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New Day Sunday

Gunman "Assassinates" Two NYPD Officers; Obama: Sony Hack was Cybervandalism

Aired December 21, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Suzanne, in for Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Victor Blackwell. It's 8:00 here on the East Coast.

MALVEAUX: Grief, anger, shock.

BLACKWELL: Yes, that is what a lot of people are feeling in New York this morning after two police officers were gunned down in cold blood in broad daylight.

Look at the cover of this morning's "New York Daily News". Officer Raphael Ramos and Officer Wenjian Liu were just sitting on their squad car on patrol when a gunman brazenly approached them and opened fire.

CNN's Alexander Field has the latest on the killing that has stunned the city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hundreds of police officers united in grief in the assault of two of their own.

BILL BRATTON, NYPD COMMISSIONER: Today, two of New York's finest were shot and killed with no warning, no provocation. They were quite simply assassinated.

FIELD: With those words, a visibly shaken New York police commissioner, alongside New York's mayor, talking about the deaths of Officer Raphael Ramos and Officer Wenjian Liu. Liu, a seven year veteran, married two months ago. Ramos, a two-year veteran turned 40 this month, married with a 13-year-old son. They were killed ambush style Saturday afternoon as they sat in their patrol car on a Brooklyn street.

BRATTON: The suspect was identified as 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley walked up to the police car. He took a shooting stance on the passenger side and fired the weapon, his weapon, several times through the front passenger window striking both officers in the head.

Officer Liu and officer Ramos never had the opportunity to draw their weapons. They may never have actually even seen their assailant, their murderer.

FIELD: Police say officers chased Ismaaiyl Brinsley to a nearby subway station where he reportedly shot himself to death on the train platform. A semiautomatic handgun was recovered near the body. Brinsley arrived in New York from Baltimore but had a residence near Atlanta and apparently had connections to Brooklyn.

Police say earlier in the day he shot and seriously wounded a woman believed to be his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore. Police there received information that Brinsley had made threatening comments about officers on social media sites and they sent a warning to police in New York but that message came almost at the same time the ambush happened.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: These officers were shot execution style, particularly despicable act which goes at the very heart of our society and our democracy when a police officer is murdered, it tears at the foundation of our society.

FIELD: New York police say there is no indication Brinsley was connected to any terrorist group.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's blood on many hands tonight.

FIELD: The deaths two of officers highlighted mounting tensions between police union officials and the mayor whom they accuse of putting officers' lives at risk with his support for recent protests involving the Eric Garner chokehold death and the police shooting of Michael Brown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those that incited violence on this street under the guise of protest that tried to tear down what New York City police officers did every day. We tried to warn. It must not go on. It cannot be tolerated.

That blood on the hands starts on the steps of city hall, in the office of the mayor.

FIELD: And in an apparent show of defiance, police officers gathering at the hospital where the slain officers were taken turn their backs on the mayor as he entered for Saturday's press conference.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Alexander Field, she's joining us now.

And, push this forward for us, if you will. I mean, this has been an awful, awful weekend. And we have seen weeks where a lot of tension between the community, between the police department, now this rift between the mayor and the police department, are people going to be addressing this today and how?

FIELD: This is such a delicate, such a sensitive issue, Suzanne, because on the one hand, you've got these two victims, these two police officers who have given their lives, and all deference wants to be paid to them, all tribute, all respect needs to be given to these two men who lost their lives right now.

At the same time, you cannot ignore the tension that we have seen in this city over the last few weeks in the wake of the death of Eric Garner as we saw protests, we have seen tensions between the patrolmen's union and the mayor.

The mayor is not commenting on these tensions right now. He did not address the denunciations when he spoke in a press conference last night. He's keeping his focus on the victims, but surely we will be hearing more from the union, and we'll wait and see what we hear from the mayor in the coming days.

MALVEAUX: All right. Alexander Field, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN political commentator Errol Louis, who's the political anchor at New York 1 News.

Errol, good to have you with us this morning.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Victor.

BLACKWELL: So, let's talk about this rift. The conversation that the mayor has with his son and the way he characterized his son's interactions with police potentially, those are real conversations that people have, people who are raising young, black men, was the insult to the police not having the conversation, but using that as some type of commentary about police in general?

LOUIS: Well, the conversation and the rift between the policemen's union, let's be clear, there's 35,000 cops.

BLACKWELL: You're right.

LOUIS: The union speaks for most, maybe not all.

The rift involves partly a contract negotiation. So, you know, we should be clear that there's a lot going on here that's kind of underneath the surface.

I think what did this -- underneath the surface. I think what added to it is the mayor talking, kind of honestly, but he talked as a parent. And while that might help him connect with other parents and other sort of ordinary New Yorkers, he is the mayor of the city. I mean, he is the chief magistrate. He is in charge of the police department.

And when the cops feel that there's somebody leading them who doesn't really have their back -- well, the reaction is what you saw, you know, the show of disrespect in the middle of the tragedy.

This is -- this is something that is real serious. It's going to take a lot of fixing. It's not going to get handled by, you know, one speech or something like that. There's going to have to be to walk both sides back from the brink. That's already been tried actually.

You know, Cardinal Dolan, the highest ranking clerk for this whole region, made an explicit printed appeal asking both sides to stop the rhetoric, stop the attack, stop the harshness and you know, this tragedy, I think has set back all of what little progress might have been made.

BLACKWELL: You have this petition that was being passed around not having a city council person also the mayor at funerals of officer if they were to die or be killed in the line of duty. Does this complicate the relationship between the mayor and Commissioner Bratton? Any indication?

LOUIS: No, I don't think so. That footage you showed, that stung footage of the police, you know, at the hospital last night where the officers' bodies were turning their backs on the mayor. Well, the commissioner was there too.

It is a paramilitary organization, and chief of the Police Commissioner Bratton has an enormous amount of respect and credibility. He's been doing this for 40 years, he ran the Los Angeles Police Department, he ran the New York City Police Department, he's done tours in Boston.

He is sort of a cop's cop. And so, I don't think that the anger, if there is anger will be directed at him. I think everybody does understand that the police commissioner serves at the pleasure of and is answerable to the mayor. And that is, I think, a problem that you know, we're just not going to see it go away. They're going to have to work through this. And if anything, it seems that the commissioner might be able to play the role of the man in the middle, I think he understands both sides, maybe better than anybody else in New York City right now.

BLACKWELL: You suggested there are contract negotiations part of this. Let's show you the tweet, the head of the police union tweeted, "The blood of two executed police officers is on the hands of Mayor De Blasio, may God bless their families and may they rest in peace."

Beyond contract negotiations, this is extreme language that does not appear to be helping to end this break.

LOUIS: I couldn't agree with you more, Victor. Again, this is what Cardinal Dolan was asking, almost pleading with union leaders to stop doing, pleading with the mayor in fact to also stop with some of his statements. Some of which could be seen as provocative.

We've got protesters who are out in the street, they too are saying provocative things, added a layer of complication because like the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, it's not clear who's in charge. So, with 35,000 people demonstrating, some make extremely violent chants and comments and are provocative and in a couple of cases have actually jumped cops and beat them up, well, who's responsible for that? It's unclear.

And so, what we have right now, I think is a crisis of leadership in this city. And people are going to have to use all of their skills and all of their words and all of their best judgment and wisdom to try and try and bring things back to some kind of normal state here in the city.

BLACKWELL: Yes. You have to start by at least having this civil conversation between the two sides. And these tweets don't appear to be helping.

Errol Louis, thank you so much.

LOUIS: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: The gunman was no stranger to crime. Ismaaiyl Brinsley had earlier shot and seriously wounded a woman believed to be his ex-girlfriend in Baltimore. He had been arrested several times in Georgia where he had a home. Those charges included shoplifting and illegal weapons possession, property damage, and obstructing a police officer.

Brinsley had also suggested on social media that he planned to kill police officers. Including this tweet, "I'm putting wings on pigs today. They take one of ours, let's take two of theirs."

BLACKWELL: Well, ahead on NEW DAY, President Obama sits down with CNN's Candy Crowley for a one-on-one interview. Another big story this weekend that massive Sony attack, you'll hear why he's calling that cyber vandalism.

MALVEAUX: Plus, amid terror threats, Sony yanked it's movie, "The Interview," from theaters on Christmas. We're going to talk to one theater owner who pulled it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Cyber vandalism -- that is what President Obama is calling that crippling attack on Sony by North Korea. During an exclusive sit down interview with CNN's Candy Crowley, President Obama responded to claims by some that the hack was an act of war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think this was an act of war by North Korea?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, I don't think it was an act of war. I think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly, very expensive. We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: That full interview airs at 9:00 a.m. eastern. The president also standing by comments that he made on Friday that it was a mistake for Sony not to move forward with the Christmas day release of "The Interview."

Let's talk more about this with our senior correspondent from CNNPolitics.com, Chris Moody.

Chris, thanks for joining us this morning.

First of all, it seems pretty clear that the president is trying to in some ways take the rhetoric down a notch or two that he doesn't want to escalate the rhetoric with North Korea when he calls this cyber vandalism.

How does this benefit the administration moving forward?

CHRIS MOODY, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, CNNPOLITICS.COM: Well, the words of presidents are extremely important in carrying a lot of weight, obviously, especially when it comes to foreign policy.

So, for him to use that word, war, there would be serious international implications, you're right, he was trying to de-escalate this and proportional response for an act of cyber vandalism is very different than an act of war.

Now, this situation has raised a lot of concerns about cyber security, both in the government and in businesses. And it's something that security experts have been warning about for a very long time.

So, while it was terrible for the company and embarrassing for a lot of people, I think it's going to serve as a wake up call in many industries across the country about getting their security on the web intact and prepared for things that are coming in the future.

MALVEAUX: And there is another pointed moment in that interview with Candy Crowley when she asked the president specifically about Cuba and the other things, I want you to listen to something the president said about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: There was a spate of stories about how he is the chess master and outmaneuvering the West and Mr. Obama and this, and that and the other. And right now, he's presiding over the collapse of his currency, a major financial crisis and a huge economic contraction. That doesn't sound like somebody who has rolled me or the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, he is clearly defending himself here. And we saw that press conference that Vladimir Putin had, more than three hours, 53 questions, really kind of an epic thing he does annually here.

But the president wanted to make that point here that this is not somebody whose getting under his skin. That, in fact, he is responsible for the economic downfall and essentially that is going to hurt him in the long run.

MOODY: Vladimir Putin spent most of 2014 flexing a lot of muscle. And there were -- President Obama's right, there were a lot of stories written about how Obama was allowing this to happen and letting Putin walk all over him. But then the ruble collapsed and gas prices collapsed which hurt

the oil industry in Russia. And I think that puts Putin in a very tough place. May not be able to be nearly as ambitious and President Obama knows that.

Now, President Obama spent the last part of his year as we saw in the last week flexing foreign policy muscle on Cuba. And while that was a controversial decision, it is going to play a major part in his legacy of foreign policy and I think it's going to be something that's going to be talked about and debated for many years to come.

But I think while Putin was spending most of the year looking fairly strong, President Obama is saying in the interview that he's coming out on top at the end of the year.

MALVEAUX: All right, Chris Moody, we'll be debating this much throughout the year and into the next one. Thank you so much, Chris. Appreciate it.

MOODY: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Of course, you can watch more of CNN Candy Crowley's exclusive interview today at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

BLACKWELL: Well, those Sony hackers made threats against movie goers who planned to see "The Interview" on Christmas Day, Sony said it had no choice after theaters said they would not show the film.

Up next, we'll talk to one theater owner about that decision.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back.

On Tuesday, hackers targeted Sony pictures warned Americans there could be a terror attack if they went to theaters to see "The Interview", the controversial comedy about North Korea was set to debut on Christmas Day.

In an exclusive interview, Sony's CEO told our reporter that it was up to the movie theaters whether to cancel the film.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL LYNTON, SONY PICTURES CEO: When it came to the crucial moment, when a threat came out from what was called the GOP at the time, threatening audiences who would go to the movie theaters, the movie theaters came to us, one by one, over the course of a very short period of time, we were completely surprised by it, and announced that they would not carry the movie. At that point in time, we had no alternative but to not proceed with the theatrical release on the 25th of December.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: While the owner of one of those movie theaters that chose to cancel the movie premiere, before Sony pulled it, joins me now on the phone.

You've got Michael Hurley, the owner of Colonial Theatre in Belfast, Maine.

Michael, good to have you with us.

You know, I wonder if this decision before Sony made the decision was something that was internal that you made on your own, or if there was pressure from the outside. Which was it?

MICHAEL HURLEY, COLONIAL THEATRE OWNER (via telephone): There was no pressure, but I can't imagine it was a surprise because theater owners were talking to each other like crazy about this subject what to do, et cetera, I made the decision very much based on a very simple, I look at it as a crime in progress.

They had successfully taken down Sony, they destroyed their servers, they had stolen all their equipment, I'm a smaller company than Sony, I figured if they can do that to Sony, they could probably do it to me and lots of others. So I just said hey, I'm going to, I'm going to sit this out and see what's going on.

BLACKWELL: So, your decision was based less about -- based on less than not really the safety, but your own personal information?

HURLEY: I wasn't, no, not my personal information --

BLACKWELL: The information of your customers.

HURLEY: I wasn't worried about somebody shooting up my theaters. I was worried this is a simple coding challenge for any hacker to attack a theater's Web site or our digital projectors or our digital servers. And if they took that to the next step, and by the way, there's no police, there's no army, there's nobody to defend me if that happens. So I just said, you know what, this isn't, I can wait and see what's going on here.

BLACKWELL: We've got just a couple of seconds left, but I wonder if you're getting a backlash, the president said it was a mistake for Sony to pull the film, are you getting backlash from customers?

HURLEY: Well, everybody wants to see the movie, of course, but the only backlash I hear are from people who have nothing to lose. My theaters had a lot to lose.

BLACKWELL: All right, Michael Hurley, the owner of Colonial Theatres there in Belfast, Maine. Thank you for joining the conversation.

HURLEY: You bet. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: You can watch the full interview with Sony CEO when it airs today on "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS", that's today at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN: What do I do now?

Now, folks --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The final show of the "Colbert Report" was a huge hit, 2.5 million watched the comedians for the last time as a host on this show.

MALVEAUX: And that number may grow as folks watching the send off later on the DVD, Colbert is replacing David Letterman taking the helm of "The Late Show" next year.

BLACKWELL: So, let's take this opportunity to remember when you were part of the, I guess the monologue he starts his show with?

MALVEAUX: This was a White House correspondence --

BLACKWELL: Of the correspondents dinner, yes, yes.

MALVEAUX: A spoof on the White House press corps.

BLACKWELL: Let's watch it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLBERT: I have a brief statement. The press is destroying America. OK. Let's see who we got here today. Stretch. Sir Nerdlyton, and Suzanne Mall-hello.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Yes, he did call me.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: Nobody is, you know, left unscathed.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Everybody gets a chance.

MALVEAUX: Yes, he's a lot of fun. He was there at the White House, he did that little bit for the White House press corps dinner, and we saw him in 2008 during the campaign. It's also kind of spoofing and part of the political world as well.

BLACKWELL: I wonder how much he's going to bring to the show on CBS, we'll have to see.

MALVEAUX: He's a fun guy.

BLACKWELL: He is.

Thanks for starting your morning with us. MALVEAUX: All right.