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FAA To Audit Boeing's 737 Max-9 Production; Alaska Airlines Passengers Sue Boeing Over Mid-Flight Blowout; Speaker Johnson Stands By Deal With Dems Despite Pressure From GOP Hardliners; Interview with Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT); Biden Admin Will Seek Death Penalty For Buffalo Mass Shooter. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired January 12, 2024 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:34:03]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We've been talking about this hard-hitting weather across the country. Airline travel is a mess today thanks to massive winter storms blanketing the Midwest, and the emergency grounding of those Boeing 737 Max-9 jets.
This was the scene earlier today at Chicago O'Hare. Data tracking site, FlightAware, is reporting more than 1,900 flight cancellations so far today, the highest number since last year.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: That's right. The FAA has not said how long these Max-9 jets will be grounded while it investigates last week's terrifying -- I don't think there's any other way to describe it -- mid-air blowout aboard and Alaska Airlines jet, but it did announce it going to audit Boeings 737 Max-9's production line and its suppliers.
We have CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, here with us.
Pete, tell us about this audit.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Two rare announcements from the FAA. Put together, they are really significant. They mean, excuse me, that the Friday in-flight blowout, the probe into it is now expanding.
[13:35:01]
And now it goes way beyond the incident itself. Asking what a lot of people want to know here. Is there a bigger problem at Boeing?
The FAA just announced it will audit the Boeing 737 Max-9 production line. That was the plane involved in last Friday's incident. All 171 of those planes have been ground in the U.S.
The audit will focus on Boeing and its suppliers. That is key because of contractors. Spirit AeroSystems builds the fuselage. This is in addition to the investigation into Boeing's quality control that the FAA announced yesterday. Here's what the FAA said in the announcement of that investigation.
"This incident should've never happened and it cannot happen again. Boeing's manufacturing practices need to comply with high safety standards they are legally accountable to make."
Remember, this investigation is focusing on the Boeing 737 Max-9 door plug that is the part that blew out of Alaska 1282 a week ago. And since then, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines found issues with their door plugs.
United said it found loose bolts related to possible installation issues.
The bolts are really key. Four bolts keep the door plug snug against 12 fittings. Without those bullets, the door can shoot out at incredible force, essentially exactly what it did last week.
Still a very controlled message from Boeing here. CEO Dave Calhoun has done one interview since the incident. He told CNBC that the cause was a "horrible escape" when it came to Boeing quality control.
He insists that Boeing is going to take a hard look at its own processes and those of its contractors.
SANCHEZ: And, Pete, following what happened last week, now, some of the passengers aboard the plane have filed a class-action lawsuit against Boeing over this.
MUNTEAN: They essentially allege a lot of different things. They alleged emotional trauma. They alleged physical injuries, including bruising.
And the big quote here is this. They say they "were thrust into a waking nightmare."
This is filed in state court, in Washington. Of course, where Boeing's headquarters is.
Interesting that this is filed against Boeing and not against Alaska Airlines that was operating the flight.
KEILAR: Total nightmare. Like a scary movie.
MUNTEAN: That's right.
KEILAR: Pete, thank you so much for that.
MUNTEAN: Yes.
KEILAR: We will keep following this. We know you will.
Still to come, defending the deal. House Speaker Mike Johnson is standing by the top-line spending agreement that he negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. We are going to get reaction from a GOP lawmaker who's been pushing the speaker to walk away from the agreement. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:41:43]
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REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): In keeping with my comment to bring members into the legislative process, I have spoken and received feedback from many members all across the Republican Congress.
It's a very important part of. Since I became speaker, I committed to decentralizing the speaker's office, and making this a member-driven process. That has been part of this.
Our top line agreement remains --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: House Speaker Mike Johnson showing that, for now, he is resisting the pressure from Republican hard-liners in his party to walk away from that $1.66 trillion spending deal he negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Johnson cut that deal with Senate Democrats earlier this week, and time is running out to avoid a government shutdown, at least a partial one. Because in one week, the first funding deadline hits when critical parts of the government are going to shut down.
Now there is a sign Speaker Johnson may try to get more time. This just in. Sources telling CNN that the speaker is weighing a short-term funding extension that would set a February 9th deadline.
Joining me now is Republican Congressman Matt Rosendale of Montana. He is a member of the House Freedom Caucus. He was also one of 12 Republicans who took part in a vote that brought the House floor to a standstill in protest of the bipartisan deal.
Congressman, thank you so much for joining us in studio.
REP. MATT ROSENDALE (R-MT): Nice to be on, Brianna.
KEILAR: Speaker Johnson saying the spending agreement is still in place and that he wants to move forward with a C.R., with a short-term stopgap funding measure. What is your reaction?
ROSENDALE: I had a press conference just this week with Senators Rick Scott and Mike Lee and about another half dozen House members.
What we made perfectly clear was that we were not interested in any conversations about spending, about additional spending for the federal government until we could see some success towards securing our southern border.
The southern border is wide open. We are seeing as many as 2,500 individuals a day coming into our country illegally. We've seen about two million come into our country as got-aways. So we don't even know who they are or what their intentions are to cause harm in our country.
And the speaker himself took a delegation of 50 members to the southern border, Eagle Pass, Texas, ground zero, just last week. Everyone returned home and had these discussions about how horrible the conditions are, how terrible it is.
We've spoken to law enforcement. We've spoken to CBP. My question continues to be, is that -- it is an imminent national security threat. So what are we willing to do about it?
Right now, because of the spending issues coming forward again -- because they've been mishandled, quite frankly, for the last several years. This is our opportunity to serve our country in the way we all promised to.
And that is to secure it first. And we must tie security to our southern border, to any type of funding.
KEILAR: There is a crisis on the border. I will say that go-away number - and certainly, there are people who get through -- that is an estimate. We just have to be clear about that. Certainly, there are people who get through. We know that.
[13:44:58]
How do you do that in a week? I mean, 20 percent of the government shuts down in a week, the whole thing shutting down in three weeks. That seems a little unrealistic, especially if you don't support a stopgap measure, I assume.
ROSENDALE: So we have proposed many different ways in order to address this. And have been doing so, quite frankly, for the last year to introduce -- first of all, we passed the appropriations bill for the Department of Defense. We passed the appropriation bills for state and foreign operations.
So the House of Representatives has passed a lot of the appropriation bills that the Senate has failed to take up. We also passed H.R.2, which is the most comprehensive and conservative immigration southern security bill that I'm told has ever gone through.
KEILAR: It is a nonstarter with the Senate.
ROSENDALE: But why --
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: It is a nonstarter with the Senate. You push a lot of responsibilities into the points of entry without providing any additional resources, or reorganizing things.
Just to be clear, it seems a little unrealistic in how you organize things.
(CROSSTALK) It increases the amount of time that children would spend in adult facilities from three days to 30 days. It is a nonstarter in the Senate. You're certainly aware of that.
ROSENDALE: I just find it interesting that people can accept something that is a nonstarter in the Senate because Chuck Schumer says so.
But when the House of Representatives, that has a Republican majority, says here's what we want, and, quite frankly, we have 70 percent of the American people supporting us, all of a sudden, it becomes unattainable. It becomes un-excitable.
KEILAR: Not just Democrats. Republicans know it's a nonstarter in the Senate. They have accepted that reality. Your Republican colleagues in the Senate have.
Will you vote -- or you voted to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker?
ROSENDALE: Absolutely.
KEILAR: Will you rule out ousting Speaker Johnson over this?
ROSENDALE: I really haven't even put that on my radar yet, to be perfectly honest with you.
Again, my focus has been we were supposed to fund government transparently, responsibly, with our appropriation bills. Leadership has not put us in a position to be able to do that.
And we absolutely must address the imminent national security threat at our southern border. So I continue to try to work together to try to ensure we can resolve those issues.
KEILAR: Are you OK with a government shutdown?
ROSENDALE: That gets very exaggerated. We are probably going to have at most 50 percent --
KEILAR: That it will happen, or the negative impacts on it?
ROSENDALE: The negative impacts on it. You are really talking about 15 percent of the government. All of the Social Security checks --
(CROSSTALK)
ROSENDALE: All of the Social Security checks, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans' benefits, quite frankly, still are covered.
And a very good friend of mine, Representative Andy Biggs from Arizona, introduced legislation just today to make sure that we would also be able to cover any of these national security issues that were not going to be covered by the existing funding.
KEILAR: Well, he can introduce all the legislation he wants but that does not mean it's going to be passed and Senate. So it's about 20 percent of the government. It does include veterans'
assistance. What would your message be to veterans' who would go without that assistance?
ROSENDALE: Oh, no. Veterans' benefits would still be covered --
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: There is still veterans' assistance in that 20 percent?
ROSENDALE: It's about 15 percent. Again, veterans' benefits will still go out.
KEILAR: There is some veterans' assistant in that 20 percent?
ROSENDALE: Veterans' benefits will still go out. What you are calling veterans' assistance, I am not aware of. I can tell you, veterans' benefits will still be paid.
KEILAR: What leverage does that give you? Is it leverage over Speaker Johnson? Is it leverage over Democrats?
ROSENDALE: Really, the leverage is about the entire group of people that are negotiating. This is who I think -- really the crux of the problem. When we hear conversations about discussions, debates, negotiations, that are taking place, it is always from the four corners.
So we have Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader in the House, Speaker Johnson, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, all getting together to work some kind of deal that, quite frankly, they are all satisfied with.
But I fought very hard back in January. Not only to make sure we had new leadership, but also to have an open-rule process in the House of Representatives.
And we have had ample time to have these discussions on the House floor. They are just not taking place. We have to have more of an open debate.
I understand that Speaker Johnson has opened his office up to invites some people to have conversations about how we can move forward. I want to move forward.
And I want to move forward. I want to move forward. But right at this point, we're -- we're going to --
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: You shut down the House floor yesterday.
ROSENDALE: We are adding --
KEILAR: You are talking about open debate on the House floor. You shut it down yesterday. ROSENDALE: We did not shut debate down. No. That was the Rules
Committee.
(CROSSTALK)
ROSENDALE: And again, what you saw was the by-product of the consolidation of power over the last 18 years where the Rules Committee is the group that makes the decisions about how affairs are going to be conducted.
[13:50:00]
KEILAR: But Republicans shutting down Republican bills, it is something to behold, I will say. It is not what you are used to watching.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: But we are used to -- getting used to --
(CROSSTALK)
ROSENDALE: Adding a trillion dollars a year to the national debt, which is already sitting at $44 trillion. And in five short years, Brianna, five short years, we will consume 50 percent of the total revenue that the federal government collects just --
(CROSSTALK)
ROSENDALE: -- just servicing debt.
KEILAR: I'm not dismissing your concerns about spending. I think there are a lot of people who have concerns about spending, but they're questioning the way in which some Republicans are proceeding with us.
We are, unfortunately, out of time. I thank you so much for coming in.
ROSENDALE: Thank you for having me.
KEILAR: We will continue the conversation.
Congressman Matt Rosendale, thank you.
ROSENDALE: Thank you.
KEILAR: A major announcement in the investigation into the 2022 Buffalo grocery store shooting. The families, who are meeting with Department of Justice officials today, what they are saying? We'll have that next.
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[13:55:21]
KEILAR: A major decision from the Biden administration. The Justice Department says it will seek the death penalty for the Buffalo mass shooter, Peyton Gendron, who killed 10 black people in a racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket in 2022.
SANCHEZ: This is significant because it marks the first time the administration has pursued the death penalty.
Some relatives of the victims did not like the decision by the DOJ.
CNN's Miguel Marquez has been following the story from New York.
Miguel, what is the latest?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is -- look, it is such a vile case. It is so hideous. Some family members were upset that the government has decided to seek the death penalty.
But he has -- this individual -- I will not say his name -- has been convicted in state court. New York State does not have the death penalty.
Family members were mixed. Some of them spoke out. Mark Talley, his mother, Geraldine, died on 5/14 in Buffalo. They refer to that date as 5/14. His mother died.
He talked about her and his feelings about the death penalty.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He knows.
MARK TALLEY, SON OF BUFFALO SHOOTING VICTIM GERALDINE TALLEY: Thought about my mom a lot those for six months. I still have a lot of -- just a lot of dreams in which I'm crying in the dream, most of my emotions in my dreams are when I see her, think about her.
You know, smell. I still got -- I took two clothes of hers. I can still smell her scent. That is what I really think about the most.
As far as I'm concerned, I think he is getting off the hook getting the death penalty. Because he won't get that suffering that I want.
As long as I'm alive, whether God gives me 20, 30, 60 years, I want to be able to see him to suffer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: That is the sentiment of some family members who came out to speak. Others did not speak clearly. Some of those family members are perfectly fine with the federal government seeking the death penalty.
This was a difficult decision for the federal government. It clearly is making the case that, in specific cases that are as vile as this, and what this individual did to these people, and the reasons that this person did this, that this, if any case, deserves death.
And we expect there will be a hearing that will start just about now. And there won't be some oral arguments as well. So I think by days end, we will know more about the government's plan on this. Back to you guys.
KEILAR: All right, we'll be looking for that.
Miguel. Thank you so much.
MARQUEZ: Yes.
KEILAR: And we will be speaking with Mark Talley in the 3:00 p.m. right here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We'll be back.
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