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CNN This Morning

FAA Grounds All Boeing 737 Max 9 Aircrafts For Inspections; GOP Candidates Hit The Ground Ahead Of Iowa Caucuses; Haley Takes Aim At Trump, Seeks To Prove Her Own Electability; DeSantis Accuses Trump of Running On Broken Campaign Promises; Trump Hits Back On Biden, Attacks Haley In Iowa Speech; Trump Escalates Attacks On GOP Rivals Ahead Of Iowa Caucuses; Harris Warns of Full-On Attack On Hard-Won Freedom And Rights; More Than 35 Million People Under Winter Storm Alerts; Winter Storm Brings Heavy Snowfall To The East Coast; Connecticut Transportation Department Preps For Heavy Snow. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired January 07, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:46]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Victor Blackwell here. Good to have you with us for CNN THIS MORNING.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: I do love my Sundays, but you are a Saturday guy.

BLACKWELL: I do love a Saturday but here we are together.

WALKER: We love our weekends. We love our weekends. I'm Amara Walker. Thank you so much for being with us.

And here is what we are watching for you this morning. The NTSB says it is still looking for the door panel that broke off an Alaska Airlines flight Friday night as it begins its investigation into the accident. The update from officials and what else we're hearing about that moment from passengers.

BLACKWELL: Eight days until the Iowa causes, the new answer from ambassador Nikki Haley about getting tougher on former President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Under the Trump administration you were better off, your family was better off.

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I promise you that our best days are yet to come.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You're never going to be able to do a vote that is going to be more impactful than in this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Plus, the message the Biden campaign is trying to drive home to fire up Democratic supporters.

WALKER: A powerful winter storm could bring up to a foot of snow to parts of the northeast today. We're tracking an even stronger storm coming in from right behind.

BLACKWELL: And mounting questions about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospitalization including why the president and the national security adviser did not know about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIRWOMAN: We've now determined based on our definition of substantial damage that it is an accident, not an incident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: An accident that the NTSB admitted overnight probably caused some psychological injuries to passengers, a lot of trauma, I'm sure. They are now looking into what caused a fuselage panel to fly off midflight, just minutes after an Alaska Airlines plane took off.

BLACKWELL: Yes. The good news here, NTSB says that nobody was sitting in the seats directly next to that panel, but they still need to keep part of the plane, they need to find it, to continue this investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOMENDY: But now we need the public's help. We know from looking at radar data -- well, at least we believe from looking at radar data that the door is around Barnes Road near I-217 in the Cedar Hills neighborhood. If you find that, please, please contact local law enforcement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Here is CNN's Stephanie Elam with what we know.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Amara, the Federal Aviation Administration has called for all of the 737 Max 9 aircraft to be grounded until they can be inspected. Something that they say will take about four to eight hours per aircraft. All of this because of the scary incident Friday night with an Alaska Airlines flight 1282 that was taking off from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, here in southern California.

This happened just minutes into takeoff when part of the fuselage just broke off. And you can see it in some of the video, it looks like a door. On this particular aircraft it was not used as a door, but could be used as a door if the plane was reconfigured by the airline.

But when you look at the images coming from passengers on the plane, you can see hair is blowing around, you can also see that oxygen masks had been deployed. In fact, one passenger, Emma Vu, said that she did not know what was going on because she had fallen asleep before they even took off but knew something was wrong when she got a jolt awake and saw those oxygen masks, this all happening behind her, however.

Another passenger said that he could see someone sitting in front of him and talked about the scary incident with one boy very close to that hole in the fuselage. Take a listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand talking to a lady who was sitting in the row immediately behind where the panel blew off that there was a -- you could see later that there was a two-window section panel that blew out. 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 on to him.

[06:05:05]

And she said her own little boy's phone went out, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: Some of the passengers also reported hearing a loud bang when this incident happened followed by a whooshing sound. All of this extremely noteworthy because this is a new plane that had only been flying for about 10 weeks.

It actually got its certificate of air worthiness in October. It has flown about 150 flights so far, but still a new plane having this incident happen is worrisome to many.

But some of the experts that we have spoken to do say that if this was going to happen it's better that it happened at the altitude that it did instead of at a cruising altitude of like 30,000 feet simply because the air is so thin and people may have been up walking around the cabin at that point. And with that sort of hole in the plane, they could have been pulled right out. So, truly a miracle that no one lost their lives in this incident. Amara and Victor.

WALKER: Yes, it's a miracle. Thankfully. Joining us now is CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo. And we do want to note that Mary does represent families of plane crash victims and she is involved in ongoing litigation against Boeing stemming from that deadly 2019 crash of a Boeing plane, a Max plane, in Ethiopia.

Mary, good morning. Good to see you again. Could you just first off differentiate between an accident versus an incident because Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB chair, was explicit about making that differentiation yesterday.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Yes, and this is something that's very important to the government, to airlines and to aircraft manufacturers because, you know, they like to say, we have not had any accidents. So, an accident is where you have a physical injury or major damage to the aircraft.

An incident would be something where you -- the plane has only a minor damage and no one is hurt at all. Here I think calling it an accident is exactly right.

For example, when Southwest, a 737 lost a window a few years back and a passenger was sucked out of that accident, that was clearly an accident not an incident because someone was injured as well.

WALKER: Got it.

SCHIAVO: So, that's the distinction, it matters to statistics, it does not matter to these people on the plane.

WALKER: Understood. So, now the grounding of the 737 Max 9 jetliners for safety checks ordered by the FAA, this is temporary, it was announced yesterday. Just to be clear, are all Max 9 Boeing jets -- they are not all grounded, right, it only effects the planes that have these deactivated doors or so-called replacement plugs, is that correct?

SCHIAVO: That's exactly right. It affects about 171 planes and these are only the planes who had this door plug installed because they did not need this extra door because of their seating configuration, did not reach 205 to 210 people.

WALKER: OK. So, let's talk about the NTSB investigation, something that you would be very familiar with. What exactly will they be looking at? And of course, I mean, it was a pretty, I guess -- I don't know if it's unusual, but interesting to hear the NTSB asking the public to be on the lookout for this panel in a specific area, but what exactly will they be looking at?

SCHIAVO: Well, they're supposed to be looking at everything, everything from, you know, exactly what happened on the aircraft, and they do need this panel to see if there were any flaws in the material, maybe there was a flaw in manufacturing, maybe there was a flaw in metallurgy, but they will be looking at the aircraft.

They will be looking at how the aircraft was assembled both by Boeing. They should be looking at where this fuselage and this panel was manufactured, which was in Wichita, and then it was sent to Boeing which would have been finally placed, this plug in place on the final assembly.

The plane, they have to be looking at maintenance. They have to be looking literally at all factors. And they did list a number of things they would be looking at, metallurgy, survivability, manufacturing processes, and even safety -- overall safety accreditation of the plane.

They did not however -- one thing they did point out is they would not be looking at the certification because, you know, they just looked at on the 737 Max 8, but, you know, that could be an issue, too, depending upon what they find. It was a little premature to announce that they would not have to look at that.

WALKER: Let me ask you this because naturally I got several text messages yesterday, you know, asking me as if, you know, I'm the expert, about the safety of these Max planes, not specifically the 737-9. But when you look at Boeing's reputation and its history, right, I mean, you had in 2018-2019 that MCAS issue, you know, that basically pushed the plane into nose dive. And you had two separate plane accidents, one in Indonesia, one Ethiopian airline.

[06:10:04]

And also just recently, I mean, there were some production issues on these Max planes, right, and it was just last week that Boeing was urging airlines to inspect their planes, the 737 Max planes, for a possible loose bolt in the rudder control system.

So, when people ask, are these planes safe, or should they have concerns over the quality of the production of these planes, you know, what would you say to them?

SCHIAVO: Well, I think the public is already voting on that -- on that very situation, everything from pilot chat rooms to social media, people are saying, you know, this is outrageous, I don't want to fly this model of plane.

However, what we need to look at is, you know, usually when you get a new model of aircraft and this is over, you know, decades, as you get newer and newer planes you usually have more and more safety. The safety statistics improve as you get newer models of plane, more safety features, life-saving safety features on newer aircraft, but in the case of the 737 Max series now we've had two groundings, we've had -- if you look at just recent statistics it's probably the most deadly aircraft model in the world right now, depending on how many years you put in those statistics, and that is not a good trend line for a new aircraft model.

So -- I mean, you know, Boeing took, you know, a major hit to its reputation over the Max 8, as it deserved. And, remember, Boeing signed a deferred prosecution agreement in which it agreed to sign this agreement so it would not get criminally charged or criminally prosecuted for its behavior over the Max 8. That is not a standard that we often see with airline manufacturers and that's a new low, I think, for Boeing.

WALKER: Mary Schiavo, we're going to have to leave it there. But thank you very much for the conversation.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: The Iowa caucuses are now eight days away and the 2024 candidates are doing what you expect they're doing at this time, crossing the state and making a case to voters. Ron DeSantis and Asa Hutchinson, they're each holding meet and greets in Iowa today. Vivek Ramaswamy, he will attend several events in Iowa.

Polls show that former President Trump has a commanding lead in the state. Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, they're fighting for second place. Yesterday, Haley, the former U.N. ambassador, she used a couple of lines that Iowa voters have heard before, saying that former President Trump was good at breaking things, not good at fixing them. Also said, as she said during the town hall last week on CNN, chaos follows Trump. Pitched herself as a new generational leader that will leave the baggage behind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY: For those that want me to hit Trump more, I just am not going to do it. I told you I'm not going to do it.

If he lies about me, I will call him out on it. If he's done something wrong, whether it's the economy or how he talks about dictators and those things, I'll call him out on every one of those issues, but I just think politics is personal enough and I think let's focus on the issues and getting America back on track.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took a swipe at former President Trump. He was speaking at a meet and greet. He told reporters Trump is running on the same campaign promises that he did not keep.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DESANTIS: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me for this.

So, with me anytime I tell you I'm going to do something, I am going to follow through with it. You can take it to the bank. This isn't just a show for me. I'm not just doing it for entertainment. I'm doing it because these things matter for the future of our country. We need to have victories again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Trump was in Iowa, too, trying to shore up support from his voters, his supporters. Speaking with the crowds there yesterday he lashed out at President Joe Biden, mocked his GOP rivals. CNN's Alayna Treene reports from Iowa. Good morning.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, good morning, Victor and Amara. The former president was traveling across Iowa this weekend trying to make his closing arguments to Iowa voters in the lead up to the January 15th caucuses. One of the main goals of all of his speeches was not just to talk about the primary, but to try to look ahead to potential general election.

He talked a lot about immigration and the economy and he also spent a lot of time attacking President Joe Biden. He directly responded to a speech Biden gave on Friday, arguing that Trump is a threat to American democracy. Trump, as we've seen him do time and time again, tried to flip the script and argue that Biden is actually the threat to democracy and pointed to the series of indictments and charges that he is facing as proof of that argument. But Trump didn't just attack Joe Biden, he also really escalated his attacks on his rival Nikki Haley. [06:15:04]

And I will just tell you as someone who has covered the Trump campaign for quite some time now, these are really the sharpest attacks we've heard from Trump on Haley so far. He accused her of being in the pocket of Biden donors and he also tried to paint her as an establishment politician. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: People who fund Nikki Haley and Ron aren't working for your interest, they're working for the interests of other nations and themselves and so are those two. Nikki would sell you out just like she sold me out. I mean, I'll never run against him, he was a great president, why would I run?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Victor and Amara, I think the context of these remarks as well as the timing is really important to point out here. Trump has really spent a lot of time on the trail going after Ron DeSantis, who was kind of seen as the number two competitor for several months. But in recent weeks Nikki Haley has really been rising in the polls, specifically in New Hampshire, and that's something that both the former president, but also his campaign have really been examining carefully.

And I think one proof of that, a proof of that argument, is that both Donald Trump's campaign but also his leading Super PAC MAGA Inc. has been pouring millions of dollars into ads in New Hampshire going after Nikki Haley, trying to tie her to Joe Biden and also attacking her for her stance on immigration. Victor, Amara.

BLACKWELL: All right. Alayna, thank you very much. Vice President Kamala Harris marked the third anniversary of the January 6th insurrection with a speech in South Carolina. She focused on the administration's work to get some issues important to Black voters accomplished, some progress there. She also stressed the stakes of the 2024 election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Joining me now Julian Zelizer, CNN political analyst and historian and professor at Princeton University. Julian, good morning to you.

A lot of amens --

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning. BLACKWELL: -- we heard there in the crowd in South Carolina at the vice president's speech. I wonder how effective this framework that on this date, of course, January 6, because of the insurrection, the fight for democracy, the fight for voting rights is over the long scope of this election campaign. What do we know about what's really moving Democratic voters?

ZELIZER: I think these issues can be effective in 2020, they were in 2022, in the midterms they were, in fears that the democracy will work, that we won't have a repeat of what happened in 2020 still matter, certainly to a lot of Democrats. They are not on their own the issues that will win the election, but I do think they are a framework to remind voters of the fundamental basic differences according to Democrats between what a second term Trump would offer and a second term President Biden would offer.

BLACKWELL: So, Alayna Treene from Iowa reported that not just Donald Trump, the campaign, but the Super PAC as well, they're now coming out with their, as she said, sharpest attacks yet against Nikki Haley, saying that she is in the pocket of her donors and that she will sell you out.

But when we think back to the 2016 campaign and some of the really vile things that Trump said about Ben Carson and Ted Cruz and Ted Cruz's wife, I mean, these pale in comparison. What's your assessment of how the Trump campaign, the Trump team is focusing on Nikki Haley as compared to what we know they are capable of?

ZELIZER: Well, I think it's more discipline, more targeted and more focused. He is overwhelmingly in the lead, he is the former president, I don't think it's as chaotic or uncertain as it was in 2016.

So, I think these are just very particular attacks. I'm sure they're based on polling they're getting about what might concern voters about Haley. While she is not attacking him, he is going to do whatever is necessary just to keep her at the place that she is in the polls, which is far below where he is at this point.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and let's talk about Haley saying -- we heard from her saying she's just not going to do it, for people who want her to attack former President Trump. And the strategy is clear, we've talked about this for some time, is that she doesn't want to alienate the people who like Trump but don't like the chaos, but she's still 30 points or so behind according to the polls.

Is this working? Maybe the Christie standing is giving us an answer here in context, but is her strategy working?

ZELIZER: Right now, it's not working and if you don't attack the person who is doing so well in the polls, those polls aren't going to shift.

[06:20:05]

I mean, that's the job in a primary of the opponents of whoever is in front to start to chip away at that lead. And I don't think staying above politics somehow is going to work when it comes to this primary. It will just keep Trump where he is and I don't think she will be able to advance very much. Maybe she will do better than expected in New Hampshire, but this is not a path to victory in the nomination process.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And we've seen maybe opponents or competitors in a primary, they sometimes are willing to come together to form a ticket. Nikki Haley has not said explicitly, no, I will not be his running mate, but some in the MAGA world say that she absolutely should not be on that ticket.

Why? Explain that, why she is, I guess, from their perspective anathema to the MAGA world?

ZELIZER: Well, I think the MAGA world right now demands total loyalty. If you break with the former president and oppose him just on those grounds there's very little appetite to have you back in the tent. And even though she is not really attacking him, whatever she has said is enough in their mind to demonstrate she's not really part of what they want to do, not radical enough, not aggressive enough. And in their mind, there's no need to put people on the ticket to ally with people who are not all in. Trump might think differently in the end, but that's where a lot of his supporters are at this point.

BLACKWELL: Yes. We've seen some come back and leave. We've seen it from Senator Lindsey Graham. We've seen it from the former speaker.

So, we'll see. We've got now eight days until the Iowa caucuses. Julian Zelizer, thanks so much.

Make sure to watch CNN the "REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE" moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash live from Iowa. It is Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. eastern.

WALKER: Excuse me. Still ahead, a major winter storm is slamming parts of the northeast right now. We will have team coverage when we come back.

Also, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was reportedly hospitalized for days before President Biden was made aware of that. We will have details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:41]

WALKER: So right now, two powerful winter storm systems are bringing snow and freezing rain through cities along the East Coast affecting more than 35 million people.

BLACKWELL: These photos were taken in Closter, New Jersey, on Saturday. But forecasters predict an additional three to six inches of snow today. CNN's Polo Sandoval is in Hartford, Connecticut, comfy, cozy out there in the snow, Polo. What are you seeing? POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, up to this point, Amara and Victor, really been more of a no flake winter. And so, this is the main reason why folks were closely monitoring the storm because there were many cities throughout the northeast that had just experienced one of the least snowiest years on record. So, believe it or not, there were folks here in Connecticut's capital city who are saying, bring on a fresh dusting.

Now, I have to tell you though it looks like it was certainly at least not the 11 inches that were predicted. The National Weather Service expecting roughly half a foot of snow falling here in Hartford with other portions certainly getting a little bit more snow

though.

So, this was really more, according to Connecticut's Department of Transportation, an opportunity for these first responders to basically dust off snow removal equipment that in some cases hadn't been used in years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT EUCALITTO, COMMISSIONER, CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: We're New Englanders, we're used to it, but I think it's going to be a good refresher course for a lot of people here at the DOT but also people throughout the state of this is what a winter should look like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Yes, when the transportation officials who you just heard from who I had an opportunity to speak to also told me that because of the timing of this storm they were hopeful that the impact would be less than what they would experience in other storms, meaning that this hit not only overnight but on the weekend so a lot of people didn't actually have to venture out for school or work.

So, that was certainly giving them the upper hand. Folks here certainly are going to be closely tracking yet another storm in the coming days that could pack even a heavier, more severe punch. I know our weather expert, Allison, will fill you in on those details. But for now, it looks like it's clear sailing here in Connecticut.

Those plows have been working overnight. They still rolled out over 600 individual dedicated pieces of snow removal equipment for this one, guys.

WALKER: Polo, appreciate you being out there. I sense a little schadenfreude when you -- with your laugh there, Victor. I feel for you. I hate it when it's below 65 degrees. Good to see you, Polo.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar joining us now. Hey there, Allison. So, the storm is still impacting millions of people, what can we expect? And there is another one coming in right behind it.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. Yes, the main impact for today is just more snow. This system isn't done yet. Now, for some of these areas they have had plenty. Unionville, New York, has already picked up a foot of snow and we've got more on the way, heavy snow coming down across Syracuse, also in Boston right now, places like Portland and Manchester also getting some snow.

But this system is largely going to exit out a little bit farther offshore over the rest of the day today. So, we will see this system ending today. In the short term, still expecting about three to five inches widespread, some areas could pick up as much as eight to 10 additional inches of snow today.

But then, yes, we have another system right behind it. This is going to be the big one impacting the Central U.S. over the next few days. It's beginning in the southwest and then it's going to very quickly make its way across the country, really traversing about 1,800 square miles -- or 1,800 miles in just 72 hours.

[06:30:05]

You can see by tonight and early tomorrow morning. The focus is really over the Panhandle region of Texas and Oklahoma. Rain on the south side and some very heavy snow and poor visibility on the northern edge. So, you're looking at blizzard conditions for much of the central plains.

Then as we get later into the day Monday and especially Tuesday, now the focus becomes the Midwest. This includes places like Chicago and Milwaukee, looking at the potential for pretty decent amounts of snow. On the southern edge here, it's not just very heavy rain but also the potential for severe thunderstorms as well, because you're talking about a significant amount of snow on the northern side but also rain on the southern side basically for the entire eastern half of the country.

That's why we've also got the potential for excessive rainfall and flooding risk along the Gulf Coast as we go into the day the next day. And then by the following day on Tuesday, you're looking at more of that threat for areas on the northeast. So, also the severe potential here too.

Monday, the main concern is going to be along the Gulf Coast, places like New Orleans, Houston, even along the Panhandle of Florida. The main concern here is going to be damaging winds and tornadoes. And then that threat shifts a little bit further east in the coming days.

BLACKWELL: Allison, how many snowflake ensembles do you have?

WALKER: Well, tell us about your earrings too.

CHINCHAR: I'm at this point now where -- I was going to say, I'm at the point now where people keep giving me stuff. This was my Christmas present from my son. It's your Lego snowflake earrings.

BLACKWELL: That's nice. All right.

WALKER: That's sweet. BLACKWELL: That's cute.

WALKER: That's -- so that's her second snowflake.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Yesterday she was all in snowflakes.

WALKER: And you were you were scolding her on the air about that, weren't you?

BLACKWELL: I mean, let's hope the temperatures rise tomorrow because we're fresh out of snowflakes here.

CHINCHAR: Running an outfit. Well, next you'll have, you know, a big suns and -- yes, anyway.

Blackwell: Allison Chinchar, thanks so much. All right, coming up, President Biden says that he did not know that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was in the hospital for days. More on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:05]

BLACKWELL: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledges that he could have done a better job of keeping the public informed about his hospitalization. Listen, not even top White House officials knew about this.

WALKER: Yes. And that includes President Biden. He was just told a few days ago. Now, Austin, the Secretary of Defense was admitted to the hospital on New Year's Day for complications from an elective surgery. He has since resumed his full duties.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is in Washington. Priscilla, Biden and Austin spoke last night. Tell us more about their conversation. And again, it's interesting because he was hospitalized January 1st, but didn't notify the President or was not -- the President was not notified until several days later.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, these are really unusual circumstances. Now, the White House didn't disclose any additional details about the call that the two had yesterday evening, but of course it came after learning that Secretary Austin had been hospitalized over the course of the week.

Now, this came as a shock to senior administration officials not only in learning that the secretary had been in the hospital, but also because of the delay in telling the White House. A source telling CNN that President Biden uh was not notified until days after the secretary was admitted to the hospital. And he was told by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan who also didn't know about it until Thursday and notified the President late Thursday afternoon.

Now, we know that Secretary Austin was admitted to the hospital on New Year's Day because of complications from an elected medical procedure. But that same day he was also on a call with top National Security officials and President Biden over among other things escalating tensions in the Red Sea.

Now, we don't know if that call was before or after he was hospitalized, but it goes to underscore how critical a member he is to the Biden Administration, but also, again, how unusual this set of circumstances is. Now, in a statement, the secretary did say that I also understand the media concerns about transparency, and I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better. He goes on to say, but this is important to say, this was my medical procedure and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.

Now, that statement came yesterday. The public, the press, learned about the secretary being in the hospital on Friday. Typically, when senior admin administration officials are admitted to the hospital, the press will learn about it within 24 hours. So, this took days and they got criticism for that. And it's still unclear what the medical procedure was, how serious it was and what these complications were. But the White House did say last night that the President continues to have confidence in his secretary.

WALKER: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you for your reporting.

Still ahead, it has been three months since Hamas' attack on Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says war must not be stopped until three objectives are achieved.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:43:38]

BLACKWELL: Three months now since Hamas' October 7th attack on Israel. The IDF says it has dismantled Hamas' ability to operate in Northern Gaza and it's now turning its focus south. Now, CNN cannot independently verify that claim.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is on a Mid-East tour. He's working to prevent a wider conflict. Blinken met with Turkish President Erdogan Saturday on his first stop, and he's set to arrive in Qatar next hour. CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kimberly Dozier is with me now.

Kimberly, let's start here with this tour, Blinken's tour. Turkey up first. How much can Turkey do? Is there a degree of influence over specifically Iran and of course then the Iranian proxies?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Turkey has a good relationship both with Iran and with Hamas, so they can be a stabilizing force in the background. Turkey is also very close to Qatar which is a key negotiator to try to get the hostages out. So, all of this is also part of both a listening tour and a quiet behind- the-scenes lecturing tour because U.S. officials are alarmed by the rising Antisemitism, anti-Israel, and anti-American sentiment that is growing in the Arab world because of the ongoing Israel campaign in Gaza.

And it's also a chance to uh remind these various officials of what happened to Israel on October 7th and ask them to understand what Israel is going through and why it's doing it.

BLACKWELL: Netanyahu says that this war must not be stopped until the three goals are accomplished. One, to eliminate Hamas, second to bring the hostages home, and third to ensure that Israel would never face a threat from Gaza again.

Again, three months on now from the attack and the beginning of the war, is it clear that especially the first and third there are any more achievable or that Israel is any closer to them than they were at the start of this war?

DOZIER: Well, this is proving a long and difficult fight. And as U.S. commanders will tell you who went into Iraq and Afghanistan, this idea of even in a small space going in and clearing out anyone who harbors ill will and violent thoughts towards you is a very hard thing to do especially when in the process you're smashing so much of the territory and killing so many people that you are creating more hostility and hatred in the process.

Now, perhaps some of these Gaza casualties are caused by rockets that are fired by Hamas and other militants, but they are all being blamed in the eyes and minds of the people on Israel. And that is going to be a lasting scar that creates an insurgency. Even if Hamas steps down, whoever tries to impose security in Gaza is going to have a really tough time keeping the area stable especially with so much of it smashed so much of its, you know, water sanitation destroyed. This has been rebuilt multiple times before. But the level of devastation, the U.N. is right now calling Gaza unlivable.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about this situation with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. And his -- it's either a decision not to tell the White House that he was having the surgery, going under general anesthesia, was in intensive care, or that he didn't think it was relevant that they -- or didn't it didn't come to mind that they needed to know. Which is more likely here? I'd imagine there would be like an inter-government protocol that would go into effect immediately.

DOZIER: You would think. I mean, we were all shocked in the press corp, the Pentagon Press Corp to hear about this. And the Pentagon Press Corps wrote a letter of protest over this. I mean, the Pentagon conducted an air strike inside Baghdad against um Iranian-backed proxies, at least that's what they described, that caused anger across Iraq. It could have caused real blowback. This happened on Thursday while Lloyd Austin was ostensibly not available to issue orders or issue advice to the President.

The only thing that I can think and of course this situation lends itself to speculation since we have no details on what the procedure actually was, but when you were in uniform, frequently the staff around a commander, admiral or general, will keep a commander's mili -- medical issues private. And it seems like Lloyd Austin may have forgotten that he is now a civilian public servant. He's a member of the cabinet.

And details like this -- I don't know if you can make a great argument that it's the public's right to know. I think it is the public's right to know but it's definitely the President's right to know. And the gang of eight members on Capitol Hill whose job it is to watch security and all of them were kept in the dark. So, this issue is going to run and run.

BLACKWELL: All right, we again know that he -- we're told at least that he has resumed his full duties. Kimberly Dozier, thanks so much for being with us.

DOZIER: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Well, the NFL season has come down to one day and there is still plenty to play for. But one team is already celebrating after a win-or-go-home game last night.

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WALKER: Tonight on "THE WHOLE STORY" with Anderson Cooper, the legacy of the miracle on the Hudson 15 years later. It's been 15 years. How did it change the lives of Captain Sully Sullenberger and the passengers and crew? Find out tonight at 8:00 only on CNN.

BLACKWELL: The NFL's regular season wraps up today and four playoff spots still up for grabs.

WALKER: But the Houston Texans are already in clenching a playoff spot last night just a year after having one of the worst records in the league. I think we should be talk talking to Andy Scholes, but Coy Wire is here. Coy, this is one of the more remarkable turnarounds in recent memory.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. I mean, they won three games last season. They went out and got a new head coach, DeMeco Ryans, an incredible leader. And with the second pick in the draft, they went out and chose Ohio State C.J. Stroud. He's out there making his case for rookie of the year. He leads the NFL in touchdown to interception ratio.

Here they were facing the Colts. Winners make the playoffs, losers go home. And on Houston's very first play of the game, Stroud delivers a perfect 75-yard touchdown to Nico Collins. This is their first prime- time game of the season, a fantastic game. It was tied in the fourth quarter and Stroud comes up clutch again. He hits Collins, comes up just short of the goal line, but there goes Devin Singletary dancing on in for the end zone.

Now, the Colts did have one last chance on fourth down, but Gardner Minshew pass falls incomplete, so Houston led by a rookie quarterback back goes 10 and seven this season, clinching a playoff spot in large part because of their leader, first-year head coach, DeMeco Ryan. Watch this celebration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DEMECO RYAN, HEAD COACH, HOUSTON TEXANS: I'm proud of the determination, man. You talk about determination, pure grit, everybody fights to their last play. That's what it's about, man. And we punched our ticket.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right, Pittsburgh's playoffs hopes they're still alive as well. Third string quarterback Mason Rudolph, Diontae Johnson, and the Steelers offense doing just enough to beat the Ravens 17-10. It was cold. It was rainy and windy in Baltimore. A lot of the Ravens starters were resting. They have a first-round buy as the top seed in the AFC playoffs.

Now. if the bills or Jaguars lose today, the Steelers are in. In the NFC, the Eagles can become division champs if they win and the Cowboys lose. The Bucks become division champs if they get a win today. If not, the Falcon Saints game will determine the winners of the NFC South. 14 games today, those playoff hopes on the line, the last games of the regular season.

Finally, an historic day for women's hockey happening in the great hockey state. 13,316 fans coming out to watch Minnesota's first-ever PWHL home game, the largest crowd ever for pro women's hockey. They also got to see the league's first hat trick. Grace Zumwinkle scoring all three goals as Minnesota shuts out Montreal. It's been an incredible month for women's sports. PWHL launching and setting those attendance records.

You also had uh NCAA volleyball setting viewership and attendance records. Things are looking up and it's a great new way to start 2024.

WALKER: It's so cool. Good to see you, Coy. Thank you so much. We'll be right back.

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