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New Day Saturday

Will Sony Release "The Interview"; McCain: Cyberattack Should Be Wake Up Call; Olympian Phelps Gets No Jail Time For DUI; Obama Responds to Sony Cyber Attack; Bad Weather could Hamper Holiday Travel

Aired December 20, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And travel headaches, crowded airports, packed roads, this weekend, the last weekend before Christmas is going to be trouble. Now a new warning, be on the lookout for terror. Your NEW DAY starts now.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Suzanne Malveaux in for Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's 8:00 here on the east coast, 5:00 out west. The breaking news this morning, for the first time we're hearing from North Korea about the cyber-attack that shot the movie studio, stunned the U.S. and prompted President Obama to say dictators better not tell the U.S. Americans, U.S. and American citizens, rather, what to do.

MALVEAUX: That response from North Korea coming in this morning, it's stunning a lot of people. The rogue nation is accusing the United States of framing it in the cyber-attack on Sony Pictures. It is warning of serious consequences.

But it's also remarkably proposing both countries work together to investigate the attack that forced Sony Pictures to yank the Christmas day release of the film "The Interview."

BLACKWELL: So according to North Korea's state-run news agency, Pyongyang says, quote, "Whoever is going to frame our country for crime should present concrete evidence, comparing this to past cyber- attacks that have nothing to do with us is all based on abstract and unrealistic claims, which will not be able to convince anybody. America's childish investigation result and its attempt to frame us for this crime show their hostile tendency toward us."

MALVEAUX: In a reference to hackers who promise another 9/11 if Sony released the film, "The Interview." Pyongyang goes on to say, "If America refuses our proposal of mutual investigation, continues to link us to this case, and talk about actions in response, they, America, will be met with serious consequences."

Of course, all of this is coming as Sony is getting a very public scolding from President Obama for not releasing the film "The Interview," which basically is satirizes North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un. Sony is firing back saying it had no choice. We're covering this from all angles. We bring in our senior media

correspondent, Brian Stelter out of New York and Kyung Lah, who is in Seoul, South Korea.

So Kyung, let's start off with you. What do we know more about what North Korea is saying and what's behind this? Do they have anything to back it up, really, any teeth?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They rarely have anything to back up these fiery statements. This is in line in lock step with what we've seen before from North Korea. This one is coming very quickly after the president's year-end news conference.

This one takes all of the liberties that North Korea does with their facts and it is at times illogical and insulting itself, but there are a few things that are quite interesting about it, is how determined they are to and earnest they are to try to let America know that they honestly feel that they are being, quote, "framed."

That they are asking the president to show them the evidence, that they want to prove that they are not part of this and want to work as a mutual team in a mutual investigation with the United States, which is, of course, ridiculous since the United States and North Korea have no relations whatsoever diplomatically.

And that I found this interesting as well. This line, if I could read directly --

MALVEAUX: Yes, please go ahead. We wonder what kind of joint investigation could they be envisioning.

LAH: This joint investigation is simply illogical. It's ridiculous. It's not anything that would ever happen. Everyone in Washington is shaking their head saying, come on, this is another North Korean statement.

But they are responding and they are taking it seriously. They are not quite as insulting as I've heard in the past, but they certainly want the president to hear and they want attention.

The reason why these statements come out so quickly is that they want Washington to hear them. They crave that attention and if I could read one part of this statement. I found this particularly interesting because it's directed directly to the American people.

It says we will not conduct terror against innocent moviegoers. The retaliation -- as far as the retaliation, we will target the ones who are responsible and the originators of the insult, obviously the moviemakers, perhaps Sony Pictures.

So they are directly talking to the American people saying we're not going that way, but we are certainly still angry about this movie.

MALVEAUX: All right, Brian, I want to bring you in to talk about that. Because first of all, I imagine you know, maybe Sony will have some sort of response to the North Korean response that maybe they go after them. What are they saying in terms of releasing this movie after all, that there might be a plan that we might all get to see this thing.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Do you think a movie studio thought it would find itself having to respond to North Korea's dictator? What a strange situation this continues to be. But I do think we're going to see this movie.

There are active discussions going on this weekend between Sony and potential distributors, maybe that's in theaters, maybe more likely online. Imagine if everybody in across the country and other countries could watch the interview on Netflix or on YouTube or watch on Amazon.

It would really be a rallying moment for freedom of expression and freedom from fear. I think that's what Sony wants to have happened and they are looking for partners to do it.

MALVEAUX: And probably they are looking to, you know, kind of correct the precedent that might have set for other hackers who might decide we're going after the government, after companies, things like that.

Do you think they will respond to North Korea today, though, regarding their -- looks like sounds like another threat that they are going to go after, they are not going to threaten somebody else, but certainly the people who made the movie.

STELTER: I think they will probably avoid it. Here's why. They received a message from the hackers on Thursday night and decided not to comment on that message. That message basically said "Sony, you did the right thing by not releasing the movie. Now never release it ever again and we will stop leaking your data."

They didn't want to comment directly on that, but instead they did come out and said we still want this movie to be seen. I think this is all about the word you used, precedent. This is about precedent for the future.

President Obama said it very well yesterday at his press conference. He said this is also concern about self-censorship in the future. We can't worry about offending the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities probably need to be offended.

So even the president worrying about how this could have a chilling effect in Hollywood in the future, if this ends with the interview never being seen.

MALVEAUX: Yes, well, Brian, thank you.

STELTER: What a strange situation. People probably weren't going to see otherwise.

MALVEAUX: It's bizarre. It brings up a host of issues and also educating us on the issue of cyber security and the holes and the things that we need to address. Kyung Lah, thank you so much as well. And you know, the president himself is looking at this. There has to be a proportional response. I mean, this is not going to go away.

BLACKWELL: And what will that be? You just talked about this precedent. Let's talk about what the president said, that Sony set a dangerous precedent by not releasing the film "The Interview." The CEO, Sony Pictures, is defending the studio's decision.

Michael Lynton spoke with CNN's Fareed Zakaria. It's an exclusive television interview. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": The president says Sony made a mistake in pulling the film. Did you make a mistake?

MICHAEL LYNTON, CEO, SONY ENTERTAINMENT: No. I -- I think actually, the unfortunate part is in this instance the president, the press, and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened. We do not own the movie theaters.

We cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters. So, to sort of rehearse for a moment the sequence of events, we experienced the worst cyber-attack in American history, and persevered for three-and-a-half weeks under enormous distress and enormous difficulty, and all with the effort of trying to keep our business up and running, and get this movie out into the public.

When it came to the crucial moment when a threat came out from what was called the GOP at the time, threatening audiences who would go to the movie theaters. The movie theaters came to us, one by one, over the course of a very short period of time, we were completely surprised by it, and announced that they would not carry the movie.

At that point in time, we had no alternative but to not proceed with the theatric release on the 25th of December. That's all we did.

ZAKARIA: So you have not caved in --

LYNTON: We have not caved. We have not given in. We have percent veered and we have not backed down. We have always had every desire to have the American public see this movie.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Michael Lynton has a lot more to say. Watch the full interview with Sony's CEO when it airs tomorrow on "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" that's tomorrow at 10 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

MALVEAUX: We have an alarming warning from the State Department this morning if you are traveling during the holiday season the State Department is now advising Americans to be extra cautious after a gunman in Sydney took 17 people hostage.

Now, this alert says that U.S. citizens should be extra cautious, maintain a very high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance their personal security. This travel alert expires on March 19th of next year. BLACKWELL: Still to come, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That's the oath a witness swears before testifying in court. But a grand jury investigating the Michael Brown shooting may not have heard the truth. That's ahead.

MALVEAUX: And hackers who took on Sony and won, well, the interview, it has been shelved. Since this tactic worked, could we see future attacks? We're going to ask our next guest that question after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Welcome back to NEW DAY. A lot to tell you about today, here's your "Morning Read."

BLACKWELL: About 13 minutes after the hour. New shocker in this morning in the shooting death of Ferguson teenager, Michael Brown, in his first extensive interview since the grand jury cleared former Officer Darren Wilson in Brown's death, the D.A. who prosecuted the case says some of the witnesses obviously lied under oath but he let them testify anyway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via telephone): I thought it was much more important that the grand jury hear everything what people had to say and they are in a perfect position to assess credibility, which is what jurors do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Robert McCulloch says witnessed who lied will not face perjury charges. There is a have showing the moments after ray rice punched his now wife in that infamous attack. This video obtained by ABC News, you see Rice trying to talk, while she cries while being treated by security guard. They are later seen kissing in another elevator before being escorted into separate police cars.

MALVEAUX: And $50 million, that's the amount of the settlement over the deadly stage collapse at the Indiana State fair back in 2011. You may recall that story. This incident occurred after strong winds slammed into the stage just before the country music group Sugarland was set to perform. Seven people died in that accident.

BLACKWELL: Now in the wake of the Sony cyber-attack, President Obama says the U.S. needs to beef up its cyber security defenses.

MALVEAUX: The FBI is pinning blame for the attack on North Korea, which is insisting this morning that it is being framed. President Obama says make no mistake the U.S. is going to respond.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They caused a lot of damage, and we will respond. We will respond proportionally and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in Charles Armstrong, a professor of Korean studies at Columbia University and also joining us Peter Singer the co-author of cyber security and cyber war, what everyone need to know.

MALVEAUX: So President Obama says that the U.S. is going to respond. What can the United States really do to punish North Korea? I want you to listen to what the president said about the decision to cancel the release of the film "The Interview."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Sony's a corporation, I suffered significant damage. There were threats against some employees. I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. Having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, in light of that, Peter, let's start with you. What are the options the United States has in dealing with North Korea at this point?

PETER SINGER, AUTHOR, "CYBERSECURITY AND CYBERWAR": I think in many ways you hit it right. It's not so much a cyber-problem now as a North Korea problem. They have been poor actor, bad behavior in everything from nuclear proliferation to regional instability to now this hack which let's be clear wasn't an act of war, there has been a lot of rhetoric out there.

In terms of on the cyber side, we can go after this unit that is believed to have been behind it, try and make their operations more difficult. We can also go after some of the black market places where they have been getting their tools.

And positive effect of that it's not just them but other cyber criminals getting tools from the same places. In many ways it's really about how do you shape the activities of North Korea as a whole as opposed to thinking of this as a cyber-security issue now.

And that's really because of how Sony and the movie theaters caved in. That turned it from being a simple hack into a national security and freedom of speech concern.

BLACKWELL: Professor Armstrong, the South Korean government says that this North Korean agency Bureau 121 is responsible for several cyber- attacks. Tell us about Bureau 121.

CHARLES ARMSTRONG, KOREAN STUDIES PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Yes. It's also known as Unit 121. It is part of the general bureau of reconnaissance, which is the intelligence unit of the North Korean security apparatus established in the 1990s, focused on cyber-attacks and cyber security.

There are about 2,000 or 3,000 people as far as we know based on defectors testimony and they seem to operate not just within North Korea, but possibly also out of an office in China.

There is a China element to this, which is very important if we're going to do anything to try to address this issue. We have to get if possible Chinese support to crack down on this.

MALVEAUX: Peter, the FBI now is saying that the hackers routed their hacking attack on servers routed through Asia, Europe, even the United States, so how difficult does this actually make it to go after them when it's so widespread?

SINGER: Well, you're talking about both the way they routed the attack, but also where the physical location of the people are. And as the other guest hit it well, most are located in North Korea. There are reports of other physically located in China as well as a few maybe in Japan. The key, though here, is not so much the attribution problem, who did it but accountability, what are you going to do to them and try and shape --

The issue now is not just punishing or trying to deter them in particular, but other future actors out there that range from you know, hackers who are angry about any other movie or other sort of corporate activity.

So again, there's a limited set of tools, some will be law enforcement. Some will be diplomatic, maybe intelligence activities on overt reporting but also on the covert side. There are not a lot of good tools.

That's why the keys not just what you're doing to them, but how you're going to respond on the home front so that this doesn't become a precedent for every other company that's under attack that it just folds in this way. That's the dangerous part of what's played out in the last week.

BLACKWELL: Professor Armstrong, let's listen to something that Senator John McCain said about this attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I think it should be a wake-up call, should be a wake-up call that a country like North Korea has this kind of capability. Imagine the capability they have to disrupt other aspects of American life.

So it's time we as Congress, frankly time the Congress got together with the administration and passed legislation on this whole issue of cyber security. And we have not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So, the senator says that this should be a wake-up call. Has the U.S. government, Congress, has industry in the U.S. been asleep here in relation to the attacks that could come from the rest of the world?

ARMSTRONG: Well, certainly when it comes to North Korea there have been other issues as Peter Singer said. The nuclear issue and human rights, but in terms of North Korea's threat to American interests both in South Korea.

And in the U.S., I think we have to pay attention to the fact that North Koreans put a lot of resources into cyber attacks, they have been blamed for some major attacks on South Korea, last year they shut down quite a number of banks and they entered into the South Korean media companies.

So clearly North Korea has the capability to do these things. I think taking them seriously enough and in general there needs to be a lot more attention paid to protecting American interests from cyber threats.

BLACKWELL: All right, Peter Singer, Professor Charles Armstrong, thank you both.

MALVEAUX: Still to come, a blood alcohol nearly twice the legal limit, video evidence of Michael Phelps weaving in and out of traffic. Still the Olympic swimmer won't see the inside after jail cell. Why is not we're going to ask that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: From Olympic podiums to supervised probation, swimmer, Michael Phelps, has pleaded guilty to dui. A transit camera caught Phelps here making seriously risky maneuver just missing a semi in a tunnel in Maryland.

Our Baltimore affiliate, WBAL, reports that Phelps was pulled over on September 30th after going 84 in a 45-mile-an-hour zone.

MALVEAUX: The judge gave the Olympic medalist a one-year suspended sentence and 18 months under supervised probation. Phelps spoke to reporters about the incidents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL PHELPS, 22-TIME OLYMPIC MEDALISTf: The last three months of my life have been some of the hardest times I've gone through. Some of the biggest learning experiences that I've ever had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right, let's go now to CNN legal analyst, Paul Callan. There is Phelps' second dui in 10 years according to WBAL. No jail time. His attorney says he was not given special treatment. What do you think?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, I was looking into it, Victor, and he probably wasn't given any special treatment. One of the things that I think probably was a lucky thing for him is that Maryland and Baltimore in particular is one of the most violent cities in America.

Fifth highest murder rate, on all of the top ten lists for violent cities. In places like that, prosecutors are focusing their attention on violent crime and I think the dui stuff tends to get more of a slap on the wrist than it might in other places, number one.

Secondly, his sentence is actually a pretty standard sentence in Baltimore for this kind of offense. The prior offense, by the way, was for impaired driving, it was 10 years ago.

And he got something called probation in lieu of judgment, which means essentially if you stay out of trouble, the original offense got dismissed. So he was kind of viewed as a first offender, I think, on this arrest. He got a pretty standard sentence.

BLACKWELL: All right, let's turn to Ray Rice now. The now former Baltimore Ravens player, who was seen on camera knocking his then fiance now wife out cold in an elevator.

The new video shows the couple right after the incident, this was from ABC News from an open records request. It shows Janay even kissing him. What role does this or could this have played in the deal reached with prosecutors?

CALLAN: Well, I think it plays a role but you know, this is classic in domestic abuse cases. I will tell you that 25, 30 years ago, it was standard. The husband would get arrested for beating the wife up. And then you know, when it got to court the next morning, when guy sobered up the wife there saying please drop the charges.

Prosecutor drops the charges. The two go home and the wife gets killed or maimed. So through the years, the system has sort of changed its attitude on this. Just because the girlfriend or the wife is remorseful about having brought charges if she did bring charges and my recollection here is that she wasn't heard -- wasn't her decision to bring the charges in the first place.

But you know, prosecutors now look at these things differently, generally. They are a little tougher on it and -- but certainly if she wants to drop the charges, it's something they have to take into consideration.

BLACKWELL: All right, that story continues. Paul Callan, thank you.

CALLAN: Thank you, Victor.

MALVEAUX: Still to come, Sony, Cuba, even the controversial bailout of the U.S. auto industry, the president laying out all of it out on the table, but it was his final news conference of the year. Erin McPike live at the White House for us about all of this.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, the president is promising that the U.S. will respond to North Korea at a time he chooses, more on that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Bottom of the hour now. The Obamas waking up in Hawaii today. The first family taking a break from Washington, soaking up the sun at a beachfront home in Honolulu. They will be there for about two weeks.

MALVEAUX: Before the President headed out for a much needed break, there was business of course to take care of in Washington including how to respond to the cyber attack on Sony by North Korea and defending his own new policy on Cuba. Erin McPike is at the White House. What's the headline?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Suzanne, as you know, as we've been discussing all year, the President has had a number of foreign policy headaches and major national security crises to deal with throughout this entire year. But with this latest North Korea hacking and the FBI directly placing blame onto North Korea the President has another major international issue where he can leave a mark that he wasn't expecting at all.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We take them with the utmost seriousness.

MCPIKE: Condemning what he called a cyber assault from North Korea, in his year-end press conference, President Obama called out Sony Pictures for pulling the movie "The Interview" following threats to theaters.

OBAMA: Sony's a corporation, it suffered significant damage. There were threats against its employees. I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. Having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake.

MCPIKE: He insisted American citizens and businesses cannot be bullied into a pattern of censorship and promised retaliation against North Korea.

OBAMA: They caused a lot of damage, and we will respond. We will respond proportionally and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose.

MCPIKE: He also defended his most recent sweeping initiative, this week's surprise move to normalize relations with Cuba.

OBAMA: What I know deep in my bones is that if you've done the same thing for 50 years and nothing's changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome.

MCPIKE: The administration hopes its actions helping to bring more western business to the communist nation will open it up.

OBAMA: It offers a prospect of telecommunications, and the Internet being more widely available in Cuba in ways that it hasn't been before. And over time that chips away at this hermetically-sealed society.

MCPIKE: And after a frenzied year's end he's got his game face on for the last two years to come. OBAMA: My presidency is entering the fourth quarter. Interesting

stuff happens in the fourth quarter. And I'm looking forward to it. But going into the fourth quarter you usually get a time out. I'm now looking forward to a quiet time out, Christmas with my family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCPIKE: Now, we've learned last night that the White House is considering economic and banking sanctions on North Korea, but not naming North Korea as a sponsor of terrorism -- Suzanne and Victor.

MALVEAUX: All right. Erin, thank you so much. Erin McPike at the White House. The President hit on a host of hot topics at the news conference and we want to dig in further and see what this really means for especially for the New Year with our political panel this morning.

BLACKWELL: Yes, let's bring in Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator Maria Cardona, and Ben Ferguson CNN political commentator and host of "The Ben Ferguson Show".

All right. Ben, let's start with you. Let's start with listening to what the President had to say about Cuba and what the new policy would mean for relations with that country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I wouldn't be surprised if they take at any given time actions that we think are a problem. And we will be in a position to respond to whatever actions they take, the same way we do with a whole range of countries around the world when they do things we think are wrong. But the point is that we will be in a better position, I think, to actually have some influence. And there may be carrots as well as sticks that we can then apply.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. So carrots and sticks -- some call that progress. What kind of carrots and sticks are we talking about here? Is this the right way to handle Cuba -- Ben?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think this is one of those policies that the President's coming out with saying how do I have a legacy that people remember me by. And I also think a little of this has to do with Guantanamo Bay. He's got to normalize Cuba. That's something I really think he wants to close before the end of his presidency. He may even go to Cuba and have some sort of visit there is something I think he sees in the next two year.

So I don't know if this is really going to help as much as he thinks it's going to. I think this was a terrible negotiation with bad precedence when it comes to innocent Americans being held captive while we trade known actual people that I would refer to as terrorists in exchange.

It was a bad negotiation. Cuba came out way on the top end of this. So I'm sure they are thrilled about it but long term is this going to have a big influence? Probably not as much as he wants it to but this may really be about the legacy of the next two years.

MALVEAUX: And Maria, I want to bring you in here to talk about what we saw in North Korea, the President, of course, having some harsh words for North Korea after it was learned that they believed that they were responsible for this hacking and this threat against Sony.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Sony's a corporation. I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. Having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake. We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States. Because if somebody's able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they don't like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So Maria, the State Department now says that the Sony cyber attack was not terrorism but the President has stated that they have to have some sort of proportional response. Is the administration going to be forced to change its policy towards North Korea?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: -- the administration is going to go but I do think that what the President said last night echoes the sentiments of the majority of Americans. I think that most Americans did feel that Sony made a mistake because they don't want to be intimidated by like what the President said last night some dictator somewhere. Because where will it end?

And this is exactly what this country is known for. Americans are free to do what they want. American businesses should be free to do what they want in terms of putting out the products that they are known for. And so I think that the President was certainly voicing where the American people are on this, and what he said about a proportional response in terms of what they believe is the best way to move forward is also something that I think Americans were happy to hear.

FERGUSON: Agreed.

CARDONA: The fact that we're not going to take this lying down so. We'll see what it is, we don't know yet. But I think that this is something that the American people liked to hear from the President last night.

BLACKWELL: Ben, the President took on social politics in the interview with "People Magazine", He talked about the "I can't breathe" T-shirts that we saw some of the athletes in the NFL, also the NBA, Lebron James wore one. He said quote -- let's put it up. He thinks Lebron did the right thing. And he says that "We forget the role that Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe and Bill Russell played in raising consciousness.

Lebron is an example of a young man who has in his way and in a respectful way tried to say I'm part of this society too and focuses attention. Should he have weighed in there? I mean there are many people who agree and disagree with these athletes bringing social politics on the field of the court.

FERGUSON: Yes. I think these guys, if they really want to get behind this and do it on their own time, off the court, then by all means do it. I think one of the biggest differences between an Arthur Ashe or Muhammad Ali is they were involved in this continuously. This wasn't some media campaign or an easy way to just get involved and then not remember it.

I mean sometimes I think these social media campaigns are really a little bit self-serving and somewhat naive the impact they are going to have. If you believe this you have to see it through. Ali was one of those. He did that. It wasn't a one day thing. It wasn't a "Hey, I'm going to get a lot of retweets or I'll jump on a bandwagon."

So I'm more impressed by players that stick with it and go for it long term, not just because it's popular at the moment. Remember the "Bring Our Girls" back campaign? It lasted how long -- about well, a couple weeks. Ice bucket challenge is another example.

You actually have to see it through. Not just walk out of the tunnel one time wearing a t-shirt. I hope they do follow through if they truly believe this and it's more than just a quick P.R. hit for you and your brand.

MALVEAUX: So Maria, I hope this is not a quick P.R. -- I don't think he's doing this because this is what we noticed at the press conference and it was unprecedented. Having covered the White House for 10 years I noticed it immediately. He only took questions from female reporters. And I have to tell you, I mean, we used to notice these things. We used to take a count because there were so few of us covering the White House -- women.

So Ann Compton and Helen Thomas and Andrea Mitchell and myself -- all of us would note how many people get questions. How many women get questions? There was one, maybe two, you know three rarely. What's your take on this?

CARDONA: So isn't it fabulous Suzanne that we now live in a time where there are so many fantastic female reporters that the President can take a press conference that lasted almost an hour, and take amazing questions from amazing reporters and they just happen to all be female.

MALVEAUX: I know. And this sounds a little old school but I have to tell you this. We used to deliberately wear red, dress in red during his press conferences so that we could get attention, you know. So they would call on us. That we would stand out from all of the suits. You see the red -- Helen Thomas there. I mean that was just kind of the standard way of, you know, trying to say "Look, I'm here, hello. Call on me. Over here." CARDONA: Exactly. Exactly.

And what I think is so incredible about what happened there last night Suzanne is that no one can ever say that he did this just to essentially appease the female population or the female reporters. Why -- because all of these reporters were top notch. They were great reporters who happened to be women, so yes, we all took notice and that's not a bad thing for a president and a party who is doing everything that they can to underscore the importance of the women voters out and for an electorate that happens to be the majority female.

MALVEAUX: All right. Amen.

BLACKWELL: And I second that amen.

MALVEAUX: The White House says that they noticed the list, they were doing the print reporters and noticed women, and they wanted to make that point. They did actually want to demonstrate look, there is a lot of females in the press corps that do an excellent job.

CARDONA: Exactly.

BLACKWELL: Maria Cardona, Ben Ferguson -- thank you both.

CARDONA: Thank you. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays.

MALVEAUX: Happy Holidays.

BLACKWELL: You too.

Still ahead, no matter if it's across the state or across the country, we're talking about the holidays, the weather may not be a gift for travelers this holiday week. We'll check out the forecast when we return.

And this is the season of giving. But why deal with packed parking lots and crowded malls to search for that perfect gift? Finding something meaningful doesn't need to be difficult. Just go to cnn.com/impact for more on how to give it forward this holiday season.

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MALVEAUX: Storms, floods and landslides -- holiday travelers could be in for long waits at airports and on highways as the weather creates havoc in parts of the country. In Oregon people along the Clackamas River are preparing for possible flooding after forecasts of heavy rain this weekend. Authorities have warned that residents, they've got to be alert for those evacuation orders.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's go to CNN meteorologist Karen Maginnis at the weather center.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It looks like a very powerful Pacific storm system taking aim at the West Coast with high winds now added to the mix of the heavy rainfall especially in some of those intercoastal regions. We could see as much as a foot in some areas -- one to two feet of snowfall.

But the big information that we have to give you is that this is Pacific moisture, and because it's from the Pacific that means there's a lot of warmer air. So the bulk of this in lower elevations is going to be rainfall. Above the higher elevations you could see one to three feet of snowfall. In those low lying areas mudslides, also debris flows especially where we've seen some of the burn areas.

So all the way from Seattle to Portland to just around the San Francisco Bay Area, the rainfall continues, not just for today but even going into Sunday as well and beginning to taper off on Monday. By Monday afternoon it should all move out.

We do have flash flood watches as well as warnings out, and this storm system is expected to move across interior sections of the west. So mountain snowfall expected to be heavy here, over the next several days.

Now, AAA says about 99 million people are expected to travel over the Christmas holidays, the majority of them on the roadways. So what can we expect? We go until Christmas Eve an area of low pressure moves into the Great Lakes region. On the back side of this, that's where we're looking at snowfall.

We don't think any major snowfall, but those computer models are still evolving. There's still plenty of cold air as we go into Christmas Day, from Boston into New York. Temperatures are going to be a whole lot colder than what we've seen as of late.

And across the southeast look for that wet weather mostly in areas from Charlotte to Atlanta down toward New Orleans as a very persistent area of low pressure remains in place. And there you can see going into Monday that area of low pressure that will be problematic in places like Chicago, New York and into Minnesota we're looking at snowfall developing there. And still snowfall expected for the Rockies -- Suzanne, Victor.

MALVEAUX: A lot going on for the holidays. Thank you, Karen.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: We really appreciate it.

Sony having more troubles now. After days of criticism over the decision to pull "The Interview" the company is now under fire from a group of former employees who say the company didn't do enough to protect their personal information. Up next, we're going to tell you how it could play out in the court of law.

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BLACKWELL: The lawsuits against Sony are starting now to roll in. Former employees have now filed four separate lawsuits against the media giant according to a report by several news agencies. The former workers accuse Sony of not doing enough to safeguard personal information like social security numbers, the medical records. And of course, this was all released in one of the largest digital breaches ever against an American company.

Let's talk about these cases with legal analyst for HLN Joey Jackson. So, let's talk first about this complaint that says Sony failed to secure its computer system, servers and data bases despite weaknesses that it has known about for years. Do they have a pretty strong case here?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Victor. They certainly do.

Look, here's the reality. The reality is that this is a negligence suit and when you look at negligence it means someone was careless. So in legal standards, Victor, there's the following language: duty, breach, causation, damages.

What does it mean? It means that Sony certainly owed its employees a duty, right, to be careful, to safeguard that. Now when you get to the breach, obviously there was some breach in that duty to the extent that that system was penetrated, as a result of that there was a cause of damage -- significant injury to those people.

Now, when I say people, we're talking about 14,200 current and former employees and when I talk about injury, Victor, of course I'm not talking about physical injury, in that sense, but to the extent that your information is compromised. Just think for one moment about the magnitude of this. We're talking about private data, social security numbers, salary information, reasons for leaving, reasons for staying, medical information. And with that in the hands of people who have bad intentions it could be very damaging to be sure.

BLACKWELL: So of course, the people whose information has been released, they have questions about their privacy and valid ones, but Sony if this ever goes to court, they would have to release the specific information about their cyber protection. Do you believe this will ever go to court or will this settle out of court?

JACKSON: You know what Victor I don't believe it will go to court. I mean, you know, obviously it's in court in as much as a lawsuit is filed but I think it's certainly in Sony's interest to get past this. They have a lot of explaining to do, particularly since they were on notice. This is not the first rodeo -- Sony has of course been hacked before.

And that's one of the issues here, Victor. In as much as the lawyers are saying you were on notice, you therefore had an obligation being on notice of being hacked before, that there were problems in your security system. And at the very least, based upon you being on notice of those problems you should have took the adequate precautions to ensure that this information is safe.

In fact, in one of the allegations in the complaint they say you made a business decision knowing of this risk but not wanting to invest the time, attention and money to it. And as a result of that, it causes a serious problem.

So I think Sony knows it's on the hook here and I don't think they want protracted litigation. They don't want to be in court. They want to resolve this, make good with their former employees, give the employees the protections they need in terms of the credit monitoring, and move forward insuring or at least attempting to insure that this doesn't happen in the future.

BLACKWELL: And Joey, Sony is now threatening to sue news agencies that published what was released by these hackers. How do you gauge the potential strength of a claim like that?

Now, that Victor, I believe that to be problematic. Why -- because the Supreme Court really has ruled on this issue. And, you know, not so much this issue itself, in terms of somebody hacking information and then what you do as far as republishing that information. But we know that the general tenor, right, the general approach of our court is free and unbridled communication.

And to matters of public interest, you know, the media's not doing anything but republishing something that was stolen by someone else. So is there an ethical duty perhaps on the media, that you can make the argument. But a moral duty is one thing; a legal duty not to do something is quite different. So to the extent that you say legally you can't publish that, I think that's a very problematic argument to make.

BLACKWELL: All right. HLN legal analyst Joey Jackson, we appreciate your insight.

JACKSON: Thank you -- Victor. Tell Suzanne "hello" for me.

BLACKWELL: I'll let you do it yourself.

JACKSON: Hi, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Hi Joey.

JACKSON: Good to see you.

MALVEAUX: Good to see you.

JACKSON: Thanks. Have a great day -- guys.

BLACKWELL: You too.

MALVEAUX: All right. Have a good holiday.

"I can't breathe." That has become a rallying cry among protesters angry over the recent death of African-American men at the hands of police officers. Now one woman has filed an application for a trademark on that phrase. Up next, why that could trigger a fierce legal battle.

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MALVEAUX: In Milwaukee protesters angry over the shooting death of Dontre Hamilton paralyzed the city during rush hour on Friday. Officials say nearly 100 people were arrested and are expected to face disorderly conduct charges.

Hamilton was shot by a Milwaukee police officer 14 times back in April after confrontation in a city park. The officer involved in his death has been fired. Hamilton's family says they want the officer to face criminal charges.

BLACKWELL: A legal battle could be brewing and it all has to do with the phrase "I can't breathe" which has become as you hear a rallying cry for protesters angry over the recent deaths of African-American men at the hands of police officers including Eric Garner.

Well, an Illinois woman has now filed an application for a trademark on that phrase. Garner's mother has threatened legal action if the application is not dropped.

MALVEAUX: A scary scene on a Georgia freeway after a FedEx truck slams into a police car. You can see an officer getting out of his vehicle to make a routine stop -- when he returned to the car a FedEx trailer barrels into his vehicle. According to WGCL, rescue teams had to use the "jaws of life" to pull the driver from the truck after it overturned. Officials say the driver failed to stay in his lane.

No word yet on his condition. The police officer was not seriously injured.

And that's it for us. We're going to see you back here at 10:00 Eastern in the "CNN NEWSROOM".

BLACKWELL: But keep it right here. "SMERCONISH" starts right now.