Boeing Issues Statement on Air Crashes; Congress Requests Trump's Tax Returns
BALDWIN: All right, in the wake of the Ethiopian Air crash, and all signs now pointing to Boeing, Boeing just now releasing the statement. I'm just going to read it for you, in part, starting with this first line: "We at Boeing are sorry for the lives lost in the recent 737 MAX incidents. These tragedies continue to weigh heavily on our hearts and minds. And we extend our sympathies to the loved ones of the passengers and crew. The history of our industry shows most accidents are caused by a chain of events. This again is the case here, and we know we can break one of those chain links in these two accidents. "As pilots have told us, erroneous activation of the MCAS function can add to what is already a high workload environment. It is our responsibility to eliminate this risk. We own it, and we know how to do it. We're taking a comprehensive, disciplined approach, and taking the time to get the software update right. We are nearing completion and anticipate its certification and implementation on the 737 MAX fleet worldwide in the weeks ahead. "We regret the impact the grounding has had on our airline customers and their passengers. This update, along with the associated training and educational -- additional educational materials that pilots want in the wake of these accidents, will eliminate the possibility of unintended MCAS activation, and prevent an MCAS-related accident from ever happening again." So, Tom Foreman, I'm starting with you here on all of this. And I can't help but, as I'm reading this, think of these families who have lost loved ones. And, I mean, that's one whole piece of this for me, but the other, this seems to be the first time that they're actually admitting MCAS...</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: ... the software system, was to blame in both of those accidents.</s>FOREMAN: Yes, it really is, despite the fact that many people were saying, look, that was the cause of the Lion Air crash off Indonesia some five months ago. And many people back then were saying, why don't you just pull all these planes until you have it fixed, so something else doesn't happen? The position of Boeing and of the FAA seemed to be for quite some time that pilots, if this went wrong -- and their position was that it was a very rare occurrence -- that they had the training and they had the tools at hand to overcome that. The release of this preliminary report, coupled with the Lion Air crash, this crash in Ethiopia, seems to suggest that pilots can do, if not everything right, because maybe everybody doesn't do everything right, an awful lot right, and still not be able to recover these planes. So, in Boeing's position here, they have not just a technical problem, in terms of trying to make sure that the fix they put on this plane actually works, and doesn't make it worse, but also a confidence problem. And this is statement is a lot about the confidence problem, trying to tell airlines around the world, trying to tell pilots around the world and trying to tell passengers around the world, we're not going to hide behind this. We're going to say, it is our fault, even though we don't have the final report yet. We believe it's our fault. We're going to fix it. The question is, can they convince people that they really did fix it? And, by the way, Brooke, a bunch of investigations still swirling here, looking at the federal government, people who are overseeing this program, and at Boeing, to say, how did it ever get to this point? Those will go on, even if the fix is put into place.</s>BALDWIN: Stay with me. I want to bring in another voice, Mary Schiavo. She's a CNN transportation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. And, Mary, I should also point out you're an attorney representing families of airline crash victims and has current litigation pending against Boeing. But the question to you, Mary, is, when I read this statement, from the days immediately following the Lion Air accident, like, they have been looking into this the whole time. "We're taking a comprehensive, disciplined approach, taking the time to get the software update right." If I'm the family of someone of these 157 people in that crash in Ethiopia, I'm thinking, why did it take a second plane going down for you to do something?</s>MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, it should not have taken a second plane to go down. And even in this statement, while the statement was long overdue, and it finally admits an unintended deployment of the MCAS system -- that's the first we have heard that out of Boeing, even though it has been fairly obvious to everyone and anyone who's ever flown a plane, you know you don't want the plane pushing the nose down on takeoff. So I think that the families probably have the -- and I have talked to some of them -- probably are saying, it's just so little so late. But it is important that they say, we own it. Now, what that means, that doesn't have a legal implication. It should, but Boeing should absolutely step up to the plate and say, this is our fault. They have some weasel words in the statement, saying, well, the pilots want this training. That's nonsense. Pilots need this training. And all of this, the MCAS system, was so Boeing could advertise the plane that it felt the same and flew the same as older 737s. So this is an important statement, but there's still a lot to be done after it.</s>BALDWIN: We had been talking last hour to Drew Griffin, who's out in Washington at Boeing H.Q. And we were -- he was talking that, in 2017, Boeing's CEO boasted about the streamlined approval process. I mean, let me play the sound. Then I want to ask you a question in the wake of this letter.</s>DENNIS MUILENBURG, CEO, BOEING: Yes, just to comment on that, one, the overall focus on deregulation and simplifying processes is one that we have been a strong proponent for. And the administration has been very engaged across government agencies and with industry to find ideas and ways and opportunities to simplify and streamline. Things like FAA certification processes is one place that we're seeing some solid progress. That's helping us more efficiently work through certification some of our new model aircraft, such as the MAX, as it's going through flight tests and entering into service. So we're already seeing some benefits there of some of the work that's being done with the FAA.</s>BALDWIN: So that was the CEO in 2017, and talking about the planes, both of which, Indonesia and then in Ethiopia, crashed. And he uses the word streamlines. Critics could say, cut corners. How do you see it, Mary Schiavo, or Tom?</s>SCHIAVO: Well, and it's very telling now, because the world now is exposed to how the FAA oversight works. And the problem with getting your wish and getting the oversight streamline from the FAA, meaning you're getting precious little oversight, if any -- and there is a 2015 Office of Inspector General report, my old office, that said the FAA hadn't even begun to have a framework in place to oversee the Boeing-designated inspections. So the flip side of that is, you don't want the FAA meddling? Well, when something goes wrong, you are 100 percent responsible. They can't say, well, the FAA approved this and, therefore, we have -- there's a thing in the law called federal preemption. They can't claim that old chestnut and say, there's nothing wrong because the government approved it.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>SCHIAVO: In this case, Boeing is the government.</s>BALDWIN: Go ahead, Tom.</s>FOREMAN: And do bear in mind that this was only a couple months into the Trump administration. This isn't all about Donald Trump and his stepping back of regulations.</s>SCHIAVO: Right.</s>FOREMAN: This is about a general sense that some people have that, in too many cases, industry has been asked to police itself. And perhaps, perhaps the findings here will say that was one of the flaws.</s>BALDWIN: OK, Tom and Mary, thank you.</s>FOREMAN: You're welcome.</s>SCHIAVO: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Want to move to some breaking up on Capitol Hill right now. Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican from Iowa, is lambasting Democrats for their efforts to get their hands on six years of President Trump's tax returns. So let's just listen to some of the sound right now.</s>SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: ... using their oversight responsibilities to collect as much information about this president's finances as they can get their hands on. And that is really the bottom line, isn't it? This letter from the House Democrats doesn't make sense when taken at face value, because you can't take it at face value. Democrats say they're interested in the tax returns of all presidents, when they're really just interested in one, President Trump. If the effort to get the president's tax returns isn't part of a grand reform effort, as they would have us believe, then what is it motivated by? I want to tell you what it's motivated by. It's motivated by the Democrats' intense dislike of this president. It's motivated by their frustration over losing an election that they thought that they would easily win. It's motivated by their desire to use all the resources at their disposal to find something, anything to bring this president down. Just take a look at how this whole effort to request the president's tax reforms has unfolded. It will tell you a real story. Democrats started making calls for the President Trump's -- for President Trump's -- to release his tax returns while he was still a candidate during the 2016 election. At the time, Democratic calls for the release of his tax returns were clearly just a political attack, not a policy issue, as they now want us to believe. Secretary Clinton said -- quote -- "There must be something really terrible in those tax returns" -- end of her quote.</s>BALDWIN: Senator Grassley there speaking on Capitol Hill. I want to go straight to Manu Raju, who has been listening in as well. And I think let's just -- stepping back, Manu, and you help fill in the context. This all has to do with the committee chairman of House Ways and Means citing this little known IRS code, so that they can procure six years' worth of President Trump's tax returns.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, his personal taxes, his business taxes. That's what Chairman Neal is asking for. Now, Chuck Grassley is his counterpart on the Senate side. He's the Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Both the Finance Committee and the Ways and Means Committee oversee tax laws. And Grassley himself has said that, if there's tax returns that are turned over to Richard Neal's committee, he should see them as well. But what Grassley is making here is his argument that Democrats are trying to weaponize the tax returns to attack the president.