Sandra Bland Death Investigation; Trump Defends Attacks on Opponents; Selling the Iran Nuclear Deal; Secretary Carter lands in Baghdad
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: New information in the jail cell death of Sandra Bland. What she said about her depression and previous suicide attempt ahead. Donald Trump heading to the border defending his attacks on opponents to CNN. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. It is exactly 30 minutes past the hour. Nice to see you this Thursday morning. Let's start with those developments in the death of Sandra Bland, the Illinois woman who police say hanged herself in a Texas jail cell three days after she was arrested during a routine traffic stop. The results of an autopsy ordered by her family expected to be available today. And there are still questions, many questions about the surveillance tapes of Bland's arrest, tapes that appear to be edited. Look at how the car disappears in this tape. See that? Police denying the video passing it off as technical issues. We are also learning from authorities that Bland told a jail employee she tried to commit suicide. We are hearing for the first time, a voicemail bland left for a friend one day after her arrest.</s>SANDRA BLAND'S VOICEMAIL FROM JAIL: Hey, this is me. I'm -- I just was able to see the judge. I don't really know, they have me at a $5,000 bond. I'm still just at a loss for words, honestly, about this who process. How did this witching lanes with no signal turn into all of this, I don't even know. But I'm still here. So I guess call me back when you can.</s>ROMANS: For the latest on the Sandra Bland investigation, the death investigation, here is CNN's Ryan Young.</s>RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, just a lot of information coming from the jail. In fact, new documents show that when there was an intake here are at jail with Sandra Bland, that she marked here that says she attempted suicide in 2014 after losing a child and apparently she tried to use pills to commit suicide. On page four, though, it says that she suffers from epilepsy. But the question number 12 of page 4 says, "Have you ever attempted suicide?", and that's marked no. So, there are questions about the paper work that's coming from the jail. But jailers putting to page 2 where it says she did try to commit suicide. A lot of questions about how the jail manages people who obviously have said they tried to commit suicide before. Are there more checks for somebody who has gone through that process? That's something that we'll be asking the next couple of days. We have also learned from officials about the idea that she may have been cutting her arm and using marijuana to self-medicate. All this goes into the background and makeup of Sandra Bland, questions that need to be answered as investigators try to find out what happened in the jail -- Christine.</s>ROMANS: Still a grieving family and a lot of questions out there. All right. Thanks for that, Ryan. Donald Trump heading to the Texas/Mexico border today. The Republican front runner scheduled to meet with border patrol and law enforcement officials in Laredo. He says they invited him to come because they want to honor for speaking up about immigration. The billionaire businessman is also defending his treatment of fellow Republicans. He told CNN's Anderson Cooper he is just reacting to their personal attacks.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They are saying horrible things, like, I don't even know these people and they're saying this. Now, am I supposed to -- you know, to say oh, it is OK for them to say -- one guy, I guess it was Lindsey Graham called me a jackass. So, am I supposed to say, oh, it's OK if I'm called this? I'm called a jackass. You have to fight back. The country has to fight back. Everyone's pushing our country around. We can't allow that, Anderson.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is it presidential, though?</s>TRUMP: I think it's presidential to fight back.</s>COOPER: To give out a personal phone number of your opponents?</s>TRUMP: Well, that was a long story. I mean, you have to see the long story, the whole story the way it morphed, OK? That was a whole long story, where he wanted to get on "Fox & Friends" and he called me out of the blue. I never met the guy. Then he wanted to come in for campaign contributions. And then he starts hitting me years later, then I happened to have this crazy phone number. And I held it up. I said this guy was over here. And actually, as you probably know, the room was packed, standing room only, in fact they had, theaters, it was overflow crowd, closed circuit television into other rooms. The place went wild. We all had a good time.</s>COOPER: But is that presidential?</s>TRUMP: I think so. I think it's fine.</s>COOPER: Is that something as president, when you're opposed by somebody in Congress, you would give out their personal phone number?</s>TRUMP: I was hit by somebody unfairly. I was called names by somebody. So, he was up, somebody's hitting me saying what a bad guy I am, was up in my office asking for money asking and asking if I can get him on television --</s>COOPER: When you are president of the United States, you're going to be hit by half of the country.</s>TRUMP: That's true.</s>COOPER: Are you going to call them, dumb, stupid?</s>TRUMP: No, I think it's a little bit different. Right now, I'm trying to do something to make the country great again. Politicians will never make this country great again. Now --</s>COOPER: As president, you would change your tone?</s>TRUMP: Oh, I think so.</s>ROMANS: That war of words with graham not stopping. Listen to the South Carolina senator's latest comments about the billionaire businessman. He spoke yesterday to CNN's Brianna Keilar.</s>SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Donald Trump is a political car wreck, and people slow down to look at the wreck, but they eventually move on.</s>ROMANS: He is high -- very high in the polls right now. We also have information about Trump's wealth. His filings with the Federal Election Commission say he earns income from more than 150 separate deals ranging from real estate projects to footwear. He holds executive or board positions with more than 500 different companies and partnerships. Turning now to the Iran nuclear deal. The White House selling the agreement hard here and abroad. Secretary of State John Kerry, along with the energy and treasury secretaries expecting to face tough questions in the Senate hearing this morning. House Speaker John Boehner already vowing Republicans will do everything possible to kill this deal. Defense Secretary Ash Carter meeting with Saudi leaders trying to assure them the agreement will not help Iran expand the military reach across the Middle East. Breaking this morning, Secretary Carter touching down this hour in Baghdad. An unannounced visit. Let's get more on that from CNN's Jomana Karadsheh live from Amman, Jordan. What's the secretary doing in Iraq, Jomana?</s>JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, as you mentioned, an unannounced stop on this Middle East tour by Secretary Carter. And he arrived in Baghdad in the past half hour or so, and he is expected to meet with Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Haider al Abadi, also the defense minister there, and members of the Sunni leadership in the country, including the speaker of parliament, a key Sunni figure in the country. Now, while this Middle East tour has focused on the Iran deal, the Iraq stop, we would expect to be dominated by the fight against ISIS, and hearing from Iraqi officials about how this fight is going on, on the ground, what they require, and also, the U.S. pushing them to do more. As we heard from Iraqi officials, Christine, over recent months, they feel one year into the start of the coalition's fight against ISIS that not enough is being done. They say they are grateful for the air strikes and support they're get from the coalition, but they need more. They have a long list of things they need, including more air strikes, they say, and also more training and also expedited weapons shipments that we are seeing, the U.S. saying that they are starting to do so. In the past week, we have seen the U.S. provide Iraq with the first batch of F-16 fighter jets, something that Iraq said is key when it comes to its fight against the terrorist organization. They say they need to empower their own air force in that fight. But we also expect the secretary also to push the Iraqis to do more when it comes to, for example, Sunni inclusion. They want more Sunni fighters brought into the fight against ISIS. Of course, the fight on the ground is being led by Iraqi forces, Iraqi military and also Shia militias. But they want to see Sunni fighters in Sunni areas also being a key part of that fight as it happened in the past when it came to the fight against al Qaeda in Iraq. The secretary also during his visit is expected to meet with U.S. officials there, State Department officials, as well as U.S. troops. More than 3,500 U.S. advisers, trainers in that country overseeing that fight against ISIS, Christine.</s>ROMANS: All right. Jomana Karadsheh, and again, the defense secretary, an unannounced visit to Baghdad this morning, just landing within the hour -- thank you for that. We know you will keep watching it for us. ISIS is now a bigger threat to the U.S. than al Qaeda because of its ability to inspire Americans to commit acts of domestic violence. That's the assessment from the director of the FBI. James Comey admitting there is no way to know just how many troubled Americans have been influenced by ISIS during the terror group's year-long social media campaign to, quote, "kill where you are." He says the FBI has arrested a significant number of people who have been radicalized in the last eight weeks with hundreds of other ongoing investigation. The FBI director also warning lawmakers, terrorists are becoming increasingly more interested in launching cyberattacks against the U.S. Comey says the plotting appears to be in its early stages, but the bureau is picking up a lot of chatter and the threat level could be growing. The White House now in its final stages of drafting the plan to shut down the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay permanently. Any plan would have to be approved by Congress. Right now, lawmakers have a ban in place blocking the transfer of Gitmo inmates to the United States. And officials in Havana are demanding the U.S. turned Guantanamo back over to Cuban control. All right. Thirty-nine minutes past the hour. Time for an early start on your money. And this morning, we have the pleasure of Alison Kosik this morning after a bad day for stocks. What's happening?</s>ALISON KOSIK, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we saw red arrows again for the Dow falling for the second day in a row. Sixty-eight points down for the Dow for the Dow yesterday. This is after we saw a 4 percent decline in shares of Apple. That's after Apple said it didn't sell as many iPhones last quarter as expected. But today, U.S. futures are pointing higher. Also, we are seeing green arrows for European markets as well. Fast food workers are closer to making $15 an hour. A state wage board yesterday approved Governor Andrew Cuomo's proposal. Now, the state's labor commissioner still has to approve the raise. Businesses have been against the increase saying higher wages will lead to fewer workers getting hired. The higher wage would happen first in New York City by 2018 and then by 2021, and the rest of the state. Now, this applies to fast food chains that have more than 30 locations. But you're seeing New York, Christine, you're seeing New York joins Seattle and San Francisco and Los Angeles and also Washington, D.C. They're pushing through $15 wage as well.</s>ROMANS: Yes, they haven't been able to get a $10.10 minimum wage increase on the federal level. And, you know, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, saying he's calling their bluff, those businesses who say they're going to hire fewer workers. He says, no, I think you need all those workers and I'll call your bluff. We're going to raise those wages. It will be interesting to see how that pans out. Thank you so much, Alison. Talk to you soon.</s>KOSIK: You got it. A new lawsuit accusing Bill Cosby of sexual assault. Why this case is moving forward, next.