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Terror Warning on Possible Attack This Year; 15 Million People Facing Severe Weather Threats; Winds Fueling Massive California Wildfire; Top 10 Political Moments of 2015; CNN International Correspondents Talk War on ISIS; Fight Continues to Retake Ramadi; Impact of $15-An-Hour Minimum Wage on 14 States Approving It; Dr. Gupta Follows a Young Gymnast Addicted to Heroin. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired December 26, 2015 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The warning does not list specific European cities that might be targeted. Right now we know security is ramping up across Europe. Police in Vienna and other key cities are watching public venues, high traffic areas incredibly closely. They are on the lookout for any possible empty suitcases or bags, taking every precautionary measure.
CNN Global Affair analyst Kimberly Dozier is with me to discuss. And when we look at this, you have to put the warning out there. At the same time, you don't want to fear monger. So, I just wonder from your expertise in terms of the war on terror and these threats, what's the value of issuing what seems like a very vague warning? I mean, it doesn't even specify countries.
KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIR ANALYST: Well, it doesn't and yet what this is doing is anyone who had gotten complacent since the Paris attacks are now going to be on their guard when they are going out for an evening. When you go to Paris right now at most major shopping malls or places that people gather there are security, there are policemen who are checking your bags, keeping an eye out, but this will incorporate the public in that watchful vigilant sort of state of mind, as well, and that could help either put the attackers on guard so that they won't attack, or help detect an operation as it's carried out.
HARLOW: All right, we have Bob Baer with us, as well, former CIA operatives, CNN intelligence analyst. And Bob, we were just talking about the vagueness of this warning. This is not what we saw in Brussels after the Paris attack, when their terror threat level was raised to the highest level, the city was basically on lockdown, the metros were shut there. How much different is the specificity of the information coming in, a warning like this one today, versus what caused Brussels to basically shutdown?
BOB BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: Well, Poppy, you have to look at these warnings. It's a big dilemma in the intelligence community whether to put them out. They don't have a lot of credibility, so what they do is on the side of caution. I mean, after San Bernardino and Paris, anything that comes up, however remote, they are putting out. And I think we've seen this with threats against airplanes, closing schools in Los Angeles and so forth, and that is just the way the intelligence community works. They are not quite sure this information, but they feel obligated, they have to put it out.
HARLOW: Also, Kimberly, shouldn't we be encouraged to see what seems like increased cooperation and coordination among European countries in terms of intelligence sharing?
DOZIER: Yes. The hope is that this increased threat is making these different agencies tear down the barriers that kept them from sharing either internally in their own country or across Europe. There had been suspicion among the different agencies from soviet times when some of these countries were a lot friendlier with Russia than other countries are that they are supposedly sharing with. That has slowed some of the sharing down, but with every real threat that appears, that gives, you know, bosses something to point at and say to their people down the line, open up your files, this is serious.
HARLOW: Bob, can you walk us through as far as you know what has changed in terms of security in Europe in the wake of the attack in Paris? Because so much changed here in the United States after 9/11, and that was, for many people in Paris, their 9/11, if you will, this feeling of horrific mass causality. What has changed security wise?
BAER: Well, indeed, Poppy, it's the synchronized attack which was Paris.
HARLOW: Yes.
BAER: I mean, I don't think the Europeans have ever seen this where you have a running gun battle through a city, multiple automatic weapons, coordinated, you have suicide bombers at the same time, which is just very lucky they didn't get into the stadium at that point or cause more damage elsewhere. And I think the Europeans have finally woken up and said, this is serious. I mean, you've got these jihadists coming back from Syria and Iraq, they are well trained, they know how to reload their weapons in combat situations, and they know how to make these bombs, and they can do multiple attacks in a major city and effectively close it. And I think what they also know is they could probably do it again, because there are other networks out there that they don't know about or they are at least not, you know, closely surveying them, they could attack almost anywhere, whether it's Rome or Berlin or London.
HARLOW: And just to be clear, this threat in no way at this point has been tied to ISIS. Obviously, that's where I think a lot of people's minds go, but that's just not specific information that we have at this time.
Kimberly, Bob, thank you very much. Stick around. More with both of you later on, the global fight against ISIS.
But now, I do want to turn back to the United States and the fact that there are 15 million people in this country right now under the threat of severe, possibly deadly weather. Parts of the south recovering from tornado damage, heavy flooding, much more could be on the way. The same time as a major winter storm is about to slam the southern Rockies.
Our Karen McGinnis is in the CNN severe weather center, all of this on top of it, you have got eyes on an active tornado watch right now.
[17:05:22] KAREN MCGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we do. And seven million people inside that tornado watch that goes until 8:00 local time and encompasses a good portion of southeastern Oklahoma and into the metroplex of Dallas. We've already had two reports of confirmed tornado touchdowns. They were in fairly rural areas, but outside of those major metropolitan areas, outside of Dallas, also just outside to the south, southeast of Oklahoma City. But this is the area where they do have an enhanced threat for damaging winds and the possibility of an isolated tornado. Now we've already seen those isolated tornados. We saw them several days ago. The same very most, unstable air mass is in place. It is not moving very much at all, as a matter of fact, just minimally towards the east, little bit more towards the north.
So from Shreveport to Houston, to just to the east of Dallas for Sunday. This is going to be a big day where lots of people are going to be returning from their big long or extended Christmas holiday. And what are we looking at? A major developing winter storm. You're wondering why are we seeing 80-degree temperatures in the eastern United States, the southeast? Well, we've got a lot of cold air back behind this weather system. Look at this, temperatures only in the 20s. Albuquerque, Pueblo, Colorado, 28 degrees. It's near 80 degrees in Dallas. A huge temperature difference. And this is going to create some big promise. We have got problems at airports, Dallas- Fort Worth, Washington at Reagan national, and Dallas. Look for delays if you are traveling at the major airports. Back to you, Poppy.
HARLOW: Absolutely right. All right. Karen, keep us posted, especially on that tornado warning down there in Texas. Thank you very much.
Right now you've also got these high winds fueling a fast moving wildfire in Southern California. This is new video. Listen. To the whipping wind in that. What it is showing is a family driving home as the flames lick the edge of the highway, sparks hitting their car at one point. Officials have ordered mandatory evacuations. The flames already charring 1200 acres.
Sara Sidner is with me now, this is your -- you're hear with me in New York but this is your area, this is where you're based. This is not the biggest wildfire California has dealt with, but it is -- it just feels so close to people seeing that video of that family driving through it.
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's incredibly dangerous what you saw there. Because we've seen this before this year where cars were actually burned through, people had to jump out of their cars because it came so fast and furious and run to safety.
(CROSSTALK)
You know, that's the thing, is that paying attention to what's going on, but sometimes the winds shift and so you think you're okay because it looks far away, and then it comes at you so incredibly quickly. We can tell you now that they think they have about 10 percent of it contained, but contained doesn't mean out, it only means that they stopped it from moving to a certain place --
HARLOW: Right.
SIDNER: -- and we're talking only 10 percent. This is now about 1200 acres burning right now.
HARLOW: When you look at any sort of relief in sight, right? The key thing here is the wind. They have the resources to fight these fires, it's all about the wind and the unpredictability. I mean, how close can they get even to these flames to hamper them when the winds are so unpredictable?
SIDNER: Often what they do is they sort of make a fire line.
HARLOW: Right.
SIDNER: You can see there, you know, kind of a bulldozer trying to make a line there. So, the firefighters can get start spraying that area, but they also do a lot of stuff from the air to try to tamp it down from there and then they get the guys to go in there. But, you know, firefighters have lost their lives in these kinds of fires that are brush fires, that are not burning tons of homes, but they can shift so quickly and all of a sudden it's on you, so these can be very, very dangerous and they are blocking two really important roadways, especially for the holiday.
HARLOW: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
SIDNER: Exactly. And Pacific Coast Highway. These are sort of areas that people will go, especially for the holiday. And it's Sunday, people are going to start going home and going --
HARLOW: Sure.
SIDNER: -- you know, back from grandma's house, so to speak. So very dangerous, people have to pay a lot of attention to the weather, but also to the updates and where this fire is burning through.
HARLOW: Unbelievable video there and how close it is getting to people driving right through it. Sara Sidner, thank you very much, as always.
Up next, politics. It has certainly been a memorable 2015 in the race for the White House, hasn't it? All right, we're going to play you some sound next, did that make our ten best moments in politics for last year. We're going to tell you what we're talking about straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:12:41] HARLOW: 2015 was a year of rising stars, rising threats, and some truly monumental changes on the American political landscape, that is for sure. Our top ten of 2015 series, our chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper looks back at year's most memorable moments in politics.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: This was a year our next president officially entered the race, barring any surprises in 2016, that is. Washington outsiders dominated the polls as America's political landscape saw a historic change. Our laws on marriage, our views on terror, and even our tolerance for Trump are all much different now than they were in January. These are our top ten political stories of 2015.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER (voice-over): Number ten, after a quarter century in Congress, speaker of the House John Boehner declared he was done, pushed out many say by the Tea Partiers in his deeply divided Republican caucus.
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), OHIO: I leave with no regrets, no burdens.
TAPPER: After initially balking Wisconsin's Congressman Paul Ryan finally accepted the gavel.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R), WISCONSIN: We need to make some changes. Starting with how the House does business.
TAPPER: Number nine, same-sex marriage was deemed legal nationwide. Though in some states county clerks, such as Kim Davis, refused to give their stamp of approval, citing their religious convictions. Davis spent five days in jail over the divisive issue.
Number eight, an anti-abortion group released videos they say showed Planned Parenthood staffers proposing selling fetal tissue for profit. The heavily edited issues were hotly contested and defunding debate was on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Planned Parenthood must be defunded.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will defund Planned Parenthood.
TAPPER: In November, three people were killed in a Colorado clinic after this man opened fire. Planned Parenthood blamed heated political rhetoric for the attack.
Number seven, the Obama administration negotiated with Iran, ending sanctions in exchange for promises of an Iran free of nuclear weapons. Israel's prime minister was vehemently opposed.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: It doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb, it paves Iran's path to the bomb.
TAPPER: President Obama vowed to veto any Congressional attempt to block the deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The majority of members of this Congress do not support this deal. TAPPER: But Secretary of State John Kerry was also adamant.
JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There's no alternative.
TAPPER: Number six, Hillary Clinton repeatedly defended her use of a private e-mail server as secretary of state.
CLINTON: Everything I did was permitted.
TAPPER: An FBI investigation into the matter notwithstanding, even her chief democratic opponent said he had heard enough about the controversy.
BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The American people are sick and tired hearing about your damn e-mails.
TAPPER: Clinton was confronted for hours during a hearing about the 2012 Benghazi attacks and about those e-mails.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You and your attorneys who decided what to return and what to delete.
TAPPER: Number five, nine African-Americans, including a state senator, were gunned down at this South Carolina church by a 21-year- old White supremacist.
PRES. BARACK OBAMA (D), UNITED STATES: The alleged killer could not see the grace surrounding Reverend Pinckney and that Bible study group.
TAPPER: The killer had posed for photographs with the confederate flag, prompting the question, was it time for the flag to be removed from the state capitol? Debate was passionate, and in the end the flag was history.
Number four, millions fled war-torn parts of the Middle East into Europe. President Obama vowed to take in up to 10,000 Syrian refugees.
OBAMA: Those countries that can must do more to accommodate refugees.
TAPPER: But when at least one of the Paris terrorists was linked to the masses entering Europe, 31 U.S. governors vowed to shut their doors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Embedded in that group are people who are out to destroy us.
TAPPER: Then after terrorists struck California, Donald Trump said all Muslims should be banned from entering the U.S., prompting a fierce backlash.
Number three, the Black Lives Matter movement became ever present in politics. Thousands rallied in Baltimore and Chicago after a young black man in each city died during police confrontations. After shocking video emerged of Freddie Gray's arrest in Baltimore and Laquan McDonald's shooting in Chicago, police officers were charged with murder in both cities. Chicago's mayor came under pressure to step down.
[17:17:14] Number two, according to President Obama, ISIS rose from a so-called jayvee squad last year to become a, quote, "contained threat." But after two massacres in Paris drew world leaders into the fight, and an attack in California killed 14 Americans, President Obama was forced to revise his message.
OBAMA: The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it.
And the number one political story of 2015, the Donald.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I'm at number one by a lot.
TAPPER: Donald Trump disrupting politics and redefining what it means to be a Republican presidential candidate.
TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best.
TAPPER: His blunt, some say bigoted behavior was met with outrage and a seemingly unstoppable rise in Republican primary poll numbers.
TRUMP: And, frankly, I'm the most solid person up here.
TAPPER: Will he win the White House next year, or will America say, "You're fired"?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: Those were our top ten political stories of this year. The question is what and who will top the list next year?
Jake Tapper, CNN, Washington.
HARLOW: Jake, thank you very much. I think the question is, can anything possibly top this year when it comes to this wild presidential race? We will see if 2016 does it. Predictions, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:21:19] HARLOW: All right, before the break our Jake Tapper took us through the biggest political moments and stories of 2015. Donald Trump topped the list of Republican presidential front-runner whose poll numbers have continued to rise, despite or perhaps because of a number of high profile, controversial, and blunt moments.
Joining me now, CNN political commentator and Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker," Ryan Lizza, happy almost 2016.
RYAN LIZZA, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORKER": Same to you, Poppy.
HARLOW: It will be action packed and fun to cover politics, as 2015 has been. I mean, you just saw the list that Jake set out of the ten top moments and stories. Do you think anything was missed?
LIZZA: I thought that was a great list, very comprehensive. I don't know, maybe one thing I would add to that list is a little bit more about Bernie Sanders. He was mentioned in a couple of the shots there, but, you know, Sanders has had a surprisingly robust challenge to Hillary Clinton. This guy is still leading in New Hampshire, obviously, the first primary state, and he has broken or he's on track to break Barack Obama's fundraising record from 2008 in terms of the total number of supporters. He's really built something that nobody would have predicted at the beginning of this presidential cycle that this, you know, septuagenarian, socialist senator from Vermont would have given Hillary this kind of challenge. And, you know, thinking ahead to 2016, it's going to be all Trump all the time, I imagine for the next month, but watch Sanders, see if this guy can actually beat Hillary Clinton in one of these early states and how that changes the democratic race if he does.
HARLOW: Yes, I mean, his campaign spokeswoman on with me last hour saying, look, it's early days, it's early days reminding us all that it is, indeed, early days. We haven't even had the Iowa caucuses yet. Let me get your take on this. I just find it fascinating how sort of money has been turned on its head in this race.
LIZZA: Yes.
HARLOW: And by that, I mean, the traditional narrative, if you raise a lot of money, you can do extraordinarily well hasn't played out. You've had Jeb Bush raising all of this money, huge Super PAC money and floundering in the polls. You have got Donald Trump who's not bought one television ad, he's spent about $200,000 on radio ads, and he's way ahead. Why is this?
LIZZA: Yes.
HARLOW: Is this a sign of the times, or is this an anomaly because Trump is who Trump is?
LIZZA: Well, look, if you think about the amount of free media Trump has received, the way he has absolutely dominated cable and network news in 2015, there's nothing like it. So he has actually received millions and millions of dollars worth of ads in the --
HARLOW: But it's not the same kind of ads.
LIZZA: Not ads, excuse me.
HARLOW: It's not these positive ads, it's a lot of people bashing what he said.
LIZZA: Yes, I think that's a good point, Poppy. I think that, you know, the big example is Bush, right? Bush raised all this money and he could barely move his numbers. And I think, you know, one lesson is, you can't just -- TV ads don't just automatically work for any candidate.
HARLOW: Yes. LIZZA: If you're not selling a message that people like or you have a name in the Republican primaries that's sort of a damaged brand, TV ads cannot fix that. And maybe finally what's happening here is the fractured media is catching up with the political consultants. That is not everyone gets all of their, you know, we're not spending our time watching TV. We're on the internet --
HARLOW: Really?
LIZZA: -- three different screens.
HARLOW: Really? Really? Let's move on to this -- I have a fascinating piece wrote in the New Yorker this week titled "Hillary versus Barack, Round LXXXVIII."
LIZZA: I literally just made up that number.
(LAUGHTER)
HARLOW: I know. I was actually trying to decipher what you were pointing to and then I realized you just made it.
LIZZA: Yes. It's funny. Actually wrote that headline, I usually don't write the headlines, but I literally just made up that number.
HARLOW: There you go. As it happens when you're editor takes the break. All right. Still you write in it, there is a natural attention between Obama's interest in polishing his legacy and emphasizing every achievement in his final months in office and Clinton's strategic need to respond to the real problems that voters face. But if the balance gets too out of whack, Clinton risks running a campaign that seems more like a repudiation of Obama than one that defines her as his natural heir. Tell me more.
LIZZA: You know, I think -- this is the tricky balance that she has had to figure out the whole campaign, is how much does she run as the heir to Obama, and frankly to her husband, as well. Right? The last two democratic presidents, one is her husband, one she served in his administration. And so, you know, it's tough to succeed as someone else who's still in power, because Obama is going to want to spend 2016 polishing his legacy, getting a few more victories under his belt, and every time he does something, every time he announces something, she that has to respond, she has to decide if she's for it or if she wants to go a little further, and that's a tough balance. I thought this really was -- came into sharp relief at the end of the year when he gave his end of the year press conference and talked about how great the economy is, how ISIS is -- he's got a strategy to beat ISIS, and talked about all his victories in 2015.
[17:26:33] The next day, there was the democratic debate and Hillary Clinton was more about here are all the problems in the United States, here's the problem with the economy, here's what we're not doing enough of. And a real distinction between those two messages. And she has to go out there and win over that Obama coalition, both in the primaries and in the general election, and I think she's got to be careful the way she talks about his legacy and the way she talks about where the country is right now, so it doesn't seem like his presidency hasn't been a success. So I think -- watch that tension and see if she gets the balance right. I think that's going to be an important dynamic.
HARLOW: No, it's an interesting point, especially following Gore, right, and sort of running away from --
LIZZA: Exactly.
HARLOW: -- former President Clinton and that hurting him. David Gergen saying he thinks that's what lost him the election.
LIZZA: That's right.
HARLOW: So, we'll see how Hillary Clinton handles it. All right, I'll let you get back to Roman numerals. Thank you very much, Ryan Lizza.
LIZZA: Thanks, Poppy, have a great weekend.
HARLOW: Have a good one!
Coming up next, the fight against ISIS has spread from the front lines in the Middle East to Europe and even right here to the United States. Few understand it better than CNN international's top correspondents. Next, they sit down, they share their experiences from the field, ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Paris has been such a game changer, because as closely as I've been following the sort of reach of militant groups like ISIS in Europe and in the West, I had never expected them to be able to pull off something this organized, something this well- orchestrated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think it was that organized and that well-orchestrated? No, I don't think it was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:31:15] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The war against ISIS certainly dominated the news, both domestically and internationally this year. The rapid spread of the terror organization, the attacks in Paris changing the way the United States and other countries are fighting ISIS and terrorist organizations across the globe.
Some of CNN International's top correspondents gathered for a look back at the war against ISIS, how it has evolved this year, and what we can expect in the year ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Paris has been such a game changer, because as closely as I've been following the sort of reach of militant groups of ISIS in Europe and the U.S., I had never expected them for them to pull off this organized.
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Did you think it was that organized?
(CROSSTALK)
ELBAGIR: No, I don't think it would.
WARD: The main thing that didn't go as well as they were hoping were the vests, the suicide vests.
(CROSSTALK)
WARD: They accomplished their goal.
ELBAGIR: They accomplished their goal.
(CROSSTALK)
ELBAGIR: There's a difference between extraordinary complex that need an infrastructure and eight guys with a vest --
(CROSSTALK)
WARD: I think they had an infrastructure.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What surprises me a little bit about this is I think the lack of the short-term memory. It was a decade ago that we were looking at al Qaeda carrying out massive attacks which killed scores of people and we kind of forget the fear and panic of those days.
WARD: Also, the whole nature of recruitment was different. Like, al Qaeda was recruiting in the mosques.
WATSON: In the mosques.
WARD: And it was an entirely different prospect. Jihad was very abstract.
WATSON: Now these Facebook --
(CROSSTALK)
WARD: They are like your own friends.
WATSON: Who are doing it in their bedroom, yeah.
WARD: In their bedrooms. So it's a completely -- I think for intelligence authorities, it's a very frightening prospect.
ELBAGIR: This kind of, I know he grew a beard, he started going to mosques, these are the telltale signs of radicalism that entire landscape -- (CROSSTALK)
ELBAGIR: -- has changed now.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But that also the greater underlying issues that we have in society, and what ISIS has now done for people that are slightly so inclined is give them that sense of purpose.
(CROSSTALK)
DAMON: The next question is, it's not in terms of intelligence, how do we fight this, but how do you actually fight that etiology. How do you revamp society where these kids have a different sense of purpose?
WATSON: All of these kids, their parents came to Europe for a better life. The sign of irony, their offspring grow up to be people that attack Europe.
WARD: We have this misconception that ISIS is about radical Islam. It's a product of a bunch of very complex geo-political historical trends that have been brewing for years.
(CROSSTALK)
WARD: It's not about Islam.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's also terrifying that some guys who are mentally well configured in San Bernardino can go and shoot coworkers and put something on Facebook and that somehow joins global movement.
ELBAGIR: It's like a wave of hysteria that's building on each other. You saw Paris happen and then you saw San Bernardino crest off of it. It's like a contagion in a way.
DAMON: There needs to be not hysteria, but, I mean, let's not underestimate the threat either.
WARD: Yeah.
DAMON: I mean, it is huge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: All right, coming up next we're going to talk about the battle for that key city of Ramadi. ISIS claimed it seven months ago. Iraqi forces literally ran away. Now they are within days, they say, of retaking Ramadi. We will talk about the strategic importance of the city and the fight against ISIS next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:38:08] HARLOW: New video from inside the fight to try to take back Ramadi. ISIS positions getting hit by the air strikes, while on the ground, the Iraqi military sets its sights on another ISIS stronghold, now just one mile away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(EXPLOSION)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Iraqi forces say full liberation from ISIS could be just days away as Iraqi troops fight their way through neighborhoods rigged with booby traps and IEDs in Ramadi, showing air strikes targeting ISIS positions across the city.
Joining me to talk about the significance of this, the strategic, and also just the confidence level of the Iraqi forces in all of this, Bob Baer, CNN intelligence and security analyst; and Kimberly Dozier, CNN global affairs analyst.
Kimberly, let me begin with you. You have got U.S. military sources telling you about the significance of this latest development. As we look back, Ramadi falls to is seven months ago because the Iraqi forces literally run away, now they are within days, they say, of taking it back. What are you hearing?
KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: They are seeing Ramadi as a test case for how they can later take Fallujah and Mosul and eventually drive ISIS out of Iraq, because this is the first time the Iraqi government has consciously kept some of its Shiite militias out of this fight. They've accomplished this, taking most of the city with coalition air strikes backing them, and with Iraqi mostly Sunni forces on the ground. The next step will be once they drive ISIS out, you can see from those pictures there's not going to be a lot of infrastructure left behind. How quickly can they return services and how quickly can they make it a safe and welcoming place for the Sunni families that have been driven out -- Poppy?
HARLOW: Bob, in terms of this in the broader picture, what does -- if they are able to retake Ramadi, what does that mean for retaking Fallujah?
[17:40:08] BOB BAER, SECURITY CNN ANALYST: Poppy, I think it's optimistic. The Islamic State is not a true military force. It is -- it's a guerilla force, and with these air strikes and with new tactics against a city like this, and as Kimberly said, they are pretty much going to have to destroy the city to take it back, it's a good sign. I think they can march up to Mosul and eventually take it, but the problem is, that the Iraqi Army remains a Shia Army largely. The militias, yes, they are out of it, but most of the Sunni residents of Ramadi have fled to Jordan, at least the tribal chiefs, and the same way when they took Tikrit six months ago and Fallujah would be the same thing. Iraq is very much divided politically between Shiite and Sunni. That's the second battle we're going to have to fight, is make this government more representative. And so far it isn't.
HARLOW: Kimberly, Bob brings up a very important point, this is happening largely without help from the Sunnis. When you look at overall stability in Iraq, you have to have an inclusive government. You have to have the Sunnis feeling more included. Where do we go from here if they are able to retake Ramadi, possibly Fallujah, possibly Mosul, but then you need the stability in the government?
DOZIER: Well, one has to hope that the Iraqi government has learned some tough lessons that its territorial integrity has been threatened because it didn't include more parts of its ethnic divide at higher levels of the government. That said, this also exposes that other issue that no one's really figured out a solution for in neighboring Syria, in places like Raqqa that are ISIS run right now, where is the competent Sunni government alternative that could sweep in there and provide services? That doesn't exist at this point. You have this rag tag group of what is becoming a far more effective rebel fighting force in the north, but can they keep the electricity on and bring in food supplies? That's really not clear.
HARLOW: Absolutely not.
Bob Baer, thank you.
Kimberly Dozier, thank you, as well.
Good to have you both on.
Ahead, it has been six years since there's been an increase in the federal minimum wage in this country. It currently stands at $7.25 an hour. It is much higher in many cities and states, so what will 2016 bring for this fight? Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:45:38] HARLOW: In this week's "American Opportunity," as "CNN Money" puts it, the once unthinkable $15-an-hour minimum wage became a burgeoning reality this year. You saw it play out in protests in cities across America, the fight for $15, and also you saw it in presidential debates, like this FOX Business debate in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR & DEBATE MODERATOR: Mr. Trump, as the leading presidential candidate on this stage and one whose tax plan exempts couples making up to $50,000 a year from paying any federal income taxes at all, are you sympathetic to the protesters' cause since a $15 wage works out to about $31,000 a year?
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I can't be, Neil. And the reason I can't be is we are a country that is being beaten on every front, economically, militarily. There is nothing that we do now to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: 14 states and cities approved a $15-an-hour minimum wage this year, but what impact will it have on jobs and hiring? What will 2016 bring?
"CNN Money's" Jeanne Sahadi reporting extensively on this and she joins me now.
We cover this a lot on this program. There are economists who say this is what you need. There are others who say, no way, you're going to have millions of job losses. Do you see 2015 as a change year for the minimum wage fight?
JEANNE SAHADI, SENIOR WRITER, CNN MONEY: I think so. I think what we've seen, we've seen a lot of minimum wage legislation over the last three or four years, but 2015 really marked the year where 14 cities and states went ahead and proved this unprecedented high level, $15. San Francisco and Seattle kind of led the way at the end of 2014, and we've got going forward in 2016 another 13 cities and states.
HARLOW: So let's look at those, because we can bring up a map and show people what are we talking about here in these states.
SAHADI: Well, actually, this map shows where the minimum wage is going up because of the prior legislation.
HARLOW: Right.
SAHADI: And also about 13 states that have raised it legislatively, and there are about 10 states reflected there that are raising their minimum wage by, you know, cost of living index. So, those have nothing to do with the $15 fight.
HARLOW: They are going up.
SAHADI: Right.
HARLOW: When you look at this battle, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour now, and the candidates that want to raise it, that point to that, isn't that important to qualify it by pointing out that actually this is really a state and city issue now? Very few places pay $7.25 an hour at this point?
SAHADI: That's right. I think more than half of the states actually have a higher level than that, and there had been a push for a $10. 10 federal minimum wage, there had been legislation for the last few years, but it really went nowhere, and it's probably going to go nowhere in 2016, as well.
HARLOW: On a federal level?
SAHADI: On a federal level. But what happened was states and cities got in on the action, so by ballot measure, by legislation, lots of them, including four red states during the 2014 midterms, raised their minimums. So there is absolutely a trend push.
HARLOW: For red states?
SAHADI: For red states, yeah, Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
HARLOW: So, is the data out there yet, the studies, the conclusive studies to show us whether the states who have raised their minimum wage, especially the move to $15 an hour, whether that has cost a significant amount of jobs or not?
SAHADI: There is not. Particularly with the places going to $15, they haven't quite gotten there yet, what they've done is gradual increases over years, so a lot of the places that approved $15 aren't there yet. In New York state, for instance, also in California, a number of cities have approved a higher wage to $15. Governor Cuomo had appointed a wage board that said, you know what, let's have a $15 minimum wage for fast food workers at large national chains. That's, again, unprecedented. It's industry specific. It's a higher level than before. And now he says he wants it to be statewide, so New York State is going to be considering a statewide minimum next year.
HARLOW: Before I let you go, is there a consensus among economists on this?
SAHADI: No. No. I think there's going to be -- the plus is going to be you're going to lift a lot of people out of poverty. The minus is, yes, there will be job loss or less hiring. It's logical. It's common sense. That's what's going to happen for smaller businesses that can't afford a 50 percent-plus
[17:49:05] Whereas, so many other companies can take it off their top line?
SAHADI: Sure.
HARLOW: Jeanne Sahadi, thank you very much.
SAHADI: Thanks.
HARLOW: For much more of our reporting on this, go to CNNmoney.com.
Appreciate it. Happy New Year.
SAHADI: Happy New Year.
HARLOW: Coming up next, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE PUTIGNANO, GYMNAST ADDICTED TO HEROIN: Addiction is the only cell where the key is on the inside. And I don't live -- I don't live in that cell anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Part three of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's remarkable series about the long road to recovery from heroin addiction is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: This may surprise you. In a recent poll, voters in New Hampshire listed drug abuse, namely heroin abuse, as their top concern right now. They put it ahead of other issues including the economy and ISIS. And in his new series, "Primary Concern, Heroin," Dr. Sanjay Gupta
examines an epidemic that has now become a nationwide crisis. Part three of his report follows a young gymnast and his struggle with heroin addiction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: When he was just 8 years old, Joe Putignano became obsessed with gymnastics. He was so good that his dreams of going to the Olympics seemed within reach. He couldn't have imagined that a dental procedure when he was 19 would derail those dreams and start a whole new obsession with prescription pain pills.
PUTIGNANO: It just worked. You know, it clicked. It was like the stars were aligned. I've never felt anything like it.
GUPTA: This time, it was Percocet, but the high Joe felt from all sorts of opiates eventually led him to another opiate delivery system, heroin, one of the most dangerously addicted substances on the planet, nearly impossible to escape. As hard as he tried, Joe was among 78 percent of heroin addicts who relapse over and over again. A relapse he would encounter when he worked at "The "New York Times."
(on camera): You were at "The New York Times"?
PUTIGNANO: Yes. I was 27 years old and "New York Times" had sent me to rehab. I was so grateful, still am. And it was there that a therapist suggested I go back to something I was passionate about, which was gymnastics. In my eyes, I was a failure in gymnastics. My only goal was to go to the Olympics and I didn't. So to go back to that sport was to walk into humiliation. I went back to it. In rehab, I started doing hand stands and push-ups just to gain a sense of what that would feel like, and this fire inside of me, should see a spark, kind of ignited.
[17:55:41] GUPTA (voice-over): No surprise, it felt pretty good. And after rehab, Joe caught a break and started performing on Broadway. But the thing about heroin is that the possibility of a relapse was always waiting there for him in the wings.
PUTIGNANO: I managed to stay clean for a year and a half. And I was on -- amazing my life changed. I was performing on Broadway. Couldn't believe it, you know. Heroin addict, and here I am performing on Broadway.
GUPTA: But it was another visit to the dentist, another prescription, this time for Vicoden. And then --
PUTIGNANO: I took it as prescribed. Within four hours, I was shooting heroin.
GUPTA (on camera): Four hours?
PUTIGNANO: Yeah. On Broadway. GUPTA: You were clean for a year and half, performing on Broadway.
You get an FDA-approved medication from a doctor and within four hours?
PUTIGNANO: Yeah, it woke up something ancient in me.
GUPTA: You took that Vicoden. Again, a year and a half clean.
PUTIGNANO: Yeah.
GUPTA: Describe again, what did you feel?
PUTIGNANO: Like I came home, you know? Like, oh, I've missed you.
GUPTA (voice-over): Stories about recovery are almost always messy. People move forward a little and then they slip back even more. But for Joe, each time it did become easier.
PUTIGNANO: These were all my emergency room overdoses and everything like that. I need to see a reminder, you know, of who I was.
GUPTA: The same obsessions that fueled his addiction also fueled his dazzling performances like this one as the Crystal Man in Cirque de Soleil. Tethered at the waste, spinning, shoulders pinned back, twisting, turning. Stunning to watch. But also putting so much pressure on his upper body. For two years, his injuries mounted. Joe would eventually need surgery, painful surgery. He knew one thing, though, pain pills could not be allowed, because the risk of relapse was too great.
UNIDENTIFIED PHYSICIAN: I know your goal.
PUTIGNANO: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED PHYSICIAN: Your goal is to avoid anything that you had a problem with in the past.
PUTIGNANO: Of course.
GUPTA: You decided to let us follow you along for you shoulder operation. Why did you do that?
PUTIGNANO: At first, I didn't want to because it felt like a very private thing. Then I remembered, you know, what I had gone through. And I was like, this could actually help people.
GUPTA (voice-over): Joe came through those operations with flying colors. Instead of opioids, he was given a nerve block, anti- inflammatories, even acupuncture. It worked for him. He got back to school, was exercising again, but then he need another operation. This time, his ankle.
PUTIGNANO: I was getting my ankle operated on. It was not nearly as severe as my shoulders. I had done everything we had in place for my shoulders. I told them what medications I can have, what I can't have. And the day of surgery there's like a five-page document that you sign. Every single one where it says allergy it said no opiates in big letters. OK, open eights. Awesome. We talked about it. Waking up out of surgery and it feels like someone sawed my ankle in half because it's kind of what happened. And the nurse said, are you in pain? I said, yes. I wasn't even awake. And all of a sudden, I felt something, that thing, that ancient feeling, like, oh, my god. What did you just give me? She said, Ventinil. I said, oh, my god. I freaked out because this felt good, you know. It's like I was eight years clean. This isn't fair. Like I was drugged.
GUPTA: Whether or not the nurse simply forgot or there is still a fundamental misunderstanding about the severity of addiction, Joe was in trouble again. But this time, the brutal years he had endured through recovery paid off. This time, there were no more pills, no more heroin, no more relapse.
PUTIGNANO: So this is the old apartment I used to live in?
GUPTA (on camera): Literally, across the hall.
PUTIGNANO: Yep. 18 years ago, when I was a heroin addict. It was actually during 9/11 and in the apartment.
