all. >> fear of being lazy and somebody taking your job. >> get the work done and take a nice vacation. "early start" continues right now. >> just one day until the democratic presidential candidates face-off in the first debate. the stage is set. who will come out swinging and will there be a surprise late addition? and the benghazi investigators are out to get hillary clinton according to the former staffer on the investigation is now saying. and president obama vladimi. calling histrikes in syria signs of weakness. will russia force the u.s. to shift strategy? we are live. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm alison kosik. it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. the countdown is underway to the

first democratic debate here on cnn tomorrow night. frontrunner hillary clinton at center stage. next to bernie sanders and three other democrats. will there be fireworks? what might the second tier candidates do to try to grab the spotlight? and what are the chances an extra podium will be added for joe biden? cnn's jim acosta has the latest. >> reporter: christine and alison, here we are in the wynn hotel. the first democratic debate of the cycle. you see the stage is just about set. five podiums on the stage. that middle one for former secretary of state hillary clinton. to her right is bernie sanders. senator sanders has been giving hillary clinton a run for her money in the polls. it will be interesting to watch those two go head-to-head. the others will try to have a breakout moment. they will be looking for the breakout moments on tuesday

night. the potential between hillary clinton and bernie sanders, one of those will be on the iraq war. in the last 24 hours, sanders has been reminder supporters he voted against the iraq war in 2002 and hillary clinton voted for it. similar to the battle royale. that cost the votes for hillary clinton in 2008. the x factor is vice president biden. will he join the debate on tuesday night? christine and alison, i noticed off stage here in vegas here in the hotel, there is an extra podium just in case biden decides to join the debate. christine and alison. >> fascinating. no matter what. president obama says hillary clinton made a mistake by using a private e-mail server during her time as secretary of state.

he said the private server did not pose a national security problem. he said it is important for clinton to answer the questions to the satisfaction of the american public. >> she made a mistake. she acknowledged it. i think the way it has been talked up has been due to politics. she is the first to acknowledge she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly. >> what was your reaction when you found out about it? >> this is one of the 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. another blow this morning to the house investigation into the benghazi attacks. just weeks after house majority leader mccarthy credited the investigation with damaging hillary clinton, a former

staffer for the house benghazi committee has come forward with claims that seem to reinforce mccarthy's boast. cnn's chris frates has the latest from washington. >> reporter: good morning. a former staffer with the house committee investigating the benghazi attacks says the panel's probe is a politically motivated inquiry targeting hillary clinton. it is a politically explosive charge sure to resonate on the campaign trail as clinton runs for president. major podliska says after news broke earlier this year that clinton used a private e-mail server, the republican control committee set its sights exclusively on clinton. podliska says he was fired because he refused to focus on clinton and he took military leave. he plans to file a lawsuit and ask a court to give him back his job with back pay.

podliska is considered a conservative republican and he tells jake tapper what was a broad probe into the attacks on benghazi became a partisan investigation. >> what do you say to any viewers who think you might have an axe to grind. >> i have a conscience. there is wrongdoing here. it needs to stop. i want the investigation to be focused to the original purpose. the victims' families need the truth. we did not need to shift the focus. we did not need to de-emphasize or drop the investigation on different agencies and individuals. >> reporter: on sunday, chairman trey gowdy said he never instructed podliska to focus on clinton. he said podliska has demanded money from the committee and committee refused to pay him and

he has run to the press with the salacious allegations about clinton. podliska says he was terminated for cause. including for trying to put together a hit piece on administration officials. the statement said contrary to the new assertion, the employee was terminated in part because of the manifestation of his investigative work. don't miss the first democratic debate of the political season airing here on cnn. coverage begins tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. harsh words for putin from president obama in an interview on "60 minutes." the president criticizes the russian leader as weak for launching the campaign in syria.

he says the u.s. is 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 demonstration a failed strategy on the part of putin. >> we have bases and we have aircraft carriers and our pilots are flying through the skies and we are currently supporting iraq as it tries to continue to build up its forces. 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 we also have to do in order to make sure that america leads and america is strong and stays number one. if, in fact, the only measure is for us to send another 100,000

or 200,000 troops in syria or 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. >> 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. that may have set up a proxy war between the two super powers. let's get the latest from cnn's ian lee monitoring the developments from cairo. we are listening to tough talk from president obama in the interview, but there is still reaction that putin is calling the shots. >> reporter: that's right,

alison. if you look at the situation right now in syria, russia has carried out dozens of air strikes with targeted isis and anti-regime fighters sfighters. in an interview, putin said their goal is to stabilize the regime. he said there would be no ground fighters, no soldiers from russia in the fight. he gave another reason why that russia is fighting in syria. take a listen. >> translator: of course such dangers exist. it had existed. i want to stress it. even without the active action in syria. in case we would not let them, pardon my bad manner, to squirrel away to syria, all of the thousands of people running with kalashnikov rivals, they end up on our territory. we are helping assad to fight them over there. >> reporter: alison, putin gave

a jab at president obama and the united states saying that he wished he had $500 million that was used to train rebel fighters in syria. we all know that plan was suspended after they were only able to produce for or five fighters. putin said the united states and russia need to cooperate. there was a bit of cooperation. a 90 minute phone call with 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 a pilot jettison over syria. you also mentioned how this action by putin is well received in iraq. the prime minister said he would welcome russia's help in fighting isis there as well. alison. >> this 90 minute phone call. were any rules reached on both

sides for safety or was this just being nice to each other over the phone? >> reporter: certain things they were talking about as how the pilots will communicate with each other in the air and what language they will use and 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 will be more to hash out exactly what they it will do. 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 planes were in the same vicinity as the united states. >> ian lee, thank you. the iraqi military is claiming it killed several senior isis commanders in an air strike near the border with syria. it is not clear when iraqi forces launched the attack. they claim they hit a convoy

that included isis leader bagdadi. the pentagon tells cnn it is monitoring the situation, but cannot corroborate the iraqi military claims. iran is flexing military muscle. iranian state media reporting the successful test cease-fire of a new long-range ballistic missile. officials say it is the first long-range missile precision guided all the way to its target. it is not clear if the missile test violates the terms of the nuclear agreement iran struck with the united states and five other world powers. time for an early start on your money. shanghai up 3% on news of the possible stimulus by the chinese economic bank. the fed vice chair said the u.s. economy might be strong enough for a rate hike by the end of the year. european markets are up a bit. last week, stocks ended on a

high note in the u.s. dow closing up 34 points. the longest winning streak since last december. the s&p finished up 3%. the best week of the year. breaking news. fiat chrysler launching an ipo for ferrari. new deadly violence in the west bank. tensions escalating between israelis and palestinians. we are live with new developments next. just about anywhere you can use splenda®... ...no calorie sweetener. splenda® lets you experience... ...the joy of sugar... ...without all the calories.

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when you're not confident your company's data is secure, the possibility of a breach can quickly become the only thing you think about. that's where at&t can help. at at&t we monitor our network traffic so we can see things others can't. mitigating risks across your business. leaving you free to focus on what matters most. a new round of stabbings, shootings and bombings over the weekend escalating tension with the palestinians and israelis. i want to go live to jerusalem and bring in cnn's erin mclaughlin. the tension has really been

escalating ever higher. any hope that they will tamp this down? >> reporter: christine, that's right. the attempted stabbing that police say happened outside the lion's gate of the old city this morning certainly not helping the situation. police say they noticed a suspicious looking palestinian man. they stopped him. they say he pulled out a knife. lunging at a police officer stabbing him in his kevlar. the police officer not injured. the palestinian shot and killed. later identified by his friends as 18-year-old mustafa al fatib. he is from a prominent family in jerusalem. it is the third stabbing incident taking place in the old city area. part of a wave of violence that has gripped the area in the last

few days. prime minister benjamin netanyahu announcing an increase in the security measures as well as jerusalem. heightened military presence in the west bank with both palestinian and israeli leaders blaming each other for the violence. it is unclear what more can be done to stop the bloodshed. >> erin, thank you. two outside reviews of the police shooting of tamir rice find a cleveland officer was reasonable to shoot and kill the 12-year-old carrying a replica gun. an attorney for rice's family claim the experts who prepared the reports are pro police. a grand jury will decide if the police officers will face charges. and a rally outside the

state capitol falling for the removal of the emblem from the state flag. some say the flag in mississippi is racially deviivisivdivisive. voters in 2001, elected to keep it there. south carolina lawmakers recently voted to remove a confederate flag from statehouse grounds in response to the charleston church massacre. arrive two hours early and have your boarding passes printed when you come. today's warning comes after technical problems triggered 450 flight delays on sunday for southwest. passengers had to wait hours for a handwritten ticket. southwest officials won't say what the problem is or how long it will take to fix it. what a mess. l.a. dodger chase utley is out. major league baseball coming down hard on him for a slide.

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if you were sleeping, you missed an amazing game in new jersey. >> coy wire has the details in the bleacher report. what happened? >> it was excitement. we will take a look. the giants and niners are going in opposite directions. both still badly needed a win. it came down to the wire. 1:45 remaining. football in the phone booth.

rings up the go ahead score. did the niners leave manning too much time? manning finds larry donnell. watch this again. you cannot defend this. giants win, 30-27. new york's third straight victory. niners have lost four in a row. how about the cowboys and patriots? greg hardy making his debut after a four-game suspension. hardy will hardly quiet the pats. watch him here. stop on the dime. take a bow. take a touchdown. icing on the cake when patriots brady find edelman. patriots win, 30-6. on to baseball.

dodgers chase utley has been suspended for the hard slide into ruben tejada. utley broke tejada's leg. utley will appeal the suspension which will be held before game three tonight. and troy came up big for the blue jays. he drove in four runs total. his first hit of the series. toronto wins, 5-1. they trail 2-1. they go at it again this afternoon in arlington. first the astros have a chance to finish the series with the royals at 1:00. in the national league, cardinals and cubs. and dodgers mets play on tbs. christine, cubbies are back at home at wrigley. they have jake arrieta on the mound. you should feel good.

>> no cub fan ever tries to feel too good about anything. enjoy it. enjoy it. >> believe. believe, christine. >> i do believe. i'm going to keep my head down. thanks, coy wire. just one day until the democratic presidential candidates face-off on the cnn debate stage. we are breaking down what you can expect and why an additional podium may be needed on the set. that's next. roter ny her, covering nearly every american... and these geese. but it's not who you think. squawk! it's t-mobile. our new extended range lte signal reaches twice as far... and is four times better in buildings. think you know our lte coverage? think again! see for yourself at t-mobile.com/coverage

in just one day, hillary clinton and bernie sanders go

head-to-head for the first time on the cnn democratic presidential debate stage. what you can expect and who else will be at the podium. explosive allegations in the benghazi investigation. a former staffer claiming investigators are only interested in taking down hillary clinton. president obama calling russia leader putin weak criticizing his involvement in syria. will the kremlin force the u.s. to shift strategy? welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. 30 minutes past the hour. the countdown is under way for the democratic debate here on cnn. hillary clinton along with bernie sanders and three other democrats. what might the second tier candidates do to grab the spotlight? and what are the chances that joe biden will show up? jim acosta has the latest. >> reporter: we are here at the

wynn hotel two days before the democratic debate. you can see the stage is just about set. five podiums on the stage. middle one for hillary clinton. she is the obvious frontrunner at this point. to her right is bernie sanders. senator sanders is giving hillary clinton a run for her money in the polls. it will be interesting to watch those it would go head-to-head. the other candidates will try to have a breakout moment. martin o'malley and lincoln chaffee and jim webb. between hillary clinton and sanders is on the iraq pwar. sanders reminding supporters he voted against the iraq war and hillary clinton voted for it in 2002. meanwhile, the x factor in all

this is vice president joe biden. does he join the debate on tuesday night? christine and alison, i have noticed off stage here in vegas here in the wynn hotel, there is an extra podium in case vice president biden decides to join the debate. if he does, it will be fascinating political television. it will be fascinating no matter what. president obama saying hillary clinton made a mistake by using a private e-mail server as her time as secretary of state. he said the use does not pose a national security problem. in the interview, obama says it is important for clinton to answer the questions to the satisfaction of the american public. >> she made a mistake. she acknowledged it. i think the way it has been made up is in part because of poli c politics. i think she is first to acknowledge maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more

quickly. >> what was your reaction? >> 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. >> another blow this morning to the house investigation into the benghazi attacks. weeks after house majority leader kevin mccarthy credited the investigation with politically damaging hillary clinton, a former staffer for the house benghazi committee has come forward with claims that seem to reinforce mccarthy's boast. cnn's chris frates has the latest from washington. >> reporter: good morning. a former staffer with the house committee investigating the benghazi attacks says the panel's probe is a politically motivated inquiry targeting hillary clinton. it is a politically explosive charge sure to resonate on the

campaign trail as clinton runs for president. major podliska says after news broke earlier this year that clinton used a private e-mail server, the republican controlled committee set its sights exclusively on clinton. he said he was fired because he refused to focus on clinton. he is planning to ask a court to give him back his job with back pay. podliska tells jake tapper that what was a broad probe into the attacks on the u.s. consulate in benghazi became a quote partisan investigation. >> what do you say to any viewers out there who think you have an axe to grind? >> i have a conscience. there's wrongdoing here. i think it needs to stop.

i do not want the investigation to end. i want it to be refocused back to the purpose. the victims'families are owed the truth. we did not need to de-emphasize or drop the investigation on different agencies or organizations or individuals. >> reporter: on sunday, chairman trey gowdy said he never instructed podliska to focus on clinton. he has demanded money from the committee and the committee refused to pay him. he has now run to the press with the salacious allegations. a spokesperson for the committee said in a statement that podliska's claims are false. podlisk says he was terminated for cause including for putting together a hit piece on administration officials, including clinton. the statement said directly contrary to his new assertion.

the employee was terminated in part because he manifested improper partiality. >> chris, thanks. don't miss the first democratic debate here on cnn. coverage starts at 8:30 p.m. the iraqi military is claiming it killed several senior isis commanders in an air strike near the border with syria. it is not clear when iraqi forces launched the attack. they claim they hit a convoy that hit baghdadi. the pentagon is monitoring the situation, but cannot corroborate the military's claims. iran is flexing military muscle. iranian state media reporting the successful test fire of a new long-range ballistic missile. it is the first long-range missile precision guided all the way to its target. it is not clear if this violates the terms of the nuclear agreement iran struck with the

united states and five other world powers. shanghai up 3% on news of a possible stimulus by the chinese central bank. european markets down. u.s. futures are lower. stocks ended high last week. dow closed up 34 points. the longest winning streak since last december. the s&p 500 finished the week up 3%. the best week of the year. the biggest merger ever in the tech industry. reuters reports that dell announced a merger with data storage company emc. it would be worth $75 billion. it let's dell move away from the stagnant computer market and move to data storage. did president obama know russia would get involved in the syrian crisis? will the white house now shift its strategy? we are live.

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harsh words for vladimir putin from president obama. in the interview, the president criticizes the russian leader as weak. he says the u.s. is doing all it can in the middle east. he said putin's words came as no surprise. he said this is a failed strategy on the part of putin. >> we have an enormous presence

in the middle east. we have bases and we have aircraft carriers and our pilots are flying through the skies and we are currently supporting iraq as it tries to continue to build up its forces. 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 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 is we are now going to be not just the

police, but the governors of this region, that would be bad strategy. >> meanwhile, battle for hearts and minds in iraq. let's get the latest from cnn's ian lee monitoring the latest from cairo. we know the russia president also in an interview talking about his take on things. >> reporter: that's right. christine, vladimir putin came out and said that there are few stated objectives in syria. first off, stabilize the regime of bashar al assad. they do not want to see him go. syrian regime has been a staunch ally of russia. they have carried out dozens of air strikes, not just targeting

isis, but primarily targeting anti-regime fighter and with that, regime forces of assad and allies. lebanese hezbollah have been able to capitalize on it. another objective of russia is they don't want the fighters from russia that have gone to syria to go back home. so they say they are there to kill them in the battle field to make sure that doesn't happen. vladimir putin, as we heard from president obama had some harsh words for him. putin responded by saying that he wished he had the $500 million that the u.s. spent on trying to train rebel fighters in syria. they were supposed to have 3,000, but when it was all said and done, four or five actually made it to the battle field. putin criticizing the u.s. there. he did mention there needs to be cooperation between the united states and russia. this weekend, we saw a bit of

that cooperation where the united states was talking to them about making sure the skies over syria were safe for their pilots. they don't want a mishap or a plane crash. they don't want a u.s. pilot jettisoning over. the phone call narrowly focused. >> how to communicate and which type of communication the pilots have. ian lee in cairo. thank you for watching that for us. nice to see you. let's look at what is coming up on "new day." alisyn camerota joins us. >> good to see you, christine. we are getting ready for las vegas. we are taking you there for the preparation of the cnn democratic debate. we have numbers to show you of where the candidates stand going into the debate. plus another installment of real voters and real choices.

how did the new hampshire folks feel today? also, of course, we are watching the violence in the middle east. deadly bombings in turkey over the weekend. should the u.s. be doing more to ease developing crises happening in the middle east? we will talk about that in 14 minutes. >> she mentioned the deadly violence in jerusalem this morning. we have will take you there where the tensions are rising with israelis and palestinians. what the prime minister is now doing to stop these attacks. we go there live. good. very good. you see something moving off the shelves and your first thought is to investigate the company. you are type e*. yes, investment opportunities can be anywhere... or not. but you know the difference. e*trade's bar code scanner. shorten the distance between intuition and action. e*trade opportunity is everywhere.

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a new round of stabbings, shootings and bombings escalating tensions with isra i israelis and palestinians. a person who tried stab a police officer just this morning. a 13-year-old palestinian died sunday after shot by a rubber coated bullet in the west bank. prime minister benjamin netanyahu calling for more police to fight the violence in the west lanbank. we have cnn's erin mclaughlin with more. >> reporter: christine, more bloodshed this morning in jerusalem with what police are characterizing as an attempted

stabbing in the old city. a palestinian man was seen walking near the lion's gate entrance. they thought he looked suspicio suspicious. they asked him to take his hands out of his pockets. when he did, he tried to stab a police officer in the kevlar jacket. the police officer in the incident was not wounded. friends identified the palestinian man as 18-year-old moustaf al fatib. the son of a prominent palestinian family. the third stabbing in the area of the old city in as many days. part of a wave of violence to grip the region with palestinian and israeli leaders blaming each other for inciting violence at the holy site known to jews as the temple mount. in the midst of the heightened

security, it is unclear what more can be done to stop the bloodshed. some here are calling this the new norm. >> that's really unfortunate. erin, we know you will continue to follow the developments. from jerusalem, the u.n. says a resurgence in afghanistan. the group controls more of the country since 2001. four of the u.n.'s 13 offices in afghanistan have now been evacuated because of the taliban threat. the u.s. disagrees with the u.n. assessment. 53 minutes past the hour. how does unlimited vacation sound? we will get an early start on your money next. rheumatoid arthritis like me... and you're talking to a rheumatologist about a biologic, this is humira.

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good morning. welcome back. i'm christine romans. let's get an early start on your money. asian markets higher. shanghai closing up 3% on news of possible stimulus by the chinese central bank to boost

economic growth. european markets down. u.s. futures barely moving. stocks ended on a high note. dow closing up 34 points. six straight days of gains. the longest winning streak since last december. s&p up 3%. a gallon of regular is a gallon cheaper than this time last year. it is good news except for seniors. millions of americans will not get a boost in social security benefits. the amount paid out is adjusted to take account of the inflation rate. there will not be a benefits increase at all. that happened twice in 40 years. linkedin offering open-ended vacation policy. the site will have a discretionary time off policy. it will set no minimum or maximum time.

linkedin wants to focus on results. the third to offer the policy. virgin and ge adopted one over the past year. potential merger today. confirmation of reports where dell computer will take over emc. watch that. that should be big news in tech land today. just one day until the democratic presidential candidates face-off in the cnn debate. "new day" starts now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> you are watching "new day" with chris cuomo, alisyn camerota and michaela pereira. >> that shot in vegas. good morning. welcome to "new day." monday, october 12th. it is 3:00 where john berman is. he joins us from las vegas. that is where we begin with the final countdown tomorrow hosted by cnn and facebook. on the eve of the debate, there

are two new cnn/orc polls. they show hillary clinton widening her lead substantially. michaela, this is some of the biggest leads in the polls. the former secretary of state has a 16 point cushion over bernie sanders. we should mention this is in nevada. if joe biden does not run, her lead widens to 22 points. what is interesting, michaela, this is different than the polls in new hampshire. >> a vastly different picture. >> in south carolina, clinton tops biden by 25 points and sanders by 31 points. without biden, the margin over sanders expands to over 50 points. let's go to las vegas early this morning, which is the middle of the night for john. ahead of the democratic debate. what

3:00 a.m. in las vegas. things are just getting started right now. here on the strip, the cnn debate is the biggest show in town. so take that, britney spears. the candidates making their final preparations for this high stakes showdown as are we, let's go inside the ball room, inside the debate hall and bring in cnn's jim acosta who has been working all night, putting up the chairs, setting up the lecterns. >> all night. that's right. it's a tough job but somebody has to do it. >> debate stages, they don't set up themselves. we've had cnn crews literally working around the clock over the past 48 hours. we are one day and counting until the first democratic presidential debate of the seas. hillary clinton is the fr