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First Move with Julia Chatterley

Recovery Underway After Deadly Midair Collision; No Survivors in Midair Collision; Trump Blames Democrats and DEI for Collision; Israel- Hamas' Third Hostage-Prisoner Exchange; Figure Skaters Killed in Midair Crash; Three Confirmation Hearings in Capitol Hill. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired January 30, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Zain Asher. We begin with the midair collision over the skies of Washington, D.C., claiming the lives of 67

people. Recovery efforts are underway on the Potomac River where the American Airlines regional jet and Army Black Hawk helicopter went down.

Officials are saying as of now there are no survivors.

Sources told us just moments ago that more than 40 victims have been recovered from the river. Dive operations are done for the day because of

daylight conditions on the water and a growing sense among rescuers that most of the victims that can be reached without removing the fuselage from

the water have actually been already recovered.

We are learning more about the victims, including some top figure staters from both the United States and Russia. And we are hearing more about the

circumstances the night of the crash. Sources tell CNN there was one air traffic controller working two tower positions at the time. Pete Muntean

wraps up the latest on the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating what caused the deadliest

aviation disaster in the United States in more than 23 years.

JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, U.S. NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: We are all here because this is an all-hands-on deck event, and we're here to

assure the American people that we are going to leave no stone unturned.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): American Eagle Flight 5342, a Canadair regional jet operated by PSA Airlines, callsign Bluestreak, directed to land at Reagan

National Airport's Runway 33. One of the most complicated approaches in the country, and running very close to a special corridor used for helicopters

flying close to the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we can do a 33 for Bluestreak 5342.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): The flight's captain had nearly six years of experience with the airline, and the first officer nearly two years,

according to American Airlines CEO.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Runway 33, cleared to land.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Four minutes later, the control tower tells a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, call sign Priority Air Transport, or PAT 25, on

a training mission to look out for the passenger plane and go behind it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: PAT 25, do you have the CRJ in sight? PAT 25, pass behind the CRJ.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: PAT 25 has aircraft in sight, request visual separation.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Despite the helicopter pilot saying he saw the jet, about 13 seconds later, disaster as they slam into each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crash, crash, crash. This is alert 3.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): The plane shattered into three pieces plunging into the dark Potomac River where both aircraft landed upside down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was probably out in the middle of the river. I just saw a fireball and then it was just gone. So, I haven't seen anything

since they hit the river, but it was a CRJ and a helicopter that hit.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): More than 300 first responders descended on the scene for a desperate search in near freezing cold water, but not one of

the 64 people on the plane and the three people on the helicopter survived.

J. TODD INMAN, MEMBER, U.S. NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: A loss of life in an aviation accident is very unusual in the United States. And

our heartfelt sorrow goes out to everyone that's affected. It affects us. It affects everyone around us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: Our many thanks to Pete Muntean for that report. Joining us live now is Stephen Wallace. He's a former director of Accident Investigation at

the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Stephen, thank you so much for being with us.

So, sources at this point are saying that there was possibly one controller manning two tower positions. Explain to us how normal that is for this time

of day and for the amount of traffic that there was.

STEPHEN WALLACE, FORMER DIRECTOR OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION, FAA: I think it's not unusual. They may have some staffing standards that have some

flexibility with them, but I'm not really clear on how unusual is that. I don't think -- and there really wasn't very much traffic.

ASHER: And just in terms of how the investigation is going to unfold, I mean, obviously, we're still waiting for the black boxes to be recovered.

But at this point, just walk us through how the investigation will work.

WALLACE: Yes. And you saw the NTSB, which has now gotten much better about keeping people informed doing a press conference. So, we can be quite

optimistic that this investigation will be thorough and come to a precise and accurate conclusion.

And the reason is the NTSB is extremely thorough. They're not fast. They don't rush. They're extremely thorough. And they have all the evidence that

you could have. They have air traffic control tapes. They have radar, data. They have sophisticated flight data recorders and voice recorders on the

regional jet. I'm not sure what's on military aircraft

[18:05:00]

And they have many eyewitnesses and they have all the wreckage. So, they are just an incredible -- I worked with them for many, many years at --

when I was at the FAA and they are just incredibly thorough. So, you know, we can be confident that this will get to the right conclusion.

It's most unusual -- I mean, the air traffic control system in the U.S. works very, very well. And the last time a U.S. airline was in a midair

collision was in 1978 in San Diego. And so, -- and this is a system that operates depending whether you count -- what you count airliners or

corporate jets, you know, 30,000 or some people say 45,000, depending what private aviation you count flights every very single day. And, you know, we

haven't had a midair collision with the U.S. airliner since 1978.

So, -- but every time I've said that over my life, I've known that it could happen the next day. And last night it did happen.

ASHER: I mean, talk to us about Runway 33. It's one of the most complicated approaches as I understand it, just for aircraft were coming

into Reagan Airport. We know that Reagan Airport is notoriously busy. You've got military planes, you've got helicopters, you've got regional

jets, you've got short runways. Just talk to us about how all of those factors may have, and obviously, we don't know the cause, but may have

contributed to last night's disaster.

WALLACE: Yes. Well, operating the Reagan Airport presents well-known challenges. I have often said that I find that pilots like to complain

about flying into Reagan, but I also think they often enjoy flying into Reagan. It's a stunningly beautiful arrival from either the north or the

south on a nice sunny day.

But certainly, the challenges are unique. But the flight crews are extremely well trained. We have visual simulators now and extremely well

trained and managing those challenges. And of course, landing on only 33, they come typically straight up to the north with domain runway, which is

the longest one, is 7,000 feet long, and that's Runway 1, pretty much going straight north. And then, just a short distance from the airport, the

airplane jogs over to the right and then lines up with Runway 33, which is 40 degrees more to the left in terms of its heading and land. And these

regional jet pilots who may make five legs a day get extremely proficient at it.

And I -- and at the point where this collision occurred, airplanes descended about 300 feet per mile. The airplane, and look to me just from

the pictures that it was maybe a half a mile from the touchdown point. So, it's fairly low. And at that point, the pilot of the regional jet would be

entirely focused on runway center line, his descent angle, his speed, his altitude and totally, totally focused kind of on where he's landing.

ASHER: And final question. Just in terms of, you know, some of the president's comments, I mean, obviously there was a lot of conjecture, a

lot of freewheeling comments by the president. How might they help or hurt the investigation do you think?

WALLACE: Well, the president started with, you know, a powerful -- a message of condolences to the families, which I thought was nice. And he

concluded by saying that the government will take every action necessary to make sure this doesn't happen again. So, those things I agreed with.

The speculation about the causes entirely inappropriate on the first day of an investigation, and you won't see any professional investigators doing

that. And, you know, as far as, you know, hooking in references to DEI, and I just -- I'm just going to take the sort of the technocrat point of view

on that, which is to say any speculation as to the cause of the accident until all the facts are thoroughly gone over by the NTSB is inappropriate.

[18:10:00]

ASHER: All right. Stephen Wallace live for us, former FAA director of Accident Investigation, thank you so much for being with us.

All right. Richard Quest -- my colleague, Richard Quest, was indeed listening to that conversation. Before I get to you, this is what the

president had to say when pressed about diversity playing a part in the crash without, of course, providing any evidence. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Because I have common sense. OK. And unfortunately, a lot of people don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Yes. So, Richard, he blamed the Biden administration, blamed Pete Buttigieg for essentially running the Department of Transportation into the

ground with DEI. Your thoughts on that, Richard.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE AND CNN ANCHOR, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: Yes, and he then went even further in the White House later when

he was signing his executive order or signing the presidential memorandum in which he's -- just to have a search for any DEI in the FAA or any other

aviation organization and root it out. And so, we now know where the president stands.

If you compare the way in which the chair of the NTSB and her -- members of her board conducted themselves, and the way the president went on a rant

about DEI and rampantly speculated, you see two very, very different ways. You see the chair and the lead investigator making it quite clear they were

not going to speculate. And time and again they said, we'll wait until we get the facts and we'll put them on the table.

The president did a much more nuanced version of that. He said, well, I don't know, it might be or it might not be, but common sense says that

there's been all these policies and therefore, ergo, it must be that.

The danger here -- I'm going to answer the question that you asked the previous guest. The danger here is that the public only hears one side of

the story because there's only one side being told at the moment. Everybody else is saying wait until the results, wait for the investigation.

Meanwhile, the tub, tub, tub, thump, thump, thump of it's DEI, it was incompetence, blah, blah, blah, that's the story, that becomes the received

wisdom.

Remember that old line, Zain, about, you know, how long it takes a lie to get halfway around the world before truth's got its pants on.

ASHER: And, Richard, listen, you have covered aviation air traffic or airplane or disasters for decades. I mean, this is really your wheelhouse.

Just in terms of, you know, your reaction when we got this news last night, you know, the U.S. operates at least 30,000 flights a day. Air traffic

control, as the previous guests were saying, runs really well in this country. We have not seen a midair collision in this country since the

1970s. It's decades. Just explain to us what your reaction was when you saw the news last night.

QUEST: Two-fold. You go back -- if you go back, I mean, the last domestic crash. I mean, you had Asiana in San Francisco, but that was a foreign

carrier. The last domestic crash is Buffalo, Colgan and in 2009, and the most deadliest last one was back in 2001.

I think here the issue is, was this an accident waiting to happen? And by that, I mean, there have been in the last 12 to 18 months, several

incidents that have given cause. The former Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, raised this, the industry raised it. There were a couple of

near misses on the ground. There have been two near misses. There have been incidents that have caused concern, and indeed the various departments have

actually looked at this.

So, we need to focus in on the likely areas, air traffic control, airmanship who knew what, where, when and why, that's going to be the

focus. And we are going to be looking for systemic reasons. Not did somebody have a bad day. Is there something in the system that was wrong

that allowed this to happen, that the safety net did not catch it?

And that is why -- look, if you want to put DEI in that pot, that's entirely appropriate. If you want to put quality of air traffic controllers

and pilots, yes, that is legitimate. But to jump to the conclusion at the get-go is entirely wrong and can be very damaging.

ASHER: All right. Richard Quest, live for us there, thank you so much. U.S. Secretary -- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says a mistake was made

during a routine training mission when the Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger jet. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Routine annual retraining of night flights on a standard corridor for a continuity of government mission. The

military does dangerous things. It does routine things on the regular basis.

[18:15:00]

Tragically last night, a mistake was made, and I think the President is right. There was some sort of an elevation issue that we have immediately

begun investigating at the DOD and Army level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: An army official says the pilots had at least 1,500 flight hours between them. Meantime, a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot discussing the

number of crew members with my colleague Jake Tapper. Here that is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH MCCORMICK, FORMER BLACK HAWK HELICOPTER PILOT: They only had a crew of three. And if you're flying a visual flight plan in a crowded

airspace like this, they really should have had two crew chiefs in the back of the helicopter to clear each side as the pilots only have visibility

from straight ahead, 12:00 to 3:00 or 12:00 from -- to 9:00 to 12:00.

So, you only have visibility of the front 180 degrees. Your crew chiefs clear the back. If you only have one crew chief, how much can you clear?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Oren Liebermann is live for us at the Pentagon. So, our understanding is that everything sort of leading up to the crash was

relatively normal. Air traffic control asked the army helicopter PAT 25. Do you have a CRJ in sight, referring to the Canada Air Regional Jet and

requested to keep a lookout for the American Airlines jet, and telling it essentially passed behind the CRJ. What went wrong after that? What do we

know?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can't answer that question definitively. To know the answer to that question would be to know

the probable cause of this crash. And as the previous guests, Richard, included, have pointed out we're simply not at that point yet. Defense

Secretary Pete Hegseth stated what is very much obvious at this point, a mistake was made. The question on whose mistake -- on whose part was that

mistake made?

This was a routine flight with experienced pilots, an instructor pilot who has enough experience to provide instruction to other military pilots, and

that speaks to the experience on board there. The second pilot had 500 hours himself. The instructor pilot had a thousand, either one of them had

the experience necessary to fly a Black Hawk helicopter on their own. And last night were good conditions for visual flight along a route that is

very commonly flown by Army Black Hawk helicopters.

Now, this was an annual evaluation flight to make sure that the pilots are capable of flying at night, capable of meeting the requirements for night

flight. And of course, they fly throughout the months and the years to make sure they have all of the night proficiency requirements as well as

everything else. But all of that will be looked at as part of the investigation, their history of flying. Were there any lapses or mistakes

in their flying?

And then crucially, and Hegseth spoke to this, he also said in a message earlier today that investigators will look at, was the helicopter in the

right spot? Was it flying along the route that it should have been flying? Was it at the altitude, 200 feet or less, that is prescribed for

helicopters along this route? All of that will be part of the investigation.

He seemed to believe that it could be possible fairly quickly to figure out if they were where they should be and at the altitude they should be, and

that might go a long way to figuring out what went wrong here.

A team of experts, an investigative team from the Army's Aviation Safety Center will participate in the investigation. A senior level aviation team

will also help. The Army's Criminal Investigative Division is taking part in this as well. So, there's a massive effort, not only on the part of the

civilian side, the NTSB, the FAA, but also on the part of the military side to figure out what went wrong here.

Meanwhile, the 12th Aviation Battalion, which is the unit the helicopter belonged to, they're taking a 48-hour operational pause just to review

everything and to go through everything they can on their end. So, that pause going for another day, day and a half at this point. Zain.

ASHER: All right. Oren Liebermann, thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right. Still to come, Israel and Hamas carry out the third hostage prisoner

exchange since their ceasefire. This unruly scene briefly throwing the whole operation in jeopardy. We'll tell you what happened just after the

break.

Plus, much more on the Washington, D.C. aviation disaster and the massive blow it's delivered to the global figure skating community. Young athletes

who had hoped to be Olympic contenders among the victims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:00]

ASHER: A tense scene in Southern Gaza Thursday when the newly freed German-Israeli hostage, Arbel Yehud, was led through a crowd filled with

armed Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. The unruly handover angering Israeli leaders who briefly held up the release of Palestinian prisoners

who were part of Thursday's swap.

It was the third exchange between the two sides since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, five Thai nationals held in Gaza were also freed. Jeremy

Diamond has more from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (VOICE-OVER): These are the chaotic final moments of Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud's 15 months in

captivity. Flanked by masked militants, the 29-year-old appears terrified as she is hustled through a raucous crowd in Gaza's southern city of Khan

Younis. Red Cross vehicles and her freedom are just steps away.

In Tel Aviv's Hostage Square, Israelis watch with dreaded anticipation as the scene unfolds live on television. Minutes later, Yehud is handed over

to Red Cross officials. Gadi Moses is next. Amid a sea of militants wearing the green and yellow bandanas of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the

80-year-old hostage is handed over to the Red Cross.

The Israeli prime minister condemning the chaotic scene, calling it yet more proof of the unimaginable cruelty of the Hamas terrorist organization,

demanding that the mediators ensure that such horrific scenes do not recur.

In response, the prime minister delaying the release of 110 Palestinian prisoners, driving Palestinian youths into the streets. Amid clashes, at

least three Palestinians are shot by Israeli forces, according to the Palestine Red Crescent.

Hours later, the buses emerged from Ofer Prison. Of the 110 prisoners being released, 32 were serving life sentences, including several responsible for

deadly attacks on Israeli civilians. 30 children were also released. They had all been arrested in the last two years, some held without charge, none

convicted of a crime.

In Israel, emotional reunions as three Israelis held hostage by Hamas, including the Israeli soldier Agam Berger, were reunited with their

families.

Five Thai hostages were also released, freed in addition to the 33 Israeli hostages being released during the six-week ceasefire.

President Trump's Middle East envoy also making an appearance at Hostage Square.

STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST: President Trump is committed to doing everything possible to help the families.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Indicating one of two Americans set to be released in the coming weeks will be freed on Saturday.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN. Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: Joining me now is former U.S. State Department negotiator and Carnegie Endowment senior fellow Aaron David Miller. Aaron, thank you so

much for being with us. So, I just want to start by some of the chaotic scenes we saw outside of Yahya Sinwar's home with one of the hostages who

were released clearly being jostled back and forth.

[18:25:00]

A lot of people in Israel were very angered by that, especially because some of the more right-wing members of Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet were

essentially saying that that is evidence that Israel must return to war. Give us your reaction to those scenes.

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR AND SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: You know, my sense is, look, this is

not an agreement between the United States and Switzerland. It's an agreement forged after 15 months of extraordinary trauma and violence,

Palestinians in (INAUDIBLE) and Israel on October 7th and then the Israeli response.

I'm actually quite surprised that the initial several weeks are going without what I would call major interruptions. This latest exchange,

though, I mean, the one in Northern Gaza was propaganda, but it was, at least, I guess, you could say, relatively civil for a hostage release.

The other one either was complete incompetence or a painful reminder to the Israeli public following Hamas' manipulation of the Israeli media that they

are, in fact, in charge. They could usher Arbel Yehud through this angry crowd and "protect her," quote/unquote, from a potentially and really mob.

And I think it was a play to demonstrate that they are now still, after 15 months, in charge. And the impact it's going to have on the Israeli public,

obviously, is self-evident.

Wait until the eight hostages that Israelis now know of the remaining 33 are returned, the ones who are no longer alive. So, the release process, as

extraordinary joyful as it is for the families, is also clearly going to have a hardening impact, not just on the Israeli right-wing, but on most

Israelis.

ASHER: Because these images were deliberately designed to show that Hamas is clearly still standing. Just explain to us how much stronger -- despite

15 months of war, how much stronger is Hamas than perhaps some members of the Israeli public have been led to believe despite just the ongoing war?

MILLER: Well, if measured against the prime minister's notion of total victory, which would involve not just what the Israelis have already done,

which is to destroy Hamas' organizational, its military organization, its capacity to launch low trajectory rockets, for example, or let alone cross

border incursion.

They've eliminated most of the senior leadership. They have turned much of the Palestinian public, I think, certainly in private in Gaza, wondering

exactly what October 7th has wrought. Death and destruction, frankly.

So, in a way, Hamas is more responsive now to Palestinian public opinion, because they know that there's been great suffering, and they have to find

a way -- that's why I think Hamas really does have an investment in making sure phase one goes as smoothly as possible.

They're going to remain an insurgency. They are a legitimate actor still in the Palestinian National Movement, and given the weakness of the

Palestinian Authority, they will continue to wield influence either through intimidation or cooptation with respect to determining what or who is going

to govern Gaza in the future.

So, he has hollowed out, no doubt, weaker clearly than they have ever been, but still capable of significant influence.

ASHER: Just in terms of the hostages that were released, five Thai nationals were released as part of this. Just explain to us what we know

about how they ended up as part of these negotiations and also what both sides would be getting out of that.

MILLER: I mean, I confess right up front that I'm not sure I fully understand it. The Thais took a huge beating. 30 plus were killed. They

were employed workers on some of the farms and villages and keep a team in the south. I mean, this occurred well outside of the agreement between

Israel and the Palestinians in phase one.

I'm not sure this was anticipated a release. It may have been a spontaneous effort on the part of Hamas to pick up or score points. I'm not sure what

equities or credibility Hamas really cares about with respect to the government of Thailand. But the fact is the hostages that remain,

particularly the IDF soldiers, both living and dead, the redemption of the living and the redemption of the dead bodies are incredibly important to

the Israeli body politic, to any sort of -- I'll use the word closure in the wake of October 7th, probably not appropriate.

[18:30:00]

So, Hamas knows which hostages carry the most weight. And may well be there was simply no interest on the part of Hamas to continue to retain the

Thais. There's an at least one additional Thai who was not released. So, again, on this one, I'm just guessing.

ASHER: All right. Aaron David Miller, Carnegie Endowment senior fellow, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

All right. Still to come, the figure skating community in mourning after athletes and coaches were killed in Wednesday's midair collision. We'll

have the details on the victims after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: All right. Welcome back to "First Move" with a look at more international headlines this hour. U.S. President Donald Trump reaffirming

that he will impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada beginning Saturday. He says he has not made up his mind whether he'll impose tariffs

on their oil just yet. President Trump also says he continues to weigh 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods.

British singer and actress Marianne Faithfull has died at the age of 78. Faithfull had a string of hits in the 1960s, including "As Tears Go By,"

written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. She was also romantically involved with Mick Jagger. Jagger says he's saddened by

the news. He says, Faithful will always be remembered.

Back to our top story, the investigation into Wednesday's air disaster in the Washington area. Officials from the National Transportation Safety

Board said at a news conference a few hours ago that some 50 investigators are at the site of the collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and an

American Airlines passenger jet. They also said flight data recorders have not yet been recovered from the scene and that it's too soon to speculate

on what exactly caused this crash.

[18:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INMAN: We don't know what we know just yet. We do not know enough facts to be able to rule in or out human factor, mechanical factors. That is part of

the NTSB investigative process and where all of these groups will come together. It's one of the reasons why the NTSB is known as the gold

standard. We will take the time that's necessary.

But I'd also like to reiterate, if we find something that is a significant issue that warrants immediate action, we will not hesitate to make those

recommendations and make them public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: A source now telling CNN that an air traffic controller on duty at the time of the disaster was working two separate tower positions, an

arrangement that the source calls not uncommon. 67 people died in the accident Wednesday night. There were no survivors.

President Trump has claimed, without evidence, that policies of previous Democratic administrations were to blame. He issued a presidential

memorandum on Thursday, directing a review of aviation policies.

Among the victims, young athletes and their family members from the U.S. figure skating community. Coaches were also killed, including two former

world champions who originally competed for Russia. Former U.S. Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan spoke about the impact on the community.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY KERRIGAN, FIGURE SKATING SILVER MEDALIST AT 1994 OLYMPICS: You don't have to know everybody to feel that connection. We've been through the same

thing, that training, that rigorous schedule of falling over and over and somehow picking yourself back up, which is like the main lesson I think

learned in skating is you get back up, keep on trying. And even when it's hard, you get back up. Even when you're crying, hurt, pain, you get back up

and move forward. It's not easy, but that's what we all have to do now together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: CNN sports analyst and USA Today columnist Christine Brennan joins us with more. I mean, that was a really emotional Nancy Kerrigan there. I

mean, she makes a great point, that's the skating community is a tight knit one, right? You've got parents and kids training together day in, day out,

all hours of the day and six to seven days a week. I mean, you basically become family at that point. Just explain to us what has been the reaction

of the figure skating community to this.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST AND USA TODAY SPORTS COLUMNIST: Well, Zain, you're absolutely right. And Nancy, of course, has done this

for decades that yes. I mean, when you think about who was on the plane, it was skaters, but their parents, you know, moms or in some cases, both

parents, which the tragedy then is compounded even more if it's possible to compound a tragedy of this magnitude even more.

But yes, it's figure skating becomes a very big sport, a very big deal at the Olympic Games, which will be a little bit more than a year from now in

Milan and Cortina in Italy, the 2026 Winter Olympics. The other four years, there's world champions, national championships, et cetera. But in general,

it kind of goes away and then it comes back up.

And some of the biggest names in sport history have been, of course, figure skaters. So, whether it's Katarina Witt or Peggy Fleming or Brian Boitano,

you know, Viktor Petrenko, so many others over the years, those are names from around the world that people care about.

And -- but the sport of figure skating is a popular sport in the United States. And of course, the fact we're talking about children, young kids,

you know, this is the future or was the future of U.S. figure skating. These kids would not have been at the Olympics next year. They're 13, 14,

15 years old. This was a developmental camp that occurred after the U.S. Nationals.

So, Ilia Malinin, the gold medal favorite next year in the men's, he competed Sunday. He went home Monday on a similar flight, came back to D.C.

actually, where I am now. But these skaters then -- the younger kids had this camp for a few days and where they had a chance to dream and learn,

work on their skills, be coached by great coaches, including the former Russian world champs in '94, who tragically lost their lives. And now, of

course, then flying home, they're gone.

And it is really a tough story. People even in the -- outside the sports world, Zain, I think are really having trouble with just the grief and the

sadness of this terrible, terrible circumstance that has occurred.

ASHER: Yes. Because, I mean, it's not the first time that the figure skating world has been hit by an aviation disaster. The last time that this

happened was in 1961, I believe. But, Christine Brennan, we do have to leave it there. Thank you so much.

BRENNAN: Thank you.

ASHER: All right. Coming up, three confirmation hearings, one momentous day. We'll bring you the latest on Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr., and Kash Patel.

We'll have much more on that story after the break too.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

ASHER: All right. Welcome back to "First Move." Three Senate hearings, three different nominees. Lawmakers grilled President Donald Trump's picks

for his new administration during a contentious day in Washington, D.C. Mr. Trump's pick for National Intelligence Director, former House Democrat

Tulsi Gabbard has come up -- has come under fire, rather, from some critics who believes that she supports Russia. Gabbard started her hearing telling

Americans to ignore them. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TULSI GABBARD, TRUMP'S PICK FOR DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I want to warn the American people who are watching at home. You may hear lies and

smears in this hearing that will challenge my loyalty to and my love for our country. The fact is what truly unsettles my political opponents is I

refuse to be their puppet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, Senators grilled Kash Patel, the president's pick for FBI director, over his past comments calling for

punishment of people he believes are part of a so-called deep state. Patel defended his comments saying he would not seek revenge if sworn in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, TRUMP'S PICK FOR FBI DIRECTOR: I have no interest, no desire, and will not if confirmed, go backwards. There will be no politicization at

the FBI. There will be no retributive actions taken by any FBI, should I be confirmed as the FBI director. I told you that in your office and I'll tell

you that again today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Meantime, another former Democrat, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., making perhaps the most controversial comments during his hearings, telling one

African American senator that black people should have different vaccine schedules than white people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ANGELA ALSOBROOKS (D-MD): So, what different vaccine schedule would you say I should have received? What different vaccine schedule should I

receive?

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR, U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES NOMINEE: I mean, the pollen article suggests that blacks need fewer antigens.

ALSOBROOKS: And this is so dangerous.

KENNEDY JR.: So, you get the same measles vaccine.

ALSOBROOKS: Mr. Kennedy, with all due respect, that is so dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: For more on all this, I'm joined by our Stephen Collinson. So, Stephen, we're going to get to the RFK Jr. comments in just a moment. But

first, I do want to start with Tulsi Gabbard because she was grilled by senators and she refused to call Edward Snowden a traitor. And obviously,

there are a lot of people that believe that she supports Russia. Just explain to us how much her comments frustrated some of her Senate

colleagues.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I think there was a real sense of unease among some of the Republicans in that hearing. A lot of

things she was saying go against decades of Republican foreign policy belief. Most of the Republicans, if not all in that committee, believe that

Edward Snowden, the big intelligence leaker is a traitor. The fact that she wasn't able to say that publicly -- she did say that he broke the law, but

she's also, on record in the past, to saying that he should be pardoned. And I think that made -- cause a great deal of disquiet for some of these

Republican senators.

[18:45:00]

Also, meetings with President Assad, the deposed president of Syria, came up some contacts she had with people that appeared to be later affiliated

with Hezbollah were talked about and her supposed parroting of Russian propaganda over Ukraine, which she denied.

So, I think this nomination is going to be very interesting. It only takes one Republican senator in that committee to stop her coming out of

committee, and that would make it very difficult for the Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, to give her a full vote. So, I don't think she put to

rest many of the concerns among Republicans about her nomination today.

ASHER: And just in terms of Kash Patel, obviously he split with Trump when it came to January 6th and pardoning certain people who committed violent

acts against police officers. But also, Kash Patel said that he would not seek revenge against political opponents. I mean, the fact that he actually

has to say that and has to voice that, what does that tell you about where we are in American politics?

COLLINSON: You know, not just Kash Patel, but the other two we're talking about here. I mean, what a strange set of nominees they are, and in many

ways they each represent one side of President Trump's psychology that we also saw on display in that wild news conference about the plane crash

today.

Kash Patel was grilled by Democrats who talked about the January the 6th riot and his support for some of those rioters, his calls for pardons, his

calls for revenge. Often, he was presented with things he'd said on podcasts or in his own book, and denied them. He said, he didn't have an

enemies list in his book, he had a glossary listing so-called members of the deep state.

In terms of Patel, I think that there are many Republican senators who actually agree with him that the Justice Department was weaponized under

President Biden. They share President Trump's views of this, or perhaps if they don't believe them, they have to believe them to -- have to show they

believe them to their own constituents.

So, I think Patel actually did quite well from that sense in his hearing and his confirmation, I think is much more likely the end of the today than

it was at the beginning.

ASHER: RFK Jr. saying that America should not be giving black people the same vaccine schedule that's given to white people because their immune

system is, quote/unquote, "better than ours." They have a different number of antigens. I mean, explain to our international audience how dangerous it

would be to have somebody with those sorts of views running America's health department.

You know, some of this stuff is bizarre and conspiratorial. If RFK Jr., for example, were to, you know, get this public megaphone to talk about

vaccines it doesn't take too much for some people to stop taking vaccines to listen to him, and then the immunity of the entire population gets

compromised.

The interesting thing to watch with this nomination is Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. He's a physician, and during the hearings, he was clearly

wrestling with this dilemma that he faces between his conscience as a doctor who practiced for about 30 years and his political leanings and the

danger, politically, he would face if he comes out against this nomination.

I think with all these nominations, but particularly RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, the question is, if they get into trouble next week, if it looks

like they perhaps don't have the votes, how much is Trump going to publicly campaign for them? How much is he going to threaten primary races against

some of these Republican senators who are on the fence? It only takes three of them to vote against, and they can't get confirmed.

So, you know, that's the thing to watch, I think, with this. Does Trump really want these people in his cabinet?

ASHER: All right. Stephen Collinson, over to us there. Thank you so much.

COLLINSON: Thank you.

ASHER: All right. News just from CNN. We are hearing officials at the National Transportation Board have recovered a data recorder from the

American Airlines plane that collided with a military helicopter in Washington, D.C. that a black box, essentially, has been recovered from the

American Airlines flight. That's according to Senator Maria Cantwell's office.

It was not immediately clear which of the planes' black boxes has actually been retrieved because there are two black boxes on most planes. Reminder

that all aboard are believed to be dead. Sources tell CNN that more than 40 bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River, but dive operations have

finished today because of nightfall.

We'll be right back with more. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:00]

ASHER: All right. Nigeria's trade minister says her country is slowly but surely changing its business climate. Nigeria is saddled with a reputation

for corruption. It scored just 25 out of 100 on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index.

Richard Quest spoke to Jumoke Oduwole last week at the World Economic Forum. She said that the country is actually becoming a much easier place

to grow and start a business.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUMOKE ODUWOLE, NIGERIAN MINISTER OF INDUSTRY, TRADE, INVESTMENT: For the last nine years, I've been working on business climate reforms. In fact,

that is why I got this job, ease of doing business. Over 200 verifiable reforms implemented by -- or verified by the World Bank.

Nigerian businesses have learned to trust that gradually, ease of people, processes, and to a lesser extent infrastructure, the PEBEC has delivered

on that mandate. So, now it's time to take it further, move it to investment promotion, move it to exports of services, because it leaves

less infrastructure, so it's a quicker win for Nigeria.

QUEST: How can you essentially clean up the trade -- the business environment? How can you change the culture within this?

ODUWOLE: There's no shortcut. It's the people issues, the processes, and infrastructure. We need to start making sure there's more transparency and

efficiency. And we've been doing that work for nine years. There's just no shortcut. We continue to make it a progressively easier place to start and

grow a business.

QUEST: See, one of the things I always find extraordinary about Africa, besides just the excitement of the place, but aviation is a good example of

how dreadful it can be. How you have to almost go via the Gulf or Europe to get from one side of Africa to the other, simply because the deregulation

hasn't happened within the continent.

ODUWOLE: So, for instance, our minister of aviation has put in impressive reform. So, part of why you have that lack of connectivity is, for

instance, Nigeria was a signatory to the Cape Town Convention, but we hadn't done the procedural rules at the Federal High Court. So, that has

been done last year.

And so, now, more aviation sector is paying attention, investment, cheaper planes for lease, and those are the things that bring costs down. Those are

the things that bring -- open up new routes and connectivity. So, it's services, services, services. Nigeria's GDP mix is skewed towards services

and growing.

QUEST: You've been described as the next Ngozi. Of course, who was standing where you were only last night, and is a dear friend of this

program. And I've interviewed her, I interviewed her when she was finance minister. So, it's quite a compliment that people are regarding you as

being somebody who can make that much of a contribution.

ODUWOLE: Yes. Christine Lagarde just called me one of Ngozi's girls, and I think that's a huge compliment. I just told Madam Digi that as well.

It's about excellence. It's about impact. It's about being good at what you do and being committed to your role to deliver for over 200 million

Nigerian people.

[18:55:00]

QUEST: It's about choosing a color.

ODUWOLE: Red. Actually, green.

QUEST: That was a quick change of mind.

ODUWOLE: Yes.

QUEST: All right. The next four years in one word. You can jump on somebody else's, you can choose your own. Digital.

ODUWOLE: I'm telling the world Nigeria is open for business. We're digital. Five out of nine unicorns in Africa are Nigerian. Nigerian talent,

our youth, incredible. Don't miss the wave. Working on it. But we are resourceful. We are resilient. We are agile. In spite of a deficiency in

power, look at our economy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: All right. That does it for the show. Thank you so much for joining us. I am Zain Asher. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:00:00]

END