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Epic Snowstorm Making Way to U.S. East Coast at Intense Cold Front Blankets China in Snow; British Report: Two Russian Agents Spike Litvinenko's Tea; 3rd Attempt on Syria Peace Talks set for Next Week; Food Crisis as Syria War Rages; Adopted Chinese Boy Meets New Family; American Student Arrested in North Korea; Flights Canceled Due to East Coast Snowstorm; Epic Snowstorm Making Way to U.S. East Coast; Trump Leads Republicans, Sanders Jumps Ahead of Clinton; Poison Water in Flint Making Residents Sick. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired January 22, 2016 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[02:00:49] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: These stories all ahead this hour. We're live from Atlanta.
I'm Natalie Allen.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
A good day to you.
We start this hour with a developing story we're watching out of North Korea.
ALLEN: An American student from a university in Virginia is under investigation by North Korean authorities. That's according to North Korean state media. The student who reportedly entered the DPRK on a tourist visa is under investigation for carrying out anti-North Korean acts. We've heard of these things before from North Korea. We will bring you more on this developing story as we get it here on CNN.
HOWELL: For sure. Now to the massive snowstorm that is looming for the U.S. east coast. There are some 75 million people in that storm's path. Nearly 30 million will be facing blizzard conditions, especially in Washington, D.C.
ALLEN: And there is still snow on the ground from Wednesday there, which already crippled parts of the city. You saw all of the cars slipping and sliding. So far, more than 4,500 flights have been cancelled in major U.S. cities. Of course, that impacts travel all over the world.
Meantime, much of China is dealing with an intense cold front that has blanketed the country with snow and ice. Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai could see their coldest temperatures in 20 or 30 years. Look at that picture. That says it all, doesn't it? HOWELL: Snow and cold. Just not fun things to talk about.
But our Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is here to tell us all about it.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'll take care of it. Don't worry, George.
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It seems like the northern hemisphere, deep into its winter season, is really starting to just show that Mother Nature is in control, right?
HOWELL: For sure.
VAN DAM: We're talking about North America and northeast China.
Let's talk China first. This is an area that's getting hammered with some of the coldest air in 30 years. If you have been in Beijing for a while, you'll know that 1991 was the last time temperatures got this cold. We've got an arctic blast driving south, and we're running our temperatures 10, 15 Celsius, even 20 degrees below where they should be this time of year. Here's Beijing's forecast. We haven't seen temperatures like this, again, almost that's 17 below zero for your minimum temperature tomorrow morning. It's not only Beijing in on the cold weather, Shanghai to Tokyo, as far south as Hong Kong, northern Vietnam and Taiwan as well.
On the other side of the world, we're talking winter weather. The major epic snowstorm barreling down on the east coast of the United States, specifically the Mid-Atlantic States. This is the look at the latest wizard warnings. We've got blizzard warnings for Washington, D.C., that extends into Baltimore, Philadelphia, to New York. That's where you have blizzard watches. That means conditions are favorable for a blizzard, but we are still a little uncertain just how much snow that particular region will receive and how strong the winds will actually get. Nonetheless, the mid-Atlantic states, especially around Maryland into Delaware as well as Virginia into the Carolinas, this is what we're examining. Flight cancellations. Perhaps delays. Road closures, coastal erosion and power outages, as not only do we have the potential for two feet or more of snow, we also have a significant icing event. We have severe weather in the mix here and coastal erosion.
Here's a bit more detail for you as the storm starts to transfer its energy to the lower pressure system that will deepen off the east coast of the U.S. By the way, it doesn't help that the most intense part of the storm Friday night into Saturday morning is coinciding with a full moon, an astronomical high tide. That means coastal corrosion, including Norfolk, Virginia, into Atlantic City, could be moderate to major. So that's something we're going to pay close attention to as well. On top of that, icing, half an inch to three quarters of an inch, specifically across the Carolinas. That's the bull's-eye for the heaviest icing event. And to the north, on the cold sector of this storm, the bull's-eye set over Washington, D.C., stretching into Charlottesville, Virginia. That is an area that we could exceed two feet or more of snowfall. This is a very serious storm. This is what we'll be monitoring very closely.
But if you get the opportunity and it is safe for you to do so, please send us your weather pictures from this snowstorm 2016 using the #CNNweather.
[02:05:25] ALLEN: Washington doesn't normally see a blizzard like this.
VAN DAM: This could be a first snowstorm to exceed 21 inches in the city's history.
HOWELL: Goodness. Time to bundle up.
VAN DAM: That's right.
HOWELL: Derek, thank you so much.
VAN DAM: Thank you.
ALLEN: We'll have much more on this impending epic storm, including when air travel could get back to normal. We'll talk live with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center in the next half-hour.
HOWELL: Absolutely.
Now on to some stunning allegations in the murder of an ex Russian spy.
ALLEN: Allegations that are prompting a heated denial from the Kremlin. A British inquiry has found that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably approved the operation to kill Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
HOWELL: The inquiry says these two men slipped a radioactive substance into Litvinenko's tea during a meeting at a London hotel. They deny that happened.
ALLEN: The Kremlin says Britain risks poisoning its ties with Russia.
Chief U.S. security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, has more on the report's allegations and how it could impact relations between these two powerful countries.
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a shocking murder of a prominent Russian dissident, seen here dying in hits hospital bed, and an act of nuclear terrorism, say British officials, in the heart of London, just yards from the U.S. embassy. Now a British investigation has found that the two Russian secret agents accused of the murder, quote, "probably acted with the approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin."
SIR ROBERT OWEN, CHAIRMAN, LITVINENKO INQUIRY: The FSB operation to kill him was probably approved by Mr. Partuchef (ph), then head of the FSB, and also by President Putin. SCIUTTO: Alexander Litvinenko, who fled Russia for the U.K., was an
outspoken critic of the Kremlin, accusing President Putin of orchestrating the deadly bombings of Russian apartment buildings in 1999 to justify a second Russian invasion of Chechnya. Another potential motive, the report cites an article Litvinenko published that accuses Putin of sexual involvement with underage boys, and that Russian intelligence had videos.
Litvinenko blamed Putin for ordering his poisoning and authorized this statement from his deathbed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "You may succeed in silencing one man, but protests from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life."
SCIUTTO: Today Litvinenko's widow, Marina, welcomed the findings.
MARINA LITVINENKO, WIDOW OF ALEXANDRA LITVINENKO: I'm am very pleased that the words have been spoke, on his deathbed when he accused Mr. Putin of his murder have been proved.
SCIUTTO: The details of the case seem stolen from a spy novel. Surveillance video shows the Russian agents at the London hotel where they allegedly injected a powerful does of the highly radioactive element Polonium 210 into his tea during a meeting there. Litvinenko died a slow painful death and the radioactive Polonium contaminated dozens of other people who had direct or indirect contact with him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was a blatant and unacceptable breach of the most fundamental tenants of national law and of civilized behavior.
SCIUTTO: Today, one of the accused killers, Andrei Lugovoy, now a Russian politician, vehemently denied the accusation.
ANDREI LUGOVOY, RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: An outrageous lie and I can't find any other word to describe it.
SCIUTTO: Russian officials dismissed the findings as politicized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This gross provocation of the British authorities cannot help hurting our bilateral relations.
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HOWELL: That was chief U.S. security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, reporting for us.
Britain wants Russia to extradite the two main suspects in this indication. It is unlikely that will happen.
ALLEN: It's been a mysterious case from the start.
HOWELL: Yes.
ALLEN: It's troubling to see that man dying in the hospital bed. HOWELL: It is.
ALLEN: We want to move now to peace talks to end the Syria war. They are set to start next week.
HOWELL: But we'll tell you what might delay that process ahead.
[02:09:40] ALLEN: Also, hear the emotional moment when a little boy in China, who never thought he would have a real home, meets his new parents for the very first time.
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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. In the Syrian province of Darazore (ph), more than 400 people have been killed or executed during the past five days.
ALLEN: A London-based activist group says the casualties are part of ongoing clashes between Syrian forces and ISIS militants. The group says about half of those killed were Syrian soldiers.
HOWELL: Looking back over the past six years, thousands of people have died in Syria's savage war. More than four million Syrians have fled the conflict, which is considered the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War II. Peace talks are set to resume next week.
But as Becky Anderson tells us, there is disagreement about who will be at the negotiating table next week.
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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a war everyone agrees must be stopped, but nobody agrees on how. Twice, international peace talks have failed. Already, it's not looking like third time lucky.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of work still to be done. What we want to ensure is that this time it will not likely be delivered to a serious talk about peace and not talk about all.
ANDERSON: With days to go, the United Nations still hasn't issued invitations, saying it's up to major powers like Russia and the U.S., both supporting different sides, to agree on who is attending. But despite a last-minute meeting, there's still no clarity. In particular, a new Saudi-backed opposition council says it won't
accept any other opposition groups attending.
[02:15:21] UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): There will be no negotiation in any way whatsoever if this there is any other addition. We will not go to negotiate. This then is settled and we will not succumb to pressure.
ANDERSON: So who might be at the table? The negotiations are U.N.- mediated bringing together the Syrian government and the deeply divided opposition. That includes political and fighting groups backed by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and France, and veteran secular dissidents who oppose Islamist rebels. Major world powers like Russia, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran will also attend.
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ANDERSON: Everyone agrees that terror groups like ISIS and al Nusra have no part to play, despite their huge influence on the battlefield.
And just to illustrate how complex and delicate this is, for some, even the presence of one of the strongest rebel militias is problematic.
(on camera): Having shocked the world by parading prisoners as human shields last year, the army of Islam is among those that Saudi Arabia wants to send to the talks in a war where human rights groups say all sides are committing atrocities and war crimes. If a guest list is finally agreed on, there is sure to be some difficult compromises involved.
Becky Anderson, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
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ALLEN: As we have been reporting the last couple of weeks, the war in Syria has led to severe malnutrition there in some regions. And the ongoing fighting has made food delivery quite dangerous.
Peter Maurer joins me now from Davos with the latest. He is the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Peter, we appreciate your time.
First of all, let's talk about the cities that are in peril as far as the people that don't have access to food.
PETER MAURER, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS: Well, indeed, this is a very serious situation and we have said it for many years now. There are besieged areas in Syria, areas which are out of reach of humanitarian organization. It's not only the three or four cities which have been in the headlines in the last couple of days and weeks, which are of concern to us, but a much broader area and a much more people who are in dire need and how are suffering from the most fundamental humanitarian assistance. We have difficulties negotiating our access, delivering our food, delivering our humanitarian supplies, and this is true for Madaya, Fakai (ph), for all the cities, but for a much larger part of Syria today, a huge challenge.
ALLEN: Yes. Because ISIS stands in the way of many of these placing. How in the world do you negotiate with a group like that?
MAURER: Well, our ICRC is used to negotiate with all parties on the ground. We have been successful in certain parts of Syria always to carve out humanitarian spaces. We all know that this is not the reality as it should be. Mutual and impartial organizations should have unconditional access to populations in need. We have to negotiate each and every square foot of access in Syria, but we have been able, even with radical groups, to find consensus around Aleppo, around Homs, recent -- in recent days, around Madaya, but delivery is a huge problem. And once again, the problem is much bigger than just the couple of cities that I mentioned.
ALLEN: Well, we didn't know that there were more cities involved. These people are in dire situations. It's hard to believe that there's anyone still trying to live their life out in Syria, what we've seen in the past few years.
We appreciate you talking to us and, of course, the efforts of the ICRC.
Peter Maurer, for us, thank you.
HOWELL: One race is tightening. The other looks like a blowout.
ALLEN: We take a look at the latest polls of Democrats and Republicans. A little more than one week to go before the first vote is taken in the Iowa caucuses.
[02:19:43] HOWELL: Plus, a boy in China deemed unadoptable just met his new parents. A special report on their emotional meeting straight ahead.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
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HOWELL: We have a story to share with you. A child, who was once considered unadoptable, but now a nine-year-old boy, named JiaJia, will finally be arriving at his home. JiaJia was born with Spina Bifida and abandoned outside a fertility clinic. The Wilson family in the United States started the adoption process months ago, but due to financial issues, weren't sure that this day would ever come.
ALLEN: The day has come. A report by our own Will Ripley earlier this year went viral and the money started pouring in.
And Will was there when the Wilsons met their son for the very first time. Here's his report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Wilsons have been waiting almost a year to make the 6,600-mile journey from Kansas City to Beijing. The boy they are about to meet has been waiting his whole life.
We first met JiaJia last summer, the oldest orphan in a Chinese foster home for kids with disabilities.
(on camera): You've lived here all your life, right?
JIAJIA, BOY LIVING IN ORPHAN: Yeah.
RIPLEY: A long time. Nine years.
(voice-over): Another family broke their promise to adopt him.
(CRYING)
(on camera): It's OK.
RIPLEY (voice-over): JiaJia, desperate for parents of his own.
BRIAN WILSON, ADOPTIVE FATHER OF JIAJIA: He's a rock star.
RIPLEY: Brian and Jeri Wilson have been trying for months to adopt him, but they needed $36,000, money they didn't have.
BRIAN WILSON: Right after the story aired, about 8:00 that night, we met our goal.
RIPLEY: Donations came in from all over the world. The Wilsons raised almost $50,000 in a matter of hours. Five more months of paperwork, and today they finally meet their son.
JERI WILSON, ADOPTIVE MOTHER OF JIAJIA: As soon as he looked at us, he smiled.
RIPLEY: Within minutes, crucial bonding begins.
(LAUGHTER)
JiaJia's three older sisters back in Missouri busy preparing his new room.
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: We can't wait for him to get here.
RIPLEY: The Wilsons, both 50, say their Christian faith led them to make this life-changing choice.
JERI WILSON: It's like he's already been a part of our family forever.
RIPLEY: Before they can take him home, they must travel to JiaJia's hometown in central China, continuing the tedious process of finalizing the adoption.
The identity of JiaJia's birth parents unknown.
(on camera): It's heartbreaking to imagine what his biological parents must have been going through. JiaJia was only 3 months old and he desperately needed life-saving surgery that his parents most likely couldn't afford. So they left him here at this fertility clinic.
(voice-over): A place where people go who want children.
Jeri believes JiaJia's mother did not abandon him, she saved him.
JERI WILSON: I pray for her and I thank God for her. And I want him to know that she loved him.
RIPLEY: Hundreds of thousands of Chinese kids with disabilities end up in orphanages, and many become permanent wards of the state, their lives spent in institutions, hidden from the prying stares of strangers.
For JiaJia, time was running out. In China, the law says kids can no longer be adopted once they turn 14.
His future in America, about to unfold.
(SHOUTING)
[02:25:21] RIPLEY: Already, he's learning more English.
BRIAN WILSON: 52.
RIPLEY: Learning what it feels like to be spoiled.
JERI WILSON: A lot of spoiling.
BRIAN WILSON: Yeah.
RIPLEY: But first, JiaJia leaves the only family he's ever known.
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: JiaJia!
RIPLEY: To the other orphans, he was like a big brother.
(SINGING)
RIPLEY: To the volunteers who raised him, like a son. Many will never see him again.
BRIAN WILSON: We know he loves you guys. And he's going to miss you.
RIPLEY: It's time to say goodbye. These are happy tears.
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: JiaJia! JiaJia!
RIPLEY: It doesn't make this any easier.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bye-bye. UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Bye-bye, JiaJia!
RIPLEY: Soon, JiaJia begins his new life in Kansas City with a new American name, Jason JiaJia Wilson.
As the other orphans wait and hope that some day their parents will come and take them home.
Will Ripley, CNN, Beijing.
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HOWELL: Just a great report by Will Ripley and such a wonderful story.
ALLEN: Absolutely. Just hope that that can be an ending for the rest of the kids that live in that orphanage.
Still to come here, we'll have more on the historic snowstorm heading toward the U.S. east coast, already snarling worldwide travel. We'll have that for you right after this.
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[02:30:14] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEWSROOM. We're live in Atlanta. Welcome to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm George Howell.
The headlines we're following this hour --
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HOWELL: More now on the breaking news story that we're following, this U.S. student under investigation in North Korea.
CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Seoul, South Korea.
Paula, good to have you with us.
The most we know at this point, this is a student from a university in Virginia. What more can you tell us?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: George, what we have is from the state-run media, KCNA, and they're saying that they have detained a U.S. student, as you say, a student of Virginia University, and he has been found to have been preparing an act against the regime, trying to topple the regime, a hostile act, it's been described as. Interestingly, it says, quote, "At the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation." So KCNA is saying that this individual was trying to undermine the North Korean regime and was doing so according to state-run media with the connivance and the manipulations of the U.S. government.
This is all we have at this point. We have an upset hopefully from North Korean television. They usually have a bulletin in around an hour. They've given a name. We're trying to check out that name with our U.S. side to see exactly who this individual was.
But it wouldn't be the first time we have seen an American detained in North Korea. There's been a half dozen in the last five years alone -- George?
HOWELL: That point, what has happened in the past to other Americans who have been detained?
HANCOCKS: Yeah. There seems to be some sort of protocol, if you like, to what we've seen in the past. We generally get the information from KCNA, the state-run media. They give his name, the details. It's on television. He or she is seen to be giving a televised confession about what they've done and an apology. Then there is quite often an American dignitary, or a former president, for example, Bill Clinton, coming to Pyongyang and working out a deal so that they can take away those detainees, so that they can release the U.S. citizens. One difference recently, when a CNN team was in Pyongyang, they showed that team another man that they said was a Korean-American. This man said he was there on charges of espionage. That hasn't been confirmed by Washington at this point.
So there's really a number of alleged crimes that these individuals have been accused of. Quite often in the past, the individuals once released have said that their confession, their televised confession was coerced -- George?
HOWELL: I remember that case where CNN's Will Ripley was there in Pyongyang where, as you say, that happened.
We'll continue to follow what happens with this student from a university in Virginia who is being held in North Korea.
Paula Hancocks, live for us. Thank you for your report.
ALLEN: Out other top story, the immense snowstorm heading to the U.S.
HOWELL: A big one.
ALLEN: It's already forced U.S. airlines have canceled more than 4,500 flights on Friday and Saturday.
HOWELL: Bad news for travelers. It's making travel difficult.
CNN aviation and government regulation correspondent, Rene Marsh, has this story.
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RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNOR REGULATION CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Tonight, preparations under way at airports in major cities up and down the east coast. One of the airports in the storm's crosshairs, Reagan National, just outside Washington.
[02:35:09] UNIDENTIFIED FLYER: I think it would be disastrous for people trying to get out of town. If you look at the lines, I'm not the only one who is trying to get out a little bit early.
MARSH: Long lines are forming at ticket counters and security checkpoints.
(on camera): What's happening behind the scenes at an airport like this one?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now we're preparing for the winter storm. We're checking chemical levels and calling in our snow removal teams so we're prepared to clear the roadways and runways.
MARSH (voice-over): Airlines are already canceling some Friday and Saturday flights along the east coast. They're also allowing passengers to change their flights for free as this storm threatens to ground all flights in some major cities.
In 2010, a holiday blizzard forced airlines to cancel nearly 10,000 flights. The approaching storm could ground thousands of flights as well.
Passengers are warned to make alternate plans now.
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ALLEN: That would be a good idea, because you've been warned. Planes aren't going anymore. Rene also says depending on how severe the storm is, it could be sometime next week before air travel gets back to normal.
HOWELL: Let's talk more about the storm. Not good news for people of the east coast.
Let's bring in Brian Hurley, to talk about the situation. He is a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center, and he joins us on the line.
Brian, good to have you.
We talk about what is on the way. Tell people, first of all, what they can do just to prepare for this.
BRIAN HURLEY, METEOROLOGIST, WEATHER PREDICTION CENTER (voice-over): Good morning, George. Good morning, everyone.
Quite a significant storm. Obviously, the most significant of the year so far. Affecting a bit of real estate from the lower Mississippi Valley, Tennessee Valley, Ohio Valley, eventually, the Mid-Atlantic region. Preparations should have been made already certainly with the lead time we've had with this storm. Very well modeled over the last few days. Before the heaviest snow hits, certainly, especially if you get into the eastern part of this expansive area of watches and warnings, people should have their preparations already done. Certainly hunkered -- getting ready to hunker down and more significantly, stay off the roadways. Even before the storm starts flying, because a lot of those roads are being pretreated, even as we speak. HOWELL: Several states have declared states of emergencies. Can you
talk to us about how people should handle themselves after the storm passes? Because again, you know, when there's so much snow on the ground, the concern about the elderly, the concern about pets who may have been outside who should have been brought in, what's the situation with that?
HURLEY: Yeah. Currently, the recommendation is especially here in the Mid-Atlantic where we expect a lot of wind with the system as it deepens offshore, we're going to have the blizzard conditions here in the mid-Atlantic especially, and even as you get toward the coast, so there are going to be some power outages, unfortunately, heavy snow and with the wind. So currently the law enforcement officials have been asking folks to have the back yup plans in place to kind of keep your house warm, you know, maybe have enough firewood to keep your warmth going here, to prepare for perhaps several-day outage. As far as, you know, when the snow ends, maybe people perhaps are going to get the urge to get right back out on the roadways, but that's going to take quite a bit of time. We need to give the road crews time to clean up because there's going to be a lot of snow to clean up.
HOWELL: Talking about how to prepare as the storm heads this way and talking about how to deal with it after it passes through.
Brian Hurley, with the Weather Prediction Center, we appreciate your time today. Thank you.
HURLEY: Thank you, George.
HOWELL: Time to talk U.S. politics. The latest CNN/ORC poll shows Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, with a double-digit lead in Iowa. That state holds the first caucuses on February 1st.
ALLEN: It's time we talk Iowa, Iowa, Iowa. Trump leads the pack with 37 percent. Senator Ted Cruz is in second place, 27 percent, and Marco Rubio is in third place with 14 percent.
HOWELL: Among Democrats, Bernie Sanders has jumped ahead of presumed frontrunner, Hillary Clinton. Sanders has 51 percent to Hillary Clinton's 43 percent.
ALLEN: And Sander's surge has Clinton sharpening her attacks on her rivals.
Jeff Zeleny is in the capital of Iowa.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: In Iowa today, Hillary Clinton was focused above all on one person.
[02:40:09] HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Senator Sanders.
Senator Sanders.
Senator Sanders.
ZELENY: After months of looking beyond Bernie Sanders, Clinton urged voters to give his policies a close look and real scrutiny.
CLINTON: But in theory isn't enough. A president has to deliver in reality.
(APPLAUSE)
ZELENY: A reversal of fortunes for Clinton, now running behind Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire. It explains why she's suddenly squarely taking him on, telling Democrats his idea are simply too good to be true.
CLINTON: I'll tell you I'm not interested in ideas that sound good on paper but will never make it in the real world.
ZELENY: But the real politics 11 days before the voting begins increasing favoring Sanders. He's turning optimistic, launching a new television ad featuring the old Simon and Garfunkel anthem "America."
(SINGING)
ZELENY: In New Hampshire today, Sanders all but ignored Clinton.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I), VERMONT & DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's going to be a close election there. I think we have an excellent chance to win that.
ZELENY: The Democratic establishment and the Clintons are pulling out all stops to keep that from happening. She reminded voters they're not just electing a president.
CLINTON: We're also choosing a commander-in-chief.
ZELENY: She questioned whether Sanders had a firm grasp of global affairs.
CLINTON: Senator Sanders doesn't often talk about foreign policy but when he does it raises concerns because sometimes it can sound like he hasn't thought it through.
ZELENY: She pointed to Iran.
CLINTON: For example, he suggested we invite Iranian troops into Syria. That is like asking the arsonist to be the firefighters.
ZELENY: And took aim at Sanders' health care plan, saying it would erode Obamacare.
CLINTON: We can get this done without another divisive debate about our entire health care system and without giving Republicans an opening to come in and tear down everything we've achieved. ZELENY: Her words were carefully scripted, delivered by teleprompter.
As Clinton tries to regain the upper hand, she told voters she's a fighter who's been down before.
CLINTON: And I can tell you --
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: -- I've gotten back up time and time again, because as long as there is work to do and people to help, I'm not going to quit.
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HOWELL: That was CNN's Jeff Zeleny reporting for us.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are stepping up their attacks ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
ALLEN: They can step it up even when they've already stepped it up.
CNN's political reporter, Sara Murray, has the latest from every attack they can think of.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER (voice-over): A flurry of punches flying between the two top Republicans in what's become a two- man race in Iowa.
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald seems to be getting very angry. He's rattled and he's tossing out a lot of insults.
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION (voice-over): He's a nasty guy that everybody dislikes.
MURRAY: Ted Cruz and Donald Trump both looking to land a damaging blow.
TRUMP (on camera): If we can do well in Iowa, we're going to run the table.
MURRAY: Now Trump and Cruz are lobbying every attack they can think of.
Trump knocking Cruz for failing to properly disclose loans to fund his Senate bid.
TRUMP (voice-over): He didn't list that he borrowed a lot of money from Goldman Sachs and Citibank. That's a big thing when he's always talking about the banks. The people didn't know that he was borrowing money from Goldman Sachs and Citibank.
MURRAY: A misstep Cruz has dismissed as a paperwork error.
On the campaign trail in Las Vegas today, Trump took another swipe. TRUMP (on camera): Jeb is down the toilet. Ted is starting to go
down. He's getting nervous.
MURRAY: And Cruz is going after one of Trump's core strengths with Republicans, immigration, saying Trump was nowhere to be found when the issue was up for debate in Congress.
CRUZ: I stood shoulder to shoulder with Jeff Sessions and Steve King and millions of Americans defending -- defending our sovereignty, standing against amnesty, fighting to secure the borders. And missing from the entire battle was Donald Trump. If he cared about this issue so much, where was he when the fight was being lost?
MURRAY: As Republican leaders line up to bash Cruz, the Texas Senator is painting Trump as an establishment darling.
CRUZ: There's a bunch of big money in this race. The Washington establishment are abandoning Marco Rubio now and they're rushing to Trump.
MURRAY: Cruz is preparing to hit the trail with Glenn Beck, a high- profile guest that Trump says is no match for his endorsement from Sarah Palin. Today, Trump tweeting "Whacko Glenn Beck is a sad answer to the Sarah Palin endorsement that Cruz so desperately wanted. Glenn is failing, crying, lost soul."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Sara Murray reporting for us there.
ALLEN: Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, the fall out over poison water in the Michigan city of Flint.
[02:45:13] HOWELL: Why important information was kept from the public for months before the dangerous details finally emerged.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALLEN: More fallout in the poisoned water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The Environmental Protection Agency's regional administration for that area is resigning. Susan Headman admitted last week her department knew last April that Flint residents were at risk for lead poisoning but did not alert the public.
HOWELL: In the meantime, U.S. President Barack Obama is making $80 million in new funding available to help fix Michigan's water infrastructures.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In last month's bipartisan budget agreement, we secured additional funding to help cities like yours build water infrastructure. We'll have that to you by the end of next week, including more than $80 million for Michigan. Our children should not have to be worried about the water that they're drinking in American cities.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[02:50:16] HOWELL: He's absolutely right there.
ALLEN: Absolutely.
HOWELL: The water crisis in Flint is also the subject of the latest "Time" magazine cover story.
ALLEN: The article titled "The Poisoning of an American City: Toxic Water, Sick Kids, and the Leaders Who Betrayed Flint."
I think that's an accurate title.
HOWELL: Kind of says it, yeah.
ALLEN: Very sad.
HOWELL: Hundreds of people in Flint say the contaminated water has made them sick, everything from hair loss to rashes and other unexplained illnesses.
With more on this, here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Look right at me. Look right at me.
(voice-over): When her son Gavin started to become Illinois, it was subtle, so subtle LeeAnne Walters wouldn't have been blamed for missing it.
(on camera): Look up. Keep your head straight. Over here.
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: Good job. Look up. Look down. Do you have any -- do your fingers feel numb at all?
(voice-over): One day she looked at Gavin and then looked at his twin brother, Garrett, side by side. The difference was staggering.
LEEANNE WALTERS, MOTHER OF TWO & FLINT RESIDENT: The size he is right now is pretty much the size he was last February, February 5th of 2015.
GUPTA (on camera): Almost a year?
WALTERS: Almost a year ago. Yes. GUPTA: How much does he weigh versus his twin?
WALTERS: He's 38.5 pounds and his twin is 58 pounds.
GUPTA (voice-over): For months, they had been drinking the same water. But Gavin was showing the effects of being poisoned by lead. And such is the nature of lead poisoning, it can affect people differently, even twins.
(on camera): Do you remember what the number was?
WALTERS: 6.5.
GUPTA: And what is normal?
WALTERS: Nothing. There's no safe exposure to lead.
GUPTA (voice-over): It's a mantra repeated by doctors all over the world, no lead, not even a little bit, is acceptable. Because we know more than ever what it does to the body.
When lead is ingested or inhaled, no organ in the body is spared. Lead even attacks the DNA, affecting not just you, but your future children. All of it essentially irreversible. Equally frustrating, the symptoms could show up now or years from now.
WALTERS: Wait, watch and see. How do you live your life like that?
GUPTA (on camera): It's upsetting.
WALTERS: He's four.
GUPTA (voice-over): The lead was coming from the corroded pipes carrying the water. The longer the water was in the pipes, the more hazardous it came.
(on camera): One of the problems is that the Walters' house is one of the furthest away from the treatment facility. It partly explains why the testing here was among the highest, 13,000 parts per billion. To give you context, five parts per billion would be cause for concern. 5,000 parts per billion is related to toxic waste. This home, 13,000 parts per billion.
But it's not just one home. It's an entire community. 100,000 people live here, 10,000 of whom are under the age of 6, and they're the one's that are most at risk.
DR. MONA HANNA-ATTISHA, PEDIATRICIAN: When pediatricians hear anything about lead, we absolutely freak out.
GUPTA (voice-over): It wasn't a freak-out at first, but doctors in Flint started hearing whispers about elevated lead levels in the water in 2014. So this Doctor Mona Hanna-Attisha started looking at lead levels in her young patients. What she found was shocking.
HANNA-ATTISHA: The percentage doubled in the city of Flint. In some neighborhoods, it actually tripled.
GUPTA: She sounded the alarm to state officials as loudly as she could. No one listened. Instead --
HANNA-ATTISHA: We were attacked. I was called an unfortunate researcher, that I was causing hysteria and that the state's numbers were not consistent with ours.
GUPTA: Maybe denial was so easy because of this. Flint, a city surrounded by some of the largest fresh water lakes in the world, was now delivering some of the world's most contaminated water to its citizens.
(on camera): In October of 2014, General Motors, you say, stopped using the water because it was corroding their parts.
HANNA-ATTISHA: Right.
GUPTA: That seems like a pretty obvious clue.
HANNA-ATTISHA: Yeah. There were red flags. So alarms should have been going off in people's brains. If it's corroding engine parks, what is it doing to our plumbing that is predominantly lead based?
GUPTA (voice-over): Water that could corrode engine parts. Imagine what it was doing to the body and brain of Gavin.
HANNA-ATTISHA: These people did nothing wrong. They did nothing wrong, except being poor.
RICK SNYDER, (R), GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN: In May, Professor Marc Edwards, from Virginia Tech, and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha sounded an alarm about lead in Flint's water.
GUPTA (on camera): The governor says, look, you can have anything you want. Anything, Mona.
HANNA-ATTISHA: I want a rewind button to 2014 --
(LAUGHTER)
-- that's what I want, because you can't undo this. You cannot undo this.
GUPTA: If there's ever been a U.S. city in need of a rewind button, it's Flint, Michigan. More than a third of people here live in poverty. Life expectancy is 10 to 20 years shorter than the rest of the state. There's not a full-scale grocery anywhere in sight.
HANNA-ATTISHA: And then we got lead. And if you were to think of something to put in a population to keep them down for this generation and generations to come, it would be lead. I have a loss of words.
GUPTA: But they, Dr. Mona, Leann, the 100,000 citizens of Flint, have to believe that clean water will return one day soon.
(on camera): Do you know why people have been putting you on TV lately?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Yeah.
GUPTA: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Because they want to --
GUPTA: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: -- so they could see us.
GUPTA: Because you're handsome.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Yep.
GUPTA: Yep.
(voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Flint, Michigan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: The story out of Flint is heartbreaking for these families.
ALLEN: That's unreal what's happened. It really is.
HOWELL: Reporting from Dr. Sanjay Gupta. We will stay on top of that story.
ALLEN: We'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM after the break.
I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell.
Stay with us as we bring you full coverage next hour of the winter storm that is threatening to impact 75 million people in the eastern part of the United States. You're looking at a live early morning picture of the U.S. capitol.
ALLEN: We'll have more on the U.S. student arrested in North Korea.
You're watching CNN.
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