harm came to any other person. Mitchell is now in jail charged with helping Matt and Sweat escape. The attorney Steve Johnston tells CNN she believes her prayers were answered.

There is more good news for Mitchell. The lawyer for her husband says that Lyle Mitchell plans to stick by his wife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:05:03] PETER DUMAS, ATTORNEY FOR LYLE MITCHELL (via telephone): He is still in love with her, to put it bluntly. And I think he plans on waiting for her. We have spoken about the fact that he may -- he may still be an employee of the Department of Corrections and community services here in New York, and what that would mean if his wife was in prison at that point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: According to investigators, Mitchell planned to pick up Sweat and Matt and help them get to Mexico but she lost her nerve at the last minute.

ROMANS: All right. Breaking overnight, federal agents are already starting to investigate a fire at a black church that broke out last night in Greeleyville, South Carolina. As many as 50 firefighters worked to put out that plays at Mt. Zion AME Church last night. Now, so far, officials do not know what started that fire, but 20 years, the same church burned down, one in a spate of 30 arsons blamed on the Ku Klux Klan.

Tuesday's fire, the latest in a series of recent blazes at black churches across the South that are raising concerns. Now, these fires, churches in Florida, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, all since the shooting rampage at Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina, all being investigated.

This morning, Greece is the first developed country to default on a loan from the International Monetary Fund, the IMF. The first developed nation ever to do so. Greece did not make the $1.7 billion payment due yesterday and it's now cut off from IMF resources until a payment is made.

Now, leaders made a desperate last-minute attempt to buy more time with a new bailout but it was rejected. Now, Greece's future in the Eurozone uncertain to say the very least. Greek citizens will vote on a referendum on Sunday, and a no vote to the most recent bailout offer could mean saying no to Europe and no to Europe's currency.

No country has left the Eurozone before. It's causing a lot of uncertainty for world markets. European shares bouncing back from this week's losses after that missed payment. They're up right now. U.S. stock futures are up too.

I'll tell you why they are up, really. You've got -- European leaders will have a conference call later today and there's just this feeling -- there's this feeling in the markets that, quite frankly, this country cannot be allowed to leave the euro. So, very, very dangerous moments here.

Greek official are expected to make yet another bailout request today. European leaders say now that Greece is the first developed nation to go in a default, terms of a new bailout will be tougher and not easier, and that's just what has the White House worried. President Obama concerned about Greece leaving the euro. The president calling European leaders and pushing them to soften the terms of a deal and find a path toward a resolution.

Joining us now for the latest on the growing crisis, CNN's Isa Soares, live in Athens.

Good morning, Isa. What's the latest?

ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. More twists and turns the last 24 hours, as you heard. Greek people getting with more answers -- more questions than answers this morning. Many people are turning out early in the morning where a thousand banks only open to serve pensioners, Christine, many of them waiting days now for their pension. A heated moment when people waiting for those banks to open, pensioners were waiting for that 120 euros that is up for them so they can withdraw that amount of money.

For the rest of the country, though, lots of questions, many people anxious to know what will happen. Many of them will be asking today, will there be a referendum? If there is a referendum, what will that question be now that -- now that alexis Tsipras, the Greek minister, hs asked for a third bailout, a third bailout in six years, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Isa Soares, thank you so much for that.

And make no mistake, basically, Greece is in a depression right now and its financial system hanging by a thread. Thank you, Isa.

BERMAN: Sixty bucks a day, that's what they can get, 60 bucks a day.

All right. New this morning, new defiance from Donald Trump in the face of widespread criticism over his remarks about Mexican immigrants during his campaign announcement two weeks ago. The billionaire, he is rising in the polls and telling supporters on the stump that he stands by his words. He called Mexicans rapists, among other things.

He's firing back at the network that he claims is now in breach of contract. Let's get more from CNN's Athena Jones.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

The Donald Trump/Univision/NBC Universal feud is heating up. Trump filed a $500 million lawsuit against Univision on Tuesday for breach of contract. This is after the company cancelled those plans to air the Miss USA pageant, which Trump partly owns. And he hasn't ruled suing NBC for doing the same thing.

And the billionaire businessman is standing by those inflammatory remarks he made about Mexican immigrants that sparked this whole controversy two weeks ago.

Take a listen to what he told a crowd of supporters in New Hampshire last night.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I understand everybody loves what I'm doing in terms of the border because we have to stop the illegals from coming in.

JONES: And Trump is also trying to turn the tables on NBC and Univision.

[04:10:02] He's blasting them for abandoning the Miss USA contestants. Take a listen.

TRUMP: What NBC and Univision did to these young women was disgraceful. They ever had them in mind.

JONES: The defiant Trump isn't backing down. And if the last several days are any indication, this is surely not the last we're going to hear from him on this front -- John, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Athena, thanks for that.

A new milestone in improving relations between the United States and Cuba. The two countries set to make simultaneous announcements today and reopening embassies in Havana and Washington and exchanging ambassadors. I mean, this is something -- think back to 1961 when --

BERMAN: I'm not that old. I can't think back --

ROMANS: It's been I think 10 presidents there's been actual real relations between the two countries. It is the biggest step in establishing full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than five decades.

We get more from CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, this has been in the works for months but now, the reality of ending decades of Cold War tensions with Cuba is fast approaching. Senior administration official say both the U.S. and Cuba will announce later on this morning that they have reached an agreement to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies in Havana and Washington.

For now, both governments have only had small intersection official but now those offices will become full-blown embassies. The president and Secretary of State John Kerry will have more to say on this later on in the morning. And State Department spokesman John Kirby told CNN Kerry may travel to Havana for the opening of that embassy.

Here's what he had to say.

JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Clearly, that's something we are entertaining right now, but I don't have anything to talk to in terms of his travel right now. What we're focused on less the travel schedule and more the effort here and achieving the president's objective of restoring diplomatic negotiations with Cuba. What that looks like, how that is processed, how we do that over time.

ACOSTA: And the White House has not ruled out a presidential trip to Cuba before President Obama wraps up his time in office -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks for that, Jim.

BERMAN: All right. We have new developments this morning in the race for president. Hundreds of emails from Hillary Clinton released overnight. We've been poring through them. We will tell you what they say.

That, as Chris Christie, he's now officially running for president! All of the details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:20] BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, a new batch of e- mails from Hillary Clinton's private account released. This was the only e-mail address the secretary used while she was in office, among almost 2,000 e-mails in this batched exchanged with President Obama's top aides, including David Axelrod. Axelrod had previously said he was unaware that the secretary of state was using a private e-mail address. The e-mails released last night amounted to about 3,000 pages worth. It was a small fraction of the 55,000 pages that she turned over for processing.

ROMANS: All right. He may be the 14th candidate to join the presidential candidate race but to hear Chris Christie tell his experience makes him unique. Kicking off his campaign on Tuesday at his high school gym, the New Jersey governor told supporters he is only one willing to do what it takes on the tough issues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I wake up every morning knowing that I have an opportunity to do something great. I don't do something great every day. I'm human. But every morning, I wake up with an opportunity to do something great. That's why this job is a great job and that is why president of the United States is an even greater job for a greater number of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Christie is spending the next several days courting voters in New Hampshire. There's a lot of focus on the job he already has, and the finances of the state of New Jersey, and whether he's kept his promises on cleaning up some unfunded liabilities in that state.

BERMAN: The very first words out of his mouth at the event was, thank you, New Jersey. And I was joking that, if you fact check that, that's probably the least factual thing he said. His approval rating in New Jersey is 30 percent and disapproval of 55 percent. People there are not happy with the job he has done. He spoke about 40 minutes with no prompter, no written speech. Just off the cuff. But he's got a tough sale.

ROMANS: There's also the subtext here, the "Tell It Like It Is" as his campaign slogan, which the subtext is, no, I'm not a bully, you know, because that's one of the things about his personally. He has been criticized by some for that he can be so forceful and so opinionated that it almost verges on bullying. He says, no, no, tell it like it is, is what his camp -- I encourage everybody to go to CNNMoney.com. We have a great story about the finances of New Jersey, as well, which is telling about his leadership.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: That's right.

BERMAN: All right. One of his chief competitors, the Republican presidential candidate, Jeb Bush, he's worth as much as $22 million. The former Florida governor released 33 years of tax returns, the most ever revealed by a presidential candidate. Interestingly, not from 2014 which might be the most complicated year of his earning life. That he will release in October.

His net worth is estimated between $19 million and $22 million. His bank account really grew after he left the governor's office and he earned pretty impressive paychecks, with speeches, consulting, and sitting on corporate boards.

ROMANS: All right. Firefighters gaining ground on a massive wildfires tearing through central Washington state. At this point, officials say the flames are 47 percent contained but the fire has done some major damage. More than two dozen homes in Wenatchee, just outside Seattle destroyed. People who returned to their neighborhoods simply could not believe their eyes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANE REED, LOST HOME IN FIRE: It looks like a war zone. Never seen anything like it. It's devastating. I mean --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: First responders have been in this city for decades say they have never seen a fire move this quickly.

BERMAN: Yes, no relief in the forecast either for those firefighters.

Let's get straight to the forecast. Pedram Javaheri is there. PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, guys.

Yes, the Pacific Northwest, the drought situation has really been persistent. In fact, in Seattle, we know its 16 consecutive months the temperatures for their monthly temps have been above normal, and you look at Wenatchee, where the fires are, still in the triple digits, still seeing sunny skies, still zero percent chance for rainfall the coming days. It's certainly a story we think will continue in the coming days as well.

But here's a perspective out towards the Northeast -- storm system pushing in, we will have some showers over New York and Philly by this morning, into the afternoon hours. And every time front scoots on in towards the South will spark a few thunderstorms each and every afternoon. The showers on the light side, generally less than inch to the Northeast, while easily two to four inches around much of Tennessee, northern Georgia, and northern Alabama.

But look at the perspective, because we know the high pressure is out there towards the northwest. The heat certainly is on. It's actually forcing the jet stream into portions of the northwest territories of Canada, over 400 fires up there and the smoke from the jet stream is steering this farther to the south. As far south as portions of Tennessee and Alabama, viewers sharing with us the spectacular photographs of a red moon, a 1,400 mile distance between the sources, being the fire, and the haze making it out towards the south -- guys.

ROMANS: That's interesting. All right. Thanks for that, Pedram.

The deadline for the Iran nuclear talks extended, but not without a stern warning from the U.S. We are live with the negotiations next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:23:34] ROMANS: The U.S. and Iran agreeing on a new deadline to hammer out a final deal to limit Iran's nuclear program. The new target date for a final agreement now, July 7th. Both sides saying this new deadline will allow for more time to negotiate a long-term solution.

CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Vienna, Austria, with the very latest.

Hi, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hi, Christine.

Well, not a real sense of urgency this morning. We're not aware of any high-level meetings. For example, the Iranian foreign minister meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry not aware of meetings like that.

What must be happening, one assumes, because the deadline is only seven days away now, is that there must be talks behind closed doors. One of those talks is going to be about technical differences, very likely some of them. We have heard the Iranians have said that they don't want access by the nuclear world watchdog, the IAEA, they don't want their access to military sites, which may be necessary as part of the verification of Iran's agreement that is being hammered out right now.

Those can get very detailed and very specific, but we are aware that those talks can include additional protocols, managed access. So, the question on the managed access to these potential military sites is, what happens if there is a dispute between the Iranians and the inspectors, how long does it take to resolve that dispute? That is, can the Iranians allow a situation to play out where they don't want to give access?

[04:25:03] So, it's key details like that but we are told everything is still on the table, everything is still being hammered out. But no sense at the moment that it's happening at the leadership levels of the delegation, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Nic Robertson in Vienna for us, thanks, Nic. Keep us posted.

BERMAN: Happening now in Indonesia, bodies recovered falling a military plane crash near a residential neighborhood. The death toll at the crash site in the city of Madan is now at least 90, and that number is expected to rise. There were 122 passengers on board when a military transport went down shortly after takeoff. The cause of the crash is still unknown.

ROMANS: They are investigating whether the pilots turned off the working engine so they're looking what happened to the engine shortly after takeoff there. We'll keep you posted.

New details how two prisoners broke out of prison and more prison employees are taken off of the job. New details after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: A captured killer, he seems to tell all, revealing new details about the prison break, the months of planning, and why the first escape route they tried wasn't good enough.

ROMANS: Another historic black church burning in South Carolina overnight. This fire erupting just as the FBI investigates possible arson at several other churches across the South.

And Greece defaults on its debt, missing $1.7 billion loan payment. That's a lot. Markets around the world are on edge this morning. What does this mean? You know what? We don't know. Unchartered territory. We are live.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.