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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  April 17, 2014 11:00am-1:01pm PDT

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himself. there he is. young chris christie a younger joe biden as well. that's it from me. thanks for watching. i will be back at 5:00 m. eastern. a person special would-hour editied edition. we begin with breaking news top of the hour. i'm brooke baldwin. let's get to it from the u.s. secretary of state john kerry with a stunning allegation. he has condemned religious intolerance and saying leaflets are being dropped in that's t small ukrainian towns telling people there to identify themselves as jewish. >> just in the last couple of days, notices were sent to jews in one city indicating that they had to identify themselves as jews. obviously the accompanying threat implied is threatened or
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suffer the consequences. one way or the other. in the year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable, it is grotesque. >> we will take you live to the ukrainian boarder to get a little more context from our correspondent there who has been on the ground. a lot of questions there on that breaking story. also this. now to the hunt. flight 370. here is what we know right now. crews are anxiously waiting to find out exactly what this bluefin-21 saw. thousands of feet below the indian ocean. crews are going through the information, downloading the data and analyzing it onboard the ocean shield after dwrund water drone completed its first full mission. keep in mind, it spent 16 hours mapping the ocean floor searching for any signs of this
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airplane p.m. bit was malaysia's transportation minister taking a different tone today saying if no traces of the missing 777 are found p found, officials will have to rethink the whole operation. >> there has come a time that we will need to recruit and reconsider but in any event, the -- the search will always continue. it is a matter of approach. >> we group and reconsider. do you hear those words? that message, by the way, was echoed by australia's prime minister lead something some analysts to say what is being dubbed white sheet planning. basically forget everything we thought we knew, starting in with carte blanche, blank canvas. as for that sample taken from an oil slick in the search area, it has been tested in perth. it turns out the oil did not come from an aircraft engine. so will the bluefin produce
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what everyone has been hoping for? some evidence, some sighting of the wreckage. let's go now to aaron mclaughlin at the search basin in perth at 2:00 where erin is and joins me on the phone. erin, i know that, you know, it takes just about four hours for -- even the data download from the bluefin-21. do you have any idea what the results from this latest descent could be? >> reporter: we have some new information from jim gibson the general manager of phoenix international. the company that's under contract to operate bluefin-21. he tolls cnn's brian todd the third guide was very productive and successful at 3700 to 4500 meters. it was on the bottom for 12 hours, 58 minutes and covered 21 square miles. total drive duration of 19 hours. he went on to say that no degree or aircraft wreckage recovered on any of the four dives to
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date. now, we understand according to gibson there has been a fourth dive. it is unclear if that's still under way. we are still waiting to hear from the australians who put out a statement saying they were analyzing the results from the third mission. we are checking for comment and will get back to you as soon as we have that. >> i just have to ask, if he is saying nothing was found, no evidence, no nothing, how does he measure success? >> reporter: the next step is -- it would be to -- at this point to keep searching the australian prime minister, tony abbott, gave an interview to "the wall street journal" yesterday saying that the best lead in this underwater search will be exhausted in the next week. and then authorities will need to rethink their approach if the remote controlled vehicle failed to locate any wreckage. i think we are still in that phase where they are searching the most probable area where they believe they will find the black box based on detail analysis, acoustic protections
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from the pings, second ones lasting from 13 minutes according to the u.s. navy being the most promising of the pings that were still in the phase where the bluefin-21 is still searching and it is going to take them a week to exhaust the best leads. >> erin mclaughlin in australia with the search efforts. just to recap, this piece of technology, bluefin-21, hasn't found a thing as far as evidence goes of this missing 777. if this unmanned bluefin continues to come up short an alternative can be sent in an manned underwater device, submarine. correspondent martin savidge from the flight simulator for many weeks is now tucked inside here this real submarine underwater. he is in horseshoe bay, vancouver, british columbia. martin, i know that this is a manned submarine. this is not, you know -- not the device obviously that they are using now in the indian ocean.
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what were the advantages of having a manned device? >> reporter: you are right. this device that we are able to choose is the aquarius and can go to a depth of about 1,000 feet. nowhere near the depth we are talking about potentially for the aircraft. there are many ways we can show you the difficulties they are up against. phil nuytton is joining me here. extremely tight quarters for this vessel that we are inside here. i don't know if hes that ability to swing around and show jeff heaton, the chief pilot in the back here. >> tight quarters. >> inside of this vessel. the p take a look at the view out here. you can see we are sitting right on the bottom. there's some -- you can see some vegetation right down there. but the first thing i noticed
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here is visibility issues. visibility issues is something that very much could be a problem for anybody that goes down to that kind of depth we may be talking for that vessel. the airplane. >> certainly the -- vessel depths covered in the bottom with -- it is so soft that the slightest disturbance will bring up a dust cloud. and -- whatever devices used to poe down there, whether it be an rov or submersible they all are going to have vertical thrusters. when they thrust had thrust up, that is going to disturb the bottom and the dust cloud will come up, we call it dust cloud. the cloud stability sediment in the water will obscure the vision for some period of time. that could be defending on the current, it could be just, you know, 30 seconds or 50, 30 minutes. >> i'm going to -- can you put more lighting up front so we can just see -- one of the things
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you are -- how quickly stuff can disappear in the gloom. so, in other words, you could be down at that depth and you are going need light. it is absolutely pitch black. and, yet, if you are not within -- i don't know, nine feet, maybe six feet of something out there from the human eye point of viewer, you are not going to see it rushgs? >> depends entirely on the visibility on the bottom. visibility could range anywhere from just a few pete as we have here to a much better range. you can't defend on it. you go one day you are down and you see wells and the -- >> we have a little demo we can do for you. the mechanical arm here that is attached to this, we have a black box that we managed to grab. i'm going to ask that -- phil will try to bring it in here and put it into the basket. and we will, you know -- again, this is the type of recovery. whether it is going to be in rov
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or whether it is going to be one of only six manned-type vessels that can go this deep, they are all going to work in this kind of way. and it is never precise. it is not like the human hand just sort of reaching out there and grabbing. the black box is set up in a way there are grapples on it but the difficulty is maneuvering it and getting it into the basket because that is the way it is going to come up. and everything rests, of course, in the answers that may be in that flight data recorder. you can't crush it. you can't damage it. and it has to be precise. and it has to make it up to the surface. you get it inside. one more thing i want to show you real quick. >> yeah, i'm with you. i'm with you. >> if you would -- give us a blast of just -- if you are going to maneuver and we need the lusters in any way, this is
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another problem that comes up. we have already said that visibility is top if we start to try to lift up from the bottom -- yes. give us a full thrust. you see if we lift up, which is fine, i mean, what's the you want to do, but then -- the other factors that start to come into play is that the very motion and the front will start to create visibility issues. we are watching. you can see it is starting inform come up and build around us. we are trying to navigate through rather big boulders which is another issue. you know, underneath here, the navigation is going to be done pretty much by sonar. >> the navigation will be done by sonar. in the end it will come down to visual and depends -- you know, what the bottom looks like. it is unlikely that there will be large rocks.
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soft, uzi bottom with regular terrain. but certainly there will be a lot -- enough soft stuff when you do a lot of thrusting you will stir up a lot of the bottom. >> reporter: all right. i mean, that's pretty much it, brooke. you know, we are -- we are going to try to bring this baby back up to the surface. bad place for the claustrophobic. yesterday when i first jumped into this thing i jumped right out. but -- thanks to some good coaching from phil, i'm feeling good. >> it grows on you. >> i tip my hat to you and everyone else in this teeny-tiny manned submarine. there is no way in a million years you could get me in that thing. thank you so much for explaining it.
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thank you so much to you in that submarine. just ahead we will take you back to the missing plane story. much more on the stunning revelation, leaflets handed out in ukrainian towns ordering jews to register with authorities. we have reporters in the white house, in ukraine. we are all over that coming up next. also ahead, as the death toll rises rescuers frantically searching dark, foggy, freezing conditions here. cold waters for hundreds of people that were on the ferry that capsized out of south korea just going out on a trip full of high schoolers. also ahead the search for malaysia airlines flight 370 has turned up nothing. despite another underwater mission from the bluefin-21. searchers are preparing for the possible built the underwater drone may never find any debris. all stations come over to mission a for a final go. this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked.
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welcome back. the chaos spreading into the ukraine, pamphlets have appeared on ing jews to register with self-proclaimed authorities related to moscow. we are in the midst of that tracking down all the details here. i can tell you the u.s. ambassador is telling cnn, and i wrote, this is the real deal. we now have a statement from a local jewish group saying that masked men handed out these pamphlets to jews leaving passover services. john kerry at an emergency meeting on ukraine. >> just in the last couple of days, notices were sent to jews
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in one city indicating that they had to identify themselves as jews. obviously the accompanying threat implied is -- or threaten or suffer the consequences. one way or the other. in the year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable. it is grotesque. >> let's go straight to the ground to cnn's nick walsh who is live with more on the developing story. have you been able to find out anything about this? >> reporter: we know that -- from the chief rabbi made a statement just earlier on saying this on the 15th of april, second day of passover, leaflets were posted outside the main synagogue here in donetsk.
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as you said, the local jews register themselves with the pro-russian government. occupying the main administration building here behind me. the chief rabbi himself went on to say that the man who allegedly signed these orders denies it. this is really an unprofessional forgery. not even my hand writing and even the title they used for me is not a title i use for myself. he calls it a provocation to design for hatred among the groups. that's what the chief rabbi calls it as well. we lived perfectly peacefully here for quite some time. all groups are calling this a provocation designed to incite hatred between them. it is at this point it seems one instance. it is extraordinarily serious for the u.s. to be seizing upon it. with everyone else being a
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fascist or nazi. it is an extraordinarily dangerous and volatile environment to be throwing thooek these accusations around. >> especially when you look at that time history of what happened in this part of the word. thank you. the effort to calm things down in ukraine has just taken on much more urgency. here is u.s. secretary of state john kerry, we areyi handshake with russian foreign minister at the emergency meeting in geneva. to try to stop ukraine from plunging into civil war. a demand to disarm illegal groups and give them conditional amnesty. can that be enforced? who knows? remember, the russians are massing troops on their side of the border here and president putin said today he has gotten a green light from his parliament to send them into ukraine if necessary to protect pro-russian ukrainians. of course, though, the west, the
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west, says that's a sham. putin wants an excuse just to seize additional parts of ukraine, to seize parts of eastern ukraine. let's go to the white house, to our correspondent there, michelle kosinski. what's the white house line on vladimir putin? >> reporter: so far they have not made any additional statements. we did get a lot of information on what the administration views as putin's mindset throughout in at a background briefing yesterday. the senior administration officials described what they think is strategy -- his strategy is. ultimately to even if it is through a sort of decentralized or federalized system with these regions breaking off from control of the kiev government and leaning towards russia, russia would essentially control the foreign and domestic policies of ukraine. from putin today we heard some things that were very much expected, denying any involvement, denying there were troops within eastern ukraine, denying involvement in those
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militias the west has seen as fully russia backed and blaming the government of ukraine for the problems there. a few unexpected things, too. criticizing the u.s. and at the very end answering a question by saying if putin were drowning, he still thinks president obama would save him. many of these are -- spark questions for the administration that will be asking a little bit later today. so far they are not adding anything further to the situation. what we heard from secretary kerry on developments today, what are hoped to be developments, or on putin's words. brooke? >> we will watch to see if there is any word later this aftern n afternoon. we have been going through and reading more heartbreaking tweets, texts, of the students on this ferry have been sending to their parents that sunk off of south korea. we will bring them to you coming up. if the unmanned underwater
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vehicle comes up empty again in the search for the missing plane, what's next? stay with me. live coverage on cnn after the break. i've always kept my eye on her... but with so much health care noise, i didn't always watch out for myself. with unitedhealthcare,
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all right. we have to get to this urgent race seeing 300 people p many of whom are high school students that have been trapped according to authorities inside of the isolated pockets of air in an overturned ferry. this is all we can now see. look at this. of the five-story ship, death
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toll rising to 20 a short time ago. it is early morning there now. this ferry was carrying some 475 people. mostly, as i mentioned, high school students and teachers. they were on a class trip headed to this resort island. that was until their ferry suddenly tilted while bangs were heard. most of the passengers' bedrooms were on the fourth floor. by the way the fourth floor now is under water. earlier, divers, rescue crews, tried at least six times to enter the now underwater cabins. all six unsuccessful. part of the reason here, relentless rain, whipping winds, thick fog, all getting in their way. what about the captain here? the captain's role in all of this. he reportedly managed to get off the boat pretty quickly. and we learned the ship may have been off course when it ran into trouble. captain broke down in tears earlier as he spoke to report wers a hood pulled over his head. he said she at a loss for words.
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>> reporter: any words for the family members of the missing? >> translator: i'm sorry. i'm at a loss for words. >> emma walker joins me back in the studio today for more on this. so before we get updates bore the texts we were talking about yesterday, let's get to the criticism. a lot has been made. appropriately so on the lifeboats. right? emergency situation that there were 46 or so lifeboats according to our affiliate over there, one was used and so there has been a lot of quick -- lot of critical lobs between local media and the government. >> there has been a lot of criticism coming from families but we are also seeing the media weigh in, local media. now we have the leading south korean newspaper basically blasting the government and its response to -- the title of the editorial that came out today is ferry tragedy could have been avoided. one of the things that -- about the editorial points out is that the government failed to get an accurate tally of the missing. and -- this article is referring
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to the incident when the news first broke, government officials have said, look, all the passengers are at -- at least all the students have been rescued and they had to backtrack saying look, we miscalculated and, in fact, nearly 300 people missing. so a lot of people weighing in on how the government has been responding to this. >> what about the specific stories? what about the 5-year-old little girl? >> this just a heartbreaking story. we have a photo of this little girl. she is holding her brother's hand there. she was actually on the ferry with her brother and her parents and there she is right there with her brother. the sad thing about this is that her brother is missing and so are her parents. the family was on this ferry. they were headed to the island to do a house hunting trip. the social media played a very strong role in all of this because south korean police posted her photo and was asking anyone who might be related to her to come forward. she has been reunited with her family members. but her relatives, but not with her sxarptsz her brother. both -- all of whom are still
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missing. >> they are missing along with several hundred others. when you were r sitting here with me yesterday you were reading incredibly compelling text messages back and forth. one between a mother and her son and you have an update. a positive update. >> it is a positive update. thankfully. we showed thank you text message from a son to the mother. this is what i read. i want to remind what you it said. the son -- he thought this was the last communication he would have with his mother. mom, in case i don't get to say this to you, i love you. she says why? of course i, i love you, too, my son. south korean media is now reporting that the text was written by a high school stud t student. yes, he has been rescued. he has been reunited with his mother. >> thank goodness. >> a lot of hope there and a lot of sfam lease to get any answers are hoping for a similar outcome as well. >> we are going to talk to some members of the u.s. coast guard later in the next two hours, how you proceed in a rescue mission like this as they are trying to get in there and still have not been able to.
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thank you so much for coming back. coming up here, malaysian authorities apologized today. two families of the passengers on flight 370 after a technical glitch interrupt ad video conference but it wasn't enough for the families. hear how they responded. as the search for the 777 continues here, so many are wondering is it time to regroup, reset, recalibrate this whole search? we will discuss that. (vo) you are a business pro. maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow. go national. go like a pro. as a police officer, i've helped many people
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. we are just past the bottom of the hour. you are watching cnn. i am brooke hollywood win the the hunt for malaysian flight 370 is ongoing. bluefin 21 is scanning the ocean floor for any evidence of the pieces of the plane. crews are working to analyze lots of information that's being downloaded from bluefin's first complete trip. 16 hours worth of images from the sea floor. plus we do have test results from that oil slick in surge area. as it turns out, the oil did not come from the 777 in -- aircraft engine, period. the oil. another potential clear here now considered a false lead. but the search for the plane may need a drastic shake-up. search crews may soon need to stop look for the plane and start looking at their search methods. australia's prime minister, tony abbott, tells "the wall street
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journal," quote, we believe that search will be will be completed within a week or so. if we don't find wreckage, we stop, we regroup, we reconsider. right now, as i mentioned, some of the data from the bluefin und underwater drone is being analyzed and if no trace of flight 370 appears soon, it may be time to pause on this particular search and just rethink the whole thing. cnn's sa cnn's's safety analyst has more on that. >> if they don't find something within a week we looked where the pings were and didn't find anything. how far do you regroup? do you go back and say maybe we did this wrong? do i go back to the malaysian pings they got along the coast and say perhaps that wasn't 370 because there is nothing that said "i'm 370," it just says there is something across there. at what point do you say -- how far do you regroup to? what i would do at this point, what i would recommend, is to go back what we call white sheet
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planning. that says that we reconsider every assumption we made. >> he is back up with this morning. david joining me live. also joining me to discuss ocean search specialist mike williamson thank you so much for being on with me. i hit on this point yesterday with a guest because i was thinking of air france 447 because it sounds to me they regrouped. right? and -- >> yes. >> they looked at science and two years later they were able to find the wreckage. might that be a good idea here? >> well, i am still not giving up on what this bluefin might turn up. we are only speculating on if it does not turn anything up. but i'm still confident it will, to be honest with you. >> are you? >> yes. i really am. it is too early to discount that, that search. what we have to do is what -- they have to make sure they have gone to the end of the extent of that strategy. what is all we have done, you have a strategy, plan, tactics carried out. wait until the end of the tactics and make sure you have
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finished that route. then backing up, yes, and that's -- pretty much what happened to 447. dave and i had been talking about that a little bit. he said that the assumption was made that the pinger was on when they started the search but it wasn't. they ruled out areas that they went back through white sheet plans and what did we do wrong, where did we do it? went forward with new assumption and then came up with where the box truly was. >> let me just come to you in a second. you said something, you know, when they get to be -- to the end of the strategy and i keep thinking because we talk about the indian ocean and vastness is the search really finite? >> it is at this point with the assumptions you make. your best-known assumptions and finish that strategy. >> mike, we now, as i was talking to the guests yesterday, who told me there are eight bluefins in the whole world. they are using one of them right now. going back to air france 447,
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there were three used find that wreckage. can you give me, if and i hear david's confidence, i love hearing his confidence in this bluefin-21, but if this turns up nothing, what are other methods? other pieces of technology they could use to find the plane? >> well, actually if it is a very large search area, deep toe to rays are the way to go. they cover a lot more territory than a tomorr's vehicle. witdss up to six kilometers in a single pass. we are faced with a search area of 307 nautical miles in length and 30 nautical miles wide, it would take an incredible time for that to be done with auvs but it could be done relatively efficiently and economically with the system. >> david, do you think the -- the fact that they have -- one particular area, does that tell you, might we deduce that they
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think they are in -- the right spot? >> it does. that goes back from the sources i have talked to. it goes back to the confidence that they have in those ping -- very first tplping set they got which was the two miles of tpl. it is not just that they received the ping at that frequency. but it is that they received the ping at that frequency of varying amplitudes which gives you an indication not just where it is as far as the general area, but you can hone in on it a little bit as you get further away, amplitude decrease. >> thank you so much. coming up, as rescuers frantically search for survivors in the south korean ferry accident, could there be air pockets anywhere within the ship here in which some of the people could be breathing, could be surviving? day two now. we will talk to a former member of the u.s. coast guard pam with rescue operations next.
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let's get an update on the deadly ferry accident off the coast of south korea. as we have these pictures we can tell you at this hour at least 20 are confirmed dead. more than 200 others are still missing. many of them, high school students. and nearly 48 hours later, questions are mounting over what happens, who is to blame, and there are reports that the captain might have veered off course. again, those are just reports at this early stage of the game. those evacuation procedures, they are also under scrutiny as well. some survivors are reporting that they were told not to leave the boat, not to leave the ferry for half an hour, even though it was sinking. also, we have learned that only one lifeboat out of some 46 that were available, only one lifeboat was used. the ferry captain, he did manage to get off, to escape, but he,
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too, is under investigation. this morning, he hung his head low. here he is. covered with his hoodie before publicly apologizing and the president of the company that operates the ferry also showing remorse. >> translator: executives and employees marine office committed a great sin. we sincerely apologize to the victims and their familiar as well as people of the country. >> south korean officials and rescuers are working every minute to try to find these could-be hundreds of trapped passengers. they believe they still could be alive inside and breathing in air pockets somewhere within this -- just about nearly sunk ferry. angry family members, though they had this to say about rescue efforts. >> translator: the team went out but the tides made it too dangerous so they came back. then the government rescuer says, it is too dangerous for them, too. shouldn't i be angry at that?
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if the government cares for our people, please rescue our families and our children. >> joining me now is captain paul rotner. thank you for coming on. i heard you say this and others say that time is of the essence. here you have potentially 276 people trapped. this is a five-story ship. just about entirely sunk. rain, fog, horrible wind conditions, and -- how are they going to get in and reach these people? >> well, good afternoon, brooke. thanks for having me on. i have been watching your coverage and this is truly tragic. the way they would get this is really going to be a mystery. there are experts that understand how they would do this. it might involve cutting penetrations into the hull. it could involve trying to right the ship or using divers most likely. >> how familiar are you waters in this part of the world?
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how cold could these waters be at this point in time? how long could someone survive possibly in an air pocket? >> well, that's science in itself. study of hypothermia. obviously these people won't have the exposure suits that would protect them. but. >> host: thermia is going to be the biggest threat. if there are pockets, air pockets, hopefully they will be in a place they won't be exposed to water. >> when you talk about hypothermia, though, captain, how long -- we are talking about teenagers, maybe they are healthy, hearty teenagers, but still, how long can one survive once hypothermia starts settling in? >> sorry, brooke. i'm not sure on the exact times. but that is a science that there are projections, i'm sure, that are out there that can determine how long a person could survive. >> we have been reporting that only one lifeboat was deployed which, to me, and -- i believe you agree, this is entirely
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counterintuitive what one would think would be proper protocol, proper emergency evacuations p.m. i'm wondering if you are familiar with the engineering of the ferry itself compartments, would they be water tight for someone to stay inside? >> some of the compartments under the main deck would have to be water tight. that's a main standard for survivability in a damaged condition. so beneath the main deck is one thing. but -- the -- the decks above the main deck where the passengers are mostly located based on your reporting is a different story. as the ship is turned upside down, not necessarily will those decks be waterite. >> do you know how rare of an occurrence this is? and also, i know we were talking a minute ago about this international treaty with international standards. tell me how that would factor in with accidents like this. >> well, the obvious tint of the
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international standards is to have the accidents less and less frequent and i believe that's the case. really what led to this was the titanic, international maritime organization started with the international convention for the safety of life at sea, and that's continually evolved with input based on tragicens against like this. the u.s. coast guard is a member of the imo. they lead the u.s. delegation and they -- they do the work to develop the standards that would protect lives at sea. >> so that incidents and accidents like this won't happen. captain, thank you so much. will is growing suspicion. of course, mistrust. what's this now, day 41. that's no surprise. families of the flight 370 passengers. we will take you to beijing, to the hotel where more than 100 families are just really hanging on every word from those malaysian officials and questioning just about every bit of it. a missouri mayor is calling
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the white supremacists accused of killing two people at two jewish facility as friend. you will hear the mayor's own shocking words coming up.
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relatives of the passengers on malaysian ployp have been running into brick walls as they are demanding answers they want to know obviously what happened onboard this 777. up until now families gathered
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in a hotel in beijing had directed their anger at the malaysian government but it looks like their tenuous relationship with china's government is wearing thin. and u.s. aid today quotes one family member says unidentified people persuading them to leave the hotel and go home. the report also says the government official confronted and fought fiercely with a man that started a petition asking china's premier for help. the family's anger has caught the attention of the malaysian government. ivan watson reports from beijing. >> reporter: storm of criticism, malaysian government has announced it will be sending a high-level technical delegation to beijing to meet with family members of 153 chinese nationals that were aboard the missing malaysian airlines flight. chinese families here have exploded in anger in recent meetings with malaysian officials.
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on wednesday, for example, with a video conference between beijiba beiji beijing, some 40 days into this agonizing vigil, failed, chinese families stormed out of the conference room in anger en masse. perfect they heaped abuse on the mid level malaysian officials that subsequently had to brief hem and on thursday, no representative actually met with the chinese families as has been the practice in the past. at daily briefings here at this hotel behind me. instead a written statement was read out to the chinese families prompting some of them to yell out -- where is the malaysian ambassador. the chinese families have in some ways started to take matters into their own hands and submitted a very highly technicality list of questions to the malaysian authorities on monday asking for really detailed answers, for example, who manufactured the black box
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that was aboard the malaysian airlines flight. how many emergency transponders were on that plane and they want details about the maintenance log of that plane. this is information that may not be shared by investigators p. malaysian officials insist that they will try to brief the families to do away with any speculation because there is growing suspicion and mistrust from the people who are participating in this anxious desperate vigil. iv don't havvan watson, cnn, be stunning words from a missouri mayor. he says he understands why his friend, white supremacist, went on an anti-semitic killing rampage.
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people of all religions came together for an interfaith vigil to remember the victims from sunday's shootings outside two jewish centers in kansas. candles were lit for each of the three shot and killed. 14ier old underwood, his grand father, william cork are in, and 53 we are old occupational therapist larry lomamo. the shootings are shining a light on the mayor in missouri. mayor dan clevenger calls white supremacist frazier glen cross a friend. you watch for yourself what the mayor told our affiliate kspr. >> there's some things going on in this country that's -- destroying us. we got a false economy and it is -- some of those corporations are run by jews because the names are there. >> so the mayor of marion,
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missouri. the mayor says that he does not agree with what frazier cross did. >> it was shocking that he would do something like that. but knowing him and how much was built up inside of him that i can understand why he would be the one to do that. i think that it is terrible what he did. he didn't have any right to do that. i think that he should pay with his life. >> cross may very well pay with his life. his bond is $10 million. i'm brooke baldwin. we begin with the hunted to find missing plane flight 370. the underwater drone, bluefin-21, on this brand-new scanning mission. thousands of people of the
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surface of the indian ocean, bluefin is mapping the ocean floor trying to find any trace, my piece of evidence, of this missing 777. so far, the bluefin's deep underwater journeys have been fruitless. malaysia's tpgs minister taking a different tone today saying if no traces of the missing jetliner are found, officials will have to rethink the whole operation. >> there will come a time that we will be -- we need to recruit and reconsider but in any event, the -- the search will always continue. it is just a matter of approach. >> regroup and reconsider and that, by the way, was echoed by australian's prime minister leave something analysts to say the next step should be white sheet planning. forget much of what they learned thus far, where they think they are in the search, start with this blank canvas. read an lies the data from the moment the plane went missing.
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so that's a possibility out there now today. as for that sample taken from an oil slick in the search area, it has been tested back in perth. and it turns out the oil did not come from an aircraft engine. they are looking for any survivors off the coast of south korea that could be trapped inside this ferry here and the number of deaths have risen to 20 people confirmed dead here. 276, most of them high schoolers, are still reported missing. pretty tough weather conditions in this murky yellow sea are hampering serve efforts, fog, wind, cold. victims' families are criticizing how the south korean government is handling the rescue. there are reports that crew members botched this evacuation process. and earlier today, the president of the ferry company came forward. he offered an apology.
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>> translator: executives and employees of the marine office committed a grave sin. we sincerely apologize to the victims and their families as well as people of the country. >> that's the president the ferry's captain managed to escape but is now in police custody and under police investigation under a report surfaced. paula hancocks has more on what authorities are thinking could possibly have happened. >> they are working under the assumption there are still survivors. beneath the frigid waters nearly 300 people, teenage opportunities and their teachers, remain missing. the ship's captain with his head down telling police i'm sorry, i'm at a loss for words. overnight three bodies were recovered from the second ferry off the southwest coast of korea. the miraculous record of a 6-year-old girl was caught on
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tape. her parents and brother were not found. grief stricken family members gathered at a harbor waiting into the night desperate for my information. a mother's anguish as she recalls encouraging her daughter to take the trip. >> it will be a great experience for you, for you. >> reporter: dramatic video of the first 24 hours of the fran if i can rescue shows passengers clinging to guardrails and being airlifted to safety. what could have caused the ship have come from eyewitnesses of hearing a loud bang and the ship beginning to tilt. >> it sounds like he hit an object which caused a gash in the hull which would allow a lot
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of water. >> it was large enough to impact several compartments below and ultimately capsize the ship. also in question, the handling of the evacuation. according to passengers they were initially told to stay onboard. this cell phone video thought to be inside the ship showed passengers wearing life jackets. outside ship only one of 46 lifeboats deployed. the instructions heard from the crew saying "do not move. if you move it is more dangerous. do not move." that could have cost many lives. one of the ways relatives found out about their loved ones was through text messages. there are you a people in the ship that are not dead yet. please send along this message. another student texted his friends. i think we are all going to die. p i did anything wrong to you please forgive me. i love you all. i do know that the captain of the ship did manage to escape. he's in custody and police want to know exactly how he got off
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the ship. >> paula hancocks. let's talk more about the rescueation and what could be done to get into the high schoolers and teachers and passengers onboard this ferry. joining me now, helicopter rescue swimmer, retired u.s. coast guard. sir, welcome and nice to have you on. >> thank you. >> let's just begin with the fact that we know there have been six attempts to get onboard this near sunk ferry, all six have been unsuccessful. based upon everything you are reading and seeing of the accident, how would you get in? >> well, that's the question. there has been 500 trained and well-equipped drivers trying to get in and they can't manage to do it. so -- certainly the sea state and current there, even though they are equipped for cold, cold water does not help them much. finding a way and it is a safe way in. very unstable platform. they have a lot of risks to manages themselves and they are not sure if anyone is in there alive. that's going to be a tough operation to manage. >> how do you men a safe way in?
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can you be specific? >> well, they have to find -- swimming under the water and finding a way into the boat, that will -- allow them access into where they think those air pockets might be. the air pockets can be anywhere on the ship sxnt and want to search anything. i'm a big fan of hope as long as there is some. but they have inform decide where on this massive ship to begin the search. that area that you see above the water is -- one of the least likely places if someone would be. there they are talking about deeper areas of the ship. and with the current they are dealing with and the water temperature, finding a way in, is going to be tough. it is clearly tough. >> based upon your experience, where would be the best place pass on a ship like this to hold oneself up in? >> i don't think that will is a best place, brooke. i think the problem is that they need -- because of the water temperature, they need more than just air. if they were -- if there is someone in there, they need more than just the air p they need enough air and space to be out of the water.
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so they would have had to find a space to climb up into. that's -- a rare thing to find on the boat. they are just going to have to take a systematic approach and search the ship. i think that maybe the cranes will help. they will be more stable and i think that will change things if the -- when the cranes can get will and can stabilize the ship. >> with the cranes, walk me through that process. how would that work? how would that help? >> well, right now, i heard -- reports on the water everywhere from 500 to 700 feet. here's helping it remain stable enough. when the cranes get there, if the cranes -- if the floating cranes can just by helping support the ship make it more stable, that makes the dive operation easier because the ship is stable. then they are going to have to work a plan and try to find spaces and it will be a trial and error. in and out. did i find something? did i not? until they covered the whole ship. >> two-plus days in frigid
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waters. i want to have hope, too. thank you so much for joining me. coming up, much more on our special coverage for the search for malaysian flight 370. this bluefin-21 has found no plane debris so far. no evidence whatsoever. now you have malaysia's transportation minister saying they may have to regroup. they my have to reconsider the search. we will look at what that can mean. also ahead, u.s. secretary of state john kerry calls it intolerable. grotesque. speaking recently saying that jews in one ukrainian city have been asked to identify themselves and register. what that men's, what we know, coming up. the pope washes the feet of several disabled people as part of holy week. but it is ruffling traditionalists' feathers. [ male announcer ] the wright brothers started in a garage.
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they could be on verge of a turning point in the search for missing flight 370. malaysia's acting transportation minister told reporters today that really a lot is riding on the findings of the next couple of days. >> it is important that over the weekend, the intensive search in the areas that -- most likely to be -- where we can find possible traces of the airplane or the black box will be over the next few days. so all efforts and focuses being -- focused in that
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direction. >> if nothing is found, by this unmanned vehicles under water search here, bluefin search the teams will probably take a new track to quote him, to regroup, reconsider. joining me now is cnn's aviation analyst jeff wise. author of "extreme fear." paul henry, former commander in the french navy and director of underwater research for premier exhibitions. thank you both for being with me today. and, jeff, out of the gate, i want to begin with you because the words we heard from that malaysian acting transport minister, you know, if the blue fin underwater drone continues to find nothing i heard reboot, reconsider, what might that mean? >> you know, that's a great question. i think we are going-to-have to wait and find out because, you know, we have been hearing so much positive language over the last few weeks from both the australians and malaysians we had solid leads, converging on the wreckage of the plane, and if nothing turns up, if all of the promises turn out to be empty, we are going to have to go back to square one because we
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don't have any active leads to pursue. and whether that is -- you know, looking at what area of the southern ocean to look at, we are backing up even further and saying, okay, what evidence do we have to believe that it is in the south at all? these are fundamental questions and very hard questions. >> i remember sitting with you weeks ago and you were sort of calling for, you know, the malaysian government data, satellite data, to be released publicly. let me come back to you with that in a minute. paul henry, i want to get to you. talk about searching for the uner searchable. you led six expeditions to the titanic. you completed 30 dives in a submersible yourself. what was that like? >> it was my job. i was involved. 447. and -- i was leading one of the biggest -- longest part of the
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sear search. you know, the right equipment the bluefin is very good equipment, but what i don't trust is -- the -- they heard a lot of pinger. -- heard too many pinger, you know. chinese are helping on the surface. pinger on the bottom in different place. for me, there are different pinger and not the per of the black box or flight 370. >> this is -- you actually helped with air france 447 which i know they used three of the auvs, remis 6,000s. i hear your confidence and heard other -- similar confidence echoed in the bluefin-21. if they find nothing, paul henry in the next couple of days, what do you -- give your tangible knowledge here. what should they do next? >> i will say, first, if -- i don't know exactly what is the
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side of the zone we are looking for now but it will take time. it will take like -- if they wouldn't do everything, you know, it is not after lee days, you can find the wreck or you can be very lucky. but, you know, if you are not lucky, which is 90% of the time, at sea, you know, you have to wait and you have to be patient and to launch and launch again -- bluefin for 15, 20 days. we had -- when i was in charge we did first 66 days at sea. every day we were launching three and we were doing one four of the zone. it was just after -- we have a problem of money. that's also a big problem. short of money after a while. we stop everything. we raised more money and we go back to sea and two weeks later, we -- less than two weeks later
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we find the wreck. you have to be patient. if it is stopped now after lee days. for me it is nonsense. >> i think patience is an understatement. jeff wise, we know, again, with air france 447 that took two years to find the wreckage. then went back, looked at that time science. recalibrated. when you talk about -- you have been calling on this very early on from the public release of that satellite data, a, i imagine you still main that that. b, what could be done if they reassess that, if it is made to public, then recalibrate and finely find this thing? >> right. well, you know, what we understand about what the methodology they used in distracting data from the set of seven or eight pings, depending how you calculate them, from that generating a track, you input presumed speed and from that you can deduce a track that the plane would have taken and you can then deduce where it
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would have wound up. when we have seen the search area move up and down, this arc, across a broad swath of the ocean, what they are essentially doing is recalculating what they think they are most likely speed of the airplane was. they have been talking to boeing. talking about fuel consumption. altitude. fuel burn and so forth. to try to figure out what would be the most likely speed and that's really what -- reason they are looking where they are looking now is they did a seventh recalculation of where that speed most likely would put them on the arc. and so if they open up the book and look at what kind of assumption they were making, we can, you know, there are lots of experts in the field that may have understanding beyond the realm of the very no doubt very smart and very talented people. they have a limbed, you know, range of expertise. i think as we open up we can crowd competitive sourcing other fields of knowledge to -- perhaps create a more broadly based set of assumption. >> maybe that's what needs to happen if the bluefin continues
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to turn turn up nothing, maybe they need fresh eyes and new calculations to hone in on where this plane is. jeff wise, paul henry, thank you both very much. obviously we will stay on that story for you. coming up next, let's talk about the pope. pope plan sis causing controversy. washing the feet of women and nonchristians. we will talk more about why this is such a big deal. next.
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within that white house briefing room. the reason is we received word the president of the united states will be making an appearance momentarily which, of course, we will take live. we can now confirm the president will be speaking specifically about the affordable care sxagt will be taking questions as well. might be addressing the situation in ukraine. that's the big question. we don't know yet. we have a lot of eyes and ears on that room. as soon as we see the president we will bring that to you live. stay tuned for that. let's move on for now and talk about today. holy thursday. one of the most sacred days of the catholic year. pope francis doing what was once considered one of the lowliest tasks of a servant, the washing of feet. here he is. once again, francis while following the bible is not following church law. you see, vat ran rules say that the pope should wash the feet of 12 men during the mass of the last supper. but the pontiff washed the feet of the elderly and the disabled and including a 16-year-old boy
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paralyzed from a diving accident and a 39-year-old woman diagnosed with cerebral palsy. ♪ >> joining me now is cnn senior vatican analyst john allen. i have to say, i love talking about this pope. so i'm so glad you are joining me because, you know, i read about this. we know that foot washing is an ancient pre-easter rite. but the pope here ruffling traditionalists' feathers. we know last year he did this and here he is washing the feet of women and muslims. >> yes, brooke. this is a great example of the kind of thing that francis loves to do. sort of delight it is whole world and drives sticklers for church rules absolutely bonkers. as you mentioned, last year on
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holy thursday he went to a youth detention center in rome and washed the feet of 12 people, including two muslims and two women. this year he chose to go to a center in rome, the street mary of providence center which is for elderly disabled persons. again, included women in the lineup which, as you know, technically speaking is a violation of church rouls. because holy thursday, among other things, remember it is foundation of the catholic priesthood by jesus christ and because the priesthood is reserved only to men. plan sis is not bother bid the technicalities and decided once again he wanted to lift up a particular population he felt was in particular need of his outreach and in this case elderly and disabled people. and just went ahead and did it. as i say the kind of thing that charms the whole world, that drives canon lawyers, that's the term for the law of the church, to absolute distraction.
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>> what about distraction as far as the pope mobile goes? we have some video of this. i don't know if any pope has done this, allowing two little boys to ride along with him. here they are. s that ever happened before? >> for one thing francis has done it before. he actually during one of those swings through st. peter's square, he does it before his general audience, late last year, he invited a 16-year-old boy, italian boy, with down syndrome to hop i-and take a ride with him. john paul iis have also -- invited people into the pope mobile. i think what's unique about this, brooke, is that plan sis is so much identified in the popular mind with this kind of love for ordinary people and, in particular, you know, love for broken and wounded people who have a special need for that
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taste of god's love that this kind of thing offers them. it has become one of the -- if i can say this, one of the signature touches of his papacy. mine, the popemobile has almost basically become another space in which francis encounters ordinary people and if you think about it, that is kind of, you know, unique. the sense that the pope mobile was originally devised to protect popes from the crowd. now it has become another venue where the pope welcomes the crowd to join him. >> pope of the people. absolutely. thank you so much for joining me. need to take you back to the white house to show you live pictures where we are awaiting president obama. we have just now learned he will make an appearance talking specifically about obamacare, affordable care act. let's go to washington and have a quick chat here with wolf blitzer, host of "the situation room." free viewing maybe a little bit, wolf, as far as what we expect to hear from president obama. >> probably good news from president obama's perspective is
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obamacare is concerned. the deadline, as you know, was the end of march. they gave a two-week extension, april 15. it is now april 17. they have more -- at one point they went up to 7.5 million. maybe they are getting closer to 8 million over the last couple of weeks. maybe they add ad few more. presumably, i'm just guessing, right now, usually the president doesn't go out there and volunteer to make a statement on an issue which is the seminole issue of his administration, affordable care act, unless there is something positive. if it were negative news, there are other officials making the negative news. i assume he will an v an upbeat statement about obamacare, where we go as far as the affordable care act is concerned. i presume he will give tuesday latest numbers how many people enroamed. then people will start saying how many people paid and how many people signed up. i'm guessing the president will have positive news on that front. >> as we guess on that one and perhaps they will have positive news and, wolf blitzer, please stand by as we await the
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president. jim sciutto, let me bring you in the conversation. both of you have been talking specifically as we all have, cover ukraine and tenuous situation there among pro-russian ukrainians and between moscow and between folks on the other side, ukraine, but then you have this that came out today. the fact that now we heard from u.s. secretary of state john kerry and in that meeting on ukraine, in geneva acknowledging and really the stunning allegation that jews in this one town in ukraine are having to register with the -- self-proclaimed authorities and so hearing from the u.s. ambassador, yes, this is the real deal. might obama, jim sciutto, address that in the q&a? >> i would be surprised if he wasn't asked about it. this is -- shows the real urgency of de-escalation in the region. it has been the russian strategy to stoke up the ethnic divisions there, nationalism, to a political end, show instability in eastern ukraine and require
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possibly the intervention of russian forces just as they did in crimea which then, of course, led to the annexation there. the trouble is stirring up tensions, ethnic divisions, that nationalism is difficult to control and you have seen an example of that today. we don't know how many people distributed these leaflets but they are worrisome. such a throwback to the 1940s, to nazism, as much as of these events of the last few weeks have been. right? you know, you echo -- echoes of the russian invasion of poland in -- in the 1930s. that's a real worry here. that's why you have kerry in geneva fighting along with his european partners for some sort of diplomatic way out of this. >> that's the worry and concern. one would have to assume one of the questions certainly as you point out will be on what -- we have been discussing will in ukraine towards the president. once again, just reminding all of you as we are awaiting the president of the united states
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to make an appearance inside of the white house briefing room to talk specifically off the top about the affordable care act. that extension to sign up was -- will was an extension in two weeks, two days ago. we could have more numbers. john king, john king, let me bring knew the fold, into this conversation. as far as the politics all of us goes and timing. what do you make of it? >> the president is trying to change a tide in the country in public opinion. she trying to change a behavior pattern among democrats. harry reid, senate majority leader, just said in an event at his home state of nevada the enrollment numbers are past 8 million. that's what we expect the president to say. remember, their target was 7 million. after the disar asterrous obamacare website rollout some people thought would they ever get to 3 million or 2 million. the president is saying we bombed at the beginning but are make thing work. the numbers are out now and a strong place to get the program and people we need in the program and financial footing the program needs and also have word from the congressional budget offense this week that it is not going to cost quite as
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much for obamacare. and, yet, go to arkansas, west virginia, and go to alaska and louisiana. go to place where a democrat is at risk of losing a senate seat this year and they are in a crouch over obamacare because republicans, republican groups, conservative groups, have been spending millions of dollars on negative tv ads. the president is trying to change a political dynamic. he is not going to convince republican voters to love obamacare. what she trying to convince is democratic voters to get out and vote this year. right now there is an intensity gap, what the republicans are telling you about this isn't true or at least most of it isn't true and trying to convince members of his own party who think of him as a liability and that perhaps he is not such a liability this year and that perhaps even if they don't invite him to come campaign with him they should be a bit more proud by his signature domestic achievement. >> november will be here before we know it. pore we await the president. a quick break. we will be right back. if you wear a denture, touch it with your tongue.
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breaking news in case you are joining us here. quick reminder, we are watching and waiting for that white house daily briefing to begin. it is extra special today because the president himself will be standing up behind that podium. we can tell you we have learned that he will be addressing specifically the affordable care act, obamacare. might announce new numbers as far as enrollees. we know the extension was two
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weeks. monday. we should perhaps get some new numbers and perhaps we will learn the percentage of young people who signed up for obamacare. the message the president has when it comes to this signature piece of legislation of his, possible that he will be answering questions once they finish discussing obamacare and maybe answer something questions from the white house press corps. maybe a question will be asked about ukraine. we don't know. we are watching and we are waiting for that so stick with me. we are also, of course, watching the latest rescue efforts out on the yellow sea where search teams are frantically trying to find the survivors of a capsized ferry. 20 people now are confirmed dead. nearly 300 are still missing and many of them ring young. they are high school students. officials believe that people are still alive holding themselves up in air pockets within the ship here. but the ferry companies evacuation procedures are coming under fire because some
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passengers, who escaped, said lifeboats were not used. apparently, according to one of the affiliates, one out of 46 was used and were not allowed to jump ship when the ferry started to sink. that was direct orders saying don't move. also under investigation here the captain of the ferry -- there are reports he may have veered off course. he is now in police custody. but earlier, he offered this apology. >> translator: any words for the family members of the missing? >> translator: i am sorry. i am at a loss for words. >> the president of the ferry company also apologized to the victims and their families. he said the company had committed a grave sin. quoting him directly. let's go back to the live pictures inside the briefing room. a lot of activity here. that's when you know it is a special day. that's when you know the president is dropping by the briefing room.
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jim sciutto, john king, wolf blitzer, all standing by. as we watch this together, i heard we have the two-minute warning. let's chat until we see the president. wolf, to you, first, we know that -- the president will be talking about the affordable care act and talking about obamacare. we know that they had released numbers initially north of that 7 million figure. do we anticipate new numbers today? >> yeah. he's probably going to say according to one insurance executive, you met with a group of insurance executives, that the number has gone up p. 7.5. getting closer to 8 million. about 35% are young people who have enrolled. i think the president will make that formal announcement to all of us within a matter of the next few seconds. ben roe tweeted that he is getting ready to answer questions and will be ready to answer questions about ukraine as well. this will be affordable care act followed by questions on ukraine. here is the president.
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>> before i begin, i just want to express on behalf of the american people our deepest goal to keep this real and the familiar lees that have seen their members lost in the last couple of days. obviously position is still coming in. we know many victims of the terrible tragedy were students. before i take questions, i would also like to say a few words about how the affordable care act is now covering more people at less cost than most would
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having predict ad few months ago. the first open enrollment period under this law ended a little over two weeks ago. as more data comes in, we now know that the number of americans who signed up for private insurance in the marketplaces has grown to 8 million people. 8 million people. 35% of poem who enrolled through the practical marketplace are under the age of 35. all told, independent experts now estimate millions of americans who were uninsured have gained coverage this year. with millions more to come next year and the year after. we have also seen signs that the affordable care act has brought more security to americans. for this law a added new transparency, competition to the individual market, folks who bought insurance on their own regularly saw double-digit increases in their premiums. that was the norm. while we suspect premiums will
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keep rising, as they have for decades, we also know that since the law took effect, health care spending has risen more slowly than at any time in the past 50 years. in the decade before the affordable care act p. insurance rose 8% a year. last year it grew at half that rate. under this law real medicare costs have nearly stopped growing. the life of medicare trust fund has been extended by ten years. and the independent congressional budget office now expects premiums for plans on the marketplace to be 15% lower than originally predicted. those savings add up to more money families can spend at businesses, more money the businesses can spend hiring new workers, and the cbo now says the affordable care act will be cheaper than recently projected. lower costs from coverage provisions will shrink our deficits by an extra $100
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million. so the bottom line is under the affordable care act the share of americans with insurance up, the growth of health care costs is down, and hundreds of millions of americans who already have insurance now have new been pits and protections from free preventative care to freedom from lifetime caps on your care, no american with a pre-existing condition like asthma or cancer can be denied coverage, no woman can be charged more just for being a woman, those days are over. this thing is working. i have said before this law won't solve all of the problems in our health care system. we know we have more work to do. but we now know for a fact that repealing the affordable care act would increase the deficit, raise premiums for millions of americans, and take insurance away from millions more. which is why, as i said before,
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find it strange that the republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been. they still can't bring themselves to admit that the affordable care agent is working. they said nobody would sign up. they were wrong about that. they said it would be unaffordable for the country. they were wrong about that. they were wrong to keep trying to repeal a law had a is working when they have no alternative answer for millions of americans with pre-existing conditions that would be denied coverage again. for every woman would be charged more for just being a woman again. i know every american isn't going agree were w this law. i think we can agree that it is well past time to move on as a country and refocus our energy on the issues that the american people are most concerned about. that continues to the economy. because these end p endless, fruitless repeal efforts come at a cost. the 50 or so boats republicans have taken to repeal this law
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could have been 50 votes to create jobs by investing in things like infrastructure. or innovation. or 50 votes to make it years for middle class families to send their kids to college. on or 50 votes to raise the minimum wage. or restore unemployment insurance, that they let ex-pair for folks working hard to find a new job. the point is the repeal debate is and should be over. the affordable care act is working and the american people don't want to spend the next 2 1/2 years refighting the settled political battles of the last five years. they sent us here to repair the economy, build the middle class and restore opportunity and not just for a few but for all. as president that's exactly what i intend to keep doing as long as i'm in this office. with that i will take some questions. let's see who we have. kathleen hennessy of the "l.a.
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times." >> it sounds like there has been some development in the ukraine talks in geneva. i'm wondering if you could describe your level of confidence in what the agreement is and how you can be sure that russia will follow through given some of the remarks from president putin. >> i don't think we can be sure of anything at this point. i think there is the possibility, the prospect, that the diplomacy may de-escalate the situation and we may be able to move towards what has always been our goal which is let the ukrainians make their own decisions about their own lives. there was a meet something geneva, representatives of the ukrainian government, russian government, and the eu, as well as the united states. it was a lengthy, vigorous conversation. my understand sing that the ukrainian prime minister gave a detailed and thorough presentation about the reforms that they intend to introduce
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including reforms that provide assuran assurances for the ukrainians that live in eastern and southern ukraine, that they will be fully represented and that their rights will be protected, and that russian speakers and russian natives in ukraine will have the full protection of the law and my understanding based on what i have heard is that there was an acknowledgement within the meeting that the ukrainian government in kiev had gone out of its way to address a range of the concerns that may have existed in southern and eastern ukraine. there was a promising public statement that indicated the need to disarm all irregular forces and militias and groups that had been occupying buildings. there was an offer of amnesty to
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those that would willingly lay down their arms, evacuate those buildings so law and order could be restored in eastern and southern ukraine. the russians signed on to that statement. and the question now becomes will, in fact, they use the influence that they have exerted in a disruptive way to restore some order so that ukrainians can carry out an election, move forward with the decentralization reform proposed and stabilize their economy, and start getting back on the path that broke the democracy. that their sovereignty will be respected. we are not going to know whether, in fact, there was follow-through on the statements for several days. so today i spoke with chancellor merkel. later in the day i will be speaking with david cameron. we will be consulting with our our penal ice over the last
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week. we have put in place additional consequences that we can impose on the russian it is we do not p seek actual improvement of the situation on the my hope is that we actually do see follow through over the past few days but i don't think, based on past performances, that we can count on that. we have to be prepared to respond to what continue to be efforts of interference in eastern and southern ukraine. if, in fact, we do see improvements, then that will obviously be positive. in the meantime, we'll keep the ukrainian government working with the ifm and europeans and others to stabilize their economy and start reforming it. we're going to continue to work with our nato allies to make sure that they are assured that
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we're going to meet our article 5 obligations and that they are secure. as i said, i had an interview yesterday with the major which i think i mentioned. this whole exercises by the russians are not good for the r russians either. an economy already stuck in the mud is further deteriorating because of these actions. and in my conversations with president putin, i emphasized the same thing, that we have no desire to see further destruction of the russian economy. on the other hand, we'll uphold the sovereignty and territorial integrity for other countries. there's a way for ukraine to be
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independent, to be sovereign and to have positive relationships with both the west and the east, with both its european neighbors and its russian neighbors and that's our primary concern. maria pena? >> house majority leader cantor said that they are angry about the lack of immigration reform. i'm wondering how you respond to that. and demanding relief for undocumented immigrants, i wonder if you could dispel the rumors or you will make some sort of announcement in the coming weeks to expand that relief for it. thank you. >> i actually had a very pleasant conversation with mr.
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can for yesterda cantor yesterday. you're always surprised by the mismatch of press release and the conversations. i wished him happy passover and what i said to him privately is something that i would say publicly, which is there is bipartisan support for comprehensive immigration reforl. it would help with our security and it would provide relief to families, many of whom children and family members that are u.s. citizens and that congress should act and that right now what is holding us back is the house republican leadership not
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allowing us to move forward. it was a pretty friendly conversation. i think in his press release, i gather he was referring to the observation that we had made a day earlier, that it had now been a year since the senate had passed a strong bipartisan bill and that although we had heard a lot of talk about the house republicans doing something, nothing had happened yet. and suggesting that we need some you a urgency here. i still feel the same way. i know there are republicans in the house, as well as republicans in the senate, who know this is the right thing to do. i also know it's hard politics for republicans, because there are some that are very opposed to this. but what i also know is that there are families all across
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the country who are experiencing great heartache and pain because this is not getting resolved. i also know that there are businesses around the country that can be growing even faster, that our deficits could be coming down faster, that we would have more customers in our shop if we get these things resolved. we know what the right thing to do is. it's a matter of will. it's no longer a matter of policy. and i'm going to continue to encourage them to get this done. as far as our actions, jay johnson, our new head of department of homeland security has been talking to everybody, law enforcement, immigrant rights groups to do a thorough review of our approach towards enforcement.
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and we're doing that in consultation with democrats and republicans and with any interested party. i do think that the system we have right now is broken. i'm not alone in that opinion. the only way to truly fix it is through congressional action. we have already tried to take as many administrative steps and we're going to see if there is more that we can do to make it more consistent with commonsense and more consistent with i think the attitudes of the american people, which is we shouldn't be in the business, necessarily, of tearing families apart who otherwise are law abiding. and so -- so let me -- i won't get into timing right now because mr. johnson is going to do that review.
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tamron? >> i think everyone agrees that the affordable care act has flaws but democrats have been reluctant in congress to reopen the conversation and republicans have been more than happy to reopen the conversation but in a different way. now that, as you say, there's so many people that are signed up, in this environment, is it possible to do the kind of corrections that many others would like to see? >> it is absolutely possible but it would require a change in attitude on the part of the republicans. i have always said from the outset that on any large piece of legislation like this, they are going to be things that need to be improved, need to be tweaked. i said that i think the day i signed the bill. and i don't think there's been any hesitation on our part to consider ideas that would actually improve the
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legislation. the challenge we have is that if you have certain members in the republican party whose view is making it work better is a concession to me, then it's hard in that environment to actually get it done. and i recognize that their party has gone through, you know, the stages of grief. anger and denial and all of that stuff and we're not at acceptance yet but at some point my assumption will be that there will be an interest to see how to make this work in the best way possible. we have eight million people signed up through the exchanges. that doesn't include the 3 million young people are able to stay on their parents' plan. it doesn't include the 3 million
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people who benefited from expansions in medicaid. so if my math is correct, that's 14 million right there. you've got another 5 million people who sign up outside of the marketplaces but are in part of the same insurance pool. so we've got a sizeable part of the u.s. population now that are in the first -- for the first time in many cases in a position to enjoy the financial security of health insurance. and i'm meeting them as i am on the road. saw a woman yesterday, with her mom and dad, she's got two small kids, self-employed husband and was diagnosed with breast cancer and this isn't an abstraction to
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her. she is saving her home and her parents' home because she has health insurance, which she could not afford. the question now becomes, if in fact this is working for a lot of people but there's still improvements to make, why are we still having conversation about repealing the whole thing and why are we having folks saying that any efforts to improve it are somehow handing obama a victory? this isn't about me. and my hope is that we start moving beyond that. my suspicion is that will probably not happen until after november because it seems as if this is the primary agenda item in the republican political platform. but here is what i know. the american people would much rather see us talk about jobs, muout high college costs, would