Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Mario Cuomo Dies at 82; Search for AirAsia Flight 8501; New Year's Eve Stampede Kills 36 in Shanghai; U.S.-Led Airstrikes Pound ISIS Positions; Obama to Refrain from Executive Action; Obamacare Could Impact Tax Refunds

Aired January 02, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The search intensifies -- new ships, new planes on the scene to find the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501, scouring the sea hoping to pick up pings from the flight's black boxes. This as more bodies are recovered and identified. We're going to break down this big story, ahead.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: But first, the loss of the political giant. Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo dead at 82. A gifted orator who lived to see his son follow in his footsteps. We are taking a look back at his enormous accomplishments and remember him this morning.

Good morning and welcome EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. It is Friday, January 2nd. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And up first, the passing of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo. The father of New York's current governor and also, of course, our friend CNN "NEW DAY" anchor Chris Cuomo. Mario Cuomo died of heart failure Thursday at the age of 82. He served three terms as governor of New York, passing away just hours after his son Andrew is inaugurated for a second term.

Senior Cuomo was a political icon really in his day. For about a decade, he was the soul of the Democratic Party, best known for soaring, oratory fiery speeches.

Let's get more now with the life and legacy of Mario Cuomo from CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, "WOLF" (voice-over): New York Governor Mario Cuomo burst on the national political stage with his keynote address at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

THEN-GOV. MARIO CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: And we proclaim as loudly as we can the utter insanity of nuclear proliferation and the need for a nuclear freeze, if only to affirm the simple truth that peace is better than war because life is better than death. BLITZER: It was so powerful, so well-delivered, that it rocketed

Cuomo to instant political fame. His political appearance led some party faithful to wonder whether Cuomo wanted to be president himself.

CUOMO: He said, will you think about it? I said, I have been thinking about it.

REPORTER: Are you going to think about it anymore?

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: I'll try, Sam, to keep it out of my mind.

BLITZER: But it was that kind of indecisiveness that frustrated Democrats, especially those on the liberal end and garnered his nickname, fair or not, "Hamlet on the Hudson". Ultimately, Cuomo chose not to run for president.

CUOMO: It has nothing to do with my chances. It has everything to do with my job as governor and I don't see that I can do both. Therefore, I will not pursue the presidency.

BLITZER: Mario Matthew Cuomo was born in New York City in 1932, in the apartment above his father's grocery store. His Italian immigrant heritage helped shaped Cuomo's values, which centered around family, education and the law. After a brief shot at a minor league career, Cuomo pursued a law degree, graduating top of his class from St. John's University.

The allure of public service was strong, but early attempts at seeking political office ended in defeat. His first electoral success came in 1978 as running mate to Governor Hugh Carey. Four years later, Carey stepped aside. Cuomo then entered the race for governor and won. It's a position he held for 12 years, winning two more terms handily by emphasizing lower taxes, balanced budgets, public education and affirmative action.

In 1993, he passed up the chance to be appointed to the Supreme Court, choosing instead to run for a fourth term as governor.

CUOMO: It would have been wonderful to be a Supreme Court justice in many ways. It was more important to me to try to run and win again because I could serve better as governor than as a Supreme Court justice.

BLITZER: But Cuomo lost that race to newcomer George Pataki. He later said after 12 years, voters were just ready for a change.

The constant in his life were faith and family. Cuomo was Catholic, and married for over six decades to the love of his life, Matilda. The couple raised five children, including Maria, who's the wife of the fashion designer Kenneth Cole. Andrew Cuomo, who followed in his father's footsteps also as the governor of New York, as well as journalist and CNN anchor, Chris Cuomo.

In later years, Cuomo hosted a radio show. Returned to the private sector both as an attorney and author and continued to speak out for the party he loved and the causes he held close to his heart.

Asked once how he wanted to be remembered --

CUOMO: One of the simple things I wanted to achieve. I want to be governor. The hardest working there ever was. I want when it's over, and I figured at four years, I want people to say, now, there was an honest person.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: That was Wolf Blitzer. The obit in "The New York Times" said that he wanted his epithet, Mario Cuomo, to be simply "he tried".

Mario Cuomo passed away at his Manhattan home with his family by his side. President Obama called him a champion of progressive values, as an unflinching voice for tolerance and dignity. He is survived by his wife, five children, 14 grandchildren.

ROMANS: We are thinking about all of them today.

All right. Turning to the search now for AirAsia Flight 8501. The bodies of 22 victims have now been recovered, 22, as officials pinpoint a most probable area where they expect to find that jetliner. It's a 2,000 square mile section of the Java Sea.

Meanwhile, ships equip with sensitive underwater listening devices are now in that search area, but trying to find the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the Airbus A320 as the Indonesians go through the agonizing task of burying the first of these 126 victims.

David Molko tracking the latest developments on the phone from Surabaya, Indonesia.

David, what's the latest on the search and how the families are coping?

DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi, Christine.

Let's start first with the search efforts. (INAUDIBLE) a total of 22 bodies, 22 now recovered. Eight of those here in Surabaya, additional four still on ships and eight at the staging area. My colleague Paula Hancocks has seen the footage of the planes flying the remains from Borneo over to the airport here (INAUDIBLE) the ceremony by the military.

Also, Christine, here, about an hour and a half ago, another sobering moment I should say as the remains of three more passengers and crew members on board AirAsia 8501 were identified. I'm just going to read their names to you, Grace Herbert (INAUDIBLE), Kevin Alexander (INAUDIBLE) and (INAUDIBLE). She was known by her family as Neisa (ph). She was 20 years old and she was one of the flight attendants on board AirAsia 8501.

Christine, I had the chance to speak to her family a few hours ago. I was at their hotel. They seemed in good spirits. We were looking at photos of her on her Instagram account. Her mother told me that she loved to fly. She was willing to move all

the way to the other side of Indonesia for the job further away from home, never expected anything like this to happen. At this point, unfortunately, a few hours later, they got that call that said, you know, we need you to come down here and identify your daughter's remains.

Remains have been handed over. And this point, we believe the family is on their way home to bury their loved one.

ROMANS: Just so -- oh, just breaks your heart to see the pictures of her. You say her family sounds strong and they are taking her home now.

David, what is happening in the search zones right now? Weather has been such a problem over the past few days.

MOLKO: Christine, it's been such a problem, but they are able to recover human remains and debris. We are told by the search and rescue authorities out there that there are waves in the 10 to 12 feet range. That is not expected to get better over the weekend.

But now that they are focused on this 2,000 square mile priority, a little bit bigger than Long Island sound or for those on the West Coast, about half the size of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. That has made at least some focus the effort of 90 ships and aircraft all working together out there.

And at this point, we are told they have done that under water- listening with the underwater microphone back with MH370 last year, we had towed pinger locater in the water, listening to the sound from the black boxes. We are told that is underway now. And we'll see what results that may yield in the days ahead.

ROMANS: All right. David, thank you so much for that reporting from Surabaya this morning -- thanks.

BERMAN: It is a somber scene in western Borneo. One by one, the bodies of the victims of the Flight 8501 are being brought there before making the final trip to Surabaya. Hundreds of grieving families and loved ones and friends are waiting in Surabaya to say a final good-bye.

Let's get more now from CNN's Paula Hancocks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm down in Kumai Port, just on the west coast of Borneo. And as you can see, preparations are underway for one of the search vessels to head out to the search location and try and locate of those bodies, and also, some of the debris.

This is a police boat. It's also going to have search and rescue on board. Some of the divers are going to be on board as well. They have already been out a couple of times. But many of them say they couldn't get into the water. It's simply too dangerous.

Today, they know they have waves of four meters or 30 feet high. And it's simply too dangerous for them to get in. One diver said he would basically be giving up his life if he tried to do that. They are very frustrated. And sometimes, they just have to sit and wait and hope for a break in the weather so that they can try to bring back more bodies and bring some closure to those distraught families.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Kumai Port, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Our thanks to Paula.

Now, the waiting has been an agony for the loved ones of the victims of Flight 8501. Listen to this young man explain how his mother is coping after losing his aunt, grandmother and several other family members on the AirAsia flight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's still a mess. You know, she couldn't think straight like all she do is cry. She just looks lost. She is kind of motionless. So, you know, whenever we talk to her, she just stares and she keeps praying every night. And I think most of our family is in this stage that we are unwell. We -- some of us get sick. One of my brothers is hospitalized yesterday. So, we just -- we just are kind of in a stage we hope everything is going to end soon, and we're going to know what the stage of our family soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: They hope it ends soon. Bad weather is a problem. They are not having a great success of getting to the actual wreckage.

There are search crews of the Java Sea with new ships, but the weather is not cooperating. Will it cooperate this weekend?

Let's go now to Ivan Cabrera for an early start on your forecast.

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, at times, you cannot see the Java Sea. It's completely covered by thunderstorm activity, just amazing this time of year. The storms set up here and it is very difficult to get an extended period of dry weather. In fact, I don't think we're going to see that, although Saturday looks a little bit better. I'll show you the forecast in a second.

But there is the area of interest, of course. And you can see the thunderstorms just covering the entire Java Sea here with torrential rain. Some of these thunderstorms have been producing winds in excess of 50 miles an hour. And that has led to what we have been talking about, upwards of 10 to 15-foot waves. Those are not conditions you want divers in.

So, I think what's going to happen, what we're going to have to deal with those conditions in the next few days is they're going to have those ships on stand by and have the divers on stand by and wait for a break in the weather which will come for a few hours, and then try to get some work going. But there you see the forecast in the next 48 hours.

We will have a few breaks, I think, Saturday looks drier than Sunday, where we have another wave of showers and heavy thunderstorms rolling through. A few brief windows, John and Christine, as we head through the weekend.

ROMANS: Ivan Cabrera, thank you for that. We're going to follow the latest on this flight all morning long.

But, first, an investigation launched into a tragic and deadly New Year's Eve stampede.

BERMAN: Plus, happening now, a dramatic rescue at sea. Hundreds on board stranded when their crew abandons them. We'll have the details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Search teams may be closing in on the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501. Officials have now pinpointed the area where they expect to find the jetliner. It's a 2,000 square foot area of the Java Sea.

Meanwhile, ships equipped with sensitive underwater listening gear now in that search area. Twenty-two of 162 people on board the plane have been recovered. The first of many funerals has been held in Indonesia.

BERMAN: The leader in China has ordered an investigation into the New York's Eve stampede that killed 36 people in Shanghai. Families were still searching local hospitals for their loved ones. It is unclear what caused the stampede. Witnesses say someone tossed coupons out of a window that looked like dollar bills. That may have triggered the crash. Others say there were too many people simply crowding the city's waterfront.

ROMANS: The U.S. and its allies are bombarding ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq. At least 29 airstrikes have been conducted since Wednesday. Meanwhile, there are significant developments in the bloody struggle for Kobani. ISIS extremists are losing ground. Kurdish forces now control 70 percent of the northern Syrian city.

BERMAN: President Obama says he plans to use restraint this year when it comes to taking executive action. According to "The Wall Street Journal", the White House will lean more on the Republican-controlled Congress to advance key policies. The president recently angered Republicans by using executive authority to bypass on immigration reform and, of course, the normalized ties with Cuba.

Millions of people could see a dramatic decrease in their tax refunds this spring. Those who received subsidies under Obamacare could owe the IRS because credits they receive to offset their insurance premiums were too large. As many as half of the nearly 7 million Americans who got subsidies may have to pay the government back. People who did not have health insurance at all in 2014, they will also pay.

ROMANS: And those fines are going to get bigger year after year. The idea to push people into the Obamacare marketplace. It's going to be interesting as they iron out all those wrinkles.

All right. Time for an early start on money this morning. It looks like a good start to the New Year for stocks, folks. U.S. stock futures pointing higher.

Last year was great for investors. The Dow rose 7 1/2 percent. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 -- look at that -- another year of double digit gains for the S&P 500, three in the row. Experts expect stocks to climb this year, just not as much. Our CNN Money poll puts an average gain of about 8 percent for the S&P 500. We'll take it, right?

General Motors rings in the New Year with another recall, though. The company is recalling 83,000 SUVs and trucks for the same issue that has plagued its cars all year. Faulty ignition switches. The switch may move out of the start position, causing the vehicle to stall and it disables the airbags. GM recalled millions of vehicles last year and agreed to compensate more than 40 families for deaths related to ignition switch issue.

BERMAN: So far this year, though, stocks are flat.

ROMANS: So far, stocks are flat because they haven't opened.

BERMAN: All right. Barring a last-ditch maneuver by the defense, jury selection will begin Monday in the trial of Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. His lawyers had asked for more time to prepare for the trial because of the sheer amount of evidence involved in the case. They also requested a venue change, claiming an unbiased jury will be impossible to seat in Boston. A federal judge has denied both requests.

ROMANS: In Cleveland, a new investigation is in the works over the deadly police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. And city officials want an outside agency, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office to handle that investigation. In fact, the safety director says he wants an outside agency to handle all deadly use of force cases.

Surveillance video from last month's shooting shows Tamir, 12 years old, being shot less than two seconds after a patrol car arrived on the scene.

BERMAN: This weekend, family and friends will gather to remember and say a final goodbye to NYPD Officer Wenjian Liu. His wake is scheduled tomorrow and funeral Sunday. Liu and his partner Rafael Ramos were assassinated last month. They were killed while they sat in their patrol car. The gunman then killed himself inside a subway station.

Happening now: the Italian air force rescuing hundreds of migrants stranded on a cargo ship in the Mediterranean. They were apparently abandoned in the rough seas by smugglers. An estimated 450 people are onboard. Earlier this week, a ship carrying more than 700 mostly Syrian migrants were abandoned by its crew, and also had to be rescued by Italian authorities.

ROMANS: Egypt's top court has agreed to hear appeals from three convicted al-Jazeera journalists who have been in prison for more than a year for allegedly aiding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. A retrial has been ordered for Australian Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed. Attorneys are hoping the trial will begin within a month. All three men have been denied bail.

BERMAN: Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov are talking. The topic during a Thursday phone call, the conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Ukraine. This week, the United States voted against a bid by the Palestinians to win back being for a U.N. resolution in a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement. That was a move that Russia supports.

ROMANS: A new study suggests most cancer diagnoses are simply bad luck. Reported in "The Journal of Science" found two-thirds of the cancer types analyzed were caused by chance mutations rather than lifestyle. Researchers urge you to still do things like exercise routinely, eat healthy and ditch those cigarettes to beat the odds of developing cancer and surviving.

College football championship match up is set. The number one team in the nation and the defending champions are both out. Oregon and Ohio State are in. Details in the "Bleacher Report", next.

BERMAN: Great games.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Welcome back to EARLY START.

The final two are set in college football.

BERMAN: Right. Ohio State knocked off number one Alabama last night in the Sugar Bowl. They are headed to the national championship game against Oregon on January 12th. Here is Andy Scholes in New Orleans with this morning's "Bleacher Report".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: College football fans have wanted a playoff for years. They finally got what they have been asking for on New Year's Day. We had two epic games. And in the Rose Bowl semifinal, we had some controversy.

After beating Florida State and ending their 29-game winning streak in impressive fashion, some of Oregon players, they mocked the Seminoles tomahawk chop.

They seem to be referencing Jameis Winston off the field issues, the sexual assault charges that were brought against him by a former student. Winston was never charged. Now, that came after the majority of Florida State's players did not shake hands with the Ducks after the game. They were clearly frustrated after having an epic meltdown in the second half. They turned the ball over five times, including a Jameis Winston fumble that rivaled Mark Sanchez's butt fumble when he played for the New York Jets. Oregon scored on that play and cruised to a 59-20 win.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one likes to lose, man. I mean, losing is really not in my vocabulary, to be honest with you. But, you know, we fell short today and we got to man-up and go ahead and just get better every day, you know? I just hope that we can learn from this because I ain't felt this way in a long time.

SCHOLES: Meanwhile, at the Sugar Bowl here in New Orleans, it was a nail biter. Falling behind early, Ohio State's third string quarterback Cardale Jones led the Buckeyes on a 28-0 run. They were able to hold off a late charge by Alabama to get the win in an instant classic, 42-35.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The big ten is not that bad. The big ten is pretty damn good. And it's certainly getting better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see the two best teams playing for it all. And it's an honor to be in there. So, I'm glad the playoff system is intact now.

SCHOLES: So, it's going to be Ohio State versus Oregon in the inaugural college football playoff championship game. The teams are going to have 11 days to get ready before they hit the field at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on January 12th.

In New Orleans, Andy Scholes, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Yes. So far, this whole college playoffs thing is awesome. I'm a big fan of the college football playoffs. So, thank you.

ROMANS: I was worried you're going to lose your voice forever with so much football.

BERMAN: It could happen soon.

All right. Twenty-six minutes after the hour. The search intensifies for the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501. New help is arriving, looking for the black boxes. More bodies of those onboard have been recovered this morning and identified. We'll have details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)