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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

Tension in New York; Independent Theaters to Show 'The Interview'; North Korea's Internet Problems; Possible Tornado Hits Mississippi; Protesters to March Despite Mayor's Plea; Interview with Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York

Aired December 23, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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


SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it might be the only time going to see a comedy is considered fulfilling your patriotic duty.

I'm Suzanne Malveaux, and this is THE LEAD.

Sony caves on caving by announcing it will release the movie that set North Korea off. But "The Interview" may not exactly be playing in a theater near you.

The national lead. It's getting ugly between New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and his police force. Some members of the NYPD say they don't want the mayor there if they die in the line of duty as he visits a growing memorial for two of his murdered officers.

Also, in the national lead, Rudolph with his nose so bright, won't you guide my minivan tonight? Tens of millions of holiday travelers across the country in store for a gloomy and soggy ride.

Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Suzanne Malveaux, in for Jake Tapper.

We begin with breaking news in our national lead. "The Interview" is coming to theaters. Sony surprised us all by reversing its decision and announcing that it is excited to release the comedy about taking out the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un.

Of course, this comes after Sony Pictures became the victim of an embarrassing hack attack that unleashed a trail of embarrassing Hollywood gossip. The U.S. ultimately blamed that cyber-attack on North Korea itself. And it's still unclear whether a North Korea Internet outage was the U.S. firing back.

But the White House did release a statement today reacting to Sony's about-face, saying: "The president applauds Sony's decision to authorize screenings of the film. As the president made clear, we are a country that believes in free speech and the right of artistic expression."

But, right now, your best bet to see "The Interview" may be still waiting for it to come out on demand, since only a few independent theaters are planning on showing the film, including Alamo Drafthouse in Texas and an art house theater in Atlanta.

As Sony waits for reaction to "The Interview," the company is trying to prevent more of that private information from going public. It's now pushing Twitter to suspend the accounts of people who post more hacked material. And, meanwhile, Congress wants details about any past data breaches at Sony, all of this while the big question remains, what knocked out North Korea's Internet offline for more than nine hours?

It remained spotty today. Was this U.S. retaliation for that Sony hack? And if not, will North Korea blame the United States anyway?

Want to go to our justice correspondent, Pamela Brown, who is joining us.

So, Pam, first of all, Sony, are they giving into this mounting pressure to release the film? What is the backstory about this?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it really depends on who you ask, Suzanne.

Sony is saying that it has been working on ways to distribute this movie all along from the very beginning. Others would say that Sony caved to this growing pressure. But no doubt about it, in the last several days, there's been this groundswell of support for the release of the movie and as we heard strong words from President Obama last Friday. Now Sony is poised to release "The Interview" this Thursday, one week after pulling out of the Christmas Day release.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): A shocking turn of events in the growing Sony saga, tonight, Sony announcing it will roll out a limited theatrical release of "The Interview," a controversial movie about the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Sony's about-face coming after a backlash from celebrities like George Clooney and even President Obama, who criticized the studio's initial decision to delay the movie's release.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I wish they had spoken to me first.

BROWN: Tonight, a growing number of independent theaters announcing they will be showing the movie, and it could just be the tip of the iceberg. After major movie chains pulled the plug last week, following a threat by the hackers, Sony's powerhouse attorney David Boies hinted on Sunday's "Meet the Press" that the studio was not backing down.

DAVID BOIES, SONY ATTORNEY: Remember, Sony only delayed this. Sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. It will be distributed.

BROWN: Now the stars of "The Interview" speaking out on social media. James Franco posting, "Victory. The people and the president have spoken," and Seth Rogen tweeting, "Freedom has prevailed."

In a statement, Sony CEO Michael Lynton says: "We're excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on Christmas Day. While we hope this is only the first step of the film's release, we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech."

As tensions are heightened between the United States and North Korea, which the U.S. blames for the hack, reports that the reclusive country's Internet went down at least twice in the past 24 hours and remains spotty, according to an Internet monitoring company.

REP. ED ROYCE (R), CALIFORNIA: In the general scheme of things, whoever shut it down -- and we don't know yet -- it doesn't really matter that much because there's only several thousand users in North Korea. And I have been in North Korea. I mean, the reality is that three-quarters of the country isn't even supplied with electricity.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: So it is still a mystery. A U.S. official denies that the U.S. had any involvement with North Korea's Internet outage.

Meantime, the FBI saying that it was -- quote -- "fully engaged" with Sony on the decision to release the film on Christmas Day. Law enforcement sources say there's still no actionable intelligence indicating a threat against moviegoers -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, Pam, thank you. Appreciate it.

Joining me now, Michael Furlinger. He is the owner of Plaza Theatre in Atlanta, one of the theaters that will be screening this film.

So, Michael, first of all, take us through this process. Walk us through the decision by Sony. How did you find that they indeed wanted to release this on Christmas and why were you willing to do so?

MICHAEL FURLINGER, PLAZA ATLANTA THEATRE: Well, we were part of the original plan with Sony to release on Christmas Eve.

Of course, it was canceled. And last night, we got the e-mail and the telephone call around 11:00 p.m. stating that they were ready to go on Christmas Day if we were ready, and that's where we are today. We said yes and here we are.

MALVEAUX: Michael, what was the explanation that they gave you?

FURLINGER: Well, they didn't. They just let me know that it was available. I had texted them in the morning that if they had changed their mind, we were certainly ready to go at a moment's notice. And that was 9:00 in the morning and then 11:00 that same day, we got the phone call, which is very odd from a studio at 11:00 at night.

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: Who did you hear from? Was like -- was it the CEO himself or was it somebody you hadn't of heard before?

FURLINGER: We heard from Jeff Wayne (ph), which is the executive that handles the southern region for Sony distribution.

He called my house last night. And he knew that we were totally behind the film. And we went -- on the last go-round, we were the only ones still going to play it in Atlanta.

MALVEAUX: Wow.

FURLINGER: So we kind of I think got first dibs on it. He called us up. And we're ready to go. The big day is coming.

MALVEAUX: It's a very big day.

I got to ask you about this, because obviously there were threats about any moviegoers, that there would be some sort of 9/11 attack on that kind of scale. Are you concerned? Are you worried for your patrons, for your employees there? Any there are efforts to beef up security while this movie is playing?

FURLINGER: Sure. There absolutely is.

First of all, we always take concerns like this seriously. I don't expect to have a problem, but we would be foolish if we don't take some different precautions, perhaps a little bit what somebody could carry into a theater or along those types of lines.

But we're a large theater. We only have two screens, but we have large auditoriums, so it's a little bit easier for us to manage large crowds like this. We're used to doing it. Here in Atlanta, we do a lot of premieres and such.

MALVEAUX: Yes.

FURLINGER: So we're used to dealing with the crowds. And the few security things we are going to put in that are a little different, I don't think anybody will be offended by. And we're ready and we're going to be smart about it.

MALVEAUX: And, Michael, I know there are a ton of people now. You might not have gotten the kind of crowd that you're going to get on Christmas without all of this publicity here. Have you been hearing that people are planning on going or are people a little skittish about going?

FURLINGER: I would say half of 1 percent are skittish and the rest seem very enthusiastic.

I think it's almost that they want to do their civic duty to come see this picture because it's about never having censorship when it comes to films, books. It should be up to the individual to decide who gets to -- if they want to see the film, not someone else, nor less another country.

MALVEAUX: All right, Michael, are you going to be watching?

FURLINGER: Oh, yes. I will.

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: All right, get your popcorn ready. All right.

FURLINGER: There we go. Well, thank you so much. Merry Christmas.

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: Merry Christmas. We're going to checking back in with you to see know how it goes in your theater.

FURLINGER: All right. Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Thanks again, Michael, appreciate it, the owner of the Plaza Theatre again in Atlanta.

Now for what the newest movie release could mean for the relationship between the U.S. and North Korea, I want to bring in Jamie Metzl. He served on President Clinton's National Security Council. He's also is the author of "Genesis Code." Also joining me, Brian Stelter, he's our senior media correspondent, host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES."

Jamie, this is to you and Brian as well.

Jamie, I want to start off with you here.

It was just a week ago. It's hard to believe it was just a week ago when we got that obscure message from hackers that had threatened anybody who was going to go ahead and see that movie "The Interview" on Christmas Day was going to be in big trouble, making references to 9/11. And now we see theaters are going to go ahead with this. Do we think that North Korea will react in any way? What do we suspect?

JAMIE METZL, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: Well, certainly I don't think there's a high likelihood that there will be 9/11 attacks on the United States or on theaters coming from North Korea.

It's going to anger them in some way, but, frankly, North Korea is behaving so terribly, even worse than usual, I really can't imagine how we could have any worse relations with North Korea. But at the same time, now that the movie is being released -- and hats off to wonderful people like Michael in Atlanta and others around the country -- we have a real opportunity in this country not just to talk about freedom of expression here, but also to talk about the terrible human rights conditions in North Korea.

The U.N. issued a report earlier in the year accusing the North Korean regime of being guilty of crimes against humanity. They have upwards of 120,000 people being raped and murdered and starved in gulags. This is a great opportunity for us to express our faith in freedom of expression, but also our concern for the long-suffering people of North Korea.

MALVEAUX: Brian, give us the backstory of Sony making this big-time reversal here. What happened?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I think it's a really important point we were just hearing, by the way, which is, there's a reason why this movie was made about Kim Jong-un.

There's a reason why he was named specifically. It's because of North Korea and the unique place that it has on the world stage. That it is so often a punchline, that people are aware of the human rights abuses. That's why Seth Rogen and his filmmakers wanted to make a movie that directly poked fun and went after Kim Jong-un.

But the backstory of this is really wild. Last night, Sony started reaching out to these theaters, signing some of them up. Here's a new detail I just confirmed. The theaters across the country, independently owned theaters, maybe some in your neighborhood if you're watching at home, have until 6:00 p.m. today to decide whether to run this movie.

That's because Sony has to send them the hard drives that the movie will actually be shown on in time for Christmas. It's really kind of an odd Christmas gift that these different theaters will be receiving in the mail tomorrow in order to show this movie on Christmas Day.

That's why we don't know exactly how many yet. Some theaters are still deciding what to do and they will decide in the next two hours.

MALVEAUX: Seems like kind of old school way, get it in the mail overnight and get it quickly.

(CROSSTALK)

MALVEAUX: Yes.

Jamie, talk about this a little bit. We look at North Korea. This is the second day now that they have this blackout, if you will, over the Internet. It goes back and forth, in and out. Do you think seriously this is the work of the United States? We have not heard anyone, including from the State Department, acknowledge it but there's a suspicion that it is.

METZL: I think it's extremely, extremely unlikely that this is the United States. The United States would not do a denial of service attack against North Korea. We are stakeholders in an open communication system with the people of North Korea connecting with the rest of the world.

I think it would be very, very unlikely that the United States did it. Could it just be problems within the North Korean system? Could the North Koreans be shutting it down themselves in some kind of a defensive maneuver? Could China be shutting them off occasionally as a way of sending a message to Pyongyang and relations between North Korea and China have deteriorated?

I don't really know. I don't think many people know what is happening, but for a country that is already isolated and cut off, cutting these connections makes them even more isolated and cut off.

MALVEAUX: Jamie, having been in the Clinton administration on national security, what do you think a proportional response will be for the United States? METZL: Certainly, I believe we should put North Korea back on the

terrorism watch list. We should certainly go back to sanctioning the bank in Macao that they're using to essential launder money in and out of the country.

But more importantly, there's this process that mentioned a moment ago in the United Nations. Yesterday, in the U.N. Security Council, a resolution on human rights in North Korea was introduced really for the first time ever. And the report, the U.N. commission special inquiry commission report on North Korea, it is unbelievable. Everybody should read this.

As I mentioned before, it's rape, execution, forced starvation. It's this terrible, terrible place. The U.S. needs to focus on hacking, but the two biggest issues with North Korea are the human rights conditions within North Korea and nuclear weapons. We need to stay focused on those as well.

MALVEAUX: Right.

OK, Brian, very, very quickly here, this was a $44 million production here. Obviously, Sony wants to get its money back, if they can. Do we anticipate we will see this in more theaters or perhaps on demand?

STELTER: On demand is the key. I think by the end of the day, we will hear about some sort of online distribution, either video on demand or on the Internet somewhere.

You notice the banner says, will North Korea retaliate? The hackers have said if this comes out, they are going to leak even more of Sony's sensitive, confidential data. That's what I'm going to look for in the next few days. Will there be a further dump of Sony's most private embarrassing information?

MALVEAUX: All right, guys, thanks. Good to see you, Jamie Metzl, Brian Stelter. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.

In our national lead today, just minutes from now, protesters plan to take the streets in New York City. This is in defiance of Mayor Bill de Blasio's request to hold off until -- those protests until the two slain police officers are laid to rest.

Well, how are police preparing for tonight? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We're back with breaking news. A report of a possible tornado that hit Columbia in Mississippi, that is just west of Hattiesburg.

I want to get to our meteorologist Karen Maginnis in the CNN severe weather center.

So, Karen, what can you tell us right now?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We have a confirmed tornado that touched down. You wouldn't think of December as a month where you would see severe weather. But actually, this is a secondary peak for tornadic activity. The first being during the spring months that you're all familiar with, but we've got very warm, moist unstable air that is going to unload. Quite a bit of heavy rainfall all across the Southeast, this is going to be very problematic for not just travelers but now that the weather has turned very violent.

We're looking at what had been a series of tornadoes that have been reported from Louisiana now pushing into Mississippi and the latest one that we have lies just to the west of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It touched down within the past half hour to 45 minutes. There are two unconfirmed reports of some injuries. We know that there are downed trees, downed power lines, Suzanne. They will send out investigators to look at this, but a very violent night ahead in the Deep South.

MALVEAUX: All right. Karen Maginnis, thank you so much. We're going to check back at you later in the hour for more on travel as well.

In other national news, they are men and women who put their lives in danger every day. But police departments across New York City, they are now taking extra security measures today/

And protesters -- they are promising to march again. They are ignoring Bill de Blasio's call to wait until after the funerals of two NYPD officers gunned down on Saturday in an ambush.

Well, today, we are learning another detail about one of those men in blue and how his willingness to go above and beyond put him in that cruiser. According to "The New York Daily News", Wenjian Liu took that fatal shift because another police officer was late.

Earlier today, the mayor visited the memorial for the two murdered officers and he is pleading for calm, all while trying to save whatever trust remains between him and the NYPD. There are even calls for retired officers from them to block him from the funerals. But even at a time when it seems like people could not be more divided, there are signs that some people are coming together. But the mourning families on both sides are actually leading the way.

Our CNN's Martin Savidge, he has been live in Brooklyn for us.

So, Martin, tell us a little bit more about how this is happening.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, you know, it's interesting that most of those calls are for unity, calm or for peace or for coming together have actually come from this site, where I am standing. In the past it might have been called the scene of the crime, but now, it's something far more. It's become a gathering place for many New Yorkers, a place to reflect, a place to mourn.

We've also just heard that the mayor's office is asking that tonight buildings and landmarks dim their lights at 9:00 out of respect to the fallen officers. It is just one of the number of ways today that they are honoring those men.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE (voice-over): At New York City hall, everything stopped at 2:47 p.m.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: Now, bow our heads in memory of Officer Ramos and Officer Liu.

SAVIDGE: The moment Saturday when two New York police officers were shot to death as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn. After days of angry words and political finger-pointing over who beyond the shooter was to blame, today, silence said the most.

Earlier, Mayor Bill de Blasio paid an unannounced visit to the street memorial on the site where Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot. Like so many New Yorkers, De Blasio was drawn to an ordinary corner, now turned almost sacred.

Last night, with tears streaming down their faces, the family of Officer Liu spoke, the most powerful words coming from his wife of just two months.

PEI XIA CHEN, WIDOW OF SLAIN NYPD OFFICER: This is a difficult time for both of our families. But we will stand together and get through this together.

SAVIDGE: Among those offering condolences, the family of the gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who later took his own life. Brinsley says his brother's actions were not revenge, but the result of untreated mental illnesses.

JALAA'A BRINSLEY, GUNMAN'S SISTER: I feel so bad for the family. You know, we give our condolences to the families. This has nothing to do with police retaliation. This was a troubled -- emotionally troubled kid. He needed help. He didn't get it.

SAVIDGE: Also drawn to the street memorial, the daughter of Eric Garner. The death of her father in the hands of New York police helped spark public protests against the NYPD which some say triggered Brinsley's attack. Garner's daughter says she knows what the officers' families are going through.

EMERALD GARNER, ERIC GARNER'S DAUGHTER: We're just want to let everybody know that, you know, we're not anti-police. We just want everybody to know that we support them and we're out here to lay a wreath and light a candle and do a moment of silence for the families.

SAVIDGE: And once again, silence became the loudest tribute.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: And even now, Suzanne, we're well past three days since this tragedy occurred and people still come and bring flowers and bring tributes and notes and candles, adding to what is already a pretty large remembering of those fallen officers -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Martin, thank you so much. It really seems like both of those families are coming together trying to help the community heal.

We have Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks who represents the fifth district of New York, and he's joining us live to talk about the way forward, the healing, and also, still, this divide that exists between the mayor and the NYPD.

Congressman, thank you for joining us.

I want to ask about this because the mayor asked protesters to postpone these demonstrations until after both of these officers are laid to rest. We do know there are some groups that have promised to come out into the streets and protest today as early as this evening. What do we know about those planned protests and do you think that is the right decision?

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D), NEW YORK: Well, you know, I understand people's right to demonstrate but if, in fact, you are part of the voices for justice that we're talking about for Mr. Brown and Mr. Garner, then I think that you should respect the call of the mayor, of the borough president of Brooklyn, and let's hold off. There needs to be that discipline because justice for Mr. Garner and Mr. Brown is not what took place. We are all and anyone that cares, we are all very saddened and very, very heartbroken and very concerned about the death, the assassination, if you will, of the two police officers.

MALVEAUX: It's an interesting position. Some people feel like -- they don't feel like protesting, necessarily, is a way of disrespecting those families but we know the head of the NAACP, Cornell William Brooks, told us just yesterday that he thinks this is a moment to exercise judgment and discretion and compassion, and that means perhaps putting those protest signs down for a bit.

But there are peaceful protests and they say this does not have to be something that is mutually exclusive.

MEEKS: Now, I agree. I just think that the symbolism of not protesting now and then resuming after the police officers have been laid to rest and that sense of respect for those individuals who protect our communities is extremely important. Here are two individuals who just went to work and will never go home and families that are hurting.

And out of respect for those families, I just think that it would be a good thing for them to postpone their democratic right to protest peacefully until after the individuals are laid to rest and then we should have the peaceful protests in asking for justice for Mr. Brown and Mr. Garner.

The two are separate. The incidents are separate. I think clearly indicated by the individual who committed the horrible act, this was not revenge. This was a sick individual who did not get the kind of treatment that he needed that committed these crimes.

MALVEAUX: Congressman, let's move on here and talk about the relationship here now that you have between the mayor of New York, De Blasio, and the police department. Because I spoke with Police Chief Charles Ramsey just yesterday. He said, it goes without saying, you've got to have a good relationship between the police and the mayor.

What needs to happen now? How do they mend that rift?

MEEKS: Well, I think that one of the things that need to take place is if Mr. Lynch, who is the president of the police union, and the mayor and Mr. Lynch is willing, they should have a behind the scenes conversation and try to come out collectively on one page. I know I've been talking with the electorate, for example, in the borough of Queens which I represent and we're going to try to make a collective statement saying that we've got to -- we all live -- we've got to listen to one another and not just shout at one another. I think that's tremendously important.

And so, the language that one uses is tremendously important and I just think it's unfortunate that when Mr. Lynch came out with the language about blood at the foot of the mayor, that's just the wrong language at the wrong time. You know, you just don't -- you talk about inciting. That incites. We've got to put that behind.

And that officers, turning their back on the mayor, you know, that is part of what I think that African-Americans talk about the arrogance of police at times -- some police -- that deal with them. They turn their backs and don't have the -- you know, so we've got to figure this out. The only way to figure this out is having a conversation.

So, I look forward to talking to the commanders in the borough of Queens. I think other electorates are talking to those people.

MALVEAUX: OK.

MEEKS: They have that kind of conversation.

MALVEAUX: All right.

MEEKS: The mayor with Mr. Lynch.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you so much, Congressman Gregory Meeks. We appreciate your time. Happy holidays.

We are getting more information about the tornado that hit Mississippi. This happened just minutes. We're going to have more details, up next.

Plus, a passenger able to board a plane with 18 guns and ammunition in his carry-on bag. And it happened several times. How did he get by airport security?

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