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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Two New York Police Officers Shot; Search for Flight 8501 Continues; Opening Day of 114th Congress

Aired January 06, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And yet we see these two guys out there at the end of their shift, plainclothes going in and taking two bullets.

TOM FUENTES, LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well Ashleigh, I think it shows that the police department, the police officers themselves are not going to let the public be in danger. If there's a violent crime such as an armed robbery or a bank robbery or a burglary in progress, they're certainly going to respond and they're going to go above and beyond the call of duty in responding to that crime.

I think the slow down that you're seeing from the police perspective is what they view as being used by the government to create a revenue stream. So the citations, the parking violations, the nonviolent type crimes generate a lot of money for the city of New York and they're looking at it like, you know, we can cut back on that. And oh, by the way, when those minor crimes that you try to arrest somebody for go badly, then you criticize us "Oh, you were just trying to arrest somebody for some minor thing, why did they have to become violent."

And the police will tell you it's not their choice that it become violent but when it ends up being that, that's kind of the criticism they face. So I think there's a big huge difference between and you're seeing it here between responding to a violent crime where the public is in danger and these other minor crimes that they really just assume not bother with.

BANFIELD: You know, and it's a good point. Just before we go to break Tom, I just want to put that series of statistics up on the screen so that people can actually see what it is exactly that is making this big story. These are the numbers that we're talking about over the last couple of weeks.

The arrests are down. The total arrests, parking summons, traffic summonses, criminal summonses, gun arrests, drug arrests, DWI arrests, transit arrest and public housing arrest down and just like Tom said, you got those boys in blue out there on the street, they're going to turn their back when there are some, you know, innocent New Yorker who's facing down the barrel of that old hand gun. You know, end of their shift, plainclothes, they went in and they took a bullet, they both take a bullet for it.

Tom Fuentes, thank you so much. Mel Robins, I'm impressed, thank you as well. We'll continue to watch the story. Certainly we're watching to see when we get the identity actually confirmed as being apprehended of the guy who did the shooting.

I also want to take you this, the new developments and the other big story that we're working on for you, the search for more wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8510. We're going to have some new information for you on some very critical information that the pilot of that dooms flight may or may not have actually received before they were wheeled off. Details is ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: New questions emerging today about how much the AirAsia pilots knew about that bad weather before their flight. Flight 8501 actually took off from the runway. In the meantime, two more bodies have been found floating in the Java Sea. It's the search for the rest of the plane's wreckage continues.

This is new video of the USS Sampson. It's one of the American ships that's aiding in the search over there. The discovery brings the total number of bodies that have now been found to 39.

Official say those two bodies were spotted by air and then they were confirmed by the vessels floating in the sea, because none of the 97 divers who are actually on hand and waiting to do their jobs have actually been able to do their jobs. They can't get into the water because the conditions are so bad. It's just bad weather all round.

Right now it's after midnight there and CNN's David Molko is working late. He's following all of this from Surabaya, Indonesia where the flight to Singapore originated and despite that's midnight we still have some emerging news. Can you tell me a little about the weather briefings and this back and forth about whether the pilot actually picked up their weather briefings before they got on that plane and took off?

David can you hear me? I don't think David can hear us. If we can reestablish his link. You know, let's try and bring in Miles O'Brien while we're trying to reestablish David Molko's link.

I know it's late there but this news is breaking and there seems to be some confusing, Miles, about the way those weather reports are actually disseminated and how those pilots are supposed to or actually do get briefed on what they're flying into. What is actually happening in these situations?

MILES O'BRIEN, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the rules there appeared to be a bit of anachronous (ph), Ashleigh. You actually have to walk down the hall, go to an office, and see a weather guy face to face. This is the way -- used to be done here in the U.S. many years ago. It's long since it has been replaced by electronic means at the very least printed out things from a computer but stopped (inaudible) iPads and computers. It's perfectly satisfactory.

What the airline is saying is instead of forcing the pilots to do that, what -- as you can imagine would be (inaudible) to say the least and perhaps a waste of their time. The information that the weather office there provide is convey to them electronically by some means. But let me just say one thing here. There's nobody who is saying the airline, the regulator, the weather bureau there, or for that matter, anybody looking at those weather reports including myself, no one would say they shouldn't have taken off. There was no reason not to fly that flight.

The bad weather was about 300 miles away. And the decision on how to deal with it was a decision that would be made in real time. That's what we should be focusing on. What was going on the cockpit, decisions made at that time and request to deviate, whether that request was responded to in a timely way or not, the captain has the responsibility to stay out of the weather.

So, the weather forecast you get on the ground is a decision go or no go, and no one is saying they shouldn't have gone.

BANFIELD: Well, you know, Miles, as we contemplate that because clearly there were other planes taking off from that airport. It wasn't a ground stop. There were other planes that thought it...

O'BRIEN: Right.

BANFIELD: ... was safe enough to be fly. I want to go back to David Molko. I think we've reestablished our line to Surabaya, Indonesia. I apologized, David. I hope you can hear me now. But I was asking you just before Miles and I were speaking about this, he said, she said, almost that's going on between the airline and those who are claiming that the pilot didn't physically go to an office and pick up the physical report before they got on the physical plane and took off.

How are they actually categorizing this?

DAVID MOLKO, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: Yeah. Ashleigh, pardon me for a second while I just refresh my forehead. It's a little buggy out here.

Filling in the gaps of your conversation with Miles, this is the actual weather report from the Weather Office there. This is the information pilots would have had access to on the morning of December 28. Of course, as Miles was mentioning and you were talking about, they did not pick up a copy at the Weather Office. You know, but we're hearing from the officials there, is that AirAsia regularly did not pick up the copy.

The other side of it, though, is that the same information is available online. And what AirAsia is saying is "Yeah, we download it. We bring it to our operation centers and then it's printed out and brought to the pilots onboard these flights."

I'm going to read you a bit about statement here from AirAsia responding to all of these, talk about how their pilots get weather information. It's from the president of AirAsia Indonesia, "AirAsia Indonesia receives and disseminates the weather report that comes from the exact same source as the hard copy revision made available at the meteorological station," excuse me. So, they're basically saying, "Hey, you know, we've got the same information. We disseminated in the same way and our pilots have access and can therefore plan the flight in the same way and safely." Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, David Molko, thank you for that. And, you know I just want to go one step further here and read something that the airline sent out. It said, the weather report documents are received by the operations control center in all AirAsia Indonesia hubs including Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Bandung, Denpasar which are then printed and brought onto the flight with the pilots.

So if they didn't go into an office and pick it up, AirAsia is saying, they printed out, they have a hard copy in hand when they get onboard that flight, of course, right now, we can't know that because we have not found that airplane.

My thanks to Miles O'Brien and David Molko for their reporting on this, and also right now, the politics in the pump of a brand new congress meeting for the first time today, both the Senate and the House convening this hour electing leadership. Both bodies will now be in control of the Republican Party or least we should say the Republican Party will be in control of both of those bodies and that's a big, big deal. That's why my colleague Wolf Blitzer, is going to come in tell his coverage right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our special coverage, I'm Wolf Blitzer here on Washington. We're covering the opening day of 114th Congress. It's the most Republican Congress in almost 70 years.

As you know, Republicans took back the majority in the U.S. Senate in the midterm elections in November winning 9 seats from Democrats. They'll have 54 Republicans, a majority in the U.S. Senate. They strengthen their hold -- a hold in the House of Representatives, another net pickup of 13. Both chambers came to order at the top of this hour. The Senate's sworn its new and reelected members of the House, meantime, is preparing to vote on a speaker.

John Boehner, almost certainly, almost certainly will be reinstalled but he does have some serious opposition from within his own caucus. Tea Party favorites Louie Gohmert of Texas, Ted Yoho of Florida, that don't have a real shot of actually winning the speakership themselves but they hope to rob off Boehner of an outright majority at least on the first ballot.

No such drama in the upper chamber. Mitch McConnell leads the first Republican-controlled Senate since 2007. He will become the majority leader.

Once again, joining us for our special coverage this hour, Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper, the anchor of The Lead which airs Monday through Friday 4 p.m. eastern.

Give us a little flavor of this new House of Representatives. What do you see there?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, we should say the Congress in general, the House and Senate, this is the most diverse Congress in American history.

You have, first of all, 46 African-Americans. You have a record number of women in the House and Senate, 104. There are 33 Hispanics. There are 12 Asian-Americans. This is the biggest class of Black Republicans, too, since reconstruction. There's Mia Love, newly elected House member from Utah and Tim Scott, senator from South Carolina.

BLITZER: And she's the first woman Republican in the House.

TAPPER: First African-American woman Republican in the House.

But all that being said, this incredibly diverse class or most diverse class in history, it is still 80 percent male, 80 percent white. So still, has a long way to go in terms of reflecting the United States of America population.

BLITZER: Yeah, good point. Dana is up (inaudible), our Chief Congressional Correspondent. Dana, I don't know how much drama there is but there is a little bit of drama as far as John Boehner being reelected speaker of the House. That process is now getting under way, right?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There actually were officially formally five people nominated to be Speaker of the House and the votes are beginning as we speak. You see that playing out on the House floor.

The five people are John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi. It is the tradition for the Minority Party to nominate and vote for their minority leader and that's happening here even though because they don't have the votes in Congress. There is -- or in the House rather. There's a very little chance that she would actually win. And then, the three additional Republicans who have been nominated as alternatives to John Boehner.

You mentioned a couple of them. Ted Yoho who is a conservative from Minnesota, Louie Gohmert who is from Texas, and Daniel Webster as an additional Republican who is nominated from the state of Florida. So you have three Republican alternatives to John Boehner in these votes.

Now, what does this all mean? And in practical terms, what we're going to look for is to see whether or not John Boehner gets the majority of the first vote. That is going to be the key question, the majority of the vote. And what the opponents of John Boehner are trying to do is to deny him that, to force a second vote. If nobody gets to the majority, there's a -- they force a second vote.

That would definitely send everything on the House floor into chaos. We would likely see the House go into recess and Republicans regroup to try to figure out if there would be a way for John Boehner to salvage his job as speaker or if they would have to find an alternative.

Again, we don't expect that to happen but that is what we are looking for right now and that would be opponents of John Boehner, those who have been working very hard over the last 24, 48 hours to have a (inaudible). That's what they've been working on.

BLITZER: When do you expect quickly, Dana, for us to know for sure that John Boehner has been reelected speaker? What time?

BASH: That's actually hard to tell. This could go on for about an hour. A lot of it depends on who is in the chamber, how long they have to wait for people to come in. There are a lot of outside factors that make it hard to guess exactly how long it's going to be. But it probably could take a little bit of time. We'll keep you on.

BLITZER: All right. We'll stay obviously on top of the story. Dana, stand by. Let's take a quick break. More of the 114th U.S. Congress right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. We're watching new 114th U.S. Congress. The Senate has been sworn in, the House of Representatives have been sworn in, now they're determining, who will be the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The voting has started. We should know presumably within an hour or so whether John Boehner, as fully expected, will be reelected Speaker of the House.

Let's bring in Gloria Borger, our Chief Political Analyst. She's up on the Senate side. Gloria, we're just been told by our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta, that the President is now expected to invite the Congressional leadership, the Democratic and Republican leadership over to the White House for a meeting next Tuesday. He wants to start this dialog, I assume, and see if there can be some serious cooperation. What do you think?

GLORIA BORGER, CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Always a good idea to do that. The President has not been known in the past for reaching across the aisle like this. Look, talking of folks at the White House, it's very clear to me that they believe there are certain things that they can do with Republicans. Mitch McConnell has made it clear that he doesn't want Republicans to be "scary" to use his word, so that perhaps they can get something done on infrastructure and on trade, maybe even on taxes.

But less not pretend here. There are going to be some show votes on Obamacare particularly in the House. The Republicans are going to vote to pass the Keystone Pipeline, which everyone presumes the President at this point will veto.

They're going to try and repeal other parts of the President's Affordable Care Act. They're going to try and cut government spending in various ways. So, you know, the Republicans and Democrats are not going to be any more are likely to sort of hug each other and forget their differences than they ever had been in the past. I think the difference here is, well, and that in moving into 2016 Republicans have a choice. They can either decide to go the root of ideological purity and take ideological stand as those Republicans in the House were voting against John Boehner would like, or they can follow Mitch McConnell's lead to a degree and Boehner's lead to a degree and say "Look, we actually have to show that we can get a few things done around here, because we are actually in control of a branch of government.

That being the Congress heading into the presidential election year and there are a handful of a Republican Senators who would like to be president, of course of all of them would probably like to be president but there are four we know about so far. So, you know, I think that's all going to play into the calculation here and Republicans have a decision to make and Democrats have a decision to make, too.

BLITZER: They certainly do. Stand by Gloria, Dana Bash is on the house side of the U.S Capitol right now. Once again, (inaudible) the voting a I suspect has now started the official voting for the next Speaker of the House. We anticipate John Boehner will be reelected. But as you point out, there are some opponents, some names have been raised, some names have been put in into the process right now technically and formally.

BASH: That's right. So what we are seeing now is that all of the members present, not all 435 but pretty close, in their seats and they are being called on one by one in alphabetical order, I should say were only in the seats right now to say who they support and most of the -- all of the Democrats so far have said Pelosi. That is the tradition, again, of those in the minority party to vote for their leader as speaker, but because they don't have the votes that doesn't happen.

And we've only so far heard just a couple of Republicans vote for somebody other than John Boehner, and those others so far Louie Gohmert, Ted Yoho, and Daniel Webster, three conservative Republicans who put their hats on the ring ion order to make the point that they don't believe that John Boehner has been the right kind of leader for Republicans over the past four years in the majority and in the minority before that.

So we're going to continue to watch this. Again, the key here is for in order to win the speakership somebody, John Boehner, has to get the majority of those who are present. So it's going to take a little while because again they are going very slowly in each in the order of the alphabet.

BLITZER: Yeah, it doesn't happen everyday. A roll call on the Florida House of Representatives that happens in the Senate but not necessarily in the House, we'll watch it closely. Dana will standby, Gloria will standby, we'll have much more of our special coverage on this historic day, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer.