Mystery . The National Lead cops worry that its open season on them. A week after two officers are shot and killed in new york a new Police Ambush prompted an allout manhunt in los angeles. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We begin today with the world lead. It disappeared from the sky, only the people aboard airasia flight 8501 know what happened. And now its feared all of them perished. Thats according to a senior indonesian aviation official who told reporters the airbus carrying 162 souls, 18 of them children is probably at the bottom of the ocean floor. Searchers are racing to find traces of wreckage or oil slicks or anything to lead them to the planes final resting place. The indonesian government has formally asked the United States government to join the hunt. A senior u. S. Official confirmed the request came earlier today. Its still being worked out how involved the u. S. Will get. When the sun rises over the java sea in a couple of hours and day three of the search begins its still unclear what happened to this plane or even where it ended up. In fact, there are many questions about the flights final minutes. Here is what we do know. According to indonesian [ snfld investigators, the flight was navigating its way from indonesia to singapore when its pilot requested a change in altitude to avoid bad weather. That request was denied as thunderstorms lit up that area of the world, the plane lost all contact with air Traffic Control. No emergency beacons, no distress signals, no indication of anything gone wrong. That chasm between what we know and the unknown, that leaves the families and friends of the people aboard this plane in what can only be described as an agonizeing limbo. Cnns david is live in indonesia. Youre about an hour from daybreak there. Whats day three of the search going to look like . Reporter hi, jake. Good morning. Its 4 00 in the morning here tuesday in surabaya. Im just outside the International Airport here where that airasia flight took off about two days ago, lost on radar some 46 hours ago. Definitely getting the sense that momentum is building toward an allout search. This would be the second full day of searching, day two monday we saw about 15 ships and 30 aircraft searching areas of the java sea. Thats according to the indonesian Vice President. The area is increasing now, moving from seven sections to about 11. Its done on a grid system where they can search and check things off. Were hearing local reports that they may actually include parts of land some of the islands a portion of borneo the major island shared by indonesia and malaysia as well. You mentioned the United States being asked for help, chinas getting involved. Malaysia and singapore involved and of course indonesia being the site of this disappearance and also the aircraft being of indonesian origin, also playing a big role in this search and leading it. You get the sense 48 hours in that this is the moment for the searchandrescue operation, the Vice President again telling my colleague, andrew stevens, earlier once you pass that 48hour mark the hope of finding survivors much more difficult. I think what were going to see in the hours ahead is an allout search to try to find some sign of that missing aircraft. David, what is the airline telling these families right now . Reporter jake the families are actually here in surabaya about 75 of them are actually from this city. Others have flown in from around indonesia. Some are staying at homes, some at a hotel. Behind me is a crisis center. Families have come in twice on monday for briefings with airline officials. Theyve been closeddoor briefings so other than catching a glimpse as family members come in and out, we havent gotten a good sense of what information we are giving them. We imagine from what the ceo of airasia, tony hernandez, has said as well as the indonesian Vice President , that theyre keeping them up to date on the search that theyre doing everything they can and kind of working them through the time line. But at this point, what were hearing from officials is they dont want to speculate on the cause. Their number one priority is to find that missing aircraft. Number two, equally important priority is to take care of the next of kin of the 162 passengers and crew members on board at this point. So holding out hope. Well see what the hours of the third day of the search will show in the hours ahead. Jake . David molko, thank you so much. With so few details about what happened it can only be speculated, did wind shred the plane in midair did lightning bring it down did it go into a fatal stall. Here to tell us more about what we do know is cnns rene marsh. What are we learning about the final moments of this plane . 36 minutes after takeoff the pilot was concerned and we know he asked to climb in altitude. Thats when the problems began. Why the plane never arrived at its destination remains a mystery tonight. French crash investigators have been dispatched and experts from air airbus are there to id pieces of the plane if and when its found. Another mysterious disappearance of a plane in Southeast Asia. The whereabouts of airasia flight 8501 and the 162 people on board unknown. We realize the worst thing may have happened. Reporter 15 planes and 30 ships scanned these two areas in the java sea for wreckage. Still no sign of the jetliner. The search expands tuesday. They have a very good idea where it was. Its in a confined area and also in an area where the water is relatively shallow, say 150 feet versus 10,000 or 20,000 feet. So all of those factors, to me make it like i the airplane will be found. Reporter sunday morning, 5 36 local time the airbus a320 takes off from the indonesian city of surabaya bound for singapore, about a twohour flight. 36 minutes later, trying to avoid a violent thunderstorm the pilot asks air Traffic Control permission to turn and climb to a higher altitude. The request, denied. This airplane was not allowed to climb to 38,000 feet initially after the request because there were so many other airplanes in the area. So other airplanes are flying through it. What made this airplane crash . Was the weather so bad at that spot . Reporter or was it how the pilot reacted or Something Else . Those questions remain. About 42 minutes into the flight airasia 8501 vanishes from radar, all contact lost without even a mayday call. An hour and a half after contact is lost the plane is declared missing. I think the time line in this case a, is much better than it was for malaysia 370, and i think its most likely reasonable by the time you get people notified i think that time line is probably fair. Reporter the focus also on the man flying the captain had more than 20,000 hours of experience a social media most thought to be by the captains daughter reads in part dad, please come home i still need you. The captains father told the bbc he last saw him at a recent funeral of another son. Based on the flight path and the last known coordinates, search teams believe the flight 8501 was or is i should say, in the bottom of the ocean. For that reason, indonesia has asked the United States france and the uk for sonar equipment which of course would be used in an underwater search. But when we talk about underwater searches its very complicated. But here we are moving into day three and still not even one trace of physical evidence. Its really bolstering the argument that these planes should be tracked in real time. Rene marsh, thank you so much. Bad weather hampered mondays search and with a long rainy season weather in the search area today, will it look a lot like it did the morning 8501 went down . Thats the question. Showers and thunderstorms are expected in the region again. One of the Key Countries helping with the search is nearby australia which played a big role in the hunt for mh370 earlier this year. The australian ambassador to the United States joins us. Mr. Ambassador thanks so much for being here. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. How is australia going to be helping in the search . Currently helping with aircraft. This is our close neighbor. Were operating the p3s what are those . Antisubmarine warcraft. And theyre american designed. You have stacks of them yourselves. And that one is closer to the South China Sea than it is to melbourne. That gives you the proximity of it from australia. These are waters with which were enormously familiar. The indonesian government seems to be suggesting that they think that this plane is at the bottom of the java sea. When your pilots are out there in these aircraft are they looking only on the Ocean Surface for wreckage or are they also looking at some of the islands around there just in case . Theyre looking wherever they fly. But i suspect at the moment, theyre flying over water. They can fly over land as well. They did that during the phases of the iraq war where theyre operating surveillance patrols on a land basis. So they have considerable surveillance capabilities. But if youre going to find black boxes, thats why theyre talking about the europeans as well. You have the technologies as we found out with mh370, which can hear black boxes. Youd have to be totally confident that at some point in time over the next week or two and particularly if and when those are deployed were oing to find some trace of it. You have to say in the circumstances, be surprised they havent yet seen wreckage. As we were discussing earlier today, your country has a very close relationship with indonesia. Your Prime Minister went to the swearingin of that countrys leader. 155 of the passengers on this flight were indonesian or are indonesian. What are you hearing from the indonesian government . What are they saying to your government . Well firstly, theyve expressed their gratitude to us. I had a chance to have a conversation with the Indonesian Ambassador here over the weekend. Hes a really excellent, excellent man. And he expressed what had been expressed to our Prime Minister a thanks from the indonesian government for the work that were doing in relation to surveillance. We do have a close relationship with indonesian. It is in many ways our most vital relationship. Because its right there. Its there. And its 8,000 islands, ten times the australian population enormous number of indonesian students in australia. Indeed it appears to be at least one of the folk on board the aircraft was a student at an australian university. So its quite a in tourism, its intermeshed. The foreign minister herself has said in recent times she traveled on an airasia aircraft she does travel on airasia. The eu has banned all but five of indonesias airlines. Im wondering if theres concern that the demand for air travel in indonesia has exceeded the capability airasia accepted perhaps from this. Indonesia is a wealthy country. Last year, their gdp surpassed australia. I remember when i was defense minister minister. Indonesias own gdp has passed australias. Their Economic Growth is rapid. With it the demand for the sorts of services that tourism opportunities provide. The air links now between the islands is transforming the internals of indonesia. But is the government and the regulation is it keeping up with the demand . Well i have no reason to think that its not. The indonesians are a serious people and they operate a serious government. Its a democratic government now. So its a government thats constantly being tested. If youre making a mess of your administration there are a lot of people in power who will eat you alive. So theres a pretty they have some strength. This isnt malaysia. This is a more advanced more no no no malaysias advanced. Thats why i was going to say it not you. This is something which i hope very much the americans come to think of things like the Transpacific Partnership they comprehend. Were now in Southeast Asia dealing with totally serious operation in those countries. Great strengths, educationally and industrially. And so i have total confidence the indonesians could handle this properly once the wreckage is sighted. Ambassador, always great to see you. Thank you. We know areas of flight 8501 was in the path of bad weather before it disappeared. We know a pilot asked air Traffic Control to change course. But what happened after that . Did the plane get hit by lightning . Did the plane maybe malfunction . The scenarios that the investigators and the experts are considering, next. She inspires you. No question about that. But your erectile dysfunction that could be a question of blood flow. Cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be Ready Anytime the moments right. You can be more confident in your ability to be ready. And the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. Side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. To avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. If you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips tongue or throat or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30tablet trial. Thanks. [ male announcer ] fedex® has solutions to enable Global Commerce that can help your company grow steadily and quickly. Great job. mandarin cut it out. See you tomorrow. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. More now on our world lead and that grueling search for a passenger airplane that disappeared on its way from indonesia to singapore with 162 people on board, 18 of them children, including one infant. An expansive search effort has yet to uncover so much as a speck of debris. So for now, investigators are left piecing together clues based on the planes last transmission. Cnns tom foreman joins us to show us how theyre sorting out what may have gone wrong. Reporter one of the things they have to look at here is weather. And they have to talk about weather because weather is so often a factor. Look at the flight path of this plane as it took off and flew less than an hour and look at the weather system it was flying through as it went missing there. Tremendous, horrible storms under way. Why could that make such a difference . Lets blow it up and look at it closer. If you think about this plane flying through a storm system a big storm system out here one of the first things many people ask about is lightning. Could lightning have brought this plane down . There is plenty of lightning going on in the area. Is that capable of bringing down a plane like this . It may be but its highly unlikely. Heres why. A modern plane like this is meant to be hit by lightning because they know its going to happen. The skin of the plane is made to conduct that lightning along it and then expel it off the wingtips and off the tail. Even if it penetrates and ruins some system on board the plane, not likely to bring the plane down. What about the idea of this storm simply blowing up all around this plane bigger and more robust than anybody imagined and creating tremendous turbulence up there . Could this actually tear a plane like this apart inflight . Again, not likely. These planes are made to take tremendous stresses. There could be the problem of incorrect maintenance at some point. So maybe you have a flab or control on the plane that does get torn off and under these extreme circumstances takes the plane down. But, again, not very likely. Thats why theres so much focus on the question of whether or not the plane simply stalled. Did it run into such severe changes in atmospheric pressure that at one moment it was surging forward, the next part it was being yanked back and it suffered a separation from the air flow. What does that mean . That means when a plane is flying through the air, it is the flow of the air over the wings, over the tail over the body that gives it lift and lets it overcome its own weight and makes it fly. If there is enough turbulence enough of a shakeup in that, or if you lose so much speed that the plane basically is not pushing forward fast enough to maintain that air flow then the air flow can separate from the body of the plane and in that way, one of the better comparisons i can come up with is if youre driving down a wet road and your car separates from the road your tires are no longer grabbing on you really dont have any control and its very hard to get that control back. The same thing can happen to pa plane like this. And if an experienced pilot is not at the helm who does a very good job and even an experienced pilot may have trouble, that plane may have a hard time getting that control back. And in that circumstance jake a plane like this could go from 32,000 feet to in the water in maybe 45 seconds or less. Horrifying thought. Tom, thank you so much. If weather is to blame for the flights disappearance, that raises other questions, such as why, according to the wall street journal, nearly a dozen other planes managed to fly through that same region at roughly the same time without incident . Im joined now by cnn aviation analyst les and jeff. As far as we know the missing airasia flight was the only one in that area to request a new flight path on sunday morning. Could this flight have encountered a dangerous weather event in that area that somehow the other flights in the area avoided . Absolutely, jake. This is a thunderstorm environment thats dynamic. Its constantly involving thunderstorms, being created or being built or dissipated. In this particular case more than likely with the mass of weather that was shown by tom foreman just recently, its obvious this was a building system. So it could have been very very different than other aircraft its analogous to driving down the westside highway and you encounter a pothole. You know its in a particular lane. But imagine if that westside highway moved constantly in three dimensions. Jeff this question might seem naive. But i think there are probably a lot of people watching who wonder if the weather was so bad, should the plane have been allowed to take off in the first place . Well if you didnt take off every time there was a thunderstorm in the vicinity you wouldnt get anywhere not om in indonesia but anywhere. But in indonesia, weve heard there was terrible weather all month long. And these kind of thunderstorms are cooking up all the time. Theyre very normal. Anyone whos lived through a summer in the United States afternoons come along, the heat warms the water, the lakes and then the grass fields the warm humid air rises it forms thunderstorms. Its a natural part of nature. Normally you would try to go around them. You dont want to go through the core of a massive thunderstorms where you can get downdrafts up to 100 miles an hour and so forth. They can be dangerous but they can be avoided. Thats why most planes of this kind would carry a weather radar in the nose even if there isnt groundbased radar in the vicinity, the plane should be able to detect where the trouble is and stay away from it. Its something these guys should have had tons of experience. These are like shorthaul bus operators. They go back and forth all day long. The pilot presumably was trying to avoid the weather system when he requested to fly to higher altitude. He was denied because there were so many other planes in the region. Walk us through what options the pilot would have before him if hes not allowed to go up. Good question. Im actually still flying so i still experience this on a regular basis. Really the best course of action in any case is always to deviate laterally, go left or right of course. If he was denied that then he could have expressed an urgency situation and said im unable to fly at this particular altitude. It disturbs me at this point that there is that possibility and we dont have any verifiable evidence at this point through the Accident Investigation Team that they actually disregarded the clearance to maintain their altitude and climbed on their own. If that climb on their own actually occurred, that indicates a sense of urgency because its vernot usual that a pilot would go against air Traffic Control. What is behind each of these incidents, is there a bigger problem afoot . And commanding up when the past comes back to haunt you, the third ranking republican in the house admits he spoke to a gathering of white nationalists. White supremacists. Thats ahead on the lead. Narrator these are the tennis shoes skater kid whoa narrator that got torture tested by teenagers and cried out for help. From the surprised designers. Who came to the rescue with a brilliant fix male designer i love it narrator which created thousands of new customers for the tennis shoes that got torture tested by teenagers. The internet of everything is changing manufacturing. Is your Network Ready . Abe get in punch it let quicken loans help you save your money. With a mortgage thats engineered to amaze thanks, g. I take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. Because it gives me. Zero heartburn prilosec otc. The number 1 doctorrecommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. One pill each morning. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. [ female announcer ] knows her way around a miniskirt. Can run in high heels. Must be a supermodel, right . You dont know aarp. Because aarp is making finding the career you love no matter what your age, a real possibility. Go to aarp. Org possibilities to check out life reimagined for tools, support, and connections. If you dont think ive still got it when you think aarp, then you dont know aarp. Find more surprising possibilities and get to know us at aarp. Org possibilities. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. The airasia flight took off from indonesia headed to singapore and vanished less than an hour later. 2014 has been a tragic year in aviation. Now, if you crunch the numbers, according to the bureau of accident archives there have been 111 plane crashes this year. And thats the lowest number in decades. Thats the good news. But the number of fatalities is another matter entirely. 1,320 people were killed in aviation disasters this year. And that is the highest number since 2005. Cnn Global Affairs correspondent elise labott is here with more. Malaysiabased air carriers were involved in three of the deadliest incidents this year. Thats right. Even though these airlines had very good safety records, still many people are asking if theres a connection to these tragedies or whether malaysia is just having a terrible run of bad luck. For the third time this year an agonizing wait as loved ones brace for news of the fate of the 162 passengers aboard airasia flight 8501. Its been a record year for aviation safety worldwide with the lowest number of crashes in more than 80 years. But for malaysian carriers, the disasters in 2014 have been unthinkable. If all aboard the missing airasia flight have perished malaysianbased carrier will have suffered 699 deaths more than half of aviation deaths this year. Airasia has an unblemished record up until this tragedy. They were considered a pioneer in bringing lowcost highquality air service to the indonesian malaysian area. There was no question about their safety. Reporter it started march 8th with the mysterious disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. The boeing 777 disappeared with 239 people aboard. Authorities believe the plane crashed into the indian ocean and questioned links to terrorism. Ten months later, not a trace of the plane and no answers as to the cause of the crash. July 17th just four months after flight 370 vanished, disaster would strike again for Malaysian Airlines. Russianbacked rebels blamed for shooting down flight 17 with a russianmade surfacetoair missile, killing all 298 aboard. And now, grim prospects for airasia flight 8501 could put malaysiabased airlines at the center of the worlds three deadliest aviation tragedies this year. Its really impossible to draw any kind of connection between these events. Given the Malaysian Airlines shootdown over the ukraine, it just as easily could have been a Singaporean Airline that was five miles flying in front of it. These were just terrible coincidences. Now, the disappearance of the airasia flight comes as Southeast Asia is dealing with terrible monsoons. Malaysia has been particularly bad hit with epic flooding. At least ten People Killed and more than 160,000 people forced from their homes. So 2014 has not just been bad in the skies, jake. Malaysia has been severely tested this year. Elise labott, thank you so much. Appreciate it. The mystery and geography have led to easy comparisons between the disappearances of the airasia flight and malaysian Airlines Flight 370 from earlier this year there are also some distinct differences. For starters the search area for flight 370 was much deeper in the southern indian ocean compared to the more shallow and heavily trafficked java sea. Then there are the sizes of the search areas, for flight 370, it was about the size of West Virginia ultimately. For airasia, at least right now, its about the size of West Virginia and South Carolina combined. Of course, it is early in that search. And then there are the circumstances under which both planes went down, such as the weather. It was Crystal Clear for the Malaysian Air flight. Im joined now by mary schiavo. This flight disappeared during a storm that seems to suggest what might have caused any disappearance. I think it will come out that the storm was certainly a contributing factor. I doubt it will be the only factor because ive worked so many accidents that the storm was a part of it. But there will probably be a close scrutiny of the pilots behavior. But certainly there will be scrutiny of the airline, what was the airlines decisionmaking process for dispatching the planes did they consider the weather and what were their alternative plans when trying to circumvent monsoons . I think theyre in for a heap of criticism for that. David, are there any lessons that the community has learned from the search for flight 370 that will help with this investigation . Well theres a lot of lessons that have been learned. The challenge is that none of them have been really acted on lessons that we learned back in air france 447 about tracking of aircraft in real time things about once the aircraft has hit the water, are there proper ways of identifying where the aircraft is at that point. None of those things have been enacted by regulatory authorities to push this forward. Those are lessons that have been learned and its incredibly painful to see these lessons were learned. We know what the case is. In some cases, its a free fix, if you look at inmarsat. The inability to actually act on them from a regulatory basis. Is there anything about where the airasia plane is believed to have gone down that will make wreckage potentially easier to locate than flight 370 . Potentially. And i have to say, by the way, amen to what david just said. Couldnt agree more. Because the water is not as deep they wont have to call in submersibles. They can use divers to do some of it. In some places, the water is so clear and if it isnt stirred up by all the ships, you can actually see down into the water. Its a welltrafficked area. So there will be lots of eyes on the wreckage. Probably so welltrafficked, that it could make it difficult because there will be a lot of traffic theyll have to reroute out of the search areas and make ore provisions for it on the water. So theres the potential to have a lot of people looking. And of course theres still the potential that it could be in the adjoining land mass area, which is a jungle. So it should be quicker. Not going to say easier but quick tore find this one. David, you were referring to inmarsat the technologies that search crews rely on looking for pings. But in this case they wont have the pings. No it wasnt equipped with the satcoms. If you look at the aircraft there are none of these antennas on them. In this case, we wont have that information. Thats why the search area is so large at this time. David and mary thank you so much. Tonight on cnn, well look back at the mystery of malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Months later, there are still so many unanswered questions, what happened on that plane, have investigators given up on ever finding it . Watch vanished q the mystery of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern here on cnn. Coming up, it happened again. Police officers targeted, this time in los angeles. The search happening right now to find a gunman presumed armed and dangerous. Plus what police are saying about a possible motive. Digital distribution now paying off for sony. The chances of retaliation by hackers now that the interview can be seen around the world. vo nourished. Rescued. Protected. Given new hope. During the subaru share the love event, subaru owners feel it, too. Because when you take home a new subaru we donate 250 dollars to helping those in need. Well have given 50 Million Dollars over seven years. Love. Its what makes a subaru a subaru. Latte or au lait . Cozy or cool . Exactly the way you want it. Until boom, its bedtime your mattress is a battleground of thwarted desire. Enter the sleep number bed. Save 300 on the final closeout of the c3 Queen Mattress set. Hes the softy. His sleep number setting is 35. Youre the rock, at 60. And snoring . Sleep numbers even got an adjustment for that. Only at a sleep number store find the lowest prices of the season, with the c3 Queen Mattress set only 1199. 98. Plus 24 month special financing on all beds. Know better sleep with sleep number. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. In our National Lead, police under fire. Theres been a lot of attention this year given to incidents and accusations of Excessive Force used by police. But this has also been a particularly dangerous year for police themselves. In 2014, 123 officers have been killed, compared to 100 last year. 49 of those deaths cnns sara sidner joins us live from los angeles. One of the suspects in the l. A. Shooting is at large and potentially armed . Reporter thats right, armed and dangerous. I think what were hearing now from the police is that they have let people go ahead and come out of their homes. At first, they had them sheltering in place for quite a few hours. It happened last night here on the street behind me, hoover street, in south l. A. What were told from police is a couple of officers in their blackandwhite police car were responding to a call when they saw the flash of a muzzle and came under fire. Were told it was completely unprovoked. They werent going after these two individuals who fired upon them. They had nothing to do with the call they were going to. They werent planning on arresting these two individuals but they came under fire anyway. They were able to apprehend one of the suspects. The other is still at large. We also know because we were on the scene, we saw them taking some of the evidence. And were told that they took a rifle into evidence. We saw them taking away a large white box which we think was that rifle. They were out here for quite a few hours but that is the scene. Now its clear but they are still looking for that suspect. Are officials there concerned that officers are becoming targets even more than they were before possibly as a result of a lot of the issues weve seen and the protests weve seen over the last several months . Reporter we asked that very question to the detective who was out here speaking to the media. As to whether officers feel like targets, considering some of the sentiments in some of the protests. And what their response was that in this particular instance they dont think it has anything to do with the protest. But they are concerned about a slim minority of people who are not so much antipolice brutality but more antipolice. Heres the answer the detective gave us. I dont know that they necessarily feel that theyre becoming targets because of whats going on around the nation, although last week we had two new York Police Officers that were killed. So its undeniable that were aware that there are a very small, small, small percentage of people out there that are so angry at the police that theyre willing to hurt them. Reporter and this is a neighborhood that has seen its fair share of gang activity. We talked to some of the residents here. They say there have been quite a few shootings around here. But there is a general suspicion in some of these homes considering the relationship between the police here and those in the neighborhood. Sara sidner, thank you so much. Tensions between the nypd and new york city mayor bill de blasio show no signs of cooling off. During the funeral for officer rafael ramos on saturday hundreds of Police Officers turned their back on a large Television Screen showing the mayors live eulogy inside the church. And take a look at this from today. The mayor of the city of new york, bill de blasio. Congratulations officers. Applause and some boos. Earlier today, mayor de blasio buzz greeted with that mixed reception reception. Divisions in the u. S. Have provided its enemies opportunities to slam this country. Over the weekend, ayatollah comeycomb khamenei tweeted, quote, its expected that followers of jesus follow him in his fight against arrogants and in his support for the oppressed, oppressed, blacklivesmatter. One might observe that if an iranian were to tweet similar criticism of the Supreme Leader or his henchmen one can only imagine whether we would ever hear from or see that person again. Now to breaking news in our politics lead the third most powerful republican in the house, congressman steve skalese, accused of giving a speech to a vehement hate group. This is a story that first showed up on a louisiana politics blog under the headline Steve Scalise and white supremacy. Cnns athena jones has more on this story. What happened . This is not a headline anyone wants to see, certainly not someone whos number three in the republican leadership. But a source close to the representative then a stat representative was traveling all around the state of louisiana touting his opposition to a tax increase that would affect the middle class and his desire to eliminate what he called a slush fund that was benefiting state politicians. So here i want to read for you part of the statement that his Communications Director gave to us. She said in every case the representative was Building Support for his policies. In 2002 he made himself available to anyone who wanted to hear his proposal to eliminate slush funds that wasted millions of taxpayer dollars as well as his opposition to a proposed tax increase on middle class families. He has never been affiliated with the abhorrent group in question. The hatefueled ignorance and inintolerance that Group Projects is in stark contradiction to what mr. Scalise believes and practices as a father a husband and a devoted catholic. They say he was not aware that this group of their white supremacist aims. And if he had been aware, he wouldnt have spoken to the group. His spokesman noted in the statement that hes catholic. The klan is historically not a fan of catholics either. What else are they saying . They say they were taken aback by this. They believe its a hit piece by a liberal blogger in louisiana and focused on the fact that this group had a fairly inoc innocuous name. He has never affiliated with white supremacist and would never. They of course are also stressing his catholic faith. This comes as a surprise to them. Lots more is going to come out on this. If david duke is associated with this group, hes been a notorious neonazi and klansman since the 80s. Athena jones, thank you so much for getting us up to speed on this. Is north korea the only country behind the sony cyber attack. Why some are considering other suspects. Thats next on the lead. Who drove to the control room [ woman ] driverless mode engaged. Find parking space. [ woman ] parking space found. [ male announcer ]. That secured the data that directed the turbines that powered the farm that made the milk that went to the store that reminded the man to buy the milk that was poured by the girl who loved the cat. [ meows ] the internet of everything is changing everything. Cisco. Tomorrow starts here. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. In other world news over this holiday break, millions of americans got to see a firstrun blockbuster from the comfort of their own sofas and obtained it in a way many never thought of before. We may all have a little known hollywood consultant named kim jongun to thank for this. Sony pictures says the interview was legally downloaded 2 million times in the first four days it was available. Its already sonys top online film ever. That was before itunes picked it up yesterday. Meanwhile, north korea which was upset over a couple of hours of poo jokes directed at dear leader that country is firing back with flatout racist insults. Cnns pamela brown has all the latest for us. The blame game continues. As millions of dollars roll in for sony tensions between the u. S. And north korea remain. Over the weekend, the reclusive country released a scathing statement pointed the finger back at the u. S. And even making racist remarks about president obama. Sonys unprecedented move to release the interview online and at independent theaters simultaneously is paying off. Many moviegoers saying it was their patriotic duty to see the film. Im proud to be an american, where at least i know im free reporter so far, the controversial comedy has raked in about 18 million. Hes Peanut Butter and jealous or most of it online with more than 2 million downloads. I went to see it as quickly as i could. Just to show my support. Reporter now apple itunes is jumping on board the distribution bandwagon. Katy perry . I love katy perry reporter as sony cashes in the question looms, will the hackers who the u. S. Says were working for the north korean government strike back . I think thats almost a certainty. Reporter Law Enforcement sources say even though sony believes its systems are now secure the concern is that the hackers will release more confidential information theyve already stolen. Running sources inside the country is virtually impossible. Their plans and intentions are completely opaque to us. Reporter over the weekend, the blame game between the u. S. And north korea escalated. North korea claiming the u. S. Cut off its internet last week and calling president obama a monkey. At the end of the day, have we deterred north korea . Reporter senator Lindsey Graham on cnns state of the union suggested aggressive measures against north korea and hinted at chinas possible involvement. Put them back on the state sponsor of terrorism list and attack their infrastructure. I cant imagine anything this massive happening in north korea without china being involved. And fbi officials i spoke with today reiterated absent any additional information, it doesnt believe any other countries are involved in the hack. The official says some of the more incriminating information the fbi has against north korea was not publicly disclosed because of operational sensitivities. The official said you dont want to tip off the country so that they can make changes and knowing how theyre onto you and adjust accordingly. Thats why theyre not releasing all the information. There are experts who have been skeptical this is from north korea. Pamela, thank you so much. Be sure to follow me on twitter. Thats it for the lead. Im jake tapper. I turn you over to Brianna Keilar whos in for wolf blitzer and shes in the situation room. Happening now, breaking news, search resuming. The massive hunt for a missing airasia flight set to get under way soon. Will new clues be yielded in this latest airline mystery . Cockpit plea new details about the crews request to change altitude in an effort to avoid bad weather. How strong was this storm . New information about the pilot, his recent loss and his daughters emotional outpouring. Does any of it shed new light on what might have happened . And disaster at sea, the death toll cli