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Two NYPD Officers Shot; Some House Republicans may Challenge Speakership of John Boehner; Interview with Congressman Ted Yoho; Flu Now Widespread in 43 States

Aired January 06, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A frantic manhunt in New York City.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two New York Police officers shot in the line of duty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These officers had come off their shift and went back out to search for the criminals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's getting dangerous out here, you know. And this is a bad neighborhood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police are hunting for two gunmen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's crazy. I know two cops getting shot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Buckingham palace denying allegations in a federal lawsuit to sex crimes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is a liar. She claimed to meet the queen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peace is better than war because life is better than death.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Former three-term New York governor will be laid to rest at a Manhattan church later this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole country is feeling this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of his grandchildren said he was the best grandfather anyone could ever have, and that's why I'm here, not politics.

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CAMEROTA: That is high praise, to be the best grandfather anybody could have. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, January 6th, 8:00 in the east. I'm Alisyn Camerota with John Berman. We do have breaking news to tell you about overnight. Two NYPD officers shot in the line of duty in the Bronx. At this hour an all-out manhunt for the two suspects. The officers responding to a robbery call late last night when shots rang out. One officer is in critical condition after being struck in the arm and the back.

BERMAN: We want you to take a look now at this surveillance video. Police say it shows one of the suspects. There is a $10,000 reward being offered for any help finding him and his accomplice. The shooting took place a day after the city buried one of two police officers murdered in his patrol car last month. So much going on right now, so much tension. Miguel Marquez tracking the latest developments for us. Miguel?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, one of the suspects may be in police custody or under at least under investigation. Somebody checked into a hospital in north Manhattan that may be connected to this. Police are investigating that. It is worth underscoring, though, that these two officers were shot in the line of duty. They were not targeted as previous officers were. All this as the police here are on high alert.

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MARQUEZ: Breaking this morning, the NYPD on a manhunt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's crazy. I live here and I know two cops getting shot. It's ridiculous.

MARQUEZ: Police scouring New York City for two male suspects who allegedly shot two plain clothed NYPD officers overnight. Newly released surveillance video shows one of the suspects at a shop window, then turning and the suspect fires the gun. The officers responding to a robbery at a grocery store in the Bronx near the end of their shift.

WILLIAM J. BRATTON, POLICE COMMISSIONER: The officers returned fire, and during the exchange two anti-crime officers were wounded.

MARQUEZ: One of the officers, a 30-year-old male, remains in critical but stable condition after suffering gunshot wounds to his arm and lower back. The other, a 38-year-old who was shot in the chest and arm, also in stable condition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's getting dangerous out here, you know. This is a bad neighborhood here.

MARQUEZ: New York's police commissioner says the suspects fled the scene after hijacking a car later found abandoned with a black revolver nearby. The suspects described as Hispanic males between 25 and 30 years old.

BRATTON: Investigators were notified of a male who had entered Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in upper Manhattan with a gunshot wound to the back. Detectives are currently investigating any possible connection to this previous incident.

MARQUEZ: This comes as the police department is still reeling from the loss of two of their own in a city still grappling with tensions between police and the community.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, (D NEW YORK: These officers did something that was extraordinarily brave this evening, and they did it as part of their commitment, as is absolutely the case of officers going above and beyond the call to protect their fellow New Yorkers.

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MARQUEZ: All of this against the backdrop whether or not New York City police are on a work slowdown. The number of summonses, the arrests way down for the last couple of weeks now. Police say that they are looking into it. Clearly the officers who responded to this call possibly off-shift, possibly without their protective vests on, weren't slowing down at all. John.

BERMAN: All right, thanks so much, Miguel.

It is opening day for the new Congress, and both chambers are fielding right-handed lineup. It's a baseball joke and a pretty good one. The Republicans will be in charge of the Senate and the House for the first time in nearly a decade, and House Speaker John Boehner is facing a mini rebellion from Tea Party conservatives in his bid to retain that leadership post. CNN's Dana Bash joins us now live from Capitol Hill. Dana, is this symbolic or should the speaker be worried here?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At this point it looks like it will end up being symbolic. But with the House Republican caucus, you should expect the unexpected. And let's put it into perspective here. When this new Congress is sworn in, in a few hours, there will be 246 House Republicans. So far, only about a dozen have publicly said that they would vote against John Boehner. And also I'm not sure if people realize that most of the leadership here on Capitol Hill, they're elected by their fellow members. The House speaker job is different. It's constitutional. So that is a requirement of 218 votes, the majority of the House.

So what is happening right now is John Boehner and his allies are cautiously optimistic. They are quietly making calls. But I talked to one, Tom Cole, who said that he feels like this is just an annoyance more than anything else.

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REP. TOM COLE, (R) OKLAHOMA: This is a last-moment side show, but the sad thing is it distracts from what our message ought to be. We ought to be talking about the Republican agenda and the possibilities now that we own the Senate about Keystone, about fixes on Obamacare, trade, regulatory reform, those types of issues. Instead on the opening day of a new Republican Congress we've got Republicans at odds. And that's just unfortunate. It steps on the story and doesn't accomplish anything productive.

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BASH: The argument that Cole and other Boehner aides I've been talking to make you can't replace someone with no one, and right now, there doesn't seem to be anybody who could come close to getting 218 votes to be the speaker of the House. No one like John Boehner has raised this much money, campaigned for as many people, and has been a leader the way he has.

Now, having said that, the goal of those who are trying to depose John Boehner is to get it to a second vote, because if he doesn't get 218 at the beginning, then it automatically goes to a second vote. And what you'd likely see on the House floor is recess. Republicans would huddle behind closed doors and figure out what's next. Again, Boehner is feeling pretty confident that that won't happen, but as I started out this report by saying, I have learned to expect the unexpected from House Republicans over the years of covering them.

BERMAN: The numbers will be very interesting. Thanks so much, Dana. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: All right, John. So as you know, elections for House speaker generally are not terribly controversial, but two years ago, 12 Republicans voted against John Boehner, making for some tense moments. Joining us now is one of the Republicans who is vying for Boehner's leadership role this time around. It's Representative Ted Yoho from Florida. Good morning, congressman.

REP. TED YOHO, (R) FLORIDA: Good morning, how are you doing?

CAMEROTA: I'm doing well. So what don't you like about John Boehner?

YOHO: Well, what we need is new direction, a person that will bring up member initiatives and stick with the process that we have in the rules of the House. We haven't been doing that. And we need somebody that's willing to do that and stand up and bring forth a vision for our conference for the next, say, two years for the 114th Congress.

CAMEROTA: Give us an example of a time that speaker Boehner hasn't done those things.

YOHO: A perfect example is on the crom-nibus bill. There's a rule that there's 72 hours to review a bill before members vote on it. We didn't have 727 hours. I put in an amendment last night that would require every piece of legislation to have 72 hours to be looked at. The leadership spoke against it. It didn't pass.

This is giving the American people's representatives time to do their due diligence on legislation so we don't have to pass a bill to see what's in it, we don't have to pass it to see how it's going to work. Those things don't work. And all we're asking to have enough time to review a bill, and leadership voted that down.

CAMEROTA: But if that's your only beef with Speaker Boehner --

YOHO: That's not the only one.

CAMEROTA: Name another beef. And why isn't he doing these things do you think? YOHO: If we go back to November 5th, 2010, Mr. Boehner said he would

do everything he could to make sure the Affordable Care Act never, ever, ever was implemented. Here we are in 2014 and it's implemented. We have replacements that are out there that would put health care back into the hands of the individual and the doctor. They've never even been brought up. In September of this year, we're going to have to refund the government. We haven't even begun to talk about that.

What happens is we wait until the last minute so many times in my experience in the last two years till the last minute. It's crisis management. Bills get thrown out there we don't have time to review, and the American taxpayers are the ones suffer, our country is the ones that suffer because of the lack of -- short-sightedness and not a long-term vision. And this is a time for a new beginning in the Congress. The American people spoke loud and clear in November, they want new direction. And if you look at the polls, 25 percent to 30 percent of the Republicans are looking to leave the party. It's time for new leadership.

CAMEROTA: OK, so you've thrown your hat into the ring for --

YOHO: My name, yes.

CAMEROTA: Your name, sorry, yep your name into the ring for leadership. So what would be your first order of business?

YOHO: First order of business is sit down with the members and say hey, what direction do you want to go? And then get consensus and bring up bills from member initiatives that -- there are so many members that have initiatives that never get to see the light of day, and work in a direction and start dealing with tax reform. That's something we should talk about now, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, reforming those programs so that they're more secure in the future.

Our foreign policy should be redirected and we need to address the health care issue in this country. I just got a call from a guy yesterday. And 80 percent of the people in this one area are getting health care subsidies and the people that are paying for that can't really afford the increase in health insurance. We have to deal with these things because if we don't deal with them today, six months or a year down the road it's going to be another crisis that we have to manage. Leadership is looking down the road and saying let's fix these things before they're a problem.

CAMEROTA: So how many votes do you have lined up supporting you?

YOHO: The whole goal was go to a second round so that we can have a discussion and out of that somebody will emerge as a new speaker. And we're over a dozen right now and you're going to see more people get on and decide not to vote for the current leadership.

CAMEROTA: Really? Because we just heard Dana Bash's reporting, and by her count there are 12 people, members, who don't support Congressman Boehner. But you think there will be more today? YOHO: I think you'll see a lot more. This has been something that's,

you know, we've seen an escalation over the last two years of a disdain for leadership, that we want stronger leadership in a direction that we're going to go to lead our conference. And we announced on Saturday that we're going to throw my name in the hat. And you've seen a groundswell, a grassroots movement of people saying, you know what, I appreciate you offering us an alternative because I'm tired of the status quo.

This is a vote against the status quo. I was elected by the constituents of our district to stand up to leadership, to have a new speaker of the House, and this happens all around the country. And so it's either a vote for the status quo or for a new direction for the Republican Party.

CAMEROTA: You know, Congressman, there's another school of thought, and that is that things are looking good for Republicans right now. You all have picked up the most seats in decades, and that what you're doing is just creating divisiveness among your own party.

YOHO: You know, there's always going to be the critic out there that says things like that. And the American people spoke loud and clear. It is the largest majority since 1929. They have spoken and said that we want a different direction. They have handed us the baton of leadership. And I think a part of that is if we replace the leadership in the house, and that comes from my constituents. I hear every day, every meeting I do, we want a new speaker of the House, and that goes on all around the country. If we can invoke that change the American people will rally behind the Republican Party but I think more around America and help rebuild America in the direction that we want to go.

CAMEROTA: OK, Congressman Ted Yoho, it will be interesting to see what happens today with the votes. Thanks for coming on NEW DAY.

YOHO: Yes, ma'am, thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, let's go over to Michaela for some more headlines.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, here we go at 13 minutes past the hour.

Family, friends, and political heavyweights gathering to say a final goodbye to former New York governor Mario Cuomo. The funeral begins in less than two hours time. At his wake Monday, hundreds and hundreds of mourners waited in frigid temperatures in a line that stretched around the block to pay their respects. We of course send our best wishes to all of the Cuomo family, including our dear friend and colleague, Chris.

To the search now for AirAsia flight 8501. Severe weather kept divers out of the water again Tuesday. Time is of the essence to find the plane's critical black boxes and of course the fuselage where most of the victims are believed to be still strapped in their seats. Two more bodies were found in the Java Sea overnight, bringing the total recovered to 39, 19 of which have been identified. The political leader of the terror group Hamas has been expelled from

Qatar where he had taken refuge. Khaled Meshaal and members of the Muslim Brotherhood were expelled and likely now headed to Turkey. This move comes after a Saudi-brokered initiative to improve relations between Qatar and the Egyptian government which overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.

And just when you thought Serena Williams found every way to win a tennis match, here's a new one -- looking a little tired, losing the first set of her match 6-0. So, she asked the judge if she could have a pick-me-up.

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SERENA WILLIAMS, TENNIS PLAYER: Is it illegal to order an espresso?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says, I needed an espresso.

WILLIAMS: Is that allowed?

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PEREIRA: Well, apparently, it is legal to order an espresso during a match and it worked. Serena took the espresso back like a champ, dominated the next two sets.

BERMAN: She would make a good early morning news anchor.

PEREIRA: She'd be a fantastic early morning -- that's what you do. That's your ritual --

BERMAN: That's I do, I order in, someone walks it in tray.

PEREIRA: Exactly.

CAMEROTA: You would be amazed how much my performance would improve if one of you guys would give me an espresso.

PEREIRA: On its way.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much, Michaela.

PEREIRA: You're welcome.

CAMEROTA: All right. The flu is gaining ground in the United States. What steps can you take to keep you and your kids safe? We'll get the latest tips from the National Institutes of Health.

BERMAN: Plus, the woman at the center of a sex scandal, allegedly involving Prince Andrew, she is now speaking out. What she has to say and we'll examine how public figures handle these accusations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BERMAN: Flu cases are on the rise and a new report from the Centers for Disease Control warns the worst of the season is just getting under way.

According to the CDC, the disease is spreading rapidly. Forty-three states now have widespread flu activity. That's up from 36 states last week. 21 children have now died since October after bouts with the flu.

So, with students heading back to school and concerns about the effectiveness of the flu vaccine, how concerned should you be about the virus?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Fauci, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIR., NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Good to be with you.

BERMAN: I have heard you say that the current vaccine, the vaccine for this season is only 33 percent effective. How do you think that is contributing right now to the spread of the virus?

FAUCI: Well, certainly you'd like to have a better match and those things happen. Most of the time when you do that kind of prediction, you get it right.

Unfortunately, about a month or two after the decision was made of what components to put into the vaccine, it actually did what we call drift. It changed a bit to the point where it continued to do that, and now when we're in the middle of it, as I said correctly, there's now about a 67 percent mismatch or a 33 percent match. That will contribute to the spread and to the severity.

However, it's important to point out to people that you still should get vaccinated, because even without a perfect match, getting vaccinated can be very helpful, both in protecting you against infection and maybe even as importantly to protect you against serious disease and decreased hospitalization particularly for people who are at high risk.

BERMAN: So, even at 33 percent effective, you think it's worth it?

FAUCI: No doubt. There's no doubt about it. People should -- those who have not been vaccinated it's certainly not too late to get vaccinated. They should get vaccinated for sure.

But also, people who get the flu particularly people in those what we call high-risk groups, namely very young children, the elderly, pregnant women, people with underlying diseases like diabetes and heart disease and chronic lung disease and asthma, things like that, should see their physician and get an anti-viral drug because the anti-influenza drugs can be very helpful in preventing or at least mitigating the severe consequences of influenza. So, that's another thing that people can do.

BERMAN: So, above and beyond --

FAUCI: The point of that you -- yes?

BERMAN: Above and beyond the vaccine, if you were in the high-risk group, the elderly or people with breathing problems or young people, go to the doctor now to get something completely different than the vaccine?

FAUCI: No, no. No, just try to avoid people who are sick. That's for sure, stay away from crowded places and a lot of people who are sick. Get vaccinated but if you do get the flu, without a doubt, if you are in that risk group, to see a physician for the possibility of getting prescribed an anti-viral drug which can be very helpful.

BERMAN: Got you. Let's talk about this strain of the flu, H3N2, accounted for about 95 percent of the flu case this is year. It's a bad one, isn't it, this strain?

FAUCI: Yes, it's not something entirely new. We've known about H3N2 for decades and decades. Many times over the years, it's been the predominant one that's around, the predominant strain.

It wasn't last year. Last year it was H1N1. You might recall in 2009, we had the H1N1 pandemic, and that dominated for a couple of years. Then last year, we had it back again, and then this is the first year since 2013 and '14 where H2N3 has come back. And historically, it's more virulent influenza. It causes more complications.

BERMAN: At what point during the flu season do you know it's going to be really bad?

FAUCI: Well, there are a couple of things that indicate it. And, again, you have to say right off that flu is unpredictable but certain things happen that actually can give you a hint that you're going to have a problem. One is if it starts off early.

And this is pretty -- I would say pretty much active early. We saw it about a month ago, when it started to come about. Generally, it usually peaks around January/February, ends around March. So, when you start to peak early and start to see a number of cases early, that kind of tells you that you haven't peaked yet and you might really see something even worse.

So, that's the reason why we're concerned as we get deep into January, and into early February, that we might even see a greater uptick of cases.

Also, as you mentioned correctly, if you have a mismatch with the vaccine, that's also a heads up that there might be more of a problem this year than we've seen in previous years.

BERMAN: Dr. Anthony Fauci, always great to have you on NEW DAY. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll all wash our hands today and think of you.

Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, John.

The royals not backing down, addressing the sex scandal involving Andrew head-on and so is famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz. Is talking about accusations the best strategy or does it prolong a scandal? We'll look at how high-profile people handle ugly accusations.

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PEREIRA: All right, here we go with the five things you need to know for your NEW DAY.

At number one, a manhunt is under way right now for suspects who shot two New York City police officers last night during a robbery in the Bronx. One of the officers is in critical condition.

Rough weather again keeping divers out of the water in the search for AirAsia Flight 8501. Two more bodies were found in the java sea overnight bringing the total recovered to 39.

Family, friends and political luminaries gathering in New York City today for the funeral of former Governor Mario Cuomo. Former first couple Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Attorney General Eric Holder are expected to bin attendance.

Republicans taking charge on Capitol Hill. The new Congress convenes with the GOP controlling the House and the Senate for the first time since 2006, intent on undoing key Obama administration policies.

And a much-anticipated rocket launch from SpaceX scrubbed this morning. It was supposed to send a capsule with supplies to the International Space Station then land back on forth, quite a feat. The next possible launch window is Friday morning.

We update the five things to know. Visit NewdayCNN.com for the latest -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, Michaela.

As you know, 7-year-old sailor Gutzler is back in her Illinois hometown adjusting to life with her parents. They died in a plane crash Friday night, along with Sailor's cousin and younger sister. But the young girl not only surveyed, she freed herself from the upside down plane and walked through dense woods to get help.

Our Martin Savidge retraced Sailor's steps in broad daylight and found just difficult it was.