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Christie Addresses "Bridgegate" Before NJ Legislature; Another Suspended in Southwest Airlines Wrong-Airport Landing; Shooting at New Mexico Middle School; Retiree Who Shot Texting Man Makes First Court Appearance; Bieber's Home Raided for Egg-Throwing Felony; WV State A.G. Says There Will Be Consequences in Chemical Spill if Laws Broken; Hillary Clinton Has Political Work to Do in Iowa

Aired January 14, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, let me bring in two more voices, John Avlon, CNN political commentator, and Ana Navarro, Republican strategist and a CNN contributor, as well.

So, both, to you, I'm going to ask you the same question I did from Jake, just because I'm curious, your perspectives, the fact that Chris Christie in the first matter of seconds addressed -- he said, "We let down the people we're entrusted to serve."

Goes on, "Without a doubt, we will cooperate with all appropriate inquiries to ensure this breach of trust does not happen again."

Yes, this man and his administration knew that all the networks would be listening very closely to the tip-top of this.

John Avlon, are you surprised?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, he needed to address the elephant in the room, right off the top. And he did.

He was contrite. Mistakes were made. I'd pay careful attention to the word "appropriate." he'll cooperate with all appropriate inquiries, so I don't think he's going to try to turn over private e-mails. He's going to try to contain this.

But he needed to do that off the top. And got a pretty warm response from the legislators in the audience.

BALDWIN: Did I see a standing ovation? Did you all notice that?

ANA NAVARRO: Let me tell you, he's gotten an enormous amount of applause during the speech so far.

And I think it was very smart of him to address it, right off the bat, because he knows that's when the cable networks, he knows that when all of us are watching, are those first few minutes. Then he can go on to talk about filling potholes in New Jersey.

But he captured our attention with those first few sentences. And, yes, the amount of times that he talked about things that in New Jersey that have passed with bipartisan support, talked about bipartisan cooperation, he certainly understood that he is speaking in front of a national audience and a New Jersey audience and is giving both of them something.

BALDWIN: So, now, we have the federal government investigating this whole so-called -- I don't even want to call it that -- the scandal involving this bridge. And we know that there are class-action lawsuits filed, et cetera. I mean

this is a huge, huge deal that's rocking his -- the core of his potential future, political career on a national stage.

John Avlon, how does he handle this, moving forward?

AVLON: He needs to cooperate. He needs to be as transparent as possible. He needs to try to show he's simultaneously cooperating and governing with a crystal focus.

He's taken action against those P.A.s. and, clearly, though, Christie's opponents see blood in the water, and so there's a certain pile-on attempt right now to associate everything negative they possibly can.

It's essentially a brush back pitch. Welcome to national politics. Everything local we're going to come back to haunt you.

So he needs to show that he can handle that scandal, handle it directly and still focus on his core message, not just governing the state of New Jersey.

But that bipartisan mantra you heard him kept hitting, which is really key, not just the success he's had as governor in a legislative sense, but to any national pitch he might have going forward should he survive these scandals.

BALDWIN: John Avlon, thank you very much. Ana Navarro, thank you, and thanks for talking about your Miami heat with me, as well. I appreciate it very much.

Coming up next here, we will soon learn much more about the shooting this morning in a middle school in New Mexico. We know two children were hurt.

Police, the governor of New Mexico about to stand by and hold this news conference, releasing additional information exactly what happened.

Possibly, we'll learn more about the suspect here. We'll take you there live.

Also just in to CNN, a third person who was sitting in the cockpit of that Southwest jet that landed on the wrong runway Sunday night has been suspended, as well.

Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Just into us here at CNN, a third person in the cockpit of that Southwest jet that landed on the wrong runway Saturday night, a much shorter runway, has been suspended.

We know that the third person was not a pilot, rather was a Southwest dispatcher. This individual was sitting in a cockpit jump-seat as the plane carrying more than 100 passengers landed at an airport seven miles from its actual destination in Missouri.

And authorities in New Mexico, any moment now, will be giving this news conference about a middle school shooting that has left two children in critical condition today.

It happened at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell. We can tell you that a suspect is in custody as we await this news conference.

As we await this new conference, let's go live to CNN's Miguel Marquez. And, Miguel, what more do we know about the suspected shooter?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not a lot. We don't even know if the shooter was shot or had to be taken out by police. They're only saying, at this point, that he is in custody and apprehended. Not clear whether he has been injured.

There have been various reports as to whether there were three or four people injured in this.

What we have right now are those two who were taken to a local hospital and then airlifted to Lubbock to a level-one trauma center. That's the highest level trauma center they have. This was a 14-year- old boy and a 13-year-old girl.

Berrendo Middle School is a sixth through eighth grade. That would put kids between 11- and 12- and 14- and 15-years-old there.

Shocking that it would happen in a place -- seems we can't get over the shock of these things -- but it would happen in a place where kids are so young.

We understand it was a shotgun that the shooter had. It is not clear how this came to an end. It has been done for some time now, though. Parents able to get to the Roswell mall there and pick up their loved ones and their kids.

Roswell, a small -- smallish town, 50,000 people or so, in southeastern New Mexico. This appears to be a fairly new school. It's certainly out in the middle of nowhere, north of Roswell, so not a place where you would expect this to happen.

Shotguns are -- and rifles and guns in New Mexico are pretty common, and it wouldn't be something that would surprise somebody to see.

But certainly in a school, certainly solving these sort of issues with a gun, shocking.

The shooter, we do know, is a student at this school.

BALDWIN: Is a student, OK.

MARQUEZ: But we don't know exactly -- is a student at the school. We don't know the motive.

We know that press conference was supposed to start about 40 minutes ago. The governor is there. The chief of the state police is expected to be there. The superintendent of the school, lots of officials will be there.

It sounds as though it may be starting in the next few minutes, but we're trying to confirm that.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: OK, we'll try to stay tuned for that.

Just quickly, since you didn't mention it, I'm guessing we don't know. But do we know where the actual shooting took place?

MARQUEZ: We don't. There's a lot of stuff out there. It was in the school, on the school property.

It's not clear exactly where it took place. I've seen several reports that it may have taken place in the gymnasium, but we don't have that confirmed at the moment.

BALDWIN: OK, we'll wait for the information from the officials in a matter of minutes.

Miguel Marquez, we'll come back to you for that. Thank you so, so much.

Moments ago, a court hearing involving the shooting inside of a movie theater. What drove a retired police captain to allegedly shoot and kill someone for texting during the previews?

Plus, the home of Justin Bieber, raided today over the egging of a neighbor's home. These are aerials over this pop star's mansion today.

Folks, this is a felony investigation just because of the sheer dollars and cents of the damage to this neighbor's home.

We'll take you there, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just moments ago, a retired police officer made his very first court appearance one day after allegedly shooting and killing another man inside of a Florida movie theater over an argument that apparently started because the man was texting.

As the previews rolled ahead of a Monday afternoon showing of the film "Lone Survivor," witnesses say an argument over the use of a cell phone escalated into a shouting match, voices were raised, popcorn was thrown, and then the unimaginable, a gunshot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX CUMMINGS, WITNESS: Man, I can't believe I got shot. And he started walking. And he said -- blood just started coming out of his mouth.

I just held him. I was trying to hold him up. He just fell down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was talking at first?

A. CUMMINGS: He was talking at first. He was trying to talk. He was trying to walk.

He started talking more and the blood came out of his mouth. It was just a very bad scene.

CHARLES CUMMINGS, WITNESS: He staggered two seats over, fell on my son and I. I asked my son to go call 911, which is what he did.

A fellow that was in the movie, he said he was a nurse, jumped down. He started pumping his chest until the paramedics arrived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the guy's blood that you have all over you there?

A. CUMMINGS: Yeah, his blood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, they're talking about the man that was shot, 43-year-old Chad Oulson. His wife was shot as well as she raised her hand in front of the shooter.

The shooting suspect is 71-year-old Curtis Reeves, and a huge group of his family and friends, colleagues were in court today just to show support for Reeves, who by the way, was not in the room. He appeared via video link.

And his attorney talked about his connections to this community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD ESCOBAR, ATTORNEY FOR CURTIS REEVES: He retired actually in 1993 from the Tampa police department.

He retired as a captain in the tactical division, In fact, he was responsible for co-founding the tactical response team for Tampa police department.

He was a commander for 16 to 17 years, was on the selective enforcement unit, was a homicide detective, was a property crimes detective and taught various courses at the Tampa police academy.

After his retirement in 1993, Your Honor, he served as the director of security for Busch Entertainment Corporation, which is Busch Gardens, where he obtained various certifications in security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The judge overseeing today's hearing ruled Reeves will be held without bond. He has been charged, though, with second-degree murder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE LYNN TEPPER, PINELLAS-PASCO CIRCUIT COURT: The only description I have is he was struck in the face by an unknown object, not by a hard object, not that he was knocked around, just struck in the face by an unknown object.

And regardless of human life, pulling a gun when hit in the face with some unknown object, and the additional information in here is popcorn, it may or may not have been popcorn, but an unknown object doesn't equal taking out a gun and firing it at somebody's chest.

In addition, that certainly would be to affect the death. The court is finding that there is more than sufficient probable cause of second- degree murder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Over a cell phone. We'll follow it.

Meantime, to Los Angeles we go, sheriff's county deputies descended on the home of Justin Bieber today.

Take a look. Deputies arrived at his upscale neighborhood searching for evidence involving -- believe it or not, the egging of his neighbor's home.

Folks, this is a felony vandalism investigation because Justin Bieber may have egged his neighbor's home, doing quite a chunk of change of damage, according to reports.

In the last hour or so, the sheriff's department defended their response to a home being egged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIEUTENANT DAVE THOMPSON, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: I get that it was done with eggs, which makes you feel that it's a lower level crime.

But a felony crime is a felony crime, no matter how you commit it, and this crime rose to the felony section.

A judge signed a search warrant saying we should go and get evidence related to the felony crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN's digital correspondent Alan Duke is there where that news conference took place.

The sheriff just spoke here, but before we really talk about this felony egging, as sheriff's deputies were at Bieber's home looking for surveillance video, totally unrelated, they arrested someone.

Who was that?

ALAN DUKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're not telling us who it was. It was one of Justin Bieber's house guests, and he has a lot of music industry friends who do crash at his place. They have some rather infamous parties there.

We don't know what was going on overnight, but this morning a dozen deputies knocking on the door with a search warrant to look through the house.

They were really looking for surveillance video, but incidentally, they found some cocaine in Bieber's house.

Bieber is not charged with that and he's not in trouble for that, but his friend, whose name has not been released, he is in trouble for that and he's being processed behind me.

BALDWIN: So depending on who that is, that could blow up into a whole other story. But back to this felony egging, what more do we know? We know Bieber was home. Do we know what sheriff's deputies found? And how was Bieber? Was he playing along?

DUKE: He was cooperative. He's not been interrogated. They're waiting until he's perhaps with a lawyer.

A lawyer wasn't with him this morning because it was a surprise search warrant that they executed, but Bieber was there, and it may have been something of a serious wake-up call to have 12 deputies knock on your door, so it's not a very pleasant day for Justin Bieber.

Not the first time he's had deputies knock on his door, neighbors have complained about his speeding down the road, about his loud parties.

One neighbor last year accused Justin Bieber of spitting in his face.

BALDWIN: Quickly, what's the back story with this neighbor? We're talking, according to reports, $20,000 in damage over eggs.

DUKE: Well, you have retired NFL stars. You have people like -- really A-listers living up in those hills in the Oaks.

It's a very exclusive community. Katherine Jackson and Michael Jackson's three kids live right down the street.

I've been into some of those homes. I've seen their security setup. They have these video monitor systems that capture everything that goes on there.

And as a result, the sheriff's department thinks they may be able to see some video, if it wasn't destroyed, of Justin Bieber gathering his eggs and throwing them over toward his neighbor's very expensive house.

BALDWIN: OK, Alan Duke in Los Angeles on this felony vandalism involving eggs.

Coming up, as thousands remain without water across the state of West Virginia, federal inspectors right now are onsite.

They're investigating the chemical spill right there, all of this today as House Speaker John Boehner said the industry doesn't need more regulation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Federal inspectors are in West Virginia where a leak sparked a tap water ban, 300,000 customers affected in some nine counties.

The good news, at least for some, is that they can turn on their tap water now but nearly two-thirds are still under this "do-not-use" order.

CNN correspondent Jean Casarez is live in Charleston for us right now. And, so, Jean, the state attorney general says, if any laws were broken, there will be consequences.

Talk to me about this facility and better regulation.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's very interesting. That's on the state level right there.

We're learning that the legislative commission on water resources is launching an investigation. So this is the legislative level to determine how this happened, to determine if there's any state agencies that are responsible. I think the result will be state legislation.

Now, one of the most serious investigations is the criminal investigation, and the U.S. attorney, Booth Goodwin, told me that he's looking for timelines and exactly who knew what, when.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOOTH GOODWIN, U.S. ATTORNEY: A lot of puzzle pieces could fall into place as to just exactly who knew what and when they knew it.

You know, if the tanks were in bad shape, if their secondary containment systems were shoddy, if they had a release, saw it, and didn't report it for a while, all of those things are things that we would be looking to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And we just spoke with the president of the county commissioners who said that school is not in session again today.

People were supposed to start getting the order that they could use their water. They have not. Two-thirds of the people still can't drink, bathe or cook with their water, and now people are just asking why.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: The question they should be asking.

Jean Casarez for us in the capital city of West Virginia, thank you.

Hillary Clinton, the clear frontrunner for the Democrats in 2016 if she enters the presidential race. She faced a hurdle early in 2008, could face the same problem again. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: When she first ran for president, Hillary Clinton seemed to be a shoe-in to win the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.

But as we all know, Barack Obama shocked her, beat her in Iowa and off he rolled to the White House.

Well, guess what? Should she decide to run again, Clinton looks pretty good in Iowa. At least she does today.

And guess what else? She could have another problem.

Peter Hamby is with us now from Washington. He's our CNN national political correspondent.

And, Peter Hamby, reading your piece this morning on CNN.com, I have concluded Iowa Democrats are "in like" with Hillary Clinton. Why not in love?

PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's a great way to put it, Brooke.

Look, Hillary Clinton has always had some problems with the Democratic base. She's perceived as perhaps too moderate, too close to Wall Street.

You know, this hurt her in 2008 in Iowa because of her vote for the Iraq war. Liberals kind of moved in the direction of John Edwards or Barack Obama.

I spent about a week out there, talking to activists, elected officials, operatives, et cetera, and they said there is space for a progressive or liberal candidate to get in the race.

There's also kind of an emotional hunger for someone else to get in, just someone who is not a Clinton, someone who is perhaps younger, representing a new generation, a new face in the party. You hear that a lot.

BALDWIN: So who would that be? Did they tell you?

HAMBY: Well, yeah. If you ask people, you get a variety of names, but none of them, you know, seem to be a top-tier figure, Martin O'Malley, the governor of Maryland; John Kerry, the secretary of state, came up; Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator; Kristen Gillibrand; Amy Klobuchar.

All these names, most people don't have any idea who these people are, and that's the big issue. Who is going to be the person that can really step up, raise the money, have the charisma, have the ideological bona fides to really take down Hillary Clinton.

Because in 2008, Barack Obama and John Edwards really had all of those things, and Hillary finished third, but this time, Iowa Democrats want to see more people in the field. They're just not sure who can actually beat Hillary.

And I should be clear, Brooke, people do like Hillary Clinton, as you mentioned. There's a lot of respect and admiration for her.

There's just a little bit of a hunger to see, you know, somebody else come out and say hi in Iowa.

BALDWIN: Off of somebody else, in 20 seconds can you tell me just the one thing Hillary Clinton needs to do to prevent an upset again? The one thing?

HAMBY: Go to Iowa.

BALDWIN: Go.

HAMBY: Go to Iowa. Meet people, shake hands. Do not take it for granted. That's what everybody there says, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Go to the mattresses. Go to Iowa.

Peter Hamby, thank you so much.

Make sure you read Peter Hamby's full column at CNN.com/politics.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. That's it for me.

Thank you so much for being with me. See you back here tomorrow.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper, special show from Trenton, New Jersey.