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EARLY START

Netanyahu Addresses Congress; ISIS Releases 19 Christian Hostages; GOP Vows Immigration Fight; Russians Mourn Murder of Boris Nemtsov; Harden Vs. LeBron: Battle for MVP?

Aired March 2, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now: tensions strained between the White House and Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waking up in Washington this morning one day before he speaks to Congress about the dangers of a nuclear deal with Iran. The high risks political move, but will it pay off?

Team coverage breaking down that big story ahead this morning.

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

First trading day of the month, first day of the month.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I hope that keeps you going all day.

Good morning, everyone. I'm John Berman. March 2nd, 5:00 a.m. in the East.

Developing this morning, tension between the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has really reached a peak as the Israeli leader arrived in Washington, preparing to speak later this morning to the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC.

Tomorrow, the prime minister will speak before Congress. Now, both speeches are expected to be highly critical of negotiations between the United States and Iran over Iran's nuclear program. Israeli prime minister has said he believes that the nuclear program which Iran says is peaceful, poses a threat to the Israeli's very existence.

For the latest, let's bring in CNN White House correspondent Erin McPike.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak in just a few hours, but this rift has been growing throughout the weekend. We have heard congressional Democrats speak out on this, including California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein who was on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" on Sunday morning, calling Netanyahu arrogant. And she added this: SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: No, he doesn't speak for me on this. He doesn't at all speak for me on --

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Does that bother you when he says he speaks for all of you?

FEINSTEIN: Yes, I think the Jewish community is like any other community. There are different points of view. So, I think that arrogance does not befit Israel.

MCPIKE: We did learn on Sunday afternoon that the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power will focus her speech at AIPAC on the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. However, she is speaking just after Netanyahu does so it could be a little bit awkward. However, the United States has tried to keep an open dialogue with Israel around this trip. And to that end, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by phone on Sunday with Netanyahu about the negotiations over Iran between the U.S. and Iran.

So, we should be getting more details about that in the coming days -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Erin McPike, thank you for that, Erin.

The Obama administration argues it is trying to ease the friction with Israel. But it also criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu on Sunday for accepting House Speaker John Boehner's invitation to speak to Congress without first informing the White House.

Boehner is defending that invitation and blasting the administration for letting its relationship with Israel deteriorate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERVIEWER: Has the White House damaged the relationship?

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, the animosity between the White House and the prime minister is no secret here in this town. But --

INTERVIEWER: They made it worse.

BOEHNER: But they certainly made it worse over the last five or six weeks.

The threat coming from Iran and the Iranians having a nuclear weapon is a threat to the region, is a threat to the United States and is a threat to the rest of the world.

This is a serious issue and we're not going to resolve the issue by sticking our heads in the sand. The prime minister can talk about this threat, I believe, better than anyone. And the United States Congress must to hear from him and so the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The American people are not the only audience for Netanyahu's speech. He also faces an election in Israel in just two weeks. And his clash with the Obama administration has been controversial back home.

Standing by live in Jerusalem with the latest on that, CNN's Oren Liebermann.

Good morning, Oren.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, Christine.

And the timing of the speech allows Netanyahu to play to two audiences. It will be a morning speech in the U.S, which makes it essentially a prime time speech here in Israel where opinions are split on Netanyahu's decision to speak before Congress. In fact, the recent poll by our CNN affiliate channel 10 Israel shows that 38 percent of people support Netanyahu's decision and equal amount, 38 percent, oppose the decision, and the rest are undecided.

What's generally agreed upon here between the public and political parties is the content of his speech and the threat that Iran poses to the safety of Israel. The disagreement is on whether this speech is a good idea or not.

Now, in the past 24 hours or so, we have learned quite a bit more about the content of his speech. We expect it to be about 40 minutes. And our CNN team traveling with Netanyahu to Washington talked to a senior administration official who says that Netanyahu has insight into the potential deal and intends to inform Congress about some of the contents of that deal with two goals in mind.

First, he wants Congress to understand the deal so they can push back on the administration to at least make sure that Israel and safety of the country are at least a consideration in the negotiations. And second, he intends or hopes at least that his speech and the information he will give Congress that he's learned about the deal will convince the administration to push back on March 24th deadline for negotiations. That March 24th deadline is exactly three weeks after Netanyahu's scheduled speech and one week after what will be close elections here in Israel -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Oren Liebermann, thank you so much for that this morning.

Happening today: Secretary of State John Kerry meets with his Iranian counterpart in Switzerland. It is their eighth round of negotiations this year on Iran's nuclear program. As Oren just mentioned, getting the United States to postpone the March 24 deadline to conclude those talks is one of Prime Minister Netanyahu's main objectives on this trip to the U.S., John.

BERMAN: ISIS has released 19 Christian hostages. All but one of them kidnapped last week in Northeast Syria. That is according to a London-based human rights group. These Assyrian hostages were released on the orders of a self proclaimed ISIS court.

For the latest, let's bring in our senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman who is live for us from Irbil in Northern Iraq.

And, Ben, what do we know about why these hostages were let go?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we are hearing from northeastern Syria is that, in fact, money was exchanged. That this Sharia court requested some sort of ransom that was paid for the release of these -- actually, it's 20 people is our understanding. It includes 19 people, 16 men, three 3 women, who were kidnapped early last week, in addition to a Syrian man who was taken hostage a month ago.

We also understand that most of if not all of these people are over the age of 50. That may indicate they are not much value on the slave market that has sprung up under ISIS control in recent months. Now, this still means that at least 200 people remain missing from the Assyrian community in northeastern Syria. Last week, there were reports, John, that some hostages had been taken to Raqqa, which is the de facto capital of ISIS in north central Syria.

It's s also where there is a slave market, according to our sources. So, we don't know the fate of the remaining hostages, but they could end up on the block at that slave market.

BERMAN: Two hundred people or more still held hostage.

Ben Wedeman for us in Irbil, thanks so much.

Ready for round two of the political fight to fund Homeland Security. Money for the agency runs out in five days, that's after the last- minute stopgap fix. Republicans are still trying to keep DHS funded. The funding tied to reversing the president's immigration reforms. The Senate has already approved full year of DHS funding, with no strings attached.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning. U.S. stock futures are higher. Looks like a good start to the first trading day of March. February was fantastic for stocks. Best month for the S&P since October 2011, up 5.5 percent. The NASDAQ up more than 7.7 percent.

Look at that. It's almost up there to the 5,000 mark, first time since -- remember the dot-com bubble, Berman?

BERMAN: Barely, I was very young.

ROMANS: It hurt. I didn't have much money then. It hurt. I still don't have much money.

Get ready for March madness. March has reputation for big swings in stocks. NASDAQ reached its high in March 2000. It bottomed in March 2009. Something Wall Street will be looking for this month, more strong jobs growth, stability in Europe, any clues about interest rate hikes from the Fed. But there were so many reasons to be nervous in February. Remember,

you know, strong dollars slowing multinationals, all this bad weather, and still, the stock market performed nicely. We don't know what will happen this month, but it was a good month for your 401(k).

BERMAN: The slowing multinationals. That's what kept me up. That's what kept up. I woke up every morning afraid about the slowing multinationals.

ROMANS: You did.

Eight minutes past the hour.

Tens of thousands in Russia protesting against the Kremlin this morning following the murder, the assassination of President Vladimir Putin's strongest critic. We are live in Moscow with this very important story this morning.

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BERMAN: Closing arguments set to begin this morning in the trial of Abid Naseer. He is the Pakistani-born man accused of taking part in the al Qaeda bombing plots in New York, Denmark and England. His trial in federal court in New York featured riveting testimony from five members of the British Secret Service who tracked Naseer in 2009. Those agents wore disguises in court. They were cross-examined by Naseer himself who is representing himself. The jury is expected to get the case this week.

ROMANS: The Justice Department is about to release a blistering report on the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department. According to officials who have been briefed, the report will accuse Ferguson police of making discriminatory traffic stops involving African- Americans, building years of animosity leading up to the shooting death of Michael Brown. Fines from those traffic stops have been critical to balancing the city's budget.

Ferguson officials will likely have to negotiate a settlement with the Justice Department or face a civil rights lawsuit.

BERMAN: The city of Cleveland says the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a police shooting was directly caused by the boy's own actions. The city is responding to a lawsuit filed by the family. Rice was fatally shot holding a toy gun which officers mistook for a fire arm. Video shows the shooting occurred just seconds after police confronted the 12-year-old.

ROMANS: There is dramatic new video this morning of a fatal police shooting in Los Angeles. It shows officers involved an altercation with a man reportedly homeless suspected of a robbery outside a shelter in Skid Row Sunday. Now, it is unclear what precipitated this altercation.

Now, police say they tried to tase the man, but he kept fighting them. After the suspects reached for one of the officer's gun, they say three police officers fired shot at him. Authorities say this incident is under investigation. They plan to review video from various sources as part of that.

Testimony resumes in a few hours in the murder trial of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez. The sister of Odin Lloyd could take the witness stand today. Hernandez is charged with fatally shooting Lloyd back in 2013. When court resumes, the jury will first hear more from a Sprint employee who testified Friday about text messages and phone calls between Hernandez and a co-defendant.

BERMAN: The question of life in prison or death for Jodi Arias. We are awaiting for an Arizona jury to decide. Deliberations at her retrial resume this morning. Arias was convicted in 2013 of murdering her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. But that first jury deadlocked on punishment.

ROMANS: A Texas nurse who caught Ebola from a patient she cared for last fall, she is planning to sue the hospital and its parent company. Twenty-six-year-old Nina Pham claims they were negligent, and didn't have the proper protective gear for those who treated Thomas Eric Duncan. Duncan died after becoming the first person in the U.S. diagnosed with the disease. Texas Health says it is confident a constructive dialogue will resolve the matter.

BERMAN: New polling suggests that the Chicago mayoral runoff between incumbent Rahm Emanuel and challenger Jesus Garcia is essentially a dead heat. Emanuel has 42.9 percent of the latest poll of likely voters, while Garcia has about 38.5 percent. Perhaps most telling, more than 18 percent are still undecided.

ROMANS: Really?

BERMAN: That is a high level of undecided after a runoff election. I got to tell you.

The city's first ever mayor runoff is set for April 7th.

ROMANS: All right. Another winter storm socking the Midwest and Northeast this morning. And get this -- there's another one waiting in the wings.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has been tracking the storm for us -- Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John and Christine, good Monday morning to you.

Here we go again. Absolutely, it's going to be the case again. And, of course, a February to remember. New York City, your average temperature for the month of February was 24 degrees. That is the coldest in eight decades.

And places like Buffalo had their coldest month on record as well, even in Toronto, did not reach the freezing mark at all for the month of February. That was the first time since 1978 that's occurred. But here we go, a little warming trend. Washington, 41, New York, we make it up to 37, that is a warming trend. That is the case and will remain in the same range over the next couple of days. Atlanta to Charleston, anywhere from 60 to around 70 degrees.

But w do have some wet weather moving in. That will be the theme over the next couple of days over this region, some strong thunderstorms to tell you about in and around New Orleans this morning, reduced visibility, work your way off the Northeast. Boston, some snow showers, less than 5 inches over the past 24 hours. Boston, less than five inches away from the all-time snowiest winter on record. Models suggest we will get there over the next seven days.

And here comes the next storm system that gets to you sometimes Tuesday afternoon. We get some snow showers across the Great Lakes, the Ohio Valley gets an awesome wintry mix. And by Tuesday, some snow showers across the Northeast as well. It generally looks like north of New York City, Boston starts to get a couple inches of snow -- guys.

ROMANS: All right. Pedram, thanks for that.

Sixteen minutes past the hour.

Thousands of Russians gathering in Moscow to mourn the death of former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin. He was gunned down Friday near the Kremlin walls. Sunday's rally hurriedly organized as a tribute to Nemtsov.

I want to bring in senior international correspondent Matthew Chance live from Moscow.

I mean, this was Vladimir Putin's most vocal critic. It is a remarkable story. Gunned down right there in full view of the Kremlin.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPODENT: One of his strongest critics over several years. Boris Nemtsov leading political opposition figure in this country. Look how close it is to the Kremlin here, St. Basil's Cathedral, the Red Square behind me, the walls of the Kremlin.

Vladimir Putin's presidential office is just beyond there. So, it is literally in the shadow of the Kremlin that this killing took place. There is a mountain of flowers laid here on this bridge next to the Kremlin in tribute to Boris Nemtsov.

You can see a photograph of him there. Messages put around, messages of sympathy and messages of shock as well, because that's the key thing here. It was not a surprise exactly that someone like Boris Nemtsov would have been targeted and killed, but it is nonetheless a shock.

And he may not have been a mainstream figure, very popular in Russia during his life, but, you know, in his death, there is a prospect that this could change the way many Russians see their country. He spoke a lot about the corruption of Russia, about the brutality of his country and in death, many Russians we spoken to have paid tribute. Of the thousands that came out yesterday, they are looking again at his message. ROMANS: Unbelievable. Any idea who did this? The Kremlin has said

it is going to investigate rigorously. I mean, do we have any clues?

CHANCE: There is some closed circuit television footage of this bridge during the moment when Boris Nemtsov was killed. It is grainy. You can't really make out much on it. The shells from the cartridges fired at him, they have been reclaimed by the police as well.

So, the police say they are following a couple of leads. Vladimir Putin has been outspoken on this. Even writing to Boris Nemtsov's mother saying he shares her grief and vowing to get to the bottom of this and bring those responsible to justice. Russia has a very patchy record on investigating these kinds of political killings. Many Russians believe that this is just a message -- a message if you oppose the Kremlin like Boris Nemtsov did, this is how you can end up.

ROMANS: All right. Matthew Chance for us this morning from the scene there of that assassination -- thank you.

BERMAN: About 20 minutes past the hour right now. It was a rough night for LeBron James. The Cavaliers, they dropped a game in overtime. You will never guess how it happened and also where LeBron James took a shot, shall we say.

Andy Scholes with the details next in "The Bleacher Report".

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BERMAN: What a game. LeBron James and James Harden squaring off in the battle, maybe league MVP on the line here.

ROMANS: Andy Scholes, our EARLY START MVP has the highlights from Rockets hosting the Cavs in this morning's "Bleacher Report".

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning.

Yes, this was a great game. It really had a playoff-like feel to it. Harden is trying to prove he's this year's NBA MVP. While LeBron, he is trying to win the award for the fifth time in his career.

And this game got chippy in the second half, guys. Patrick Beverley, he tried to take the charge from LeBron. Those two get tangled up under the basket. Both received a technical foul.

And later in the third, LeBron trying to wrestle the ball away from Harden. The beard goes down and it appears to kick LeBron below the belt. He got a flagrant foul for that.

Then, we head to overtime. The two get tangled up again. You see LeBron say he is hooking me to the officials. But they let him just play, no foul was called on that play, ended up as a shot clock violation.

In the end, this game would come down to LeBron at the free-throw line. Four seconds to go, Cavs was down, LeBron missed both free throws. He was 3 for 11 from the line as the Rockets get the win, 105-103. Harden had 33 points in the game.

And afterwards, the Rockets tweeted out, "Long live the new king" with a picture of Harden with the words King James. Love it.

Funny moment in yesterday's Clippers and Bulls game. Veteran referee Joey Crawford goes soaring through the air to stop Nikola Mirotic from taking a free throw. Apparently, the refs needed to stop play to make a sub or make sure the clock is right. So, Crawford, he sprung into action and he may be 63 years old, but still moves like a ninja.

All right. In case you missed it over the weekend and you looked down and eat a nacho Saturday, you might have. Ronda Rousey broke a UFC record in her title defense, beating Cat Zingano in 14 seconds. Rousey has defeated the last three opponents in 66, 16 and 14 seconds respectively. UFC president Dana White went as far as to call her the female version of Mike Tyson. She is a perfect 11-0 in her mixed martial arts career.

If you ordered UFC 184 for the main event, it's like 60 bucks, you got 14 seconds. It's like $4 a second. So, I hope it was worth it.

ROMANS: Wow.

Can we see the mug again?

BERMAN: Yes, cheers to you.

SCHOLES: I'm joining the battle with you, guys.

ROMANS: I know you don't have a pen. I don't even --

BERMAN: Andy Scholes. Thank you so much for "Bleacher Report".

ROMANS: #mugsnow.

BERMAN: Mugs now.

Happening now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington set to speak before Congress about the dangers of a nuclear deal with Iran. This has created a lot of controversy in the United States and Israel. We'll break it down right after this.

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