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Deadly Plane Crash; U.S. Troops In Syria; Starbucks Baristas Strike. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 25, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:01:27]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: This hour, extraordinary video captures the moment survivors of a deadly plane crash emerge from the wreckage, some appearing dazed. We have the latest on the Christmas Day crash in Kazakhstan.

Also, the Pentagon reveals just how many U.S. Troops are in Syria. The number is far higher than what officials have said publicly.

And thousands of Starbucks baristas go on strike. And they say it's just the beginning. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

MAN #1: This is CNN Breaking News.

FREEMAN: Hello and welcome. I'm Danny Freeman in New York. We're beginning this hour in Kazakhstan where authorities now say at least 38 people are dead after an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed and burst into flames. Though there were 29 survivors, including two children, 11 are currently in critical condition.

Now, we have to warn you, this next video showing dazed survivors pulled from the wreckage may be disturbing for some to watch.

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MAN #2: (Speaking In Foreign Language)

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FREEMAN: In this video right here posted to social media, you can actually see the plane descending to the ground in what appears to be the moment of impact. A Russian aviation watchdog says preliminary information suggests the pilot tried to make an emergency landing after a bird strike.

Last hour I spoke with CNN Transportation Analyst Mary Schiavo about the new developments. Here's some of that conversation.

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MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: What I'm seeing is it has to be more than a bird strike because the plane did not have what's called pitch control. In other words, how many degrees up or down the nose is, how much is the nose pointed up or how much is it pointed down?

So it obviously had some damage to the pitch control, which could be from the trim system, which, you know, helps the pilot keep the nose in the right place up or down, or the elevator, which is in the back of the plane. So there had to be something additional going on.

Also, there's unconfirmed reports that the pilot had done what's called squawking. In other words, you put your radio, you put your equipment on, and it sends a certain signal, which is 7,700, which says you've got a serious onboard problem. And then also, when looking at a publicly available flight radar system online, you can see that the pilot fought with this plane for some time before choosing to land it at another airport.

And so this wasn't something that happened and then the plane was brought down. For example, on landing, you hit a flock of birds, and the altitude makes me wonder, you know, would the birds been at that altitude? But the pilot really fought. Pilots really fought with this, this plane for some time and then did a figure eight before landing. They did two circles and then tried to land. So it appeared that they were trying to gain control of this aircraft and really put quite a fight up on this Embraer 190.

FREEMAN: That's remarkable -- remarkable that you can, just by looking at some of that publicly available flight data tell, what that story may have been as it was playing out. Mary though at least 29 people, as far as we understand, survived this crash, though that seems truly extraordinary.

[14:05:01]

SCHIAVO: Well, and it's reminiscent of other, you know, accidents that we've talked about here on CNN or that I've worked as a, you know, an aviation lawyer and doing investigations. And we see crashes, more and more crashes where people survive because of the safety features built into aircraft. There less -- there's more survivability, there's less flammability, the ability to get out.

And we have actually seen many crashes where the plane was completely destroyed. And in several cases, everyone got off, or in some cases, there were just a few deaths, including cartwheeling like this, as the plane did when it came in.

And there are pictures circulating showing holes punctured in fuselage. And some people are saying, well, that looks like bullet holes. Actually, in doing accident investigations, I can tell you that looks like damage from the explosion of the aircraft when it exploded on the ground. So those don't look like bullet holes to me on the pictures that are circulating around.

And, you know, clearly this pilot -- these pilots, there are two of them on this plane, could not get this nose up, which suggests you don't have pitch control, which is reminiscent of other accidents. Even the 737 Max 8 crashes in Indonesia and in Ethiopia. The final sequence looked very much like this, a dive into the ground.

So because there are several, you know, many survivors, which is fortunate, and because of the newer plane that'll have newer black boxes, flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, it'll have all the parameters. And I think they will have their answer of what happened fairly soon.

However, they may not have their answer very soon as to whether it was a bird strike or something else. There's lots of speculation, it might have been a drone. But they will have to carefully examine the plane, the engines, the windscreen.

Ordinarily, birds take out your engines -- or engine, and you have time to tell air traffic control, you have time to get a mayday call in. You have time to communicate and tell what happened.

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FREEMAN: And thanks again to Mary Schiavo for that analysis.

This morning, President Biden and the first lady sent their final Christmas Day message of his presidency.

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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Merry Christmas, America. We're joining you from Children's National Hospital, where we've been spreading holiday cheer to children and families and them to us as well.

JILL BIDEN, U.S. FIRST LADY: From the Biden family to yours, may your Christmas be full of kindness and love, peace and light.

TOGETHER: Merry Christmas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: And beyond gifts, the President is also wrapping up his legislative duties, signing 50 new bills into law on Christmas Eve. CNN Senior Reporter Isaac Dovere is here with the details. Isaac, great to see you. Talk to us about what some of these laws do?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, it's a lot of things, as you said, it's 50 laws that he signed on Christmas Eve. They include a bill that would strip members of Congress who've been convicted of certain crimes of their pensions, a bill that designates the bald eagle officially as the national bird of America even after all these years. And a bill sponsored in part -- or promoted in part by Paris Hilton that would be aimed at improving conditions for teens in all sorts of institutions where teens are living by requiring studies to be done and other things to look at what's going on with them.

So it's a lot of legislation that comes at the end of the lame duck Congress that finished last week and that is probably the end of the laws that Joe Biden will sign as President. There may be a couple more. FREEMAN: Isaac, just quickly, can I ask you, I mean, do you think we're going to see much of President Biden in this last less than a month now time of his presidency?

DOVERE: Well, he is going to be away with his family for part of this time over the holidays. We will -- it's hard to know exactly what the president's plans are for the last couple of weeks of the presidency once everybody comes back into things in January. But he has certainly been keeping a lower profile, lower radar for a number of reasons.

But one of those is that some of the things that he wants to -- some of the things that he cares about, he does not want to essentially raise to the attention of Donald Trump, put a target on for when Trump takes over on January 20th. Although people within his own party and beyond have noted that we have seen quite a notable lack of public appearances from Joe Biden over the last couple of weeks.

FREEMAN: Yeah. I'm interested to see again how much, if at all, really, we see him aside from that, you know, visit with the pope between now and --

DOVERE: Right.

Freeman: -- Inauguration Day. Isaac Dovere, thank you as always. Great to see you. Have a happy holiday.

DOVERE: You, too.

FREEMAN: All right. Let's talk some politics now with Democratic Strategist, Chuck Rocha and Republican Strategist, Lee Carter.

[14:10:04]

Chuck, of course, was a Senior Adviser on Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns and Lee is President of Mas Lansky and Partners. Chuck, let's start with you. President Biden, 26 days left in office. What else could you see him doing with those precious last few days?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, what a lot of us are thinking about right now is we're with our family, with our friends spending time with loved ones or other loved ones that are here. And what I'm specifically thinking about are folks with TPS, Temporary Protective Status or DACA, the Deferred Action.

What he could do in his last 27 days is take those programs and he could extend them because many of them are expiring. Like my business partner in March, she would have to self deport even though she's been here for 22 years and has been here since she was a kid at three years old. So there's a lot of folks looking for him to do something or on TPS and DACA as he moves into the last days of his presidency.

FREEMAN: Lee, President Elect Trump railed against Biden's pardons of those, or I should say commutations of those 37 inmates on federal death row. I was curious your perspective on what President Elect Trump might do about that. I mean, it seems that the goal of Biden's actions is to make sure that President Elect Trump can't do anything about that when he gets into office. But will the death penalty be a priority for him?

LEE CARTER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I don't think it's on the top of his list as far as priorities. I know it seems like it based on the conversations we've had right now, but it looks like Donald Trump's priorities are going to be all around immigration, the economy. I don't think the first thing he's going to focus on is the death penalty.

FREEMAN: All right, Chuck, I'm going to ask you my favorite question of every year of the past year, I guess or so. Do you think that Speaker Mike Johnson will still be speaker by the end of 2025?

ROCHA: Look, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. And one thing we know about Republicans and speakers elections, we all learned this just two years ago, is that anything could happen. And with the slimmest majority in American history in the last hundred years, I think that anything could happen.

He would only need, keep in mind, only need a like three people to be against him. It's hard when you get all these Republicans in place to get all three of them to agree on a lunch order, much less a speaker. So I think we're in for something really unique.

FREEMAN: I mean, Lee, what do you think about that? We got this interesting preview just in the past week-and-a half or so with Elon Musk with Mar-a-Lago chiming in and the government stayed open, you know, shutdown was avoided for the moment. But what do you think? I mean, are we going to see Speaker Mike Johnson really have a hard time with this tiny Republican majority come 2025?

CARTER: I mean, there's no doubt about it. There's -- there's some rogue Republicans out there and they're -- they're not easy to wrangle. But I think you underestimate Speaker Johnson at your own peril. I think a lot of people thought he was going to be able to do what he's done so far. He seems to have built a very good relationship with Donald Trump. He was at the MSG event where in, you know, before the election.

And Donald Trump made reference to Speaker Johnson a number of times and even talked about some of the things that they had committed to do together. So I wouldn't be surprised if he sticks around. I think Donald Trump sees that he has somebody that's willing to work with him -- in him.

And I think, you know, you be careful what you wish for with somebody else you might not know exactly what you're getting. So my guess is if anybody has a chance of still being there a year from now, it's him.

FREEMAN: All right, Chuck -- and I should say Merry Christmas to both of you. So in the spirit of the holiday, Chuck, what is the one thing that you think President Elect Trump and the Democrats could actually find common ground on in the next year?

ROCHA: Look, this is not hard. Democrats and Republicans can get along. We're all with our families right now. We don't ask them what their party belongs to. Heck, I even get along with my Republican brother-in-law. That's his boat right behind me. We can get along about fishing.

We can also get along as Democrats and Republicans about not putting so much sugar in our drinks. You want to make America healthy again Donald Trump and JFK? Sign me up. I'm all about it.

FREEMAN: I mean, listen, if your brother-in-law has a boat, yeah, you got to be friends with him. I understand that completely. Lee, I'll ask you that question, though. Where do you see a place where the two parties might be able to work together next year?

CARTER: Chuck, there's a lot of common ground on some of the health issues. When you think about all that, they're talking about food ingredients. A lot of people are really supportive of that. But I also think there's an opportunity to find common ground around immigration.

I know that there's a lot of places where the Republicans are tougher on immigration than Democrats, but path to citizenship for children who are born here is something that we all agree on. And I think there's -- if you look at the polling, there's a number of issues around immigration that we agree on. And hopefully that's something that we could come together and get something done on.

FREEMAN: See, bipartisanship, not that hard. You know we can do it on Christmas, at least. We can do it. Lee Carter, Chuck Rocha, thanks both to you for joining us on this holiday.

[14:15:02]

Really appreciate it.

CARTER: Merry Christmas.

ROCHA: Merry Christmas.

FREEMAN: All right, ahead this hour on CNN News Central. It's known as a Santa Rally. We'll share what you need to know about this typically very merry period for the stock market, as well as what the New Year could bring.

Plus, Starbucks baristas say they're just getting started after thousands went on strike. We'll talk to one of the bargaining leaders about their demands. These important stories and much, much more all coming up this hour on CNN News Central.

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FREEMAN: Investors are enjoying their annual Christmas present this week, the seasonal Santa Rally. This happens most years when the market sees a bump at the end of the year right around the holidays. And while there's no question it's been a good year for stocks, what happens next year after President Elect Trump takes office really is anyone's guess.

For more on this, let's discuss with CNN Economics and Political Commentator and Washington Post Columnist Catherine Rampell.

[14:20:01]

Catherine, great to see you on this holiday. Listen, the market had a great year under President Biden. Certainly 2024 was a good year for the bulls. Will this continue into 2025?

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMEMTATOR: Merry Christmas. Look, that's -- that's the best question out there. And if I knew the answer to that, I would be a very rich woman.

I will say this. The U.S. Economy has been the envy of the world. We have strong GDP growth. We have low unemployment. Inflation is still too high, but has come down a lot. We have a lot of things going for us, and certainly we're doing better than basically all of our peer countries. If I were Donald Trump, I would come in, declare a victory, and do pretty much nothing at all and hope that, you know, the boom just continues. We're well situated.

However, I am not Donald Trump. And Donald Trump has, of course, suggested that he will take some relatively risky economic policies into, you know, going into the first few months of his term, including things like global tariffs, which would be very risky for the U.S. Economy.

If you raise tariffs on everything around the world, and higher tariffs on countries like China and Mexico, that not only raises prices for consumers on the things that they buy that are largely imports, whether we're talking about lots of produce, toys, automobiles, etc. apparel, but it will also cause a lot of uncertainty and costs, obviously, for U.S. Companies. Including ones that are primarily manufacturing domestically, somewhat counterintuitively, because they do buy a lot of raw materials and inputs from abroad.

So if, just as an example, Trump adopts that policy, as he has threatened to do, there's a very good chance that could kill not just the great economic boom that we've had, but, of course, the bull market as well.

FREEMAN: Do you actually see that as -- as the investor community's biggest worry for 2025, these sweeping tariffs?

RAMPELL: You know, it's interesting. The markets clearly don't believe this will happen. They are betting on big corporate tax cuts, and that's why we've seen a big rise, at least, you know, until -- as of last week, when the Fed indicated that it might have fewer rate cuts in the imminent future. That rattled markets, certainly.

But up until then, that seemed to be the thing that U.S. Companies were betting on. They were expecting that their corporate tax rates would go down, which means more profits get to be retained by shareholders, which arithmetically drives up stock prices. It seems like for now, a lot of companies and market participants do not really believe that Trump will do as he says he will on tariffs.

And look, he may not. I think it's quite likely that he'll do something on tariffs, maybe just on China, for example, but he may not do quite the sweeping global tariffs that he had promised on the campaign trail. And companies are clearly hoping that's not the case.

But if you talk to a lot of smaller businesses, for example, they're kind of paralyzed by this uncertainty right now because without knowing whether there will be tariffs, what the tariffs will look like, where the tariffs will be, it's very difficult for them to sort of plan around them and relocate supply chains and diversify in a way that will actually protect them going forward.

So at the very least, there's a fair amount of uncertainty right now. But -- but companies, you know, executives, etcetera. investors don't seem to be taking at face value the threats that Trump has made.

FREEMAN: Catherine, I wanted to get your take on what we were seeing heading into the inauguration where a lot of tech companies in particular, they're making these big donations to the inauguration. We, of course, also see Elon Musk, you know, first buddy to President Elect Trump.

I was curious your perspective. We've seen companies and individuals make big donations around the inauguration always before. But with this particular time or these instances that have been so public, that have been so effusive, do you think that these tech companies in particular will have some weight over President Elect Trump in the coming year?

RAMPELL: Well, I think Elon Musk certainly will.

FREEMAN: Right.

RAMPELL: He clearly has the president's ear and has already been throwing a wrench into all sorts of political things, including what's happening in Congress over spending legislation. In terms of the other CEOs out there, I wonder if -- I suspect I should say, that it's less about getting Trump to do them a favor specifically, rather than to avoid his wrath and punishment.

[14:25:01]

So it's more like protection money almost, that they're very worried that Donald Trump will use the powers of the state to go after his political enemies, as he has promised to do, whether it's about taking away broadcast licenses from media organizations he dislikes or otherwise, you know, using the powers of government procurement or antitrust or various other things that actually he did try to do a number of times in his first-term and was largely undermined by his own advisers and aides.

So I think a lot of this is sort of prophylactic, that companies are very worried that if they're not on the right side of the incoming president that they could suffer serious retaliation. But I'm sure that there are some that are also hoping for, you know, a nice, sweet tax break in the tax overhaul that is definitely coming next year, or they're hoping for exemptions to tariffs. That's what we saw a lot last time around. So I think there are a few things going on, but mostly I see it as defensive. FREEMAN: I did not anticipate the word prophylactic being on this Christmas Day show, but I appreciate it specifically in context because it is helpful to understand, I think, what is coming in this coming year. Catherine Rampell, thank you so much for your time. Have a happy holiday.

RAMPELL: You too. Merry Christmas.

FREEMAN: And still to come, the Pentagon reveals more U.S. troops than originally believed are in Syria. We'll discuss why their numbers have been steadily increasing. Stay with us.

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