[Cuomo:] The man suspected of killing his pregnant girlfriend and an Orlando police officer is now in custody after a week long manhunt, police capturing Markeith Lloyd at an abandoned house. Police say the suspect carrying two guns and dressed in body armor did try to escape. Officers say Lloyd suffered facial injuries when he resisted arrest.
[Camerota:] Texas law enforcement mourning the loss of one of their own who is shot and killed after a suspect barricaded himself inside a home and began firing at police. Forty-eight-year-old detective Jerry Walker was killed in this standoff Tuesday. Walker and other officers responded to a 911 call about an armed man in the backyard. The suspected gunman was later found dead inside the home.
[Cuomo:] All right. Take a look at your screen. Two University of Florida students competing in a fishing tournament in Georgia, going 50, 55. All of a sudden, boat suddenly veers to the right. The two were sent into the water. What was the problem? Maybe malfunction in the boat's steering system. The passengers banged up but okay. Thankfully, both were wearing life jackets. You fishermen out there, you hear that? Wearing their lifejackets.
[Camerota:] All you boaters. I mean, this is actually a great video to see, to see how quickly something can happen where your
[Cuomo:] Those boats go very fast, that means bad things happen very fast.
[Camerota:] OK, meanwhile, President Obama commuting the sentence of former Army soldier Chelsea Manning from 35 years down to seven. A court convicted Manning of stealing troves of secret government documents and providing them to WikiLeaks. Joining us this morning from both sides of the debate, we have investigative journalists and a co-founding editor of "The Intercept", Glenn Greenwald, and CNN military analyst and former commander general for Europe in the Seventh Army, Retired Lt. General Mark Hertling. Gentleman, thanks to both of you for being here. Glenn, I know you have called for this, for the release of Chelsea Manning. For years, you have been lobbying for this. What was your reaction when you heard the news?
[Glenn Greenwald, Co-founding Editor, The Intercept:] Well, I was thrilled. Remember, she received by far the largest sentence in the history of the United States for somebody who leaked the documents not to a foreign adversary or sold them to spy agencies but leaked them to the public. She was kept in very harsh conditions for several years. The U.N. found her treatment was abusive and inhumane. And what she leaked to the public the U.S. military admits harmed nobody. But it constitutes probably the most journalistic archive, or one of them, that we have as reporters to tell the American people of what's taking place. So, I think it's an obviously just outcome.
[Camerota:] General Hertling, you have a different take. What was your reaction?
[Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling , Cnn Military Analyst:] I do, Alisyn, and I have to first say that I'm extremely conflicted about this commutation for three different reasons. It's because I'm looking at it from three different perspectives: one as a soldier, one as a former commander, and one as a human being. I'm not sure Mr. Greenwald is correct saying that it harmed no one. Private Manning released three-quarters of a million documents which was a crime. It hurt the standing in the international community. It affected other soldiers and intelligence officials and it was disrupted to good order and discipline in the military. Now, Private Manning is an extremely troubled young person. He has been all of his life. So, from a soldier and a commander perspective, I want to see Private Manning locked away for a very long time. But from a human being perspective, I can understand he has, she has served seven years of her sentence and she again was very troubled and has a torture us personal life and has actually admitted to the crime and served seven years. So, I'm not sure how I fall out on this, quite frankly. It's very troubling.
[Camerota:] Glenn, what about that? We have we heard from other military members they believe the information released by Private Manning did compromise national security and, in fact, could have gotten people killed. Maybe even did because there were sources that were then identifiable?
[Greenwald:] First, it's totally reckless for you to suggest that it's a possibility that people got killed when even the U.S. military
[Camerota:] This is what other military members had said, Glenn.
[Greenwald:] No, you are absolutely wrong. The U.S. military testified at her court martial hearing that they have searched and investigated and not a single person was harmed as a result of the release of this material.
[Hertling:] It has a direct result, Mr. Greenwald. It has a direct result. We don't know about indirect results in military operations.
[Greenwald:] That's not possible. So, that's what the U.S. military says. Actual journalists who investigated things rather than repeat what military officials say such as McClatchy, says there is zero evidence that anybody was harmed. And I think this idea of calling her troubled continually as though she were mentally completely distorts what happened. This is somebody who volunteered to go to the Iraq war believing her government's claims about what her government was doing there only to get there and find the reality was much different. She saw atrocities and war crimes and believed that in good conscience, just like Daniel Ellsberg before her with the Vietnam War, like Edward Snowden with the surveillance age, she had to let the American public know, in a democracy that what the government and military were telling the public about the Iraq war was actually not an absolutely lie.
[Camerota:] Hold on, Glenn, for one second, because I want to get General Hertling to talk about this, because correct me if I'm wrong, you knew private manning, is that why you use the term troubled? Because you have insight into this, General?
[Hertling:] I didn't know Private Manning personally. But Private Manning was one of the soldiers that replaced, was a part of the unit that replaced one of my units in Iraq. Now, what I will tell you, all you have to do is understand Private Manning's history and you can say that she was tortured throughout her entire life in terms of her personal history. That's not inconclusive. I mean, there are the history of her life from birth until she joined the army was troubling, for anyone that takes a hard look at it. And from the standpoint of whether or not someone was harmed, there were there was testimony that says there was no direct harming of an individual. But you can't talk about indirect because it did affect military operations. It did affect our standing in the world and agents were moved because the WikiLeaks documents identified people by name. And many people in the government were concerned about their well-being.
[Camerota:] Glenn
[Hertling:] And it cost the government a great deal, too, by the way, too. So, again, from a human being perspective, I can understand the president doing it. It was a compassioned move toward a troubled individual. I will say that again. But from a military perspective, it is disheartening to see this. Seven years, is it enough? I don't know.
[Camerota:] Glenn, what does this mean for other high profile people like Edward Snowden? Julian Assange had tweeted that if Chelsea Manning were the sentence were commuted, that he would come back and face justice?
[Greenwald:] Well, the reality is that there is no justice here. It's a total double standard for like people who have no power, like Chelsea Manning. If you look at David Petraeus who actually leaked top secret information among government's most sensitive material unlike Chelsea Manning who released no top secret documents, he didn't spend a single day in prison. And unlike Chelsea Manning who leaked in order to inform the public, David Petraeus leaked top secret sensitive material to his mistress so that she could write autobiography about him. But he has power in Washington. So, he doesn't go to jail for a single day. Chelsea Manning goes to prison for seven years, like they want to put Edward Snowden in prison for decades as well because that's the double standard that the U.S. military and government uses for people who leak classified information. If are you powerful, you are permitted to do it. If you are not, you go to prison and are treated in a way the U.N. itself concludes constitutes torture. And I think that's the real issue here.
[Camerota:] Generally, I'll give you the last word.
[Hertling:] That's a lot of hyperbole. Private Manning leaked three- quarters of a million documents, more than just what would be considered whistleblower activity. There were cables directed at the entire world. I'm not going to defend General Petraeus. I think what he did was also wrong. But I don't think you can conclude that one was like the other. It would be really spurious to do that. I think Mr. Greenwald has the wrong view of this entire thing. It isn't about power versus non-power. It's about the vast extent of documents that were leaked, how they were leaked and what it did. And again, I would suggest Private Manning probably has served the right amount of time and because of her past, she needs to be released. But that shouldn't be compared with General Petraeus or anybody else.
[Camerota:] General Hertling, Glenn Greenwald, thank you very much for this debate that we will be having all day long. Thank you both. Thanks also to our international viewers for watching. CNN "NEWSROOM" will begin for you in moments. And for our U.S. viewers, NEW DAY continues right now.
[Donald Trump , President-elect:] Things will be done beautifully but they'll be done differently.
[Mike Pence , Vice President-elect:] When the elections are, we all serve people.
[Trump:] We have to have a smooth transition. President Obama understands that very well.
[Unidentified Male:] I couldn't be there to celebrate his inauguration.
[Trump:] We have a divided country and it's not divided because
[Unidentified Male:] I have serious concerns about equivocating sentences when national security is at stake. Chelsea Manning was found guilty. She acknowledged wrong doing. Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary.
[Sen. Bernie Sanders , Vermont:] Do you think if your family has not made hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions to the Republican Party, that you would be sitting here today?
[Betsy Devos, Secretary Of Education Nominee:] As a matter of fact, I do.
[Sen. Chuck Schumer , Minority Leader:] No wonder they want to rush it through. They don't want people to get a good look at this people.