you're in the "cnn newsroom." i'm poppy harlow joining you live from new york. 5:00 eastern this saturday evening. this in to cnn, we're hearing that a possible tornado has

touched down near jackson, mississippi. joining me on the phone eric carpenter lead forecaster for the national weather service in jackson. how does it look? what can you tell us? >> we've got several severe storms moving across central mississippi today. and we've had reports of possible tornadic damage. the most significant damage right now seems to be near rose hill where we have reports of mobile homes destroyed and significant structural damage. we also have reports of damage near mt. olive as well in covington county. >> we just got some video in from the area. i want our viewers and you to be able to listen to this and get your reaction on the other side. so this is from pearl, mississippi eric if you could,

give us the proximity to where the tornado was believed to have touched down and where this video was shot. do we know of any injuries or people that may have been impacted directly from this? >> right now we're still getting details of any casualties. in pearl we do have a lot of severe storms come through there as well. the severe weather is fairly widespread so you're hearing lots of sirens going off and damage reports are still coming in so we're still trying to assess everything. >> and what can we expect throughout the evening? >> as we go into the evening, we're looking for the severe weather threat to continue over eastern mississippi. the cold front continues to push east. and then things will wind down pretty fast overnight. people in eastern mississippi need to definitely be staying alert. >> absolutely. appreciate it. eric carpenter joining us there from the national weather service in jackson, mississippi. eric thank you. there is severe weather across the country tonight.

close to 10 million people affected by heavy wind and rain from louisiana to alabama. the winter weather could affect up to 55 million people elsewhere this weekend. we'll keep a close eye on it for you and bring you any updates as soon as we have. we, of course, are also following a lot of new developments in the air asia plane disaster and the search for people from that plane the bodies and the debris. most disturbing is the plane should not have been in the air in the first place. indonesians officials tell us that this plane did not have a license to fly that route on sundays. also today, four large objections believe edobjection s objects possibly believed to be from air asia 8501 found in the java sea. they were discovered in close proximity to each other as searchers found an oil slick. they have not retrieved the objects yet. but a short time later the search was halted due to the bad weather. our paula hancocks was out with

a search team when that call was made. >> coastline. go to the east. >> reporter: they show me the flight plan. scouring the southwest coast of borneo. plans to reach the air asia crash site changed due to the weather. all the aircraft evacuated bodies allowed to risk the so-called red zone. officials believe remnants of the plane or bodies may have drifted around 100 nautical miles to land. dense vegetation and marshes make searching by land unrealistic. much of this area is barely inhabited. as the weather closes in the pilot tries to fly around it. but the front is too big. we're only half an hour into the flight and the pilot has just decided that we have to abort this mission. he says that the weather up ahead is simply too dangerous.

he cannot fly into those kind of clouds and that rain so we're circling back and going back to the airport. now, for those on board, we're going to be looking for debris and also looking for bodies. they barely had a chance to even start their job. and this was just along the coastline. this wasn't even out at sea, where the weather is worse. back on land the team refuses to be disheartened. the local police chief tells me we'll keep going until we find everyone. more victims have flown to dry land saturday despite the weather. once cleaned and treated, they're flown on to surabaya for formal identification. every number a loved member of a distraught family. an innocent soul who lost their life in the java sea. paula hancocks, cnn, indonesia. >> paula, thank you for that report.

let me bring in my panel, cnn aviation analyst les aubin and also bobby soley, thank you for being here and allen diehl joins us a former ntsb investigator and author of a book "using science to save lives one crash at a time." allen, this plane not licensed to fly on that day said the transport ministry when it flew on sunday. but les and others on the program have been saying look this is more a paperwork issue than a safety concern. do you agree? >> i agree. probably some kind of middle management error, although it does suggest that perhaps we'll have to look very closely at air asia's management. >> explain to me what you mean by that in terms you think that this could be a sign of mismanagement? >> well again i'm saying we just need to look at it carefully. when we deregulated the airlines in this country we found that

some of them weren't playing by the rules. i'm not saying air asia wasn't but it's something that the air safety investigators will need to look at very carefully. but i agree with les, this is probably just some sort of administrative error and not really critical to this accident. >> bobby, thank you for joining us. and let me ask you this in terms of the search effort these four objects believed to be from the plane -- again they are just side-scan sonar images. we don't know. they haven't been retrieved yet. but if they are indeed from the plane, without the flight data recorder, what can they tell us about what happened? >> well this tells us that in all likelihood that the plane did break apart to some degree. and so this lets the searchers know that they need to continue doing a search of the ocean floor to find all the debris field. they need to continue using their assets their ship sonar, their side scan sonar, to do a

thorough search of the ocean bottom to find is the debris field in total like we did on twa flight 800. we ended up with three distinct debris fields that told us a lot about whapt happened to that aircraft that it came apart in three different sections and that's what they need to do now and then as they find these debris fields they move the sonar off to do -- continue their search and then they get the remote operated vehicles and the divers into those debris fields and do an eyes-on that particular part of the aircraft if it turns out to be aircraft debris. and then they can also search for those black boxes. whether they have a ping or not, when they determine what part of the aircraft they might have in that particular debris field. and, of course it's always the number one priority to recover the victims. that's always comes first. >> of course especially given that it has been a week and they want to bring every single one

of those 162 souls back. the families want answers. they want their loved ones back so they can bury them. they want answers. les, let me pull up this object. one of the parts of debris that has been found that is believed to have been 8501. looks like it is part of the windows there. in terms of answers and getting answers for those families can debris pieces like this really tell us anything useful? >> absolutely. i mean these -- that piece is from a certain section of the fuselage. to me that looks like the entire interior section of the fuselage which right away is an indication that the airplane broke apart somewhere either in the air or when it impacted the water. so that has a location to it. whether that can be determined what location -- there's obviously more of those pieces that may still be trapped underneath or in the fuselage. it's hard to say. i think they've got to piece it

all together. but it certainly can help. >> okay. all right, well stay with us. stand by. we're going to keep discussing this. but let's also talk about the weather and once the weather subsides the mission of salvaging the wreckage and recovering more of those bodies will come down to expert divers. our alina machado talked to one diver about the daunting and dangerous task of doing just that. >> reporter: the number of crews helping for search air asia flight 8501 continues to grow and if anyone knows the job that lies ahead especially for the dozens of divers involved it's jeno. >> it's a somber situation. >> reporter: he's an experienced commercial diver who has helped after recent catastrophes including the tsunami and haiti earthquake. in this case parts have been recovered so have dozens of bodies but rough conditions with waves as high as 13 feet have hampered search efforts.

>> one thing you don't want to do is add more tragedy to tragedy. you don't want more loss of life. you want to plan your time and wait for optimal condition go in there. >> reporter: the plane is believed to be at the bottom of the sea and at that depth they'll need to use special gear. >> it's dry sealed at the wrists and the boots are incorporated and the zipper closes at the neck. that way no water gets in there. then what you have is a helmet. this is a 17 super light. >> reporter: this considered a lighter one. >> yes. >> reporter: but it's incredibly heavy. >> 37 pounds. >> reporter: divers will also be hooked up to a command center like this one. >> these instruments right here are telling us what the depth of the divers are at. and this is the pressure of the air going through them. the main air. standby air. emergency air. diver one. diver, two, diver three, which is your safety diver. >> reporter: garhe says the divers

will be underwater about 87 minutes at a time and then they get into a decompression chamber. >> it will be dark inside. a lot of things for a diver to get snacked on for his umbilical to get caught up on. to get disoriented. it will not look like a textbook situation. >> reporter: then there's the emotional component. you know there's bodying down there. >> there's nothing worse than bumping into a bloated dead body in the water. >> reporter: he's still haunted by the victims he helped recover especially the children. emotions divers in the java sea will have to come to terms with. >> the way you get past it you are helping the families and helping somebody and putting it to rest. >> reporter: it could take weeks or months for the divers to finish the job in the sea. so bobby, let me bring you back in here with our panel. as a retired u.s. navy diver, how difficult is this mission going to be because they are determined to bring every one of

these 162 victims home. >> it's one of the most difficult jobs you do. primarily because you know that you're out there doing it for these families and you want to get every one of those victims. we were very fortunate on twa flight 800 we were able to bring each and every victim home. but this one is incredibly rough. those weather conditions are terrible out there in the java sea. the currents the high seas. i know those tigers want to get out there right now. but they can't get out there in those seas right now. and i see pictures of the divers in the boats. the depth of water is right at the limit that 100 foot 120 feet of depth of water is right at the limit for scuba divers. a scuba diver can stay down in that depth of water for ten minutes and then he has to come back up to the surface and they

do decompression dives. as you show in the piece right there otherwise they have to use the surface supply divers that have a hose with air supplied to their helmets and that means they need a support vessel to put those divers in the water with helmets, so that's a whole different complicated dive profile. so it's just a very complex dive scenario. we were here nine months ago talking about this very same thing on the korean ferry disaster. these divers want to get down there and recover those victims. and they have to be safe or we're going to hurt divers. >> all right, guys thank you very much les, allen, and bobby. i appreciate you coming in and being on with us this evening. thank you. also overnight, a small plane went down in rural kentucky. everyone on board was killed except one. a 7-year-old girl. she is hurt but she is safe. you're going to hear about how she made it out alive.

also a grim day for officers of the new york city police department. a wake for one of their brothers who was gunned down last month. were there signs of more tension between the mayor of new york city and the police or have things turned a corner? we'll bring you a live report from there as well.

a patch of forest in western kentucky is an accident scene today. late last night a six-passenger

airplane reported engine problems and then went down just ten miles short of the airport that it was trying to reach. we now know who was on board. it was the guxler family from nashville, illinois marty, his wife kim, their two daughters and niece. everyone on the plane died except their 7-year-old daughter. here's nick valencia with how she bravely survived. >> reporter: at home in rural kentucky larry wilkins finished watching the local evening news when his dog started barking. >> i went to the door and there was a little girl about 7 years old. crying. not bad. lips quiveering pretty good. she was pretty bloody. had a bloody nose and her arms and legs were scratched up real bad and she told me that her mom and dad was dead. >> reporter: the 7-year-old is the only survivor from a friday night plane crash. her mom, dad, sister and cousin dead after their small twin engine piper traveling from florida crashed in the woods of

western kentucky. the fact the little girl survived is all the more incredible wilkins says when considering what she had to do to get help. >> she'd just walked three quawsters ersquart esers of a mile through very very rough territory. she was barefooted. she had one sock on her foot that's all. and she was dressed for florida. wearing shorts and a light little blouse. no coat. >> reporter: wilkins said the 7-year-old likely spotted a light on his house and made her way towards. a kentucky state police officer who also helped the little girl seemed to speak for most when he said -- >> it's really a miracle. >> if you could see the terrain you would realize how incredible it really was. she's a terribly brave little girl i'll tell you that. >> on saturday the 7-year-old girl was released from the hospital and is expected to survive her nonlife threatening injuries. nick valencia cnn, atlanta. i want to bring back in our

aviation panel, allen diehl joining us and les aubin, you've investigated all kind of plane crashes with the ntsb. i want to show our viewers some video. really the first video of the wreckage of this plane. i know you can't see it but you know a lot about what has happened thus far in terms of the details that have come out. what do you think could have caused this? >> well, of course, that's -- everybody's saying it's weather. that's the most likely culprit. but, poppy, the most important piece of evidence to come to surface so far are those two naked bodies. and here's why. when they identify those bodies and look at the seating diagram, if they find out that these people were seated towards the tail of the aircraft it suggests -- >> let me just jump in there. i'm sorry to interrupt. let me just jump in there. you may not have been able to hear leading into this. we're talking about the plane that went down overnight in kentucky with those six family members on board.

i know you know some of the details about that. they were reporting engine problems. this plane came down ten miles before the airport where it was trying to do an emergency landing. given the fact you are formerly an ntsb investigators, they were reporting some engine problems. what could have brought this plane down? >> well engine problems in heavy weather is a big problem. i've flown in that type of aircraft incidentally and any kind of heavy weather particularly and i'm not saying they did, but if they had any icing or turbulence single engine operation of a light twin aircraft is very problematic. >> right. whereas like the a-320, for example, can fly on one engine for up to three hours. les, it's a miracle that this young 7-year-old survived. was released from the hospital overnight nonlife threatening injuries. is there anything about where she could have been seated that would have saved her life in a small plane like this? >> i looked at just briefly at that crash site there and it

looks like a low-speed event which could be indicative of what allen was talking about with icing where she was seated the best part of that airplane the most intact part of that airplane appeared to be at the tail so she may very well crawled out from there. it looked like a piper seneca which is a very light twin engine airplane but very susceptible to ice. >> if it indeed is. we haven't heard there was any inclement weather but we do know they recorded engine problems. thank you very much les. good to have you on. go ahead, allen. >> i was going to say, poppy, i agree and because of weight and balance on these light aircraft you normally put the lighter passengers toward the rear. les is right, that's probably where she was at. >> all right. we'll find out more as this develops. thank you both. also this story we're following closely. another sea of blue and badges in memory of a slain new york city police officer. the tension was lower, really

nonexistent today between the nypd officers and the mayor and that's what most people wanted to see here in new york. coming up "the new york times" wants the police and the mayor to mend things and really build a bridge. how can that happen?

well new york city police

officers packed a funeral home in brooklyn today to honor one of their own. it was the wake for detective wenjian liu one of the two nypd officers shot dead in broad daylight on december 20th. his funeral service is tomorrow. uniformed officers from all over the city all over the country, showed up to support him and his family. and the nypd commissioner notified his officers that he did not want a repeat of what happened last weekend. that is when as you'll remember some police officers turned their back on mayor bill de blasio as he spoke at the funeral for liu's partner detective rafael ramos. here's part of an internal memo from commissioner william bratton. quote, the assassination of detectives liu and ramos was an attack on all of us. as a cop, one who lived and worked through the assassination threats of the 1970s i understand that emotions are high. i issue no mandates and i make no threat of discipline. but i remind you when you don the uniform of this department

you are bound by the tradition honor and decency that go with it. that was sent out to all nypd officers earlier today. in the meantime many people here in new york city want to see things repaired. the bridges repaired between the mayor and many police officers. "the new york times" wasn't the first to call out the police but it might have used the harshest language. in an op-ed this week the paper's editorial board wrote, quote, mr. de blasio isn't going to say it but somebody has to. with these acts of passive-aggressive contempt and self-pity many new york police officers led by their union are squandering the department's credibility, defacing its reputation shredding its hard-earned respect. let's talk about it with ben ferguson and mel robbins. thank you both for being here. ben, let me go to you. you read "the new york times" editorial board op-ed i did as well. is their criticism fair? >> -- i think it goes a little bit too far.

it's time to move on past this is certainly correct. but to say that it's tarnishing the police department or anything like that is just not fair. you got to remember what got us to this point. you had a mayor that saw a political opportunity to basically take a shot at the police which he thought would play well in the community that elected him or possible people that would elect him. he's the one that went political on this. and the police have responded after two of their, you know, men were basically shot down and you have a mayor that pushes the tone here. and he said very clearly, i had to warn my son about the police. i had to sit down with them. that is an area the mayor should have never gone. he did it for political reasons and so that -- people are going to remember that. but, yeah there is a time to turn the page and i think right now is the time to do that. >> it's interesting, though, we've seen bill bratton standing, you know right alongside the mayor here on this and issuing, mel, today, the directive to his officers don't

disrespect him again. and "the new york times" writing, mel, in doing so they also turn their backs on mr. ramos' widow and her two young sons, do you agree? >> you know, i do agree. the reason why i agree because if you do anything at a funeral or a wedding to call attention to yourself and thereby call attention away from the ceremony and from the people that are supposed to be being honored, yeah you have crossed a line. yeah you have turned your back on the folks that you're supposed to be honoring and you've used that moment that should have been all about celebrating and mourning, you know the officer that had died rather than putting the attention on yourself poppy. >> so let me read you this ben, to that point. "the times" ends -- editorial board ends what it wrote by writing this surely many officers understand and accept his conciliatory words and realize the things mr. de blasio has done hiring mr. bratton,

increasing financing for the department and modernizing its equipment. what do you make of that? >> well look i think that's policy. but when it came to perception in the community, he threw the police under the bus for political gain. and when you do that as a mayor, it is going to backfire on you. and that's what the police basically said. we're not going to put up with this. there's certain areas like i will even say mel referred to you don't make personal statements at a funeral or wedding, right? you let it be about the people. well as a mayor you don't make political statements about the police for their own personal gain because they put their lives on the line whether a republican or a democrat or an independent is in office every single day and when they get a phone call and they got to run into someone's house or find a robber they're not asking political questions so, you know to -- >> that's right. i don't think the mayor was making a political statement, ben, when he stated a fact which -- >> i think he was. >> -- which the truth of the matter -- the truth of the matter is ben, i never have to worry about what the police are

going to think about my son oakley. i have to worry about what oakley might do but our colleagues that are black here at cnn, they do have to worry about that and so does the mayor and the statistics prove it. it's not based on racism. it's based on implicit bias. so i don't think it was a political statement. i think he was making a statement based on being a father and also kind of saying something that basically said i understand why people are protesting and, by the way, the protesters also jumped the shark and did something really inappropriate the second they kept protesting when the mayor's asked them not to and to let these officers be buried. let these officers have their memorial service and when they denied the mayor's request i think they jumped -- >> go ahead, ben, i'm sorry. >> i'll say this. >> very quickly, ben. we've got to get a break in. >> i totally agree with you it's time to move on. but the mayor of new york he did see a political opportunity when he went after the police because he thought this is

perfect for the people in the street that may like me or vote for me and that's why he did it. otherwise he would have done it five years ago or ten years ago in his career and he never did. >> you can't get elected without the union backing you either. after the break we'll talk about what a year in politics in 2014 for the president, for all the members of congress. we'll look at our top ten in politics. ben and mel will then give their forecasts for the year in politics ahead.

so calling 2014 a rough year in politics may actually be quite an understatement. here's jake tapper with the highs and the lows. >> politics grabbed big headlines in 2014 with criticism and praise for the president's foreign policy. some stunning congressional dysfunction, and a crushing defeat for democrats in the midterm elections. here are our top ten political stories. >> reporter: number ten, 2014

offered a preview of what the 2016 presidential campaign might look and sound like as hillary clinton hit the road to promote her latest book. the media blitz and book tour looked a lot like a presidential candidate gearing up. number nine republican incumbents kept feeling the heat from the tea party which showed it isn't going anywhere. >> the conservative resurgence for this country starts right here in mississippi. >> reporter: a tea party campaign by chris mcdaniel nearly lost a longtime senator from mississippi thad cochran his seat. primary runoff created one of the strangest political coalitions of the year. republican cochran courting black democrats in the magnolia state to bail him out in the runoff. >> this is your issue. >> reporter: cochran survived but others were not so lucky. the number two republican in the house did not even make it to election day. house majority leader eric cantor lost his primary to this guy, economics professor david bratt in what may be the political upset of the decade.

>> look obviously we came up short. >> reporter: number eight, the u.s. does not negotiate with terrorists but we will do a prisoner swap. sergeant bowe bergdahl the only u.s. prisoner in afghanistan or iraq was brought home after the u.s. traded five taliban fighters from guantanamo bay for his release. the celebration has one huge footnote. not everyone was thrilled with the exchange rate. >> for the president to decide that these five hardest of the hardcore in return for sergeant bergdahl to the states i think was just wrong. >> reporter: not to mention the administration broke the law by not giving congress 30 days' notice. number seven, a fence jumper who sprinted across the white house lawn and let himself into the front door exposed major security breaches with the see secret service. >> don't let somebody get close to the president or his family. >> i take full responsibility. >> reporter: the security gaps led julia pierson the first female director of the secret service appointed after a

prostitution scandal to step down. number six, accusations that u.s. veterans died while waiting for treatment at veterans administration hospitals was a national embarrassment. a months' long cnn investigation showed altered death certificates and secret waiting lists. >> i want to know the full scope of this problem. >> reporter: secretary of veterans affairs eric shinseki was sacked from his cabinet post after the story was broken. number five president obama's foreign policy under attack. an off-the-cuff phrase uttered by the president "don't do stupid stuff" was criticized by none other than former secretary of state hillary clinton as an inadequate defining principle. the civil war in syria, the russian invasion of ukraine, the prisoner swap in cuba and his foreign policy was criticized by

many democrats as feckless. and 2014 marked another year of gridlock on immigration reform. there was no greater x am of the broken system than the thousands unaccompanied children from central america flooding across the texas border. president obama opted after the midterms to go it alone using executive action in an attempt to reform the system. critics called his actions unconstitutional. number three, any notion of america's first black president ushering in a post racial era of healing, got squashed. after white police officers in missouri and new york killed unarmed black men protesters around the country took to the streets. following the grand jury's decision not to indict officer darren wilson for killing michael brown in ferguson president obama delivered a speech urging calm. >> so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury's to make. >> reporter: and the split screen on your television showed the depth of the disconnect. a city burned and the

president's pleas going up in smokes. number two, the u.s. went back into iraq. this time to fight isis. just a few months after president obama dismissed the terrorist group as a jv squad, isis took huge swaths of land along the lawless iraq and syria border. the president finally changed his tune and ordered targeted attacks in iraq and syria against the terrorist group. and the number one top political story of the year on election night it was a red wave as republicans won control of the u.s. house and the senate. >> we crossed the finish line. we took the hill! >> politics of 2015 might just look a lot like a giant stack of promises made in the ras for the white house in 2016 and we'll have to wait and see if a lame duck president can work it out with a deadlocked congress. i'm jake tapper. >> all right, jake thank you for that. so what is ahead in 2015

for politics? we'll get into a lively discussion ahead with ben and mel next. (son) oh no... can you fix it, dad? yeah, i can fix that. (dad) i wanted a car that could handle anything. i fixed it! (dad) that's why i got a subaru legacy. (vo) symmetrical all-wheel drive plus 36 mpg. i gotta break more toys. (vo) introducing the all-new subaru legacy. it's not just a sedan. it's a subaru.

all right. let's talk about the year ahead in politics because 2014 was pretty darn interesting and i think 2015 is going to be as well. ben ferguson and mel robbins back with me. mel, what is 2015 going to be for the president? >> you know, i think it's going to be the year of executive orders because he's lost control of the congress and, actually one thing that a lot of people aren't talking about is 24 states poppy, are now 100% controlled by the republicans legislature and the governorship so i think this is going to be the year where congress plows ahead without him and he's going to be left doing things by executive order, poppy. >> so, ben, one piece of advice for the president in 2015? >> don't overreach. don't go too far on your own

because it's only going to backfire and hurt other democrats. they're going to be running for re-election or even for the white house. the worse thing you can do for hillary clinton or any other democrat is have america think that you don't care about congress and the people they sent there to actually make law. you got to work with them. if it doesn't, i think it will backfire on all the democrats running. >> mel, how long do you wait for congress to act? >> wow, ben, it actually sounds like you want obama to be successful that was good advice. i think the bottom line is that people have to realize that the american public did send overwhelmingly a huge message at the state and federal level and voted in republicans. what does that mean? they want congress to focus on the economy. they want congress to focus on simplifying the tax code. they want the keystone pipeline. these are all things that we hear about during a presidential election and i think they're looking to congress to lead on these issues once and for all, poppy and ben. >> so, ben, to you then mel, both of you, fill in the blank,

one year from today the front-runners for the presidential nominations will be ben? >> i got to say, i think chris christie is going to be an underdog that comes out, who will be very tough to beat if he decides to run in this he's the x-factor that some people wrote off because of bridgegate and the traffic. in reality he wasn't involved in it and i think it will come back to haunt people who overplayed it. >> mel, on the republican ticket and the democrats? >> i still think it will be jeb bush in the front although i would love to see christie make a move. but don't discount elizabeth warren. i really don't think that hillary clinton has -- >> i agree. >> -- all locked up. >> you agree. ben and mel agree. >> that's shocking. >> i think hillary clinton maybe the most overrated front-runners that we've seen in a long time. she was in this position when she ran against barack obama. guess what she didn't get the nomination. i think overconfidence could be the big story this coming year. >> ben, mel, we know that some have said there have been

multiple reports that hillary clinton may make a decision by mid-january on whether or not to run. but, you know, some political commentators have been saying there's no advantage to her jumping in the race this early. she can wait until april or may to make an announcement. maybe an advantage for the party but not for her. what do you think? >> you know, i think that's right, poppy. she does have the most experience of anyone being the former first lady a former senator, the former secretary of state. she is certainly well qualified for the job and if she jumps in too soon i think she'll hit fatigue. what she should be doing and what every candidate should be doing is hiring the top tier google analytics people they can so they can deal with the online strategy right now because that's going to be a huge huge piece the online analytics aspect of this. >> no question about it. all right, guys. go ahead, ben? >> no i was going to say hillary has to wait until other people decide to jump in.

for her there's nothing she's going to gain from jumping in early. and if i'm looking at her and her team i'd say when other people start to jump in if they do that's when we'll decide to jump in. otherwise wait as long as you can. >> wait it out. ben, mel, appreciate it. you'll be with us the whole time as we watch it develop over the new year. up next the trial for the boston marathon terror suspect starts this week we're talking about dzhokhar tsarnaev. ahead mel robbins joins us with what we expect.

the trial for the man accused of orchestrating the boston marathon bombing starts on monday. deborah feyerick has the details on that case. right near the marathon finish line in boston two explosions 12 seconds apart. >> it was the scene of utter devastation and carnage down there. >> reporter: the bombs kill three. rick ran the fbi's boston office. >> collecting pieces of shrapnel pieces of pressure cooker bombs, backpacks. >> reporter: day three, a break in the case.

surveillance video from businesses. a man at the second blast sight. >> he places the backpack on the ground. stands and mills around. a short time later, 15 minutes later, he makes a cell phone call. shortly there after, you hear the first bomb go off. >> day four, the fbi asks for the public's help finding two men. now on the run, officials say the brothers execute m.i.t. police officer, carjack an suv an get into a shootout with police. watertown police chief says 26-year-old tamerlan tsarnaev is shot and reloads four times. >> he runs out of ammunition and throws the gun at my side. >> reporter: officers tackle him. his brother tries to scatter police. >> he drags his brother down.

he's under the suv and smashes into one of our cruisers. >> reporter: by sunrise friday millions in the boston area are in lockdown. >> move, move, move! >> reporter: it is listed that night. a resident calls 911. the suspect is hiding in the boat. >> he has a sniper's rifle by his head. >> he was a threat. >> reporter: after a tense stand off, tsarnaev surrenders. he is questioned by fbi interrogators and read his rights. deborah feyerick, cnn boston. >> he faces murder charges and use of weapons of mass destruct. the lawyer requested to move the trial out of boston. the judge refused. given the fact the judge here said that this trial cannot move and cannot be delayed any longer do you think that

tsarnaev can get a fair trial there in boston? >> oh absolutely he can get a fair trial here. you are talking about trying to find 18 jurors 12 main jurors and six, you know alternates, poppy, from a sea of millions of people. now, will they panel a jury quickly? probably not. we are going to see days and days and weeks and weeks of questioning like we have seen in the major trials like the george zimmerman trial and so forth. >> the attack felt like an attack on the country as well as an attack on boston and i wonder for so many people they are saying what is the defense strategy going to be? >> reporter: i don't have a clue honestly. first of all, many of you know there is felony murder. if they argue that he was influenced by his brother, the brother is the one that built the bombs, that planted the

bombs, that pulled the trigger when they killed the m.i.t. security guard, that he was the master mind behind it all, still, he was an accomplice in all of this. i don't see what the defense is. you know the thing that i keep thinking about, poppy, is are they going through the motions of this trial or is the defendant wanting a trial, obviously because he wants his day in court? i mean we could see him take the stand. he might be doing this, as crazy as this sounds simply because he wants to delay being sentenced and put away forever with very limited rights and limited ability to see his family. he's going to get to see his family every day in court. that could be a motivating factor. it's going to be interesting to see what the defense could be. >> mel, thank you very much. quick break, we are back with more news on the other side.

all right. a significant find in the search for wreckage from flight 8501. four objects were found in the java sea. one of the objects is 59 feet

long. they still have to recover them. weather hampered the search efforts. two more bodies two of the 30 bodies recovered have been identified. that brings the total identified to six. meanwhile, officials tell cnn the airlines did not have a license to fly to singapore on that route on the day the flight disappeared that sunday. the airline was licensed to fly that route four days of the week but not on sunday. also this just in to cnn. the governor of new york andrew cuomo appearing at the wake for slain police officer liu a short time ago in brooklyn. for the first time he spoke publicly since the death of his father mario cuomo. >> today is not the day for my dad. we are going to have his wake and his funeral, but i can say i

miss him already. there is a hole in my heart that i fear is going to be there forever. today is about the liu family and he would have wanted me here and sandy here to express our condolences on behalf of all the people in the state of new york. my father would have been here today. i wanted to be here today. >> he died thursday at the age of 82. i'm poppy harlow in new york. smerconish begins now. i'm michael smerconish. it's a new year and we've got lots to talk b. we're going to drill down on some of the stories of the week. a burning question on capitol hill. did a powerful republican house leader talk to what many call a hate group? i'll ask the group's founder david duke, the former klan wizard is here. cold war in gotham. cops turn their backs on new york city's mayor.