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NTSB: Plane Had 3 Pressurization Issues Before Incident; GOP Candidates Crisscross Iowa One Week Until Caucuses; Trump Calls for 'Jan. 6 Hostages' to Be Released; Pentagon: Austin Giving 'Guidance' from Hospital. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 08, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:05]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. So glad you're with us on this Monday. Poppy Harlow with Phil Mattingly in New York.

There's a lot to get to on Monday, January 8th. This breaking overnight, major new details released into why a critical part of an Alaskan Airlines plane blew off mid-flight. What we're learning about new warnings that may have been missed.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: And there's one week to go until the Iowa caucuses. The Republican candidates, they are out in full force. Donald Trump's campaign message will come from not one, but two courthouses this week.

And they were arrested, they were convicted, and they are serving prison time for their role in the January 6th insurrection, but the former president, some top Republicans, calling jailed Capitol rioters hostages.

CNN THIS MORNING starts now.

HARLOW: Here's where we begin. New this morning, a crucial missing piece of an Alaska Airlines plane has been found as investigators try to figure out why a gaping hole blew open on the side of the jet mid- flight after it took off from Portland.

MATTINGLY: Now the NTSB says the Boeing MAX -- or 737 MAX's door plug was discovered in somebody's backyard. These new images from investigators inside the plane show headrests and seat cushions ripped off.

We're now learning the pressurization warning light previously went off on this plane multiple times, including the day before the terrifying flight.

Listen as this passenger described the chaos on board and the child whose shirt was torn off his body.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE KING, PASSENGER ON ALASKA AIRLINES FLIGHT (via phone): She was screaming, "My son, my son, my son," and, you know, I wasn't sure if her son had gone out, or if he was injured. But they just kept saying, the son, the son.

And the flight attendant went back to check on him, and they verified he thankfully was OK but had lost his shirt. And his skin was irritated from the cold, and from the wind and everything, and it was -- it was insane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Let's bring in CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean.

Pete, you've been doing really excellent reporting on this. We got a lot of new detail overnight.

Alaskan Airlines, we know, has canceled more than 100 flights today. The NTSB trying to figure out how this all happened.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Some incredible new details overnight, Poppy. Finding that part of the plane that has been missing has been key. It's called a door plug.

And that will help investigators determine the type of the failure here. Was it a mechanical failure, or was it a manufacturing defect by Boeing or its contractors?

Just yesterday, the head of the NTSB told me that, if this door was in somebody's backyard, she wanted to see it, and that is exactly what happened. Found by a Portland school teacher simply named Bob. A crucial finding in an investigation that is only just beginning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: It was very violent when the rapid decompression and the door was expelled out of the plane.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): New images from the National Transportation Safety Board show the force of the failure on board Alaskan Airlines Flight 1282. Damaged and contorted seats from a 400-mile-per-hour rush of air through a refrigerator-sized hole ripped in the side of the plane.

HOMENDY: The headrests on 25a and 26a were gone. The extra oxygen mask was sheared off.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy now says even the cockpit door flew open.

HOMENDY: The time there was a bang, the door flies open. It did eventually shut, but it did blow open during the explosive decompression.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Amazingly, no passengers were seriously hurt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I woke up to the plane just falling, and I knew it was not just normal turbulence because the masks came down, and that's when the panic definitely started to set in.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): The flight departed Portland International Airport at 5:07 p.m. on Friday. Six minutes in, climbing through 16,000 feet, passengers describe multiple bangs and the loud rush of air, audible as pilots radioed air traffic control to make an emergency landing back in Portland.

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

MUNTEAN (voice-over): The plane, a Boeing 737 MAX 9, only months old. It took its first flight on October 15th and flew only 150 flights for Alaska Airlines.

[06:05:04]

Investigators say a pressurization warning light came on three previous times, including the day before this incident, and prompting Alaska Airlines to restrict the plane from over-water flights.

HOMENDY: It's certainly a concern, and it's one that we want to dig into.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): The Federal Aviation Administration has now grounded MAX 9s until airlines can make new inspections, but the incident has once again thrust Boeing under the microscope.

Two fatal crashes grounded the 737 MAX for 20 months in the U.S.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN (on camera): The NTSB also said the pilot's checklists and headsets were thrown off by the force of the depressurization.

There's one thing missing from this investigation, though: the cockpit voice recorder. That was overwritten. The NTSB says probably not for nefarious reasons, though.

Alaska Airlines and United Airlines are the only two U.S. airlines operating MAX 9s. They are still grounded this morning. They are awaiting new details from inspections from the FAA. United canceled 270 flights that would have otherwise been operated by MAX 9s over the weekend.

HARLOW: Pete, I think the question I certainly had all weekend and many people have is what is happening at Boeing, specifically with these planes, and should any of these MAX planes be flying?

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Well, of course, Boeing will be a big part of this investigation. It says it's cooperating right now. CEO Dave Calhoun just sent a company-wide memo to all of Boeing, saying that there will be a safety meeting headquartered from its Renton, Washington factory. That's the factory where the MAX 9 is built. Essentially a safety standdown, although in premarket trading this morning, Boeing shares are already down. We will see as the response goes on. We're also curious about the

response from a company named Spirit AeroSystems. That's the contractor that makes many parts of the fuselage on the MAX 9. And of course, investigators will want to hear from them, as well.

HARLOW: For sure. Pete, thanks for the great reporting.

MATTINGLY: Well, this morning, the countdown, it is on. There are 6 days, 17 hours, 53 minutes, 28 seconds until the Iowa caucuses.

And today, Vivek Ramaswamy is crisscrossing the state with events. His GOP rival, Nikki Haley, will be in Des Moines as caucus day draws near. The candidates hammering home the importance of voter turnout as this outcome could make or break momentum in the race.

CNN's Eva McKend is live for us in Des Moines, Iowa.

Eva, when you talk to voters right now, what's their sense of how this is all going to play out in the next six days?

EVA MCKEND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Phil.

You know, the voters that we speak to here in Iowa, many of them are still making up their minds. They take the fact that Iowa goes first very seriously. They want to vet these candidates, because they know that a big finish here for any of these candidates could mean significant momentum and that they could go on to play in other states.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All eyes are now on Iowa.

MCKEND (voice-over): Haley, DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Trump, all converged on Iowa over the weekend.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now's the time to be active. Now's the time where you guys can make a difference.

MCKEND (voice-over): With just one week remaining before the Iowa caucus, the GOP candidates are pouring millions of dollars into the first voting state, flooding the airwaves, in an attempt to challenge former President Trump's considerable lead in the polls.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, backstage they say to me sometimes, Sir, don't tell them that they're going to vote for you. That sounds so demeaning. I said, I got them $28 billion for their farmers. Of course, they're going to vote.

MCKEND (voice-over): DeSantis and Haley could not avoid speaking about the front-runner.

DESANTIS: I think if we're relitigating the past elections, if it's about, you know, Donald Trump or his legal issues or criminal trials or all that stuff, you know, I think it's going to be a really nasty election. I don't think that puts Republicans in a good position to win.

HALEY: He was really good at breaking things. He just wasn't good at fixing them.

MCKEND (voice-over): Trump is looking for a decisive victory in the Hawkeye State after losing the Iowa caucus back in 2016. However, Iowans are split on who they'll support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's highly likely that Trump will come out first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll be voting for DeSantis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would like to see Vivek Ramaswamy be in the race as long as he can be.

MCKEND (voice-over): Trump held a rally in Iowa on the third anniversary of the January 6th Capitol attack, during which he gave his support for those jailed for their actions that day.

TRUMP: They ought to release the J-6 hostages. They've suffered enough.

MCKEND (voice-over): And raised eyebrows when he made this comment about the Civil War.

TRUMP: I think it could have been negotiated, and they wouldn't have had that problem, but it was -- it was a hell of a time.

MCKEND (voice-over): This week, the former president will be toggling back and forth from the campaign trail to the courtroom with a jam- packed schedule.

[06:10:01]

On Tuesday, he will be in a D.C. courtroom, where opening arguments will be held on his immunity claim.

On Wednesday, he will be back in Iowa for a town hall event.

And on Thursday, he will be in a New York City courtroom, where the closing arguments in the civil fraud case against him, his sons, and the Trump Organization will begin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKEND: And a bit of a wrinkle, Phil. It is expected to snow in the coming hours, and that has already led to the cancellation of some events. And it comes at a time when candidates really have no time to spare. They're using every single day until caucus day to shake every hand, meet every voter -- Phil.

MATTINGLY: Even the weather causing issues at this point in time in the final sprint. Eva McKend, thanks so much.

And this Wednesday, 9 pm. Eastern, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderate CNN's Republican presidential debate live from Iowa. You don't want to miss it.

HARLOW: We have a lot more to talk about. One week until Iowa, and Donald Trump once again mocking a prisoner of war while praising jailed insurrectionists. How the former president is reframing the Capitol attack.

MATTINGLY: And what a key player in Hamas hostage talks says could complicate those efforts even more. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They ought to release the J-6 hostages. They've suffered enough. They ought to release them. I call them hostages. Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages. Release the J-6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe. You can do it real easy, Joe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That was Donald Trump calling for the release of January 6th rioters. You heard multiple times there, he called them hostages, on the third anniversary, no less, of the Capitol attack.

That caught on fast with Trump allies. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): I have concerns about the treatment of January 6th hostages. I have concerns. We have a role in Congress of oversight, over our treatments of prisoners. And I believe that we're seeing the weaponization of the federal government against not just President Trump, but we're seeing it against conservatives. We're seeing it against Catholics. And that's one of the reasons why I'm so proud to serve on the select committee on the weaponization of government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: A new "Washington Post" poll shows a growing number of voters actually share that sentiment. Thirty-four percent of Republicans say they believe the false idea -- it's not a false idea; it's a lie -- that the FBI organized and encouraged the January 6th attack.

A new article in "Politico" finds many Trump supporters think the former president has unfairly shouldered blame for an attack that they believe was overblown. One Iowa voter telling "Politico," quote, "There was no insurrection. I believe he's being framed."

Another saying, quote, "I watched it on TV that day, and I said, this is a complete joke. I could tell from the beginning that this was a setup." Let's bring in to discuss CNN senior political analyst John Avlon;

former Republican strategist and pollster Lee Carter; and CNN political commentator Jamal Simmons.

Lee, I want to start with you, because I have a lot of thoughts about a lot of this. Very personal thoughts on some of them.

But what I'm more interested in at this moment in time, is you have a weekend where Donald Trump, on the anniversary of January 6th, is saying all the things we played. He's attacking John McCain once again and mocking the injuries he suffered while a POW.

These are the things that caused independent voters and suburban voters to turn sharply away from him in 2020.

LEE CARTER, FORMER REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND POLLSTER: Yes.

MATTINGLY: I understand where the Republican primary electorate is and that it's not going to change. My question right now is, will people start seeing this stuff and say, Oh, I remember?

CARTER: Yes. I absolutely think so. And when you look at the independent voter, they turned away from Donald Trump for this very reason. They couldn't deal with the rhetoric. They couldn't deal with all of the things that we're seeing right now.

And Joe Biden is reminding those independent voters exactly how bad it can be and what's at stake. And so I think that is Joe Biden's strategy right now.

The real question is, is it going to work? With both of these candidates right now, in many ways, it feels like we're looking back in time and not forward. I mean, the fact that he's going to some of these talking points about McCain, I feel like we're back in 2020, 2016. We're not looking forward. And I think the American people want us to look forward.

So my big question is, is this going to work? Is it going to turn people off so much that they're not going to go out in the record numbers that we saw in 2020? Instead of -- in 2020, we had a really energized electorate who said, we've got to go out and vote, because this much is at stake. This might exhaust people.

HARLOW: Well, to Lee's good point about people wanting to look forward, not backward. Trump is looking backward there, obviously, but so is Biden. With these new ads, staking his campaign on defending democracy, pointing to January 6th.

Mitt Romney, not a Trump fan. Yes, a Republican, but not a Trump fan, is saying that tactic for the Biden campaign is a bust.

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I could be ill- informed, but I'm not sure what Mitt Romney knows about winning the presidency, and I think that there is a --

HARLOW: There are Democrats who are concerned about the way they're approaching this, like Obama.

SIMMONS: Sure, absolutely. I wouldn't take my professional political advice from Mitt Romney when it comes time to win the presidency.

Listen. You have a president -- a former president right now, Donald Trump, who is saying to people out loud, I will be a dictator on the first day. I want to use the DOJ, the Department of Justice, to go after my opponents.

So the idea of democracy being on the ballot isn't just a, you know, four years ago problem. It's a problem that the current candidate for the Republican nomination is saying he will challenge the tenets of democracy right now.

And I think the challenge for all of us is, what Donald Trump does, is he continues to move the ball further and further away from the norms that we all expect, and then he raises the stakes on holding him accountable. And so what happened is he never gets held -- he never gets held responsible. He never has to answer for what it is he's doing. And he makes the rest of us coarser.

And so I think the president is trying to get people refocused on democracy as a question, and that's a legitimate political argument.

MATTINGLY: John, I think to that point, a complicating factor six days out from the caucuses --

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST/ANCHOR: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- is that other Republicans in the race are trying to compete with that, in an electorate that -- that issue resonates with very clearly.

And so if you're Ron DeSantis and you're Nikki Haley, besides the CNN debate, which you should definitely watch, what are -- what are your opportunities in this moment to try and make headway?

[06:20:04]

AVLON: Draw a clear contrast with Donald Trump. Stand for something. Stop tiptoeing around. Connect with real voters and say, as I think Nikki Haley did it very effectively in her town hall the other night.

Say, this is an invitation to more chaos. This is an invitation to someone who's got unbelievable amounts of baggage.

And start having the courage to call out the unacceptable. This -- this rhetorical dodge, calling the -- holding people accountable who attacked our Capitol to overturn an election at his behest, calling them hostages at a time when there are hostages being held in Israel, American hostages being held by terrorists in Israel. That kind of moral equivalence is absolutely inexcusable.

And for Elise Stefanik to do that sort of performative show of fealty, right? They always take the knee, is what Donald Trump has said about his Republican leaders. I'll say something about Democrats, though. You know, I get the joke

about Mitt Romney, but I think it was also unkind, especially given the courage he has shown, and especially given that for -- President Biden needs to be running the broadest possible coalition to defend democracy, if that's serious.

And for Mitt Romney on down -- I've interviewed Adam Kinzinger about this. All these, you know, Never Trump Republicans who -- that diminishes them -- these pro-democracy Republicans who've taken a stand against Donald Trump, they have not gotten outreach from the White House or the Biden campaign. You've got -- which is unbelievable. But that's what, you know, I was told in an interview.

That broader coalition needs to be built, and that needs to be taken more seriously than anything else.

SIMMONS: The president does have a broad coalition. He does have to animate that broad coalition, and I think he's got to focus.

The Barack Obama concerns are the concerns he should take into account. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won re-elections. Barack Obama won one at a time that was economically distressful. So he and his team need to be able to focus.

But the Biden team understands something about the modern media and political environment that nobody else understands. They know how to operate in this environment, and they've beaten Donald Trump before. I think they're taking that as their cue to go out and try to beat him again.

CARTER: Their advice is the same as Mitt Romney's, though. I mean, they're saying the same thing. So it's -- I mean, I think a lot of people are saying --

SIMMONS: I'll listen to them. I just won't listen to Mitt Romney. That's my choice.

CARTER: I mean, I agree that we need to have a coalition that's really embraced instead of dismissed. I think that, if this is going to work -- when you look at the numbers, too. Fifty-five percent of Republicans do -- do agree that democracy is at stake here.

So it's not, you know, we're not talking about people that are completely dismissive of this.

HARLOW: But what's sort of stunning is that more Republicans now view the actions of the rioters on January 6th as appropriate than did three years ago.

CARTER: That's right.

HARLOW: It's not a majority of Republicans, but it's stunning to see that more approve of it, and fewer strongly disapprove of it.

CARTER: And fewer think that Trump was responsible for it.

HARLOW: Yes, that's right.

AVLON: That's evidence of a non-reality-based community.

HARLOW: Yes.

AVLON: And that's disinformation that's been pushed out by Donald Trump. You want to have the courage to draw the contrast? Call it out.

MATTINGLY: All right, guys. Stick around. We have a lot more to get to not just with the primaries or the caucuses, but also general election, as well.

HARLOW: Yes. And this morning, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is still being treated at Walter Reed Medical Center. The president and his deputy did not know about Lloyd's hospitalization. That is still under scrutiny this morning.

MATTINGLY: And congressional leaders have just taken the first steps to averting a government shutdown. We're going to break down what's in, and what's not in the latest top-line spending agreement. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:58]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The handling of this by the secretary of defense is totally unacceptable. I think it was a dereliction of duty, and the secretary and the administration frankly need to step forward and give the American people the facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That was former Vice President Mike Pence ripping into Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for keeping his hospitalization secret.

This morning, Austin remains in the hospital a week after being rushed to Walter Reed for what we're told was, quote, "severe pain following an elective procedure." He's now facing intense scrutiny for keeping the president and national security leaders in the dark for days about the hospital stay.

HARLOW: Here's the timeline that we're getting now from the Pentagon. Austin had this elective procedure on the 22nd of December, went home the next day. Then on the 1st of January was taken by an ambulance and admitted to the intensive care unit with severe pain.

The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff was notified the next day -- that was January 2nd. Austin's deputy, Kathleen Hicks, assumed some of his duties that day, but she wasn't told that he was hospitalized until January 4th. That's the same day President Biden found out.

Congress learned January 5th, a day later, as did the rest of the public. MATTINGLY: The Pentagon says Austin is still at the hospital, but

resumed his duties on Friday. The White House says President Biden spoke to Austin on Saturday, and quote, "has complete confidence in him."

Austin released a statement on Saturday saying he would commit to being more transparent in the future.

CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner joins us now. He's been former Vice President Dick Cheney's cardiologist when Cheney was in office. And CNN national security reporter Natasha Bertrand is at the Pentagon.

Natasha, I want to start with you. Look, I've covered Washington for 15, 16 years. I have never seen anything like this. What are national security officials you're talking to saying?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Phil. The words that are being tossed around a lot at this moment are "unforced error."

All of this really could have been avoided, officials say, if the Pentagon had just disclosed within 24 hours that the secretary had been hospitalized on January 1st.

Now, what we know at this point is that for days, the U.S. -- the Pentagon did not inform even his deputy secretary of defense just why she was taking over his responsibilities.

And we should remind viewers that she was actually in Puerto Rico at the time. She was not even in Washington, D.C., when she was told that she would have to be assuming some of his responsibilities in order to continue secure communications and maintain kind of operational readiness.

And just on Thursday, about four days after he was admitted to the hospital, that is when she was finally told that he was hospitalized.

And so this is really, you know, coming at a moment that is not ideal, really, for the administration, given all of the tensions we are seeing in the Middle East. The fact that the secretary of defense was not available, really, and that the president and senior national security officials did not know that he was in the hospital, in the intensive care unit, we should note -- this is not something minor -- is really problematic, according to current and former officials that we have spoken to.

[06:30:00]