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New Zealand to Ban Assault Weapons; DOJ Investigating Approval of Boeing Jet; Trump Attacks Mueller, McCain; Conway; Kraft Wants to Keep Spa Videos Sealed; March Madness First Four Wraps Up. Aired 5- 5:30a ET
Aired March 21, 2019 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:02] JACINDA ARDERN, NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: We will also ban all assault rifles. We will ban all high capacity magazines. We will ban all parts with the ability to convert any firearm into a military style semi-automatic weapon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Prime Minister Ardern also announcing a buy back program to encourage New Zealanders who own automatic weapons to surrender them.
Let's go live to Christchurch and bring in CNN's Ivan Watson.
Moving very quickly in New Zealand on this matter.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, all of the victims from last Friday's terrorist attacks, they haven't even all been buried yet, and yet the government has announced this ban. The prime minister saying she is convinced she has the country's support behind this series of gun control proposals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARDERN: We as a government feel absolutely confident that the vast majority of New Zealanders will support this change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: So how is this going to work? Many people, gun owners who had some of these category guns as of 3:00 in the afternoon on Thursday here in New Zealand, suddenly, those guns are illegal. And the police have announced that there is going to be the activation of this website this weekend where people can register their weapons to surrender them, the government has asked $40 million for subsequent gun buyback scheme.
And they are also taking measures that we don't quite know what they are yet to ensure that people don't stockpile like you get sometimes in the U.S. when there is talk of gun safety reform where people run out and rush and buy guns. We're not sure what measures that they really took there to try to prevent this. But anecdotally, nobody that I've spoken to here in Christchurch -- even I've spoken with has thus far been very supportive of this new measure -- Dave, Christine.
ROMANS: Yes, I think public attitudes in the United States and New Zealand are very, very different on this.
All right. Ivan Watson, thank you so much.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Both at the government level and citizens as well.
Was the Boeing 737 MAX 8 ever safe to fly? The Justice Department has issued several subpoenas into Boeing's certification and marketing of the 737 MAX line.
The FAA and others say data from the Lion Air crash in October is similar to the Ethiopian Airlines crash last week. Hundreds were killed, of course.
Justice correspondent Evan Perez has the latest from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Dave, Justice Department prosecutors have issued multiple subpoenas as part of an investigation into Boeing's certification and marketing of 737 MAX aircraft.
Now, this is the plane that has been involved in two fatal crashes in less than six months. Sources tell us that the investigation is in its early stages and that it began after the Indonesia crash of Lion Air 737 MAX in October.
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao this week also asked the agency's inspector general to investigate the MAX certification.
Criminal investigators have sought information from Boeing on the plane's safety and certification procedures, including training manuals, pilots, along with how the company marketed the new aircraft.
Now, it's not clear what possible criminal laws could be at issue in the probe. Among the things that investigators are looking into is the process by which Boeing itself certified the plane as safe and the data that it gave to the FAA about that self certification.
A Boeing spokesperson said that the company does not respond or comment on questions regarding legal matters. The planes have been grounded worldwide after the crash last week of a MAX aircraft operated by Ethiopian Airlines -- Christine, Dave.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Evan Perez in Washington, thank you for that.
Now, the FAA says Boeing has developed a software patch and flight crew training to address these issues. Investigators are looking in to whether faulty data drove that Lion airplane into a steep dive. Now, there's fascinating reporting from "Reuters" out of the region.
The pilots were scouring though a manual, a Boeing 737 MAX manual to try to figure out why the plane was in this nosedive, but they ran out of time. They couldn't find the answer in one time before the plane smashed into Java Sea.
Meantime, the U.S. Air Force has ordered a review of training procedures for military pilots flying large cargo and transport planes. That includes Air Force One. The military brass wants to ensure pilots know how and when to turn off automated systems if they encounter problems.
BRIGGS: President Trump's acting defense secretary is under investigation for his ties to Boeing. Patrick Shanahan was a top exec at Boeing for more than 30 years. The Pentagon's inspector general looking at whether he violated ethics rules by promoting the company's products while running the Defense Department.
[05:05:04] Shanahan accused of being overly cozy with his former employer and openly critical of its competitors. The I.G. has not yet concluded whether a violation occurred.
ROMANS: President Trump on the road and on the attack. The focus of his trip to Ohio Wednesday was supposed to be jobs and national security. But instead, it was pure Festivus, the airing of Trump grievances, starting even before the president left Washington.
His first target, the special counsel. Trump says he doesn't mind if the Mueller report is made public, even though he thinks it shouldn't exist in the first place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No collusion. No collusion. I have no idea when it's going to be released. It is interesting that a man gets appointed by a deputy, he writes a report. You know, never figured that one out. Someone is going to write a report who never got a vote. So, we'll see what the report says. let's see if it's fair.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Next on the list, George Conway, again. Earlier on, the president called the attorney and husband of Kellyanne Conway a stone cold loser and a husband from hell. Conway who questioned the president's mental fitness tweeted a simple response: you are nuts.
But the president wasn't finished with Conway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He is a whack job, there's no question about it, but I really don't know him. I think he's doing a tremendous disservice to a wonderful wife. Kellyanne is a wonderful woman and I call him Mr. Kellyanne.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Be Best, Mr. President.
Mrs. Conway, Kellyanne Conway, for her part siding with the president, telling "Politico", Trump left it alone for months out of respect for me. But you think he shouldn't respond when somebody, a nonmedical professional accuses him of having a mental disorder? You think he should just take that sitting down?
And then during a speech in Ohio, the president once again, once again, refused to let Senator McCain rest in peace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So I have to be honest. I've never liked him much. Hasn't been for me.
McCain didn't get the job done for our great vets and the V.A.
I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve. I don't care about this, I didn't get thank you. That's OK. We sent him on the way. But I wasn't a fan of John McCain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIGGS: Silence in that room, that was full in some part with military vets, and active service members.
At least one Republican senator, though, Johnny Isakson, has had enough of the president's attacks on McCain, calling his days of comments deplorable. Lindsey Graham, McCain's best friend in the Senate who has been mostly silent, now says that the President Trump's comments hurt the president more than McCain's legacy.
ROMANS: A potential misstep for former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper at last night's CNN town hall.
Our Dana Bash asked whether he would consider picking a female running mate. Hickenlooper's answer eliciting groans from the audience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Governor, some of your male competitors have vowed to put a woman on the ticket. Yes or no, would you do the same?
GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D), COLORADO: Well, again, of course. But I think that we should -- well, I'll ask you another question. How come --
BASH: You're not asking the questions.
(LAUGHTER)
HICKENLOOPER: I know. But how come we're not asking more often the women, would you be willing to put a man on the ticket.
BASH: When we get to that point, I'll ask you that question.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Of course, the nation has never had a female vice president or female president. There's not been a lot of historical precedence for even asking a woman anything about the ticket. Still, Hickenlooper is standing by his answer.
BRIGGS: He says: Maybe I missed it, meaning women being asked, but women I know feel that it is a form of discounting that they are less likely to win the nomination. For the record, a reporter did ask Senator Elizabeth Warren if she would consider selecting a male vice president. She did not exactly answer the question. #nothingburger for all of us.
ROMANS: All right. If you're one of the lucky retirees of the traditional pension, the Trump administration just made it easier for your company to end your monthly payments. The Treasury Department quietly issuing a notice earlier this month allowing employers to buy out current pensions with a one time lump sum payment. That reverses an Obama era policy that banned that because seniors were getting short changed.
BRIGGS: Since the 1980s, many employers have stopped offering pensions which guarantee a monthly income for as long as someone lives in retirement. The pensions still cover 26.2 million people, but you can see that the number has been shrinking rapidly as companies close their pension plans to new hires, replacing them with 401(k)s.
ROMANS: Right after obsessing over higher interest rates, the worry appears to be over, at least for now. The Central Bank voted to hold interest rates steady and this is important, went from expecting two hikes this year to none.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[05:10:01] JEROME POWELL, CHAIR OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE: The U.S. economy is in a good place. We will continue to use our monetary policy tools to help keep it there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The Fed has kept rates in a range of $2.25 since the beginning of this year. Fed officials also downgraded their growth forecast to 2.1 percent -- concerns here of slowing domestic and global growth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POWELL: Growth is slowing somewhat more than expected. Financial conditions tightened considerably over the fourth quarter. Growth has slowed in some foreign economies, notably in Europe and China.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Central bankers previously estimated the economy would grow 2.3 percent this year. And you can see even that is significantly lower than the Trump administration's forecast of 3 percent.
This whole announcement was not good for bank stocks. Banks make more money on higher rates when lending. The lower growth forecast also can raise concerns about the ability of Americans to pay back mortgages and loans or at least the demand for more loans.
And it's really interesting. I mean, a lot of people noted yesterday, this is what the president hammering on about don't raise rates --
BRIGGS: Right. We don't think that it is a response to the president.
ROMANS: No, no, we don't think it's a response, but now, the president is getting what he asked for and it is signaling slower growth ahead which is also not good.
BRIGGS: Yes, not a firm grasp of macro economics.
Ahead, the mom behind the popular fantastic adventure YouTube channel facing serious charges. What police say she did to the kids when they couldn't remember their lines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:15:41] ROMANS: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft could make an appearance at the White House before he appears in court to face solicitation charges. According to "Politico", President Trump wants Kraft to join his players at the White House to celebrate the Pats Super Bowl victory. No date has been set. The White House aides at least are concerned that Kraft's presence could turn a feel-good photo-op into an embarrassing media spectacle.
BRIGGS: Attorneys for Kraft and more than a dozen other defendants charged in a prostitution sting at a Florida day spa filed a motion asking that evidence, including surveillance video from the spa not be released to the public. Meantime, a source says Kraft will not accept a plea deal from Florida prosecutors. They offered to drop charges in exchange for admission he would have been found guilty at trial. Kraft has strongly denied taking part in any illegal activity.
ROMANS: All right. The mom behind a popular YouTube channel has been arrested for mistreating her kids, including pepper spraying them when they flubbed their lines. Prosecutors in Arizona charging Michelle Hobson with crimes including child molestation and abuse. And adorable cast of adopted kids helped her Fantastic Adventures channel, rack up more than 250 million views before YouTube pulled it down following her arrest.
BRIGGS: A welfare check last week found she withheld food and water for days at a time and punished the kids by forcing them to take ice baths and locking them in an empty closet. Police say Hobson denied punishing them beyond spankings, grounding them, or making them stand in a corner. Hobson's adult sons Logan and Ryan Hackney also appeared in the videos. They have been charged with failing to report the abuse.
Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin says he deliberately exposed his nine children to chickenpox. He said he and his wife wanted to make sure they caught the disease instead of getting a vaccine for it. Bevin says he supports parents who choose to get their kids vaccinated, but said the decision should not be up to the government.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GOV. MATT BEVIN (R), KENTUCKY: Every single one of my kids had the chickenpox. They got the chickenpox on purpose, because we found a neighbor that had it, and I went and made sure every one of my kids was exposed to it and they got it. They had it as children. They were miserable for a few days, and they all turned out fine. This is America and the federal government should not be forcing this upon people. They just shouldn't.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BRIGGS: The CDC says each year, more than 3.5 million cases of chickenpox are prevented by the vaccination.
ROMANS: All right. A bizarre streak of lights spotted over downtown Los Angeles lit up social media. Look at that. There was, of course, plenty of speculation over what in the world this is.
Aliens, meteors. It turns out it was just a pair of wing suit flyers that left the trail of flames. The LAPD immediately tweeted assuring folks it was not a fireball crashing, instead it was just part of a film shoot.
BRIGGS: Hmm, might be a new slogan for Red Bull.
All right. Ahead, two big challenges for Abilene Christian basketball coach Joe Golding. Why? Well, his team faces second seeded Kentucky and he will have to coach them with a hole in his pants.
Andy Scholes is going to try to explain their story, I hope, in the "Bleacher Report."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:23:21] BRIGGS: Two of the best days in all of sports, two of the best days of the calendar year. The NCAA tournament, they start today at noon.
Andy Scholes has more in the "Bleacher Report".
Good morning, my friend.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Dave.
Definitely two of the best days in all of sports, and time is ticking if you still haven't filled out your brackets. They are due in less than seven hours. The field of 64 officially set after the First Four wrapped up last night in Dayton, Ohio. Arizona State moving on to the big dance after easily beating St.
John's. And their Coach Bobby Hurley, he's had to go up against his former team Buffalo in round one. Hurley coached at Buffalo for two seasons, leading them to their first ever tournament appearance back in 2015.
And North Dakota State also moving on beating North Carolina central last night, their coach David Richmond looked a little casual in the sidelines, wearing a t-shirt under his blazer. But he did so for a good reason. The shirt reads "Landon's Light" for an 11-year-old West Fargo named Landon Solberg who is fighting a rare brain cancer.
Landon, a big Bison fan and the school's sports teams have rallied around him. Bison now get the tall task of facing top overall seed Duke on Friday. Former Blue Devils guard JJ Redick certainly going to be watching that one. And in the meantime, his Sixers hosting the Celtics last night, and there's some fireworks in this one.
Joel Embiid knocked Marcus Smart to the ground and Smart retaliated as you could see right there, shoving Embiid. And Embiid jumped up immediately, was not happy about that. Sparked a war of words. Smart ejected for shoving Embiid.
Closing seconds, Boston needed a stop in this game, Jimmy Butler gets away, knocks down the jumper and I love the celebration. Sixers win, 118-115. Butler another guy who's going to be keeping an eye on the tournament, his Golden Eagles is going to face off against Murray State 4:40 Eastern today on TBS.
And here is a look at the early games that will certainly distract you at work. Louisville and Minnesota tip things off at 12:15 on CBS, and then LSU against Yale at 12:40 on TruTV.
Auburn is going to take on New Mexico State. That's 1:30 on TNT.
Vermont is going to try to knock off Florida State. That's on TBS at 2:00.
Kentucky, they're going to take on 15th seed Abilene Christian tonight at 7:10 Eastern. The Abilene Christian's head coach Joe Golding, well, he says he only has one suit to his name and he ripped the pants in that suit celebrating the team's conference championship. And he's had no time to go shopping.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE GOLDING, ABILENE CHRISTIAN COACH: I'm coaching them all in my baby blue suit and I'll have a hole in my butt, man. It's what it is, man. We'll be who we are. And go out there and embrace it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Love it, Dave. And, you know, we've all been there. We've all ripped pants at some point. And I like the way Golding says these are good luck pants, I got to keep rocking them.
BRIGGS: Reminds me of my cousin Vinnie. Got the suit all muddy. Hopefully most people know what I'm talking about.
Andy, enjoy the tournament, 12:15 tipoff.
Romans, Iowa State all the way I'm thinking you picked?
ROMANS: You know, I'm loyal. You say I'm a lunatic, but I'm loyal.
BRIGGS: I say more delusional than loyal, but I like it.
ROMANS: That's all right. I like the Cyclones.
Twenty-six minutes past the hour.
It took New Zealand only six days to do what the U.S. and Europe cannot. Or will not. A new assault weapons ban is on the way after an attack that killed 50.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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