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Stock Market Bounces Back; Bad Weather Stops Search; 114th Congress Begins First Session Today; Interview with Rep.-Elect Lee Zeldin of NY; Dish Network to Offer Streaming ESPN

Aired January 06, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. Thanks again for being here. I'm Ana Cabrera, in for Carol Costello.

And all eyes on Wall Street right now. Opening bell just happening. Investors hoping to bounce back from Monday's ugly start to 2015. Here's where the opening bell rang. And, of course, yesterday, the Dow pledged 331 points after a huge sell-off. The S&P fell about 2 percent. The main reason was crude oil. It fell below $50 a barrel for the first time in five years. Fortunately, the Dow is up 20 points as trading gets started this morning.

Joining me now for more analysis, Rana Foroohar, the CNN global economic analyst.

Rana, is the market expected to bounce back today as we're seeing, at least in the very early stages?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: I think you may see a bounce back today, but I think that you're going to see a lot of volatility over the next couple of weeks. The plunging price of oil is really unprecedented. It's down 50 percent over the last few months. And this has a big effect on commodities rich nations, like Russia. It has big geopolitical indications. And I think the markets are just beginning to grapple with the risk that this is introducing.

CABRERA: Of course oil prices and gas prices go hand in hand. Gas prices seem to be getting a thumbs up from consumers, but they can be seen as a measure of the economy. So what are the implications here?

FOROOHAR: So the good news for the U.S. is that the fall that we've seen in gas prices is an amazing boon for the U.S. consumer. It's really the equivalent of $100 billion tax break in the pockets of U.S. consumers, and that's great news in terms of spending. You're already seeing spending figures go up. The downside -- the one downside, again, is that to the extent that lower oil prices reflect lower global growth, and tougher times in emerging markets where U.S. companies sell goods, that can ripple back to the U.S. It's a tricky balance. In the short term -- I think that overall this is going to be a good thing for the U.S. economy, even if it makes the markets trickier in the short term.

CABRERA: Experts have argued that's $30 per barrel of oil is possible.

FOROOHAR: Yes.

CABRERA: I mean that's still $20 lower than what we're seeing now. What would that mean for the market in that trickle-down effect?

FOROOHAR: You know, it would -- again, it would be an incredible boon for the U.S. consumer. One thing that people are worried about, though, is the U.S. shale production. A lot of the bullishness on the U.S. economy in recent months has been predicated on the fact that we have so much homegrown energy now from the shale oil and gas boom, but that oil and gas here at home is expensive to get at. It costs about $70 a barrel just to get it out of the ground. So when you have price this low, it starts to take some of that production offline. That could affect U.S. jobs. So, again, it's this very tricky balancing act between a boon for consumer spending and possible job loss here at home.

CABRERA: You touched on this just briefly. I'd like to dig deeper. What about the geopolitical concerns over low oil prices? We know Russia's a factor here. China is affected. Venezuela is affected.

FOROOHAR: Absolutely. You know, one of the fascinating reasons that oil is going so low, not just the fact that China's growing more slowly or Europe's in a slump, is the fact that the Saudis have kept pumping. Traditionally, when oil prices go this low, they take supply offline in order to bring prices back up. They're not doing that this time. One of the reasons for that is that they would like to put pressure on Iran and Russia with whom they have their own political strifes. We do too, for that matter. And those country need higher oil prices to make their budget. So when oil goes this low, it puts them in a bad position but the Saudis can ride it out. A very tricky geopolitical game going on right now with this.

CABRERA: Rana Foroohar, thank you for your analysis. We do appreciate that.

FOROOHAR: Thank you.

CABRERA: Still to come, the flight that never should have happened. Now it's proving more difficult to find AirAsia Flight 8501. Is there any way this search can improve? I'll ask our panel, next.

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CABRERA: The mystery of AirAsia Flight 8501. The search area, expanding. The challenge, growing. A short time ago we learned that crews have recovered the bodies of two more victims. That brings the total to 39 now out of 162 passengers. Most victims are believed to still be inside the fuselage of the airliner, but divers are no closer to locating the bulk of that wreckage. Again, miserable weather has prevented divers from even entering the water today. And one huge question remains unanswered, who's to blame for the doomed flight taking off without the proper licensing? There are now reports that several airport officials have been reassigned because of this blunder as the ongoing investigation is still underway.

Joining me now, CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien, David Gallo, the director of special projects for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, also Peter Goelz, the former managing director of the NTSB.

Good morning, gentlemen.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Good morning.

DAVID GALLO, WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION: Good morning.

PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB MANAGING DIRECTOR: Good morning.

CABRERA: David, muddy waters, zero visibility in the Java Sea. What needs to happen to make this search a little bit easier or more effective?

GALLO: They need a break, Ana. They need decent weather at the surface so they can get in and out of the water safely. But they need to be able to see what they're doing at the bottom and they can't. And it's a -- on top of that, a very dangerous situation to be in the water diving with all of that wreckage around, if it is, in fact, wreckage, which is a whole other issue. They haven't really identified a single piece of wreckage on the bottom of the ocean yet.

CABRERA: Miles, when the water is posing this many problems, how can maybe an air search be effective?

O'BRIEN: I don't think an air search is going to help out much at all given this weather situation. This is the very weather that we think is somehow linked to what brought the aircraft down. At this time of year, in that part of the world, this is, unfortunately, what you get most days. If this had happened, you know, six months from now, it'd be clear, you'd be able to easily spot the wreckage. But, of course, that very weather that caused the crash would mean there would be no wreckage probably. So there -- that's where we are right now, hoping for mother nature to give the searchers a little break.

CABRERA: Peter, what concerns you the most since it is now more than a week and we still have not found the fuselage of the plane?

GOELZ: Well, what they've really got to do is, as David and Miles confirmed, they've got to get a break in the weather so that they can do some serious grid searching with side scanning sonar to find likely wreckage locations, and then drop underwater vehicles down to search him. Dropping a diver down at 140 feet is dangerous to begin with, but the bottom time for the diver, if it's a scuba diver, is very limited. They've got to get underwater vehicles down on probable wreckage results from the sonar scanning. If they can't do that, it's going to be a very drawn-out affair.

CABRERA: David, give us some perspective. How much longer can the victims and the plane remain underwater before important clues are simply lost forever?

GALLO: Well, every minute that goes by we're losing something. And it's, you know, and for the victims, for the families and loved ones, every moment is torturous, let alone days and nights that go by and it's been, well, more than a week, so it's just horrific. So, you know, I'm sure the pressure's on the teams. They're not going to go past -- do something that's going to be unsafe. But as Peter said, it might be time for plan b here. This doesn't seem to be working. And it may be weeks before the water clears visibility enough to put divers down for any length of time.

CABRERA: And, Miles, we know the skies above southeast Asia are crowded. And now word that Indonesia is suspending some of the AirAsia routes. Who or what's to blame for this big uptick of planes in the air in this part of the world?

O'BRIEN: Well, I think this whole idea about licensing and the number of planes in the sky, I don't want people to put too much focus on that as they think about a possible cause here. Even if that were kind of, you know, one extra aircraft up there, air traffic control still separates aircraft in identically the same way. It might marginally increase the workload on any given controller, but if this aircraft faced a huge thunderhead and needed to get around it, it is up to the crew and that is at the captain and pilot's discretion to take whatever evasive action is necessary to avoid it. And they have onboard collision avoidance for other traffic as well.

So I think when we think about this unlicensed flight, what we need to think about is the efficacy of the regulators in the region and whether the airline itself was cutting some corners. Those are important questions, but not primary causes of the accident necessarily.

CABRERA: Peter, if the NTSB were leading the investigation, which it's not, of course, it's Indonesia's version of the NTSB, would the NTSB be doing anything different at this stage in the game than what you're seeing being done right now?

GOELZ: Probably not. I mean we might -- I think they would take a -- the NTSB has an open contract with the U.S. Navy to do underwater search for them. And I think there might be a little more structured search for the wreckage. But, no, I mean this is -- this is an open order water search is tough. I think the Indonesians have done a pretty good job so far in zeroing in on the likely location. And as Miles said, you know, the probable cause of this accident is going to start and be in the plane. The regulatory environment is going -- could possibly be contributing, but the attention is going to stay on the plane.

CABRERA: All right, Miles O'Brien, David Gallo, Peter Goelz, thanks so all of you.

Still to come, a new Congress, a new majority, wrestling with old problems. Can lawmakers win back the trust of a disenfranchised public? CNN's Dana Bash is on Capitol Hill.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, when the new Congress is sworn in, in just over two hours, there will be 246 Republicans in the House. that's the biggest Republican majority since 1928. I will have one of its newest members and one of its youngest members after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: It is a cold and very snowy start to the day in Washington, D.C. What a way to welcome the 114th Congress that is gearing up for a first session today. And this morning on Capitol Hill, Republicans seize on their most dominant majority in decades. The GOP now controls both houses, swept into office by voters' general disgust with Washington.

Now, just two months before the midterm elections, Congress languished with an approval rating of just 14 percent. And that is barely above the all-time low. Many blame the bickering, the infighting of a do- nothing Congress. Now, the outgoing class enacted only 296 laws, the second fewest in modern history. The current low mark is 284 laws, which was enacted by the previous Congress. All this has some Republicans calling for a change of leadership.

So let's go to Capitol Hill and chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash, who is fortunately warm indoors this morning. So, Dana, take it away.

BASH: Very fortunate to be warm indoors, although it is pretty out there.

Ana, thank you very much. And I have with me Congressman-Elect Lee Zeldin who will be Congressman in a few short hours. Thank you. First of all, congratulations.

REP.-ELECT LEE ZELDIN (R), NEW YORK: Thank you.

BASH: Let's just get down to the news. One of the first votes, if not the first vote, you are going to have to take is for the House Speaker. Will you, as a Republican, vote for John Boehner?

ZELDIN: Yes, I actually get the pleasure of -- I vote second to last. I'll very likely be casting my vote for the speaker. I've kept a very open mind since the election. A lot of this is going to unfold before me because it's a roll call vote alphabetically. So we'll see what's real and what's not real.

BASH: You're hedging a little bit?

ZELDIN: No, no. I want to let everyone know that I've kept a very open mind throughout this entire process, as I have to on all issues that get as controversial. Every vote is so important as we set up for the new session.

BASH: John Boehner campaigned for you.

ZELDIN: He did.

BASH: Raised money for you. So don't you feel a little bit of loyalty? Or the need to sort of give back and give him your vote?

ZELDIN: Well, for me, there's no one really running against him. People contact me -- they say vote for Louis Gohmert. And I like Louie. I've been talking to colleagues, and he only has one vote unless he doesn't vote for himself from everything I'm gathering. I'm not aware of anyone else. They say vote for Trey Gowdy, make him the Speaker of the House. Trey Gowdy is awesome but he seconded the nomination for the speaker.

So I'm trying to take the reality on the ground at home and talking to supporters and really analyze how this is going to unfold today with reality here in Washington. Two years ago, they attempted to make a move on the speaker. It fell woefully short of expectations. It was very disorganized. I was watching from afar; I was very unimpressed. And it's important that with we stand united. Ronald Reagan in 1858 (sic) made a speech, he says the result is not doubtful. We shall not fail when we stand firm. We shall not fail.

And I think it's important as we move into the next week, passing legislation on the Keystone XL Pipeline legislation, the Hire More Heroes Act, improve Obamacare with a 30-hour week back to a 40-hour week, that we move the ball forward and move America forward.

BASH: Now, you are a Republican from New York. You beat a Democrat, who -- Tim Bishop, who had been here for a very long time. Many, many terms. But that also means that yours is not one of those ruby red districts out there. So do you feel the need, maybe more than other Republican colleagues, to reach compromise, to reach across the aisle, because you're from a swing district?

ZELDIN: Well, the dynamics have changed. If I was here in the last who years, you have a Democratic Senate. I come from a state legislature in Albany where you have a Democratic governor and Democratic-controlled state assembly where I could not have gotten anything passed through the legislature without working with colleagues on the other side.

Right now, the 382 bills that passed the House chamber in the last two years that were dead on arrival on Harry Reid's desk, now can go to the president's desk for him to sign or veto. So we need to have an open dialogue with all of our colleagues regardless of where they're from, regardless of their background. The fact of the matter is we now have a Senate we can work with to get all these great solutions on the president's desk.

BASH: Now, you are going to be the only Republican Jewish member of Congress when you're sworn in in a couple of hours. How does that make your role and your place here different, if at all?

ZLEDIN: Well, I've always been very outspoken on foreign policy for our support of our strongest ally in the world, in Israel. So there will be opportunities to speak about principles I stand for. We need a stronger, more consistent foreign policy. We need to understand that our enemies do not respect weakness; they only respect strength. And we shouldn't be urging patience on the part of Israelis while praising the Palestinian Authority when they choose to root out Hamas.

So there are going to be so many ways that we're going to be able to speak up for causes we believe in, and I share with my constituents, that will improve America's foreign policy. So I welcome that opportunity and expand the Republican Party as well look towards a presidential captain in 2016.

BASH: Lee Zeldin, thank you very much and congratulations.

ZELDIN: Thank you.

BASH: Thanks for joining me. And, Ana, back to you.

CABRERA: All right, Dana Bash, thanks so much. Be sure to tune it at noon Eastern. We have special coverage of the start of the 114th Congress.

OK, still to come here, is this the end of cable TV as we know it? Soon you'll be able to ditch the cable box and stream networks like ESPN directly to your TV and for just 20 bucks a month. Brian Stelter, CNN's senior media correspondent ,has more -- Brian.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is called Sling TV and it's not the end of cable but it is an evolution. I'll tell you all about it right after this.

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CABRERA: It could the beginning of a la carte television and it may be good news if you are one of those viewer who just subscribes to cable for the sports channels, for example, but you have to pay for those extras. Well, there's a new option for you. Dish Network just unveiled a web TV service to rival cable at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It's called the Core. It's $20 a month, includes a dozen networks like ESPN, the Food Network, and even Time Warner, including CNN.

There will also be options to add channels a la carte for just another five bucks a month. Oh, and get this: there is no contract. And since it's all streaming, you will never have to spend another day at home waiting for the cable guy to show up.

All right, Brian Stelter, CNN's senior media correspondent joining me now to explain how this is going to work. Sling TV CEO Roger Lynch calls this a game changer. Is this the future of TV?

STELTER: Well, it is groundbreaking for a couple reasons. One is, as you were just saying, there's no contract, there's no commitment, there's no hardware. You don't have to have a set top box at home. That's something the cable industry has wanted for a long time, because everybody watching at home right now either has a satellite dish or set top box. It's kind of annoying. You should haven't to have it in an age where we can all watch TV on our cell phones.

So Sling TV here from Dish is getting us closer to that direction where you won't have to have that annoying hardware or those installations.

It's also important because it only has those 12 channels: it has CNN and ESPN but not many others. No broadcast networks, none of the smaller channels that people might be used to watching. For example -- CABRERA: No broadcast networks? That's interesting.

STELTER: No broadcast networks. So it's really -- it's really envisioned for a cord cutter, someone in their 20s who doesn't have cable at all right now, who can't be watching us right now, but who does want access to live news and, importantly, live sports from ESPN. They're assuming that tese subscribers will also have Netflix and also have Hulu and also have an antenna to watch broadcast TV. But it's not really a replacement for the cable bundle with hundreds of channels that a lot of our viewers have right now.

I think it's important because it's part of an evolution toward for more options for consumers, more convenience, and more portability, so that I can watch TV on my phone or on my tablet or on my Xbox video game system, as well as on the big screen TV.

CABRERA: But no cable box, so how does it works?

STELTER: So it streams through whatever device you have and they're adding more and more devices to make it work on more systems. And Dish is the first to do this but won't be the only one. I'm about to post a story on CNNmoney.com about how Verizon and Sony and DirecTV are interested in doing this kind of streaming cable package as well.

In some ways, it's a way to preserve the cable business model. This is an incredibly lucrative business model for companies like Time Warner, which own CNN. The fact that the vast majority of American households pay for cable is something that's really remarkable even though it's pretty costly and a lot of people hate waiting for the cable guy. Well, in this Internet age, these companies have to figure out a way to preserve the cable model and make it more convenient and more portable. This is one way to do that, by making it streaming.

CABRERA: When you talked about, it could be screamed to any of your devices. So it's $20 per device, so if you want to watch it on your phone, if you want to watch it on your TV, if you have more than one TV, this might not necessarily save you money, right?

STELTER: That's the other reason why this is groundbreaking. You have, what, DirecTV at home? I have Time Warner cable. So I've got two TVs; I pay one price for my whole house. Well, this is per person. So if you have four people at home, you might have to buy four subscriptions to this. This is why, for the moment, it's experimental. It's a new way to try out cable and it's a new way especially to get young people to pay for cable who don't pay for it right now. But I think idea of a per person subscription, more like Netflix, more like Spotify, might be part of the future.

CABRERA: We'll see. Brian Stelter, thank you.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right after a quick break. Don't go away.

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