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Klobuchar Hopes to Capitalize on Debate Momentum in Iowa; Boeing CEO Fired Amid 737 MAX Crisis; Top Media Stories in 2019; Fires, Floods, Icy Roads Hamper Holiday Travel. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired December 23, 2019 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's listened to her
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I probably went from 50/50 no I'm 78 percent or 80
LAH (voice-over): We did find a number of voters pledging to caucus for Klobuchar including Judith Anderson won over just this week.
JUDITH ANDERSON, DEMOCRATIC VOTER: Her sense of humor and relating to people directly was a wonderful experience.
LAH (on camera): And did the debate have anything to do with it?
ANDERSON: Oh, lord, yes.
LAH (voice-over): But overwhelmingly, many were like Jan Norris.
JAN NORRIS, DEMOCRATIC VOTER: How many have I seen? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight --
LAH: There are just so many to choose from, she says.
JAN NORRIS: There's 17.
LAH (on camera): 17 candidates? You've heard --
NORRIS: That I've personally heard speak, yes. Amy is definitely in the running.
LAH: Do you feel like you're running out of time as far as making a decision?
NORRIS: Oh, no. February 2nd, maybe February 3rd.
LAH: That's when you'll make a decision?
NORRIS: Yes.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thanks, you guys.
LAH (voice-over): So for the candidate working on an upset, the slow grind continues.
Kyung Lah CNN, Council Bluffs, Iowa.
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JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Iowans taking that decision very seriously. Kyung, thank you.
After two deadly crashes and an investigation that will stretch into the new year, the head of Boeing is out. Details just ahead.
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DEAN: It has been a tumultuous year for Boeing CEO, Dennis Muilenburg. And it is ending on a low note. The embattled executive has just been forced out by the company's board of directors. His firing coming in the aftermath of the investigation into two deadly plane crashes involving the controversial 737 MAX jets. Boeing has since been plagued by multiple issues surrounding the fleet of jets, and production has now been suspended indefinitely.
CNN's Richard Quest joins me now, and Richard, Boeing said it was time for a change in leadership, but that it was also very, quote, necessary. What else do you know?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN MONEY EDITOR AT LARGE: Yes, I mean, they said it was time to rebuild trust with everybody. And by that, principally, it's trust with their regulator. Because the last few weeks have seen Boeing and the regulator once again -- the FAA that is -- once again at loggerheads.
The FAA feeling that Boeing has tried to pressurize it, to get back the 737 back into the air, and that believed to be the reason that the board decided at a weekend meeting not only to cancel or at least stop production of the 737 MAX from January, but also that Muilenburg had to go.
It's not of course the first -- he's not the first to go, Kevin McAllister the head of commercial went earlier in the year. He didn't get the chairman's job, there'll be a new chairman, there'll be a new CEO. And essentially Muilenburg was always going to have to leave, it was only a question of when.
DEAN: Of when and how. Right. And do we know -- what do we know about the replacement -- his replacement?
QUEST: His replacement, David Calhoun, he is the current Chairman of Boeing. And he has been on the board of Boeing since 2009. Now, he was brought to the chairmanship after it was taken away from Muilenburg, and you get an idea. I mean is he a clean pair of hands? To some extent, yes. But at the same time, he was certainly around Boeing through much of the transgressions.
And the other person being brought in as the new Chairman is a guy called -- former CEO of Continental Airlines, Larry Kellner. He's the new Chairman, Dave Calhoun is the new CEO and Muilenburg is out.
DEAN: And then what will happen with the MAX jets? Do they think that production is going to resume for those?
QUEST: Well, production won't resume until the plane is no longer grounded. And the FAA in their statement today acknowledging that the CEO is gone, they have basically said, it will only go back into the air, when we are sure it's safe. And they've called on Boeing for more transparency in the data transmission and also in terms of the training. Look, we don't know when the 737 will go back in the air, but it's a fair guess it's not going to be any time soon.
And finally, even when they do unground the planes, there are nearly 800 that have to be checked to make sure they're air worthy to fly again.
DEAN: Quite a job, all right, Richard Quest, thanks so much.
As 2019 draws to a close, we're taking a look back at the biggest media stories of the year, from Jeff Bezos' showdown with the "National Enquirer" to the Trump administration's daily war with facts. We're going to count down the biggest media stories of 2019 when we come back.
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DEAN: With 2020 now just days away, believe it or not, we're almost there. We're counting down the biggest media stories for this year. Quality investigative journalism certainly triumphed in a big way in the past 12 months. The epic battle began for online streaming supremacy, and then there's Fox News and its cozy relationship with the White House. CNN's chief media correspondent Brian Stelter looks back at 2019.
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BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: A misinformation minefield feeding a war on truth. Plus an abrupt departure, shocking investigations and an alleged corporate cover-up. Here are the top 9 media stories of 2019.
Number 9, Jeff Bezos versus the "National Enquirer." In January the tabloid published a bombshell about the Amazon founder's love life. A month later the tech billionaire who also owns "The Washington Post" went public with a stunning allegation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Breaking now, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, accusing the "National Enquirer" of blackmail and extortion.
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STELTER: AMI, the parent company of the "Enquirer" denied trying to extort Bezos with racy pictures and texts. But federal prosecutors began looking into the claim. Later AMI's hedge fund owner announced a sale of the tabloid after reportedly being disgusted with the "Enquirer's" tactics.
So will the company pay a legal price for tangling with Jeff Bezos? Well, that is still an open question.
Number 8, the fall of local news. While many big papers are gaining digital subscribers, local papers are struggling. And some are even going out of print. Across the country, newsrooms are being hollowed out, leaving behind ghost papers that are shells of their former selves.
America's biggest newspaper chains, GateHouse and Gannett just merged and now they're making more cuts. If there's a silver lining it's that more people are subscribing to digital outlets, but local papers are critically important. It's where some of the best watchdog reporting comes from.
Which brings us to number 7 -- a triumph of investigative journalism. The Jeffrey Epstein scandal was forced on to the national news radar thanks to one newspaper, "The Miami Herald." Intrepid reporting from the paper's Julie K. Brown effectively caused the case to be reopened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will say that we were assisted from some excellent investigative journalism.
STELTER: And the "Herald's" reporting didn't just lead to Epstein's arrest, it also forced the exit of a Trump cabinet member.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta, resigning after the fallout from the sweetheart deal, he gave to Jeffrey Epstein as a prosecutor a decade ago.
STELTER: It's why local journalism is so crucial. It holds the powerful to account.
Number 6 is #me-too, two years later. Women journalists are keeping the pressure on powerful men, Gayle King kept her composure as R. Kelly ranting. The BBC's Emily Maitlis was widely praised for her interview of Prince Andrew.
And more just keeps coming out. Ronan Farrow's "Catch and Kill" contained an explosive rape allegation against former "Today Show" host Matt Lauer. An accusation Lauer categorically denied. Farrow also pointed a finger at NBC alleging a corporate coverup. NBC dismissed his book as distorted and inaccurate.
Number 5 -- in Hollywood, the streaming wars are on. Apple TV Plus launched in November, with programming from A list talent. Disney Plus followed two weeks later, and 10 million subscribers signed up in the first day crashing the platform early on.
CNN's parent company, Warner Media, unveiled its plans for HBO Max, and all these companies are chasing Netflix which doubled -- no, tripled down on original content. It funded Martin Scorcese's "The Irishman" mostly bypassing a traditional theatrical release. Number 4, it is Fox versus Fox, with news being squeezed out and pro-
Trump opinion winning the day. At Fox News the tension's built all year long.
SHEPARD SMITH, FOX NEWS HOST: Attacking our colleague who's here to offer legal assessments on our air in our work home is repugnant.
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Repugnant. Not clear if that was you or me, but someone's repugnant.
STELTER: And adding to the pressure, President Trump lashed out whenever Democrats or dissenters appeared on Fox.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's something going on at Fox I'll tell you that right now and I'm not happy with it.
STELTER: The ultimate flashpoint came in October when chief news anchor Shephard Smith resigned.
SMITH: Even in our currently polarized nation it's my hope that the facts will win the day. That the truth will always matter.
STELTER: Smith provided a reality check to Fox's viewers who pretty much hear pro-Trump talking points all day long. And now reporters at Fox are worried that Shep's exit has left a giant hole.
And that feeds into number 3 -- impeachment's dueling media bunkers. The networks went wall to wall for the hearings. On day one, two career diplomats testified for six hours. But in Fox's alternative universe viewers heard that the hearing was a disaster and downright boring.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So day one of this impeachment farce.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was such a disaster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A triple full disaster for the Democrats.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Complete and utter disaster.
STELTER: All across the pro-Trump media universe, far right websites hyped clips of GOP stars like Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes, experts said that this echo chamber really helped protect Trump and exacerbated the country's divisions.
And all of this gets amplified on the web, which brings us to number 2. The misinformation age with deep fakes and dumb fakes, bots and trolls, making it harder and harder to know what is true. Like a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slowed down to make it look like she was slurring her words. It racked up millions of views on Facebook which refused to take it down.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Why keep it up then?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We didn't. Yes. We think it's important for people to make their own informed choice about what to believe.
STELTER: And it is only getting worse heading into 2020. Facebook is sparking outrage for essentially allowing lies in political ads.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you see a potential problem here with a complete lack of fact checking on political advertisements?
STELTER: Facebook claims that its job is not to decide whether an ad is true or false. Although the company is said to be considering some changes. Google already made a few tweaks limiting how political ads are micro targeted to people, and Twitter has stopped taking political ads entirely. But the big tech backlash is growing.
The constant haze of misinformation brings us to number 1. The war on truth and the Trump administration's daily assault on facts.
TRUMP: The deep state and the failed ruling class --
The Democrats, the media, and the deep state are desperate to stop us.
The opponents, the opposition, the Democrats, the radical left, deep state, whatever you want to call them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More gaslighting. There is no deep state conspiracy. Nope.
STELTER: Trump's message is don't believe your eyes, don't believe your ears, only believe me. And it has undermined the trust in everything. Remember Sharpie gate? As Hurricane Dorian approached Trump said Alabama was at risk when it wasn't even after weather officials tweeted a correction, the President persisted, holding up an altered map. Agency staffers reportedly felt pressure to support his lies.
COOPER: To say this out loud it sounds ludicrous but as you pointed out we have federal employees getting reprimanded for accurately disclosing scientific truth.
STELTER: That is a war on truth and we see it again now with the assertion that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: There's one reason they're changing this story for you right now and it's to confuse you and distract you and make you not care about it because it doesn't seem to make sense anymore because nothing's true.
STELTER: Does anyone know what to believe any more, and what does it mean for our democracy if we can no longer agree on objective truth. That is the challenge heading into 2020.
Brian Stelter, CNN, New York.
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DEAN: Brian, thank you. Millions are traveling for the holidays and many people are running into severe weather as they go, we're going to tell you what you could expect next.
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DEAN: Fires, floods, and massive traffic accidents have already marred the holiday travel rush. Take a look at this 69-car pile-up on an icy Virginia bridge, that happened Sunday. Dozens of people were injured in that. In south Florida, flash flooding from heavy rains brought the runways at Fort Lauderdale to a standstill. It was so bad their planes were not able to take off.
And then there was some travel mayhem on both ends of California, some empty airport passenger buses caught fire at Los Angeles International. And there were long lines at departure terminal in Sacramento where the internet went down. It's going great out there.
CNN affiliate KCRA reports a car crash damaged fiber-optic cables, so what are the trouble spots right now? For that we bring meteorologist Tom Sater and the CNN Weather Center for some answers. Tom, how's it looking?
TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Jessica, not so bad really. Over the river, through the woods. Most of the U.S. will have temperatures more like Easter than they will Christmas. If you're hoping for a white Christmas, if the snow is not already on the ground, most of us are not going to see it at all.
West of the front range of the Rockies, that's where winter weather is going to grip and really cause some travel problems. And right here in the east we had what we call a southeast soaker, a raw, ugly cold rainy day yesterday trying to find that last-minute gift, just can you imagine battling wind-driven cold rain looking for the last parking spot.
This is going to be moving out overnight tonight but it's already been dropping a good two to five inches. Six and seven, eight-inch local amounts in some areas. We had 10 million under flash flood watches now it's kind of whittled down to about 4 million. But this is going to be moving out. Heaviest rain with the flooding, coastal South Carolina and Georgia.
So the good news is this moves out and in the wake this nothing but sunshine. The temperature forecast is really -- it's not going to put you in the holiday spirit so you're going to have to build your own spirit here. Look at these numbers, not just 10 to 15 degrees warmer than they should be but even 20 and 25 degrees warmer.
Chicago's normal high 33 degrees, they're at 55 Wednesday, 56 Thursday. St. Louis is in the mid-60s. And so really from the central Rockies eastward no great chance of snow. Temperatures well warmer than they should be. That goes all the way to the Canadian border.
Out West, however, it is a different story and that is where we got a lot of rainfall. Southern California, mountain snows, several states looking at winter weather advisories. Could have some flight delays in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, LA already seeing hour long delays in San Francisco. So the mountain snows and the valley rainfall is going to hang around and that is where you're going to have your white Christmas. But overall if you're looking form smooth sailing to get to grandma's house, things look good for most of the country -- Jessica.
DEAN: All right, Tom Sater, thanks so much.
And for all of you out there we wish safe travels and a lot of fun with those you love. Thanks so much for watching today. Erica Hill fills in for Jake Tapper on "THE LEAD." It starts right now.
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