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JetBlue Plane Narrowly Avoids Disaster in the Sky; Toddler with Leukemia at Risk for Measles; Measles Cases Confirmed in at least 14 States; Troops in Iraq Still an Option; Roger Goodell's State of the League; Mitt Romney Will Not Run A Third Time; Romney Led Bush, Others In Latest Polls; GOP Field Still Crowded With Contenders; More Snow For Blizzard Weary New England

Aired January 31, 2015 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a quick look at some of our other top stories this morning.

Ohio says it will delay the execution of seven death row inmates.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Officials say they're having trouble finding an adequate supply of drugs that comply with the state's new execution protocol. As a result, no inmate will be put to death this year. The next execution is scheduled for January of 2016.

BLACKWELL: The judge in the Aaron Hernandez trial has a stern warning for jurors. She said ifs you choose to watch the Super Bowl, you have to do so with caution. And if Aaron Hernandez's name is mentioned leave the room. She stopped short of banning them from watching the game completely. The former Patriots star is on trial for killing a semi pro football player and friend.

PAUL: And First Lady Michelle Obama defends the movie "American Sniper". At a veterans event Mrs. Obama called the film important saying, quote, "I felt that more often than not, this film touches on many of the emotions and experiences that I've heard firsthand from military families over these past few years." "American Sniper" has received harsh criticism from a lot of people for its realistic depiction of war. But it is a hit, obviously.

BLACKWELL: Yes, it is.

PAUL: We are so grateful to have had your company today.

BLACKWELL: There's much more ahead. Stay with us in the CNN NEWSROOM. We're turning it over to our colleague Fredricka Whitfield.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good to see you guys. We've got lots straight ahead. Thank you so much. I know you've had a very business morning. Well, it's going to be a busy day, too.

All right. It's the 11:00 Eastern hour of the NEWSROOM which begins right now. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

The NEWSROOM begins.

All right. Happening right now in the NEWSROOM --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For 94, VFR traffic 11:00, two miles moving northbound indicating 2,900 size is unknown.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: A very close call. A JetBlue Airliner almost collides with a small private plane right in the sky. Passengers saying it was so close they could hear the other plane's engines.

And measles cases continue to spread. Now a confirmed case at a college in New York has health officials on alert.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We have to look at all the options. And I think it may require a forward deployment of some of our troops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: A very candid Chuck Hagel on how he didn't always agree with the White House and why sending ground troops into Iraq is still an option.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A terrifying close call in the skies over Westchester County in New York. We're learning today about a JetBlue airliner which nearly collided with a small private plane. Passengers say, if not for the JetBlue pilot, the flight which was fully loaded with passengers, would have been hit by that smaller plane during its descent into Westchester County Airport. The JetBlue collision warning system alerted the pilot that a small plane was coming toward it.

The tense exchange with air traffic control, all of it caught on tape.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For 94 VFR traffic 11:00 two miles, moving north and indicating 2,900 size is unknown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're looking, JetBlue 94.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Blue 94, if you like, you can climb or descend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got them in sight, JetBlue 94.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: JetBlue 94 maintain distance.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. CNN's Nick Valencia joining right me now with more on this. How did this happen?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL REPORTER: That's what the FAA is trying to investigate right now. Because at least on the surface, Fred, it appears that neither pilot did anything wrong -- both were staying in their lanes, following the rules.

But this, as Fred was saying, this flight was on its way from Orlando to White Plains, New York, when it all of a sudden spotted a small plane that was headed right towards it.

Passenger Rick Germano described to me the scene as frightening. He was on the flight with his family. He said it was full and it happened just as the plane was making its descent into that airport there in New York. I spoke to him earlier on the phone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK GERMANO, JETBLUE PASSENGER: On approach to landing, we were getting pretty excited because the flight was over. All of a sudden the plane made an abnormal maneuver. I mean you could tell it just wasn't normal. And we turned quickly to the sound and then all of a sudden heard a loud noise on the opposite side of the plane.

And I quickly looked over and my wife said to me, we just got missed by a private plane. And our plane elevated and turned, and the other private plane dove and went underneath our plane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Certainly a close call for everybody on board. He said he didn't realize what a big deal it was until after he had time to process it all. He said, Fred, what got him most choked up was that he had his five-year-old on the flight with him and his wife.

WHITFIELD: Oh gosh.

VALENCIA: And he says, you know, they're lucky to be alive right now.

WHITFIELD: Yes, that was very scary, intense moment. So how about the FAA, what are they saying?

VALENCIA: So they released a statement to us. And I'll read part of that to you. And I was talking earlier that both pilots seemed to have done nothing wrong here. From the statement we heard, "The pilot reported the smaller aircraft in sight, received the alert and climbed in response to the alert. The general aviation flight was operating under visual flight rules and was not required to communicate with air traffic controllers."

You heard from that passenger, Rick Germano earlier who I spoke to on the phone. He said he hopes that this at the very least starts a conversation about the protocol in the skies because as I read from that statement, that small airplane was operating under visual flight rules.

JetBlue also launching an internal investigation, they say they're cooperating with the FAA.

WHITFIELD: So no appeared -- no violations as it appears.

VALENCIA: As it appears, yes.

WHITFIELD: Scary stuff nonetheless.

VALENCIA: Certainly.

WHITFIELD: We'll talk more about it though with our guest. Thanks so much, Nick Valencia.

VALENCIA: You got it.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate that.

Let's bring in CNN's safety analyst and former FAA inspector David Soucie. David, does this happen more often than people know, since the smaller planes, like in this case, are usually operating on visual flight rules?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: It really does happen more than people know. However, the level of how close it actually gets. There's a certain level, in various places, without getting too technical, various places within an airport in which there should not be any vehicle or aircraft interfering with the aircraft that are flying and landing.

However what concerns me most about this one is the statement that they're all operating within the existing rules yet this still happens. What that tells me is there's something in the rules that needs to change, not just something in an operation or something like that. This is a systemic problem.

WHITFIELD: Something in the rules pertaining to visual flight rules with these smaller planes you're saying?

SOUCIE: Right, exactly. What they're saying is that there were no violations. The visual flight airplane was flying within its regulations and the 121 air carrier was flying within its regulations, yet they still had this interchange. It indicates to me that there's a systemic problem. There's something wrong with the way that the rules are laid out for this to even have happened.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

So given no violations then, is it still considered a serious near miss?

SOUCIE: This -- apparently it is. We'd have to see the exact numbers which we don't actually have yet. We just have the conversations. But it apparently is a near miss, and that near miss is very concerning. But it's important to point out that the TCAS system, the collision avoidance system on the aircraft operated as it was supposed to. The air traffic control system operated as it was supposed to identifying that there was an aircraft, notifying the air carrier that there was an aircraft in the area and for them to look for it. They did find it. This is part of the VFR rules, visual flight rules. They did see it.

What concerns me is that the warning actually did go off saying you're in collision avoidance systems and that warns the pilot that they need to make evasive maneuvers and they did.

So there's kind of two sides to this.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SOUCIE: There was an issue. However, all of the safety systems that are in place should this happen, worked.

WHITFIELD: Alarming nonetheless. David Soucie thanks so much for your expertise. Appreciate it.

SOUCIE: Thank you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Now to another big story we're following this hour. It involves another confirmed case of measles.

This morning New York state health officials are reporting a Bard College student has been diagnosed with the highly contagious disease. Bard College is a small school about an hour south of Albany.

This comes on the heels of two more confirmed cases in California yesterday. In fact, the majority of the measles cases started from an outbreak in Disneyland in December. Since then, the virus cases had spread to at least 14 states including Arizona.

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is in Phoenix for us. She's been spending some time with a family with two children in danger of contracting the virus.

So Elizabeth, how concerned is the medical community about this spread?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Fred, they are definitely concerned. Here in Arizona they have seven confirmed cases. Health authorities say they're expecting more. All of the case so far can be traced back to Disneyland.

That family that you mentioned, the Jacks family, they live near Phoenix and they have two very good reasons to be worried.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: One family in double danger. Last week 3-year-old Maggie Jacks and her little brother Eli were exposed to measles at this clinic in Phoenix. Now Eli just 10 months old and too young to be vaccinated is showing signs of the virus which can cause deafness, brain damage or even death.

ANNA JACKS, MOTHER OF MAGGIE AND ELI: I'm obviously scared. I send out text to my family and my Facebook messages and I say please pray for my son.

COHEN: If Eli does have measles, it's quite likely he gave it to his sister. And she could be in grave danger because Maggie has leukemia. Her immune system wiped out by chemotherapy which also would have pretty much wiped out any immunity from her own measles vaccine.

What is your biggest fear for Maggie?

JACKS: My biggest fear is that I lose my child or, short of that, she gets a severe case and becomes deaf. I mean my family has been through enough in the last six months. I mean I know there's worse out there, but we've had a rough go of it and I don't want her to have to go through anything else.

COHEN: We talked to the Centers for Disease Control, and they told us not to get anywhere near Eli or Maggie. So we've asked their parents to take cell phone video for us. We're also not going to get near their father, and that's because like many adults he has only limited immunity to the measles. We can talk to their mother, however, because blood tests show that she does have full immunity.

And this is how the Jacks children were put in danger. Four members of one Arizona family went to Disneyland in December. They refused to vaccinate their children and they came down with measles and went to the clinic. That family gave measles to a woman at the clinic and she, in turn, exposed 195 children including Maggie and Eli.

What would you say to that family if you could talk to them?

JACKS: You children don't live in your little bubble. Your children live in a big bubble. My children live inside that big bubble with your children. If you don't want to vaccinate your kids, fine, don't take them to Disneyland.

COHEN: Health authorities aren't naming the family of vaccine refusers. But we spoke with this man Dr. Jack Wolfson, an Arizona physician who refuses to vaccinate his two young sons because he says vaccines are toxic.

Could you live with yourself if your child got another child sick -- I mean really sick, had complications, even death? Could you live with yourself if that happened?

DR. JACK WOLFSON, VACCINE REFUSER: I could live with myself very easily. It's a very unfortunate thing that people die. But unfortunately people die, and I'm not going to put my child at risk to save another child. I'm not going to sacrifice the well-being of my child. My child is pure. It's not my responsibility to be protecting their child.

COHEN: Tim Jacks, a pediatrician says the pain brought on by vaccine refusers is like a double whammy on top of his daughter's cancer.

TIM JACKS, FATHER OF MAGGIE AND ELI: It's a big deal emotionally. Kind of looking back, it brings to mind some of the same feelings we had when we first got Maggie's diagnosis. COHEN: For now they can just pray their daughter recovers from

leukemia and doesn't get measles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: The Jacks family might not know for a few more days whether or not Eli has the measles -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then Elizabeth, here you are in Phoenix. You have the backdrop of the Super Bowl there which means an influx of visitors to that area. Is there a greater concern for this potential spread of measles? For the contracting of, the spreading of, with so many outsiders, visitors, people coming from all over, descending on that city, that area?

COHEN: Fred, we've been talking to health officials here and at the Centers for Disease Control. They seem concerned, but not overly concerned. They said, look, we always tell people, if you're sick, don't go to an event like the Super Bowl.

But the issue here is that in the beginning when you have measles, you might not know that you have it. You have a runny nose. You have a bit of a headache. You might very well still come to the Super Bowl. You don't even realize that you have measles. And that sort of -- the incubation time gets really tricky.

WHITFIELD: All right. Elizabeth Cohen -- thank you so much. Appreciate your report.

All right. Let's bring in Dr. Isaac Thomsen from the University of Vanderbilt in Nashville. Dr. Thomsen specializes in pediatric infectious disease.

All right. Good to see you.

This spread really underscores how many children are unvaccinated in the country, doesn't it?

DR. ISAAC THOMSEN, UNIVERSITY OF VANDERBILT: It really does. You know, I think, as we remember, as we hear these rates and more and more cases, we have to remember this is a vaccine preventable illness and for decades we did a very good job in this country of keeping rates of measles incredibly low.

This is a disease that we used to have hundreds of thousands of cases every year. In fact, people were lining up to get vaccinated because it was so common to have this illness. This was about 50 years ago.

And I think -- you know, one thing that's happened is the vaccine has become a victim of its own success in a way. It's driven these rates so low, there are now generations, my generation -- those with young children who are vulnerable to these diseases who haven't seen this. It's more of a concept in a history book than a very real threat to the health and well-being of our children. And now we see the effects of what happens when we allow this to resurge again. WHITFIELD: So we look at the map, Doctor -- 14 states, and

potentially spreading some more. How worried are you that it will spread exponentially?

THOMSEN: I mean it's certainly a concern. What you see is -- you have a lot of travelers, populations mixing at Disneyland, for example, when this started. Those folks spread out across the country, mix again, somewhere like the Super Bowl, travel again, mix in colleges, schools all across the country.

So yes, I mean the potential for this virus to spread is very high. It's probably the most contagious virus that we know of. It spreads incredibly, effectively and rapidly. Fortunately it's preventable. That's why these outbreaks traditionally have been rare.

So it's -- as many have said already, for those that were, for whatever reason, hesitant or refusing to vaccinate -- now is the time.

WHITFIELD: And the most contagious because you say -- it is airborne.

THOMSEN: That's correct, yes. And not only, as Elizabeth just mentioned, it can be spread, you know, early on in the illness and people just think they have a cold and in fact it can be spread before people even have symptoms for a day or so. You may be incubating and start shedding the virus -- you may not even know you're ill at all. And so it's very potent in its ability to spread.

WHITFIELD: And airborne for sometimes upwards of two hours.

All right. Dr. Isaac Thomsen, thank you so much. Appreciate your time from Nashville.

All right. Still ahead, Chuck Hagel and his very candid comments on whether ground troops in Iraq should still be an option.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAGEL: We have to look at all the options. I think it may require a forward deployment of some of our troops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: More from that exclusive interview next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We're following a developing story out of the Middle East. The U.S. and its allies have launched another series of attacks against ISIS. 27 air strikes have been conducted against ISIS troops in Iraq and Syria. The militant fighters have also launched a new offensive on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in Iraq. They've also killed two senior Peshmerga commanders.

Now some are wondering if the U.S. will have to offer more than air strikes if the coalition wants to defeat ISIS. Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the option for ground troops is still on the table.

This is what he told CNN's Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAGEL: We have to look at all the options. I think it may require a forward deployment of some our troops. (AUDIO GAP) not doing the combat work that we did at one time for six years in Iraq and we did for many, many years in Afghanistan, but to help air strike precision.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Locate targets --

HAGEL: Locate --

STARR: -- intelligence.

HAGEL: Those are things where we can continue to support. I would say though we're not there yet. Whether we get there or not, I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's bring in Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling. He's a CNN military analyst and former U.S. Army commander in Iraq joining me from Orlando. Good to see you.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. So Chuck Hagel says we're not there yet. What does it take to go from an option on the table to it's time to put a plan in place ground troops in Iraq?

HERTLING: Fredricka, I think from the very beginning, both General Dempsey, the chairman and General Austin who's the CentCom commander and now General Terry, who is the commander within Iraq and for the operations there have all said repeatedly when it's time and when we see the potential for increasing contributions to the Iraqi troops, there's the requirement that the President has laid on us to say we need more forces.

But as Mr. Hagel said in that interview with Barbara, it won't be large forces, and they won't be doing the fighting. But there is potentially the requirement to have advisers at the front line to do things like help call in air strikes, like process intelligence, like contribute to logistical operations. That's been said from the very beginning. Again, we're just not there yet.

WHITFIELD: How long do these air strikes continue in your view? Because is it also kind of the conventional wisdom that air strikes are carried out to sometimes lay the groundwork for ground troops to be able to make entry and do their job and be more able to offer precision attacks that air strikes cannot?

HERTLING: Most definitely, Fredricka. You hit it right on the head. The air strikes are actually continuing to blunt the operations of ISIS. If the Iraqi forces want to go into Mosul and they said they do some time in the near future then those air strikes are continuing to isolate the target of Mosul, continuing to stop reinforcement of ISIS forces into the city. They're continuing to target key infrastructure and elements within the city of Mosul.

So it's really a prepping of the battlefield. That's all the conditions of fighting. When the Iraqi forces are prepared, and that's a combination of consensus between the U.S. forces giving the advising and the air support with the Iraqi forces wanting to go in, then you have a better prepared battlefield for that ground strike by the Iraqi forces with potentially some assistance by U.S. advisers at the front line.

WHITFIELD: All right. Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, thanks so much. Always appreciate your expertise.

HERTLING: Thank you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead: a lot of reaction following Commissioner Roger Goodell's annual state of the NFL, meeting with the press. CNN's Rachel Nichols is live for us in Phoenix.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS: Yes, it's been an interesting year for the NFL, $9 billion in revenues but public relations disasters right and left. We'll break it all down coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We're just a day away from the Super Bowl. And as scandal continues to swirl around the NFL, players caught up in allegations of domestic abuse, ongoing concerns about discussion and, of course, there's deflate-gate.

On Friday NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell presented his annual state of the league address and addressed the myriad of challenges and scandals facing the league.

Rachel Nichols joining me now. Rachel, I know the NFL wants to put it behind them as well as the Patriots. But is deflate-gate kind of over, or is it that cloud that still kind of hangs?

NICHOLS: Oh, it is definitely not over. First of all, there's an NFL investigation that is still ongoing. They haven't even spoken to Tom Brady or any of the other Patriots players yet. They'll do that after the Super Bowl so expect this story to extend there. And then, of course, there's questions about how much this is going to seep into the game.

Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots started the week by saying that the NFL should apologize to his team if they can't find hard evidence that the Patriots, in fact, cheated here. And he said that he's unhappy with the NFL for conducting this whole investigation the way they have.

Of course, Roger Goodell had something to say about that. He fired back yesterday. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: My thoughts are this is my job. This is my responsibility, to protect the integrity of the game. I represent 32 teams. All of us want to make sure that the rules are being followed. And if we have any information where the potential is that those rules were violated, I have to pursue that, and I have to pursue that aggressively.

This is my job. This is the job of the legal office. It is what all 32 clubs expect and I believe our partners, our fans expect. And we will do it vigorously. It is important for it to be thorough and fair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: Now, the players have better things to worry about than this when they get on the field tomorrow. And of course, I can assure you the footballs will all be properly inflated for the Super Bowl. The league has special procedures for the big game and they've taken control of the balls for many days now.

However, don't expect this to be completely off the board. The Patriots players have told me privately they are going to use this for motivation, this idea that, hey, people think we had to cheat just to get there. We are going to show them by beating the Seahawks fair and square that we deserve to be called the best team in the NFL.

We'll have to wait and see if that actually happens. But it's an interesting layer to the game tomorrow.

WHITFIELD: Right. We'll see what happens.

Ok, meantime the Seahawks' Richard Sherman, what's this about the baby and, you know, whether it's appropriate to be with baby and mommy or whether to be there at the Super Bowl?

NICHOLS: Well, there's no baby yet. We have to make that clear. Richard Sherman's girlfriend is nine months pregnant with their first child. It's going to be a boy. She's not due for another week or so.

But hey, you know babies they come when they want to come.

WHITFIELD: That's right.

NICHOLS: She's here if Phoenix. They have a plan in place in case she goes into labor. Doctors here are familiar with her. The question is what happens if that happens on Sunday?

We've seen professional athletes, a real change in the last decade. It used to be they never missed a game for the birth of a child. Now we've seen in recent years many players missing games and sporting events for the birth of their children, but usually not something this big.

Even just in the regular season last year quarterback Joe Flacco played instead of attending the birth of one of his children. So the Seahawks organization has been great with Richard. They've say, whatever you want to do, if you have to miss the Super Bowl, we understand. They've given him that option.

But even though Richard hasn't said much publicly, his girlfriend has said that her expectation is for him to play in the game. She wants him to play in the game if that happens, and then she said, look, if by some chance this does occur on Sunday, he can rush off the field and come be with us after.

We'll have to see what happens. Richard has had a little conversation with the unborn child and the unborn child is going to do his dad a solid and stay in there for another week or so.

WHITFIELD: Sure. It works just like that. So meantime, what about the fans? I mean, you know, thousands of fans descending on Phoenix. They're there for the Super Bowl.

Is there much discussion among the fans there about the NFL's state of -- state of the NFL, Roger Goodell's comments, lack thereof, and the various scandals that do seem to haunt the NFL? What are fans having to say about all this?

NICHOLS: Yes, I mean, look, it's a topic of discussion. You have to click on your internet message board or be around the streets here in Phoenix and you can hear people talk about it. You can hear people argue about the patriots and the deflated footballs.

But one thing we've learned throughout this whole season is that when the football kicks off, when game time starts, all people care about is the game, even in this season with all the outrage of what happened with Ray Rice and him punching his wife in that elevator.

When you look at the top 30 shows during the fall season on TV, 28 of them were football games. The most viewed football television event in American history was last year's Super Bowl. They're expecting this year's Super Bowl to eclipse that.

So I think once that ball is kicked off, all anyone is going to care about, Fred, is who is going to win, the Seahawks or the Patriots?

WHITFIELD: All right, Rachel Nichols, thank you so much. Appreciate it from Phoenix. Of course, we'll see Rachel again throughout the day and at 4:30 p.m., be sure to watch Rachel and hall of fame quarterback, Dan Marino as they host "Kickoff from Arizona."

They'll take you inside football's biggest game as the Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll tells Rachel how he overcame being fired by the Patriots to bring a championship to Seattle. That's today 4:30 Eastern Time.

Also still ahead, Mitt Romney's decision to stay out of the 2016 presidential race, new details about why and when he concluded a third bid was not in the cards for him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: We're learning new details about Mitt Romney's decision to forego a third presidential bid. The 2012 GOP nominee announced he was staying out of the race saying other Republican leaders might have a better shot of winning the election.

Romney made his decision a week ago after holding what's being described as a frank strategy session with his closest advisers. And in a telephone call to supporters, Romney addressed the question of whether he might change his mind somewhere down the road.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): I've been asked and will certainly be asked again if there are any circumstances whatsoever that might develop that could change my mind. Accordingly I'm not organizing a PAC or taking donations, I'm not hiring a campaign team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, just how will this shake things up? I'm joined now by Chris Moody, senior correspondent at CNNpolitics.com in our Washington Bureau. Chris, good to see you.

All right, so after so much speculation, Romney says he put considerable thought into making another run and says he wants to give someone else an opportunity, but, as we know in the past few hours, a lot has been written.

"Washington Post" puts it this way saying that Romney found out a lot of his staffers had moved on and may be going towards Jeb Bush's camp. "New York Times" says this is more about a lack of donor support because Romney learned that a lot of his financial backers in the last go-round have also said they're now going to throw their support to Jeb Bush. So what was the real impetus of this decision in your view?

CHRIS MOODY, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, CNNPOLITICS.COM: I think the decision to run for president is really twofold. One, it relies on the data which is something that a serious person like Mitt Romney examined with his team.

Did he have the polling? He realized that he did, at least for now, this early in the stage because he has high name I.D. Did he have the donors? He had a few, but Jeb Bush was conducting what his team called a shock and awe campaign for donors especially the big whale donors to lock them in place early in the campaign.

I think Romney decided that, you know, while he might stand a chance here, it would be a real fight. If we remember, back in 2012, it was also a brawl between the Republican Party and the bench wasn't necessarily deep at that time.

Now you can imagine here in 2016 what Mitt Romney would have to go through, not just having the establishment support, but also trying to get the Republican conservative base to jump on board with him. The numbers just did not add up. WHITFIELD: So what does this do for the field? I mean, there have been some analysts who say, you know, it is wide open at this point as it pertains to the moderates versus the conservatives, who is likely to get the most of the support from the base?

MOODY: At this point in the campaign -- we'll call it the campaign, right. In the process, there's a lot of focus on the donors. But they don't tell the whole story here. The field is wide open. There are lots of sitting governors and members of Congress who could be quite formidable, who are looking into running.

But Jeb Bush is certainly making a big strong play with the donors and with the so-called establishment types, the Wall Street types. There are also the conservative activists around the country. Remember, you can't just win an election based on money alone.

Even just in Iowa they have a caucus process that requires a lot of groundwork and a lot of human help that rely more on just a check being written. It's still wide open. It's not just Jeb's show for the next year.

WHITFIELD: Well, you know, you and I are both using his name a lot in this segment, but I wonder does he have to work hard for that support or is it kind of unsolicited? Is he really benefiting from that name recognition?

You know, he hasn't officially said anything, but because he's separated himself from certain companies and entities, it's pretty clear thing to venture out and say Jeb Bush is likely to be in the running. Is the support kind of coming to him or is he having to work hard for it?

MOODY: He's working for it. He spent a lot of time in New York and a lot of time on the phone talking to donors who seem to be very excited about him. But also what we saw -- I was speaking with sources within Christie's camp, the governor of New Jersey.

And they were saying that shortly after Romney made his announcement, they were getting some calls from big donors as well. It's really not over. There's going to be a real fight for this and it's still going to be a lot of fun to watch.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it will be fun. Chris Moody, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

MOODY: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, parts of New England getting hit with more snow as if they haven't had enough already. We'll go live to Maine and talk about the bitter cold that's ripped that state.

But first this week's "Tomorrow Transformed."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the early days, the television was the place we all gathered in the household. Today, we don't have to sit in our living rooms to watch television. We can stream content on computers, smart phones and tablets. Most people still own a television, but in the future, that may not be the case.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: The future of TV is going to be a lot of things, a lot of combinations of ways to access TV on different screens at different times. It's going to look a lot like Netflix. That's increasingly how people want to consume TV.

QUEST: According to Nielsen, 40 percent of U.S. households now subscribe to streaming or video on demand service. That's up 5 percent from the previous year. It's a trend that has traditional broadcasters paying attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's really going to happen is you have multiple generations of kids coming out of college, who have grown up watching video on the web. They're going to keep doing that, those numbers will increase.

QUEST: So whether televisions flip, fold or project or become something you wear in the future, it's content that will be king regardless of who delivers it.

PETER KAPKA, SENIOR EDITOR, RESCODE: I think at some points streaming and pay TV will become one thing. That's really what the pay TV business hopes.

QUEST: The content deliverers of today have to undergo a bit of a transformation to satisfy tomorrow's TV viewer.

STELTER: Bandwidth is going to have to keep up. New infrastructure, new technologies have to be put in place to make it possible for millions of us to be watching whatever we want at the same time.

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WHITFIELD: All right, as if the blizzard earlier this week wasn't enough, parts of New England are getting hit with even more snow after the 1 to 2 feet they already received. Massachusetts and Maine are being hit particularly hard this time.

Guess what, in parts of Maine, they could get a whole another foot. Sara Ganim is in Portland where there is still snow and ice on the ground, but guess what, it's so cold, 16 degrees. But you're making it look very warm, Sara. I don't see any shivering out of you.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Really. Well, the tears coming out of my eyes are actually freezing. I don't know if you can see that, Fred. But I do want to start with a little bit of good news, which is that we finally have gotten a bit of a break from the snowfall here in New England.

But the not so pleasant news, it's really, really, really cold, and the wind chill is unbelievable, really brutal here, all across New England. It's like this, really all of the northeast.

Some of the temperatures here, I just want to run through some of the major cities and what they are dealing with. In Boston, the low today is 9. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, it's 3. Burlington, Vermont is 1. New York is 8. Portland, where I am, the low today is 11. Although right now it's a little bit warmer, 16.

But that doesn't factor in any of the wind chills. So right now with wind chill, it feels like zero here and across the northeast, winds like this. And on top of that, Fred, another storm is coming Sunday into Monday.

And especially in Massachusetts, they're warning that that storm is going to bring really dangerously low wind chills, negative 20 to negative 30 degrees. So that's something people have to be aware of and plan for, prepare for.

I can tell you right now, it's already windy here, very gusty. The gusts here in Boston and New York are up to 40 miles per hour. That's just a few miles per hour below tropical storm force wind gusts.

And you feel that when you're standing outside. I'm colder today than I was earlier this week when we were standing outside in the blizzard -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: You have convinced me. I'm now feeling the chill. I'm glad the businesses are open behind you so now go in and get some hot cocoa or something.

GANIM: Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much, Sara, appreciates it. Sara Ganim is there in Portland, Maine, very chilly. All right, we're going to have much more from the NEWSROOM, right after this.

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WHITFIELD: Next week, President Obama will appear at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, and will talk about the importance of religious freedom.

The Dalai Lama will also be in attendance, a move likely to anger Chinese officials, since the Tibetan spiritual leader is one of the most visible symbols of Tibet's struggle for independence from China. The White House declined to say whether the two leaders will meet at that event.

Earlier this week, the president sat down with our own Fareed Zakaria for an exclusive interview, where they discussed everything from Iran to Russia. And I had the chance to talk with Fareed about what the president said and how some of the president's answers were rather surprising to him.

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WHITFIELD: So Fareed, you asked the president about Iran, and U.S. diplomatic efforts. This is what he had to say.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If I can prove that the deal we've put in place assures us, through indisputable verification mechanisms that Iran cannot achieve breakout capacity, if I've got a bunch of scientists and nuclear experts saying this assures us that Iran is not on the brink of being a nuclear weapons power, then that's a public debate we should have.

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WHITFIELD: Fareed, is he particularly confident that these diplomatic efforts will work?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": I think that you heard the most interesting, you know, sound bite about his Iran strategy that I've certainly heard in months. We now understand what his -- what he's going to try to do.

He's going to try to get a deal, if he can get the Iranians to agree, that he will then present to experts and scientists and nuclear proliferation experts who are going to say, look, this is a pretty good deal. It doesn't allow Iran breakout capacity.

It assures us of the ability to monitor and check, and then he'll say to Congress, now, you know, all these guys say this is a good deal. Are you really going to spike it? Are you going to scuttle it? And I think that's the debate he wants to have.

Because he knows he's facing a very hostile Republican Congress that is essentially already signaled they're probably not going to accept any deal he presents. So he has to present them with something that changes that dynamic.

WHITFIELD: And what else should we look forward to in your interview that will air tomorrow, Sunday?

ZAKARIA: You know, I think the most wide-ranging interview on foreign affairs the president has ever given, certainly on television. And we touched on everything. We touched on Putin and Ukraine. We talked about Boehner. We talked about the issue of radical Islam.

I asked him whether he agreed with people like Lindsey Graham, who say we are at war with radical Islam, and he had a very interesting response to it. I also asked him, you know, to describe his own legacy. How would he like the history books to record the Obama presidency? So we covered a lot of bases.

WHITFIELD: All right, Fareed Zakaria, we look forward to it. Thank you so much.

ZAKARIA: Pleasure, Fredricka.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: You can see Fareed's entire exclusive interview with President Obama tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. on "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" only on CNN. We have so much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM and it all starts right after this.

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