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NYPD Funerals; NYPD Arrests; Interview Pulled in $1 Million; Obama's Wins and Losses

Aired December 26, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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


PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Pamela Brown, filling in for Brooke Baldwin on this Friday.

And right now, a church in New York City is being flooded with police officers. More than 25,000 cops are expected to show up to honor one of the NYPD officers shot to death in his patrol car last weekend. Wenjian Liu, along with his partner Rafael Ramos, were killed in cold blood by a man who vowed revenge for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown on his Instagram. Officer Ramos's funeral is tomorrow, and that's where the crowd of cops is expected to attend.

And today a moving moment as his casket arrived. A solemn procession flanked by police officers. And here is part of that moment.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The flag that you saw right there draped over the coffin, the green, is the official flag of the NYPD. The details of Liu's service have not been announced yet, but today his wife of just two months attended an emotional news conference where she and Ramos' family got a donation to pay off their mortgages.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: You and I can go to bed, our children can go to bed, our parents can go to bed safe because this family and the Ramos family sacrificed their son, their husband, the breadwinner of the family. So I'm making a contribution specifically, in addition to the other contributions that I've made to the Tunnel of Towers Fund, of $20,000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And we want to go live now to Alexandra Field, who is standing right outside the church where today's wake is being held for Ramos.

Alexandra, obviously a very somber day there. Set the scene for us.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, I think you can see just behind me that they have just opened the doors to this church and there's just a very long line of officers who are filing in. They're coming by the dozens and we've been seeing them out here for the last couple of hours lined up by the hundreds waiting for this moment, waiting to come inside and pay respects and to pay a final tribute. We do know that Rafael Ramos's family is inside the church. We didn't

see them come through the front doors, but they were brought in and they are receiving so many people now, just mourners in this community and fellow comrades in the NYPD and from different police departments across the country. The image, seeing all of these officers here to pay tribute, many of their heads lowered, many of them reflecting on just what a somber moment this is, it's truly a powerful moment.

In this city's history, Pamela, you rarely see something like this. You hope not to see this kind of thing happen. But this is a moment where so many officers are coming together to pay respects to one of their own.

This is happening at Officer Ramos's home church. This is a church that he belonged to for the past 14 years. We're told that he was deeply involved in the work of this church and in this community. A man of tremendous faith. Inside right now, his wife and his two young sons grieving their loss.

BROWN: Wow, amazing to see just the crowd there behind you. It really is a brotherhood. We know about 25,000 cops are expected to attend Ramos's funeral tomorrow. Can you tell us what we can expect at that?

FIELD: Twenty-five thousand officers we're told to expect, but some 30,000 people altogether will be out here in these streets tomorrow morning for this final sendoff for Officer Ramos. We know, among them, there will certainly be a number of dignitaries. We know that Mayor Bill de Blasio is coming. We also know that the New York City police commissioner, Bill Bratton, will be here as well. So you will see a lot of faces that you'll recognize, a lot of people who want to stand here in solidarity, despite any tension that we have seen unfold in the past week between the mayor and the police union. The mayor has made it very clear that he will be here to support the family. He has spent a great deal of time with them in the last week, meeting with them, lending their support.

We also know that JetBlue Airlines has made an offer to bring in a number of officers from around the country and we're told at this point that some 670 officers who live in cities along their route will be flown in so they can stand here tomorrow, so that they can be a part of this final farewell for Officer Rafael Ramos.

BROWN: As you say, in a showing of solidarity. Alexandra Field, thank you very much.

And the city of New York still mourning the loss of these two officer, murdered by a lone gunman nearly a week ago. New York's police department keeping the peace while also keeping a watchful eye, wary of the potential for more acts of violence. This as investigators look into online threats against police. CNN's Miguel Marquez is in New York with more.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, this neighborhood in Queens is already being blanketed in blue, as you can see. NYPD preparing for 25,000 police officers to show up to this funeral. This as NYPD is on alert for more threats. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: Any statement 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 104th precinct in Queens, the other against the 84th precinct in Brooklyn, where the two assassinated officers worked.

Officer Rafael Ramos's family came to the 84th predict 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 in a show of respect. Their grief, unmistakable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: And JetBlue airlines saying that they are going to bring 600 police officers from different departments around the country to this area. Businesses across the city also stepping up, raising tens of thousands of dollars for both families. The next few days are going to be very emotional, not only for NYPD, but for the city.

Pamela.

BROWN: Miguel Marquez, thank you very much for that.

Now, let's talk about these threats with Tom Fuentes, he is a CNN law enforcement analyst and former assistant director of the FBI, and John Matthews, former Dallas police officer and author of "Mass Shootings: Six Steps to Survival."

John, I want to start with you here because you say you've seen a surge in these threats against police officer. In your view, when did the rise start and why? What's behind this?

JOHN MATTHEWS, FORMER DALLAS POLICE OFFICER: Well, not only have we seen a surge in threats against officers, we've seen a surge in ambush attacks against officers. For the last four or five years, those numbers have been increasing at a disturbing rate. This year alone, through the first three quarters of 2014, the ambush death of police officers in the line of duty was the leading cause of firearms related death. That's very, very disturbing. We're losing officers, officers being attacked and murdered eating lunch, sitting in their squad car and responding to calls for service, and unfortunately, it looks like the fourth quarter of 2014, ambush attacks are going to be the leading cause of firearms related deaths. That's very disturbing to us in law enforcement. BROWN: And, Tom, I know before you were with the FBI, you were a

street cop. You worked the streets. So you have a lot of experience in that field. Have you ever seen an anti-police sentiment as strong as this in your experience?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: No, Pamela. When I was an officer in the '70s, there was a great deal of anti-police, anti- military sentiment in the U.S. It was the height of the Vietnam War protests and we were called pigs, so there was a lot of that. But I think that the ambush and targeting of police officers, as mentioned, is at an all-time high and we didn't have that before.

BROWN: And we know what the two officers, the two NYPD officers that were killed, they were just sitting in their car. So with these type of attacks on the rise, John, what can cops do to protect themselves?

MATTHEWS: Well, we've got to stay more vigilant. We have to know that it's not just responding to calls for service anymore. Usually when you get a call from that police dispatcher, it kind of, you know, ups your adrenaline level. You're on high alert. You get to the call and you're paying attention to everything. But now any time you don that uniform, you put that badge on your chest, you go out there to serve the public, you've got to know that you could be a potential target. So like I said, whether you're eating in a restaurant, just having lunch or sitting with your partner in the squad car, you've got to constantly be aware of your surroundings, you've got to work with your partners to watch the people around you, and we've got to stay vigilant to keep alive, to serve the public.

BROWN: And in some ways what happened with these NYPD officers is a bit of a wake-up call, it seems, because, Tom, you know, there are projected to be, as we talked about, 30,000 cops at the funerals of these two officers this weekend. The sad reality, Tom, is that cops are killed every year.

FUENTES: Right.

BROWN: In fact, one was just killed recently in Florida. So why do you think this in particular has struck such a chord with these officers?

FUENTES: I think this one in particular because lately we've had such a high level of anti-police -- I mean the protests themselves all over the country are basically critical of law enforcement actions and the decisions that police officers make every day. And, in this case, you have an individual who says, I'm going to put wins on pigs. I'm going to go kill police officers. So this is not an encounter with a person that's under the influence of alcohol or drugs or mentally unstable. This is an individual who absolutely said, I'm going to go kill police officers, and did it.

And you're right, in mentioning this story, on average, more than one officer per week in this country is killed in the line of duty. The officer killed in Tarpon Springs, Florida, Charles Kondek, was killed 12 hours after Officers Ramos and Lui were killed in New York City. And, ironically, he's a former NYPD officer for five years who then became a police officer in Florida. So these police killings will go on and on and on. They have, and they're going to continue in the future. And the police just generally feel like, look, we've been telling you what we're doing is dangerous and difficult and it's bad enough we have ISIS that wants to come attack us with hatchets on a street corner, or like they've done in other countries. You know, to have regular people, regular Americans do it, just raises it to a new level.

BROWN: And, John, I want to go to you now, because you see all of these cops lining up to go into the wake of Rafael Ramos. And you wonder, what goes through their minds when something like this happened, what happened to these two NYPD officers? Are they thinking that could be me?

MATTHEWS: Well, I think you always think that. You go on the street and you think, that could be me. You think about your family, your wife, your children. You think about serving the public out there. And I think what the officers are thinking about right now in this service, number one is honoring the memory of these two fallen officers. They want to show their loyalty and their support for the ultimate sacrifice that these officers made. And I think they want to assist the families in any way possible, providing any type of emotional or support for these families. It's terrible, I mean, during the holiday season to lose a family member, to lose an officer and to have him killed in the line of duty. These officers are really taking this seriously. And, Pamela, we've lost 124 officers so far this year.

BROWN: Wow. That puts it into perspective. Thank you so much, Tom Fuentes and John Matthews. We appreciate it.

FUENTES: Thank you, Pamela.

MATTHEWS: Thank you.

BROWN: And coming up right here in NEWSROOM, as we round out 2014, we're taking a look at some of the political highlights and low points President Obama faced, and we're going to look at what's to come.

Also ahead, "The Interview" is out and the reviews are pouring in. For the most part, not so good. We're turning a critical eye to the stoner comedy, up next.

But first, Fareed Zakaria with a special look at President Obama's special initiative that examines the human brain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, CNN'S "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": President Obama announced the Brain Initiative in 2013. It's an effort to show how the brain's neuro circuits work together in real time.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It won't be easy, but think about what we could do once we do crack this code.

ZAKARIA: Is it more difficult to map the brain than it was to map the human genome, which took about initially ten or 15 years? MICHIO KAKU, PHYSICS PROFESSOR, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: It will

take a lot of time. Realize that the Human Genome Project only talked about maybe 20,000 genes or so that governed the human body. The brain has 100 billion neurons. Each neuron connected to 10,000 other neurons. That's as many stars as there are in the Milky Way Galaxy. And so it will take time.

ZAKARIA: Wow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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BROWN: Well, it's a movie that's gotten more publicity than most Oscar winners. I'm sure you know what talking about here, "The Interview," and it opened in more than 300 theaters. And according to the piracy blog Torrentfreak, it's been illegally downloaded more than 750,000 times. So, what are people seeing? It's not all laughs. Here's a quick taste of "The Interview." Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when you think of all that your country has been through, the wars, the floods, do you think that your people should be rewarded for their resilience and strength?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, Dave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then why don't you feed them?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And while many moviegoers say attending an "Interview" screening was a way of fulfilling their constitutional duty, it might be the theater owners who are really the patriotic heavyweights. In a CNN op-ed, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley writes, quote, "when history looks back on the whole Sony versus North Korea tempest of recent weeks, the true heroes of the saga will be America's independent cinema owners."

And Douglas Brinkley is here to talk about "The Interview" and the op- ed he wrote.

Thanks for being here with us. I did read your op-ed. I found it very interesting, especially the fact that, you know, you're normally on this show talking about your role as a presidential historian. But I'm curious to know about "The Interview," why that stirred you enough to write that op-ed today.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, I was actually on with CNN with Wolf Blitzer when President Obama had his last press conference. And it was really dominated by the president criticizing Sony. At that moment, it became part of the annals of American history in a very real, intangible way. And I was interested that - looking how everybody's kind of been shucking responsibility, ducking and shuffling things around, that these independent cinema companies of America, mom and pop operations, stood up and said, we'll run it. And it became, in many ways, a freedom of expression issue in "The Interview," which is a, you know, a slapstick comedy, kind of a b- grade film. But now it's going to be remembered forever as a moment of who stood tall against censorship.

BROWN: In your op-ed, you have a very vivid description, not only of your experience going to the theater, watching the movie, but also of the theater owner. Tell us about that. Tell us about that experience.

BRINKLEY: Well, you know, Austin, Texas, is becoming a film hub. I mean we have great directors that live here, like Richard Linklater and Terrence Malick. And the Alamo really draws the community together. And so I went to the Alamo Draft House at 6th and Trinity downtown, and there was just a crowd of people coming in, and everybody was in a "I love America" mode. The owner handed out little mini American flags to everybody. Lee Greenwood, a video of him singing at a baseball game on Fox Sports was beamed in. And karaoke style patriotic gore (ph) was in the mix as free beers were being handed out.

BROWN: Wow.

BRINKLEY: And you realize, in America, and particularly in a weird city that still has that Austin weird thing, that this became a cause celeb on Christmas Day.

BROWN: Yes, that's normally not the experience when you go to the movies. So what do you think then, Douglas, on that note, of all these people who say, it's their patriotic duty to see this movie? Because we've heard that from a lot of moviegoers afterwards.

BRINKLEY: It reminds me of how desperate Americans are to feel like they meter, that they can make a difference. It's a very noisy and busy culture out there. And in this case, some people feel, how dare a dictator, or a dictatorship like North Korea, try to tell America what our pop culture standards should be. So I'm proud of people that not just went to the movie, that are downloading it, that are standing by Sony for allowing the release right now. I think we get into a very slippery terrain if we start allowing a country like North Korea or anybody telling us what we can and can't watch. This, in my mind, it's a triumph for the art houses in America that aren't the big multiplex cinemas, but people that show indie films all the time and take risk by bringing and exposing Americans to different kinds of cinema from around the world.

BROWN: Yes, we spoke to an independent theater owner yesterday and he was very excited and said the little guys won this time.

Douglas Brinkley, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

And coming up right here in NEWSROOM, 2014 was a year of big wins and losses for President Obama. Political analyst Ron Brownstein joins me next to break it all down for us.

And then later, we're going to take a look at some of the hits and misses in the entertainment world, there were a lot of those, as we round out the year. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

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BROWN: And welcome back.

It has been a year of dramatic ups and downs for President Obama, from a surge in criticism of his foreign policy, to a surge in the economy. He saw major parts of his namesake health care law take effect, but he also saw a decline in support by members of his own party. In fact, some Democrats on the campaign trail distance themselves from President Obama. And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle slammed his move to reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba. Still, Obama ends the year with his highest approval rating in 20 months. In the most recent CNN/ ORC poll, 48 percent of those surveyed approved of the job that he's doing.

So let's talk about this. CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein joins me now from Washington.

Always fun to kind of go back and look at the president's year and see sort of the wins and the losses. Can't wait to hear your perspective on this, Ron. So let's start at the top here. Let's talk about President Obama's best moment of 2014. What do you think it was?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think the best moments of 2014 really came after the lowest moments. I mean, really, all of the best moments were after the 2014 election, which was the culmination of a lot of bad things that happened through the first 11 months of the year. And I think the best moments were both the unilateral action on immigration and the decision to reestablish normalized relations with Cuba, both of which embodied his determination to press executive power to its limits to make an impact in his final two years. And they came contemporaneously with his other best moment of the year probably for him, the November jobs report. With over 300,000 new jobs created, now we have six times as many jobs created in the Obama presidency as during the entire two terms of George W. Bush. That shows the opportunity that a rising economy may strengthen his position through 2015 and into 2016, and that's a critical variable for Democrats in the 2016 election.

BROWN: All right, so the obvious next question then, Ron, what do you think the weakest moment of the year was for the president?

BROWNSTEIN: You know, there are a lot of competitors for that weakest moment of the year, but they all really revolve around the same theme, the sense that events were spinning out of control through much of 2014, whether it was the initial reaction to the Ebola virus in the U.S., the V.A. scandal, the unaccompanied minors, the invasion of Ukraine. But I think on that list, the low point was the upsurge of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Both the fall of Mosul and the beheading of three Americans, I think that was I think the lowest point for the president. The deepest sense that he was not in control of events and that he was not reacting strongly enough. And as I said, to some extent, on all of those fronts, by the end of the year, they can point to a more positive story that was reflected in the approval rating that you cited in that November, in that December poll. BROWN: Right, I was going to ask you about what you thought was behind

that. And you could actually, in the president's press conference, his end of year press conference -

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BROWN: You could sense that he was more upbeat, I guess you could say.

So let's talk about the fact that we have, you know, President Obama will be a lame duck president. We're probably going to see gridlock in Congress. I think that's safe to say. So what do you think he's going to be able to accomplish next year?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think the Cuba and the immigration decisions really are the marker of where this is going. That the president, I think, has very minimal expectations of what he can get done with Congress. Maybe something on trade. Maybe something on tax reform. But by and large he's going to try to make his mark through I think unilateral executive action wherever he can.

We also have the climate regulations, which are historic, dealing with carbon emissions from existing power plants that are moving forward. I think on Guantanamo, on criminal justice, there are a number of other areas where I think he is going to try to push the envelope and essentially dare Republicans in Congress to try to stop him. Ultimately, the courts may be a bigger threat.

But one important thing about all of that. That is not only shaping his legacy, it is in a very concrete way shaping the 2016 battlefield because when you look through the big, unilateral steps that he has been taking, Hillary Clinton has quickly endorsed all of them. The leading Republicans are opposing them. He is setting, in many ways, the issue agenda for 2016 even today.

BROWN: Wow. I can't let you go, Ron, before I ask you this question, what you think the best, the worst moments were inside of the beltway this past year.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think the best moment - you know, the bar has really been lowered. The best moment was the fact that they were able to agree on a funding of the federal government for everything except the Department of Homeland Security through next September, so we don't have to worry about a government shutdown in the near term.

I think the worst moment inside the beltway was some of the rhetoric that surrounded that very difficult issue of this surge of unaccompanied minors across the Texas border in the summer. Whatever ever else was going on, these were children that were coming to the U.S. And I thought some of the rhetoric around that got I think out of proportion and really out of control.

BROWN: Wow, what a year it has been. Ron Brownstein, thank you very much for summing it all up for us.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

BROWN: We appreciate it.

And coming up here in NEWSROOM, a coalition pilot captured by the terror group ISIS after his plane went down over Syria. His family now pleading for his release. That's next.

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