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Department of Transportation Scrutinize Boeing 737 Max; Similarities between two 737 Max Crashes; Trump Punts on White Supremacy. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 18, 2019 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:33:31] ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting a grand jury in Washington issued a broad subpoena against at least one person involved in the development of Boeing 737 Max jetliner. "The Journal" says federal prosecutors and the Department of Transportation are scrutinizing development and approval for Boeing's best-selling jet.

Let's discuss now with CNN transportation analyst May Schiavo, who is also the former inspector general for the U.S. Transportation Department and an attorney representing families of plane crash victims. We do know you currently have litigation pending against Boeing.

Mary, always good to talk to you because you put this in such good perspective for us, especially based on your former role as the inspector general at the Department of Transportation.

So, when you see this headline in "The Wall Street Journal," what does that saying to you based on your experience?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, it says to me that my old office is doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing, which is safeguarding the safety of the American public and the taxpayers' dollars. And so when the Office of Inspector General launches an investigation, it can actually have two different prongs. The Office of Inspector General can do civil investigations and civil work. They have auditors and analysts and they will be analyzing whether the Federal Aviation Administration performed its role as a safety oversight agency and whether it's processes are robust, whether what the FAA says it did it really did and whether that's enough.

On the criminal side, the Office of Inspector General is empowered to investigate fraud, false statements, any kind of criminal behavior that affects transportation. So, on the criminal side, they might be looking at, for example, whether in the certification process of this aircraft if documents that were submitted to the FAA were really truthful. If they did everything they said they did or they skipped steps and then certified that they did them. That's a crime. It's a -- can be as simple as a false statement to the federal government or it can take a more, you know, a more sinister form. But those are the two missions of the Office of Inspector General. [06:35:29] HILL: And, of course, if -- if -- if anything like that did

happen in terms of misinformation, which again, as you point out, falls under the criminal here, the implications and the possible fallout from that could not only be significant but could literally be deadly.

SCHIAVO: That's right. I mean it is deadly, as we've shown. Something went wrong here because some people, many people, have died. Almost 350 people have died. So we know the implications were deadly.

What the Office of Inspector General has to figure out is two pronged. Was it also criminal? And what has to be changed for the future because part of their important mandate is to make changes in the management of the Federal Aviation Administration so it better serves the safety of the traveling public.

HILL: Part of this article that also stuck out to me is that "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that they may be looking at the relationship not only between Boeing and the FAA, but they were specifically looking at an office that mandates training requirements, including any changes that are made and then how they need to be implemented.

And this -- this stood out to me because of the changes that we heard about after the Lion Air crash, which I know, as you pointed out on CNN over the weekend, were sort of minimal.

SCHIAVO: That's right. And I think this is a very important part of the inspector general's probe. And then it's, after Lion Air when the United States government, the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing had a lot of opportunities and certainly should have a lot of incentive to make sure that that never happened again. But what we're learning now is that the repair, if you will, or the fix was to insert a page or two, make some changes in the manual, not many, and call for the pilots to have an hour or so of what we call desktop training or computer training. The pilots were not instructed -- the airlines were not instructed to put their pilots through any simulator training where you'd actually have hands-on feeling of this stick shaker when this system went off that malfunctioned, the system as we've talked about many times of pushing the nose down when the pilots -- at a time when the pilots were trying to pull the nose up. So that's going to be looked at as well. Who made that decision and what was it based on?

And one of the other things that they're going to be looking at is -- are the risk factors. And one thing that you never want to have in aviation because aviation is so safe because of redundancies, you know, there's never one fail point in a system. You have lots of backups. But here it appears that there was a one fail point, this MCAS system, and so they're going to be looking at, what were the statistics? How many failures were predicted? Was it one in 30,000 or one in 10 million or 1 in 100,000? And a 1 in 100,000 event happens every other day in aviation, there's just so much flying.

HILL: Mary, always appreciate your insight. There's been so much made too, we should point out, of the similarities between the Ethiopian and the Lion Air flight. I do just want to get in our statement from Boeing before we conclude

this segment. In regard to that, Boeing issuing a statement saying, the 737 Max was certified in accordance with the identical FAA requirements and processes that have governed certification of all previous new airplanes and derivatives. The FAA considered the final configuration and operating parameters of MCAS during Max certification, and concluded it met all certification and regulatory requirements.

Mary, always good to have you with us. Thank you.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

HILL: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the president of the United States campaigned on banning Muslims from entering the U.S. After the attack in New Zealand he said nothing of the anti-Muslimism nature of that attack. So, what is the impact here? What do white nationalist see when the president speaks like this? We'll discuss, next.

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[06:43:06] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Do you see today what nationalism as a rising threat around the world?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't really. I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: President Trump down-playing the threat of white nationalism hours after the terror attacks at two New Zealand mosques that left 50 people dead. Experts say the threat is growing around the world and in the United States. So why doesn't the president believe it?

Joining us now is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the founder and president of Cordoba House. And Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Life Congregation, who survived the massacre inside the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh last year that claimed the lives of 11 people.

Imam Rauf, I want to start with you here.

The president says he doesn't see white nationalism as a rising problem around the world. And also importantly, he didn't specifically call out the anti-Muslimism nature of the attacks in New Zealand. How important is it, do you feel, to call it by its name for what it is?

IMAM FEISAL ABDUL RAUF, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, CORDOBA HOUSE: It's certainly important, John, for -- to recognize the problem and to recognize the fears which underlie this problem. I believe that white supremacist issues are real. Their fears are real. We have to recognize those fears and we have to embrace them with as such understanding and compassion as we can and seek to address the underlying fears. I think those fears are real.

Of course we disagree with Trump on certain issues, but I agree with Trump on one issue, that NATO is obsolete. NATO was established as a bulwark to protect the west against the threat of communism from the Warsaw pact nations. But what we need today is a new international security pact. An international security pact which is more than just a merger of NATO nations and ex-Warsaw pact nation, the G-20 national like China and so forth to address the -- the threats that face us today of which terrorism is one, with which is another, et cetera.

Because terrorism has become decentralized. It's no longer just today. It's two mosques in New Zealand. Yesterday it was a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The day before it was Coptic (ph) churches in Cairo, mosques in Pakistan, et cetera. So it's become decentralized. We need a way to address international security because that's what governments are for.

[06:45:22] BERMAN: Rabbi Perlman, let me ask you, houses of God as targets. Why is a house of God a target for a white supremacist, a white nationalist? We saw it in Pittsburgh and we saw it in New Zealand.

RABBI JONATHAN PERLMAN, RABBI, NEW LIGHT CONGREGATION: Well, first I want to just express my deep sorrow at the losses in Christchurch and just to the imam who is representative of the people of Islam, just an expression of my deep sadness in what has happened in New Zealand.

RAUF: Thank you, rabbi.

PERLMAN: You know, I think that what we're seeing here is a deliberate strategy on behalf of the white nationalists against the soul of our people. And we are all brothers and sisters in faith and we know that there are times when we come together in the houses of worship, the houses of God, where there is a certain decorum of silence, of solemnity. And they are -- these cowards, these terrorists are using our vulnerability. They are talking -- they are targeting the houses of God and, in effect, they are trying to chip away at the soul of the Muslim, the Jewish, or the Christian people.

BERMAN: If you read, and you mentioned cowards. If you read this coward's statement that he wanted to get out to the world, it is filled with the language of invasion, which is something that we've heard from our own leaders that this country is under invasion, the U.S. is under invasion. That is very similar language. Does this fit with the language of replacement, which is something that we heard in Charlottesville, in fact.

When you hear that language, what goes through your head and is it a threat?

PERLMAN: Well, I hear it as the language of hyperbole. When other -- when people in other countries are filled with hate and filled with a spirit of revenge, they use words like invasion and emergency and being mortified at the presence of others in society that pose a threat to them. And so you always hear this kind of exaggeration of language in comparison to the small number of people who are actually present in the nation. Jews comprise about 0.2 percent of the global population and yet you would think that we were, you know, teeming hordes or --

RAUF: You're right.

PERLMAN: Opening the wide gates so immigrants could come into our country.

BERMAN: And along those lines, in New Zealand, Muslims make up less than 1 percent of the population, imam.

RAUF: Yes.

BERMAN: Which is why I was -- I was struck by the statement from the prime minister in New Zealand after this. Let's listen.

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JACINDA ARDERN, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: Many of those who will have been directly affected by this shooting may be migrants to New Zealand. They may even be refugees here. They have chosen to make New Zealand their home and it is their home. They are us. The person who has perpetuated this violence against us is not.

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BERMAN: Imam Rauf, when you hear "they," "our," "us" --

RAUF: Yes.

BERMAN: Why is that an important message?

RAUF: It's a very important message because the concept of who we are is always an issue and it's always a work in progress. Who we are as Americans, for instance, Americans were once white Anglo-Saxon protestants. Then they became, with the immigration of Italians and Jews, you had the Jew to a Christian ethic where now the ethic of the social contract of the United States went from a race-based definition to a values-based definition.

In fact, Abraham Lincoln even referred to this, that we were a nation founded on values. We called these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal, et cetera, endowed by the creator. And he was in the middle of his Gettysburg Address, he addresses the issue of the Civil War, which was a -- which was really a battle between the values that our founders tried to establish in a nation. The question was, will it endure? And this is the battle which is still continuing at the moment. And what we are praying for and hoping for is that America -- that it will actually not only endure, but thrive and expand as a values-based nation where the concept of e pluribus unum, from the varieties of who we are who are actually one people and one nation under God.

[06:50:14] BERMAN: Imam Rauf, I hope your prayers are answered. Thank you for being with us.

RAUF: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Rabbi Perlman, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Erica.

HILL: It is the time of year in college basketball when it's time for you to get your bracket in order. March Madness ready to begin. The teams at the top of the bracket and those already celebrating. We'll get you up to speed, next.

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BERMAN: The field of 68 is set and, no, we're not talking about the Democratic primary. It is time to start filling out those brackets. Andy Scholes has more in the "Bleacher Report."

Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John.

You know, this is always one of the best sports week of the entire year. You can start filling out your bracket this morning. And 68 schools around the country have dreams of winning it all. Duke, the top overall seed in the tournament after winning the ACC title. Zion Williamson back from his knee injury and he looks better than ever. The ACC getting three of the four one seeds, Virginia, North Carolina, and Gonzaga round out the one seeds this year.

[06:55:03] And if you haven't paid much attention to college basketball this year, don't worry, I spoke with the guys over at Turner Sports and CBS, who are going to be calling the tournament, they've got some advice for your bracket.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get enough info to satisfy your palette, but then go with your gut.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't come to me at work and say, oh, I've got a perfect bracket going. Of course it's one of the 43 I filled out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I usually go with two ones, a two, and somebody that's a long shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of these guys talk about having a good bracket, but they've filled out like 25 brackets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But then again, I'm pretty good for filling out about three or four brackets. So it's not just one. I've got myself covered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have I made myself clear? One bracket per person. One bracket per family. How about that?

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: And you can play with us here on CNN. Go to cnn.com/brackets. Fill it out by Thursday morning. And you can fill out more than on, guys, just don't let Ernie Johnson find out about it.

BERMAN: And you can compete against CNN anchors and beat me badly, which you --

HILL: It will probably be easier to beat me badly, but, you know, whatever.

BERMAN: Beat all of us.

All right, Andy, thank you very much.

SCHOLES: All right.

BERMAN: All right, we have some breaking political news. The number that could tell us how the Beto O'Rourke rollout was received. How much money did he raise in the first day of the race and how does that compare to, say, Bernie Sanders? Well, that's next.

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[07:00:06] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Do you see today white nationalism as a rising threat around the world?

END