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New Day

Obama: "State of the Union is Strong"; AirAsia CEO Speaks Out About Crash; 11 of 12 Patriots Game Balls Under-Inflated; Paris Mayor Plans to Sue FOX News

Aired January 21, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: That's the big concern, is the domino theory.

BOBBY GHOSH, MANAGING EDITOR, QUARTZ: That's right. Moscow is still in charge here and whether we control you directly or indirectly, you have to bow to us. That's the Putin doctrine.

CUOMO: All right. Bobby Ghosh, thank you very much as always for the perspective.

Mick?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Great conversation.

The mayor of Paris preparing to sue FOX News. She says the network has insulted her city with its false reporting. Question is, though, does she have a case?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Good to have you back with us here on NEW DAY.

Here's a look at your headlines:

President Obama says the State of the Union is strong, sounding bold and defiant in last night's nationally televised address. The president called for higher taxes on the wealthy, equal pay for women, along with big hikes in child care, tax credits and free tuition for two-year colleges. Republican leaders already declaring much of the president's agenda dead on arrival.

Startling numbers here, up to 3,000 people in France need to be monitored. That is the word from the French prime minister. He said people linked to networks in Iraq and Syria, they have increased by 130 percent in just the last year.

In the meantime, never before seen video obtained exclusively by CNN appears to show Amedy Coulibaly and his wife, Hayat Boumeddiene, outside a Jewish institution back in the summer. Sources tell us the couple was carrying out some sort of surveillance of possible targets for several months before Coulibaly launched a deadly attack at the kosher market in Paris.

Back here at home, a team of veteran FBI agents are now handling the federal civil rights investigation into the controversial chokehold death of Eric Garner by a white New York City cop. The probe began after a grand jury refused to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the July death of the unarmed African-American. The investigation will look at everything, from the action of the responding officers and paramedics on the street where Garner died.

All right, Cuomo, Camerota, I need you to look at this, because you guys are professionals.

CUOMO: That's why we're here, Mick.

PEREIRA: Is this Chuck E. Cheese or a college dorm room?

CUOMO: Ooh!

PEREIRA: I want to introduce to Rice University senior David Nichols (ph) lounging in his ball pit. He had 13,000 plastic balls shipped from China, and used them to cover his entire dorm room floor.

CUOMO: China? Why not U.S. balls?

PEREIRA: Visitors are flocking to Nichols' room. He hopes he won't be remembered for this at school. He graduates in May. When asked what happens to the balls, weirdly, he said he hadn't thought that far ahead.

CUOMO: The balls and the keg in the corner drawing a lot of --

PEREIRA: Don't you generally believe that those ball pits are kind of a Petri dish? You know what I mean?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, certainly, at Chuck E. Cheese, yes.

But I want to do that to my bedroom and I'm not going to tell my husband until after.

PEREIRA: But you just told America. So --

CUOMO: Following into that common trap. Oddly reminiscent of the Michaela Pereira coat pit that we had in NEW DAY --

PEREIRA: There might have been on at the NEW DAY party and now, the coat bed is broken.

CUOMO: Not my fault. I was never on the bed, just encouraging people to dive on it.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It is time for CNN money now, chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here, fact-checking the president on the economy.

A tough job, but you must do it.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi there guys. You know, he said the state of the economy is strong and it is time the middle class share in the recovery, 11 million new jobs, the fastest job growth last year since 1999. Those are his claims. Those claims are true. And yes, the unemployment rate is at a six-year low.

But wages are not rising and that means many Americans feel like they're not getting by. The president also writes that U.S. energy is booming, one reason that oil prices are falling. Of course, we're seeing job cuts in energy. But the president right about the strength in the energy sector in the U.S.

The president wants to help paycheck-to-paycheck Americans, right? But he has it go through Congress. Good luck.

Walmart, though, can make big changes. And they want to make sure that you can collect your tax refund in their store. This year, Walmart shoppers can pick up their cash refund in cash in their stores. Walmart is not charging for the service. They're just hoping to bring in more people with extra cash.

That's pretty good for the business model, right? Make sure people have the money from Uncle Sam right there when they're standing aisle -- guys.

CAMEROTA: Great. Thanks so much, Christine.

CUOMO: All right. We're going to have new details about the final moments of AirAsia Flight 8501. The airline's CEO is speaking out for the first time, and he's speaking to CNN. He calls the crash the single worst moment of his life. It's an interview you're not going to want to miss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: The CEO of AirAsia is speaking out this morning, as we learn more about what may have caused Flight 8501 to simply fall out of the sky. Now, according to reports, an Indonesian government official says that plane climbed faster than normal in its final minutes, then stalled before crashing into the Java Sea.

Richard Quest just spoke to AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes in his first interview since the crash, and he joins me now.

Good to see you, Richard. Tell us what you have been hearing?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: On the question of what happened, the reports of the climb and the stall -- Tony Fernandes basically said he refused to speculate. He said it's too soon to say.

There are too many unknowns about what happened. And he said, anyway, AirAsia has not seen and he had no knowledge yet of the voice recorder or the flight data recorder. The airline was being invited to look at that this Friday. So, they weren't able -- he wasn't able to confirm or deny what the rumors are out there.

On the question of what it was like and how he had heard the information, this is the first incident for AirAsia. And as Tony Fernandes is the chief executive, he got the phone call telling him the plane was missing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY FERNANDES, AIRASIA CEO: There is no amount of rehearsal or practice or reading that can actually prep you for this moment. It is the single worst feeling I think I've ever had in my life. And it continues to be that, that moment of that phone call will haunt me forever.

We've carried 215 million people, 13 years, very safely. And it is not something that you can really put into words when that call comes through. But somehow, you have to find the resolve to be strong and get in there and focus on the families and our crew.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, Tony Fernandes said he had given all the families his personal mobile number. He was in constant contact with them. And on the question of safety of the airline, he said safety is a marathon, it's not something you just do once and then forget about, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Well, Richard he's certainly been praised for being out front in all of this, being actively involved in the investigation, making himself available to the families. What is his main focus right now?

QUEST: His main focus is clear -- it is to recover as many of the bodies of the passengers or his guests as he calls them. It is to recover as many of the guests as possible. To find out what happened and to give them some form of closure.

As for AirAsia the airline, he says it's really very simple -- we will never allow the airline to forget. Of course, he said there are safety questions. There are issues that have to be addressed. But he was quite clear -- he said there had been no shortcuts and they had done everything by the book.

PEREIRA: Does he feel confident about the future of the airline?

QUEST: No question. He says the airline will continue to grow. He's already slowed down the growth of the airline in previous years. He said the mere -- the size and scale of growth in aviation in Asia is the demand is there.

So, I asked him, Michaela, I did ask him, I said, look, is there something wrong with aviation in Asia? After all you had MH-370, MH- 17. Now, AirAsia 8501. Is there something systemically wrong?

He was absolutely clear, he said, Richard, I strongly disagree with you. There's no connection between that and anything to do with aviation in Asia.

PEREIRA: Very interesting. Richard Quest, thank you for joining us from the beautiful Davos, Switzerland. We appreciate that and your great conversation with that CEO.

Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela.

A developing story: the mayor of Paris threatening to sue FOX News for insulting the city with its coverage of the so-called no-go zones for non-Muslims. Does the mayor have a case against FOX? We'll take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Deflategate. This is big, big, big! It's just blowing up all over the place. ESPN reports that the Patriots did in fact use under- inflated footballs in their win over the Colts. Nearly a dozen of them, 11 out of 12.

I mean, Andy Scholes -- this morning's "Bleacher Report." Yesterday, you kind of pooh-poohed it. I expressed the obvious concerns that facts might reveal.

And now, we come out with the softball. I have one here. Mick and Alisyn, they were are aghast at how much easier this ball would be to play with.

Of course, this is exaggerated in terms of how underinflated it is, because I don't like the Patriots. And also, they pounded the ball on the ground and probably could have done it as John Berman says, with a ball made of fluff.

But what does it mean? What's going to happen?

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Is there a question in there?

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORTER: Chris, you were right. You were right, I was wrong yesterday.

You know, this is as bad as it gets, we might have a team that actually cheated its way into the Super Bowl. Of course, they might have beat the Colts anyway. But we'll never really know.

According to ESPN, NFL found that 11 of the 12 balls used by the Patriots, they were underinflated by two pounds per square inch. That's a significant amount, about 50 percent less than what a ball should be.

What does it mean? While under-inflating the balls in cold and wet conditions, it makes it easier for the quarterback to grip, helps him throw it, and also makes it easier for the receivers to catch the ball.

Now, the NFL says not ready to comment on their investigation right now. It's going to be, their investigation should be completed in the next two to three days. Now, no matter what they find, the Patriots, they're going to the

Super Bowl. But they could face a hefty fine and a loss of draft pick.

Now, as you can imagine, even though the Colts lost that game, 45-7, they're feeling a bit cheated right about now, their punter, Pat MacAfee, he tweeted, "If New England is going to be DQ'd, we should be their replacement, right? I should probably lay off the strawberry margaritas."

Meanwhile, the greatest receiver of all time, Jerry Rice, he weighed in, as well, tweeting, "11 of 12 balls underinflated? Can anyone spell cheating? #justsayin."

And, guys, the NFL actually might want to talk to the Baltimore Ravens about the deflategate. CBS is reporting that the Ravens had questions about their kicking balls, whether or not they were inflated the proper way. They said the balls were not going the normal distance when they were kicking them. So, that's another aspect to deflategate we might see coming and the Ravens lost a close game, 35-31.

But we know one thing, the patriots -- they're not going to get any benefit of the doubt after what happened in spygate five or six years ago.

CUOMO: Mick's got the solution, Andy.

PEREIRA: Let the league provide the balls, enough said, move on.

CAMEROTA: Great.

SCHOLES: That would solve some problems.

CUOMO: Thanks, Andy.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Andy.

SCHOLES: All right. Have a good one.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about this developing story. The mayor of Paris taking on FOX News. Mayor Anne Hidalgo tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour that she plans to sue the network over its erroneous reporting of the so-called no-go zones.

FOX News has since apologized for suggesting there are parts of Paris and other European cities where non-Muslims cannot go.

Let's bring in CNN's senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", Brian Stelter.

Brian, nice to see you.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: You too.

CAMEROTA: So, FOX News anchors have apologized. They say they got it wrong. What more do they need to do? STELTER: I think this is probably an example of a mayor playing to

their constituents. We talk about politicians playing to their base. Well, this is a French version of that, because there's really been an uproar in France about FOX's coverage. It's been parodied by their version of "The Daily Show."

I think this is the mayor coming out, showing that she's on the side of her constituents. I would be very surprised if a lawsuit actually got filed. But it would be a fascinating media case, because here in the United States, the idea of a lawsuit against a television network is outlandish. In France, it's a little less outlandish. It would be very interesting to see where it goes.

PEREIRA: We want to divvy up many parts of the story. Isn't it the breaking news here in America, the fact that FOX apologized in the history of my career, I don't know that I've seen FOX do this to an issue like this.

STELTER: Not one as big as this. The head of FOX News has proudly said in the past they've never had to retract a story. This isn't a retraction, but this is definitely them walking away from a story and indicating they were probably playing it up too much.

PEREIRA: What's behind that?

STELTER: Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out. My theory is that FOX is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Rupert Murdoch has big, big business interests in the U.K., in Europe. You know, he has television networks and newspaper there is. Maybe he was trying to save face by walking away from this story.

You know, this idea of no-go zones, this idea has been largely discredited, but it has been popular in right wing media. Sometimes, you heard it brought up on CNN as well. It's a topic that deserves more reporting. I think one of the issues of FOX was they were talking about it with talking heads, they weren't reporting on it. They weren't going to the neighborhoods in Paris.

CUOMO: It raises an issue of what's an expert, OK? And also, what happened in France? They did have riots there, that were a function of the Muslim ghettos, the underserved communities feeling that there was no connection. The police shouldn't have been there.

They're not no-go zones, but they did have that problem. Islamophobia comes into the mix as well. And whether or not that's something that's being pandered to the American public.

I'm not a FOX hater. I worked there. Alisyn worked there. A lot of good people at FOX.

STELTER: Yes.

CUOMO: However, you know, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. I was on TV ten hours the Friday after the Paris attacks. Once after the ten hours I called the guy who attacked the kosher market, African-American. Anderson was next to me, he said you mean African ascendant. I said yes.

They played it and played it up as the media's PC-ness. When you play the game, you can also get hurt by that game and that's why they're not getting a lot of friends right now.

STELTER: They've come out and said they think this idea of a lawsuit is misplaced. But then last night, Bill O'Reilly addressed it on the air.

CAMEROTA: We got that.

STELTER: Let's take a look, and it's really interesting on FOX.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS: I didn't have anything to do with this. But I will point out that the mayor is a socialist. That FOX News isn't even seen in France because they block it. So, this is just an attention-getter. Another playing to the left., that's what this is. Suits going nowhere, it's ridiculous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: A great example of pandering, also. OK? I didn't have anything to do with it. You're part of the team or you're not. And they're socialists? That has nothing to do with a lawsuit.

By the way, legally, I think --

PEREIRA: Is there any standing?

CUOMO: I think they'd have a really hard time.

CAMEROTA: They have to show damages. People would have to show that tourists are not going there. Is that right?

CUOMO: More importantly, they'd have to show malice aforethought. They have to show that this was intentionally done to hurt Paris. That's going to be very difficult to do.

STELTER: CNN was once sued in Brazil, by a small town in Brazil that didn't like a report we aired. CNN ended up winning on appeal. So, situations like that have happened once in a while. There's a little bit of precedent here. But I can't imagine this really going forward.

PEREIRA: The same conversation was had with Birmingham, we had it yesterday about areas of London. I understand there's no such litigation threatened by the British people that we've heard of yet.

CAMEROTA: But the way I interpret it is there are neighborhoods that are no so insular that you see women fully veiled. We had our expert tell us that. But they're not called no-go zones. FOX just went too far. I mean, it's an interesting point, provocative point. They should talk about it. But they went too far.

STELTER: It's when information becomes a narrative and a narrative is what gets a news organization into trouble. If you're trying to push a narrative, it ends up being false. In this case, to paint Muslims in the negative light, then there's going to be blowback. And I think what's important about the media environment we're living now is there can be a response.

You know, Twitter was trending with responses to Rupert Murdoch, when he was critical of Muslim responses to the Islamic extremism, and there was a hashtag FOX News facts, making fun of FOX in the wake of this. So, people at least now can respond and try to hold news outlets accountable, and that includes CNN. When CNN makes mistakes, we can be held accountable in the way we couldn't in the past. That's a good thing, actually.

CAMEROTA: Brian Stelter, thanks so much. Great to see you on NEW DAY.

STELTER: Thanks.

CUOMO: All right. This is one of the stories out there, but there's a lot of news that matters to you this morning. So, let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president of the United States!

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The shadow of crisis has passed and the State of the Union is strong.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: It is time to move on beyond President Barack Obama.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I wish I had better news for you. All is not well in America.

SEN. JONI ERNST (R), IOWA: Americans have been hurting.

OBAMA: I have no more campaigns to run. I know, because I won both of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This morning, Yemen under siege.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This may be the most volatile situation on the face of the planet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Carlos ended up in a training camp run by terrorists. My son you're hearing about today. But tomorrow, it could be your son.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY, with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY. President Obama laying out an ambitious agenda for his final two years in office. In his State of the Union Address, he announced a renewed focus on the middle class. The president also received a rousing ovation when he vowed to hunt down terrorists amid the growing list of international crises.

CUOMO: One of those hot spots is Yemen, where the presidential palace is said to be under control of rebels on the verge of a coup. There are two U.S. Navy warships in the Red Sea ready to evacuate Americans.

Yemen, you have to remember, a key U.S. ally and also home to one of al Qaeda's most dangerous affiliates, AQAP. That's al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

We are the only western news outlet to have someone on the ground, which speaks not just to CNN's dedication, but to how dangerous it is there right now.