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Wolf
Interview with Hillary Clinton; De Blasio Talks Preparations for Blizzard; Virginia Prepares for Snowstorm. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired January 22, 2016 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier in the year, Hillary Clinton was ahead by 18 points in that poll. And Hillary Clinton is leading san Sanders 55 percent to 38 percent. That is from December. And Hillary Clinton is leading a town hall in Rochester right now.
And yesterday, I had a chance to speak to her, and I asked her about Bernie Sanders trying to paint her as part of the establishment.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I just don't understand what that means. He has been in Congress, and elected to office a lot longer than I have, and I was in the Senate for eight wonderful years representing New York. He has been in the Congress for 25. So I will let your viewer make their own judgment.
BLITZER: And some have compared Bernie Sanders' coalition that he is putting together in Iowa to then-Senator Barack Obama's coalition in 2008. You lost to then Senator Barack Obama, and he was the so-called candidate of change. Is Sanders the candidate of change in 2016?
CLINTON: No, I think that I'm the candidate of real change in people's real lives that will make a difference, whether it is on health care or college affordability or the economy where I have laid out specific proposals and how I would pay for them. I feel really good about our campaign in Iowa. We have built a grass roots organization. We have tens of thousands of committed people who are not only committed to caucusing for me, but are out knocking on the doors and in sub zero weather, and making phone calls, and d doing everything that an enthusiastic and energized campaign needs to do. And so we are going to do all we can between now and February 1st to earn as much support as possible.
BLITZER: Let me ask you about the intelligence communities' inspector general who says that the private e-mail on your server contains what he claimed is classified intelligence, and one of the campaign spokesman says that the inspector general is not, quote, "acting in good faith." Do you believe they are not acting in good faith, the I.G. of the intelligence community?
CLINTON: Well, all I can say is this, Wolf. I think it is a continuation of an intra-agency dispute that is going on, and it is not uncommon in our government when it comes to releasing information as I have requested that mine be released. And it doesn't change the fact that I never sent or received any material marked "classified." I do believe that the leaks which are coming out and being in some way misrepresenting and mischaracterizing what is going on are troubling, but the basic fact that no material marked as classified was sent or received by me has not been changed.
BLITZER: Are they falsifying the information?
CLINTON: I hope not. You know, I hope not. I hope that there is not any information to that effect. I want this to be resolved, and as the State Department has said repeatedly, I will repeat, I dead not send or receive any classified material. And this latest example the best I determine is going to turn on whether or not someone forwarded a "New York Times" article in the public domain. So there are a lot of unanswered questions that I would like to see resolved.
BLITZER: One final question. Do you believe that the American people are ready to elect a Socialist as president of the United States?
CLINTON: Well, let me say this. Again, it is up to the voters. I know that a number of Democrats and people who I highly respect are concerned and expressing that concern to me, to journalists and others. I'm going to just repeat what I believe which is that I am the best choice to be the next president and commander-in-chief. That is why I'm working as hard as I can to make my case on behalf of my experience, my judgment, my plans, my vision to the people in Iowa, New Hampshire, and the states beyond. Because I think that this is a very consequential election which has enormous implications for our country. And certainly whatever differences there are between Senator Sanders and myself, they pale in comparison to differences of the Republicans running for president.
BLITZER: Madam Secretary, thanks so much for joining us.
CLINTON: My pleasure. Thank you, Wolf.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[13:34:28] BLITZER: And tune in Monday night, as Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley will go head to head in the Democratic presidential town hall live from Des Moines. Chris Cuomo will moderate. It is a unique opportunity for the Iowans to ask questions of the three Democrats. That is Monday, 9:00 p.m. eastern live, only here on CNN.
It is the beginning of what is happening right now. States all along the east coast in the United States are starting to feel the effects of a massive winter storm. The state officials say they are ready for the worst. We will take a look at the preparation, and what we can all expect when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is over at the city's office of emergency management talking about preparations for the city, getting ready for the blizzard. Let's listen in. BILL DE BLASIO, (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: And so people here are
doing a tremendous job in the preparations. They are very experienced at dealing with the snowstorms, and they are in a high level of coordination. We are constantly monitoring the weather forecasts. We have seen some intensifying of the storm as the forecasts have been coming in, in recent hour, and so we are constantly adjusting our operation to reflect the forecasts that we are receiving, and of course, we are ready to upgrade the response further. I have reminded you all in the past that the storms can move more quick or more slowly. They can be smaller or bigger than we have forecasted, so we plan for an even bigger storm, and earlier storm.
[13:40:10] At this moment, we believe that we will see snow beginning in earnest after midnight tonight, again, real accumulation is starting by about 8:00 a.m. when we put that winter emergency into effect.
Let me thank all of the leaders of the administration here, and the agencies represented, and you will hear from a couple of them in a moment, and others as we take questions. I, of course, want to thank the police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Jimmy O'Neal is here --
BLITZER: All right, the mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, he has just declared, starting at 8:00 a.m. eastern time in New York City, what he calls a emergency, a local weather emergency, a local winter weather emergency, which means that unless you have urgent, urgent needs, stay off of the roads, no motor vehicles in New York City. He says all day Saturday. That could continue into Sunday, starting at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. A local winter weather emergency goes into effect in New York City. They are getting ready for the blizzard. All unnecessary traffic on the streets of New York should be avoided by all costs, and he says repeatedly, stay off of the roads. We will monitor the situation in New York City here in Washington, D.C.
In Virginia, the governor there, Terry McAuliff, says that he is ready. He has thousands of personnel and hundreds of thousands of tons of salt, and liquid salt as well, and they are positioned around the state and ready to go.
Nick Valencia is joining us from Fairfax, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C.
Nick, what are the weather conditions that they are bracing for there?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the preparations here, Wolf, are already under way. Virginia is doing all it can to get ready for the winter storm. It is cold, and hovering around 25 degrees Fahrenheit, but it is not the major concern. It is the major winter snowstorm system that is going to be moving in here in the next couple of hours, starting at 4:00 p.m. You can see behind me, the preparations are under way.
Let's get more on that from Steve Shannon with VDOT.
What are you doing to prepare, Steve? Set the scene for us. STEVE SHANNON, VIRGINIA DOT: Well, first of all, welcome to snowy Virginia. What you see is the trucks working on the interstate system. We started the mobilization, which started yesterday, of applying -- we pretreated the roads throughout northern Virginia. We have been loading up the trucks for the salt and the sand for the subdivisions, and they're going out and pre-staging.
VALENCIA: And you have thousands of pieces of equipment, including snowplows and heavy machinery. Tell us about that.
SHANNON: Close to 4,100 total of all type of equipment that we use for the storms.
VALENCIA: And so you know what happened Wednesday night, and lot of people are still upset. D.C./metro region, you service that area. How is this going to be different this time around? Are you more ready than you were Wednesday?
SHANNON: Well, I can only speak for Virginia, but, yes, there are lessons learned on every event. We are well ahead of the storm here. There's not going to be any duplication, and the roads are going to be bad. This is an epic storm. It is huge. But we are ready for it.
VALENCIA: And I was talking to another spokeswoman from the National Weather Service who told you to be prepared for up to 40 inches of snow between now and early Sunday. How do you get ready for that?
SHANNON: Well, you start back in June. We started in June with our training, with our contracts, getting the contracts, and training the contractors, and training material, and making sure we have all our materials, check our trucks to make sure they are in good shape, and when it comes, we do our thing.
VALENCIA: We can see it from the optics point of view, we understand that you are ready. And we know that the granddaughters are watching back at home.
SHANNON: Yes, and she and my other 10.
VALENCIA: Great job, Steve. We'll catch up with you again in just a little bit.
We have been talking to the head of the Virginia Department of Transportation, and they say it is a huge weather event, and when the heaviest part comes through, where you are when that snow hits, it is likely where you're going to be around for a while, and, hopefully, you like the people that you are around, and safe throughout the event, because it is going to be lasting all weekend -- Wolf?.
[13:44:25]BLITZER: Yes, it certainly. Unfortunately, a lot of people will be losing power, because it is heavy snow, with fierce winds, and the trees are going to be coming down quickly.
Thank you, Nick.
Still ahead, a different story. Bernard Shaw, the former CNN anchor, a very distinguished journalist, and a man who changed my life. That is coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Over the years, there are lots of friends and colleagues who come and go, and some who truly have a lasting impact. All week we have been bringing you stories about the CNN anchors about the people who change their lives. And when I came to CNN, one man started as a colleague and became not only a close friend, but a mentor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Happening now --
(voice-over): After years of reporting live for CNN, I'd like to think that I have finally gotten the hang of it.
(on camera): Breaking news --
(voice-over): But for me, it was not always easy. 25 years ago, I was the new kid on the block, a reporter who was new to television.
(on camera): One, two, three, four, five. Is that better or worse?
BLITZER (voice-over): And a little bit over my head.
(on camera): He said he will support the plan.
(LAUGHTER)
As far as Israel is concerned.
BLITZER (voice-over): My career on air happened by happenstance. I was a print reporter and author in Washington working in a building right next door to CNN.
BERNARD SHAW, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: Middle Eastern stories were a staple in the daily news coverage, and you would come out of your office and walker across the alley to the side door and be reporting.
[13:49:57] With us now to discuss the massacre report and the effect of the Begin government is Wolf Blitzer.
BLITZER: If that wasn't nerve-wracking enough, the man that was interviewing me was Bernard Shaw, CNN's principle Washington anchor who, in those days, was already a legend.
SHAW: Four shots were fired at the president.
BLITZER: Bernie grew up in Chicago. After college, he attended the Marine Corps where he became interested in journalism. After leaving the service, he went back to his hometown and began his career. After Chicago, he landed the White House beat, reporting for CBS and ABC News.
SHAW: President Carter says --
BLITZER: By the time he arrived at CNN in 1980, he was already one of the most prominent reports and anchors in the country.
When I would watch him back then, little did I know he'd become a mentor and a friend.
(on camera): I knew he brought depth to covering news from a television perspective that I didn't have. I sort of relied on him.
SHAW: So what's the latest on Israel?
BLITZER (voice-over): To gain some insights, I watched him closely to see how he was doing it, what he was doing.
SHAW: In fact, the entire national economy will be stimulated.
BLITZER (on camera): I didn't understand the difference between writing for a newspaper or a magazine as opposed to writing for television.
SHAW: You were an excellent writer, still are. My charge was to assist you to be a better reporter in a visual medium.
BLITZER: I started on May 8th, 1990. August 1st, 1990, a few weeks later, Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait.
SHAW: Baptism by fire.
BLITZER (voice-over): The first gulf war put CNN on the map, and me, well, in front of it. As the new Pentagon correspondent, I watched Bernie along with my colleagues, Peter Arnett and John Holloman, reporting from Baghdad in the lead-up to the war.
After interviewing Saddam Hussein in the past, Bernie returned there for another interview. When that fell through, he chose to stay. Then the bombs began falling.
SHAW (voice-over): The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated.
BLITZER (on camera): The first thing I said I hope he's OK. I knew this air campaign the bombs were coming in big time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, Baghdad.
BLITZER: You really were scared for your life?
SHAW: Yes, very much so. In war, one moment you're alive and. The next you're dead.
BLITZER (voice-over): Watching Bernie during those days of crisis taught me a lot about how to do my job better. About what we do as a team sport. What we didn't know at the time was how big a toll this took on Bernie.
BLITZER (on camera): I only found out recently he came back from Baghdad with post-traumatic stress and he was suffering.
SHAW: There were times when I could be walking down the street and hear a sound and I would jump. There would be times I would go into mild depression when I thought about everything that had happened and could have happened in the negative sense.
BLITZER: Bernie never told us because, for him, the news always came first. He taught me about the balance between showing emotion on air and being in control, to better help viewers understand what's happening.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN ANCHOR: A powerful car bomb shears off nine stories of a federal building in Oklahoma's capital.
SHAW (on camera): That story was almost too emotional for me. It required a lot of self-control.
I have tried not to look grim, sound grim, or think grimly, for that matter, but you know it's hard under these circumstances.
BLITZER: During the commercial breaks, I said to him, I remember vividly saying, Bernie, this is not easy, is it?
I remember watching you and learning from you. I said he really knows how to convey the moment to the American people.
SHAW: Always remember that less is more. And less is better.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN ANCHOR: It's not going to be the same without you here.
BLITZER (voice-over): When Bernie retired in 2001, I never thought I'd take his seat in the anchor chair.
(on camera): Good evening.
One thing I always remembered was how generous you were to reporters like me.
SHAW: For the latest, we turn to our senior White House correspondent, Wolf Blitzer.
Far be it for me, because of egotistical reasons, actually tell the viewers what you have to report.
BLITZER: You would always compliment me at the end of that report. Nice work, good job, strong report. My parents, who were watching, would always say something, like, that Bernie Shaw is such a nice man.
(LAUGHTER)
He complimented you so nicely.
(voice-over): Because of our schedules, Bernie and I don't get to see each other as much as we once did. When we do, time melts away, and I walk away having learned something.
SHAW: Your demeanor shown through throughout that debate.
BLITZER: That's just what happens with a mentor. And there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about the doors he opened for me and for so many others.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[13:55:04] BLITZER: On behalf of all of us, Bernie Shaw, thank you very much.
Please be sure to tune in for our entire two-hour special "The Person Who Changed My Life." It airs Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on CNN. And in the 3:00 p.m. eastern hour, today, CNN Anchor Poppy Harlow shares her store with Brooke Baldwin. Stay tuned for that.
That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."
For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is coming up.
For our viewers here in North America, "NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin starts right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
[14:00:13] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go. Top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
