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CNN NEWSROOM

Remembering Mario Cuomo; A Christian Community's Loss in Flight 8501; GM Recalls 92,000 SUVs; Bluefin's Technology to Help in Wreckage Search; College Football Title Game Set

Aired January 2, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Flags in New York City will remain at half-staff for the next month to mark the passing of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, as many remember the liberal three-term governor as a giant. Mario Cuomo passed away yesterday at the age of 82 from natural causes, from heart failure. The son of an Italian immigrant, the minor league baseball player turned lawyer quickly rose in the national political spotlight. John Berman takes a look back at the life of Mario Cuomo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Simply, it was the American dream. The son of Italian immigrants, Mario Cuomo rose from the basement of this grocery store in South Jamaica, Queens, where he slept on the floor and spoke no English, to the highest office in New York state. Along the way, creating a political legacy and dynasty that spanned generations. His life driven by a passion for learning, his catholic faith, and a determination to simply work harder than the other guy.

MARIO CUOMO, FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR: One of the simple things I wanted to achieve is, I want to be governor, I want to be the hardest working there ever was.

BERMAN: After more than a decade of the full contact politics of New York, Cuomo catapulted to national prominence with the keynote address at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

CUOMO: We thank you for the great privilege of being able to address this convention.

BERMAN: He challenged head-on Ronald Reagan's notion of a shining city on a hill, instead calling America a tale of two cities.

CUOMO: We must get the American public to look past the glitter, beyond the showmanship, to the reality, the hard substance of things, and we'll do it not so much with speeches that sound good, as with speeches that are good and sound. BERMAN: It cemented him as one of his generation's greatest orators, a

defender of the have-nots and the little guys. It also made him the choice of many Democratic leaders to run for president.

CUOMO: He said, will you think about it? I said, I have been thinking about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But are you going to think about it anymore?

BERMAN: He was considered a favorite for the Democratic nomination in both 1988 and 1992. But in both cases, he demurred. His seeming inability to decide on higher office frustrated Democratic Party faithful and became something of a punchline in itself.

JAY LENO, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": And Mario Cuomo, and no one knows what he's going to do, that's -- I don't know if you've seen his new public service commercial for New York City. It says, a mind is a terrible thing to make up. Yes.

BERMAN: He said it wasn't indecisiveness that kept him in New York instead of Washington, it was his commitment to the state.

CUOMO: It has nothing to do with my chances. It has everything to do with my job as governor. And I don't see that I can do both, therefore I will not pursue the presidency.

BERMAN: He said it was that same commitment that led him to pass on a nomination to the Supreme Court, deciding instead to run for a fourth term as governor. But 12 years was enough for New York. He was defeated by George Pataki in the Republican revolution of 1994.

Cuomo returned to the private sector to restart his law practice, host a radio show and become a prolific author and public speaker. And in 2010 came a brand new title, former or first Governor Cuomo, a word he would be forced to use because he was suddenly no longer the only one. In a bittersweet irony, his eldest son, Andrew, the current governor of New York, was sworn into a second term just hours before his father's death.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: He couldn't be here physically today, my father, but my father is in this room. He's in heart and mind of every person who is here. He's here and he's here, and his inspiration and his legacy and his experience is what has brought this state to this point. So let's give him a round of applause.

BERMAN: Governor Mario Cuomo, a true American giant, was 82. He is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Matilda Rafah Cuomo, his five children, including our CNN "New Day" anchor Chris, and 14 grandchildren. The constants of his life always faith and family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That was John Berman reporting.

Condolences are now pouring in, remembering Governor Mario Cuomo. President Obama calls Mario Cuomo a, quote, "determined champion of progressive values and an unflinching voice for tolerance, inclusiveness, fairness, dignity and opportunity." While New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said Cuomo, quote, "was a strong, eloquent leader who loved New York and its people. As an Italian American, he was also a role model for future generations that anything was possible through hard work and education."

Former New York Governor David Paterson joins me now.

Good morning, sir.

DAVID PATERSON, FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR: Good morning, Carol. Happy New Year, although it's not getting off to a very good start.

COSTELLO: Happy New Year. No, no, but I'm thankful you're here. Can you share one of your favorite memories about Mario Cuomo?

PATERSON: Well, I once used the word perspicacity in a speech and he ran up to me and he said, why would you ever use the word perspicacity? Nobody understands that. He said, I would never use that word. In my speeches I use the word perspicuity.

COSTELLO: Was it a lesson learned for you?

PATERSON: Well, he was just a wonderful person. A person that spoke with a lot of passion. When they talk about his public speaking that he was such an orator, I think there are a lot of people who can actually pronounce the words and illiterate the sentences, as well as Mario Cuomo did, but very few could evidence the passion and sincerity in his remarks. He was a believer.

COSTELLO: He was. He seemed to have it all, a great back story, he was a fabulous speaker, as you said, he was beloved among Democrats. Why do you think he didn't run for president?

PATERSON: I really don't know. The only instinct that I have is that he really seemed to disdain politics in a lot of ways. He didn't like traveling a lot. He didn't like being in the middle of the crowds. He wasn't an attention seeker. He was just an attention getter. So the idea of living in a bubble, like a president, and not being able to go home and stay with his wife, Matilda, every night probably didn't appeal to him. But nobody really knows why he didn't run for president.

COSTELLO: Well, a lot of people say, you know, his heart just wasn't in it. It's a terrible job in many ways. You've experienced rough -- the rough waters in the political world. Is it really worth it?

PATERSON: Well, listen, just being governor is a very difficult job, governor of a state. Everything comes down to the decisions of one person, particularly budgeting. And both Governor Cuomo and I experienced the same problem, we both governed during recessions. I was one who criticized him in 1991 for cutting programs, and then 17 years later I'm sitting in the same seat doing the same thing he did and apologizing to him for giving him such a hard time two decades before. COSTELLO: You not only have to deal with things like that, though,

but, you know, the country's so vitriolic. Anything you do is not right. You can't please anyone it seems as a politician.

PATERSON: That's why I stepped down, Carol. I wake up in the morning, everything is not my fault and I've had a good day before I even get out of bed.

COSTELLO: OK. Well that sets up my next question nicely because Mario Cuomo wrote this in 1995. He said, "the nation needs less anger and more thoughtful reflection, less shouting and more listening, less dissembling and more honesty." I don't think the nation listened, do you?

PATERSON: I think that the governor warned against politicians that talk and exert extremes and pedaled a bunch the simplistic exaggerations that often parody the truth. And the interesting thing is, everybody wants to be like a Mario Cuomo or on the Republican side maybe a Ronald Reagan, and yet there are very simple ways to be that way. One is to be honest, two is to speak directly and three is to hold your positions even when the public may be on the other side because maybe you can persuade them rather than weaving back and forth like a weather vane like so many elected officials do.

COSTELLO: Former New York Governor David Paterson, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: She knew the risk but loved to fly. The parents of Flight 8501 crew member are sharing memories of her. Niza Fawi (ph) had been working as a flight attendant for two years. Niza had a passion or travel and adventure, loved her job and family. She was just 22 years old.

As families of those on board Flight 8501 mourn their loved ones, a startling number of those killed were from the same small Christian community. CNN's Gary Tuchman met with a pastor who was comforting the families.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are so many sad stories to tell here in Surabaya, Indonesia, and this is just one of them. It involves a church. You know, Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation in the world, but there's a small Christian denomination in this country that had nearly one-third of the passengers aboard this flight.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): They are people who have long had something in common, they belonged to the same protestant denomination. But as they come into a church sanctuary used by the police in Surabaya, Indonesia, they arrive with something else in common, they are all people who lost loved ones aboard AirAsia Flight 8501. The heartbroken people here are members of the charismatic Mawar

Sharon Church with about 45,000 members across Indonesia. Sadly, many of them had packed the AirAsia flight to celebrate the new year in Singapore.

Lianggono Tajo Bunarto is a church pastor.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Forty-six people from this church were on the plane.

REV. LIANGGONO TAJO BUNARTO, PASTOR, MAWAR SHARON CHURCH: Yes.

TUCHMAN: That's almost one-third of the total people on the plane.

BUNARTO: That's correct. We're putting trust in God's hand.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): The 46 members of the church were not all traveling together. It was just a coincidence so many of them ended up on this flight.

BUNARTO: Something that's happened in our lives, sometimes we just don't understand what God's really intent. And in that way, we just put our trust, everything completely in his will, because he's going to bring everything is the best for our life.

TUCHMAN (on camera): None of the bodies of the 46 members of the church have been recovered yet. The pastor telling me that until they're accounted for, they're in a place between life and death.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Church members preferred not to talk on camera, but sometimes you don't need to hear words because when you look at their faces, you understand how they feel.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Our hearts go out to those people and all the family members of all 162 people aboard this AirAsia plane.

This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, in Surabaya, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a key component in plane recovery, submersibles that can take technology to the bottom of the ocean. How this robot can help, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking some of the top stories for you at 47 minutes past the hour.

An Italian father says he has no doubt this is his kidnapped daughter in a new video released by an al Qaeda affiliate. In this new video, these two women are dressed in Islamic robes. They were kidnapped after traveling to Syria in July. One of the women holds a sign suggesting it was shot on December 17th; the other says they're in big danger and could be killed. Here in the United States, the wife of a suburban Atlanta police chief

remains in critical condition one day after she was shot by her husband, the police chief. Few details about the shooting have been released, but the chief did tell 911 operators that the shooting was accidental. The chief has been placed on administrative relief.

A new year, a new recall for General Motors. The company is recalling 92,000 SUVs and trucks for the same issue that has plagued its cars all year long, faulty ignition switches.

CNN Money correspondent Cristina Alesci joins me now with more on this. Good morning.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Yes, so this current recall applies to Chevrolet Silverados, Suburbans, and Tahoes. I should say, though, the company, although it says those 93,000 recalled, the problem may only exist in 500 of these vehicles. So this is more evidence that GM is being very, very cautious here.

And we also should point out that there's been no accidents or deaths reported as a result of this specific problem, with is actually a little bit different than the one that caused the major recalls earlier this year. But it just goes to show you that there seems to be no end in sight for this company.

COSTELLO: It's mind-boggling. It's like 2014 was the year of the recall, right?

ALESCI: Indeed it was, and 30 million cars in total for GM, to put this into context. They are paying out on claims, death claims, for 42 different families. Already the company has taken a $2.5 billion charge for this. And there are more lawsuits in the pipeline. Arizona already is suing for $3 billion.

COSTELLO: Wow.

ALESCI: So the pain is not gone for GM at all, although people still keep buying their cars.

COSTELLO: I know. That's also mind-boggling. They never stopped. Cristina Alesci, thank you so much.

Rough weather is making it hard for divers in the Java Sea. The search for Flight 8501 now being concentrated in a zone about the size of Delaware. Along with sonar equipment, underwater robotic submersibles are another way searchers can locate the wreckage.

In the wake of devastation, a business once created for ocean exploration is finding itself in the business of plane recovery. Vanessa Yurkevich has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bluefin Robotics makes submersibles, autonomous underwater vehicles known as AUVs built for exploration, discovery, and defense. But more recently their technology has been used for airplane search and recovery, including Malaysia flight MH370.

(on camera): Why was your vehicle chosen to help with the search and recovery for the Malaysia flight?

WILLIAM O'HALLORAN, MANAGER OF MARINE OPERATIONS, BLUEFIN ROBOTICS: Our vehicle supports that because it's easily broken down into small modular pieces and rapidly shipped around the world.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Earlier this year, the Bluefin-21 spent three weeks searching for Malaysia flight, an $11 million U.S. effort to locate the missing jet. Now another recovery effort that Bluefin could help with is under way.

(on camera): Would your vehicle with good to use in the AirAsia crash?

O'HALLORAN: It can be employed in that if need be. Our vehicle could help map a debris field if it was located, and then that can also help provide faster response time for collecting things like flight data recorders, voice data recorders.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): The wreckage of Flight 8501 has been found, but the debris could be scattered across the ocean floor. It's the type of mission that's helped increase Bluefin's business by 15 percent this year. And in the case of the AirAsia plane, their AUVs could once again be on the front line.

They often spend 25 hours searching for a plane and cost half a million to $5 million.

O'HALLORAN: When you think about it, it's actually not that much money. I mean, ship time is tens of thousands of dollars a day to hundreds of thousands of dollars a day, depending on the type of ship. So AUVs make ship time more efficient. So by that, you can actually recoup ship time by using vehicles.

YURKEVICH: When the Bluefin is in the water, an operator on board the ship will program its search path. From there, it's on its own. At up to 5,000 meters, it uses sound sonar to record what it senses on the ocean floor. When the Bluefin surfaces, the operator can download its data and see images like these.

(on camera): How do I know if I'm looking at a rock or black box?

O'HALLORAN: You have to be a trained sonar analyst. One of the things that's really amazing about this technology is, over the years, the resolution of the systems has increased. Quite a lot of detail. So as you can see right there, that's a field of rocks on the left. As the resolution improves and the technology gets more efficient and the systems get better at delivering higher quality data, interpretive risk goes down.

YURKEVICH: Is emotional part of doing what you do?

O'HALLORAN: Absolutely. I mean, there's always an emotional element to something like this. You never want to be a part of a tragic event like this. You never want these things to happen in the world. But if we can help in any way we can, I think we should.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN Money, Quincy, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Oregon players mock Jameis Winston after the rout at the Rose Bowl.

(VIDEO PLAYING: CHANTING)

COSTELLO: I don't know if you could hear it, but they're chanting "No means no". Ooh, ouch. CNN's Andy Scholes is in New Orleans. Hi, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. Yes, that has a lot of people shaking their heads. I'll tell you what the University of Oregon had to say about it. Plus, Ohio State shocks Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Highlights after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We've got the teams for college football's title game -- Oregon and The Ohio State University advanced to the first ever championship matchup after winning their bowl games.

CNN's Andy Scholes drew the lucky straw. He's in New Orleans with a Sugar Bowl that became an instant classic, as if it wasn't before.

SCHOLES: That game last night, Carol, was just awesome. A perfect example of why college football fans have wanted a playoff for so, so long. But unfortunately, at the Rose Bowl, some tasteless off-the- field actions are making headlines today. After ending Florida State's 29 game winning streak, some Oregon players, they were caught on video mocking the Seminoles' tomahawk chop. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OREGON FOOTBALL PLAYERS (chanting): No means no. No means no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right, so they were chanting, "No means no." They seem to be referencing Jameis Winston's sexual assault allegations, which he was never charged for. In a statement, Oregon said this was unacceptable and the players will be disciplined.

Now those actions, they came after the majority of Florida State's players did not shake hands with the Ducks after the game. And they were clearly frustrated after just having just an epic meltdown in the second half. Florida State turned the ball over five times, including a Jameis Winston fumble that rivaled the infamous Mark Sanchez butt fumble back when he played for the Jets. Now, Oregon scored on that play and they went on to cruise to a 59-20 win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAMEIS WINSTON, FLORIDA STATE QUARTERBACK: No one likes to lose, man. I mean, that's -- losing is not really in my vocabulary, to be honest with you. But, you know, we fell short today.

MARCUS MARIOTA, OREGON QUATERBACK: It's an incredible feeling. When you prepare all week, to find success and to be able to execute the way that we did, it definitely feels good. And hopefully we can take a little bit of this momentum heading into the next game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right, meanwhile at the Sugar Bowl here in New Orleans, this game was a nail biter. After falling behind early, Ohio State's third-string quarterback, Cardale Jones, led the Buckeyes on a 28-0 run and they were able to hold off a late charge by Alabama to pull off a huge upset, 42-35.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

URBAN MEYER, OHIO STATE HEAD COACH: Maybe the Big 10 is not that bad. Maybe the Big 10 is pretty dam good and it's certainly getting better.

CURTIS GRANT, OHIO STATE LINEBACKER: I just can't believe it. We stuck together and said we got to go out in the second half and quit the mental mistakes and just go play the game.

DARRON LEE, OHIO STATE LINEBACKER: You get to see the two best teams playing for it all. And it's an honor being there so I'm glad the playoff system is intact now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: So the stage is now set. It's going to be Ohio State taking on Oregon in the first-ever college football playoff national championship game. It will be January 12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

And, Carol, Oregon is a touchdown favorite to win the game, but that being said, Ohio State, they are 8-0 all time against the Ducks. So they've got that going for them.

COSTELLO: I think we should keep that in mind. The Ohio State University. Andy Scholes, thanks so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

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