Return to Transcripts main page

EARLY START

Trump Fires Back at Clinton; Clinton Mocks Trump in Foreign Policy Address; Prince Died of Drug Overdose; Zoo Ramps Up Security Around Gorilla Exhibit; Iraqis Halt Advance Into Fallujah; Aired 4- 4:30a ET

Aired June 3, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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


[04:00:01] LEMON: Thanks for watching. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Miguel Marquez begins now.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight. Donald Trump lashing back after Hillary Clinton delivers a scathing speech on Trump's foreign policy plan. The gloves coming off in the race for president.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning. Five soldiers dead. Four others missing as floods ravaged parts of Texas. And there's more rain on the way. We're tracking the very latest.

MARQUEZ: And new information in the death of Prince. What killed the pop icon and where the investigation goes from here.

Good morning. And welcome to EARLY START. I'm Miguel Marquez in for John Berman.

ROMANS: Nice to see you this morning.

MARQUEZ: Good to see you. Happy Friday.

ROMANS: It's Friday morning.

MARQUEZ: Happy Friday.

ROMANS: Nice to have you on a Friday. I'm Christine Romans. It is June 3rd, 4:00 a.m. exactly in the East.

Up first, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump taking off the gloves, going for the knockout. Both candidates campaigning for votes in California and slinging insults at every stop. Trump hoping to turn the traditionally blue state red in November. And he just picked up a key endorsement from, get this, Paul Ryan. The House speaker announcing he is voting for Trump in the fall after an awkward three- week courtship.

Meanwhile more protests at a Trump rally in San Jose last night. American flags and "Make America Great Again" hats set on fire. Pro and anti-Trump demonstrators separated by riot police.

More on the bitter war of words between the candidates from CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta. JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and

Miguel, in response to Hillary Clinton's fiery foreign policy speech, Donald Trump blasted right back, accusing the former secretary of state of delivering a political address that had little to do with world affairs.

In her speech, Clinton said that Trump is so dangerous he should not be allowed near the nation's nuclear codes. Trump called those jabs pathetic.

Here's more of what he had to say at a speech in San Jose.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I watched Hillary today. It was pathetic. It was pathetic. It was so sad to watch. And you know, she's up there and it was supposed to be a foreign policy speech. It was a political speech. Had nothing to do with foreign policy. She made a political speech tonight, folks, and it was pretty pathetic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Trump also told the crowd here in San Jose that Clinton should go to jail over her e-mail scandal at the State Department. He did not comment on the judge handling the Trump University case, but he told the "Wall Street Journal" that Judge Gonzalo Curiel has a conflict of interest, he said, because of his Mexican heritage.

Trump did start the event, though, here in San Jose telling the crowd, quote, "We love the Hispanics" -- Miguel and Christine.

ROMANS: Jim Acosta for us.

Meanwhile, Trump will meet Monday in New York with Florida Governor Rick Scott. It's being called a strategy session but some people speculate Scott could be a potential running mate. The governor endorsed Trump back in March.

MARQUEZ: Hillary Clinton was supposed to deliver a big foreign policy address on Thursday, but it felt more like a dump Trump rally. Clinton mocking her Republican rival warning Americans not to let him anywhere near the nuclear codes. The former secretary of state unveiling an aggressive new persona.

Four days out of -- out from the California primary, we get more from CNN political correspondent Brianna Keilar in San Diego.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and Miguel. This was a character speech, perhaps more than it was a foreign policy speech, a roast, almost at times. Hillary Clinton eliciting boos and cheers and guffaws from this audience here in San Diego as she took aim at Donald Trump on, yes, some foreign policy, but mostly his temperament.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now imagine Donald Trump sitting in the situation room, making life or death decisions on behalf of the United States. Imagine him deciding whether to send your spouses or children into battle. Imagine if he had not just his Twitter account at his disposal when he's angry, but America's entire arsenal.

Do we want him making those calls? Someone thin-skinned and quick to anger, who lashes out at the smallest criticism? Do we want his finger anywhere near the button?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The timing of Hillary Clinton's speech coming as Donald Trump has criticized her on foreign policy, repeatedly using the two words "bad judgment" to talk about her involvement in Libya, her vote on the Iraq war, and also beyond foreign policy, her handling of e-mails while she was secretary of state -- Christine and Miguel.

ROMANS: Brianna Keilar, thanks for that.

Some calling it a new Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail now as we head in this new phase of the campaign.

Bernie Sanders hoping to knock off Hillary Clinton in the California primary next week. He is campaigning hard in the battle ground state trying to flip super delegates already pledged to Clinton. Several have come over to his side this week.

[04:05:04] Sanders insisting there is still a path to the nomination for him despite what he calls an unfair system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This whole super delegates process frankly is absurd. Hillary Clinton won the support of over 400 super delegates before anybody else was in the race. Eight months before the first ballot was cast in Iowa. Does that make sense to anybody?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: But is there really a path for him? Even if Sanders wins California, Clinton is likely to surpass the delegate threshold needed to win the nomination.

MARQUEZ: Now the State Department releasing its list of the top terrorism sponsors and Iran tops that list. The report also lists ISIS as the greatest threat globally. There were a total of 11,774 terror attacks in 92 countries in 2015. Iran is being singled out by the State Department for providing training, equipment and financial support to a wide range of terror organization. Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris this morning, meeting with the French foreign minister to discuss anti-ISIS operations in Iraq and Syria.

ROMANS: All right, to Texas now. Breaking news there out of flood- ravaged Texas. The bodies of two more missing Fort Hood soldiers have now been found. That brings the number of casualties to five. The soldiers were killed after their troop carrier overturned during a training exercise Thursday morning. Search teams are now combing the scene looking for four more missing soldiers. Just a tragedy.

MARQUEZ: So depressing.

ROMANS: Meantime, evacuations under way in several neighborhoods. This Houston suburb here surrounded by water. Folks there say it's the worst flooding they have ever seen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up to the windows, the water just all the way up to the windows. There's cars floating down the street. Our house getting flooded. I've lived there my whole life. I just -- I don't want our house to be ruined.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Texas not out of the woods yet. More rain expected this weekend. Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is live from the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta.

What's the future look like now, Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not so good. But it depends on where exactly in the state that you are. So let's start with one of the cities that's been a very hard hit city. And that's Brennan, Texas.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MARQUEZ: Wow. Amazing.

ROMANS: Three more days of rain to go. OK, Allison Chinchar, thanks for that.

MARQUEZ: Could be a long, hot summer. And wet summer.

ROMANS: All right. From weather to money now. Time for an EARLY START on your money. It's jobs day in America. The government releases its May employment report 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Set your alarms. Economists surveyed by CNN Money predict the economy added 159,000 net new jobs the last month. That's almost exactly the job creation seen in April.

The unemployment rate forecast goes down to 4.9 percent. Wage growth 2.5 percent. Annual rate not great but better than earlier this year.

Now if that payroll number, if that job creation number comes in lower than 159,000, don be surprised. Here's why. 36,000 Verizon workers went on strike last month before finally reaching a deal last week. Now we've been talking to economists. Many of them say that's going to kind of mess up the payroll data. We've seen that happen before. If it does, we should see a nice rebound then in job creation in June. Right now, futures, wow, they are flat. That's what we call treading

water. Investors are waiting that jobs report. Stocks in Europe are higher. Shares in Asia also closing higher.

[04:10:01] Watching oil. About $49 a barrel right now.

MARQUEZ: Everybody is holding their breath.

ROMANS: You know, we got three and a half hours to go. We'll see what numbers show. And what number -- it could tell us something about the Fed. Will the Fed be more likely to raise interest rates quicker? So we'll just see what that number is going to say.

MARQUEZ: I can hardly wait.

ROMANS: I know. I actually am very excited.

MARQUEZ: I'm going to hold my breath.

We now know what killed music icon Prince. But the investigation into his death isn't over yet. Details coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Now we now know that Prince died of an accidental drug overdose. The medical examiner reporting the powerful synthetic opioid Fentanyl was found in his system. Federal health officials say the drug is 50 times more powerful than heroin. Fifty. 5-0. The question this morning, how did Prince get it?

Here's CNN's Sara Sidner.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Miguel, what killed Prince is no longer a mystery. It's spelled out in black and white in the Midwest medical examiner's report. It is a page long and gives very sparse details.

[04:15:03] But it tells us both the cause and manner of death. The manner of death was an accident. They said that he self-administered Fentanyl and that he died from Fentanyl toxicity.

What is Fentanyl? It is the strongest opioid pain killer on the market. It is 100 times -- 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine. Fifty times stronger than heroin. So it is an extremely potent drug.

Now the question is, how he got it. Did he have a valid prescription? If he didn't, where did it come from? All of those things is what investigators will be looking at. And law enforcement is still in the throes of this investigation, which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration and of course the local Carver County Sheriff's Department. They are still investigating and have not put up any details on that.

But we now know what took this megastar's life and still dozens of people have been coming out to his Paisley Park compound to say their good-byes. This is not a shocker to a lot of people because of a lot of the things that have been coming out over time, that indeed they found, for example, pain medications on his body and in his home. But certainly this gives an end to exactly what killed Prince, and that was Fentanyl toxicity -- Christine, Miguel.

ROMANS: All right, Sara, thank you for that.

Disturbing new details about the gunman in a murder-suicide at UCLA. Authorities say Mainak Sarkar left behind a kill list. Police say he shot and killed Professor William Klug before turning the gun on himself. He is also suspected in the shooting death of his wife. Authorities say the 38-year-old Sarkar also planned to kill another professor. Officials say he had ammunition at his home.

MARQUEZ: Just horrendous.

The "Independent Review" board looking into allegations of police misconduct in Chicago is set to meet privately today with the media. Members of the Independent Policy Review authority will be focusing on the six videos considered the most sensitive and we'll also be releasing evidence from at least 100 other cases in the coming days. The action comes after city officials waited a year to release video of the Chicago officer gunning down a black teenager last November.

ROMANS: Breaking overnight. Two military planes crash just hours apart. The pilot of a Blue Angels jet killed during a practice run for a weekend air show in Tennessee. A thunderbird F16 crashed during a flyover at the U.S. Air Forces Academy commencement ceremony in Colorado. The pilot ejected safely before that plane went down.

MARQUEZ: We could learn today whether the mother of the little boy who fell into that gorilla enclosure in the Cincinnati Zoo will face criminal charges. Zoo officials beefing up security around the exhibit which is set to reopen to the public next week.

CNN's Jessica Schneider with the latest from Cincinnati.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miguel and Christine, zoo officials say they spent the last few days planning for modifications to that barrier that separates the visitors to the zoo from the gorilla exhibit. They say once those modifications are in place, they will reopen the Gorilla World exhibit on Tuesday.

Now they pointed out several differences in this new barrier. They say it will be about 42 inches high. That's about six inches higher than the three feet that the former barrier was. They also say it will have solid wood beams on top as well, and this is important, as a knotted rope netting. They say that that will prevent anyone from getting through. They do say that the 3-year-old boy went under the last rail that was there that served as the barrier.

Now the zoo is saying that it's making these modifications despite the fact that the previous barrier did pass the accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and that it adhered to all safety guidelines. So once these improvements are made, they will reopen on Tuesday. Now in the meantime, the Cincinnati Police Department has concluded

its investigation and it is now on to the prosecutor. The prosecutor said that it could be as soon as today to make a final determination as to whether or not to press criminal charges -- Miguel and Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Jessica, thanks for that.

And the police department recommended against criminal charges in that case so we'll see what happens with that case.

All right. Game one of the NBA Finals in the books. The defending champion, Golden State Warriors, now just three wins away from back- to-back titles after a 104-89 victory over Cleveland last night. The Warriors led most of the way. Steph Curry only had 11 points. But the bench was strong. And the Warriors defense held LeBron James to just 23 points. Game two Sunday night in Oakland.

MARQUEZ: In the battle to take back a key city from ISIS in Iraq, it is on hold for now. Why the Iraqi army is holding back as we get new video of the firefight. We are live in Baghdad coming up next.

[04:19:47]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Now to the bloody struggle to liberate Fallujah. The Iraqi military releasing new video of air strikes pounding ISIS targets. But the ground offensive to retake the city has now been halted. More than 50,000 civilians caught in the crossfire. ISIS using many of them as human shields. Military officials in Iraq are struggling to come up with a plan that doesn't result in a massacre.

CNN's Ben Wedeman tracking the latest developments live from Baghdad.

And Ben, from the beginning we have been concerned about the civilians there. We have been concerned about ISIS using them as human shields. Some thousands of children there. And these reports that ISIS is threatening to execute men who don't fight for them.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now we just got off the phone with an official from UNICEF show says that as many as for basically the last five days about 900 people have been coming out of Fallujah.

[04:25:04] Civilians also from the center of the city. They say that their condition is really terrible. They're described as exhausted, pale and dehydrated. Many of the children are suffering from malnutrition because of the lack of food within the city. And of course, the situation all the more complicated as the Iraqi army, it hasn't halted its military operations, it seems to have sort of halted on the edges of town. But they continue to bombard the city with artillery. There continue to be air strikes on ISIS targets within the city.

But at this point it's not at all clear when they're going to go into Fallujah itself. They've already run into a lot of resistance from ISIS. ISIS of course has been in control of Fallujah now for two and a half years. The Iraqi army started deploying outside of Fallujah in September of last year. So ISIS has had plenty of time to dig trenches and tunnels, rig booby traps, roadside bombs, prepare for exactly this eventuality.

Now the Iraqi army, when it began its operation, declared it was establishing humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave the city, but what we're hearing from the people who have been able to flee, ISIS has set up sniper areas. So this may -- just really a unilateral humanitarian corridor. ISIS is not respecting it. As you mentioned, they are executing those who are trying to flee. They are also trying to force some of the children, the teenagers, to fight on their behalf against the Iraqi army. So very difficult, delicate and unfortunately increasingly bloody situation.

ROMANS: And now a situation that's sort of on hold as authorities try to figure out how to proceed.

Ben Wedeman, thank you for that.

MARQUEZ: Now they are bracing for the worst in France and Germany where deadly flood waters continue to rise after days of torrential rain. Thousands of people near Paris are being evacuated by boat. Workers at the Louvre are scrambling to move art work to higher ground. Look at that. It's unbelievable. At least 10 people are now dead, most of them in Germany. Forecasters expect downpours throughout the weekend. That's Paris. Unbelievable.

ROMANS: Honestly. Moving things from the Louvre to higher ground. Remarkable.

MARQUEZ: Incredible.

ROMANS: All right. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton attacking each other like we have not seen before in this 2016 race. A new Hillary Clinton potentially on the stump. Point by point tearing down Donald Trump. We've got that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)