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CNN NEWSROOM

Wake to Be Held for NYPD Officer; Seven Arrested for Threats Against NYPD; Jordan Promises Consequences if Pilot Not Returned; Moviegoers Head out to See "The Interview"

Aired December 26, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Online terroristic threats, a growing number of threats against the NYPD.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a great loss. These are heroes, and it hurts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The terrorist-appointed governor of Mosul was killed in an air strike. At the same time, ISIS has a valuable bargaining chip.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.S. would support any effort to recover the pilot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "The Interview" has finally made its debut.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I got what I paid for.

SETH ROGEN, ACTOR: If it wasn't for theaters like this and for people like you guys, this literally would not be happening right now.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST: Good morning, everyone, welcome to NEWS ROOM. It is Friday, December 2, 6 A.M. in the east. I'm Christine Romans along with Poppy Harlow and Pamela Brown. We hope you had a wonderful holiday. We're so glad you're with us this morning.

Our top story this morning for you: Seven people hauled off in handcuffs for allegedly making threats against New York City police officers in the days following the execution-style murders of two officers.

POPPY HARLOW, CO-HOST: Also, a public wake for one of the officers, Rafael Ramos, is taking place this afternoon. That is today ahead of his funeral, which is tomorrow. And people across this nation are coming to pay their respects to both of the slain officers from the NYPD, as a memorial to the pair grows in Brooklyn.

Let's get straight to Miguel Marquez. He is live at the church in Officer Ramos's home borough of Queens.

Miguel, good morning to you. MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, Poppy. This kicks off a wrenching time for NYPD and the city. That wake will be from 2-9 p.m. tonight. It's going to be a tough week for these folks, and they have to get through two funerals.

And all of this as the NYPD remains on alert against other attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ (voice-over): NYPD in mourning and on heightened alert.

BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Any statements suggesting violence towards the police need to be reported to the police so we can stop future tragedies.

MARQUEZ: Seven people arrested in connection with making threats against NYPD. Three arrested for posting threats on social media, two for making false 911 calls.

Two others arrested: one for making threats against the 104th Precinct in Queens. The other against the 84th Precinct in Brooklyn, where the two assassinated officers worked.

Officer Rafael Ramos' family came to the 84th Precinct Wednesday, his eldest son Justin calling his father a hero, said, "I'm going to miss his loving presence, and I can't begin to fathom what life is going to be like without him."

The memorial to the two officers growing in proportion to the sorrow felt citywide. Police have come, sometimes alone, others in groups. All with a show of respect, their grief unmistakable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's sad. It's really hurting me. Even though I'm not a police officer, but it just -- it really got to me, to watch this on TV with my family.

MARQUEZ: Like NYPD funerals before, an enormous display of respect and grief will blanket the Glendale section of Queens, as officers from across the country remember one of their own.

DE BLASIO: Now bow our heads in memory of Officer Ramos and Officer Liu.

MARQUEZ: Wenjian Liu's funeral is still being planned as the city and country grieve. JetBlue Airlines is working to fly family members from China and has offered to fly two officers from any law enforcement agency along its route to the funerals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: JetBlue says that it will fly some 600 people from different departments around the country here. Thousands of dollars has been raised for both families. Even the New York Mets have invited the Ramos family to attend a spring training camp.

But none of that compares to what is going to happen here in Queens tomorrow for this funeral. This area of Queens will be transformed for the funeral for Officer Ramos and then later on for Officer Liu -- Christine.

ROMAN: Yes, Miguel, those are lovely gestures, but nothing brings those two police officers back. And their families have a very, very big hole to grapple with. Thank you for that.

I want to dig a little deeper on these threats against police with Tom Fuentes. He's CNN's law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director. Also with me here in the studio, Vincent Hill. He's a former police officer and a private investigator. Nice to see both of you.

Let me start with you, Tom. Two more people have been charged now with threatening New York Police Department officers, including one who called in the very same precinct where these two officers were killed. How is law enforcement dealing with these threats? There's going to be a lot of boastful bad behavior, and then there are real threats against police officers.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Christine. Well, the problem is how do they distinguish? So when they get word, you know, from either a citizen who's reading postings or another measure, you know, they have to follow up. They have to look at it. Because you can't take it as idle.

You know, the Instagram that was put out by Brinsley the other day, last week, turns out to be true. He goes and shoots and kills two police officers. So they have to treat anything like it's another person intending to kill police officers.

ROMANS: Tom, NYPD says there have been 40 threats -- 40 threats to that precinct since these two officers were killed.

FUENTES: Right.

ROMANS: They've deemed about half of them not to be credible. They're investigating the other half of them. When you look at numbers like that -- 40 actual threats, half of them under investigation -- do you recall a time when the anti-police sentiment was so -- so high?

FUENTES: No, and I know back in the '70s when I was on the street, you know, it was a time of extreme disrespect and hatred almost for police officers and the military at the height of the Vietnam protests. But I don't recall it being so targeted and so pointed as now, addressing threats against NYPD officers.

You know, police officers face these threats every day of the week. And in fact, a couple of days after Ramos and Liu were killed, we have an officer in Tarpon Springs, Florida, shot and killed in the line of duty, who ironically had been a New York City police officer for more than five years.

So these shootings and killings of police go on. The shootings and killings of people who assault the police or point guns at the police, that's going to go on. And I think it's going to be a difficult time to turn this around.

ROMANS: So Vincent, let's talk about how you turn it around. You're going to see maybe 25,000 people at this funeral today. You're going to see Joe Biden will be there. JetBlue, we heard about the company making this gesture to support -- to support police in getting police here. How do you take this moment and change the conversation from anti-police to healing between police and the communities?

VINCENT HILL, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Well, I think one thing we have to do is we have to remember what caused these deaths. I mean, if you look at the shooting in Berkeley, Missouri...

ROMANS: Right.

HILL: ... you look at Michael Brown; you look at Eric Garner, they were doing something that caused the police to be there. And the more we ignore that, the longer this problem will go on.

ROMANS: You say protesters are ignoring that.

HILL: Yes.

ROMANS: They're ignoring everything that led up to that moment when a gun was discharged. You've pulled your weapon before.

HILL: Correct.

ROMANS: That moment when you're pulling your weapon out, are you thinking about potential proportionality of your response? What are you thinking about at that moment?

HILL: I'm thinking just like every law-enforcement officer: to go home that night. I don't see color; I don't see size; I don't see anything. If there's a threat, my job is to take care of the threat.

ROMANS: When you look at that Berkeley, Missouri shooting just two miles from Ferguson, I think one thing that's so different about that case is you have a police officer responding, a police officer coming to a place where a gun, they say, was drawn on the officer.

But then the response of the crowd -- throwing fireworks into the -- into the crowd, into the gas station -- there is something different among these protesters and people in these communities.

HILL: Well, again, it goes back to what I said. We can't ignore what happened. I mean, he pulled a gun on an officer. So we can say it's racial all we want.

ROMANS: Right.

HILL: But at the end of the day, he did something that caused that officer to use deadly force.

ROMANS: Tom, I want to ask you something about the difference in that Berkeley, Missouri, case. Police very quickly released surveillance video from three different sources, three different angles. There's a great deal of transparency, within hours of that -- of that shooting, the police-involved shooting. Should that serve as a model as we go forward here? If there can be more information right away? Could that be an important way to change how we respond to these things?

FUENTES: Well, you would think it would have been important enough to not have the protests and not have, you know, what happened after that shooting.

You have what appears to be a completely justified shooting. You have the mayor of the city, who's black, come out on the scene, and then quickly announce to the public his belief and his findings that the officer was justified in using the force he used.

And in spite of all that -- and it's against an individual who's not a kid with a toy or something. He was with a loaded nine-millimeter pistol. And at the ripe old age of 18 had already previous arrests for armed robbery, weapons charges, other thefts. So you're talking about a situation -- there will never be a time -- I don't care if one million people protest, there will never be a time, hopefully, in this country, that someone can point a gun at a police officer and expect a different outcome.

ROMANS: Do you expect, Vincent, that there will be a chilling effect on how police respond to crime in their communities? Could it be that they are going to be more -- less likely to go to some neighborhoods or less likely to actually try to do their job?

HILL: Right. And you look at NYPD, I mean, these are officers that ran into the World Trade Center. I mean, but now you have a situation where those that are appointed to protect us are afraid for their safety. Then what? Then you have mass chaos on the street, because they're not going to go into these calls. They're not going to go and risk their life.

ROMANS: Do you think, Tom, chilling effect in how police officers do their job? Are they going to be, in the moment of trying to decide pulling their weapon, they're going to be thinking about what it's going to look like in the papers?

FUENTES: I don't think so. Because I think what will happen -- I mean, they may say that and voice that concern. But I have a feeling that, you know, doing the right thing and their sense of duty will kick in. The training, the discipline, the years of being a good law enforcement officer will kick in for good law enforcement officers...

ROMANS: I think...

FUENTES: ... and they'll do what they're supposed to do.

ROMANS: I think you're going to see a lot of new kinds of training, too. I mean, this is going to go -- I think you're going to see a lot of new kinds of training at police academies across the country. Because this is part of the company and part of the relationship between law enforcement and the communities, no question.

Tom Fuentes, thank you. Vincent Hill, so nice to see you.

HILL: Thank you.

ROMANS: Thanks for coming in.

HILL: It's great to see you.

ROMANS: Happy holidays to both of you gentlemen.

HILL: Happy holidays.

FUENTES: Thank you.

ROMANS: Poppy.

HARLOW: A really important conversation. Thanks to you both.

All right. Let's turn now to the fight against ISIS in Iraq. A Christmas-day coalition air strike killed the ISIS-appointed governor of Mosul. He had actually only been in office there for 25 days. He took office after his predecessor was also killed by a coalition air strike.

This as the family of a Jordanian pilot taken captive by ISIS when his plane went down, pleads for his safe return. The U.S. and Jordan dispute claims, though, by ISIS that it shot that plane down.

Let's get straight to the Pentagon. Barbara Starr joins us live this morning with the latest.

Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy.

The Jordanian parliament now warning of grave consequences if this pilot is not returned, if his safety is not insured by ISIS. Jordan, the U.S. and the coalition all on the same page on this. They want ISIS to insure the safety of this young Jordanian pilot.

What brought him down over Syria, though, remains the big question. The coalition very adamantly saying he was not shot down by an ISIS heat-seeking missile. ISIS contends they shot the plane down. The coalition, however, not saying what brought the plane down. And that's becoming a bit of a mystery now. What brought this plane down? Was it mechanical trouble? Was there some other issue?

The pilot ejected very quickly. There were airborne rescue forces in the region. They saw him go down. But they couldn't get to him in time, because ISIS picked him up so quickly once he ejected and landed on the ground.

So we really have two very serious issues here. The safety of this pilot, getting him back to Jordan. How is that going to happen? No one really has a public solution, if you will, yet. No word on whether there's going to be a rescue mission. That would be highly classified, of course.

And what brought the plane down? Is there a mechanical problem? Is there some problem with the F-16? That is a workhorse for a number of air forces around the world. A lot of people want to know what brought that plane down -- Poppy.

HARLOW: And it's interesting, Barbara, because we heard Jordan come out this morning and say, yes, this was not shot down by ISIS. And we had the U.S. yesterday saying our intelligence tells us this was definitely not shot down. Do we have any indication of why they are so sure?

STARR: Well, you know, no is the answer, but there's a couple of reasonable things we can now look at. Did the pilot perhaps -- we don't know -- make a mayday call back to the command center? Did he say, "I'm -- you know, I'm having engine trouble? I'm having mechanical trouble?" Do they have some word from the pilot before he went down? They track all of these aircraft in command centers. Did they see some technical problem it? Was there a wing man flying nearby? Was there another aircraft close enough by to perhaps see something? All of these are the questions to which right now we have no answers, Poppy.

HARLOW: And we will likely, hopefully, get more answers in the coming days and hopefully see that pilot released safely. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, live for us this morning, thank you very much.

Let's get straight to Pamela Brown for some of our other top stories.

ROMANS: Hi, Pamela.

HARLOW: Good morning.

ROMANS: Happy holidays.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Happy holidays to you guys.

HARLOW: This is like the perfect group of people I'd want to be sitting with on the day after Christmas.

BROWN: The blonde (ph) brigade right here on a Friday morning.

ROMANS: Where's the egg nog? Oh, no. No eggnog.

BROWN: Let's take a look at your headlines on this Friday.

President Obama is spending Christmas night paying tribute to the U.S. military. He visited a Marine Corps base in Hawaii to mark the end of the war in Afghanistan and thank the soldiers for their sacrifices. The vast majority of U.S. troops will be out of Afghanistan by the end of the week, 13 years and $1 trillion after the conflict began.

And online gaming networks PlayStation and Xbox live are still offline this morning. The networks were targeted in the hack attack on Christmas, and a group called the Lizard Squad took credit for the takedown. Both PlayStation and Xbox are run by companies with a hand in streaming the comedy flick, "The Interview."

Get this: two people who grabbed cash off the street in Hong Kong after it fell out of a security van are facing charges this morning. Look at this video right here. As you see, it is a frenzied scene on Christmas Eve, when a money transport spilled $2 million worth of bank notes onto the street. People scrambling there to pick up the cash. Police had warned that anyone who followed that rule, you know, finder's keepers rule, could face charges if they didn't return the money. Well, 29 people who voluntarily returned cash will likely not face charges.

All right. Here's a question: How many of you plan to watch what you eat this holiday season? Well, as it turns out, not to many of you. This is according to a new CNN/ORC poll. When asked about your approach to food this time of year, 62 percent of you said you planned to just indulge and eat whatever you want. That is a big 15-point jump from eight years ago, when 47 percent ago chose the eat-until- you-drop approach. And check this out: nearly 6 in 10 of you say you have no plans to go on a diet after the holidays.

ROMANS: They're all liars. They say what they're going to do and you do it, anyway. I watch what I eat very carefully as I eat it. I watch what I eat. I eat whatever I want.

BROWN: There you go.

ROMANS: It's the holidays, don't worry about it. That's what it's for.

HARLOW: Not to say you're going to go on a diet. Because I sort of feel like when you say it right around the holidays, it never happens.

ROMANS: I think your birthday is a better time. For like personal finance and for weight loss, I think your birthday is the time, start fresh.

HARLOW: New year. Indeed.

ROMANS: Too much pressure.

BROWN: It's too late for me this year.

ROMANS: Too much pressure. Pamela, nice to see you.

Now let's get to meteorologist Jennifer Gray, keeping track of the latest forecast for us. Good morning.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning to you, ladies.

We are watching our next storm system brew in the west. In fact dumping quite a bit of snow in the Rockies. It was a fantastic day in the east yesterday. That drier air, though, is pushing offshore. We are going to see moisture return just in time for the weekend.

So a lot of snow in the Rockies. Like we mentioned, we have those winter weather advisories. We have winter storm warnings in effect, and this is your snowfall totals through Saturday. Could see an additional two to four inches right around North Platte, also Des Moines, Sioux Falls, Minneapolis could pick up an additional three to five inches, and then that is going to be pushing to the east.

So as it does so, we'll pick up a lot of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, bring in some rain for the weekend, for the south. That will push into the northeast. And then another round by the end of the weekend.

So a couple of waves of rain for the south and the east as we go through the next few days. One to three inches of rain, anyway from south Louisiana all the way through portions of Alabama. It doesn't look like we're going to see quite as much rain in the northeast. Could pick up about an inch. In some areas less than that.

So if you are planning to hit the malls, maybe do some returns, redeem those gift cards, we are going to see a pretty nice forecast for today and tomorrow in New York City. The clouds and rain do return on Sunday, though; high temperatures around 51. In Chicago, temperatures will be dropping; 33 degrees by Sunday. So get out today or tomorrow -- ladies.

HARLOW: I'm just excited there's snow in Minnesota. Because my niece and nephew are flying there this morning, and I promised them snow. There will be snow.

ROMANS: So Aunt Poppy's Christmas gift just came true, thanks to Mother Nature. Thank you, Jennifer.

HARLOW: Exactly. Thanks, Jennifer.

All right. You know we've all been talking about this. And pretty much only this for a number of days. Did you see it? Sold-out crowds went to watch "The Interview" in select theaters across the country. Others watched it online. Did people like it? And here's a big question: Has Sony stumbled into sort of a new era when it comes to releasing these films? We'll discuss next.

ROMANS: Plus the top ten political stories of 2014. Republicans seizing control of the Senate. Hillary Clinton's potential presidential run. Are we still saying "potential"? What do you think topped the list? We're going to have a rundown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. It might not be an Oscar contender, but "The Interview" is all the buzz for the coming holiday weekend. It debuted at over 300 theaters across the country, with many saying they're happy to support the film as part of their, quote, "patriotic duty" after, of course, that massive Sony hack.

And just as the film hit theaters, another issue for two companies that were streaming it online. Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox Live, both apparently targeted by another hacker group last night. What do we make of all this? Let's bring in CNN senior media

correspondent and host of CNN "RELIABLE SOURCES," Brian Stelter. Also, Peter Beinart is with, a CNN political contributor and contributing editor to Atlantic Media. Thank you both for being here. I appreciate it. Brian has been nonstop on this story.

BRIAN STELTER, HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Good story.

HARLOW: No real holiday for you. It's a huge story. So let's talk first about -- you've seen "The Interview." A, what do you think? And how is it being received?

STELTER: I thought it was good for what it was, you know, a silly, raunchy comedy, perfect for family viewing, as long as the kids and adults are above a certain and know what they're getting. You know, it's a stoner comedy, and I thought it was good for what it was.

HARLOW: Marc Andreessen tweeting this morning, "It's funny to watch all these serious people..."

STELTER: Yes.

HARLOW: "... watch a stoner comedy."

STELTER: Yes. And experience this for the first time. And if you've seen Seth Rogen movies before...

HARLOW: Right. You know what you're in.

STELTER: ... you knew what you were getting. And I think it was worth $6. You know, would it have been $20? Would it have been worth $20 to rent? Probably not. But $6? Sure.

HARLOW: And you said we're going to have to wait until this day and this weekend to see if it really has legs, right? It sold out of yesterday, of course. But is it going to keep selling out?

STELTER: Yes.

HARLOW: Are the streams online going to be high? And are we even going to find out, ever, Brian, the numbers of how well it is doing online?

STELTER: I don't think Sony wants to release their online rental data. There's no reason they need to, so why do it? But we will hear about the box office today. You know, there were a lot of sell-outs in movie theaters yesterday. If it sells out today and tomorrow, that will be impressive.

HARLOW: So Peter, on a much more serious note here, looking at the political and geopolitical implications behind this, and North Korea responding to this and saying there will be no physical response to the decision of Sony to release this. Because the whole hack was to prevent them from doing this, and they did it anyways.

Do you think, though, that no physical response means another hack is on the way?

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Maybe. But there's also the possibility North Korea has learned that this has massively backfired. I mean, more people are now seeing this movie than ever before. It's also created more discussion about Kim Jong-un and the horrors of his regime than we would have had otherwise.

So I don't know how many wise heads there are in that -- in that regime. Probably not too many. But I actually think that what's remarkable about this story is it's one of those rare stories where things have actually gotten better as the story has played out.

I mean, the media response, the response by President Obama, has actually created an environment in which I think we've now set a precedent in which the next time this happens, the response is likely to be more forceful, as opposed to being more craven.

HARLOW: And by the way, you know, a number of people now are lauding Sony for releasing this and not talking about those very embarrassing e-mails that came out that were the first part of this story.

STELTER: I don't know if it was intentional, but Sony did change the story away from those leaked e-mails.

HARLOW: They did.

STELTER: And away from all the lawsuits against the company and all the other bad news it still has to deal with.

HARLOW: With the CEO coming out and speaking here on CNN. And then the president responding to it, as well.

BEINART: And they're more -- there's more stuff they could still leak. So that's another interesting thing, where...

HARLOW: Yes, and will they?

BEINART: ... will they respond by doing that now?

HARLOW: Let me ask you this, Peter. The Russian foreign ministry came out with this statement yesterday, really offering sympathy for North Korea, saying, "We understand." This coming from the foreign ministry spokesman.

He said, "The concept of the movie is so aggressive and scandalous that the reaction of the North Korean side and not just it, is quite understandable."

What's your reaction? And do you think also the U.S. is going to have to explain their reasoning, show concrete evidence that North Korea is behind the hack? Because Russia is saying where's the evidence?

BEINART: You know, Russia has for many years now been trying to position itself as kind of the leader of an anti-American axis. It's been wooing China, especially, in that regard. So I think it's not that surprising. We've been -- we have these very heavy sanctions on Russia now that are really hurting the economy a lot.

I don't think that domestically, the administration is under very much pressure to provide more evidence. I do suspect that the next time -- the next time this kind of thing comes along, that the administration will be more proactive about suggesting to film makers that maybe they not make another movie that shows the assassination of a sitting head of state. I don't imagine that that's going to happen any time soon.

But I think on the other hand, I think we've shown that we, as a culture, still have a very, very strong instinctive tendency to believe that, whatever the artistic merit of a movie, that it shouldn't be able to be shut down because of foreign pressure.

STELTER: To your point, I have...

HARLOW: You bring up, yes, an important point that I want to you weigh in, Brian, we talked of. When this story broke, I asked you, what about -- is this censorship? Is this going to mean that this is going to dictate what we produce in this country? Do you think on some level it is?

STELTER: I think there are still legitimate worries about that. You know, the head of one of the biggest media companies in the country other than Sony said to me, you know, "I understand the movie. I get it. I get the plot. But why not just call it a fictional dictator?"

And I think now that the movie is out, and people can see it, it's more comfortable to say that and bring that up. The point you're bringing up about not naming it for an actual living human being.

HARLOW: So it is going to change.

STELTER: That's not necessarily self-censorship. It might just be common sense in order to avoid all of this mess, including potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in damage from the actual cyberattack.

HARLOW: We've got to go, but very quickly, hackers were promising a Christmas day surprise.

STELTER: Nothing.

HARLOW: Nothing.

STELTER: Nothing. But you know, I don't think Sony is out of the woods yet, and the CEO has acknowledged as much. There's going to be more trouble down the road. Maybe that involves more leaks; maybe not.

HARLOW: All right. I'm going to watch "The Interview" this weekend. I've got to see it.

STELTER: It's the perfect -- you know, have a glass of wine or something, and then it's the perfect kind of movie.

BEINART: When the kids are asleep.

HARLOW: Yes, indeed. Thank you, guys. Appreciate you coming on.

Christine.

ROMANS: Great conversation.

All right. It was a turbulent year on Capitol Hill, the Senate changing hands, the president side-stepping Congress on immigration reform and Cuba, but which political story finished No. 1 on our top ten list? Jake Tapper breaking it down.

And how many zoo keepers does it take to get an adorable baby panda bear out of a tree? This is not a joke. How this panda predicament at the National Zoo ended. That's ahead.

HARLOW: Aww.

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