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New Day
Belichick and Brady Tackle Deflate-Gate; YouTube Stars Chat with the President; Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Dies
Aired January 23, 2015 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: They could be the Republican's best hope in 2016. Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney meeting privately in Utah Thursday. A Bush aide says this meeting was planned well before Romney expressed an interest in running for president again.
And, of course, we still don't know if Jeb Bush plans to run. Tonight, he makes his first public speech since forming a political action committee. We'll be watching.
Health officials are telling people -- stay out of Disneyland unless you've been vaccinated for measles. An outbreak originating at Disneyland is spreading across California and beyond, 70 cases already have been reported. Health officials are now scrambling to contain the outbreak by banning unvaccinated children from schools in Orange County, California.
Another concern, five of the people who have contracted measles were fully vaccinated. So, that's obviously a concern. We'll continue to watch that.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Deflate-gate. It's become more about the cover-up than the perceived crime, hasn't it? Belichick and Brady, the Patriots' head coach and star quarterback, addressing deflate-gate at twin press conferences.
CNN's Alina Machado is live in the home of the Patriots, Foxborough, Massachusetts.
What did they say and what do people believe up there and elsewhere, Alina?
ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Chris, I think that's the big question, what will come out of these news conferences that were held. Now, Brady seemed very calm, very relaxed. At times he was even smiling as he was peppered with questions and he came out and spoke a day earlier than expected, hoping to put the controversy to rest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM BRADY, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: I have no knowledge of anything.
BILL BELICHICK, PATRIOTS HEAD COACH: I have no explanation for what happened. MACHADO (voice-over): The New England Patriots on the defense. Head
coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady speaking out in separate press conferences Thursday, declaring they did not deflate footballs in Sunday's AFC championship game.
BRADY: I didn't alter the ball in any way. Once I approved the balls, that's the ball I expect out there on the field. So, I don't know what happened over the course of the process with the footballs.
MACHADO: The NFL's investigation continues into why 11 of the 12 footballs the Patriots provided for the game were underinflated, any notion of foul play denied by the star quarterback.
REPORTER: Is Tom Brady a cheater?
BRADY: I don't believe so. I mean, I feel like I've always played within the rules, I would never do anything to break the rules.
MACHADO: Earlier Thursday, Belichick saying he, too, was shocked to hear about the allegations.
BELICHICK: I had no knowledge whatsoever of this situation until Monday morning, I learned a lot more about this process in the last three days than I knew or had talked about in the last 40 years.
MACHADO: But many are still suspicious after spygate, a cheating incident in which the patriots in violation of league rules, videotaped coaching signals from the New York Jets in 2007.
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman pointing the finger directly at Brady.
TROY AIKMAN, FORMER DALLAS COWBOYS QUARTERBACK: For the balls to have been deflated, that doesn't happen unless the quarterback wants that to happen. I can assure you of that.
MACHADO: And Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman also casting doubt on New England's golden boy.
RICHARD SHERMAN, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS: People somehow get a skewed view of Tom Brady. That he's just a clean-cut, does everything right and never says a bad word to anyone. And we know him to be otherwise.
MACHADO: But Patriots players standing by their quarterback and their coach.
BRANDON LAFELL, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS WIDE RECEIVER: In his locker room, we don't believe that, man. We went out there, won the game fair and square.
JONAS GRAY, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS RUNING BACK: They know we do it the right way, and they know we got a lot of high-character guys in the locker room, guys that work hard, put a lot of work those in and we earn those wins.
(END VIDEOTAPE) MACHADO: Now, Brady told reporters that no one from the NFL has actually contacted him directly to talk about the investigation. The NFL would only tell CNN they are not commenting on the details of this review -- Chris, Michaela and Alisyn.
CUOMO: Alina, thank you very much. We're going to have more in the "Bleacher Report" coming up. We have someone who has been following it from the beginning. We have some -- a former player is going to talk about it.
What Alina just said there at the end -- the league is a bigger problem for me. There's no question that teams play with the balls and quarterbacks like them a certain way and Aikman, Troy Aikman, legendary quarterback --
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So harsh.
PEREIRA: Wasn't that interesting?
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: That doesn't mean that he's saying the guy cheated. He's saying that quarterbacks like the balls the way they do. Aaron Rodgers from the Green Bay Packers.
CAMEROTA: Didn't he say there's no way that Tom Brady didn't know?
CUOMO: That he wouldn't know what's being done to the footballs, because they're done to the quarterback's liking.
Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers said I like my balls over- inflated. How would he know if they all do it to the standard?
What bothers me is the league. They said they would deal with this quickly. They said they'd be done in a couple of days. Tom Brady just said he hasn't heard from the league.
PEREIRA: I also find it interesting that Belichick, who is known from all the stories that I've been telling you, he is detail-oriented. He knows about everything that's going on in that organization. So, I don't know, I have questions.
CUOMO: There's a rule, there's a penalty and you know, why isn't it ended at that? It's going to become who knew what and when.
CAMEROTA: All right. Let us know what you think and we'll be talking about it and debating it later in the program.
Meanwhile, airline profits are soaring. So why aren't any of us seeing a break in air fares?
Chief business correspondent Christine Romans, with CNN money.
How does this work, Christine?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That is how the cookie crumbles. In this case, you know, when you fill up your tank at home, you really benefit, you really benefit from lower gas prices, you're not benefitting from the lower jet fuel prices.
Look, jet fuel costs are down more than 50 percent over the last year. But airfares are up 2 percent.
Why are airfares up 2 percent? Because the airlines say it's demand. We're flying more miles and they're packing planes, 83 percent capacity, a record high, so people are flying like crazy.
Let me show you other stats, guys -- Southwest Airlines, how much are they saving right now? $500 million just this quarter. Imagine that, $500 million savings in the low jet fuel prices. This year they'll save $1.7 billion.
The real beneficiaries are investors. Look at the stocks of these companies, for the first time in a long time, the airlines are making money. Now, there's this populist cry, why is this not filtering down to me?
The airline industry will tell you it is. They're paying down debt. They're giving raises to their employees, buying new fuel-efficient planes, they're looking at the demand part of the picture and they're not talking as much about the low jet fuel prices.
I know if feels like a populist outrage, but the airlines are saying it's better for you that the airline industry is healthy.
There's another interesting point, you guys that since the course of aviation, this is the first time the airlines have ever really been profitable, ever.
CAMEROTA: Is that right?
ROMANS: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Incredible. All right. Thanks so much, Christine.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
PEREIRA: President Obama under a little bit of fire for the way he's communicating his political agenda. Not the message some are having a problem with. It's the messengers. What do you think? Is it appropriate for the president to sit down with Internet stars, green lipstick and all?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PEREIRA: A scrum of journalists interviewing President Obama. No, no. Instead, it was a trio of YouTube stars, the mission to get millennials in touch with Obama's latest policy proposals, especially those presented in his recent State of the Union Address.
Our White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski joins us live with some of the memorable moments of the Q&A session, the first of its kind, YouTube stars and the president sitting down. MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. You know,
Michaela, we would have loved to interview the president after the State of the Union, so probably any journalists. But unfortunately for us, we have never attempted the green gumball challenge, the octopus challenge, tips for fancying up your bedroom. We did not qualify.
Here's what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The State of the Union is strong.
KOSINSKI (voice-over): So, the White House assembled some top talent to delve into the president's thinking. Not from among the titans of journalism, or the political uber blogger Wonkie, but the best of YouTube.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prepare to empty your brain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's OK? Is you? Good, because I want to know.
KOSINSKI: The lineup, Glozell. Millions of subscribers. Her clip, my push-up bra will help me get my man, 23 million views.
And Green, science nerd.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Speed and velocity are not interchangeable. Neither are mass and weight.
KOSINSKI: And Bethany Mota, a teenager brimming with style tips and eight million subscribers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My eyebrows look extremely uneven in this video. Let's not talk about it.
KOSINSKI: For all the build-up, you know what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You used phrase "middle class economics" in the speech.
GLOZELL GREEN, YOUTUBE STAR: How can we bridge the gap between black African-American males and white cops?
BETHANY MOTA, YOUTUBE STAR: So, last April, Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls.
KOSINSKI: Boko Haram? They asked all the same questions we might ask and President Obama gave extremely long answers.
OBAMA: That's a government program that helps a lot of people.
KOSINSKI: The running commentary? Things like we need marijuana and I thought this was going to be interesting, but it's boring. I know it's important, but I'm 13. Come on, guys, you are the YouTubers, aren't you supposed to shock
everyone? Bring some kittens or something?
OK, there were some fun moments.
MOTA: The last one is if you have any superpower, what would it be?
OBAMA: Like the flying thing seems pretty cool.
KOSINSKI: Hank Green asked the president to sign a receipt for his medication, that he says once he was insured by Obamacare, went from costing $1,100 a month, to $5.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obamacare has work --
OBAMA: Obamacare has worked and that makes me feel good.
KOSINSKI: And Glozell stepped up.
GREEN: I have green lipstick, one for your first wife --
OBAMA: My first?
GREEN: I mean --
OBAMA: Do you know something I don't?
GREEN: One for the first lady and the first children.
OBAMA: And the first, oh --
KOSINSKI: No YouTube gathering, being complete without --
MOTA: Can you do a selfie with me?
OBAMA: Let's do it.
MOTA: All right. Got it.
OBAMA: OK. My knees --
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PEREIRA (on camera): An epic selfie there, Michelle. The big question I have is how did the interwebs react? You showed us a little bit from the 13-year-old. Were the numbers good? Did it go viral? Did it break any records?
KOSINSKI: Did it break the Internet?
PEREIRA: Yes.
KOSINSKI: Well, I don't think we need to worry about our jobs. These people are great about what they do. Their day jobs, these crazy kids did not have any big tricks up their sleeves.
When you look at the numbers, it seems like a peak of around 90,000 people watched this live. Now, when you look at the number of clicks, it's around 650,000. I mean, that's going to grow. But you look at how many people watched the State of the Union, more than 30 million Americans, so good old-fashioned TV, hey, it's still working for the president. He can stay away from the Internet -- Michaela.
PEREIRA: Trying to imagine you with green lipstick, I'm going to consider that.
KOSINSKI: I'll try it.
PEREIRA: You can try it, you're brave.
Let us know what you think, tweet us @newday. Go to our Facebook page, Facebook.com/NewDay.
Stay tuned right here on NEW DAY, because YouTube sensation Glozell, green lipstick and all, I hope, she didn't promise she'll wear it but she'll join us in the 8:00 hour.
CUOMO: That is a strong look.
PEREIRA: She's a good lady.
CUOMO: Very jets-friendly.
CAMEROTA: That's one of our best promos, I believe.
She's goes here's for your first wife. He goes, he did like a double-take for the camera. That was great.
PEREIRA: You know something I don't know?
CUOMO: The media gives heat to people when they interview the president. But they're always just peanut butter and --
PEREIRA: Jelly.
CUOMO: I love that line.
All right. So, the head coach and the star QB of the New England Patriots say they know nothing about the deflate-gate scandal. Some are saying not only is that not believable, it's not even possible. Why they say that? Straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BELICHICK: In my entire coaching career, I have never talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: Get it, "Pump It Up?"
CAMEROTA: I get it.
CUOMO: I just got it.
So, did Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and star quarterback Tom Brady know their balls were underinflated? They say no, and that opens the door to the crime versus the cover-up drama in deflate-gate.
Andy Scholes has this morning's "Bleacher Report" and more on this.
Good morning, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Yes, good morning, Chris.
You know, you listened to those press conferences yesterday, Belichick, he's pretty believable. Brady? Not so much. But either way, both of them pushing all in yesterday with the -- we have no idea how this happened strategy. Now, Belichick, he started off saying he was shocked when he heard of
deflate-gate on Monday. That he didn't know much about the process of how footballs end up on the field for game day. Belichick then passed the buck to Brady and told reporters, ask him how he likes his footballs and then Brady pretty much surprised everyone. When he came out and said he also had no idea how 11 of their footballs ended up underinflated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM BRADY, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: You know, I didn't alter the ball in any way. I have a process I go through before every game where I go in and pick the balls that I want to -- the footballs that I want to use for the game. BELICHICK: I can tell you in my entire coaching career, I have never
talked to any player, staff member about football air pressure. That is not a subject that I have ever brought up.
BRADY: I have no knowledge of anything. I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing. Yes, I'm very comfortable saying. I'm comfortable saying nobody did it as far as I know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Not many people were buying what Brady was selling, including hall of fame quarterback Troy Aikman. Aikman said Brady had to be involved and the Patriots should be punished harsher than what the Saints were for bounty-gate.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TROY AIKMAN, HALL OF FAMER QUARTERBACK: It is obvious that Tom Brady had something to do with this. For the ball so then, deflated, that doesn't happen unless the quarterback wants that to happen. I can assure you of that. The punishment for the Patriots and/or Bill Belichick has to be more
severe than what the punishment was for the New Orleans Saints.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
SCHOLES: And if you remember the Saints head coach Sean Payton was suspended for an entire season for bounty-gate.
You know, one of the biggest revelations yesterday, Chris, from Brady was that the NFL hadn't contacted him yet about their investigation into the deflate-gate. You would think the NFL would want to wrap up the investigation, try to get this out of the way as he had head into Super Bowl week.
But the big thing is, they may be struggling to find any sort of evidence to implicate anybody.
CUOMO: Well, there's a rule and there's a penalty already involved. They know the balls were underinflated. The question is, what else are they looking for?
Andy Scholes, thank you very much.
Let's discuss more, shall we? We've got Cory Wire. He's a FOX Sports analyst, he played nine seasons in the NFL. And we have Kavitha Davidson, she's a sports columnist for "Bloomberg View."
Coy, I'll start with you because you're on remote. Do you believe Tom Brady or are you of the Aikman school of thought? And do you think this matters?
COY WIRE, FOX SPORTS ANALYST: I don't believe Tom Brady. And actually I was shocked that he didn't come out and take the fall for this. I really thought we were going to hear him say in the press conference that this is the way I liked my footballs I'm going to take the blame for this take his fine and get some -- get penalized for it.
But he didn't. He came out and he lied. And I talked to a former player of the New England Patriots. A guy who blocked for Tom Brady is now out of the league. And I'll read what he said.
He said, "This is something Tom Brady felt comfortable with. But knowing Belichick, it was something they practiced with all week. This wouldn't be by accident. Every detail is looked at and analyzed with Belichick. These balls aren't deflated by accident. It was well thought out and it was probably going on for a while."
So, there's someone within the organization who knows how meticulous Bill Belichick is running his program. And he even said it in the press conference yesterday, that if they're going to play in the rain, they'll make the footballs wet. If they're going to be in the cold, they'll make the footballs cold.
So, I find it hard to believe that neither of them knew about this.
CAMEROTA: Kavitha, you heard Coy. He said that he believes that Tom Brady is lying, actually bald-faced lie there during the press conference. But you think this does not rise to the level of cheating?
KAVITHA DAVIDSON, SPORTS COLUMNIST, BLOOMBERG VIEW: Well, I think not yet. I think we need more information before we come out and say this is full-on cheating. While-day think Tom Brady is lying and this is an instance where the cover-up might be worse than the crime. You have NFL insiders saying that this is actually a much more common practice. Not just within the patriots organization, but within the sport, within college football.
So, if it's not thought as cheating among the league, if it's kind of swept under the rug, I think we need to assess just how severe an offense this is.
PEREIRA: But how much more investigation, because as you said, they figured out that the balls were underinflated. That's a fact. It's against the rules, what more would you like to see done?
DAVIDSON: I would like more context, frankly. I would like to know how long this has been going on. How many teams do engage in some sort of --
PEREIRA: It doesn't make this any less wrong though, right?
DAVIDSON: It doesn't -- absolutely, no, it's not moral relativism or anything like that. But, obviously, the Colts complained. Obviously, there was a reason for a team to come out and say that this somehow violated what they accepted.
CUOMO: Hey, Coy, let me ask you about what Troy Aikman said. Worst than bounty-gate? Bounty-gate was about the organization supposedly rewarding guys for really you know, hitting very hard or even hurting players of the other team. Is this even close to something like that?
WIRE: Well, I think it is when you look at the integrity of the game. You know, bounty-gate was about unsportsmanlike conduct. And they come down, brought out the hammer really hard.
And I will bring up, remember, Roger Goodell said that Sean Payton, the head coach of the saints at that time, his ignorance was no excuse and he was suspended anyway. And Bill Belichick is taking the same stance here. He's going to claim ignorance on this.
And I really don't think it's going to matter. This is a rule that was blatantly violated. There's no proof. That's the difference here. There was proof, there was documentation in the Saints scenario.
This, there's probably not going to be any evidence unless you have an equipment manager or someone come out that has a vendetta against those guys that this, in fact, did happen. They can hide behind their lies if they like to.
PEREIRA: Kavitha, I'm just going to play devil's advocate just for fun. CUOMO: Why not?
PEREIRA: We talk about the fact that everybody loves to hate the Patriots. They love to hate on Tom Brady. He pretty, he's got this beautiful girlfriend. He's a golden boy.
CUOMO: He's an amazing player.
PEREIRA: He's an amazing player. And we know about spy-gate.
Once you're under a microscope it's hard to get out from under it. Do you think any of that plays into this, because you talk about the fact that this is going on in college, going on with other teams?
DAVIDSON: Well, right, I mean, it's absolutely, it's a factor of us wanting to jump on the Patriots. And some for good reason. There's a history, with spy-gate for example. But just to compare the two, if you're comparing bounty-gate or spy-gate, we forgot about spy-gate pretty quickly. We have very short attention spans as NFL fans.
So, we think that, you know, in the long run, when it's not an off week before the week leading up to the Super Bowl, we might not consider this as serious.
CAMEROTA: We have short attention spans, Coy, but also, we expect bad behavior at this point from the NFL.
PEREIRA: That's an awful thought.
CAMEROTA: I mean, I just think that that's true -- we expect bad behavior. Look at all the string of things that have happened.
Coy, do you think -- are you surprised we haven't heard from Roger Goodell?
WIRE: Not yet. Think they are going to investigate. Get to the bottom of the story to see if they can get hard evidence. I don't know if we're going to hear a decision as far as a penalty, if there is going to be one.
Now, the rule book says that $25,000 fine at least if someone is found guilty of tampering with the footballs in that way. I don't know if we'll hear an announcement as far as the penalty until after the Super Bowl. And so, not surprised that we have not yet heard a decision.
But to the point of us forgetting about spy-gate, I don't think that's the case, the reason is that this is such a big deal this would be a second infraction of bending or breaking the rules on behalf of the same head coach, same organization with the same quarterback running that team.
So, if this was any other team, it won't be nearly as big of a deal. But this is a culture of dishonesty that we're seeing from this organization. If indeed they're found to have done this.
CUOMO: Coy Wire, Kavitha Davidson, thank you for the insight. We, of course, do this for you. What do you think? Do you think
we're making too much of deflate-gate or not enough? Is this about the cover-up?
Let us know. You know how to get us. There's the Facebook thing. You can tweet us as well.
This is one story, but there's a lot of news you need to know about on this Friday. So let's get to it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: The leader of America's closest Arab ally has died.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will have significant ramifications.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This might be an opportunity for the Saudis to have to get engaged in Yemen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The coincidence of what happened in Yemen and the death of King Abdullah is not good news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Japanese officials are trying to talk to ISIS.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I fear for the lives of these two Japanese men.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a win-win for ISIS and it's a lose-lose for Japan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman was building a high profile case against his country's top officials.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was found dead with a bullet in his brain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The argentine government certainly could have been involved in this.
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY.
The death of a long-time U.S. ally threatening to compromise America's influence in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has died. His funeral is set to begin in a few minutes. In fact, these are live pictures from Saudi Arabia and the beginning of the funeral. You can see mourners there gathering.
CUOMO: And the situation in the Middle East seems to be getting only worse. Yemen, rebels now in control of that key ally's capital after the president and cabinet resigned. Now, the U.S. is left on the outside looking in with nothing or next to nothing to keep American interests there safe. We have the developments being covered from all angles this morning.
Let's start with CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto.
Jim, what do we know?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Good morning, Chris.
Really remarkable events in the span of 24 hours, in the Middle East, in the Gulf. You have two key American allies here, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, losing leaders in that time span.
Let's start with Saudi Arabia. This was expected.
