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At This Hour

USS Sampson Joins Search for Flight 8501; Weather Continues to Hamper Search for Flight 8501; New Questions About AirAsia Record; New Congress Sworn In; Funeral Services for Mario Cuomo; Tensions Flare Between NYC Mayor and Police; Boehner Faces GOP Critics, Challengers

Aired January 06, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: The first pictures of their kind on board the U.S. Navy ship in the middle of the frustrating search for AirAsia flight 8501 as new obstacles set back this effort in the Java Sea.

Manhunt -- two police officers shot overnight in New York City. The very latest on the search for the suspects as new tensions flare up between the mayor and the NYPD.

And then what happened inside the Ferguson grand jury? Now one grand juror wants to tell the story, a rare if not unprecedented lawsuit. Could this change what we know about this story, even lead to new prosecutions?

We have that and a whole lot more @THISHOUR.

Hello, everyone. I'm John Berman. Michaela is off today.

And we have new video just in to CNN a short time ago. It's our first look at the American warship, the USS Sampson, taking part in the search for AirAsia Flight 8501, bad weather again hampering search operations in the Java Sea.

And, beyond that, a new setback in the effort to find the crucial black boxes. Searchers thought -- they thought -- they had spotted the plane's tail section, which is where those devices are kept.

But the official leading the search operation has now ruled that out. No tail section, at least not yet.

Recovery crews did manage to retrieve two more bodies today, bringing the total number found to 39. The prevailing belief at this point is that most of the other victims are strapped into their seats, still in the plane's sunken fuselage, wherever that might be.

Our David Molko is in Surabaya in Indonesia, and, David, we are seeing for the first time the U.S. effort to help find the wreckage of 8501. Talk to us about what we're seeing in this video.

DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Absolutely, John. Let's bring up those pictures again from the search area, the USS Sampson, the destroyer. This was a helicopter ride out to the destroyer. The head of Indonesia's armed forces went out basically to say thank you. He also visited an Indonesian ship.

What's interesting from the pictures, John, we are getting a better sense of how challenging the weather conditions are and how the weather is really running the show, you know, visibility not great. You see those choppy seas, difficult to see the horizon.

The thing here, though, John, again, divers -- we talked about this the past couple of days -- they went below the surface. It was pitch black, couldn't see anything. On Tuesday they weren't even in the water, period. So that's the USS Sampson, the destroyer.

The USS Fort Worth, I should mention, the other ship in the region, located two large objects, the latest one about 55 feet. Of course, until they can get divers or equipment in the water, they can't confirm whether or not it's from Flight 8501.

BERMAN: All right, David Molko for us in Surabaya, thanks so much, appreciate your reporting.

I want to bring in our aviation analyst Mary Schiavo. Mary, a string of disappointments, really reversals, depending on how you look at it, in this search.

First, debris that they thought might be pieces of a plane turned out to be from a shipwreck; now, reports that officials belief they found the tail section, that turns out not to be true, either.

Are you concerned about the progress in this search? And also concerned about the information flow here?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I am and this is starting to have a very familiar ring. It's deja vu, because after the loss of Adam Air on January 1, 2007, the United States also went in to help, and it was the same kind of thing. They were just hampered left and right by terrible weather. It was very close to the timeframe as right now, January.

The U.S. ships were helping. I think it was the Mary Sears back then that finally did find the black boxes and zeroed in on it, but then weather hampered the efforts.

And it's really difficult, because on day 30, the batteries will usually last a little bit beyond that depending upon the maintenance of the batteries and how frequently they were changed, et cetera, on those black boxes.

But people will be getting worried, especially since the submersibles and divers can't go in when the water is so choppy.

BERMAN: Mary, the weather is getting in the way, but is the weather they have -- I mean, with time being a problem as you say, what progress can they be making in these circumstances? Because progress does seem to be needed here.

SCHIAVO: Well, I think by expanding the search area, they're probably going to have to do something they did in 2007, and that is they put out rewards for people finding parts. They got people along the coastlines and shores looking for things.

They tried to get all the assets that they could possibly put in place, and hopefully the expense of the search, we haven't heard a word about it this time, but in 2007, when the U.S. went in the Java Sea at Indonesia's request, the issue of who was going to pay for the ever-expanding search became quite an issue.

Indonesia wanted the airline to pay for it. The airline said Indonesia should pay for it, and the U.S. paid for a lot of it, but at some point, Congress had to reappropriate.

And we're way before that. That isn't happening now, but it is a concern that as it drags on it will become difficult, parts will be dissipated, and those ever-elusive black boxes could lose their pingers.

BERMAN: So, Mary, it turns out AirAsia was not licensed to fly on Sunday. Now, I don't think the day of the week matters here, but they did something that were not allowed to do, apparently.

We had heard before this was an airline with a flawless record, an upstanding member of the aviation community, doing very well in that part of the world. Does this give you cause for concern that they weren't playing by the letter of the law?

SCHIAVO: Oh, absolutely. And this isn't the first that Indonesia has been caught.

Literally since 2007 both the United States Federal Aviation Administration and ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization, has examined Indonesia and found them sorely lacking and has been highly critical. That's why the United States limited carriers into the U.S., and the ICAO organization said that Indonesia maybe complied with about 40 percent, is all, of their safety recommendations.

So it did not surprise me, and I think that as the investigation goes on, we will find more things amiss. Did flying without the permission cause the plane to go down? No.

But did it contribute to it? Well, yes, because that means that you're slack in how you follow the laws and regulations, and I think we'll find lax attitudes towards weather and, really, oversight of pilots, crew coordination, et cetera.

So it does concern me greatly, but it's not new. Indonesia has been under criticism for many years for not meeting standards.

BERMAN: Mary Schiavo, thanks so much for being with us. We're going to have more on this later this hour.

Now some other news this morning, history being made on Capitol Hill, Republicans taking control of both houses of Congress for the first time in nearly a decade. More women than ever will be serving in the house, 62 Democrats, 22 Republicans. Vice President Joe Biden will swear in the new senators starting next hour, and House Speaker John Boehner, who is facing a challenge of his own to his leadership, he will swear in the new House members.

Happening now, a manhunt in New York after two New York City police officers were shot in the Bronx overnight. The suspects, you can see video of one of them there, are still on the loose.

This video shows one of the men that police say fired on the officers. Both of the officers were plain clothed at the time. They were responding to an armed robbery at a store.

They were near the end of their shift when they ran to the scene. One officer was shot in the chest and arm, The other had surgery this morning for gunshots to his arm and lower back.

The shootings come just a day after a funeral was held for one of two officers killed in an ambush last month, that, of course, helped fuel the tensions between the force and the city's mayor. In a few minutes, we'll talk about those rocky relations.

And @THISHOUR, you are looking at live pictures at St. Ignatius Loyola church here in Manhattan. Family and friends saying good-bye to former New York governor Mario Cuomo. He died on New Year's Day at the age of 82, just hours after his son Andrew was sworn in for a second term as governor.

Among the many, many dignitaries there, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Hundreds of people stood in line yesterday to pay their respects at a wake. He served three terms, Mario Cuomo did, as governor of this city, and our thoughts are with Chris Cuomo and the entire Cuomo family.

Ahead for us @THISHOUR, she is the lone survivor of a plane crash, but this is not the first story of its kind. Coming up, we will hear from two other plane crash survivors who are still trying to understand why they were spared.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think God had his hand on me. And I think it was a plan for my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, happening now, a manhunt in New York City after two officers were shot responding to an armed robbery last night. This of course follows the murder of two officers in their car last month.

I want to show you surveillance video of one of the suspects police say fired on the officers overnight. In other video here, I'm not sure if you're going to see it here, you can actually see him with the gun, a large gun, a .44. The officers were responding to this armed robbery at a grocery store. This case -- there's the gun right there. This case and the case last month are very different. This new case does fall of course in the middle of all the tension between New York City police and New York City's mayor, Bill de Blasio.

Evan Perez joins me now. Evan, first of all, talk to me about the circumstances of what happened here to the officers. They were not targeted, we believe, as they were last month. What were the circumstances and how are they doing right now?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, they're both expected to survive. One of them is 30 years old. He's in critical condition, shot in the arm and lower back. The second officer is 38 years old, stable condition; he was shot in the chest and the arm.

This was a very different circumstance from the two officers who were executed in Brooklyn a couple of weeks ago. These officers were getting off their shift around 10:30 last night when the call came in for this robbery at a grocery store in this part of the Bronx.

They -- it was an armed robbery call, and these officers decided to go chase it and they came across two suspects. One of them had gone into a nearby Chinese restaurant, which is the picture that we're seeing on the screen there.

Apparently one of the suspects opened fire on the officers. They returned fire, and they made their getaway.

One of them is this bearded man that we're seeing on screen. He is -- was believed to be -- he's at large. They both jumped into a white Camaro they carjacked, which was found nearby the scene.

The police are now offering a $12,000 reward for information on this bearded man that we have been showing just now.

Separately from this, a man checked himself into the hospital nearby. Now police say they believe that at least one of these suspects was shot. Separately, this man checks into a hospital nearby with a gunshot wound. They're not saying that they believe this is the suspect, but they are checking into this. They're -- they need to interview him.

BERMAN: Of course, I said this falls in the middle of this tension between the middle of the New York City and the police force. The mayor was there at the hospital overnight, saying all the things any police officer will tell you are the right things will say, these men were heroes for rushing to the scene.

Nevertheless, there are still cop, current and former, highly, highly critical of the mayor. I talked to one of them, Nick Casale, this morning, a former New York City police detective who talks about the fact that there aren't many people, he claims, that are standing beside the mayor right now.

Let's listen to what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK CASALE, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: What Democrats are coming out and supporting him? You don't see the black, African-American Officers Association such as the Guardians, the Hundred, blacks in law enforcement, where is this broad support?

You don't see other minority groups among the police department, the Hispanic Society, coming out and supporting the mayor. You don't see one Democratic elected person standing next to him, coming to his aid in this.

He's on his own, he got himself into this trouble, and he -- his stubbornness is not allowing him to get out of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And consider the source, that was a former New York City police detective there. And the mayor certainly not backing down. He called the officers who turned their backs on him at these last two funerals, he now called them disrespectful.

PEREZ: They're disrespectful. He says they're disrespectful against the families of the two officers. And it's not true that he's not getting some backing. I mean, some of the people who have been doing these protests on the streets do have the mayor's back and they do say that this has taken the attention away from some legitimate issues that police departments, not only here in New York, but elsewhere around the country do have with the relationship with minority communities.

BERMAN: The mayor has met with union officials once already. Let's see if that happens again, hopefully diffuse the tensions here. Evan Perez, great to have you with us. Really appreciate it.

Ahead for us @THISHOUR, she is the lone survivor of a plane crash, but this is not the first of its kind. You will hear from two others who survived crashes. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, I have a new picture I want to show you just into CNN. It's a tweet from the former Senate Majority Leader -- I guess he's the Majority Leader for another few minutes -- soon to be Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid, who says, "Working from home on doctor's orders, just wrapped up a good meeting with my leadership team." You can see him there with Patti Murray, Dick Durbin, and Senator Charles Schumer right there. Harry Reid got in an accident working out last week. He broke bones in his ribs and his face. You can see him, it's hard to make it out in that picture, but you can see a bandage on his face right there. He will not make it in to work today in his first day as Minority Leader of the new Senate, working from home. And this is what a Senate leadership meeting looks like in Harry Reid's pad in D.C., apparently. We wish our best to the senator and his recovery from his workout injury. Hopefully he'll get back to work soon. 19 minutes after the hour. The remarkable seven-year-old who crawled

out from a plane crash in Kentucky is back at home in Illinois with family member this morning. Both her parents and her sister were killed when their twin engine plane went down on the way home from Florida last weekend. Her story has really amazed the country. This little girl managed to walk barefoot in the dark through Kentucky wilderness to find help, but she likely has a long and difficult road ahead of her as she tries to cope with this incredible loss. Now, this is something she now shares with other lone survivors of plane crashes. Our Jason Carroll spoke with survivors to see how they are coping.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORESPONDENT: What lies behind the smile of this seven-year-old girl is the kind of courage seen in those well beyond her young years. That's what Larry Wilkins thought when Sailor Gutzler showed up on his front porch late Friday night and told him an incredible story.

LARRY WILKINS, FOUND 7-YEAR-OLD SURVIVOR: She said, my mom and dad are dead, we just had a plane crash.

CARROLL: Gutzler and her family took off from Key West, Florida early Friday. On board, her father, who was piloting the twin engine aircraft, along with her mother, her nine-year-old sister, and 14- year-old cousin. The plane ran into trouble and crashed in a wooded area in Kentucky. Sailor was the only survivor. How was she able to survive the crash and then endure hiking three quarters of a mile through dark, cold woods without shoes or warm clothes, still unknown.

WILKINS: The little girl was -- she was amazingly composed for a seven-year-old girl.

CARROLL: Her story of survival is rare, but there are others documented in the CNN film, "Sole Survivor." In 1987, Cecelia Cichan was just four years old when she was the sole survivor of Northwest Airlines Flight 255. 154 people were killed when the airline crashed on takeoff in Detroit, including her entire family. Decades later, she still has scars and something more.

CECELIA CICHAN, LONE SURVIVOR OF AIRPLANE CRASH: I got this tattoo as a reminder of where I've come from.

CARROLL: Cichan credits luck for her survival. Austin Hatch believes a higher power may have helped him.

AUSTIN HATCH, SURVIVED TWO PLANE CRASHES: I think God had his hand on me. I think it was a plan for my life.

CARROLL: In 2003 when Hatch was just eight years old, the small plane his father was piloting crashed, killing his mother and siblings. Hatch and his father survived. Then tragically eight years later in 2011, Hatch was in another crash. This time his father, again the pilot, was killed, as was his stepmother. Hatch was the only survivor. His brain injuries so bad he had to relearn to walk and even talk. Now just a few years after the second crash, he's on a basketball scholarship at the University of Michigan and scored his first career points last month.

HATCH: Basketball has sort of given me something to shoot for and it's been my goal from when I woke up in the coma.

CARROLL: What they all have in common is not just a shared tragedy, but a will to survive. Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Jason. And if you want to know more about Sailor, the seven-year-old girl who survived the crash in Kentucky, a memorial fund has been set up for her. You can help by going to our website, CNN.com/impact. The money will go toward her emotional, physical, and educational support in the years to come.

Ahead for us @THISHOUR, Republicans have the power, but is there a crack in the foundation? The new term, it starts in just minutes, but House Speaker John Boehner has a little bit of a mutiny on his hands. How members of his party, a few at least, are attempting a coup.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. It is pretty, but it is a serious problem in the Washington, D.C. area. A couple inches of snow. Now I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but in D.C. that's more than enough to slow things down and cause cancellations. One event that had to be rescheduled until tomorrow, a photo-op with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and the 65 Democratic women members of the House. That number includes three non-voting delegates. That's the largest number of female members in a party caucus ever.

Today is a big day for the Republican party. They are taking control of both houses of Congress. So everybody in the party should be perfectly happy, right? Well, not so much. House Speaker John Boehner is facing a challenge to his leadership from a small group of conservative lawmakers. Right now numbers about 12, 13 depending on who you ask, they say they may have more on the way. They will vote later today on the House floor. They say they are going to try to block John Boehner from becoming the speaker once again. If they manage to get 29 members to vote against him, they could force a second ballot, which would be hugely embarrassing. Most people don't think they can reach that number, but even if they get close it will be very, very embarrassing, as I said, for the speaker.

Let's talk more about this. I want to bring in Tara Setmayer, she's a Republican strategist and Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic strategist. And Tara, I want to start with you here. You know, there haven't been this many Republicans in the House since Harry Truman was president, or maybe even Herbert Hoover. It's been a long time, since a little bit before I was born. That's the important thing to know here. So why shake things up? If you're one of these 12 or 13 House members, why not just take the victory lap, elect Speaker Boehner, get on with the business? TARA SETMAYER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think it's more than

just that. It's more than just 12 or 13. There are a couple dozen members of the House who are not thrilled with Boehner's leadership. They feel as though he sold out to the establishment, particularly lately with what he did with the omnibus bill, you know, funding the government through September, basically giving the president everything he wanted, he didn't push back hard enough on the immigration executive orders. So there are people who have been very upset with Boehner's leadership for awhile.

Now, how many of them actually step up to the plate and vote against him? That's a different ball game. Because he is speaker, he does wield a lot of power, committee assignments and things like that are up for grabs, and you have a lot of freshmen coming in who, you know, they may talk tough on the campaign trail, but when it comes down to it, they want those plush committee assignments. It's a management game.

So I think that this is not a good sign for Boehner. This is a distraction for the party. They should be unified. We need to come in and the American people sent a message and a mandate to the Republican Congress that they reject the Obama policies, they rejected what the Democrats were doing, and they want the Republicans to govern and get things done. So once we get past this, I think then the onus comes on to whether they can govern and get some things done and send some bills over to the president's desk and then it's up to him whether he wants to veto them or not.

BERMAN: Stephanie, I'm sure you're watching this with a certain amount of satisfaction as Republicans are engaged in a certain level of in- fighting. But before you gloat too much, let me remind you that Harry Reid -- I should say incoming Senate Minority Leader -- he had senators vote against him in the party caucus. He had Democratic candidates running against him last fall. Isn't this just democracy at work?

STEPHANIE CUTTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is democracy at work, and actually, I'm not looking at this with satisfaction because what this ultimately means is that John Boehner will be less open to compromise, less open to actually, as Tara said, governing. And governing means getting something actually done, signed into law. Not just sending the president message bills for the sake of strengthening their own party.

So John Boehner, over the past several years, has been held hostage by this same group of Tea Party Republicans in the House. As a result, we had a government shutdown, we had a default -- a downgrade in our credit rating. And Congress basically shut down, got nothing done.

So the strength of this Tea Party faction group in the House is very concerning, to all parties involved, not just John Boehner. It's more than just about his speakership; it's about our ability to compromise.