Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Southwest Airline Cancels More Flights Amidst Major Meltdown; Buffalo-area Deaths Climb to 27 Amid 'Blizzard of the Century'; College Ref Misses Final Game Before Retirement Amid Travel Disruptions; Santos Admits to Lying on Resume, Apologizes for 'Embellishment'. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired December 27, 2022 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Carolyn Manno, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Whitney Wild. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
[06:00:17]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All good until we got here. It was canceled, our 4:20 flight. And they said we had to rebook, and the line's, like, four blocks long. We're just going to recheck in the hotel, because they said even if you go through this line, it might be up to New Year's before you get a flight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was on hold for six hours. I literally fell asleep, woke up, I'm still on hold.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
POPPY HARLOW: Well, good morning, everyone. We're so glad you're with us. It is Tuesday, December 27. Don is off. We are glad to be here. What a day. You got home OK yesterday. Thank goodness.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. But the airports are insane.
HARLOW: Yes.
COLLINS: And so I just -- I feel for people like that passenger there, on hold over six hours.
HARLOW: Yes. Unbelievable. So plans are all being unraveled for travelers of Southwest Airlines, especially this morning. More than 60 percent of their flights already canceled today.
COLLINS: Also, the death toll is rising in Buffalo, New York, after a blizzard crippled the area and residents are still digging themselves out of the snowstorm this morning. We're live on the ground, where officials say conditions remain dangerous.
HARLOW: Also, China this morning taking a big step toward reopening its borders after shutting down much of the -- shutting out much of the world for nearly three years. The other COVID restrictions they plan to lose ahead.
Plus this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY) (via phone): I'm not a criminal. Not here. Not abroad, in any jurisdiction in the world have I ever committed any crimes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: But he is admitting to embellishing his resume. After a week of silence, Congressman-elect George Santos has now admitted to lying about parts of his past. He still says he will take office next week, though.
HARLOW: We'll talk about all of that, but first, these cancellations for -- for people across the country. The cancellation boards are lighting up again at the nation's busiest airports, especially for people on Southwest airlines.
Thousands of passengers scrambled to make alternative plans as flight after flight in city after city have been canceled. Listen to this overheard announcement at the airport in Houston.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, our next available seats for rebooking are on the 31st and beyond. Once again, our next available seats for rebooking customers at this time is at the 31st and beyond.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: The 31st of December. That is five days away. Southwest Airlines CEO tells the "Wall Street Journal," quote, "This is the largest-scale event that I have ever seen."
The airline says it will most likely have to cancel even more flights today.
Let's begin this hour with our Gabe Cohen. He is live at BWI Marshall Airport in Baltimore this morning.
Can you help people understand, Gabe, why this is happening to Southwest, in particular, when much of the bad weather is gone?
GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, that's a great question. And first off, as you mentioned, Southwest Airline passengers can expect this meltdown to only get worse.
They've already cancelled more than 60 percent of their schedule for today. Close to 2,500 flights.
And the CEO of the company told the "Wall Street Journal" they're only expecting to fly just over a third of their schedule in the coming days as they try to regroup after what they're really blaming, which is the winter storm and the holiday rush.
They say they're trying to get pieces back into place ahead of New Year's travel. But again, this has been a disastrous few days, including a disastrous Monday for the company, when the airline canceled more than 2,900 flights. That's more than 70 percent of their schedule, leaving passengers stranded all across the country, creating these huge lines in airports everywhere, including here in Baltimore.
And as you saw before, people sitting on hold for hours, trying to rebook their flights. Take a listen to a father stranded in the Orlando airport, who was sleeping on the floor for the third straight night with his family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES PEREZ, STRANDED TRAVELER: I feel very, very upset, really, to be honest. Very, very upset, I mean, because I mean, we keep looking at the -- the flights, the chart, and everything's literally canceled or delayed. There's no flights going out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Now, Poppy, Southwest, again, is largely blaming that winter storm, saying they ended up with flight crews spread all over the country, in -- largely in the wrong cities. And they've been scrambling to figure out where people are and get pieces back in the right place. So that's why they're canceling so many flights.
But again, it is important to note and to stress that they are the only major U.S. airline that's dealing with this issue of mass cancellations so many days after this winter storm, in places where there really is no weather issue anymore.
And the union that represents Southwest pilots says that this is really not about the winter storm. This is about outdated processes and outdated IT.
[06:05:02]
So, again it is a messy situation, only expected to get worse in the coming days, and certainly messy for tens of thousands of passengers, stranded, mostly just trying to get home.
HARLOW: Look, and the company concedes that, too, saying there's a lot they have to fix on the system that tells the pilots and the flight attendants where to go, but what pain for travelers as a result.
Gabe, thanks for the reporting.
COLLINS: Also this morning, the death toll in New York's Erie County has risen to 27 after what Governor Kathy Hochul called, quote, "the blizzard of the century."
Many of those who died lived in Buffalo, which saw about 43 inches of snow. Thousands of people were left at home without power or heat, and hundreds of drivers were stranded in freezing temperatures. Even the emergency and recovery of vehicles that were sent out to help
also got stuck in the snow, and officials are also warning that up to 12 more inches could fall today.
CNN's Polo Sandoval -- Sandoval is live in Buffalo. Polo, what are you hearing about what those rescue efforts are looking like this morning?
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kaitlan, with that death toll continuing to rise, what we are seeing are other New York state communities that are sending in reinforcements, sending in resources here to Buffalo, which is still experiencing a driving ban. It is expected to remain in place through today, at least.
Those reinforcements meant to provide assistance to get to people who have been snowed in their homes for days now, and also to continue with the plowing operations, to try to get more of those streets clear and safe and drivable, as well.
The other concern, as well, is getting food into the city, particularly to those warming shelters and to some of the facilities where those first responders who have been working for days now can actually have something to eat.
You see all those facility -- all those grocery stores, everything's been closed here. So you do have some of the big chains that are announcing that they are going to open as soon as it's safely possible to do so.
But still, there is so much uncertainty right now, Kaitlan. We've been basically -- my team and I have been sheltering in place at a hotel with Buffalo residents for four, going on five days now.
And residents here are telling me that they are learning that they've experienced pipe bursting in their homes. So even after they're given the green light to return home, this ordeal will be far from over for so many residents who live here, who experience what they will always remember as the Blizzard of '22.
COLLINS: Yes. And more snow still coming expected today. Polo, stay safe, Polo. We'll check back in with you this morning.
HARLOW: All right. Let's go to meteorologist Chad Myers, who joins us now. It's amazing to see it is still snowing in Buffalo.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Yes. South towns this morning. Cheektowaga, West Seneca, East Aurora, Hamburg, all the way down to the South of Buffalo proper.
But that band of snow will bop back up into Buffalo proper. Probably another two to four inches likely today. More downwind of Lake Ontario. That's Watertown.
But Buffalo, like they could use any more. Fifty inches so far from this storm.
It's still cold, but the warm air is on its way. A little bit of help. The warm air is in the West right now, getting pushed to the East by another storm system that's coming onshore there.
Now, this warm air is going to warm things back up into the 40s and 50s. And yesterday at my apartment, temperatures were about 34, and we were doing very well. Hey, it's warming up.
Guess what, though? The pipes were already frozen, and the pipes were already cracked. And that weather that warmed things up made those pipes melt. And all of a sudden that little plug that was a little plug of ice is no longer there, and the water was pouring out.
Ice everywhere this morning as temperatures went back down. This freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw thing is going to go on now for days and days and days.
So just because you're warming up doesn't mean you're out of the woods. We could see significant amounts of those pipe-burst problems across the East Coast. Could be millions or billions of dollars' worth of problems here with that flooding.
There's the next storm for the West Coast. The European model over the next ten days in places in the Sierra puts it down -- I'm not stuttering -- 20 feet of snow in the highest elevations. That will cause travel problems, and that can cause avalanche issues, as well, Poppy.
HARLOW: Twenty feet of snow.
COLLINS: I can't hear him.
HARLOW: Chad Myers, new snow. Thank you very much.
MYERS: Yes.
HARLOW: All right.
COLLINS: The weekend of travel nightmares is not just, you know, at the airports. It also upended the retirement plans of our next guest.
Michael Mothershed was set to officiate his final game as a Pac-12 Conference referee, after nearly 30 years, but he wasn't able to make it to the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit after his first Southwest flight was canceled. The second Delta flight he booked was also severely delayed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's Jeff Servinski. He's actually the backup referee. He was called in. He's from Midland, Michigan, about two hours' away on Christmas day. That's because the referee, Michael Mothershed, who was supposed to be here. missed his flight.
So Michael, if you are watching this game, man, you are certainly missed. He spent 28 years as a referee in the Pac-12. I know you're retiring. We wish you well in the future and all you've given to college football.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:10:07]
COLLINS: That was Michael Mothershed's replacement there, but joining us is Michael himself.
Michael, thank you for being here. We were so bummed by this story. I mean, we're just -- we're talking about the implications of this travel nightmare, but what a bummer for you to have to miss your final game.
Tell us what happened to you as you went to the airport over the weekend.
MICHAEL MOTHERSHED, RETIRED PAC-12 REFEREE: Good morning.
Well it all started on -- on Christmas Eve. I -- I had a flight on Southwest, and it was scheduled to take off at 6:30 a.m.
I arrived at the airport, probably before 5. And, you know, I looked at the board. And it indicated that my flight was canceled.
But there was another flight that was leaving at 6:40. I was scheduled to leave San Diego, arrive in Dallas-Fort Worth, and then proceed on to Detroit.
So I went to the gate, and there was no one there. Eventually, they said if I needed to cancel, reschedule, rebook my flight, that I had to go downstairs to customer service.
So I proceeded downstairs. There was a line already there, and it was probably about 5:15 when I entered the line. And I was there for approximately four and a half hours --
COLLINS: Oh, my God.
MOTHERSHED: -- waiting to talk to an agent.
HARLOW: In line, four and a half hours?
MOTHERSHED: In line, four and a half hours.
COLLINS: On Christmas Eve?
MOTHERSHED: Yes. On Christmas Eve. Yes. I did not expect that.
HARLOW: When Kaitlan told me about your story, because this the big college football fan over here, I couldn't believe it!
MOTHERSHED: OK.
HARLOW: And I thought, he's going to have to go back to work, and work another year and have another final day.
But in all seriousness, we're glad. We hope you have a happy retirement. But what was it like to watch someone else officiating that game, given what we now know about why a lot of these airline, you know, cancellations, especially with Southwest, were happening. It wasn't just weather.
MOTHERSHED: Yes, you know, it was a little different. And it was -- you know, I'm sitting there on the couch and watching my crew work, and a different referee.
And I'm thinking, God, here I am. I am watching the game that I am supposed to be -- you know, supposed to work. And it was -- it was very -- it was strange. And, you know, things happen. I did not expect this to happen at all. At all.
And, you know, it's just -- it's one of those things you experience, and chalk it up and kind of move on. But to close out my career as a referee on the field, I did not anticipate this.
COLLINS: Yes. Well, you've had 28 years where you were referee, 9 as the main referee. Since you did not get to officiate your -- your final game that you were hoping to do, are there any moments from -- from those years that you want to share, anything that were the biggest highlights that you've reflected on?
MOTHERSHED: You know, I mean, in 2000 and -- I worked the 2006 national championship game, and that was -- that was fantastic. That was between Florida and Ohio State.
And this year, I had the opportunity to work Oregon and UCLA; and that was No. 9 versus number No. 10. And, you know, we worked a great ball game. It was a fantastic crowd.
And, you know, it's really -- a privilege to be able to work as an official and to work at this level. So I really had a great game as a -- as a referee and as a crew. And that was probably one of the highlights for this year.
HARLOW: Congrats on an amazing career. Instead of people yelling at refs all the time, we should say thank you for all that you guys get right.
COLLINS: I don't know. I feel like they mentally --
MOTHERSHED: I appreciate that! I appreciate that.
HARLOW: This is my message to Kaitlan when she thinks the refs get it wrong.
MOTHERSHED: OK.
COLLINS: Yes. Michael, though, we're super grateful you joined us this morning. We're sorry that you missed your final game, but thank you for coming on to talk about it and thank you for your years as a referee.
MOTHERSHED: You're welcome, and thank you. I appreciate your time.
HARLOW: Aw. All right. Well, incoming Republican Congressman George Santos is now
finally admitting to lying about really significant parts of this resume. What he is saying in two interviews. That's ahead.
COLLINS: Also, China is making some big changes to the country's travel policies as they are now easing COVID restrictions. We'll tell you what's different.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:17:22]
COLLINS: This morning, incoming Republican Congressman George Santos is breaking his week-long silence amid discrepancies about his education and employment history.
He now says he never graduated from any college or university, despite saying that he had, and that he never worked for Citigroup or Goldman Sachs, despite saying he had. He says he is apologizing for embellishing his resume.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANTOS (via phone): I'm not a fraud. I'm not a -- a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up this fictitional [SIC] man and ran for Congress. I've been around a long time. I mean, a lot of know me. They know who I am. They've done business dealings with me.
And I'm not making excuses for this, but a lot of people overstate in their resumes or twist a little bit or engranduate [SIC] themselves. I'm not saying I'm not guilty of that. I want to make sure that, if I disappointed anyone by resume embellishment, I'm sorry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: CNN's Eva McKend is covering this story and joins me now this morning. Eva, this seems a lot more than just overstating a resume, as he framed it there.
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It certainly does, Kaitlan. Santos finally breaking his silence here, admitting he lied about key details in his resume
But it still really falls short of a real robust explanation of why much of what he said on the campaign trail, as it pertains to his personal biography, is false.
He said in an interview with "The New York Post" and a local radio station that we heard there that he did not actually work for Citigroup or for Goldman Sachs, even though previously on the campaign trail, he repeatedly said he did.
He tried to explain this away by arguing he worked for them through his company, calling it a "poor choice of words" to claim he worked directly for those firms. Santos also conceded he never graduated from any college or
university, after previously claiming he received degrees before both NYU and Baruch College.
You know, he now says he's embarrassed and suggested it's not uncommon to lie on a resume, really trying to downplay the severity of an incoming member of Congress caught in so many lies. But Kaitlan, he maintains he's not a criminal and says he still intends to serve in Congress.
COLLINS: What about the claim, though, that he had that he said he lost employees during the Pulse nightclub shooting?
MCKEND: Yes, Kaitlan, this, too, appears to have been a lie. And this is significant, because this is not just about his personal biography. This was a deeply tragic event that occurred in this country.
And he now says the victims of that horrific shooting never worked for him. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[06:20:03]
ANTHONY WEINER, WABC RADIO HOST: Did anyone who worked for you perish in the Pulse nightclub shooting?
SANTOS (via phone): That worked for me directly, no. But we did have people who were being hired to work for the company at the time who, during -- I was in Florida during the Pulse nightclub shooting. I was at another nightclub that same evening, not too far away.
But, yes, we did lose four people who were going to be coming to work for the company that was starting off in Orlando.
WEINER: Now, Congressman --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKEND: So this is sort of a word soup salad here, but it is a lie.
This morning we are left with more questions than answers. Questions remain about his charity; claims that his grandparents died in the Holocaust; his financial disclosures. I mean, it's just endless. A litany of other issues.
What is for sure, though, is Republican leadership, Kevin McCarthy, who will have to rely on Santos for that key vote for House speaker, he's keeping quiet and clearly just praying that this whole thing blows over -- Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Seems unlikely, given the new Congress is set to start next week. Eva McKend, thank you.
HARLOW: All right. Let's talk about all of this with CNN political commentator and political anchor at Spectrum News, Errol Louis. Not only are you great on all things New York politics, you interviewed him.
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I did. Shortly after the election. I did.
HARLOW: And he was -- not honest.
LOUIS: No, he was not honest we me or anybody else. I asked him what committees he'd like to serve on. He says, Well, due to my financial background, I'd love to be on Financial Services.
And that's the problem here, is that the lies start to compound, and one leads to the next. And of course, the overall problem is that he may have violated any number of local or federal laws, and yet, he's on track to become a lawmaker, unless something changes.
HARLOW: What -- what laws? And I guess who would it be up to if McCarthy's speaker?
LOUIS: We know, just at the local level, that the state attorney general is looking into some of the things.
I mean, one thing that Eva McKend just mentioned is that he started something called Friends of Pets United.
HARLOW: Right.
LOUIS: They apparently -- and ran it for several years. Took money from people; it was supposed to help pets. There's no record with the IRS of the thing actually existing. And the "New York Times" reported that somebody who was supposed to be a beneficiary of this good work, you know, and he's claimed to have saved thousands of pets, they say they never got any money.
So charities in New York are -- are monitored and regulated by the attorney general, who's looking into it. And we don't know where that's going to go, but it's probably not going to work out the way George Santos wants.
And then generally, with the federal -- there's something called the False Statements Act. It just tripped up a number of people, like Martha Stewart and others. When the federal government comes asking, you can't just write down any old thing on a form and say, "My company paid me $1 million last year," if the company doesn't exist.
HARLOW: Yes.
LOUIS: But apparently, George Santos did exactly that.
COLLINS: But even putting the legal aspect of this aside -- and that's a big part -- but the political backlash. Him, you know, saying that his parents had -- his grandparents had survived the Holocaust, and then now saying, Oh, I never said I was Jewish; I said I was Jew-ish?
LOUIS: Yes. Yes. That's -- you know, comedy writers are often put out of work by these politicians. You couldn't make up something like that. COLLINS: Yes.
LOUIS: That's -- you know, look. The district of -- I know a little about the district. I know some people out there. It's a very heavily Jewish district. No hyphen. There are a lot of Holocaust survivors and children of Holocaust survivors out there.
Each piece of the fabrications by George Santos, if you look at it closely, are targeted toward a group of voters. Whether it's pet lovers, LGBTQ voters, Holocaust survivors, Jewish community and so forth.
The problem, of course, is that it's just a tissue of lies, and it all sort of unravels the minute you look at it.
COLLINS: What about this idea that he's framing it as an embellishment, though? Is this like the age (ph)--
HARLOW: That lots of people do?
COLLINS Is this the world we live in now --
HARLOW: That's what he said.
COLLINS: -- where he's flat-out -- he's admitting to flat-out lying about huge parts of his resume, but he's saying, Oh, I just embellish. You know, everyone overstates things a little. I'm embarrassed.
But he flat-out lied and was silent for a week on this and now is speaking out.
LOUIS: I don't think -- I don't think he's finished, by the way. I mean, you know, more questions come up. You know, like the pet charity and, you know, so forth and so on.
You know, the whole question of him saying, because he's on the record saying that he's never had a problem with his sexuality and so forth, and that he's a gay man. And then it turns out he was married until just a few years ago.
And you know, and then he says, Well, this is private.
Well, you know, you can't put it on your website, and talk about it in speeches, and run for public office; and then when asked about it, like-- hey, you know, just straighten out the timeline for us, if nothing else -- and then sort of run behind a cloak of privacy.
HARLOW: And he's been invited, and remains invited, to -- you know, to come on CNN.
LOUIS: Sure. I'd love to talk with him again.
HARLOW: Answer, to come back to talk to you.
LOUIS: Sure. HARLOW: We've asked many times, and maybe he still will, because who he didn't talk be to is "The New York Times" for either of their pieces, and in this interview he went after "The Times."
LOUIS: Right. In fact, what he's said pretty consistently from the beginning, and even his lawyer said, without denying any of the specific charges, says that, Well, "The New York Times" is elitist, and they don't like me, and this is all political and so forth and so on.
[06:25:09]
And you know, I guess you can hide behind that, if what you're trying to do is get to January and get sworn into Congress. But these questions are not going to go away. And "The New York Times" is not the only news organization. "Newsday" has questions. They're the local newspaper out there. Spectrum News, my company, you company.
Everybody's going to ask him, what the heck is going on here? And can you be trusted? Will anybody in Congress sit with you and make deals with you and rely on your vote and trust your word? You know, it's hard to see how he's going to function as a member of Congress.
If all he is, is a vote for Kevin McCarthy to become the next speaker -- and he has publicly said he supports Kevin McCarthy -- that might be the easiest and maybe only vote he gets to cast that doesn't have a cloud over it.
HARLOW: Errol Louis, thank you very much. Again, no better voice on this, this morning. We'll see what is to come.
OK. Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is back on the NFL's concussion protocol. What we're learning this morning.
And this --
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:00]
