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Flight Turns to "Nightmare" Before Christmas; FedEx Struggles After Storms Slow Operations; Pope Calls for Peace in Christmas Message; Key Moments Mark Race for the White House. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 25, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:10] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get over to Allison Chinchar now, taking a look at -- best looking at what the path -- the distraction of that weather system left behind. But now we're looking ahead, Allison. Where is the weather moving next?

(WEATHER REPORT)

BOLDUAN: I mean, it's almost impossible to keep it all straight, because it's like whiplash. The weather system is changing so much.

Allison, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Coming up next for us, outraged passengers on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles stuck in transit for 20 hours. What went wrong here? You're going to hear from them next.

Plus, Santa was on his own this year, it seems, after thousands of packages sent via FedEx didn't make their Christmas deadlines. Back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:36:05] BOLDUAN: A holiday travel nightmare is finally over. Passengers and crew spent hours stuck on a plane right before Christmas. The flight from Miami to Los Angeles due to take five hours took some very strange twists along the way.

This is outside. American Airlines said the flight had a mechanical problem, had to land in Lubbock, Texas. Passengers got off on the problem plane and hopped on a replacement plane. Problem solved, yes?

Not exactly. The replacement plane had to then fly to Dallas for fuel. Finally, nearly 20 hours later, the 186 passengers finally landed at L.A.X.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a nightmare that you can't believe. But we're just happy we're here, it's Christmas, you know, and thank God we're here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Thank God we're here. I want to bring in Kyung Lah in Los Angeles.

I'm sure they had a few other things to say as well?

Kyung?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes. They had an earful when they got off that flight.

You know, this is the time of year that everyone hates to travel. But you have to do it. You trade the delay. Well, these are passengers who got on that flight in Miami expecting a five-hour flight. Midair, Kate, there is a mechanical issue as you said. It is forced to land in Lubbock, Texas. But they don't continue on their way. They have to move to another plane, go to Dallas to pick up fuel and then fly to Los Angeles.

They left Wednesday in the morning. They don't land until Christmas Eve at 2:15 in the morning.

If you are keeping tabs on this, that is a 20-hour flight. These passengers had plenty to say when they got off that flight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it looks like we have a fire, dude. The cabin is full of smoke. And then he reacted, called the pilot and then all of a sudden, we started going down. I decided to went back to my seat, was gagging a little bit on the smoke and, you know, it was crazy. Odyssey from you know where.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just heard a noise and I didn't know what the noise was. Somebody said they smelled smoke. I didn't. But that was the scariest part. And once we landed, I was completely relieved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're 15 hours late and there was no sort of information from the flight crew. And it just, it was a bad situation all the way around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Not that any of these passengers care, but the original flight, that plane, it's still stuck in Lubbock. American Airlines has reached out to all these passengers to see if they can make amends.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: Maybe it makes it a little better than the original flight is still stuck there. There was a real mechanical issue. But, still, at least they are there. At least it's Merry Christmas and they're there.

Kyung, great to see you. Thank you.

LAH: Yes, exactly. Take care.

BOLDUAN: Of course. So some last minute Christmas shoppers, they are simply fed up with FedEx right now. The company under fire from customers who expected to have their packages in time for Christmas morning. The company blames heavier than planned last-minute shipment volumes and severe weather outbreaks in some areas of the U.S.

The statement also advices that customers can determine if their shipment is scheduled for Christmas Day delivery or available for pickup at a FedEx express station. You can always go to FedEx.com or call, you might want to write this down, 1-800-GoFedEx. You will need your tracking number.

Alison Kosik has much more on this.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there. Irate customers taking to social media, furious FedEx didn't deliver their packages in time for Christmas. Many calling FedEx the Christmas Grinch. Shipping snafus are nothing new for package delivery companies around the holidays, but usually it's UPS getting all the heat. This year, it's FedEx's turn.

A FedEx spokesman blaming heavier than planned last-minute shipping volume and severe weather outbreaks in some areas of the U.S. FedEx has a major air hub located in Memphis, Tennessee, an area hard hit by severe storms. But today, on Christmas, FedEx says some of its employees have volunteered to deliver delayed packages and that priority is being given to residential customers.

[14:40:05] Although UPS is having a better holiday, it's not immune to delays. UPS even getting its fair share of angry tweets about packages that haven't been delivered. A UPS spokesperson said there may be some individuals who had had their packages delayed, but overall most people got the packages they were promised.

UPS is trying to right the ship after having a couple of tough holidays. Two years ago Amazon overwhelmed UPS with hundreds of trailers of last-minute Christmas orders that didn't make it on time. It's part of the reason according to "The Wall Street Journal," Amazon may be looking around for another carrier.

Now the pressure on the package delivery industry comes at a time we're shopping more online. E-Commerce sales from just after Thanksgiving to just before Christmas are up almost 12 percent compared to a year ago. And delivery companies, they hire extra workers, seasonal workers, thousands of them, to handle the extra volume, but a lot of that is based on retailers giving an accurate forecast to shippers on what is expected for the holiday season. And their expectations aren't always accurate.

It could be a lesson to a lot of procrastinators out there. Shop earlier next year so your packages have a better chance of getting where they need to be on time.

Back to you.

BOLDUAN: There's your lesson. Don't procrastinate. I still don't think I will learn that lesson.

Thanks, Alison.

Coming up next for us, some of CNN's top foreign correspondents, they gathered to share their experience covering the ongoing refugee crisis and what we can expect in the year ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: A tragic record has just been broken as war and terror grip the Middle East. The number of refugees entering Europe by land and sea has just passed the one million mark.

The pope, a short time ago, addressing the crisis in his Christmas message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:45:00] POPE FRANCIS (through translator): May God repay all those, both individuals and states, who generously work to provide assistance and welcome to the numerous migrants and refugees, helping them to build a dignified future for themselves and for their dear ones, and to be integrated in the societies which receive them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That is the pope in his own words.

Now CNN's senior Vatican analyst John Allen has more on the pope's speech, his message to the faithful around the world.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Pope Francis today delivered the traditional Christmas Urbi et Orbi message, that's a message directed to the city, meaning Rome and also to the world.

Now Popes traditionally use this platform to issue a kind of 360- degree review of the global situation and that's very much what Pope Francis did today. The top note was a strong plea for peace in a series of global hotspots. The pontiff mentioned the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The war going on in Syria. He talked about Libya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine. Also called for a breakthrough in the peace talks in Colombia, currently aiming to try to end the world's longest running civil war.

And these are all, of course, situations in which the pontiff has been personally involved, either out front or behind the scenes. As Europe grapples with the most significant refugee crisis it has faced since the second World War, the pope also issued a strong note of solidarity with migrants and refugees calling for compassion, for people fleeing violence and conflict, and calling on host nations to be generous in receiving and integrating them.

The pope also in the context of a year in which terrorism has been one of the major themes around the world, denounced what he called brutal acts of terror, including the November terrorist attacks in Paris. He ticked off a series of other social ills that kind of occupy his heart. He talked about child soldiers. He talked about unemployment, trafficking in human persons. And in the context of a special jubilee year of mercy that he's decreed for 2016, he also issued a strong plea, special dose of mercy for prisoners. Visiting prisoners has been one of the hallmarks of his papacy.

So essentially what you saw today was a pontiff who very much aspires to be a peace pope, using the visibility afforded by one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar to try to raise his voice around the world in defense of peace and of human dignity. And that was very much the story from Rome here on Christmas Day 2015.

BOLDUAN: John Allen, thank you so much.

Now taking a closer look at the plight of refugees around the world, CNN's foreign correspondents Arwa Damon, Nima Elbagir, Nick Payton Walsh, Clarissa Ward and Ivan Watson have spent the past year covering this story. And in the reporter round table, they discussed what they witnessed on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Did you ever think you'd see just the masses of people marching into Europe like that? I don't think I ever would have imagined a scene like that.

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And then the scene when they get to Greece and the boats that just keep on coming and coming.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

DAMON: There's this logic out there of, well, why don't they just stay in Lebanon or Turkey. They're safe?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I suppose the question is, would you? I mean, would you? I mean, I think that's what people forget.

DAMON: No, because you need a life. You need to be able to build a life. You need to be able to build a future for your children. And you're not going to have a future sitting in a refugee camp or in a country where you can't actually get a job. You can't pursue your education. You can't pursue your life. And you know what; sadly, the reality is they're not going to go home. The war in Syria isn't going to end in anytime soon, and if it were to end tomorrow, I mean, the country is --

NICK PAYTON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is awful consequence for the decades to come there that the dentist, the architects, the boring people who do those important jobs are not going to be there.

ELBAGIR: Yes.

DAMON: Yes.

WALSH: And they're not going to want to go home, and they're going to be doing that job in Germany. DAMON: This isn't necessarily, you know, the poorest of the poor that are making this journey.

WARD: No.

DAMON: They can afford it.

WATSON: This was like -- a lot of these folks were middle-class people...

DAMON: Syria's, you know, lower --

WATSON: ...who are coming from the safe parts of Syria.

DAMON: Syria's poorest of the poor are, sadly, are the ones that are either still in Syria because they can't afford to leave and getting bombed just about every single day, or they are the ones who are stuck in the refugee camps. It's not a cheap journey.

WALSH: But it's so universal; it's the sheer volume of people doing it for totally understandable human reasons.

WATSON: There's no way the way the refugee trail unfolded was good for any of the refugees and migrants, or for any of the European states. It kind of weakens European institutions. It weakens the boundaries and borders.

ELBAGIR: But it also became a debate.

[14:50:00] DAMON: And that idea of, you know, Europe, or even America, it's meant to be a democracy. It's meant to uphold all these ideals and values; and to be treated like trash, that's how they felt. They felt like they were being treated like trash.

WARD: That's the heartbreaking moment --

WATSON: It depended on the country or the border.

DAMON: Sure. Yes.

WATSON: That's not entirely fair because there were people who welcomed these migrants.

ELBAGIR: Yes, and people who made very difficult political decisions.

WATSON: Exactly, but it also created more of a pull factor and that's -- was that better?

ELBAGIR: But then we had that conversation in the U.K., where the conservatives said if you stop saving them, they will stop coming. And then you have to debate what that does to your humanity? Can you really watch thousands upon thousands of people washing up on shores?

DAMON: But, also, why does it have to get that bad for people to react? Why does it have to take that image of (INAUDIBLE) on the beach... (CROSSTALK)

DAMON: ...for people to begin to react?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: That's an important question. Thank you, guys.

Coming up next for us, a new report says the Department of Homeland Security is planning raids that would target families of undocumented immigrants. What the Obama administration is saying about it? And how it's already new fodder for the 2016 presidential race.

Plus this, from Hillary Clinton's Benghazi testimony to Donald Trump's notorious one liners and attacks. We're counting down the top ten moments in politics of the year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: In less than 40 days now, the all important Iowa caucuses are upon us. For many candidates, both Republican and Democrats, it has been a wild ride just to get this far.

Chief political correspondent Dana Bash is rounding up the top ten campaign trail moments of the year for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[14:50:00] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on- camera): In politics 2015 was the year of one liners, insults, interruptions and controversy.

(voice-over) It was the escalator ride that changed the Republican race. Donald Trump kicked his campaign off Trump style. Upending the field and pretty much all traditional political rules.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime, they are rapists and some, I assume, are good people.

BASH: Those comments caused a huge backlash, especially in the Latino community, but rocketed Trump to the top of the G.O.P. field.

And the provocative statements continued on the campaign trail. At an early event in Iowa, Trump sparked another wave of criticism after saying this about former P.O.W. John McCain.

TRUMP: He is a war hero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

TRUMP: He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured, OK?

BASH: Many thought those remarks would mean Trump's campaign was finished. But it turns out, they were the first of many so called blunders that failed to knock him from his perch at the top of the polls.

On the Democratic side, questions about e-mails and the Benghazi attack waved the frontrunner Hillary Clinton's early campaign, culminating in a contentious 11 hour congressional hearing that backfired on Republicans and gave Clinton a boost.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who else was at your Hammer? Were you alone?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was alone, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole night?

CLINTON: Well, yes, the whole night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know why that's funny. I mean, did you have any in-person briefings? I don't find it funny at all.

CLINTON: I'm sorry. A little note of levity at 7:15.

BASH: And after months of fielding questions about her e-mails, Clinton got an unexpected assist from her opponent Senator Bernie Sanders at CNN's Democratic debate.

BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails.

CLINTON: Thank you. Me, too. Me, too.

BASH: That moment may have hurt Sanders' campaign, but it was great material for "Saturday Night Live".

UNIDENTIFIED MALE IMPERSONATOR: The American people are sick and tired about hearing about your damn e-mails.

BASH: The "Black Lives Matter" movement was an important campaign story line shaping the national conversation and even shutting down a Sanders' campaign event in Seattle.

(on-camera) The most defining moment on the Democratic side may be one that never happened.

(voice-over) After months of speculation, Vice President Joe Biden decided not to run for president, solidifying Clinton's spot as the suspected Democratic nominee.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But while I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully.