Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
CNN International: Alaska Airlines Investigation; Airline Reports Loose Hardwar on Some 737 Max 9 Aircraft; Trump Wants Georgis Election Subversion Case Dismissed; GOP 2024 Race for the White House Showdown; Blinken Holding High-Stakes Talks with Officials in Israel; Pentagon: Austin Still in Hospital, No Plans to Resign. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired January 09, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster joining you live from London just ahead on CNN newsroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The investigation into the hole violently ripped in an Alaska Airlines flight has a new smoking gun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're also going to send components and the door plug back to our lab in DC for further examination.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Republican front runner, former President Donald Trump is urging his supporters not to grow complacent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can we endure another four years of Donald Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to meet with top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's clearly not in the interest of anyone to see this escalate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN newsroom with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.
FOSTER: It is 9 a.m. here in London. It's 1 a.m. in Washington State where in the coming hours Boeing is set to hold an all-employee meeting on safety as the company faces scrutiny once again over the quality of its aircraft.
This comes as Alaska Airlines says its maintenance technicians found loose hardware on some of their Boeing 737 Max 9 fleet. That's the same type of aircraft that was involved in a terrifying incident on Friday when the fuselage door plug blew off whilst the plane was at an altitude of 16,000 feet.
NOBILO: United Airlines says it too has found loose door plug bolts on some of its Max 9 planes. The revelations come after the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded certain Max 9 aircraft until they are inspected.
Meantime, investigators continue to piece together the evidence to understand what led to the mid-flight emergency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINT CROOKSHANKS, AEROSPACE ENGINEER, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: The exam to date has shown that the door in fact did translate upward. All 12 stops became disengaged allowing it to blow out of the fuselage. We found that both guide tracks on the plug were fractured.
We have not yet recovered the four bolts that restrain it from its vertical movement and we have not yet determined if they existed there. That will be determined when we take the plug to our lab in Washington DC.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: CNN's Pete Muntean has more on the investigations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From inside the damaged airliner to a Portland backyard, the investigation into the hole violently ripped in an Alaska Airlines flight has a new smoking gun. The National Transportation Safety Board has now recovered the part of the fuselage that ejected without warning only six minutes after flight 1282 took off Friday. The piece tumbled 16,000 feet only to be discovered two days later by a school teacher named Bob.
JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, U.S. NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: I'm excited to announce that we found the door plug. Thank you Bob.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Investigators are now matching up the bolts, hinges and roller bearings of the door plug to the structure of the plane to provide key clues about why it came off.
The size of a refrigerator and weighing 63 pounds, the force of the rupture was strong enough to open the cockpit door 26 rows up. The noise of 400 mile per hour air audible as pilots radioed in an emergency.
PILOT: Alaska 1282, we just depressurized, we're declaring an emergency, we do need to descend down to 10,000.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Investigators say the explosion contorted seats, removed headrests and threw phones from passengers' hands to Portland streets below. Amazingly, nobody on board was seated immediately next to the hole or seriously injured. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You heard a big loud bang.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just knew something bad was going on because the masks had come down and I had never experienced that before.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): The plane, a new Boeing 737 Max 9. It made its first flight just this past October and had been used by Alaska Airlines on only 150 trips.
The Federal Aviation Administration has temporarily grounded Max 9s until Alaska and United Airlines can make emergency inspections.
HOMENDY: We may look at the manufacturer, the design of this aircraft, but we go where the evidence takes us.
[04:05:02]
MUNTEAN (voice-over): What is missing from the investigation is audio from the cockpit voice recorder, which was not recovered in time to stop its automatic overwrite. Gone are the recordings of the loud bang heard by passengers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's high time that we improved the amount of data we got out of these cockpit voice recorders.
MUNTEAN: Investigators have uncovered one more key piece of evidence. They say this Boeing 737 Max 9 had pressurization problems three times before this incident. A cockpit alarm went off just one day before the incident.
Following its own protocols, Alaska Airlines kept the plane from long over water flights like to Hawaii. So far, investigators say it's not clear if those alarms foreshadowed Friday's in-flight blowout. But right now, they're not ruling anything out.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: A U.S. federal appeals court will hold a hearing today on whether Donald Trump has immunity in the federal election subversion case. The former president is expected to attend in person. A lower court has rejected his claims that he was working to ensure election integrity when he allegedly tried to undermine the 2020 results.
NOBILO: Trump also wants the election subversion case in Georgia dismissed. His attorneys are arguing once again that he is protected under presidential immunity.
CNN spoke with senior legal analyst Elie Honig about Trump's argument in the Georgia case. Here's his reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I think this is a real long shot of an argument by Donald Trump and probably a losing argument in the court of appeals and perhaps beyond. Now, it's important to understand what Donald Trump is and is not arguing here. He is not arguing that he is immune from prosecution for everything he did during every minute of his four year presidency.
What his team is arguing is that he's immune from prosecution for anything he did during that time within the outer scope of his job as president. The problem for Donald Trump, though, is the facts. Donald Trump's team claims, well, he was just making calls from the White House to legislative leaders, to cabinet members, to members of Congress and sort of leaves it at that.
But that's a myopic view of the facts. The reality, I think, is quite clear in Jack Smith's indictment is Donald Trump was not trying to just neutrally administer the election. He was trying to steal it. He was trying to make sure it tipped his way. And I think the weight of the evidence here is overwhelming it and is going to ultimately doom Trump's argument.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: We're just six days away from the Iowa caucuses with a CNN Republican debate coming up on Wednesday.
NOBILO: And President Biden is kicking off his re-election campaign with some sharp attacks on Donald Trump. CNN's Kylie Atwood has those details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello, Iowa.
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the Iowa caucuses just one week away, the Republican front runner, former President Donald Trump, is urging his supporters not to grow complacent.
TRUMP: You're only about 40 points up, but don't believe that either. Pretend you're one point down. OK, you're one point down. You have to get out and you have to vote, vote, vote.
ATWOOD (voice-over): And after months of targeting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump now attacking former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley more than ever before at his rallies --
TRUMP: Nikki would sell you out just like she sold me out.
ATWOOD (voice-over): -- and in new TV ads.
TRUMP CHAMPAIGN AD: Drug traffickers, rapists poisoning our country. But Nikki Haley refused to call illegals criminals.
ATWOOD (voice-over): Haley firing back.
NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If they're lying, it's because they know they're losing. It's that simple.
ATWOOD (voice-over): And after hauling in twenty four million dollars in support last quarter, new pro-Haley messages are leading the advertising game in the Hawkeye State in the closing days.
HALEY CAMPAIGN AD: Imagine a president with grit and grace, a different style, not a name from the past.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nikki will keep the radical left from ruining our culture.
RON DESANTIS, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are you ready to win in 2024?
ATWOOD (voice-over): Meanwhile, DeSantis, who has put tremendous resources into competing in Iowa, pledged to stay in the race even if he loses the caucuses.
DESANTIS: I'm confident with the organization we put together, the enthusiasm that we have on the ground.
ATWOOD (voice-over): And issued a new warning about the upcoming election year if Trump is the nominee.
DESANTIS: If it's about, you know, Donald Trump or his legal issues or criminal trials or all that stuff, you know, I think it's going to be a really nasty election.
ATWOOD (voice-over): Yet President Joe Biden is officially kicking off the election year, focusing his attention on Trump.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Donald Trump's campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He's willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power.
ATWOOD (voice-over): And while Trump is using campaign rallies to call for the January 6th rioters to be released.
TRUMP: They ought to release the J6 hostages.
ATWOOD (voice-over): Biden speaking today in South Carolina as he looks to strengthen his support with black voters, a key piece of his 2020 coalition is delivering a wholly different message about the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
BIDEN: The same movement that throughout the mob, the United States Capitol isn't just trying to rewrite history -- January 6th. They're trying to determine to erase history and your future.
[04:10:03]
ATWOOD: We're reminded this week of the unavoidable impact that weather can have on the primary process to erase history. And your future.
We're reminded this week of the unavoidable impact that weather can have on the primary process here in Iowa. Nikki Haley on Monday had a campaign event that she had to cancel because there was a snowstorm. She couldn't get to that part of Iowa from Des Moines. And of course, the weather for next Monday looks like it's going to be incredibly cold on Caucus Day. That could impact voters if they want to go out to the polls or if they're able to get to the polls. And that's something that these campaigns will have to consider.
Kylie Atwood, CNN, Des Moines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: One person who says she's extremely worried about the 2024 election is former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama. She didn't mention Donald Trump by name, but it seems fairly clear that might be who she's talking about.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER U.S. FIRST LADY: What's going to happen in this next election? I am terrified about what could possibly happen because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit. It affects us in ways that sometimes I think people take for granted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, the former first lady also suggested there's a double standard when it comes to Trump's legal entanglement, saying the bar is different for black people.
A massive winter storm bringing severe weather threats to large parts of the U.S., areas from Texas to Alabama are under tornado watches right now, with the threat increased because of the early morning dark hours.
NOBILO: Florida's been preparing for potential flooding since the weekend, and the threat of rising waters extends up the East Coast all the way to New York.
FOSTER: The winter weather alerts extend to 55 million people across the U.S., including parts of the Southern Plains, where long stretches of Interstate 70 have been closed due to blizzard conditions flooding. States in the Midwest, in Great Lakes region, could see as much as a foot of snow, along with high winds and whiteout conditions.
NOBILO: Here's what the conditions look like in Kansas on Monday, with the roads barely visible. The state shut down several highways ahead of the storm, and the governor has declared a state of emergency.
Right now, high-stakes talks are underway in Israel, where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with top officials.
FOSTER: It's the latest stop on his trip to the region, aimed at preventing Israel's war against Hamas from spreading beyond Gaza. Blinken has already met with the Israeli president and other officials, and is expected to sit down soon with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's defense minister. CNN's Paula Hancocks is following developments and joins us now live
from Abu Dhabi. And you get the sense that these talks will be more tense than the previous ones.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Max and Bianca, I mean, this is the fifth time that the U.S. Secretary of State has been in Israel since those October 7th attacks. But what we're hearing from U.S. officials, at least ahead of time, was that this is really going to focus on what is happening in Gaza and how the Israelis and the Israeli defense force can try and minimize civilian casualties.
The number of those being killed in Gaza is significant. We have heard just yesterday that one percent of the population, that's one in every hundred people has been killed in Gaza, those figures coming from the health ministry in Gaza itself.
So what we're understanding that the Secretary of State will be really pushing this time is to protect civilians and to make sure that when Israel says that it is going to have a lower intensity for its operations, it is going to downgrade its operations in Gaza, that actually happens.
At this point, it has not been evident, despite the IDF saying that it is transitioning to a less intense operation. Of course, though, what we are seeing is in central Gaza and southern Gaza, those operations in some ways are gearing up.
So this will be a major focus for the U.S. Secretary of State. He's met with the president. He's met with the foreign minister. He will be meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu as well to discuss this and the defense minister. So he'll also speak to the war cabinet. It is comprehensive meetings to make sure that this is the case.
Also, they want to make sure that humanitarian aid is getting in, that more humanitarian aid is getting in. Across the board, there is an acceptance that not enough is getting in to try and help the civilians who have been displaced and who are undergoing an awful time in Gaza. In fact, the U.N. saying it is the most dangerous place to be a child at this point.
Now, we're also obviously hearing that the secretary of state is going to want to lessen the chances of this conflict becoming more of a regional conflict and the tensions expanding when you do have on the northern Israeli border with Lebanon tensions rising even more.
[04:15:00]
A senior Hezbollah commander was killed in a targeted strike by Israel just yesterday, which obviously increases the tensions between the two there. Just last week, a senior Hamas leader was killed in Beirut and also a Hamas leader in Syria.
So, all of these issues and the concern about an extension and an expansion of tensions across the region will be the main focus for Secretary Blinken when he meets with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
FOSTER: OK, Paula in Abu Dhabi, thank you so much for that.
NOBILO: U.S. President Joe Biden is feeling the heat from protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cease fire now! Cease fire now!
BIDEN: That's all right. That's all right. That's all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cease fire now!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Mr. Biden was speaking to voters at a church in South Carolina on Monday when he was interrupted. A small group of protesters was then escorted out.
FOSTER: The Biden campaign says the president will continue to listen and engage with Democrats who disagree with his policies in Gaza. And here's how the president himself responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I understand their passion. And I've been quietly working. I've been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza. I'm using all that I can to do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Now, nearly two dozen people have been hurt after an explosion at a Fort Worth, Texas, hotel.
NOBILO: Fire officials believe the blast was caused by some type of gas explosion. Investigators are working to determine the exact cause of the incident at the Samman Signature Hotel, which is near both City Hall and the city's convention center.
And just in to CNN, a U.S. citizen has been detained in Russia on drug-related charges. A court in Moscow confirms the arrest of Robert Woodland, but has given few details on the alleged crime that he supposedly committed.
FOSTER: The court says Woodland will be detained for at least two months until March the 5th. We'll continue to follow this and bring you any developments on that.
NOBILO: And still ahead, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is still in the hospital, but not offering to resign. What the White House is saying about his future.
FOSTER: Plus, South Korean lawmakers vote to pass a bill that has animal welfare activists celebrating.
NOBILO: And later on, college football crowns a new champion. Highlights from the battle of the unbeaten. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
[04:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOBILO: Welcome back.
The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is still in hospital, but out of intensive care. He comes under intense criticism for failing to notify the White House about his hospitalization for four days. Still, the White House press secretary says President Biden has complete confidence in Austin. CNN's Alex Marquardt has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): It has been a week since the country's most senior defense official has been in the hospital. And for much of that time, very few people, even his boss, the president, were aware.
The Pentagon now says that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was rushed to Walter Reed Hospital last Monday on New Year's Day due to severe pain after elective surgery right before Christmas. The Pentagon revealed that even for the initial procedure in December, Austin and his team didn't tell the White House or Austin's deputy. Now, shock and anger from both parties are now spreading across Washington for Austin's failure to reveal for days to people who should have been told that he was still in the hospital.
REP. ABIGALL SPANBERGER (D-VA) U.S. HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I do hope that every person in the cabinet recognizes that this was not an appropriate step, not an appropriate way to handle what was his hospitalization.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): That is unacceptable, said Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. We are learning more every hour about the Defense Department's shocking defiance of the law.
Also in the dark were the most senior members of the Biden administration.
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I wasn't aware of his medical issue.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Biden says he still has complete confidence in Austin and isn't asking him to resign. But the White House said today that the way Austin notified them needs to be reviewed.
JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: I think there's an expectation that when a cabinet official becomes hospitalized, that will be notified up the chain of command. There is that expectation.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Austin's initial surgery was on December 22nd. He went home the next day. Then he was rushed to the ICU by ambulance on January 1st. His deputy, Kathleen Hicks, was only told the next day that she would have to assume some responsibilities, but not why.
It wasn't until Thursday, January 4th, that Hicks, Jake Sullivan, the national security advisor, and ultimately Biden were told where Austin actually was. The next day on the 5th, the Pentagon told congressional leaders and put out a public statement.
Then finally on Saturday, five days after being admitted, Secretary Austin said in a statement, quote: I recognized I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better.
While Austin was in the hospital, Hicks was on vacation in Puerto Rico, where she periodically assumed Austin's duties.
This during a very busy week that saw Israel carry out a strike against a Hamas leader in Beirut, the U.S. bomb a militia commander in Baghdad, and U.S. forces continue to actively face attacks by Iranian- backed groups, including the Houthis in Yemen.
MARK ESPER, FORMER U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: That becomes a really tricky situation where you want to be able, as the president, to pick up the phone and say, hey, what's going on, what do we need to do, what's the next course of action, other options, et cetera.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): People who know Austin say he kept things quiet because of how private he is.
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT (RET.), FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR POLITICAL-MILITARY AFFAIRS: Lloyd Austin is an intensely private person. He doesn't go out in front of the cameras. He doesn't go out of his way to be known or to be seen. He likes to take a lower profile.
MARQUARDT: The Pentagon said in a statement on Monday evening that Austin is no longer in the ICU, but he remains at Walter Reed Hospital. And from there, he is monitoring the Defense Department's operations around the world.
The State Department said that Austin is in good condition, but experiencing discomfort.
A spokesman did not explain why, even when Austin went into the hospital for the first time for surgery last month, President Biden and others weren't told. The spokesman did not explain why, even when Austin went into the hospital for the first time for surgery last month, President Biden and others weren't told.
The Pentagon spokesman General Pat Rider told reporters, we know we can do better and we will do better. In the meantime, at least for now, the White House is praising Austin's general leadership, saying he took ownership for all this, which the White House says President Biden respects.
Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: South Korea's parliament has voted to pass a bill banning the controversial and rare practice of bleeding and slaughtering dogs for their meat. The practice is centuries old, but it's not common anymore as more people support animal welfare and keep dogs as pets.
NOBILO: The bill also bans the distribution and sale of food products that include dog ingredients. It does not include penalties for people who consume the dog meat.
Marc Stewart joins us now from Seoul to discuss this. Marc, how broad is the consensus on this issue?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it's very broad, Bianca. I mean, if we look at South Korea, one in four people are pet owners and dogs are just so revered here. And it's also happening at a time when the first lady of South Korea has made a very vocal push to get this legislation in place.
If we look back in history, dog consumption dates back centuries ago. At that time, it was because there were food shortages and because people needed a protein source, but things have evolved. And the first lady in particular is very involved with animal rights issues. She went to the Netherlands on a state visit and visited an animal shelter in Amsterdam.
And politically speaking, South Korea is very divided, but this is one issue where all parties receive or have a consensus on.
In addition, animal rights supporters are very much behind this and have very much been pushing this as well across the entire country. I talked to one such supporter earlier today in Seoul. Let's take a listen to part of our conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE SANG-KYUNG, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, HUMANE SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL KOREA: In our society, to be honest, dogs have a like close relationship with humans in our homes, as a friend, as a family, for a long time. So we're just fighting for animal welfare, protection, animal rights.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: For older generations, this animal consumption, this consumption of dog was often seen as tradition, but obviously times have changed. And for farmers and for breeders, this is going to be a big change as well, since so many dogs have been breeded over the years. As part of this legislation, there are components to help them transition into other areas of business. There's also a grace period.
But if we look at the feeling on the ground here in Seoul, Max and Bianca, we talked to one restaurant owner who serves dog. They told us that it's something that they too have been transitioning away from, and in fact, may go out of business altogether.
NOBILO: Marc Stewart in Seoul for us. Thank you very much.
FOSTER: U.S. lawmakers are still far from a deal on U.S. border security, and that's holding up critical foreign aid. Ahead, one of the key sticking points.
NOBILO: Plus, leaving China for the U.S. by any means necessary. Why more and more Chinese citizens are willing to risk a dangerous journey to flee the world's second largest economy.
[04:30:00]
