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FAA Orders Grounding Of Some 737 MAX 9 Jets After Emergency Landing; Biden Opens Campaign With Speech On Democracy & New Campaign Ad; Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Remembers January 6th Attack; 40 Million People Under Winter Weather Alerts. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 06, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

JENNIFER JENKINS, CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF HISTORY: I describe it as the culmination of a 95-year love triangle between Disney, Mickey, and the public domain.

[15:00:03]

I'll explain that briefly, because if you ask me, what is the best possible use case for just how great the public domain is, I would say Disney. I would point you to Snow White and Pinocchio and Sleeping Beauty and the Lion King, Hunchback of Notre Dame, all of them beloved Disney films that made wonderful use of early public domain works. But at the same time, Disney is known for its support of the extension of the copyright term, which eroded the public domain, and Mickey is symbolic of both tendencies.

So, that's why this moment is so symbolic and has been so widely anticipated in the copyright community.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. Professor Jennifer Jenkins, thank you so much. Happy New Year.

JENKINS: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: Thank you.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we start with this breaking news, the Federal Aviation Administration is now ordering the grounding of certain Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes following a terrifying incident onboard an Alaska Airlines flight on Friday. Flight 1282 had just taken off from Portland, Oregon, when a section of its cabin ripped off.

And you can hear the swirling winds whipping through, after a gaping hole ripped open right there in the plane's cabin mid-flight. The pilot was able to make an emergency landing after about 20 minutes. One person was taken to the hospital with a minor injury.

The FAA says it's requiring immediate inspections of some of the 737 MAX 9 planes before they are returned to service. CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, a major new development here. The FAA says it's planning to institute an emergency airworthiness directive, essentially an emergency recall leading to the temporary grounding of these Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes. This latest incident happened in an explosive moment, like the most violent convertible you've ever been in.

In this case a passenger jet, where there could have been a door, this plane did not have it. It had what's called a door plug. More on that in a second.

This happened with a bang. Seven minutes into the flight at 16,000 feet, what is technically called a rapid decompression where the high pressure breathable air inside the plane goes rushing out and the cold thin air outside comes rushing in. We heard from a passenger that a boy sitting nearby had his shirt pulled off. The oxygen masks dropped and pilots very quickly had to deal with this issue.

I want you to listen to the calm in the new air traffic control audio. Step one, fly the airplane. Step two, run the checklist, descend back to 10,000 feet, where the air is more breathable. And step three, communicate with air traffic control exactly what is going on.

PILOT: Alaska 1282, need to declare an emergency, descending down to 10,000 just depressurized.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Alaska calling, descend one-zero thousand. When able, give me the nature of the emergency and your intentions.

PILOT: Seattle, Alaska 1282 just depressurized, need to declare an emergency, we do not need to descend down to ten thousand.

MUNTEAN: The part that failed, that part that will now be inspected, is on the left side of the plane's fuselage. A door can be installed at the Boeing factory. It depends on the seating configuration ordered by the airline. So, this airplane did not have a door. Instead, there was a door plug there that you would see from the outside, you wouldn't really know it from the inside.

This plane in question rolled off the factory floor only a few months ago, October 15th was the first flight. About 150 flights for Alaska airlines since then. This has thrust Boeing under the microscope once again, the latest in a litany of issues with the 737 MAX family, killed 346 people in two crashes abroad, there was a 20-month long grounding in the U.S. that ended in November of 2020.

Since, Boeing has been dogged by quality control issues. The good news here, 171 passengers and six crew members, all okay -- Fredricka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Pete Muntean, thank you so much. All right. For the passengers onboard, it was truly terrifying.

CNN's Stephanie Elam joins us with more on that side of the story.

Stephanie, what are you hearing?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Fredricka, you're thinking about this flight happening just around 5:00 p.m. local time Pacific, when this flight took off, it was only in the air for about 20 minutes. It was en route to Ontario, California, here in southern California, but quickly turned back around and landed at Portland international. The reason why this is so noticeable is because of how short this all transpired. In that little bit of time.

[15:05:01]

And for the passengers on the plane, some of them were asleep, settling in for the couple hour flight, when everything changed and everything abruptly changed. There's one passenger who said she was asleep and she was jolted awake and that she knew something was wrong, even though it was happening behind her, because the oxygen mask fell down.

There was also another man who spoke to one of our affiliates, Evan Smith, he talks about what happened to the people sitting closest to that hole. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVAN SMITH, PASSENGER, ALASKA AIRLINES FLIGHT 1282: I understand from talking to a lady who was sitting in the row immediately behind where the panel blew off that there was -- you could see later that there was a two window section panel that blew out about as wide as a refrigerator and she said -- I guess a boy and his mother were sitting in that row and his shirt was sucked off him and out of the plane. And his mother was holding on to him. She said her own little boy's phone went out, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And all of that still, it's remarkable that nobody was majorly injured. According to the airport, there was one person taken to the hospital, but no serious injuries reported. According to another passenger on the flight, they did get an email from Alaska Airlines saying they were going to be reimbursed for their flight and also given $1,500 for the inconvenience that occurred there.

But, obviously, with all of these flights being grounded, we are hearing from some airlines they're going to have some major delays in the next days ahead as we will not see the 737 MAX 9s in the air right now.

But obviously for the passengers on that flight, a terrifying experience that ended probably the best way it possibly could -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, absolutely. It's incredible. All right. Stephanie Elam, thank you.

All right. It is indeed crunch time in Iowa for the Republicans who are campaigning to be the next American president. Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Asa Hutchinson, and, of course, former President Donald Trump, all flooding the state on a very busy Saturday.

CNN's Steve Contorno is traveling with the DeSantis campaign.

So, Steve, with Trump showing strength in Iowa, some of the talk has turned to which of his rivals should potentially drop out.

What's being said?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, Governor DeSantis today was asked about this idea of potentially joining forces with Nikki Haley on a joint ticket. Would he be her vice president or vice-versa, and he said, hard pass. Take a listen to what he said on Fox News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would much rather do my final two years as governor, '25 and '26, than be vice president. I don't think it's a position that offers much.

INTERVIEWER: Many candidates have emerged as a vice presidential running mate have said exactly what you said. So, I assume by what you're saying, you would say the same about Nikki Haley being your running mate?

DESANTIS: Right. So here's -- because I get asked about a running mate all the time. I think there's two criteria you have to have. One, you've got to be someone that can be president. So you have to have the experience and judgment. Two, you've got to share our values and kind of our vision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: DeSantis has also criticized Haley for refusing to directly answer whether she would be interested in being Trump's vice president. Haley meanwhile was asked about whether she would be interested in making Ron DeSantis her vice president if it came down to that. Of course, this is all speculation.

But she said she could potentially be into it and said if he wants to join forces with me, I welcome that. A lot of this chatter is going on in the heat of a presidential campaign, where there's been a lot of talk about whether or not Republicans have done enough to consolidate around a single alternative to Donald Trump. There's also pressure on Chris Christie to get out in New Hampshire, where Nikki Haley is doing well.

You're seeing more chatter in Iowa as well. We're nine days away from the caucuses. The candidates are on the campaign trail. Governor DeSantis will be speaking at this diner shortly. Meanwhile, Nikki Haley has three stops today in Iowa as well. She has along with Governor Sununu from New Hampshire who has endorsed her -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Steve Contorno, thanks so much.

Meanwhile, President Biden and Vice President Harris are also out on the trail. Their strategy, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:13:22]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back.

This breaking news, the NTSB is ordering all 737 MAX 9 planes grounded for now, after part of the fuselage on an Alaska Airlines flight simply ripped off, while the flight was 16,000 feet in the air. It descended with an emergency landing, all okay and fine there in Portland, Oregon. No serious injuries.

One person has been treated with minor injuries, but it is a miraculous emergency landing that took place.

Let's go now to Alan Diehl. He's a former accident investigator for the NTSB, FAA, and the U.S. Air Force.

And so, Alan, I mean, this has shocked everybody, whether you like to fly or not. But, you know, give me your point of view on the fact that this happened involving this 737 MAX 9 and that United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, all of them voluntarily have grounded those flights of those planes, but the NTSB is saying everybody who has them should not be putting them in the air right now.

ALAN DIEHL, FORMER ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR FOR NTSB, FAA & AIR FORCE: I think that's a very prudent move on the part of both the airlines and the NTSB, and, of course, Fredricka, you know that the NTSB only makes recommendations. Normally it's the FAA that actually grounds the aircraft. It sounds like they'll follow up very quickly.

As far as we know, this is the first time anything like this has happened with this particular modification to the aircraft. This is not -- you know, some people reported it as a door.

[15:15:02]

We know it's essentially a fuselage plug because this is a smaller version of the MAX aircraft, and it doesn't require that many exits.

WHITFIELD: Uh-huh. So this fuselage plug, I mean, we've tried to explain it to people all day long that perhaps your point of view on this to help viewers new to the scene here, that this space operates as giving this aircraft some options, depending on what the seating is, how many people to a plane.

So while it has kind of the cut-out we see right there of a door, it was not used as a door in this case. It had windows. It was used strictly for that purpose. What do you suppose is at issue here? Is it the seal? Is it the actual

mount of this area, this plug area? I mean, what do you think could potentially NTSB investigators zero in on?

DIEHL: Well, first, everything is on the board, as they like to say. But, you know, right now it appears this looks like some sort of either design, or more likely a fabrication problem at the factory. These fuselages are manufactured by an outfit called Spirit in Wichita, but I think they'll be looking at the quality control in that particular factory to see if both the adhesives, the glue, and the metal mounts that hold this plug in place were properly installed.

We saw the same kind of problem on the MAX with the control cable, not related to the current problem, but I think they're going to have to take a careful look at the quality control of the manufacturing of this particular component on the Boeing MAX aircraft, on all of them.

WHITFIELD: Is it a quality control issue of the manufacturing, or is it also a reconsideration of the engineering, the design of this type of fashion?

DIEHL: Well, both will be on the table and we certainly know there's been a troubled history with the FAA's oversight of Boeing on the MAX. So I think they will look at that to see if there's, for example, enough connecters, enough, if you will, bolts, to hold this in place to ensure if a couple of them fail or come loose, that it won't catastrophically fail.

Now, we were lucky this happened at little over 16,000 feet and not at 35,000 feet. This could have been catastrophic. So in a way, this was a very lucky failure, and hopefully, it will point very quickly to the kind of corrections that need to be made, whether it's fabrication, inspection, or redesign. You raise a very good point. Maybe the design was inadequate and the FAA overlooked that somehow.

WHITFIELD: Uh-huh. And from a passenger standpoint, this certainly underscores the importance of keeping your seatbelt on, right? I mean, we heard the point of view of one of the passengers who described that the shirt of one of a young person who was onboard was sucked out, as was the phone that was in his hand. And the pilot and crew did a remarkable job, as you mentioned, with this emergency landing, descending very carefully and slowly 16,000 feet, or at least to the 10,000-foot threshold because of the decompression and making a safe landing.

What are among the lessons learned here in your view?

DIEHL: Well, first of all, we need to look at the manufacturing process and the design, as you pointed out, Fredricka. But clearly, for the passengers, keep your seatbelts fastened. We all know we had virtually a perfect record last year in the jet airline safety with no fatalities worldwide in the jet field.

So this is a rare event. But, yes, keep your seat belts fastened, and in the past, in 2018, we lost somebody. They weren't completely sucked out. That was when an engine failure caused a window to be destroyed, but back about 40 years ago, we had the same thing happen on a wide body and the person was sucked out.

When I worked for the air force, we lost an airman who was sucked through an overhead window on a tanker airplane, an Air Force tanker. So, yeah, keep your seatbelts fastened is the one thing you can do. But I really don't think your viewers should panic over this. I believe that this is a very strange and rare occurrence, and I think both the FAA, the NTSB, Alaska and the rest of the airlines, are going to deal with this in a very prompt and efficient manner.

I just don't think this is something we need to worry about a lot. But we need to find out why this happened, and that's clearly the role of the NTSB and the manufacturer.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, as they try to figure out why this happened -- I mean, give us an idea of how they will, you know, look at this aircraft, how they'll examine it, how they'll be able to find the potential failures that took place before that plug door was whisked away.

DIEHL: Well, that does bring up a point, the public could help. I don't know that anyone has actually found the component that was blown outside. My understanding is that this window actually exited the aircraft, separated, as they say, from the aircraft. So it would be great to find that wreckage some place along the route of the flight, but they also have the aircraft, obviously, and they can look at the remainder of the adhesive and the metal that is designed to retain that plug.

So they do have at least part of the puzzle. They have the part that's still on the aircraft, but I'm sure they would love to find that window and the other components that were ejected. Whether or not it's adhesive, glue, if you will, or mechanical fasteners, bolts, those are all on the table, as they say. They will take metallurgists and experts in adhesives at the factory and at the NTSB.

I suspect they'll cut this part out and take it back either to Boeing or the NTSB, materials lab in Washington, D.C., but I suspect that within a matter of certainly weeks, if not days, we'll have an idea of what wasn't done right on this particular aircraft.

WHITFIELD: Right. Alan Diehl, we certainly appreciate your expertise. Thank you so much.

DIEHL: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: President Biden takes clear aim at Donald Trump as he officially launches his re-election campaign. What he said about the former president and the January 6th insurrection, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:58]

WHITFIELD: All right. President Biden officially launching his re- election campaign with an impassioned speech attacking his main Republican rival, Donald Trump. Biden slammed the former president's inaction on January 6th as the worst dereliction of duty by a president. It was three years ago today when insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress certified by the winner of the 2020 election.

CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz joins us live now from Wilmington, Delaware, where the president is spending the weekend.

Arlette, Vice President Harris, she's also marking today's anniversary. What can you tell us about what they are doing?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Biden campaign is really trying to use this January 6th anniversary to lay out the stakes of the election, warning that American democracy is under threat and former President Donald Trump is the reason why. President Biden really jump-started that yesterday with that fiery speech up in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. The president really speaking in the most stark and blunt terms yet that he's used his entire campaign to try to pin the blame of January 6th on former President Trump, and also warn that putting him back in office would further undermine American democracy.

Now, Vice President Kamala Harris was down in South Carolina today, a state that will be critical as it is the first Democratic primary state with their event being held on February 3rd. It will also be a key test of their enthusiasm and support with Black voters. And there, Vice President Harris warned about the threats that are currently being posed not just to American democracy, but also to freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: While we fight for progress, there are those who are trying to pull us backward. In this moment, we are witnessing a full-on attack on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, President Biden will also be traveling down to South Carolina on Monday. There he is set to speak at Mother Emanuel Church. It is that church where there was a mass shooting back in 2015 where nine Black parishioners were killed.

One thing that President Biden will highlight on those remarks are his attempts to condemn political violence in the country. That's something he spoke to around the anniversary of the January 6th insurrection. The Biden campaign really believes that they need to begin reminding voters what happened that day and the threat that Donald Trump will pose if he is re-elected back for a second term.

The Biden campaign is treating this weekend as the opening salvo of their campaign as they're trying to begin early, to make this contrast with Trump as they are looking at a potential rematch with him in November.

WHITFIELD: And President Biden has also accepted House Speaker Mike Johnson's invitation to deliver the State of the Union speech. What more do we know about that?

[16:30:02]

SAENZ: Well, House Speaker Mike Johnson invited President Biden to deliver the State of the Union on March 7th. But the president tweeted back at him saying that he was looking forward to it.

There is expected to be a few tumultuous weeks ahead on Capitol Hill. There are not one, but two government funding deadlines that need to be met. It's unclear how exactly that will play out. There are still those ongoing discussions over border security negotiations, as Republicans are insisting that any additional aid for Ukraine or Israel must also include changes to border security policy. There are some Republicans suggesting they would shut down the government over these border security discussions.

But the president is now eyeing that March 7th date for the State of the Union, which will give him a chance to potentially lay out some of his agenda not just for the next year, but also for his second term in office.

WHITFIELD: All right. Arlette Saenz, thank you so much, in Delaware.

I want to bring in presidential historian, Mark Updegrove, to discuss.

Mark, good to see you. Happy New Year.

President Biden stood there in Valley Forge yesterday at the historic Revolutionary War site that housed George Washington and the Continental Army nearly 250 years ago.

This was how his campaign chose to formally launch his re-election campaign. How important in your view was that, plus the reminders of January 6th, what did and didn't happen?

MARK UPDEGROVE, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, President Biden has made it very clear that the central pillar of his presidency will be preserving and protecting our democracy. So, it's not a surprise at all that he would talk about the carnage on Washington three years ago on January 6th. This day three years ago.

So you're going to see Biden come back to the issue of democracy again and again, and in doing so at Valley Forge was very significant. Talking about the sacrifices made by those soldiers, all those years ago, creating our country at that time through the battles that they waged with the British army.

So democracy is going to be the central theme of this campaign and it will certainly be the central plank of Joe Biden's legacy.

WHITFIELD: And, in fact, we see that in the form of the Biden campaign dropping its first ad focusing on that this week. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's something dangerous happening in America. There's an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy. All of us are being asked right now, what will we do to maintain our democracy? History is watching. The world is watching.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So that was a winning message in 2020, three years later now, with the economy, geopolitical concerns and more, is that message going to resonate equally today?

UPDEGROVE: One hopes, Fredricka. You saw in 2020 where democracy and reproductive rights were on the ballot, democracy and reproductive rights largely won. Most election deniers, at least in the high- profile races, were defeated, and reproductive rights, we've seen, did extraordinarily well in 2020 and has since done well in Kansas and Ohio.

I think that the Biden campaign will have to continue to hammer in on those themes, democracy and reproductive rights if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are to prevail later this year. But I think as we get closer to this and we see the dangerous candidacy that we see from Donald Trump, the authoritarian ideals that he puts forth, that Americans will turn from kitchen table issues to look at democracy just as we did in 2020.

So my guess is that Americans, while they're largely turning a blind eye, many Americans are turning a blind eye to this now, that as we come closer to the election, democracy will become more and more important.

WHITFIELD: And perhaps something that really underscores real concerns about Trump being the next GOP nominee, former President Barack Obama, apparently was very animated in talks with Biden at the White House about the idea of top decision-makers in Biden's administration needing to be involved in his re-election campaign at their headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, this according to an article in the "Washington Post," and that Obama really implored the importance of empowering the people already in place, similar to how Obama's re- election campaign had key White House people relocate to his Chicago re-election office. Obama is encouraging Biden to do the same.

[15:35:00]

What does this say to you about the level of concerns that perhaps it's really not, you know, a shoe-in for this president to be re- elected?

UPDEGROVE: Anyone that's concerned about democracy is concerned about this election and Barack Obama would certainly be no exception. I think Barack Obama will become very important to Joe Biden as the election nears, as a spokesperson for the administration, as somebody who knows Joe Biden well and knows the stakes in the election later this year. Donald Trump is a very appealing and very anomalous candidate. He

continues to have an appeal that is inexplicable. This is a person who talked in 2021, in his inauguration speech, and said that this carnage stops here and stops now, and then three years later we saw what happened on January 6th. This is a person who incited that carnage and yet, inexplicably, Fredricka, he is the lead candidate for the Republicans for the nomination. So I think anyone concerned about democracy is concerned about this and Barack Obama is going to be a very important figure in sounding that message later this year.

WHITFIELD: All right. Mark Updegrove, thank you so much for being with us.

UPDEGROVE: Thanks, Fredricka. All right. Today is indeed a somber anniversary at the U.S. Capitol. The third anniversary of the January 6th insurrection.

One of the officers who lived through it will join us live straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:40:57]

WHITFIELD: Today marks the third anniversary of the January 6th attack on Capitol Hill when a mob of rioters stormed through the halls of Congress in a failed attempt to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

My next guest has -- can't forget that he was there on that infamous day and sustained multiple injuries while defending the Capitol building. Joining me right now is Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, a former Capitol police officer and author of a new book called "American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy".

Sergeant, so great to see you. Thank you for your service and your continued service to this country.

You spoke alongside Congressman Jamie Raskin on the eve of January 6th on Capitol Hill, we've got the video there. How are you feeling today on this anniversary, this somber day?

SGT. AQUILINO GONELL, FORMER U.S. CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER: Thanks for having me. Well, it's a hard day for me. It's a day of reflection. There's a lot of people that for some reason they see me as a villain and some people see me as a hero. So, it's very complex, you know, mixed feelings, because on one end, I did what I was supposed to do, I did what was required of me, and some people, including the same people who I risked my life for, continue to downplay what happened three years apart from that moment, they seem to forget the fear they felt on that horrible day.

WHITFIELD: I mean, here it is three years after the fact, and to hear you say that there are people who continue to see you as a villain, how does that make you feel? GONELL: I'm very disappointed. Again, I know that I did what I was

supposed to do. I know that I did my job, I did my duty. And some of the same people that are saying those things are the ones that condoned what happened, and some that took part in the things that happened on January 6th.

So it's very disappointing that they see a moment where the whole country should have come together and dispose of this type of behavior and conduct, and they see the police officers as the bad guys of the whole day. Just yesterday the former president continued to say that the rioters that attacked us, the police, and our democracy at the capitol, that those people are hostages.

And if those people are hostages, patriots, political prisoners, what does that make us, the police officers? I mentioned this in my book "American Shield", the people who I risked my life for, they are desecrating the sacrifices that myself and my colleagues did on January 6th for political gains, including those who were inside the chamber helping barricade the chambers to keep the mob away with guns drawn.

WHITFIELD: I mean, you're an Iraq war veteran as well, and yesterday, the president said many who served on January 6th believe that day was worse than serving in Iraq. Was that your feeling, too?

GONELL: I think he was quoting part of my January 6th testimony during his speech yesterday. I was very honored that he did that yesterday. But that is the sentiment that I was feeling. That's the fear that I had.

And when I say for me it was worse than Iraq, it was.

[15:45:01]

We had multiple things happening at the same time to me, I was all over on the west lawn of the Capitol. Most of the footages on the west front, you'll find me. I know how to find myself with the riot shield, and I was all over.

And I was surviving one moment of danger after another, after another. At least in Iraq I knew who were the enemy, I knew that there was a possibility of me losing my life and getting injured, so do -- as a member of the police, I know there's inherent danger in that profession, but what I did not sign up for or expected was our own citizens taking part in attacking us inside the Capitol.

These are the same people who claim that they black the blue, that they are pro-law enforcement, that they are the party of rule and law. A couple of weeks ago, Speaker Johnson mentioned, and in the same sentence he said three different things. He said, we are the party of law and order, we want accountability, but we are going to blur out the faces of the people as he releases the pictures of the videos of the rioters who were hunting him and his colleagues and the vice president room by room inside the Capitol, because he doesn't want the Department of Justice to identify and prosecute these people. What the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson doesn't do is release the

pictures and videos of him and his colleagues running away from the mob. And that's a very shameful of him and cowardness.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, and how does that -- how does that, you know, how does that make you feel hearing that which is tantamount to saying, you know, protecting the identity of those who were involved, who were complicit?

GONELL: It's a betrayal not only to his duty, office, but not having the back of us, the officers who risked our lives to give them the time and opportunity to escape the mob. Because the actions of myself and my colleagues on January 6th, especially inside the tunnel where I was, I don't think most of them would have made it. You know, when you have thousands and thousands of rioters trying to breach the entrance and only about 40 officers, including myself, me putting my body and life on the line to give them that opportunity to escape, and now that they are safe and sound at home, now they say it wasn't that bad, it was Antifa, oh, it was the FBI.

No, it was not. It was Trump supporters, including himself, because he continues to downplay everything that happened. But, you know, as I cover, as I mentioned in my book, a lot of things that I'm saying right now, it's just -- it's just about staying powerful. It doesn't matter who you hurt, it doesn't matter whose life they ruin, like my career, they did that.

And, you know, I've served as 17 years as a police officer and in the military, I went overseas and protected this country, so I had done both things they require from us to defend the country, at home and abroad. And I think, you know, it's very shameful what they do to dishonor our sacrifices.

WHITFIELD: Sergeant Gonell, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, your experience, your bravery, your courage, and your service.

GONELL: If I may, I just want to say one last thing. Today has been very hard, not only for me, I but I know for the Sicknick family. I talked to them early and it's been tough.

If you know anybody, keep them in your prayers. It's a solemn day, a sad day, and we need to remember what happened and not ever repeat this again.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much for that.

GONELL: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:53:56]

WHITFIELD: All right. A powerful storm barreling up the East Coast is about to kick winter into overdrive, as 40 million people are now under winter alert.

We're watching the weather with CNN correspondent Gabe Cohen in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Gabe, lot of snow. Quite the accumulation since last time we spoke. How's it going?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Fred, a lot of snow and it has been accumulating over the past couple of hours. We have at least a couple of inches of snow here as you can see from front of the Pennsylvania state capital.

And bear in mind, they haven't had a winter storm like this here in this area in close to three years. And so right now, there are a lot of crews out trying to clear this snow. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation alone has more than 2,000 plows out spread across the state, plus there are all the county crews and city crews, like the crews here in Harrisburg.

And I want to bring in David West.

David, you are the head of public works here in Harrisburg. You said you drove a plow for a lot of years in this area. Talk to me about the conditions here today. How do you describe them?

DAVID WEST, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS, CITY OF HARRISBURG, PA: The conditions are very hazardous today because the snow is a wet snow which makes it heavy and the conditions even more hazard because it compacts easily, which turns into, can turn into a sheet of ice once it's compacted, becomes very slippery and hazardous to drive on the roads.

[15:55:20]

COHEN: I know your crews are out there working hard. Thank you for your hard work. We'll let you go and get back to it, OK?

WEST: OK.

COHEN: All right. Thank you.

And, look, Fred, there's a snow emergency in several parts of Pennsylvania right now. Certainly winter warnings as a lot of people are affected by this. We're expecting potentially several more inches in this area so these crews are going to be hard at work throughout the evening, into the night and obviously you heard there, a big warning to drivers out there to be careful in these conditions.

WHITFIELD: Yes, Gabe. While it's gorgeous, it is potentially dangerous and very hazardous. So folks, take heed.

Gabe Cohen, thank you so much.

All right, even as the winter storm hits the East Coast, a warm start to the winter season is leaving the Great Lakes almost completely ice free. It's the lowest ice cover to start a new year in at least 50 years. The ice cover is usually around 10 percent by early January.

Well, this year, it's less than one-half percent according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The missing ice adds to a growing list of winter woes across the U.S. from dwindling snow packs in the West to the snow drought in the Northeast.

CNN climate -- chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, is with me now.

Can't forget that chief part, that's very important.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yeah.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. So, this is a new low. It, too, is very concerning, right? The ice pack on the Great Lakes has been diminishing for years and now we've got this?

WEIR: Yeah, we're hitting -- we're hitting a new record, all kinds of records in 2023 as we go into 2024 now. But this has been a steady trend, about 5 percent a year.

I'm a Milwaukee kid. About 50 years ago, I remember playing hockey on Lake Michigan with sort of regularity, dependability. That doesn't exist anymore. This is the lowest it's been and it has implications both good and bad when it comes to say commerce.

Barges can move a lot more freely. There's no ice jams that would clog up shipping in the Great Lakes region before. And that's good for big shippers and industries that rely on them. But then for lake side communities where ice is part of their culture, we're going to see a slew of cancellations of winter festivals that depend on that lake ice.

And another tragic side effect, a 2020 study looked at winter drownings and they go up exponentially in places around the world. They looked across seven different countries and it happens around freezing because it hasn't been cold enough for a steady ice to go ice fish on or skate on as people have been used to for generations.

So a new education has to take hold in these northern latitudes.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

WEIR: You can't depend going on the ice anymore.

WHITFIELD: And that's the human stuff. What about wildlife?

WEIR: Yeah. Wildlife is interesting as well. There are ecosystems that base on this, the seasons that come and go, how that will change. How that will affect invasive species, which are a big concern in the Great Lakes.

There's a number of them that they're worried if they get in there, can throw everything off kilter more so than it is now. So, yeah, this is -- this is not normal to what we're used to but unfortunately, it's sort of the new normal that we have to adapt to. WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness, and so, what, if anything, is kind of being

recommended since this is out of everyone's control right now. You know? This is Mother Nature or the cycle. This is what's happening right now, but what if anything is being recommended as to what we, you know, as responsible human beings, can do?

WEIR: Well, this is all part of the grand question. And it's -- whether it's the Great Lakes or sea level rise or bigger storms and longer droughts, it's the fact that humanity writ large has been tracking up the temperature for a while and the writing is win on the wall.

Then it's also just a shift in mindset, unfortunately, that in order to protect ourselves in this new normal, you have to think differently about air and water and ice and temperatures because all of that is sort of changing out of our comfort zones.

WHITFIELD: All right. Chief climate correspondent Bill Weir, great to see you. Thanks so much.

WEIR: Thanks, Fred. You bet.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you, everybody, for joining me today. I'm back here tomorrow. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

"CNN NEWSROOM" with Jim Acosta is next.