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U.S. Re-Designates Houthis as Global Terrorist Entity; Lawmakers Meet with NTSB, FAA After Boeing Incident; Supreme Court Hears Case that Could Weaken Federal Agencies; Princess Kate Hospitalized, King Charles Set for Prostate Procedure. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 17, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Today the Biden administration redesignated the Houthis in Yemen as a global terrorist entity. This is a move that U.S. officials hope will deter the Iranian-backed rebels from launching more attacks in the Red Sea, and it comes after the U.S. led several nations in striking Houthi targets in Yemen.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand is at the Pentagon. Natasha, tell us what this designation means.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, Brianna, this is a designation that basically triggers new economic sanctions as well as asset freezes. And according to the Secretary of State, he said in a statement that, quote, this designation seeks to promote accountability for the group's terroristic activities, and he said that if the Houthis cease their attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, then the United States will reevaluate this designation.

So this is basically just another tool in the U.S.'s toolbox that they have decided to reinstate following the Houthis' delisting as this entity in 2021 as a direct result of the Houthis attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea with missiles and drones over the last two months.

But importantly, this is not as strong as a terrorist designation as the administration could have imposed on the Houthis. That would be the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation. And the administration stopped short of that because under that designation, that would also penalize anyone providing material support to the Houthis, and the administration was concerned that that could potentially negatively impact humanitarian aid that flows to parts of Yemen. Because the Houthis do control a significant portion of territory in northern Yemen.

And so the administration says that this designation, being global terrorist, is going to take effect in the next 30 days, and throughout this month, they're going to reach out to different stakeholders and international companies to make sure that they understand the limitations on what they can and can't provide in this context.

But basically, all of this comes, of course, as the Houthis have not let up their attacks on the Red Sea, striking vessels as recently as today, even though the U.S. military has launched several strikes as recently as yesterday on the weaponry that the Houthis have been using to launch these attacks.

So another attempt to pressure the Houthis here to kind of squeeze them into stopping. However, the Houthis, of course, show no signs of letting up at this point, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, they sure do not. Natasha Bertrand, live for us from the Pentagon. Thank you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Meantime, some major airport drama for Arnold Schwarzenegger today. The former California governor was detained by customs agents in Munich for over two hours, apparently over an undisclosed luxury watch.

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KEILAR: A source close to the actor calling the scene a shakedown and telling CNN the watch was to be auctioned for charity. Customs officials offering a different explanation, saying he did not declare a product imported from a non-EU country. This process applies to everyone. The agent says Schwarzenegger will now face criminal tax proceedings in Germany over the incident.

SANCHEZ: I love how they let him snap a pic inside the office, apparently.

KEILAR: Yes, maybe a move for that watch, a PR move. I don't know. What kind of watch was it?

SANCHEZ: I don't know either. We'll figure it out. Maybe we'll ask Pete Muntean.

The fallout continues for Boeing as investigators look into why part of an Alaska Airlines plane blew out mid-flight. The focus is now on the 737 MAX 9's door plug and whether bolts were installed on that part of the aircraft.

KEILAR: Today, lawmakers held a closed-door meeting with the heads of the National Transportation Safety Board and also with the FAA. We have Pete Muntean here, our watch correspondent. Just kidding. He's our aviation correspondent. Tell us what we're learning about this. It's so essential for anyone who might be on one of these planes.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It is very essential, and the fact is that we might be ungrounding the 737 MAX 9 before we know exactly what led to this incident. The latest is from Capitol Hill, and the heads of the NTSB and FAA just wrapped up their first briefing to Congress on Alaska Flight 1282.

That briefing held behind closed doors, and after, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters that her team is still examining the door plug at its lab in D.C. That's the part that violently blew off Alaska 1282 back on January 5th. Investigators are also reviewing extensive records regarding the door plug. Homendy now says the door was made by contractor Spirit AeroSystems in Malaysia.

It then went to a Spirit factory in Kansas before going to the Boeing production line in Washington state. Investigators want to know where in that process the problems first occurred. Senator Ted Cruz sits on the Senate Commerce Committee, which got today's briefing.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): We don't know, but it's obvious somebody screwed up. And so this investigation needs to find out where the mistake was, what caused this accident, and critically, what needs to be done to make sure it doesn't happen again, and it doesn't happen again with tragic consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Remember, the Boeing 737 MAX 9 remains grounded in the U.S. That includes a total of 171 planes flown by Alaska Airlines and United Airlines.

The FAA now says preliminary inspections of 40 of those planes just wrapped up, and data from those inspections is being looked at now by the FAA, and that will help create the final checks that must be done on each MAX 9 before they can fly again.

Also today, Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci released a video message, and he says he's been able to see some of those early inspections firsthand, but until the FAA releases final details, the airline will be forced to keep canceling flights. Right now, Alaska's cancellations total as many as 150 flights per day.

SANCHEZ: Yes, notably a few moments ago, we were talking about the potential government shutdown, partial government shutdown later this week. The NTSB chair warned lawmakers that it could have effects on their work.

MUNTEAN: Yes, and she has sent a letter to lawmakers to say the government needs to remain open. She has said this to me as well. If the government shuts down, it could impact some of these critical investigations.

We also know there's just a broader impact of a government shutdown on aviation, and it could really impact air traffic controllers and also the backup of air traffic controllers getting through training, and that's a huge problem for the FAA and airlines in general.

SANCHEZ: What watch was Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to get across the border?

MUNTEAN: I don't know. I'm an Apple Watch guy, and mine's pretty scuffed up. I used to wear a really nice Bright Line all the time. I guess I should probably get back on my watch game and keep up with the Arnold.

KEILAR: This is why you're the aviation -- he's the aviation correspondent. SANCHEZ: Yes, yes. Pete --

MUNTEAN: Sorry, I'm not the watch guy. Sorry, I should be a watch division.

KEILAR: We misunderstood.

MUNTEAN: Anytime.

KEILAR: And we thought you were. We apologize.

SANCHEZ: We appreciate the reporting. Pete Muntean, thanks so much.

MUNTEAN: Anytime.

SANCHEZ: The Supreme Court is taking on a major case that could limit the power of the federal government and one that some court watchers think could be impacted by a certain justice and what happened to his mom. Details after a break.

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SANCHEZ: The fate of federal agencies may be in the hands of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, and he's got some family history there. His mom, a former chief of the EPA, railed against air and water quality regulations in the early 1980s. And that ardent defiance landed her in contempt of Congress, leading to her resignation months later. Her son built his legal career on a similar anti-regulatory streak, voting against numerous regulations aimed at protecting the environment, student debt forgiveness, and COVID-19 precautions.

KEILAR: Today, the nation's highest court will hear a pair of cases testing the scope of federal agencies' regulatory power. And at the center of those cases is a 1984 Supreme Court decision that Gorsuch previously has said should be reversed.

We have CNN's Joan Biskupic joining us now with the details. This is pretty interesting here, Joan. What can you tell us about these cases before the court?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SENIOR SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Sure. And I'll just first tell you just about the unusual Gorsuch connection.

The 1984 case actually arose from policy that Anne Gorsuch was implementing.

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So it's just that -- and after she was essentially run out of town by the Reagan administration, she wrote a book that said, "Are You Tough Enough?" That was the title. But in it, she referred to the fact that her son Neil, now the justice, was really upset by what happened to her. He was just 15 at the time. But here we are now with a major test of a decision that became a landmark through EPA policy that Anne Gorsuch was part of.

But let me just tell you about this 1984 case. It's called Chevron versus Natural Resources Defense Council. And what it says is that if there's an ambiguous statute that's being enforced by a regulator, judges who would hear any kind of lawsuit over the statute should defer to what the agency says it means, as long as the agency's interpretation is reasonable.

Now, this all comes about because Congress often will write, you know, a sweeping statute and leave the details of policy to agencies. This happens all the time. In fact, this 1984 ruling has been one of the most, if not the most, cited cases in the federal courts and at the Supreme Court.

And today it's being tested because big businesses supporting these two fisheries who are challenging a marine fishery policy have come before the justices urging the court to overturn Chevron. And this court is really primed for it. You know, not just Neil Gorsuch, but two other Trump appointees. This has kind of been an agenda item for them and for other conservatives on the Supreme Court.

SANCHEZ: You mentioned the fact that there are fishing industry considerations at play with this decision. But I imagine this is going to impact a lot more industries than just fishing.

BISKUPIC: Absolutely. In fact, I would say environmental protection, as Anne Gorsuch once oversaw, workplace safety, consumer rights protections, the drug industry. You just name it. You know, just think of how many areas of the law the federal government touches.

And let me just read two things from Neil Gorsuch, who you guys opened with his being at the center of the case. He had been pushing this Supreme Court to take up a case that would test the Chevron deference, as it's known. And two years ago, when the justices decided not to, he wrote a dissent.

And he said: Rather than say what the law is, we tell those who come before us to go ask a bureaucrat. We place a finger on the scales of justice in favor of the most powerful of litigants, the federal government, and against everyone else.

And then during the back and forth, I just came from the oral arguments, and they took more than three hours, very tense three hours. At one point, Justice Neil Gorsuch said, the government always wins. Chevron is exploited against the individual and in favor of the government.

So it was, you know, I can really feel the momentum on the part of conservatives, including Neil Gorsuch, to try to really roll back this policy, which, as I say, has given wide latitude to federal regulators in a host of areas, including environmental protection, workplace safety, consumer rights.

SANCHEZ: It's so fascinating how his own mother's legacy as a federal regulator now impacts a potential future decision.

KEILAR: And 15. I mean, you are very cognizant of what's happening when you're 15. He wasn't five. He was 15.

BISKUPIC: No, and she said he was really upset. She writes in her in this memoir. She passed away in 2004, but she writes, she said Neil was really upset when she was forced out. He said, why did you quit? You raised me not to be a quitter and you quit. I mean, that kind of gets you a little bit, doesn't it?

SANCHEZ: It does. I imagine she's on it or rather she is on his mind.

BISKUPIC: Yes. Yes. And actually one of that -- I know we have to wrap up -- but one of the lawyers representing the fisheries actually raised Dan (ph) Gorsuch at one point. Just briefly.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

KEILAR: Interesting.

SANCHEZ: Joan Biskupic, really a fascinating story. Thanks so much.

So two members of the British royal family are dealing with health scares requiring time in the hospital. We're going to take you live to London for the latest on King Charles and Catherine, the princess of Wales.

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SANCHEZ: Major medical news out of Britain concerning King Charles and Catherine, the Princess of Wales. Kensington Palace, confirmed that the princess is in the hospital after undergoing what is described as a successful abdominal surgery.

KEILAR: And Buckingham Palace says that King Charles is preparing for his own hospital stay for a medical procedure that is set for next week.

Let's go to CNN royal correspondent Max Foster, who is in London with more on this. What can you tell us here, Max?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot going on, isn't there? Two announcements in one day.

The princess in hospital, it was announced after her surgery. It was planned surgery. It went as planned. But she does have to stay in hospital for up to two weeks to be monitored, and then two to three months at home for recuperation. So they are concerned to the extent that she needs this long period of time. We're not being given details about what the surgery was, apart from to say it wasn't related to any sort of concerns about cancer.

Prince William will step in, look after logistics at home. So both of them have been taken out of public duties and cancelled all future travel. So it does have an impact here.

At the same time, we hear from Buckingham Palace that the King has an enlarged prostate. He will have to go in for some sort of procedure next week, and that will take him out of engagements as well.

The reason it was announced at the same time, I'm told, is that Charles had a big meeting in Scotland with cabinet ministers. He didn't want to, you know, send them all up there and then cancel. So he wanted people to know. He also wanted to raise awareness about checking your prostate for men as well.

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So I don't expect to hear any more updates until the princess leaves hospital, unless something more serious happens. But there isn't any indication of that so far.

KEILAR: OK, so that's very good news. That is a long time, Max, to be recovering.

FOSTER: Yes, it really is. And, you know, she's fit and healthy as well. She's very sporty. She should be in a situation to really recover quite well. But maybe it's an abundance of caution. We're not really sure. We're not being given any more detail apart from the facts.

KEILAR: All right, well, hopefully the best to both of them and that they heal up fine here. Max, thank you so much for that. We'll be right back.

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SANCHEZ: Just in to CNN, Attorney General Merrick Garland is touring murals of the Robb Elementary School shooting victims in Uvalde, Texas. Remember, this comes one day before the Justice Department is set to release its review of law enforcement's response to that massacre.

KEILAR: That's right, these murals that he is there visiting, these are a series that were made in memory of the 19 children and the two teachers who were killed by a gunman nearly two years ago.

And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.