Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Bleacher Report; Eyewitness Describes Las Vegas Crash; What SpaceX Landing Means for Future Space Exploration. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 22, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:02] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The story of how people survive has not been told, now it will.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for the five things to know for your NEW DAY.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CAMEROTA (voice-over): Number one, Donald Trump launching a new attack at Hillary Clinton. He called her bathroom break during Saturday night's debate, quote, "disgusting" and used a vulgar term to describe her 2008 loss to Senator Obama.

A grand jury deciding not to indict anyone in the death of Sandra Bland. She was found dead in her jail cell in July, three days after being pulled over for a minor traffic stop.

Investigators still trying to figure out why a female driver ran over pedestrians on the Vegas strip, killing a mother of three and injuring 37 others. The suspect, Lakeisha Holloway, now faces murder and child abuse charges.

Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl set for his arraignment at Fort Bragg today. He's facing court marshal on charges of desertion and endangering fellow soldiers after leaving his Army base in Afghanistan in 2009.

SpaceX makes history, blasting its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit and then landing the rocket back on Earth.

[08:35:04] It was met with massive cheering. This is the first time an unmanned rocket returned to land vertically at Cape Canaveral.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CAMEROTA (on camera): For more on the five things you need to know go to NEWDAYCNN.com for all of the latest. Chris?

CUOMO: Well, big news headed the NFL, dropping the hammer on Odell Beckham Jr, suspending the Giant's star receiver for one game for his actions against the Panthers on Sunday. Andy Scholes has more in this morning's Bleacher Report. Go investigative for me, Andy. Isn't there a little bit more to this story about what Beckham says happened before the game and why he was so amped up? What do we know?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes. Well, you know, Chris, he said before the game the Panthers had a bat on the field and they were pointing it at him, and he felt threatened. You know, who knows if that really played a part in this whole ordeal.

But Beckham in the game was flagged three times for unsportsman like conduct against the Panthers, but it was the helmet to helmet hit on Josh Norman that earned him a suspension. Let's take a look at the play right here that I'm talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

SCHOLES (voice-over): Beckham was running at full speed, just launches himself right at Norman's head. Now Beckham, he has appealed his one game suspension. Giants, they've got a bit game on Sunday, a must win against the Vikings if they want to have a chance at making the playoffs.

Now the Saints were hosting the Lions on Monday night football. Drew Brees making a little history, becoming only the fourth quarterback to surpass 60,000 career passing yards. He joins Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, and Dan Marino in the exclusive club.

The Lions, thought, they got the last laugh. Matt Stafford throws three touchdowns including two to Golden Tate as the Lions won the game 35 to 27.

You know, right now most people have Santa Claus on their mind, but Hawk guard Dennis Schroder. He's thinking about the tooth fairy this morning because last night Schroder collided with Blazers forward Meyers Leonard and one of this teeth got knocked out. You can actually see the tooth falling out right there. Schroder, we're going to pick it up, puts it right in his sock. He then went home, guys, and put it under his pillow, and I bet he's waking up this morning with a crips $5 bill. I made up that last sentence, it's probably not true.

(END VIDOECLIP)

SCHOLES (on camera): But guys, I wanted to know, what is the going rate for a tooth in the Camerota and Cuomo households right now?

CUOMO: Camerota is tight as two coats of paint. I think that she's probably putting an IOU under there. We go big in the Cuomo family.

SCHOLES: Big?

CUOMO: Big, we go big with the teeth.

SCHOLES: Really?

CUOMO: Of course we don't have anything to do with it. The Tooth Fairy takes care of all of that, but...

SCHOLES: Absolutely.

CUOMO: ... he or she has been very, very generous.

SCHOLES: It's great to hear, Chris.

CUOMO: Take care, pal.

SCHOLES: All right.

CUOMO: We're going to take a break.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CUOMO (voice-over): When we come back, a doctor witnesses this crazed driver ramming into pedestrians on purpose, police say, and then jumps into action. So many people were hurt, why weren't more lost? Because of the actions of people like this. We'll tell you the story when we come back.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:41:33] CAMEROTA: New details this morning about the Las Vegas crash that killed a woman and injured dozens of others.

Authorities charging 24-year-old Lakeisha Holloway with murder and child abuse.

Joining us now is Atif Qureshi, he's a doctor who saw the accident and rushed to help the injured. Dr. Qureshi, thank you so much for being with us. Tell us what you and your wife saw Sunday night as you were driving down the Vegas strip

ATIF QURESHI, TREATED INJURED AFTER VEGAS CRASH: Hi. Well, I was driving up the Vegas strip towards the North side and we were in the right lane, and my wife who was in the non driver seat, she saw a very fast-moving car driving up the sidewalk. And at first she thought it was an emergency vehicle, but then she saw that the car just plowed into a group of people on the sidewalk.

And she described it as if a bowling ball hit some bowling pins, and the people literally flew in the air and fell to the ground and the car kept going. It slowed down a little bit because we think it hit something, but it just kept going on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the driveway that we were at. So, I immediately turned into the driveway, right into the Paris Casino and, you know, opened the door and rushed out to help. I saw about six to seven people. Yes?

CAMEROTA: Well, authorities -- before I get to what you did, because you ran to their aid. And - but authorities quickly figured out that this was intentional. Was it your wife who watched this, was it her impression that this was an intentional act? QURESHI: Yes, I think. You know, because why would anyone else, you

know, walk on -- drive on the sidewalk with such precision. You know, that was the thing that she was driving, she plowed into the people, she didn't stop. She just kept going. So, like, you know, that is what made it look like very intentional.

CAMEROTA: Okay.

QURESHI: Whether it was under the influence or not, we don't know.

CAMEROTA: Okay, so your wife tells you that she sees people flying in the air. You are a doctor, you pull over and you rush to help and do triage. Tell us what you saw.

QURESHI: Well, I saw about six to seven people who were lying on the sidewalk and then more injured were sitting on the sides and people were screaming for help. There was another person who identified herself as a doctor, one as an EMT, one as a nurse.

So it was as if a team came out of nowhere and we started triaging people which is like to see who was injured most and needed most help. And, you know, we went from person to person making sure that they did not need CPR. At that time everybody was breathing and they had a pulse. There were a few unconscious people, and it is sad to know that later on then one of them passed away.

But at that time nobody need emergency CPR, so we waited for the EMS to arrive. And as soon as they arrived we told them which was the sickest person and so on and so forth and, you know, helped them identify the more -- the people who were hurt more.

[08:44:54] CAMEROTA: Dr. Qureshi, thank goodness you were there. I mean, you -- because - just because you happened to be driving by and you were a doctor and you did the right thing, you helped people. You may have saved people. But how long did it take for the EMTs to arrive?

QURESHI: I beg your pardon?

CAMEROTA: I was reading in some notes but I find this hard to believe that it took a long time for the EMTs to arrive. Longer than it should have? What was your impression?

QURESHI: It was about 15 minutes, I think, from the time the accident happened.

CAMEROTA: That's a long time.

QURESHI: I think it was just the traffic on the -- yes. But like I don't know how things work out in Vegas. It is a busy city. And the boulevard was packed with cars and it was a busy time of the evening too. So yes. It took about 15 minutes, I would say, more or less at least.

CAMEROTA: Well, Dr. Qureshi, the injured thank you for pulling over and doing the right thing and we thank you for being on NEW DAY. QURESHI: Thank you so much. My prayers are with the victims and the

injured. So I'm sorry to hear that one life was lost. And hopefully -- it was a sad time before Christmas -- but hopefully everybody will be safe from now on.

CAMEROTA: Yes. We share your hopes. Thank you again for being here.

Chris.

CUOMO: Good thing people like him jumped into action, that's for sure.

All right. We'll take a little break here. When we come back, mission accomplished for SpaceX. Its Falcon 9 rocket makes history completing a flight landing vertically. You can watch it all unfold right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:11] CUOMO: Big news. Big, big news. Aviation company SpaceX successfully launching a rocket booster into orbit and landing it back on earth to be used again for a future launch.

So what? Wrong. This is something that has never been done before. The monumental mission could mean everyday people like you - never me - may someday experience outer space.

For a better understanding we turn to CNN's CNN aviation analyst, Mr. Miles O'Brien. Early Christmas wishes to you, my brother.

People will say rockets go up, they come down, I see it all the time. That is not true. How big is this?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: It's all in how you stick it, Chris. This was a perfect ten, even for the Romanian judge. It is a big deal because for years and years ever since the space age began we've tried to come up with ways to make rockets reusable. They tried with the space shuttle, didn't succeed very well. Elon Musk is now pursuing this, along with some others, trying to bring these expensive parts back to earth safely so they can be reused, making it cheaper.

CUOMO: Now first of all, may I flag a documentary that you did about what it takes to get up into space, which is really cool. You shot it, you wrote it, and it's a really good look at this process. What did you learn about how difficult a task it is to make this a fungible commodity, something that can be used again and again?

O'BRIEN: Well, that - thank you, by the way, for the plug - but I was on the space shuttle, the space shuttle had a million moving parts. All of them from the low bidder, I might add. And it was an incredibly complicated machine that never achieved any sort of cost savings. It cost about $10,000 a pound to put a pound of anything into space the shuttle. So if we're ever going to go, you and - well, I guess not you - but if I'm ever going to go to space, we have to come up with a way to do it cheaper and that is what Elon Musk helped demonstrate last night.

CUOMO: And where does the road lead? Now that they decided they can take it up and bring it back down, what is the next step?

O'BRIEN: Well you start increasing the pace of launches. You start doing this more frequently. And we start driving the cost down. NASA moves out of low earth orbit, as it has been doing. The private sector comes in there and pretty soon we have space hotels that we can go visit. Well, that might take a little bit of time.

CUOMO: A little bit. What is the big challenge that you see and what will be the next big breakthrough?

O'BRIEN: Well I think they're going to, as I say, they are going to have to prove they can repeat this again. And this particular rocket that you saw last night will not be reused. They are going to look at it and see how it performed. Down the road it really comes down to almost coming up with an assembly line approach to space. That is the real challenge. You know, the engineering is there, they have proven technically they can do it. Now it is a question of increasing the pace. And I think that is no small task.

CUOMO: So no small task. So what is the guesswork here about when we'll be looking at the ability to do anything like what we all watch in the movies all the time about people just jumping into a cruiser and flying off and coming back from where there is no oxygen?

O'BRIEN: What we've been saying is 20 years off for -- ever since I've been around. And I hesitate to make predictions on these things because space is hard. But the fact that there are these billionaires. Jeff Bezos did a very similar thing just this past month. This happened twice in about a month's time by two billionaires who have their eyes on the stars. And I say the more the merrier. The more these people invest their money on these seemingly crazy ideas, which may in fact pay off on a rich bonanza on low earth orbit, the better. That's what the hope is. And then NASA, meanwhile, can focus on what it should be doing, which is heading to Mars.

CUOMO: So that's what NASA is doing. The private sector is coming in to fill the space. That shows promise because they have a different model of how they make things work. So are we even close to Miles O'Brien coming on NEW DAY and saying I'm ready to go, they just are fitting me for the suit?

O'BRIEN: Well I've been tanned, rested and ready for a long time on this one for sure. Now when I'll get my seat, I don't know. I think the next big step will be watching to see these private sector players fly U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX, Elon Musk, is one of the players in this realm. If that goes well and they can truly get people to low earth orbit safely, then I think we are really going to see a change in the way this all works out.

CUOMO: It'd really be interesting to see how they figure out how they can make money. How they can recoup on investment by doing this. That will obviously be something that will - no pun intended - rocket this to the next level.

Miles O'Brien, the best to you. Thank you for helping us understand this, as always. [08:55:02] O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Chris.

CUOMO: So as we all know, it is the time of year for giving. And we have such a good one for you. A secret Santa takes it to the next level and then some. Positive way to start your day ahead. Come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Secret Santa like never before.

CAMEROTA: Okay.

CUOMO: Yup yup yup. I'm overselling and I can because it is too good. Look and listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Needless to say I was surprised and shocked. And, umm, just a little bit overwhelmed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Why? Because notes were left at not one, but six nonprofit organizations in Colorado. The note read, in part, you don't know me, but I know you. I see the good work you do. And it doesn't stop there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're saying thanks and we hope he or she is out there watching because we're so grateful. Whoever you are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Secret Santa didn't just give a donation to the organizations, but for all of their employees too. And we're not talking a hundy here or a hundy there. The Secret Santa donated over $250,000.

CAMEROTA: What?

CUOMO: Yes.

CAMEROTA: That's a heck of a secret Santa.

CUOMO: Now what do you have to say?

CAMEROTA: I'm impressed. I'm very impressed. That is a wonderful Christmas story.

CUOMO: Right?

CAMEROTA: You were right.

CUOMO: There are good people doing good things --

CAMEROTA: All the time. CUOMO: Even when they have a lot of money, they're still good people.

We seem to be forgetting that these days.