Democratic Presidential Candidates to Go Head-to-Head on First Debate; House Benghazi Staffer Turns Whistleblower; President Obama Slams Russian President Over Syria
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Just one day until the Democratic presidential candidates face off in their first debate, the stage is set. Who will come out swinging and will there be a surprise late addition?</s>ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: New accusations the congressional Benghazi investigators are out to get Hillary Clinton. What a former staffer on that investigation is now saying.</s>ROMANS: President Obama criticizing Russian leader Vladimir Putin, calling his airstrikes in Syria signs of weakness. But will Russia force the U.S. to shift strategy in the war on ISIS? We are live. Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. Good to see you this morning.</s>KOSIK: Good morning. Good to be here. I'm Alison Kosik. It's Monday, October 12th, it's 5:00 a.m. in the East. The countdown underway to the first Democratic debate right here on CNN tomorrow night. Frontrunner Hillary Clinton at center stage, flanked by Senator Bernie Sanders and three other Democrats. Will there be fireworks? What might the second tier candidates do to try to grab the spotlight? And hmm, what are the chances an extra podium will be added for Joe Biden? CNN's Jim Acosta has the latest.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Alison, here we are inside the Wynn Hotel, two days and counting until the Democratic debate here on CNN, the first Democratic debate of this cycle. And you can see the stage is just about set. Five podiums up on that stage. That middle one for former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. She's the obvious frontrunner at this point. To her right will be Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders has been giving Hillary Clinton a run for her money in the polls. It'll be interesting to watch those two go head-to-head. But the other candidates will be trying to have a breakout moment. Candidates like former governor of Maryland, Martin O'Malley, former governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chaffee, former senator from Virginia, Jim Webb. They'll also be looking for those breakout moments on Tuesday. But potential flash points between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, one of those will be on the Iraq war. In the last 24 hours, Senator Sanders has been reminding his supporters he voted against the Iraq war in 2002 and that Hillary Clinton voted in favor of the Iraq war, sort of echoes of that battle royal between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton back in 2008. That was a vote that cost Hillary Clinton back in 2008 with the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, the X factor in all of this of course is Vice President Joe Biden. If Vice President Biden join this debate on Tuesday night, as a matter of fact, Christine and Alison, I've noticed off stage here in Las Vegas, here inside the there is an extra podium just in case Vice President Biden decides to join this debate. If it does, it will make for some fascinating political television. Christine and Alison, back to you.</s>ROMANS: Yes. Fascinating. No matter what, it's going to be fascinating. Thanks, Jim. President Obama says Hillary Clinton made a mistake by using a private e-mail server during her time as secretary of state. But he tells CBS News that the use of the private server did not pose a national security problem. In his "60 Minutes" interview, the president said it's important for Clinton to answer these questions to the satisfaction of the American public.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She made a mistake. She's acknowledged it. I do think that the way it's been ginned up is in part because of politics. And I think she'd be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly.</s>STEVE KROFT, CBS NEWS: What's your reaction when you found out about it?</s>OBAMA: You know, this is one of those issues that I think is legitimate, but the fact that for the last three months, this is all that's been spoken about is an indication that we're in presidential political season.</s>KOSIK: Another blow this morning to the House investigation into the Benghazi attacks. Just weeks after House majority leader Kevin McCarthy credited the Benghazi investigation was politically damaging Hillary Clinton, a former staffer for the House Benghazi Committee has come forward with claims that seemed to reinforce McCarthy's boasts. CNN's Chris Frates has the latest from Washington.</s>CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Christine and Alison. A former staffer with the House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks says the panel's probe has become a politically motivated inquiry targeting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It's a politically explosive charge sure to resonate on the campaign trail as Clinton runs for president. Major Bradley Podliska, an Air Force Reserve intelligence officer, says that after news broke earlier this year that Clinton used a private e-mail server, the Republican-controlled committee set its sights almost exclusively on Clinton. Podliska says he was fired as a committee investigator because he resisted the pressure to focus on Clinton and because he took military leave. He says he plans to fire a lawsuit over his firing and ask a court to give him his job back with back pay. Podliska, a self-described conservative Republican, tells CNN's Jake Tapper in an exclusive television interview that what was a broad probe into the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi became a, quote, "partisan investigation."</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER": What do you say to any viewers out there who think that you might have an ax to grind, that you're only talking because you were fired?</s>MAJ. BRADLEY PODLISKA, FORMER BENGHAZI COMMITTEE INVESTIGATOR: I have a conscience. I -- there's wrongdoing here and I think it needs to stop. And I do not want the investigation to end. I want the investigation to be refocused back to its original purpose. The victims' families are owed the truth. Hillary Clinton has a lot of explaining to do. We however did not need to shift resources to hyper focus on Hillary Clinton. We didn't need to de-emphasize, on some cases drop the investigation on different agencies, different organizations and different individuals.</s>FRATES: On Sunday Republican chairman Trey Gowdy said in a statement that he never instructed Podliska to focus on Clinton. Gowdy said Podliska, quote, "has demanded money from the committee, the committee has refused to pay him, and he has now run to the press with his new salacious allegations about Secretary Clinton." A spokesperson for the committee said in a statement that Podliska's claims are transparently false. Podliska, the statement said, was terminated for cause including for trying to put together a hit piece on administration officials including Clinton. The statement said, quote, "Thus directly contrary to his brand-new assertion, the employee actually was terminated, in part, because he himself manifested improper partiality and animus in his investigative work." -- Christine, Alison.</s>KOSIK: OK, Chris, thanks very much. Don't miss it, don't miss the first Democratic debate of the political season airing right here on CNN. Coverage begins tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. Harsh words for Vladimir Putin from President Obama in an interview on "60 Minutes." The president criticizes the Russian leader as weak for launching a military campaign in Syria. He says the U.S. is already doing all it can in the Middle East. And Putin's actions came as no surprise to the White House. In fact he says the Russian operation demonstrates a failed strategy on the part of Putin.</s>OBAMA: We have an enormous presence in the Middle East. We have bases and we have aircraft carriers and our pilots are flying through those skies. And we are supporting Iraq as it tries to continue to build up its forces. But the problem that I think a lot of these critics never answer is, what's in the interest of the United States of America? And at what point do we say that here are the things we can do well to protect America, but here are the things that we also have to do in order to make sure that America leads and America is strong and stays number one. And if in fact the only measure is for us to send another 100,000 or 200,000 troops into Syria or back into Iraq or perhaps into Libya or perhaps into Yemen, and our goal somehow is that we are now going to be not just the police, but the governors of this region, that would be bad strategy.</s>KOSIK: Meantime military analysts say anti-tank missiles supplied by the U.S. to Syrian rebels opposed to the Assad regime have been so effective they may have drawn the Russians into the fight. And that may have set up a potential proxy war between the two super powers as well as a battle for hearts and minds in Iraq where Putin's actions in Syria are being widely praised. Let's get the latest from CNN's Ian Lee, monitoring developments from Cairo. You know, we're listening to some tough talk from President Obama in that interview but still there's the perception that Vladimir Putin is calling the shots.</s>IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Alison. And if you look at the situation right now in Syria, Russia has carried out dozens of airstrikes that have targeted not only ISIS but anti-regime fighters. In an interview, Putin made -- this illusion that their goal is to stabilize the regime. He also said, though, that there would be no ground fighters, no soldiers from Russia in the fight. But he gave another reason why that Russia is fighting in Syria. Take a listen.</s>VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (Through Translator): Of course such dangers exist. But it had existed. I want to stress it. Even without our active action in Syria. And in case we wouldn't let them, pardon my bad manners, to squirrel away to Syria, all these thousands of people who are running there now with Kalashnikov rifles, they would end up on our territory. And now we are at least helping President Assad to fight them over there.</s>LEE: And Alison, Putin also gave a jab at President Obama and the United States saying that he wished he had that $500 million that was used to try to train rebel fighters in Syria. Well, we all know that plan was suspended after they were only able to produce four or five fighters. But Putin said the United States and Russia need to cooperate. And there was a bit of cooperation this last weekend. There was a 90-minute phone call between the United States and Russia talking about safety over the skies of Syria. It was described as professional and narrowly focused. The last thing either country wants is for an air incident. Especially the United States. Doesn't want to see one of their pilots have to jettison over Syria. But you also mentioned how this action by Putin is well received in Iraq. Well, the prime minister said he would welcome Russia's help in fighting ISIS there as well -- Alison.</s>KOSIK: This 90-minute phone call, were any rules reached on both sides for safety or was this just sort of being nice to each other over the phone?</s>LEE: Well, certain things they were talking about is how the pilots will communicate with each other in the air, what language they will use, what rules were set up to make sure that if they are operating in the same vicinity, how to make sure that nothing does take place in the air. This was an ongoing talk. There's going to be more to really hash out exactly what they're going to do. But right now the United States has a rule where they will keep about 20 miles distance between any Russian aircraft. A few operations had to be aborted because Russian airplanes were in the same vicinity as the United States.</s>KOSIK: All right, CNN's Ian Lee, thanks for that.</s>ROMANS: All right. The Iraqi military is claiming it killed several senior ISIS commanders in an airstrike near the border with Syria. It's not clear when Iraqi forces launched the attack. They claim they hit a convoy that included ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But hospital officials and local residents say al-Baghdadi escaped injury. The Pentagon tells CNN it is monitoring the situation, but cannot corroborate the Iraqi military's claims.</s>KOSIK: Iran is flexing some military muscle. Iranian state media reporting the successful test fire of a new long-range ballistic missile. Officials say it's the first long-range missile that can be precision guided all the way to its target. It's not clear if the missile test violates the terms of the nuclear agreement Iran struck with the United States and five other world powers.</s>ROMANS: All right. Time for an EARLY START on your money this Monday morning. Asian markets are up, Shanghai up 3 percent on news of possible stimulus by the Chinese economic bank. China's economic slowdown a big reason the Federal Reserve has not raised interest rates over the weekend. The Fed vice chair said the U.S. economy might be strong enough for a rate hike by the end of the year. A look at the European markets, they are mostly lower. U.S. futures barely moving right now. Last week, stocks ended on a high note in the U.S. The Dow closing up 34 points. That's sixth straight days of gains, the longest winning streak since last December. The S&P 500 finished the week up 3 percent. A little more than 3 percent, the best week of the year. Breaking news this morning Fiat-Chrysler launching an IPO for its stake in Ferrari. Shares will be priced between $48 and $52, traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol</s>RACE. KOSIK: The unforgettable ticker.</s>ROMANS: That's right.</s>KOSIK: New deadly violence in the West Bank. Tensions escalating between Israelis and Palestinians. We are live with new developments next.