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CNN This Morning

Alaska Airlines Flight Loses Window Panel, Makes Emergency Landing; Donald Trump's Political Fate Hangs In The Balance As Supreme Court Weighs Eligibility; Busy Weekend For Presidential Hopefuls Ahead Of Iowa Caucuses; 40 Million People Under Winter Storm Alerts Across Eastern U.S.; Educators Concerned About Outside Political Influences On Campus; Rash Of Swatting And Vandalism Targets Politicians Across Party Lines, Levels Of Government; Mark Cuban Giving $35M In Bonuses To Mav's Employees After Team's Sale. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired January 06, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR (voiceover): Hello, everyone. Good morning to you. Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. I'm Amara Walker.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Thank you for joining us. We start with breaking news. The NTSB is investigating after an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing. Passengers say a window, actually a door, popped off the plane shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon last night. This was on a 737 Max-9 headed for Ontario, California.

WALKER: Now, according to FlightAware, the plane was only in the air for about 20 minutes and one passenger describes the really scary moments as the plane returned to the airport.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVAN SMITH, PASSENGER OF ALASKA AIRLINES FLIGHT 1282: I understand from talking to a lady who was sitting in the row immediately behind where the panel blew up that there was a, you could see later that there was a two-window section panel that blew up, it's about as wide as a refrigerator and about two-thirds as high.

And she said there was 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 onto him. She said, her own little boy's phone went out too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: The shirt was sucked off that boy. The airline has 65 Boeing 737-9 planes in its fleet. They have all been grounded until they can be inspected. CNN Aviation Correspondent, Pete Muntean joining us now. Wow, Pete, tell us more about what we know what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): All you can say is this was incredible and the images that you see are row 26 on that 737 MAX-9 Alaska Airlines flight 1282, it had pretty much just taken off from Portland, Oregon on its way to Ontario, California and Southern California. And you hear the first-person account, all you can say is just incredible.

You have to think of the first-person account, the terror that passengers experienced, the wind inside, the temperature inside. It's cold there when this happened apparently at 16,000 feet, only seven minutes into the flight. And the crew did a very successful job turning the airplane around and getting it back on the ground in Portland.

This is a spot in the plane where there can be a door installed at the factory at Boeing in Renton, Washington depending on the seating configuration of the airplane. If there's a higher density seating, there's a door there, the airline buys it with fewer density seats, then there's not a door there. They essentially just plug it and that's where this issue happened.

This was the plug for the door that would be there in a higher density seating airplane. We know this MAX-9 flown by Alaska Airlines was rolled out of the factory at Boeing only 10 weeks ago, October 25th, 2023. There are 220 MAX-9s in service in the U.S., 65 of them at Alaska Airlines.

You mentioned, they are now grounded. Alaska Airlines insisting it will do everything it can to try and inspect these airplanes. They're now a backbone of the MAX of many fleets in the United States and beyond. Here is the good news: 171 passengers, six crew, all OK. And the crew did an amazing job of getting the plane down. Hats off to them.

We've heard that the captain was talking to passengers from one of the passengers that CNN talked to as they were getting off the plane. But huge questions here. The NTSB and FAA investigating. Big questions about the 737 MAX. We know that this has been a problematic airplane. 346 deaths, two crashes abroad in 2018 and 2019, respectively, that grounded the fleet essentially worldwide.

It was ungrounded at the end of 2020. And there have been some major manufacturing defects since. And so, that is a big question here that investigators will look at and try and figure out exactly why this panel of the fuselage of this MAX blew out without any warning. Passengers say, it was really violent.

[07:05:07]

BLACKWELL: Hey, Pete, I've got a question for clarity for the viewer and for me.

MUNTEAN: Yes.

BLACKWELL: I've read that this was a window. We had a guest in the first hour who said, door, you say plug. Can you be a little more specific? Just what was this that popped off the plane? MUNTEAN: It is a little hard to describe. So, in this part of the fuselage, there can be a door there that is installed at the factory in Renton, Washington by Boeing. But in this case, because of the way the seating configuration is on this specific MAX-9 that was ordered from Alaska Airlines, it is essentially just a false door that is there and you would never know it as a passenger.

You can sort of see it from the outside of the airplane if you're looking at a picture of the airplane as it's taxiing by, but on the inside of the airplane, it is just normal wall like you would see with a facade and then the window and then a row of seats.

So, this airplane did not necessarily have a door there, although some have described it as a window, some have described it as a door, it is essentially a piece of the fuselage that came off. I think that's the biggest thing here. This is something that was clearly not supposed to come off of the airplane. And regardless of whether you call it plug, window, or door, it shouldn't have come off in the first place.

BLACKWELL: Got it.

WALKER: Seeing that boy's hair, you know, whipping in the wind from that gaping hole, it just is stunning. Pete Muntean, thank you very much. Joining us now is CNN Safety Analyst and former FAA Safety Inspector, David Soucie. First of all, I'm never going to take off my seat belt anymore on an airplane, even for a few seconds, especially if I'm sitting near the window. There are so many questions about you know, how in the world does this happen? Does it come down to maintenance or manufacturing? I mean, what's your take on this?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, there's a couple of things that need to be answered before we answer that question. As Pete was saying, it is a door plug, if you call it that. It can be used for maintenance. It can be reconfigured. The aircraft can be reconfigured, as he said, with a higher pitch seating to utilize that door later.

So, the structure is there. It's important to point out that this failure was not a structural failure of the fuselage. If you remember, you may not remember, but the Aloha Airlines accident was a 737 that was many, many years ago and several generations of aircraft ago. Now, that was a structural failure of the fuselage itself.

This fuselage is a composite structure and I don't see any evidence of the fuselage itself being structurally damaged. This is a failure of the, either the installation or the mechanical build of the that door itself. So, that's where I would start looking right away is those fastening points. You can see in the photos if you look very closely there's four little attachment points.

Those attachment points that stick out are where the door is fastened to the fuselage and you can see that those are intact. So, the first place I would look is how is it secured? Was it actually secured properly? The other thing I would look at is was there some maintenance where the seats had just installed, where that was the configuration recently changed? Because when they change the configuration of the seating, that door

does come out for maintenance access so that they can get all that done and then the door is replaced on to the fuselage. So, that's the first place I would look is where, when was that door last accessed? Did it come from the factor that way? It's unlikely, because if it did, then that door would have come off a long time before now in its initial flights.

It's been flying for about 10 weeks now, and it would be strange that it suddenly failed like this. It looks to me like the mounts are intact.

BLACKWELL: Yes, flying for about 10 weeks, received its certificate of airworthiness on October 25th. So, just a couple of months ago, with that context that you believe that this is something relating to the installation of this unique aircraft, what's your thought on the grounding of the entire 737-9 fleet within Alaska Airlines? And do you think it's necessary to do that with these planes that are owned and operated by other airlines?

SOUCIE: Well, I would start by looking at what it takes to do an inspection. I would not fly any of these aircraft again that have that door until they've been inspected thoroughly. You need to make sure that they come off. So, what that entail is the interior panel needs to be removed.

And then, inside of there, you'll check each of the bolts, the mounting bolts for that door plug, because it's not actually an opening door, it has to be removed. So, I would check each of those facility -- each of that mounting, there's the torque or the, the amount of pressure on each of the bolts that holds that in place needs to be verified.

Once you do that, then, I would return the aircraft to service because it doesn't appear to me that there's any structural damage on the fuselage itself. I think that would be sufficient to return everything to service, but that does definitely have to be done before these aircraft fly again.

[07:10:15]

WALKER: You know, we're talking about 737-9s right now and the other 737 MAX planes that we've become very familiar with is a 737-8, especially that Lion Air crash where it plunged into the ocean. I'm just curious to know, like, can you lump it all into one in terms of these planes being problematic, David?

SOUCIE: Well, it's difficult to do that from my perspective as a safety investigator because when you see issues like this, it's easy to presume that it crosses everything and that it just makes everything unsafe. So, and in the error of caution, yes, you ground all the aircraft and you look at them. But you do need to know as well, in perspective, I've been involved as well with a lot of the investigations of the Boeing aircraft, the MAX-8.

I went up and flew the simulator after the fact, after they replaced the software. So, you have to take individual things on their own merit and see what happens. The fleet grounding is a cautionary measure and it's good, it needs to be done, but it's important that we don't, you know, broadly say, well, this airplane's bad or that airplane's bad.

Every airplane has its issues, whether it's Boeing, whether it's Airbus, whatever it might be, they have their own issues to be dealt with and they have to be dealt with one at a time to categorically say this airplane's bad or that airplane's bad. I don't think I would go there, although I would say that Boeing has had its deal of troubles and will continue to for a while, I think, unfortunately.

But they have improved their safety systems and how they look at things and how they do it. But is it enough? Has it changed their culture enough to where these things stop happening, evidence would say otherwise.

WALKER: Yes, yes, David Soucie, appreciate you joining us this morning. Thank you very much.

All right, let's turn to Donald Trump now, and his political fate is in the hands of the Supreme Court. The nine justices will decide whether the former president can be disqualified from running for office again, due to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

BLACKWELL: This decision has the potential to significantly impact the upcoming presidential election and the justices acknowledge the urgency to reach a decision soon. Here's CNN's Paula Reid.

PAULA REID, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Victor and Amara. This is the biggest election-related case that the court will hear since Bush v. Gore. They have granted this petition from former President Trump's lawyers to review whether the Colorado Supreme Court made a mistake when it decided to remove Trump from the ballot based on Section 3 of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That is a so-called insurrectionist ban that bars anyone who engages in an insurrection from holding future office.

Now, it's unclear exactly which questions and issues the court will consider and rule on but the overarching issue here is whether that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies to presidents. This is an issue that has actually divided judges even within the state of Colorado. Trump's lawyers are framing their case as a request to return choice to the voters.

They insist that if they rule against Trump, then the court will, for the first time, be taking away the choice that voters should have to vote for a party's primary candidate. They said this would be the first time in the history of the country that the judiciary would make that decision. But the challengers insist that Trump engaged in an insurrection and that he should be barred from holding future office under this post-Civil War part of the constitution.

Now, here's how this is all going to play out. They're giving it what one source calls The Full Monty. There will be briefings. There's a briefing schedule that's pretty expedited for the high court. There'll be oral arguments on February 8th, and then the justices will have to make a decision. This is probably the biggest test of Chief Justice John Roberts' career.

He's going to be under enormous pressure to build consensus behind the scenes so that this decision, whatever the balance is, the vote, does not appear in any way partisan. So, this is an enormous test for a court that has been battled by scandals and controversial decisions like overturning Roe v. Wade.

And I think it's going to be the mantra for 2024, all eyes on the Supreme Court in the first of what could be many decisions related to the 2024 election. Amara, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Paula. It's been a busy 24 hours for presidential candidates with a stacked weekend ahead. GOP candidates are crossing the state of Iowa. Look at all these arrows from the candidates there, visiting several cities to convince the voters to participate in the caucuses.

[07:15:05]

Those are on the 15th, Friday they were making the rounds, convincing voters of their qualifications and, of course, trading jabs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our country is really in trouble. It's in trouble like it's never been before, in my opinion. We have a man who's grossly incompetent dealing with nuclear war.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm the only one running for president that has beaten these people time and time and time again. We beat the Teachers' Unions when it came to universal school choice. We beat Fauci on COVID. We beat George Soros on crime, removing two of these radical prosecutors down in the state of Florida.

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should want to win the majority of Americans. But in order to do that, you don't do that by demonizing a group of people. You don't do that by pushing another group away. You do it by inviting everybody in to understand how you think the country should go forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Meanwhile, on the Democratic ticket, President Joe Biden officially launched his re-election campaign with an impassioned speech and his first campaign ad. In both his speech and that ad, he drove home the importance of protecting democracy.

BLACKWELL: Both he and Trump have called one another threats to the future of democracy. Let's go now to CNN's Priscilla Alvarez to break down the president's speech. What did he say?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the president jump- starting the 2024 election by laying the foundation of what will be his campaign, a focus specifically on the threat that the former president, Donald Trump, poses on democracy.

And so, in these remarks yesterday in Pennsylvania, the president really underscoring the urgency of the moment but also the stakes of this election repeatedly coming back to this being about democracy and the American experiment.

And also saying, and condemning political violence and what occurred on January 6th because of course these remarks came on the eve of the anniversary of January 6th. But he also repeatedly leaned in on former President Donald Trump, calling him by name multiple times.

In previous speeches, the president has called him his predecessor, the former president, but this time specifically going after Donald Trump and all the concerns that President Biden holds about what would happen if he took a second term and warning of the chaos that would ensue.

He also repeatedly talked about Donald Trump looking at this election personally not for the American people and saying that the language that he has heard from the former president on the campaign trail echoes that of Nazi Germany.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He talks about the blood of America's being poisoned echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany. He proudly posts on social media the words that best describe his 2024 campaign, "revenge," "power," and "dictatorship." There's no confusion about who Trump is and what he intends to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: The urgent question President Biden said during these remarks is democracy still America's sake or cause? Those are the president's word and words and Vice President Kamala Harris will be in South Carolina, another critical state for the Biden-Harris ticket today to continue that drumbeat on January 6th and the threats that they say the former president poses to the U.S.

BLACKWELL: Priscilla Alvarez for us there in Washington. Thank you so much.

Let's bring in now Galen Bacharier, a Politics Reporter with the Des Moines Register. Good morning to you. When we listen to that speech from the president, he's looking beyond the Republican primary. There's a new ad out just ahead of former President Trump's swing of four events over the next couple of days, where he too appears to be looking at the general election beyond his primary opponents. Here's his argument.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everywhere you look, Trump beats Biden on the economy. Take home pay? Up $6,000 under Trump. Under Biden? Down $7,000. Mortgage rates? Low under Trump. Punishing under Biden. Personal and retirement investments? Up 40 percent under Trump. Under Biden, your investments fell, along with other things. Trump, he'll make America's economy great, again.

TRUMP: I'm Donald J. Trump and I approve this message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So, on Friday there was a strong jobs report. Inflation is, the growth is slowing, the Dow hit a new high. Is the Trump economic argument in Iowa resonating though?

GALEN BACHARIER, POLITICS REPORTER, DES MOINES REGISTER: I think it is among a lot of his supporters when they're going to these events, particularly over the last couple of months. The campaign has really leaned into this message of what they say better under Trump.

And he's had parts of his speeches the last couple of months doing events here where he'll ask the crowd, were things better four years ago under me or are they better for you now? And the crowd will respond four years ago.

So, I think among his loyalists in Iowa ahead of the caucuses, they're not necessarily looking at those specific metrics. For them, they are, you know, part of that message for them is sort of going back to the agenda under the Trump administration. And so, I think they have seen that continue to resonate.

[07:20:42]

BLACKWELL: He's so far ahead of his closest competitors. We don't know yet if second place will be Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis, but it's now the expectations game, right? So, he's got his son out, he's got Roseanne Barr, he's got Governor Kristi Noem. What does the get-out- the-vote infrastructure for Team Trump look like in Iowa?

BACHARIER: Yes, absolutely. This is sort of the all-chips-in moment for a lot of these campaigns. I've reported pretty extensively on the ground game for the Trump administration. It's quite a step up from his previous operation in 2016.

They rely on this vast network of volunteer captains who then go and make calls and contact to folks who are a little bit of a soft support. Maybe they support Donald Trump in some way, but might not be as engaged to go out and caucus on caucus night, which is a little more of a commitment.

And so, they have really engaged in that ground game in an effort to boost turnout, because like you said, it is an expectations game. They want to win this in a landslide that's what Trump has said for months, he said we need a convincing result or else they're going to call us into question. And so, I think they are really pushing for a really large margin of victory if they can pull it off.

BLACKWELL: Governor DeSantis now and he's essentially all-in on Iowa, he's got to do really well to have some argument to move on in the contest. He did not answer this question specifically or very clearly during the CNN Town Hall about what does a successful caucus night look like?

Clearly, he wants to beat Nikki Haley, but is there in Iowa a clear number, a margin with Trump that would be a green light to go on to New Hampshire, South Carolina and the rest?

BACHARIER: I think it's difficult to put an exact number on it. I think what clearly what Governor DeSantis and also Nikki Haley need to see come caucus night is a clear shift in support and a clear break into second place.

So far, that has not happened. Our most recent Iowa poll in December had DeSantis three percentage points ahead of Nikki Haley, not necessarily enough to, you know, safely call that a safe second place.

And I think we see that in how often these two have been attacking each other on the campaign trail. I think it's been an upward and almost impossible challenge to chip into that lead of Trump's so far here in Iowa.

But I think these next couple of weeks, they need to start, and at the very least, breaking into a clear second place and go into the future primaries as an established leading alternative.

BLACKWELL: Is this comment, the joke, and I think most people believe when Nikki Haley said that Iowa goes first and New Hampshire comes along and corrects it, is that joke souring any potential caucuses on her or do they all see it as what it was, was a joke?

BACHARIER: I think most folks you'll talk to will probably acknowledge that it was a joke. There are different, you know, arguments to be pushed here depending on who you're supporting. Obviously, Team DeSantis jumped on this as an opportunity to prove that they're all in on Iowa, that they take Iowans' opinions seriously, that this is the first state and it's the most important state.

But we've seen Nikki Haley sort of adopt a strategy of putting her chips in on all of the early states, right? So, that maybe if she doesn't get the results she needs in Iowa, she can still go to New Hampshire with the hopes of finding a feasible path forward.

So, obviously, it was in the interest of DeSantis and some of the folks who may be supporting him to go after her for that, but I think folks who are already either committed on supporting her or leaning towards supporting her, I'm not necessarily certain that a comment like that is going to ruin their support. I could be wrong, but it would be a surprise.

BLACKWELL: All right, Galen Bacharier, the politics reporter with the Des Moines Register, thanks so much for being with us this morning and make sure to watch the CNN Republican presidential debate moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash live from Iowa, Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

[07:24:41] WALKER: Coming up, we are tracking a major winter storm system right now in the northeast that could dump up to a foot of snow in some places. More on that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: More than 40 million people from Georgia to Maine are under winter weather advisories this weekend. The storm system dropped heavy rain across parts of the South yesterday and overnight. I can vouch for that, living here in Atlanta. And it was slow going in Galveston, Texas. The rain caused streets to flood there.

WALKER: And heavy snow caused traffic to stall in Arkansas. Yes, in Arkansas. Several cars and 18 wheelers were stuck after several crashes on I-49. Well, now, that system is moving east, threatening to bring up to a foot of snow to parts of the northeast and heavy rain to the mid-Atlantic. CNN's Meteorologist Allison Chinchar, she is tracking the system. But we begin with CNN's Gabe Cohen in Pennsylvania. Good morning, Gabe. What are you seeing?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Amara, good morning. Look, the storm watch here in Central Pennsylvania really doesn't start for a couple hours. We're expecting the snow maybe late this morning into the early afternoon, but we're already seeing the first plow crews arrive here to the depot.

They are loading up these trucks and they're getting ready to head out on roads across this region. They're going to try to clear that snow very quickly because they're expecting potentially slick and hazardous conditions for a lot of drivers out there, as well as the potential for fallen trees and power outages.

[07:30:02]

And look, Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation alone will have more than 2,000 of these plows out on, on interstates and major roads across the state, which speaks to the many thousands more that are going to be out from the mid-Atlantic, all the way up to New England on the state and local level, trying to clear this first major storm of the year.

And what you're looking at behind me here. This is the salt dome here in Harrisburg. There is more than 800,000 tons of this stuff stationed around Pennsylvania, just for storms like this, this is what they're going to be loading up and using to clear streets here in the coming hours. They have already been pre-treating roads with a lot of this stuff.

So, the drivers here, the folks I've talked to, they say they're itching to get going. They know snow, although they haven't seen a storm like this in Central P.A. in about three years, guys.

WALKER: Well, it looks like they are quite prepared for it. Gabe. Cohen, thank you so much.

Let's go now to meteorologist Allison Chinchar in the CNN Weather Center. Allison, it's been a while since some of these cities saw significant snowfall like this.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. And it's a pretty wide- reaching storm too, when you consider that these winter weather alerts stretch all the way from northern Georgia up into Maine.

Now, not everyone is going to see the same type of precipitation, and that's important too, because some folks will get entirely snow, others, it's going to be a mix of rain, ice, and snow.

The southern -- the southern portion of this, it's really going to be all rain. Heavy at times, and some thunderstorms mixing in.

But once you start creeping into the southern Appalachians, now, we're starting to see a little bit of that mixing taking place.

In fact, right now, you've got some of that freezing rain, from Asheville all the way up to Roanoke. You've got some snow coming down now across Cincinnati and Columbus.

But this system, as a whole, it's going to continue to shift to the north and east. And that low pressure system will really kind of be over the focus of the mid-Atlantic by late afternoon and early evening tonight.

Once we head into the overnight hours and especially by Sunday morning, the focus becomes the North East. And even by late Sunday, that system well out over the water still going to have a lot of those snow showers still coming down, especially across portions of interior New England, as we go through the rest of the day Sunday.

That means some of these areas are likely to get significant amounts of snow. Some of them could surpass eight, 10, even 12 inches total. But right there along the coast, it's going to be a different story. Say like New York, for example, in the city may only get a one inch, but just nearby in Poughkeepsie, they may end up getting way more than that, several inches on top of that.

So, again, that line, that delineation point of how much it's going to get is going to be very narrow in some of these places. We're just a few miles away, you end up getting four to six inches more than your neighbor's off to the east.

As we zoom in a little bit closer, Boston still looking at some significant snowfall, same thing for Springfield down into Hartford, Connecticut, and also upstate New York, and the higher elevations of the green and white mountains.

Also looking at some heavy wet snowfall that combined with those wind gusts, that is also going to lead to some power outages across many of these areas. Victor and Amara.

WALKER: All right. Allison Chinchar, thank you very much.

Well, Harvard University remains at the center of controversy this morning. A spokesperson confirmed to CNN this week that Penny Pritzker, who leads Harvard Corporation, the school's most important board is not bowing to pressure to resign.

Now, the board came under pressure for how it handled the controversy surrounding Professor Claudine Gay's congressional testimony about how universities are handling anti-Semitism on campus.

Gay is now a professor since she -- when she was president, resigned her position at Harvard, Wednesday.

Now, the billionaire activists who targeted Gay have turned their attention to Pritzker. With two of the university presidents who testified before Congress having resigned, and the campaign against the third, showing no signs of letting up. Academics are worried about what it means for universities across the country in the future.

My next guest is Harvard professor and -- who says if political pressure can force the president out of office at a well-endowed university like Harvard, it can happen anywhere.

Joining me now is Ryan Enos, professor of government at Harvard and Director of the Center for American Political Studies. Ryan, thank you so much for your time this morning.

You know, I want to get right to it because I know you have said that Harvard was attacked by mob rule, by partisan political pressure, and that it sets a dangerous precedent. What did you mean by that?

RYAN ENOS, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: What I meant was Harvard was not attacked for any good reason. It was attacked, said to settle a political score. And that's really dangerous for higher education in this country.

It's Republicans, frankly, attacking universities in order to -- in order to gain votes. And that's something that could be really damaging, not just to universities, but to America, because higher education is something that's valuable for everyone.

WALKER: So, what are your concerns moving forward for higher education and how they could become the center of partisan attacks?

[07:35:04]

ENOS: Well, look, so, Republicans have -- are in in the House, have already announced their intention to widen this investigation beyond Harvard, beyond MIT, beyond the University of Pennsylvania, to other universities.

And they are doing this because they perceive universities as ideological enemies. And that's something that we should all be very wary of. Not just Democrats, not just people in colleges, but everybody.

Because when universities come under partisan attack, that's something that can be damaging, not just for university -- the universities but for democracy.

WALKER: Yes, critics like you, you know, say that the downfall of Harvard's president had nothing to do with Claudine Gay. In fact, Claudine Gay, echoed this perspective in her New York Times opinion piece this week, and she said, in part, "The campaign against me was more -- was about more than one university and one leader. This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith and pillars of American society. College campuses in our country must remain places where students can learn, share, and grow together, not spaces where proxy battles and political grandstanding take root."

You know, there has -- there been a lot of critics who've sounded the alarm, Ryan over the politicization, as you say, of higher education, and also this concerted attack they say they are seeing on higher education. Why do you think we're seeing this?

ENOS: Well, I think that Republicans, in particular, in the (INAUDIBLE) United States see colleges as their ideological enemy. And they're not wrong about that, in some ways. Colleges are ideologically imbalanced. And that's something we need to look at.

But of course, the reason they are doing this is they are seeing it as a way to fight a larger cultural war, to gain votes. And, you know, gaining votes at the expense of higher education is something that is very damaging. Higher education is one of America's great assets. It doesn't just teach Democrats, it doesn't just teach independence, it teaches Republicans, it teaches everybody.

And it's something that makes this country great, and it's not something that should be sacrificed to a culture war.

WALKER: You know, there was a warning that Elise Stefanik put out, just out on the airwaves and also via Twitter, which is also now called X. You know, as you know, she is a Republican congresswoman who -- who is questioning led to the resignation of Liz Magill. And, of course, subsequently, Claudine Gay.

But she warned on Twitter and other interviews that a reckoning is coming to higher education. And this is just the beginning of exposing the rot in our most prestigious higher education institutions.

Just before we go, tell me more about what the conversations are like on campus and morale at Harvard after the resignation of Claudine Gay.

ENOS: Well, the conversations are very worried. And not just for Harvard, because this isn't about Harvard, it's about -- it's about higher education more largely, and it's about this kind of rhetoric that Elise Stefanik is using, which would be very alarming. It's something that is -- that is, frankly, sounds like a dictator or targeting higher education, talking about rot and things like that.

American colleges are not places of rot, they are places of learning and research. And we should all resist these calls from Elise Stefanik, and others.

WALKER: Who, by the way, attended Harvard as well.

We'll leave it there, Professor Ryan Enos.

ENOS: Yes.

WALKER: Thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: Still ahead, Attorney General Merrick Garland says authorities are aggressively investigating a deeply disturbing increase in threats against public officials. We'll discuss next.

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[07:43:06]

BLACKWELL: We're about 10 months out now from the general election. And Attorney General Merrick Garland, says the DOJ is seeing what he calls a deeply disturbing spike in intimidation tactics toward public officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: In just the final months of 2023, the department investigated and charged individuals with making violent threats against FBI agents, federal judges, including a Supreme Court justice, presidential candidates, members of Congress, members of the military, and election workers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: A recent rash of reported swatting says targeted a wide range of politicians on both sides of the political aisle.

And swatting is a prank call made to authorities with the purpose of sending a forceful response from local police or SWAT teams to someone's home.

Senator Rick Scott said it happened at his home in Naples, Florida. At least seven lawmakers in Georgia, including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said it also happened to them. Maine Secretary of State was swatted the day after removing Donald Trump from the ballot there.

CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem joins us now.

Juliette, let me just read a longer list, a broader scope of some of the attacks, and some of the threats that are being made. To secretaries of state, they were e-mailed this week across the country. 23 states listed it -- as recipients in an e-mail. Courthouses were locked down and evacuated this week. There were threats to news outlets.

Is it clear what is causing this spike? Is it because we're in this election year?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. Yes, and it's, you know, so, this is the legacy of January 6th, and the elevation of violence or the threat of violence is sort of an extension of our -- of our democracy and of our election process. We certainly saw it on January 6th, and then we've seen it periodically sort of rise after maybe a decision, a Supreme Court decision or a legal decision.

[07:45:09]

KAYYEM: Now, though, in 2023,

And then we've seen it periodically sort of rise after maybe a decision a Supreme Court decision or, or a legal decision. Now, though, in 2023, is we're ending 2023, or as we ended 2023, and clearly, into 2024, that is only going to increase and the goal is twofold.

One is, of course, the specific intimidation against that individual. Right? It is that, that justice, you know, that Congress person or whatever, but then, it's also, I think, a larger effort to delegitimize democracy. It is -- it is just simply to say that democracy is no longer a -- the only means to express our displeasure with each other through the elections. And therefore, violence or the threat of violence is going to continue.

While both sides of the aisle are impacted on this, it is clearly being driven by the top, and then, another words by Trump and his embracement. And there is no question about it, of the threats of violence and violence towards those he opposes.

But what happens in these situations, then is everybody hears it, and therefore everyone becomes a target. This is what is happening now. And so, now it's just become a pervasive part.

I often say that Donald Trump's greatest legacy, and his first term is the extension of violence or threat of violence, as a -- as a norm of our democracy. It is a -- it's not a good thing. It is just simply he created this, this sort of acceptability, and now we're seeing it unleashed across all aspects of our civil society.

BLACKWELL: Yes. We're three years on from the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BLACKWELL: In very much an election year mode, nine days out from the Iowa caucuses.

(CROSSTALK)

KAYYEM: Right.

BLACKWELL: I wonder, does the law enforcement posture, look different today, with no specific threat than it does at any other time in this environment?

KAYYEM: Yes, it does. And I think that's what Merrick Garland was discussing. One is just your simple sort of prosecution of these efforts that there is no joke going -- you know, in other words, don't treat this as a joke, or just as background noise that these prosecutions, not just of the over thousand prosecutions of the January 6 members, but also, the continuing prosecutions. People can't do this as a joke. They can't just SWAT -- swatting, for example, as you were describing has had violent consequences. Because if you -- if you have law enforcement, go out thinking someone's been kidnapped, or thinking that someone is in harm's way that interaction can sometimes cause violence.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

KAYYEM: And so, you have the prosecutions, but you also have, of course, the elevated threat environment that could -- the challenge here is it could hit anywhere.

We simply just don't know. Right? It could be your random election official in Georgia, that all of a sudden becomes the focus of people's ill will.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much for being with us.

KAYYEM: thank you.

WALKER: All right. "FIRST OF ALL" is coming up at the top of the hour. It's almost nearly 8:00, Victor. What do you have coming on?

BLACKWELL: Almost 8:00. So, we're going to take a different angle of the president's speech in Pennsylvania. He's going to be speaking in South Carolina on Monday.

He says this is about the fight for democracy. Polls show that Democrats agree with him. Republicans disagree. So, we're going to look at those independents. President Biden won them in 2020 by double digits. There is a new poll out that shows that half -- nearly half of independents now believe that too much has been made of January 6th, it's time to move on.

Is this the best case, saying it's about democracy, to independence to protect democracy. So, we'll get into that.

So, that's all coming up. And we're going to talk about Katt Williams, the comedian who has called out everybody on social media. They are now responding. We have some of those.

WALKER: Wow, looking forward to it. Thank you so much, Victor. Back after this.

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[07:53:15]

WALKER: The holidays came a little late for employees of the Dallas Mavericks, but it was worth the wait. The team's owner is promising millions of dollars in bonuses? CNN's Sports Andy Scholes joining me now.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes.

WALKER: What's behind this? SCHOLES: Well, Amara, imagine getting this e-mail on a Friday before leaving to go for the weekend, (INAUDIBLE).

WALKER: Yes.

SCHOLES: That's e-mail of all time.

(CROSSTALK)

WALKER: Amazing. Yes.

SCHOLES: So, Mark Cuban, he sold a majority stake in the mass franchise to the Adelson family, who run the Las Vegas Sands Casino Corporation. And he sold it at a valuation of $4 billion.

Mark Cuban decided to reward all of his employees that helped the team get that valuation.

WALKER: Wow.

SCHOLES: Cuban sending a memo to employees on Friday, letting them know that he, along with the new owners claim to distribute more than $35 million in bonuses as a thank you for all of their hard work over the years.

(CROSSTALK)

WALKER: Wow.

SCHOLES: Now, it's not a uniform bonus. They are going to be determined on how long people have worked for the Mavs. Cuban ended that memo by saying, I'm excited to continue our work making the Mavs the best franchise in all of sports.

Cuban is staying on to run basketball operations despite selling majority stake in the team.

All right. It was another night, another loss for the Lakers taken on the Grizzlies last night. Third quarter, LeBron and Jared Jackson Jr. fighting for the ball on the ground. Jackson kind of grabs LeBron's arm and holds on. And then, LeBron kind of hits him in the face while trying to free himself.

Well, Memphis Coach Taylor Jenkins live it. He jumped onto the court, got a technical for that.

The game was tied at that point. But the Grizzlies then went on to have a huge fourth quarter. They win to an easily 127 to 113. Lakers coach Darvin Ham who has come under fire for the team 17 and 19 records, said he doesn't understand the criticism because the NBA is a marathon.

While LeBron, on the other hand had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, FORWARD, LOS ANGELES LAKERS: We just suck right now.

[07:55:01]

Everybody is getting so cranked up about Vegas, and keep bringing up Vegas. It was two games.

I mean, we took care of that business that was the In-Season Tournament. We played, we won it, but that was literally just two games.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: More than very happy right now. All right. This is the final week of the NFL regular season. There were still five playoff spots up for grabs. We got two games today, 14 tomorrow.

And the two games today are big ones. The Steelers have to beat the Ravens and then hope either the Bills or Jaguars lose tomorrow to make it into the playoffs.

Luckily for them, Baltimore has already clinched the one seat and it can be rested in quarterback Lamar Jackson most of the starters.

Nightcap tonight, you got the Texans at the Colts in what is already a playoff game. The winner of this one gets into the playoffs. The loser is out. And Amara, you know, this why the NFL is so great. Texans won only three games last year, the Colts won only four games last year. But after tonight, one of them is going to get into the playoffs.

WALKER: Very exciting. I just thought that -- we just stuck right, and I think it should be a t-shirt.

SCHOLES: You (INAUDIBLE) it back, right?

BLACKWELL: Yes.

WALKER: Yes, thanks so much. And thank you for being with us this morning.

"FIRST OF ALL" with Victor Blackwell is up next. Have a great day, everyone.

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