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Stocks Slide; Executive Action on Guns; Protests in Oregon; Markets Down Over Fears of China's Slowdown; New Images of Sunken El Faro Cargo Ship; Black Monday for NFL Coaches. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired January 04, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:03] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That spread quickly to Europe, and so you have selling in stocks and buying of things like gold and bonds. Those are fearful trades. So there is fear reigning in the markets beginning this year. We're seeing the Dow down about 102 points right now. This because you're just starting to tallying up the early trades. This is probably not all of the Dow components open. So you're quickly seeing a triple digit decline here.

Deb, there's something else happening here. You've been reading those headlines, you've been telling the story about what's happening between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

ROMANS: That adds to the global tensions. That is something that unnerves investors, causes people to seek safety in gold and bonds and out of stocks. So you're seeing a real, I would say, a robust opening to trading around the world.

FEYERICK: Yes.

ROMANS: And it's a -- robust selling around the world.

FEYERICK: You -- when -- when -- when you think about what's happening, it's not just what's going on in China with this manufacturing report, but there's also the global economy that's really being weighed down at this point. And that's -- the whole thing is inter connected in a very, very real way.

ROMANS: Absolutely. Very connected (ph). Here's what's so interesting to me. Last year you had, for the Dow and the S&P, you know, the worst year for stocks since the crash of 2008. You had a 2 percent loss for the Dow, a slight loss for the S&P 500. So investors didn't get much satisfaction last year after six very good years. So a lot of folks are talking about, is this bull market aging?

Another thing though, to counter that is, you probably had record car sales in the U.S. last year. You had a jobs market in the U.S. that was getting better. You have interest rates that are still very low. So in the U.S. you have a business environment that is still pretty good, but these concerns about Europe, these concerns about China, and now these concerns about the Middle East. So it really is a two speed story here. The U.S. has been doing relatively well --

FEYERICK: Right.

ROMANS: But the rest of the world -- the rest of the world still has a lot of growth concerns. You're seeing the Dow now 268 points lower here. I'll tell you, percentage wise, Europe having a much tougher time with all this news in the U.S. But, still, that is a big loss. And 17,151 is the level on the Dow right now.

FEYERICK: All right, we're going to be watching this all morning. It's certainly going to be a very interesting day to see what happens.

ROMANS: Yes. You're welcome.

FEYERICK: And up it goes and down it goes. All right, well, thank you, Christine Romans.

And now that President Obama has entered his final year in office, he's making gun control a top priority. Later today, the president meets with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss tighter gun restrictions. Any day now, he's expected to unveil a new executive action that would expand background checks and enforce tougher regulations for reporting lost and stolen firearms.

Republicans are already unleashing on the president's plans. On Thursday, the president will make a final push to the public. He is planning to sit down for an exclusive town hall on "Guns in America," hosted by CNN.

Let's bring in CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

How effective does the president feel this could be in actually changing guns in the United States?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, we'll see. I mean there's a lot of suspense here as to what exactly he will do, how far he'll go on this. We've heard him more than a dozen times now come out and speak to the American public after mass shootings in America, slamming Congress for not taking action on gun control, vowing to do things himself. And now we know that these changes are imminent. We expect them to include expanded background checks. But the question mark is how far will they go? They could bring in more people that now are just considered private sellers, who don't sell very many guns or sell them very often. We could see expanded ATF tracking of lost and stolen guns. Possibly maybe more people banned because of domestic violence convictions. But, again, that still remains to be seen. And we'll see the president meet today with his attorney general, with the ATF and the FBI.

But the criticism against taking action like this, which the president has done before and didn't go extremely far, is that, well, when you look at mass shootings in America, many of those guns were bought legally with background checks. So now we're seeing Republicans just slam the potential executive actions that the president plans to take, calling them overstepping or unconstitutional. Mike Huckabee called the plan "completely insane." But here's what the president said in his weekly address.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We know we can't stop every act of violence, but what if we tried to stop even one? What if Congress did something, anything, to protect our kids from gun violence?

I get too many letters from parents and teachers and kids to sit around and do nothing. I get letters from responsible gun owners who grieve with us every time these tragedies happen, who share my belief that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms and who share my belief we can protect that right while keeping an irresponsible, dangerous few from inflicting harm on a massive scale.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: This has been such a tough issue for such a long time. As you might imagine, America is deeply split on this with now slightly more than half of Americans opposing stricter gun laws.

[09:35:11] Deb.

FEYERICK: Michelle Kosinski, it will also be interesting to see whether he talks about not allowing people who are on the terror watch list not to buy guns, which has been a big issue, as well.

KOSINSKI: Right.

FEYERICK: Thank you, there from the White House for us. We appreciate it.

And just a reminder for our viewers, President Obama joins CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday for an exclusive one hour live town hall to discuss gun control. You can watch that right here on CNN Thursday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

A faceoff with the gunman enters day three. Armed protesters still have control of a government building. We're in Oregon, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: And as we watch the markets this morning, the Dow down about 350 points. This responding to China, which stopped trading after markets there fell by 7 percent. We are keeping a very close eye on that for you.

Meantime, tensions are running high in Oregon as a faceoff against the government enters day three. Armed protesters taking over a federal building, claiming to be defending ranchers' rights. This morning, an American flag covers the sign of that facility they're refusing to leave. The group's leader speaking to CNN just hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMMON BUNDY, SPOKESMAN FOR PROTESTERS: Everything that we use, everything that we benefit as people comes from the land. The federal government knows that that's where wealth is generated from, and -- and they're -- they're taking it and stealing it from the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And Sara Sidner is in Burns, Oregon, with more on how all of this unfolded, and the man speaking was defending two ranchers who say he doesn't even speak for them. What's going on?

[09:40:08] SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they say we -- they don't speak for the Hammonds, but they came here for the other ranchers and the Hammonds themselves, who have been sent back to prison because of a change in what the government, the courts decided. They had spent some time in prison for arson. That sentence, they said, was too short, so they had to go back to prison after being out for a while.

These folks came here from out of town. They're from out of state, Nevada and Arizona. I didn't notice anyone who was local who was inside of the compound. But basically what they're saying is, they're here to try and protect ranchers rights, to try and protect farmers rights, and to try and protect the rights of Americans everywhere. They say that the federal government has overstepped its bounds when it comes to land use issues.

Their fight is with the federal government, not the local government. They're very clear about that. They say they're here because they want to take the land back and then hand it back to the people. How long will they be here? We asked them that question. They said, days, months, or even years, whatever it takes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMMON BUNDY, SPOKESMAN FOR PROTESTERS: We're going to stay here until we have secured the land and the resources back to the people of Harney County, and where they can get back to ranching, get back to logging, get back to using these lands without feeling fear and intimidation. And that's our -- that's our goal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now they say they are armed but they do not intend to pick a fight with the federal government. However, they will stand their ground if the federal government does try to come in and remove them from the premises here.

This is a wilderness. This area is about 30 miles outside of town. There really is not much around us but land and animals. They say they're not hurting anyone. And they hope that the government does not come in and try to forcibly remove them.

We do notice that there are folks that are on a tower up here, that are on a lookout. There are a couple of folks standing and positioned so that you can't just easily go down to where the headquarters is, where the federal building is, down inside of this wilderness refuge. But they are very clear that they want this land to be released back to the people. And that's what they say they're going to stay here until that happens. FEYERICK: And, Sara, just very quickly, do you see any sort of

National Guardsman, any police, any federal agents, either FBI, ATF, anybody who is there keeping an eye directly on the situation and these men who are inside this wildlife refuge?

SIDNER: That's a really good question. And the answer to your -- to that is, no. There are no members of law enforcement out here that we can see. And it is a very flat land. So we'd be able to see any cars that were out here. There's nobody from the federal government, nobody from the local government that we have seen out here. They've been here for now two days, going into a third day.

And that has a lot of folks talking on social media, as you might imagine. There's a lot of criticism saying, well, if there were armed militia that took over, for example, another kind of government building and they happen to be African-American, or they happen to be Muslims, that the response would be very different. We can't say that. All we know is that the response here, that there is no law enforcement right now. However, we are told from the local sheriff's department that, indeed, they will be setting up a command center shortly. So we're not sure exactly when that's going to happen, but that is planned for today.

FEYERICK: All right, Sara Sidner for us there keeping an eye on the situation. Thanks so much. We'll check back in with you a little later on.

And with me now to talk about the legal issues of this protest, CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson.

So, Joey, just listening to Sara's report and also knowing that -- that the head of this, Ammon Bundy, is walking in and out, giving interviews, he must have control of the situation. You've got dozens of white American so-called patriots who have taken control over this.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

FEYERICK: Where is the federal government?

JACKSON: All right. Well, let's start generally, Deb. Good morning, by the way.

FEYERICK: Good morning.

JACKSON: And then specifically. There are many people, of course, across the country that have grievances with the federal government. Very principled grievances that are held near and dear to their heart. However, there's a legal way in which to go about that.

Now, the federal government, where they are now exactly, don't know. But remember, you know, it's a matter between escalating and de- escalating. So I'm sure they're weighing their options. The fact is, is that whenever you occupy federal property and go on to federal property, there's some criminality that's associated with that, you know, with regard to trespassing. How'd they get into the federal building? They're indicating they're going to occupy it for however long as it takes.

FEYERICK: Right.

JACKSON: Those are criminal actions. And so there's a way in which to resolve things, no matter what your grievance with the government, but those are through courts of law, not necessarily instances like this. I think we will see the federal government, what the response will be, however, remains an open question.

FEYERICK: And last night, Bundy tweeted that, "we are not terrorists. We are men who believe in our rights." But they've also -- he's also said that they're planning on staying there perhaps for years if that -- if need be.

[09:45:02] This is like a real sort of Occupy movement, and there's even a hashtag to that effect.

JACKSON: Yes.

FEYERICK: So have authorities lost vital ground in trying to get these people out?

JACKSON: You know, Deb, I think authorities have to be very careful about what the response is going to be here. Because, remember, these are people who are occupying this space who, again, feel they have a very principled disagreement with the government regarding government treatment, regarding their sovereignty as people to occupy whatever space and land they want to occupy.

And so when the government comes in, these people are armed. And so how is it going to resolve itself? Is there going to be negotiations so that the people will -- their grievances can be heard and potentially respected and could be resolved peacefully? Or is there going to be a shootout with the government, where people's lives are going to be lost?

And I think the government, assessing their response, they have to be very mindful of the potential consequences that can come about as a result of that.

FEYERICK: Sure, we all -- everybody remembers Ruby Ridge, everybody remembers many bad things that happened. And the government certainly does not want something like that. But critics are arguing that if this was another group -- there are different hashtags out there now, mocking this group, calling them VanillaISIS, call them Yeehadists. They're sort of making fun of the people in that building. But, at the same time, if this were members of ISIS, or proclaimed members of ISIS, who had taken over a facility, is it fair to say the response would, in fact, be very, very different?

JACKSON: I think it's a legitimate concern. I think it's a legitimate argument to have, that the government's response would be different. However, if you're looking at the government resolving things, there's ways to resolve them. And I think the initial way, and we've talked about it, even as it applies to state responses, you know, there has to be a sort of use of force continuum up the line. And, first, of course, I think it would be incumbent upon the government to speak to them and attempt to resolve it peacefully. After that ends, perhaps it will move to the issue of escalation, it will move to force. I think you may see the government have a show of force in that area, to say, hey, we're serious. But I think as an initial matter, if it can resolve itself peacefully, we all benefit, as opposed to the government coming in and using heavy-handed tactics that they have the resources, of course, we know, to use.

FEYERICK: And to be clear, the protest had started peacefully. There were two ranchers who were going back to prison because they failed to serve maximum -- or minimum maximum penalties on the crimes that they committed. Both endangering firefighters, but also poaching on their land.

JACKSON: That was a very contentious issue, too.

FEYERICK: That was a huge issue, so it's not in a vacuum that this happens. Joey Jackson, thanks so much for your insights, as always.

JACKSON: Thank you.

FEYERICK: And still to come, trapped deep underwater. We're getting a look at the cargo ship that sank during Hurricane Joaquin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:58] FEYERICK: As we keep an eye on the markets here in the United States, they are down now about 340 points. Alison Kosik is live for us at the New York Stock Exchange. Alison, tell us about the mood there on the floor.

ALISON KOSIK, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: You could say the mood is certaily grim on this first day of trading for 2016. Hey, the good news is is the selloff is leveling off a little bit. We did see the Dow down as much as 397 points. It's pulled back just a little -- or come back just a little, now down just -- I say just -- slightly 337 points.

Look, this is all happening because of China's big selloff overnight, a selloff so bad that they had to close trading early for the day. That's spooking world markets, not just here in the U.S. but Europe as well. The worry is that China's slowing economy is going to start affecting other economies, namely the U.S., and then if it does affect the U.S. as it is, the worry is that China's slowdown will affect U.S. companies. And it already has. You see lots of companies like Apple, Walmart, and others, that are exposed to China, that are saying in their earnings reports that they are feeling the effects of China's slow down in their bottom lines. And so you are seeing a resetting of values in stocks, of valuations in stocks, based on what the expectation is going to be for China throughout the year. Deb?

FEYERICK: And very briefly, Alison, with interest rates now going up, what does that suggest? How does that play into all of this?

KOSIK: Well, that's the worry, too, because when interest rates go up, the thinking is that people are less likely to borrow money because it costs more to borrow that money. And the worry is that companies wouldn't necessarily expand as much. They wouldn't necessarily hire as much. The worry is that it would cause a slowdown in sort of how the economy functions. And that also adding insult to injury here on a day where we're seeing lots of red on the screen, Deb.

FEYERICK: All right, and we'll be seeing lots of you as we keep checking in with you throughout the morning. Alison Kosik for us there at the New York Stock Exchange, thanks very much.

And for the first time we're now getting a glimpse of the final resting place of the doomed cargo ship El Faro, which now sits at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, some 15,000 feet beneath the surface. It disappeared near the Bahamas in October during Hurricane Joaquin. 33 people were on board, including 28 Americans. Only one victim was recovered by the Coast Guard in the days following the ship's disappearance.

Let's get right to CNN's government regulations correspondent Rene Marsh in Washington. What is the latest?

RENE MARSH, CNN GOVT. REGULATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Deb, El Faro, the cargo ship, you just saw those images. It lost engine power. We know that. It took on water and it sank in that Category 4 hurricane back in October.

Now, these new underwater images show that the hull was breached and battered. The top two decks, including the navigational tower where the captain would have been, they were torn from the rest of the ship. You saw that the windows were blown out. The new images really do indicate just how extremely violent the conditions were at sea when this ship was going down. We know that the waves were some 30 feet tall.

Now federal investigators with the NTSB, they're still working to figure out exactly what caused the deadly sequence of events. Investigators will be looking at whether the crew had the most up-to- date weather forecast as well as the oversight of the company that operates the ship. We know the NTSB says it will take at least a year before they better understand exactly what happened. But when you look at those pictures there, you see just how badly damaged that ship is.

FEYERICK: Yes, and you think of those 33 people. Wow. All right, Rene Marcsh, thank you for the update.

MARSH: Sure.

FEYERICK: And still to come, you've heard of Black Friday, but Black Monday? Which NFL coaches will still have a job when the dust settles?

[09:49:46]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) FEYERICK: Today is Black Monday for NFL coaches, where that season could end with a trip to the unemployment line. The Cleveland Browns didn't wait until today; they fired their coach yesterday. So did the San Francisco 49ers. Their coach was on the job for just a year.

CNN's Coy Wire joins us now. Coy, not a good day and all eyes now on the New York Giants.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Absolutely, Deborah. The cell phones of those coaches, they're hoping they do not ring. Giants ownership is scheduled to meet this morning to discuss the status of Tom Coughlin. Coughlin wouldn't even answer any questions about his future after the Giants' loss yesterday to the Eagles, but he did have a bunch of his extended family, including 11 grandchildren, attend the game. So some speculated that this was a sign showing that he wanted his loved ones there because he knew it was it was his last game as head man of the giants. He dismissed those speculations immediately though, saying this was just a family gathering.

Now, Coughlin is 69 yeas old. The Giants went only 6-10 this year and haven't been to the playoffs since 2011, when they won their second of two Super Bowls under Coughlin. There have been increasing whispers in the NFL circle that Coughlin may actually not retire but, instead, stay and force the Giants to either fire him or keep him. Either way, we're talking about a hall of fame coaching career. Having played against his teams, you always respected a Coughlin-coached team.

Now the Colt's coach, Pagano, is the other big name that may be looking for employment soon. Reports out of Indy have been that if the Colts didn't make the playoffs, he was going to be gone. Well, Indy just missed out on the playoffs. Their star quarterback Andrew Luck has been injured most of the season. The team had high hopes, some experts even saying that they were Super Bowl contenders before the season started. So reports are that the Colts are going to swing for the fences on their next coach if Pagano is indeed let go. Names like Alabama's Nick Saban and the Saints' Sean Payton are being thrown out. Having a chance to coach an Andrew Luck in his prime is going to be an enticing, enticing situation for an coaching candidate out there, Deborah.

FEYERICK: All right, high stakes. The game of glory. Our Coy Wire, thanks, with the latest.

WIRE: You're welcome.

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[10:00:07] FEYERICK: And the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.