Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

JetBlue Flights Stopped for 17 Hours; Amtrak Passengers Stranded on Trains; Rodman Lashes Out on Interview; Senate to Vote on Jobless Benefits; U.S. Ramps Up Support to Iraqi Government; JP Morgan to pay $1.7 Billion Over Madoff Scam

Aired January 07, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I have that and more. Thanks so much.

Happening now in the NEWSROOM, shutdown. JetBlue in an unheard of move shattered its flights for 17 hours. Four major airports and thousands of passengers stranded. Some people not seeing available seats for at least a week. What's going on here?

I wish you could hear him because it's crazy. Dennis Rodman unplugged and one-on-one, a CNN exclusive and a startling claim against imprisoned American Kenneth Bae.

Also wild finish. A thrilling last-minute drive at the BCS game, Florida State capturing the national championship.

And cast, after six years, "Saturday Night Live" hires a black female cast member. America meets Sasheer Zamata.

NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Record-shattering cold gripped much the nation and that's adding to the travel nightmare for hundreds of thousands of airline passengers.

In an unheard of move, JetBlue shattered separations for 17 hours to, in their words, give their crews a rest and time to service the aircraft. Next hour the company says it will start its reboot.

JetBlue played a big part in the 5800 flight scratch since yesterday morning. Stranded passengers now face long waits to untangle that logjam and JetBlue customers was skeptical that the airline will be able -- will be back to 100 percent by midday as promised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know if anyone actually knows where any of the lines go, like -- or what they're for. Everyone is going to get -- and there's no one, like, out here answering questions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was sitting on my plane and then there was announcement that it was cancelled. So then I had to get off. And then I went back with them and I have been stuck here for two days. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm actually kind of worried because the way this line is, I don't even know what to know what security is going to be like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The weather has caused just about every airline to suffer flight delays or cancellations. But only JetBlue took that bold step to scratch all of its flights in several major airports.

CNN has put out several requests to JetBlue to talk to its top executives. The company is says it's not making them available for interviews today so they can focus on restoring service.

Christine Romans is our chief business correspondent.

What was JetBlue thinking?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, they were thinking mainly to reset things. You know, you had a very busy holiday season, right, and then you had big winter storm, and then cold weather ice, another winter storm. And really the margin for error was so slim, they cancelled flights for about 17 hours to really pause and start this thing over again.

There were some flights that were coming in, JetBlue tells us, last night at these airports. So what are we talking about? We're talking Boston Logan, New York's LaGuardia, Newark Liberty, New York JFK.

This is a major flight corridor in the U.S. and a lot of the JetBlue flights touch on these airports sometime during the day so this was an important kind of epicenter for JetBlue here.

When do they think they're going to start -- getting these flights going? 10:00 a.m. about 25 percent of the flights are going to start going out. By noon, it'll be 50 percent, Carol. Then after that by 3:00 they hope to have 100 percent of things running here.

It was 1:00 yesterday that they slowed down operations, fully reduced their flight load by 6:00 p.m. last night. We're told a few flights were landing in the region. But mostly this was just sort of reset the whole thing and try to untangle that mess of the weather and all the high demand has caused.

Now one thing that's interesting about this that many people have noted, it's the only airline that mentioned new FAA rules for flight rest. And so it's getting a lot of criticism today that it had plenty of time to prepare for that, it shouldn't have flight rest issues as part of this, you know, blend of reasons why they had to have this big reset or this JetBlue deep freeze, as they're calling it, as critics are calling it. That they had time to figure that out and they just couldn't handle the storms the way some of the other airlines have handled the storms.

In JetBlue's, I guess, defense, all of the airlines have a lot of delays. It is a real mess out there for travel. You're having a hard time rebooking but JetBlue seems to bearing the brunt of the criticism this morning.

One thing, Carol, if your flight is delayed and you're on JetBlue, and you've got -- you got on JetBlue.com, they've got all your information, they say they're going to reach out to you. You can rebook your flight or you can get a refund. And they're going to waive the change fees as they should -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We've all been through that sort of situation before. And I just wouldn't wait for any airline to reach out to me. It's time to take matters in your own hands, right?

ROMANS: So no humans in the airlines to reach out to anymore. And I will say that, and that is not an editorialization but it's very difficult to do customer service at any of the airlines. So it's a real mess for travelers right now.

COSTELLO: All right, Christine, we'll get back to you. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: People on planes are not the only ones dealing with travel headaches. That desolate moonscape you're about to see of drifting snow, well, it stranded about 500 Amtrak passengers overnight. They're aboard three trains stopped in their tracks since late yesterday. That's 16.5 hours cooped up, restless and powerless.

Joining us now is one of those passengers, Sierra Schnack. She joins us live from Chicago.

So, Sierra, you were on board that train, you've escaped it now but bring us back to the beginning. What happened?

SIERRA SCHNACK, STRANDED PASSENGER: At the very beginning of the trip, I went from Quincy, Illinois, where the train started. It was supposed to depart at 6:12 a.m. It didn't get there until around 10:45 a.m. And that's when we left the very first station. And we were told at very beginning it was going to have a lot of delays and it would be a slower train. And then we left.

And every train stop that we went to we would have little stops in between where we would have to clear something or wait for another train. But then there was one stop that lasted nine hours.

COSTELLO: My gosh. What did you do for nine hours?

SCHNACK: A lot of sleeping, a lot of reading plays for college and a lot of hoping and waiting.

COSTELLO: So you're stuck -- was it basically you were stuck in the middle of nowhere and no one could come get you?

SCHNACK: Yes, we were just past the Princeton train stop. And there was no roads, no anything. We were stuck in about five feet of drifted snow.

COSTELLO: That's unbelievable. There was heat on the train, right, and food?

SCHNACK: Absolutely. They had electricity, they had outlets where you didn't have to worry about losing your phone and you could keep in touch with your loved ones. They had the heat going the entire time, and as soon as the crew knew that we would be there for a while, they opened up the food carts and said everyone, buy on up, come down and grab whatever you want on us, which is very nice.

COSTELLO: Yes, but with each passing hour, I personally would have been afraid that the electricity was going to go away at some point.

SCHNACK: That was definitely a fear. When it got past about four hours I wondered now I know I'm not supposed to leave my car on for a long time. What's the ratio for a train?

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: My god. But you made it through and you're still sane. And I admire you for that.

SCHNACK: Thank you. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Sierra Schnack, thanks for sharing your story.

Amtrak says within the last couple of hours it began moving passengers from two of those trains and putting them on buses for the ride into Chicago. And Sierra's story.

CNN's George Howell is in Chicago with the latest on Amtrak's side.

Good morning, George. What happened?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning. Looking at that picture out there you just see the, you know, snow everywhere. You're out in the middle of nowhere. Had to be a very difficult situation when you consider how cold it is here right now. About negative 10, feels like negative 30. You're sitting on, you know, a train waiting to be evacuated, to be rescued. It's got to be a difficult situation.

What we know, though, again, these three trains, they were just about 80 miles west of Chicago. And we understand that two of those trains, at least two of the trains have been evacuated. And they are in the process -- Amtrak is in the process of getting people back to safety, back to their shelters, or the train stations, I should say, in Galesburg, Illinois.

So it's one of those situations where it seems like Amtrak is definitely taking proactive steps to get it there on top of it as you spoke to that guest there, a person who seems to be back at home talking to you after quite a situation -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, she was Skyping from her dorm room all nice and warm.

George Howell, go somewhere warm. Thanks so much.

HOWELL: OK.

COSTELLO: When can we expect things to warm up?

Indra Petersons is in New York's Battery Park.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Carol, it really is unbearable this morning. I have to say I was in Boston just a few days ago where the wind chill was 20 below and I had snow blowing around. Unfortunately the winds are even stronger here in New York City this morning. And for that reason it feels worse even though temperatures are at 14 below.

Now that is the problem. We're talking about this cold air, the same air that was in the Midwest bringing temperatures as low as 65 below yesterday. Today 50 below. That cold air has now made its way into northeast.

Let's talk about the temperature change, yesterday in New York City it was 55 degrees with the wind chill in the morning hours. This morning we're talking about a good 60 if not 70-degree temperature drop in just 24 hours. So with those same strong winds now going right over the lakes, we're still talking over Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, even as much as five feet of snow and blizzard conditions in that area.

Temperatures in New York City not expected to warm up even as we go throughout the afternoon as that cold air is still making its way in. In fact it's going so far south, that even places in the southeast today will be looking at temperatures below freezing. With temperatures a good 30 degrees below average, it looks like millions of us are suffering today.

COSTELLO: At least we're suffering together, right? All right.

Now for one crazy interview. Dennis Rodman now accusing an American man being held by the North Korean government of wrongdoing.

In a combative interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Rodman blew up when he was asked why the Korean government has kept Kenneth Bae locked up for so long without any explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: Are you going to take an opportunity if you get it to speak up for the family of Kenneth Bae and to say let us know why this man is being held? That this is wrong, that he is sick? If you can help Dennis, will you take the opportunity?

DENNIS RODMAN, FORMER NBA STAR: Watch this. The one thing about politics -- Kenneth Bae did one thing if you understand. I got it guy. If you understand what Kenneth Bae did --

CUOMO: Yes?

RODMAN: do you understand what he did?

CUOMO: What did he do? You tell me.

RODMAN: In this country --

CUOMO: You tell me. What did he do?

RODMAN: No, no, no, no. You tell me. You tell me. Why is he held captive here in this country?

CUOMO: They haven't released any charges.

RODMAN: Why?

CUOMO: They haven't released -- they haven't released any reason.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, listen --

RODMAN: Let me do this. I would love to speak on this.

CUOMO: Go ahead.

RODMAN: You know. You got 10 guys here, 10 guys here that left their families, left their damn families to help this country as a sports venture. Ten guys, all these guys here. Do anyone understand that?

CUOMO: We do. And we appreciate that. And we wish them well with cultural exchange.

RODMAN: No, no, no. I was going to say -- no, I don't give a (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I don't give a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) the hell you think. I'm saying to you, look at these guys here. Look at them.

CUOMO: Yes, but, Dennis, don't put it on them. Don't use them as an excuse for the behavior that you -- that you're putting on yourself.

RODMAN: They came here. They came here.

CUOMO: You just basically were saying that Kenneth Bae did something wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But listen --

CUOMO: We don't even know what the charges are. Don't use the guys as a shield for you, Dennis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen. Listen. Listen.

(CROSSTALK)

RODMAN: They're ain't no shield. I got it. Let me do this. I'm going to tell you one thing. People around the world, around the world -- I'm going to do one thing. You're a guy behind the mike right now. We are the guys here doing one thing. We have to go back to America and take the abuse. Do you have to take the abuse? We're going to take it. Do you, sir, let me know -- are you going to take it? Because we're going to get it.

Well, guess what, though, one day, one day, this is going to open because these 10 guys here, all of us -- Christy, Dennis, Charles, all these -- I mean, everybody here -- if we could just open the doors just a little bit for people to come here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Well, he's certainly passionate, isn't he?

Chris Cuomo joins me live from New York.

And it's difficult to know how to take this. It almost sounds as if he's talked with the North Korean leader about Kenneth Bae. But I don't know. What was your sense?

CUOMO: Not my sense. But look, there are a lot of allegations circling about why Kenneth Bae has been incarcerated. There has been no official set of reasons given other than hostility to the state as kind of a blanket charge. It's very difficult to speculate. Certainly the family and officials on this side who were working the situation make it very clear that Kenneth Bae is not somebody who's a known felon under their code or any other recognizable code. So he would be a victim and a hostage. And that's something that matters.

And obviously, Carol, the theater of Rodman is very appealing to people. I don't know what his problem was this morning to be honest. I don't know why he got so angry about it and took the step to make an allegation against Mr. Bae. I can't speak to what his motivations are, I doubt he can.

But I think that it is all worth it because even the theater of this -- there are two big points. One, the issues matter. Kenneth Bae's family obviously. You know there's a report on it all the time. The threats that are posed by North Korea to United States and other countries are worth giving the situation attention so it stays on people's minds.

Secondly, Charles Smith. I am a Knicks fan, I'm a Charles Smith fan. The other men there, Vin Baker, Cliff Robinson, Hodges, you know, these other great NBA players who went there on cultural exchange. That's a legitimate thing to do. I get it. But the game was gifted to the ruler as a birthday present. And that makes it almost a celebration of a man who should not be celebrated as many would believe certainly here in the United States. So you know.

COSTELLO: They're playing the game on his birthday, right?

CUOMO: Right. As a gift.

COSTELLO: And obviously Dennis Rodman is sensitive about the Kenneth Bae issue or he wouldn't have blown up at you, right? So this is on his mind.

CUOMO: Look -- there are plenty of reasons to blow up at me. Dennis Rodman, one of the few things that doesn't make him unusual is his wanting to get upset at me in an interview. But I think that we have to look past his bluster and remember that you know who's really upset, you know who's really angry and who's really hurt?

COSTELLO: Yes. Kenneth Bae's family, right?

CUOMO: Exactly, exactly. So, for them, you have to ask the question, you have to keep it in the forefront. That's why we did the interview. I did not expect his reaction. And if felt for Charles Smith and the others were having to sit there and support Rodman's antics.

COSTELLO: Well, it was an unbelievable interview. I'm sure it's online now. Chris Cuomo, many thanks to you.

CUOMO: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the newsroom, President Barack Obama making the push for Congress to extend unemployment benefits. Jim Acosta is at the White House this morning.

Hi, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Good morning.

Yes, the polar vortex has even temporarily frozen the debate over extending unemployment insurance benefits for the long term jobless. I'll have details, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The bad weather across the country is having a big impact on work in the nation's capital. A key Senate vote was delayed until today, after 17 lawmakers had travel problems yesterday. That vote scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time, just about an hour from now.

A CNN vote tally shows it's going to be close, 55 Democrats and four Republicans back that proposal, which means Senate Democrats are one vote shy of 60 votes need for a filibuster.

Our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is in Washington with more.

Good morning.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

That's right. You could say this polar vortex has temporarily frozen the debate over extending these unemployment benefits for the long term jobless. Just last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was trying to bring this up for a vote in the Senate. One of the top Republicans in the Senate, John Cornyn went over to Senator Reid and basically said let's have a timeout. Roughly 17 senators couldn't make it to Washington yesterday because of weather and travel delays.

Here's what Senator Cornyn had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: Mr. President, this is a serious issue. If this was anything other than a political exercise, the majority leader would have rescheduled this vote when we did not have 17 members of the United States Senate unable to be here and vote on this.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: Mr. President.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The majority leader.

REID: I ask unanimous consent the vote be scheduled for tomorrow, 10:00 a.m.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there objection?

Without objection.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So, already a partisan fight here in the nation's capital over this issue of unemployment benefits. Republicans saying they want budget cuts to off set the costs of extending benefits for roughly a million or so Americans, cost of about $6.5 billion.

But White House press secretary Jay Carney said yesterday at the White House briefing that this is only an extension for three months, so essentially, what's the big deal? Here's what Carney had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This would give immediate relief to these families and remove the fear many of them face not knowing if and when they'll get benefits back. And it would allow time for further discussion about how to move forward for rest of 2014.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And, Carol, as you mentioned, this vote is expected to come up in the next hour and a half over the U.S. Senate. If it does not pass, and as you mentioned right now Democrats have four Republican senators who are going to vote to clear this first procedural hurdle. They need 60 votes to get it to a final vote. They have four Republicans at this point who are willing to cross over.

The big question, whether or not they've gotten that decisive fifth senator from the Republican side to come over. If that does not happen, at 11:40 a.m., here at the White House, President Obama is going to be coming out in the East Room to give a speech on the issue of unemployment insurance. He's going to be surrounded by Americans who's unemployment insurance has run out.

So, expect the president to go right after Republicans on this issue of not only president to go after Republicans on this issue of unemployment, income and equality. It's a big issue playing out this week.

Carol, keep in mind, this is the 50th anniversary of LBJ's war on poverty. That's happening this week, which is why you're not only hearing Democrats talk about it, Republicans as well. Marco Rubio has a speech on this scheduled for tomorrow. Paul Ryan has been talking about it lately. It is definitely the issue of the day here in Washington.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta, many thanks.

Iraq back in turmoil. Now, the White House is pushing back against critics who blame al Qaeda's insurgent on decision to pull out U.S. troops. Up next in NEWSROOM: how the U.S. is lending a helping hand to the Iraqi government.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This morning, the U.S. is ramping up support to Iraq where violent clashes threaten to tear that country apart. On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to express his concern.

Also, the White House says it will speed up delivery of military equipment to help with the efforts but will not put U.S. boots on the ground. Cities like Fallujah and Ramadi, once battlegrounds for U.S. troops are now the site of bloody clashes between the Iraqi army and al Qaeda-linked militants.

This new CNN video shows armed Sunni tribes men who have turned against the government holding positions inside Fallujah.

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraqi security forces under attack. A soldier in the dirt wounded at the road side. Amid the chaos, there's calls for backup.

Just half an hour's drive west of Iraq's capital, in the Anbar province, Sunnis are turning on the Shia-dominated government.

"We will fight to all those connected to this Sectarian government," this tribesman shouts.

Over the weekend, fighting flared in the two main cities, Ramadi and Fallujah. Iraq's government responded with troops and air strikes against what it calls al Qaeda terrorists. Secretary of State John Kerry promised support but no troops.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We're not contemplating putting boots on the ground. This is their fight. We're going to help them in their fight. But how much of this fight is political conflict? The country minority marginalized by the majority and how much is resurgent al Qaeda is unclear? For sure al Qaeda is exploiting Sunni anger under the name ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq in Syria, former al Qaeda in Iraq, they've been boasting their success in al Anbar recently, with propaganda videos like this, not to mention making significant territorial gains in neighboring Syria, attracting thousands of foreign fighters.

Whatever the causes, Iraq's prime minister is accusing al Anbar Sunnis of siding with al Qaeda, issuing an ultimatum, put down your guns, or face the Army.

NOURI AL-MALIKI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I'm calling on those who are deluding themselves to consider. They have been involved without knowing in supporting al Qaeda projects.

ROBERTSON: Fallujah has a history of resistance. In a massive offensive in 2004, U.S. forces tried unsuccessfully to completely crush the city's insurgents. The group reemerged, al Qaeda got a hold. It was only in 2007 when al Anbar's tribes joined U.S. forces and al Qaeda was finally pushed out.

Today, this family flees al Anbar and the government seemed poised for a major offensive. The stakes for stability and potential for civil war seem as high as they've ever been.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: I'm telling you, this is something else. JPMorgan will pay out $1.7 billion. It's settlement reached with the government, and it's based on Madoff and JP's role in that financial scandal.

Christine Romans is in New York covering story.

One-point-seven billion dollars?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's a lot of money.

And you remember, Bernie Madoff was a guy who was the Wall Street scam artist really who is now in prison for a very long term. He will die in prison. He basically destroyed the lives of all kinds of investors who put their money with him -- there he is.

Just before the financial crisis really, really exploded, this was the guy who started to -- it unraveled that his whole empire was a fake. He had never actually been trading, and he had been doing business with legitimate banks, mutual funds, hedge funds around the world and really no one knew that he was a total scam.

And now, JPMorgan, one of those banks, one of those entities that did business with Bernie Madoff, agreeing to pay $1.7 billion to settle the claims against that bank.

COSTELLO: Well, wait. Does that mean JPMorgan knew or turned, you know, a blind eye? Why?