Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Two NYC Police Officers Shot; Racing the Clock to Find AirAsia Flight 8501 Wreckage; Arctic Chill Moves In; Boehner Faces Rebellion on Right; Royal Sex Scandal Allegations: New Denials

Aired January 06, 2015 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning: two New York police officers shot overnight. The gunmen on loose. This following the recent murder of two other officers. The violence unfolding as tensions between the department and city's mayor still high. The mayor calling recent actions of some officers disrespectful.

We are breaking down the latest overnight and talking about how the department moves forward from here.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now. Frustration and disappointment in the search for AirAsia Flight 8501. Stormy weather, murky and muddy water and time is ticking away to find identifiable remains and to find the black boxes under the sea. We are live with the latest this morning.

ROMANS: All right. Polar plunge. Millions facing fast falling temperatures this morning. So cold, it could break records in some cities. We are tracking what you need to know for this day.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Great to see you. About 30 minutes past the hour right now.

The breaking news this morning: overnight, two New York City police officers were shot responding to a robbery call at a store in the Bronx. Officials say both officers are now hospitalized. One in critical condition and police are hunting for the two gunmen. They are on the loose. There's a $10,000 reward offered for any information leading to their arrest.

Now, the shooting comes against a backdrop of high tension with the New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and city police officers following the ambush murders of two officers last month.

The mayor addressed the rift for the first time at a news conference on Monday. He said the officers who turned their backs on him on multiple occasions said they were disrespectful. At the same time, the mayor and police commissioner downplayed in the plunge of arrests for low level offense. The drop of more than 90 percent in some categories of arrests and summonses is raising concerns of a possibly work slowdown by officers.

Our national correspondent Miguel Marquez is here with the latest.

Miguel, let's start with the shooting overnight and the manhunt.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENKT: These were two plain clothed cops. This is not the same as the ambush and killings of Detectives Liu and Ramos, where they were shot in cold blood.

These were two individuals getting off work. They responded to a robbery in progress. They went to check it out. They got there.

One of the individuals came out of a shop and shot one of them through the arm and in the back. That person is in critical, but stable condition. The other one was shot in the arm and in the chest. It is not clear that they were both wearing their vests at the time as they were off duty.

All of this happening while there is great anger at the mayor by his own police department. The police officers turning their backs on the mayor at the hospital, the last time the two officers were shot and the funerals when those two officers were laid to rest.

For the first time, Mayor Bill de Blasio had tough words for his own cops.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: Those individuals who took certain actions the last week -- or last two weeks really -- they were disrespectful to the families involved. That's the bottom line. They were disrespectful to the families who lost their loved ones. And I can't understand why anyone would do such a thing in the context like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: We should point out that the police Commissioner Bill Bratton he said he did not understand why that police officers disobeyed his request not to turn their backs and they did. He said it was a political statement they made at a time when they shouldn't have done it. They can come down to the police plaza and protest. They come to city hall and protest, but don't do it at a funeral.

So, there is great frustration amongst the leadership there. All of this against the back drop of is there a slow down. It is not clear.

Two weeks in a row, massive numbers, massive drops in the numbers of arrests and summonses. That said, the holiday season, it is -- all the police officers are doubled up. They spent $35 million in overtime alone on covering the protests. So, that was thousands of police officers covering those protests. They just didn't have the manpower to make other arrests, plus all police officers, now two cops to every beat, even the meter maids out there.

ROMANS: There could be other reasons. MARQUEZ: There are other reasons. The police department is looking at it and looking at it hard to see if there is, they will call it a slowdown and they will fast take action.

BERMAN: This is "The New York Daily News", let me show you "The New York Daily News" today, if we can pick this up at one of the cameras here. It says "End this war now." And it's got a picture of Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the head of the police union, Patrick Lynch. "The Daily News" saying, this has just got to stop.

ROMANS: How do they ramp it down? How do they ramp it down at this point?

MARQUEZ: It feels like a powder keg. The mayor says there are no meetings scheduled right now between the mayor's office and any of the unions. He has spent an extraordinary amount of time with the families of the officers who were ambushed. He is trying I think to make as many amends.

They talk about the statistics and how low the crime is in the city yesterday. And the mayor praised over and again NYPD as many times as he could, but I'm not sure he's going to have --

ROMANS: That comment he made about disrespecting the families. I mean, for many of those officers turned their backs, that will make them more angry, because they will say they were not disrespecting the families, they were disrespecting the man who they thought disrespected them first.

MARQUEZ: Part of the problem for police here is they can't strike and this is one way that they can make, they can vote with their voices and they can make their opinions felt and heard in city hall. All of this as well, there is no contract for the police officers. They have not had one since the previous administration.

So, some of that is also going on here, but there is a great lack of confidence in the mayor right now among his force.

BERMAN: But he is not about to apologize either.

MARQUEZ: I don't think so.

ROMANS: It doesn't sound like it.

MARQUEZ: And I don't think that will help.

BERMAN: No.

Miguel Marquez, great to have you here with us on EARLY START this morning. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: Thanks, Miguel.

All right. Disappointment and concern in Indonesia this morning as crews searching for AirAsia Flight 8501 race the clock in pretty harsh conditions. The more time passes, the harder it becomes to find the wreckage of the flight and harder it will be to identify any bodies found. Hope that rough weather would break today was dashed. None of nearly 100 divers in the search zone have not been deployed.

CNN's Anna Coren is live for us in Surabaya, Indonesia.

Anna, so they couldn't get the divers in the water today.

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Christine. There were high hopes the weather would clear, that there would be good conditions today, because the waves are not as high, but that did not prove to be the case.

Two divers got in the water to see what it was like. Visibility was zero. So, they came back up and instead, at least 97 divers who are now on stand by.

We are waiting to hear whether or not they managed to get into the water late this afternoon. But from all accounts, the weather has closed in. Storms have come into the area and there are vessels out there. There are planes flying and searching for the wreckage.

But as it stands, there is still no major developments on any finds. Four objects have been found. Speculation that the tail had been spotted. Well, the head of the search and recovery operation has confirmed it was not the tail.

So, there is confirmation there. But, certainly, we have heard in the last half an hour that two other bodies have since been retrieved from of water. Well, that takes the total from 39 bodies that have been recovered from the Java Sea ever since that AirAsia Flight 8501 went down on the 28th of December. Those two bodies are prepared to be flown here to Surabaya where they will be handed over to the hospital where the identification process will begin.

Now, we have been discussing over the past few days that the longer this drags on, the more the bodies decompose. And we spent time today with the head of the disaster victim identification unit. And he said that the majority of the bodies brought to him so far have been intact. But as the days go on, it will become body parts and then even worse, he said, skeletons.

So, this is what this team is dealing with as the bodies are brought in. But, certainly, Christine, very frustrating times for everybody involved. They want to find the wreckage. They want to find the bodies. They believe the majority of the bodies are still strapped in their seats in the wreckage of the plane at the bottom of the Java Sea. They just can't find it at this stage.

But, obviously, also the hunt is on for those black boxes. Twenty-two days before the batteries run out on those. So, the time, as we say, is ticking -- Christine.

ROMANS: Anna Coren, thank you for that.

BERMAN: Thirty-seven minutes after the hour. When Congress reconvenes at noon, the Republicans will be in control

of both the House and Senate for the first time since 2006. There are some bumps in the road today ahead for the Republicans. The first, of course, the president could veto any bills that could rollback Obamacare or trying to get the way in his executive action on immigration. And there is also the more immediate concern of some unrest inside the party in the House. Some conservative House Republicans are set to vote against reelecting John Boehner as House speaker.

Our chief correspondent Dana Bash has the latest -- Dana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, the big question on this opening day of the new Congress is how big will the rebellion against John Boehner be on the vote for House speaker? To put in perspective, when the new Congress is sworn in later today, there will be 246 House Republicans. And so far, there only about a dozen who say they're going to oppose John Boehner for the job of speaker.

So, those in the Republican leadership who I talked to say this is really just the group that they not so lovingly call the "hell no" caucus, because they're usually no votes on just about everything.

The House speaker is elected, remember, by the entire House. So, Boehner has to get a majority of all House members, 218, and that means he can afford to lose 29 Republicans and still be elected speaker.

I talked to his aides and confidants all day yesterday. They said they are monitoring this insurrection, but not that worried.

Here is Tom Cole, the Republican congressman who is a Boehner ally.

REP. TOM COLE (R), OKLAHOMA: This is a last moment sideshow. But the sad thing is it distracts from what our message ought to be. We ought to be talking about the Republican agenda, about the possibilities now that we have the Senate, about Keystone, about fixes on Obamacare, trade, regulatory reform, those types of issues.

Instead on the opening day of the Republican Congress, we've got Republicans, you know, at odds. And that's just unfortunate. It steps on the story and doesn't accomplish anything productive.

BASH: The argument that Cole and others make is that you can't replace someone with no one. And right now, there is no other House Republican who raised as much money or campaigned for as many people, or has the leadership experience and skills that comes close to getting 218 votes to be the speaker of the House.

Cole, who you just heard from, and other members of the team who I talked to, say that they are making calls to rank-and-file Republicans, just to be safe. But, you know, if Boehner isn't deposed as speaker, he is going to

start the Congress back on its heels a bit because of this rebellion, no matter how big it is -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Senator Dianne Feinstein calling for new laws and policy changes that will bar the U.S. government from torturing detainees. The outgoing chairman of the Senate intelligence committee spearheaded a five-year investigation into the use of torture by the CIA after 9/11. She just sent a letter to President Obama calling for better CIA oversight and says she plans to introduce legislation in Congress that would outlaw torture and ban the spy agency from detaining prisoners.

BERMAN: The embattled leader of Mexico, Enrique Pena Nieto, visits the White House. His meeting with President Obama is sparking some controversy. The Mexican leader is under intense fire at home where drug violence is raging and corruption charges are mounting.

Right now, protests in Mexico are turning violent as outrage builds over the disappearance of 43 students. Those students who are allegedly killed by drug traffickers after being handed over by corrupt police in the city of Iguala.

ROMANS: Forty-one minutes past the hour.

Oil is tanking. Stocking are falling with it. Futures are lower after a really rough day yesterday for stocks. The Dow fell 331 points. That's about 2 percent. The S&P 500 dropped 2 percent. And plunging oil prices are to blame.

Crude oil fell more than 5 percent yesterday. It is unbelievable to see a 5 percent move in a commodity in one day. Right now, it's below 50 a barrel for the first time since April of 2009. Remember, it was well over $100 a barrel last summer. Now, experts say it could keep falling to $30 before stabilizing.

Prices are in freefall because global demand is weak and there is a supply glut in the U.S. due to the shale gas boom. Low prices are a win for drivers, but they are devastating for energy companies, potentially destabilizing for countries like Russia that depend on oil revenue.

BERMAN: A lot going on.

ROMANS: A lot going on.

And the dollar -- I mean, the dollar is a huge move on the euro. European economy is not moving and there's a lot going on.

BERMAN: Good time to go to Paris if you can get there. Cheap.

All right. Forty minutes after the hour. Temperatures falling fast across the country. How low will they go and how long will this last? Right after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The coldest blast of Arctic air so far this winter is hitting the U.S. now.

ROMANS: Yes, many states seeing temperatures up to 35 degrees below average for early January.

BERMAN: South Dakota, look at this, slammed by snow and just freezing temperatures. Still, you see people ventured out onto the roads.

ROMANS: Very tough in South Dakota.

BERMAN: Very tough. Half foot of snow is expected in some areas.

ROMANS: A 20-car pile up closed down part of Interstate 80 near Des Moines, Iowa. That's Altoona right there. We're told several people were taken to the hospital. Fortunately, they are expected to be OK.

BERMAN: To the east, snow coming down hard in Fulton, New York. Three inches falling per hour. Officials say the lake-effect snow prompted more accidents than dispatchers could count.

ROMANS: And frightening moments for a mom in Maine driving with her son. Ice and snow flew off the car in front of her shattering her windshield. Look at that. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Heather Rosinger (ph) told our affiliate WMTW her adrenaline was pumping.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It could have been worse. It could have been an accident, you know? It could have gone through my windshield.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: In western Washington state. Look at that. Nonstop rain caused landslides. Dramatic. It left 200 people stranded. One slide cut off the only road out of Hoquiam --

ROMANS: Hoquiam.

BERMAN: Hoquiam. I give it, you know, the Hoquiam located in Saudi Arabia.

But some people have been escorted to and from their homes from a logging road.

CNN affiliate KIRO was out interviewing residents when it caught another terrifying landslide on camera.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard a big crack and the trees come down and they just cracked and boomed.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Wow.

More rain in the forecast for the northwest, along with those frigid temperatures pushing south and east from the Midwest.

Let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for an early look at your weather -- Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good Tuesday morning, John and Christine.

Let's talk about what happens across portions of the Pacific Northwest in recent days. Tremendous rainfall especially right on the immediate coast. This is where we had the landslide across Hoquiam, up to seven inches. It came down from Sunday into Monday, across the street.

Keep in mind, we've got the Olympic mountains on the western side. So, the mountains typically taking the brunt of the rainfall and snowfall, of course, kind of squeezing the moisture on the Western side. And when you get to the eastern side, Seattle rather quiet actually in the last couple of days.

Generally speaking, minimal rainfall, some areas no rainfall at all. The big story right now, talking about what is happening in Chicago. Average temperature this time of year, freezing, 32 degrees.

Look at Tuesday's high temperature is 14. It drops to the high of only one over the next couple of days. Wind chills could be 25 or 30 below zero. In fact, over the next week, Chicago will struggle to get up to the average of freezing for this time of year.

Notice Minneapolis also the high temperature is minus 3. Wind chill at 40 below. New York and Boston, highs in the low 20s. Wind chills in the teens. Snow showers possible in and around New England.

But the big story is the comparison coming from Antarctica. Look at the temperatures there, seven there, while one 1 below, colder in portions of the Midwest than in areas of Antarctica. Of course, summer across this region, but still impressive nonetheless.

Let's send it back to you.

BERMAN: Colder in Minnesota than in Antarctica.

All right. Forty-eight minutes after the hour.

The son of the hedge fund founder Thomas Gilbert is charged with murdering his father. Police say it was over a cut to the son's allowance. Police arrested 30-year-old Thomas Gilbert Jr. after his 70-year-old father was shot to death in the family's New York apartment. They say the son visited his parents Sunday and asked his mother to leave to speak privately to his father. When she returned, Thomas Gilbert Sr. was dead. Police found the son hours later at his own apartment.

Day two of the jury selection trial of accused Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The defendant was in court Monday. Tsarnaev is facing 30 criminal counts in the 2013 marathon bombings, which killed three people, injured 260 others. And the alleged murder of an MIT police officers days later. Seating a jury could take as long as a month. Prosecutors and defense lawyers have reportedly discussed a plea deal in which Tsarnaev would get life without parole. But those talks failed. The federal prosecutors would not take the death penalty off the table.

BERMAN: Eric Holder will represent the Obama administration at a funeral for former New York Governor Mario Cuomo. The former three- term governor will be laid to rest at Manhattan church latter this morning. Cuomo died of heart failure on New Year's Day at the age of 82.

On Monday, a host of dignitaries paid respects at a wake. Among them, the Vice President Joe Biden and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

ROMANS: All right. Prominent U.S. attorney accused along with Prince Andrew in a sex slave scandal. Harsh words for their accuser this morning. They say she is just a liar. We are live in London, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: This morning, Buckingham Palace denying allegations that Prince Andrew had sex with an underage girl as U.S. Attorney Alan Dershowitz is facing similar claims and taken a harder line. Both men are named in legal papers in Florida by Virginia Roberts. She claimed that American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein forced her to have sex when she was underage with Prince Andrew and also with Dershowitz. Dershowitz says Roberts is lying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALAN DERSHOWITZ, U.S. CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Believe me, I remember everybody I ever had sex with. I don't -- I'm not that old that I would forget. I did not have any sexual contact whatsoever under any circumstances. She made the whole thing up out of full cloth. I can prove it by flight records. I can prove it by my travel records.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And neither Dershowitz nor the prince are parties to Roberts' legal claim. But Dershowitz says he's filing a motion to intervene in the case and also disbarment papers against her lawyer. Buckingham Palace taking a cautious stance. "TIME" magazine reporting only that the palace will not rule out some kind of legal action.

CNN's Max Foster joins us now live with the latest.

Good morning, Max.

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John,

I think it's unlikely, there is no sort of precedent really for the palace to get involved or sue in court cases which they know drags on and on and on, and extends the story and other details come out in court. So, I think It is likely they are going to sue, but no doubt there are conversations with lawyers going right now in Buckingham Palace and down at Windsor, which is where I understand Prince Andrew is just outside London.

Now, he was in Switzerland on a skiing holiday when the scandal unfolded over the weekend. The British newspapers are doing all they can to get new information on the story. So, some of them actually went over there. Prince Andrew was there with his ex-wife at the time, Sarah Ferguson. There she is, making the point to reporters there that he is a great man. The best man in the world, in fact.

And "The Daily Mail" using that headline, the greatest man, featuring a picture of Prince Andrew with Virginia Roberts back when she was 17. "The Daily Mail" has got 10 questions here that it believes the palace should be answering. The first one is, how did this picture come to be taken, John?

BERMAN: Good question. Interesting to see that picture. Max Foster for us in front of Buckingham Palace. Thanks so much, Max.

ROMANS: All right. Forty-four minutes past the hour.

Cord cutters delight. A new sign the end of cable TV could be near? Wait a minute, that's --

BERMAN: Not good.

ROMANS: An early start on your money is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. Let's get an early start on your money.

Very ugly start to the year for stocks. U.S. stock futures a bit lower this morning after yesterday's selloff. The Dow dropped 331 points. That is 2 percent. That felt ugly folks.

Energy stocks led the dive. Crude oil fell more than 5 percent. It is moving lower this morning. It's below $49 a barrel right now. The lowest in more than five years, $49 a barrel. It was well above $100 last summer. Now, experts are saying it could keep falling to $40 or maybe even $30 a barrel before stabilizing.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's resolution is to start a book club with all of you. His Facebook page now has 180,000 likes, 180,000. Yes, he wants to read with you, John. The first book "The End of Power" briefly went out of stock on Amazon.

BERMAN: "Good Night Moon."

ROMANS: No, it's "The End of Power" by Moises Naim. The book's author says he was overwhelmed by the selection. Zuckerberg will pick a new book every two weeks.

ESPN for cord cutters. Satellite provider Dish Network will launch sling TV, it's a bundle of channels including ESPN and CNN delivered over the internet. The core package will be just $20. Users can add extra channels for $5 a month.

Sling TV is designed to attract millennials, no set-top box and a per person subscription instead of per household. Live sports programming has been a big draw for cable subscribers. So, this package could be a game changer.

What's your thought?

BERMAN: I think people want more for less. This is an option. I'm just pleased that CNN is part of it, so my son gets to go to college. I don't know. Is that an honest answer?

ROMANS: That is honest answer. That is superb analysis in the media and business landscape.

BERMAN: My expert analysis.

EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC)