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U.S. Navy Jet Crashes Off California Coast; Backlash Over Bergdahl's Release; GM CEO Reveals Internal Investigation Results

Aired June 05, 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: NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, not sold.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: I remain as deeply skeptical today about this as I did before this.

SEN. KELLY AYOTTE (R), NEW HAMPSHIRE: I was not satisfied.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D), WEST VIRGINIA: That did not sell me at all.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I learned nothing in this briefing, nor did I expect to learn anything in this briefing.

COSTELLO: Capitol Hill not convinced. The White House hoping to answer questions about the Bowe Bergdahl swap.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The public needs to know more about what happened.

COSTELLO: Backlash in Bergdahl's hometown.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was supposed to be called the "Bowe is Back" event.

COSTELLO: Worries of a showdown in the tiny town of 8,000 shuttering a celebration.

And we asked, how do we decide who gets rescued?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy.

COSTELLO: A military touchstone and now a cloud of questions.

GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL (RET.), FORMER U.S. COMMANDER TO AFGHANISTAN: We don't leave Americans behind. That's unequivocal.

COSTELLO: Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Breaking news to tell you about right at the top of the show. We are just learning this morning a second U.S. military jet has crashed. This time an ATEF Super Hornet plummeted into the waters off the California coast. Keep in mind this is the second crash of a military jet in less than 24 hours.

A Hairier jet went down in a California neighborhood just yesterday.

Flames and black smoke rose from the wreckage on the streets in the town of Imperial, California. People had to run for safety. Three homes were absolutely destroyed, but amazingly, no one on the ground was hurt and the pilot managed to eject.

CNN's Barbara Starr and Kyung Lah are following the story. Barbara, I want to start with you with this latest crash that we're learning on.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, to get to the obvious question people may have, the military is investigating both incidents. No indication that they are related. Different types of aircraft, different types of accidents.

The one that we now know about, the new one, is an F-18 Hornet jet that the military put out a press release saying it impacted the water. It crashed into the water as the pilot was approaching to land on the deck of an aircraft carrier, the Carl Vincent, that was operating in a routine mission off the coast of southern California.

We've all seen these pictures as the jet approaches the carrier deck. They try and catch the wire and land on the deck. Apparently for some reason the pilot went into the water. The report is now that the pilot's ejected safely. He was recovered. He is now back -- the pilot is now back on the Carl Vincent. The jet itself not recovered after it, in the words of the military, impacted the water -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I can only imagine.

All right, let's go to Kyung Lah now to talk about this crash in a neighborhood in California. Tell us more.

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's extraordinary, as you mentioned, Carol, that no one was injured. This happened at 4:20 on a Sunday afternoon. A lot of people in their homes, there were three homes destroyed and eight others that were damaged.

I want you to take a look at this cell phone video because it really captures exactly what people were experiencing. There were some cell phone video -- this cell phone video in particular, you see some of the people in the neighborhood rushing up to the pilot and trying to help the pilot. He ejected out of his AV-8B Hairier. He has minor injuries. But no one else on the ground was hurt.

You could actually see plumes of smoke. You see a house on fire as this entire neighborhood was trying to sort exactly what happened. Here is what we heard from an eyewitness. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIAS ALARCON, WITNESS: All of a sudden I see the cab pop off and a small burst of flames. And I saw the pilot eject. I see the parachute open. Then I see the plane kind of wobbling and has start plummeting down. And it's -- at that point I said, man, this is not good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: We did speak with a public information officer at the Marine Corps Air Station this morning and he said that at this point there is still no cause as to what caused this crash -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Kyung Lah, Barbara Starr, thanks to both of you.

Now to the unrelenting backlash over the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner swap. This morning Bergdahl's hometown has canceled its homecoming celebration because of security concerns.

Well, emotion remains high on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers were actually shown a classified so-called proof of life video intended to prove Bergdahl's rescue was necessary because his health was in jeopardy. Most lawmakers were not convinced. But Maine's independent senator Angus King says lawmakers need to dial it back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ANGUS KING (I), MAINE: This firestorm of what looks to me like pretty much political criticism is pretty tiresome. And, you know, let's take a deep breath, get the facts so we know what we're talking about and then assess, and we'll have plenty of time to assess, A, what kind of soldier he was, and B, whether this was a reasonable deal.

You know, a year from now the president will look like a genius because he got our POW home or people will say look, those guys went back and got back into the fight. I don't think there's any way to make that call right now.

Clearly it's a high risk deal. Would I have made the deal? I don't know. I can't answer that because I don't know all the facts and I don't know what the -- what the other options are to get this man.

There's one other very important point that needs to get out there. There's a reasonable legal argument that these five guys would have had to be released anyway within the next year under the Law of War. They were being held in Guantanamo as enemy combatants. Under the Law of War when hostility ceased, enemy combatants have to be released.

Now we could have argued we held them under other authority or civilian authority. But there's a reasonable argument that this may have been the last chance to get Bergdahl where these guys had true value to us as a negotiating tool because if they had to be released anyway, we'd be in the same situation without Bowe Bergdahl home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It is likely President Obama will be asked about the Bergdahl release at a press conference later this hour.

CNN's Jim Acosta is in Brussels. He's traveling with the president. Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That's right. And I think that's a safe bet. The White House did expect that this deal to free Bowe Bergdahl would create controversy. What the White House did not expect officials say is that a POW would become a political football.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): With the president in Europe, the administration officials are playing defense over what they thought would be a feel good story, the release of POW Bowe Bergdahl. Aides to the president say while they expected some controversy, they've been shocked by what describe as attacks on Bergdahl and even his family in an apparent effort to damage the president.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: It's very interesting to me that they would be willing to release five extraordinarily dangerous Taliban members in exchange for this soldier who apparently left his post. We don't know all of the details.

REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: As John Kerry threw his medals over the White House bench and turned his back on all of his Vietnam brothers and sisters, that's what Bergdahl did. Bergdahl walked away from his men and he left them in a bad spot. People lost their lives, they got hurt trying to find him.

ACOSTA: Conservative critics have even accused Bergdahl's father of looking like Muslim.

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS HOST: The reason I said that Robert Bergdahl looked like a Muslim is that he looks like a Muslim.

ACOSTA: Administration officials have responded by trying to keep the focus on Bergdahl. From Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel calling the sergeant's parents to reassure them about their son's care, to State Department officials arguing prisoner swaps are nothing new.

MARIE MARF, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESWOMAN: It's consistent, absolutely, with what has happened in previous wars.

ACOSTA: Democrats point out GOP lawmakers have pushed the White House for months to step up its efforts to rescue Bergdahl even if it means a prisoner change.

MCCAIN: I would support ways of bringing him home, and if exchange was one of them, I think that would be something I think we should seriously consider.

ACOSTA: But Senator John McCain insists the deal that finally freed Bergdahl is not what he had in mind.

MCCAIN: I learned nothing in this briefing, nor did I expect to learn anything in this briefing. Except that I continue to maintain that this individual who we're glad that Sgt. Bergdahl is home but the exchange of five hard-core, hardest of the hard-core al Qaeda/Taliban will pose a threat to the United States of America.

ACOSTA: But for Mr. Obama, the Bergdahl distraction comes at a critical time, just as he could come face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our free nations cannot be complacent in pursuit of the vision we share. A Europe that is whole and free and at peace.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Now as for that proof of life video as it's been called by the administration that prompted those initial concerns for Bowe Bergdahl's health and well-being, and as a senior official tells me, Carol, that they are now reviewing whether or not they should release that video to the public as they did to lawmakers so people can judge for themselves and one other administration officials cautions that it's way too early to draw any conclusions about why Bowe Bergdahl was taken into custody by the Taliban, how he fell into the Taliban hands.

They say it's just way too early in the process to know anything for certain as to how Bowe Bergdahl became a captive in the first place -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta reporting live from Brussels this morning.

Politicizing Bergdahl, it seems we just can't help it. Don't get me wrong. There are serious questions surrounding the swap of those Taliban prisoners. But wouldn't it be great if we just, you know, kind of waited for the facts to come out?

There are now allegations Republican political strategists are arranging interviews with Bergdahl's platoon members who describe Bergdahl as a traitor and a deserter. One of those soldiers, Cody Full, tweeted, quote, "I want to thank Richard Grenell for helping get our platoon story out," end quote.

Richard Grenell is a former Bush administration aide who worked for Mitt Romney. We'll talk to Grenell's partner at Capital Media Partners, Brad Chase, a little later on in the show. Grenell has defended his work, he says it's not political, but others certainly disagree.

Joining me now to talk about it, Molly Ball, political writer for the Atlantic, and Michael Crowley, chief foreign affairs correspondent for "TIME" magazine. And by the way, the cover story of this week's issue features Bergdahl with the simple question, "Was He Worth It?"

Michael, that's cold.

MICHAEL CROWLEY, CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, TIME: Well, we are just I think echoing a question that is being heard all across America. And, you know, the story is open-ended. My brilliant colleague David (INAUDIBLE) is not making the case that it wasn't but I do think that there's a conversation happening across the country posing that question.

Did we give too much for this guy? The facts that -- the definitive facts about his capture are unknown, but there is a lot of reason to think that he wandered away, does not appear to have been captured in battle. And we paid a high price for him. And there's a lot of discomfort for that, and particularly as you say, as you just mentioned, conservatives and Republicans on the war path.

COSTELLO: That's right. And, Molly, I have to ask you, is the Bergdahl mess being politicized or is it being fairly argued in the press?

MOLLY BALL, POLITICAL WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Well, I like to think that in the press we are always fair, but you know, politics is politics. There are some critics of this deal that don't sound like they're motivated purely by a sort of desire to get to the bottom of that, but by a desire to make the president look bad. And absolutely anything that happens is going to feed into that narrative even if it contradicts things that they've said before.

So you do have some Republicans who previously championed the Bergdahl case as a failure of the administration that they hadn't brought him home and now they're criticizing the way that he has been brought home.

There are real questions here. And the administration has not been transparent in the way that they've handled this and they have seemed to have been caught flat-footed which is perplexing given how much criticism or how much doubt there already was about this story long before he was brought home.

But these legitimate questions are being clouded by some of these critiques that seem merely opportunistic or even conspiratorial based on this idea that, you know, that the administration is deliberately hurting America or that there's some kind of Islamic conspiracy. And when Republicans start to talk in those terms, I think they really lose people.

COSTELLO: Well, and Michael, it is mind-boggling that the president didn't consult with Congress before, you know, his administration decided to release these five Taliban prisoners. And that is a legitimate question. But when you start tying Bergdahl to Benghazi to every other thing you have a problem with, with President Obama, the legitimate questions do get lost in the shuffle, don't they?

CROWLEY: Well, that's a real risk for Republicans. And you -- what you are seeing already is a White House message strategy that focuses on the Republican origins of a lot of the criticism and the White House is trying to frame this now as a partisan issue because it's an easier way for them to grapple with it.

If they say Republicans are just pouncing on the latest, you know, piece of chum in the water, they don't actually want the facts, they are just trying to tear down the president. They're not serious about national security, that's an argument that is much easier for the White House to have. And to answer some of these very complicated and nuanced questions having to do with whether the president did observe the law regarding notification of congress, he argues that the law itself is unconstitutional and that in his power as commander in chief he has the authority to essentially ignore it in the name of national security.

There's an argument that the five detainees may have had to be released anyway after 2014 at the end of hostilities in Afghanistan. But these are nuanced complicated points as opposed to, hey, look, Republican operatives are out to get us. This isn't about the facts. It's about politics. So if Republicans aren't careful, they will be doing the president somewhat of a favor here.

COSTELLO: Molly Ball of the Atlantic, Michael Crowley of TIME magazine. Thanks to you both. I appreciate it.

CROWLEY: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, General Motors CEO Mary Barra speaking right now about the result of a massive internal investigation revealing who knew what about a deadly ignition flaw and who is to blame. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Happening right now, General Motors CEO Mary Barra addressing the company in a town hall style meeting and releasing the results of a month's long internal investigation into how the company could have known about a deadly ignition defect in small cars and did nothing about it.

Listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY BARRA, GENERAL MOTORS CEO: I can tell you this report is extremely thorough, brutally tough and deeply troubling. For those of us who have dedicated our lives to this company, it is enormously painful to see our shortcomings laid out so vividly.

As I read the report I was deeply saddened and disturbed. But this isn't about our feelings and it's not about our egos. This is about our responsibility to act with integrity, honor and be committed to excellence.

With all of our colleagues around the world watching, I want it known that this recall issue isn't merely an engineering or a manufacturing or a legal problem. It represents a fundamental failure to meet the basic needs of these customers. Our job is clear, to build high quality, safe vehicles. In this case with these vehicles, we simply didn't do our job. We failed these customers and we must face up to it and we must learn from it.

To that end and on behalf of GM, we pledge that we will use the findings and the recommendations from this report as a template to strengthen our company. What Valukas found in this situation was a pattern of incompetence and neglect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Wow, incompetence and neglect.

Let's talk about. We're joined now by chief business correspondent Christine Romans. Poppy Harlow is in Warren, Michigan. And Laura Christian, whose daughter was killed in a car crash in a car while in 2005 Chevy Cobalt, that was recalled by G.M. also joins us.

Poppy, I want to start with you, because there was more -- there was more than just words involved here. What actions did Mary Barra take?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Those two words you reiterated stood out to me, carol, a pattern of incompetence and neglect at that giant automaker for 11 years. She said that never once did the fact that this ignition switch was deadly reach the highest levels of the company.

But she took action. She said they have dismissed 15 people at General Motors that are tied to this ignition switch defect and the inability of this company or the unwillingness of this company to come forward, they have been let go because of either, quote, "misconduct, incompetence" or simply she said, because they didn't do enough.

They knew something was wrong and they didn't do anything about it. It cost lives. Also, the company has taken disciplinary action against five other people.

She also said numerous times that the company will do the right thing for victims. And the question remains, we have not heard yet what that means, how much money is this company going to set aside to pay victims that died and were injured in these crashes. But again, they are let 15 people go. They are disciplining five others.

What we now want to know and we'll ask her when we go inside to the press conference is who -- who knew and how high did it go?

COSTELLO: All right. Laura, you lost your daughter in a car crash. What's your reaction to what we've just learned?

LAURA CHRISTIAN, DAUGHTER KILLED IN RECALLED GM CAR: You know, I'm glad they're taking action. However, I'm rather dubious about a company that covered up these defects for so long in their own internal investigation. I'm also curious to see who exactly was let go.

I'm even more looking forward to seeing what the Department of Justice finds in their own investigation.

COSTELLO: And, Christine, what exactly do we know about how GM may distribute money to victims of the crash linked to this ignition defect?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Carol, it's so interesting. Mary Barra said they didn't find a cover-up. They found a lack of urgency into the last possible moment to try to clear up this problem. So, Mary Barra saying there wasn't a cover-up here. In terms of compensation, there have been a lot of calls to set up a big trust fund for the victims and their families.

Kenneth Feinberg, someone who has done this before for the 9/11 victims, also for the BP oil spill, he has been tasked to try to figure out how to determine how to compensate these victims. GM saying there are 13 victims here. As Poppy knows, there are other families who feel they feel their loved ones were victims of this defect as well.

So, you're going to have to figure out -- they're going to have to figure out who exactly was harmed by this, how to compensate them, how much and what that's going to look like.

COSTELLO: Laura, I'm curious, have you been contacted at all by Ken Feinberg or GM?

CHRISTIAN: No, I have not but my attorney Bob Hilyard (ph) has. As to the universe of 13, we're kind of baffled how they came up with that number. We have -- my attorney represents I believe 70 families who have lost someone, and I've personally found over 100 and have looked at police reports.

So, I'm curious how they came up with 13.

COSTELLO: Poppy, I'm sure when you go into that news conference you'll ask Mary Barra these questions. What do you know about them now, about how many victims there could be out there?

HARLOW: We will. I think this brings up such an important issue. We know that GM is only counting 13 deaths to this point because they only count frontal collisions where the air bags did not deploy and people sitting in the driver or front passenger seat died as a result. There is a case, an accident where GM has on their list of deaths, the passenger in the front seat died. That's included in the ignition switch defect death and the person sitting in the back seat who died is not included on that list. That's why there's so many questions.

What GM is also not counting is side impact crashes. Even if the car, for example, was shut off because of the ignition switch defects and it was crashed into by another vehicle or object on the side, that is not counted as well.

So, yes, we will ask that. We will talk to Mary Barra about that inside, that is why they're saying the number is 13. NHTSA, the regulator overseeing this, the government regulatory, says they believe it is higher, but no official higher number has come out. COSTELLO: All right. Laura Christian, Christine Romans, Poppy Harlow, thanks to all of you.

I'm back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In Bowe Bergdahl's hometown, many have been celebrating the news of his release. But a town-wide party has been called off because of security concerns.

George Howell is in Hailey, Idaho.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was to be called the "Bowe is Back" event, Carol. And, you know, here in this town, in Hailey, Idaho, when you go down the streets and you look at all the ribbons and balloons out there, you can tell there was a lot of excitement about this event scheduled for later this month.

But we now know the city canceled the event, basically saying this city of 8,000 people, that they just don't have the infrastructure to deal with all the people that could come here, given all the national media attention and opinions about what's happening here in the release of Bowe Bergdahl. Basically, as a matter of public safety, they decided to cancel the events.

We know the Bergdahls have not spoken about it. They did get a call from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a ten-minute call reassuring him that the Defense Department would be there for Bergdahl when it comes to his reintegration, when it comes to his health care.

And, you know, while the Bergdahl's are not talking, this community is. You hear from friends and supporters basically out of the policies, ready and excited to see Bergdahl.