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Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Dies; Scalia's Death a Big Topic at GOP Debate; S.C. Primary This Week; Pressure for Russia to be More Careful About Targets in Syria; Pope Francis Visits Mexico. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired February 14, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:00:10] GEORGE HOWELL, "CNN NEWSROOM" ANCHOR: One of the longest serving Supreme Court justices dies. And the political wrangling over who should succeed him starts immediately.

Plus just under a week until to the next Presidential Primary. The Republican contenders have heated words for each other on the debate stage.

And residents of the Southern California neighborhood yearn for an opportunity to return home months after a gas leak forced them out.

From CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

The U.S. Supreme Court has lost one of its most conservative voices. For almost 30 years now, Antonin Scalia made a name for himself on the high court with his biting whit and penetrating questions. He consistently opposed abortion, gay rights and gun control all on strict constitutional grounds. Outside the U.S. Supreme Court, the American flag was lowered to half staff late Saturday.

Meanwhile, in a debate on Saturday night, the Republican Presidential candidates hinted at the fight ahead. It will be between President Obama, who will nominate a successor, and the Senate, which will approve or reject that nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do not believe the President should appoint someone. And it's not unprecedented. In fact, it's been over 80 years since the lame duck President has appointed a Supreme Court justice. And it reminds us of this, how important this election is.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Thank you.

RUBIO: Someone on the stage will get to choose the balance of the Supreme Court, and it will begin by filling this vacancy that there's now. We need people on the bench that understand the constitution is not living and breathing document, it is to be interpreted as originally meant.

JEB BUSH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The simple fact is the next President needs to appoint someone with a proven conservative record, somewhere to have Justice Scalia that is lover of liberty, the believes in limited government that consistently applied that kind of philosophy, that didn't try legislate from the bench, that was respectful of the constitution, and then fight and fight and fight for that nomination to make sure that that nomination passes.

TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If the Senate needs to stand strong and say we're not going to give up, the U.S. Supreme Court for a generation by allowing Barack Obama to make one more liberal appointee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And the U.S. President Barack Obama says that he will nominate someone to fill the opening in due time. He has close to a year I should say remaining in his term. Mr. Obama also praised Justice Scalia's years of service.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: Justice Scalia dedicated his life to the cornerstone of our democracy, the rule of law. Tonight we honor his extraordinary service to our nation and remember one of the towering legal figures of our time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The Democratic U.S. presidential candidates are also weighing in on Scalia's death. They are blasting Republican calls to block whomever the president nominates to replace him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now I'm sure we'll all have a lot more to say about this in the coming days. So let me just make one point, Barack Obama is President of the United States until January 20th, 2017. That is a fact, my friends, whether the Republicans like it or not, election have consequences. The President has a responsibility to nominate a new justice, and the Senate has a responsibility to vote.

BERNIE SANDERS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I very much hope that President Obama will bring forth a strong nominee, and that we can get that nominee confirmed as soon as possible. The Supreme Court of the United States has nine members, not eight. We need that ninth member. A lot of important issues coming up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: So what is the significance of this empty seat now on the Supreme Court bench? I'm joined now by Elizabeth Wydra, she is the President of the Constitutional Accountability Center and now joins us via Skype from Washington. Elizabeth, good to have you.

ELIZABETH WYDRA, PRESIDENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY: Great to be with you.

HOWELL: Thank you, thanks for taking time with us today. So, you know, we've heard President Obama indicate that he will nominate a successor. So what is the likelihood of the President's nominee to fill the vacancy?

WYDRA: Well that's really up to the Senate. You know, the president has been elected up until the last day of his term.

[05:05:2] And that includes appointing justices when a vacancy arrives on the Supreme Court as it has with the sad passing of Justice Scalia, whose passing, we certainly mourn and give our condolences to his friends and family in the D.C. community and beyond.

But there's no reason why the Senate should not fulfill its job after the president does his job of appointing a nominee to then consider and confirm that nominee from the president because there are plenty of qualified jurists out there from the pool in which the president will be choosing, and there's no reason why everyone can't do their jobs according to the constitution and according to the will of the people because they already weighed in on this when they reelected President Barack Obama in the last election.

HOWELL: But if you look at it from the perspective of the partisan, you know, divide here that's playing out on the election cycle now, you heard the Republicans in the debate overnight saying, "Look, even Donald Trump delay, delay, delay." So talk to us about whether that can actually happen. Can the Senate actually blocked this and help us understand this Thurmond rule.

WYDRA: So there have, you know, there have been suggestions that the next president should be the one to choose the nominee. But I don't think that that really is what the constitution had in mind. When you have the president elected for a full term, you have the procedure by which the president appoints Supreme Court justices or puts forth nominees for the roles, and the Senate has its constitutional job of considering and confirming those nominees. So that's the way that the constitution works.

And you know, you might want to try to put in partisan politics to gum up the process, but that's not really what our nation's founding charter has in mind for how this process should work, although I think they probably would not have in mind the way that the Senate is working dysfunctionally currently in the first place. But I would note that the Supreme Court is one of the branches of government that actually has the highest approval ratings among the public. And I think it's because it doesn't have the partisan dysfunction that keeps it in almost permanent gridlock that we see in the Senate.

And so I think it would be a sad testament to the institution that Justice Scalia gave so many years of service to, to introduce that dysfunction into the Supreme Court and leave them short staffed for what could be a year or maybe even more.

HOWELL: Elizabeth, we have a little less than a minute here but I want to ask you briefly and help us understand the balance of the court now and what happens to those cases that have yet to be heard.

WYDRA: So the court can continue to consider the cases that are before at this term and there are extraordinarily important cases to the American people before the court ranging from immigration to abortion to voting rights. But those cases will be considered by eight justices. If there is tie, a four-four tie then there will be no president set by the Supreme Court, and instead the lower court ruling will be affirmed by an evenly divided court. That's the language they use.

But a lot of these cases could swing slightly differently without Justice Scalia and perhaps more important, there isn't a full complement of justices, and that's really the way the Supreme Court works best for the American people.

HOWELL: Elizabeth Wydra, live for us in Washington, D.C. Elizabeth, thank you so much for your insight.

WYDRA: My pleasure.

HOWELL: Now, more on the Republican debate that happened in Greenville, South Carolina and they were fireworks. The Republican contenders for the White House faced off on Saturday, exactly one week before their critical South Carolina Primary. And the stakes could not be higher. The candidates went after each other no-holds-barred. Marco Rubio and Donald Trump accused Ted Cruz of being a liar and then Cruz fired back.

CRUZ: Donald Trump of New York.

Marco went on Univision in Spanish and said he would not rescind President Obama's illegal executive amnesty on his first day in office. I have promised to rescind every single illegal executive action including that one ...

RUBIO: Firs of all, I don't know how he knows what I said on Univision because he doesn't speak Spanish. And second of all, the other point that I was ...

RUBIO: This is a disturbing pattern now because for a number of weeks now, Ted Cruz has just been telling lies. He lied about Ben Carson in Iowa. He lied about marriage, he's lying about all sorts of things and now he makes things up. And here's the truth Ted Cruz supported legalizing people that were in this country in this illegally, and only now ...

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Rubio and Trump also went head to head on whether George W. Bush kept the U.S. safe when he was president during 9/11. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: On behalf of me and my family, I thank God all the time that it was George W. Bush in the White House on 9/11 and not Al Gore.

[05:10:08] And I think you can look back and in hindsight and say a couple of things but he kept us safe and not only he didn't keep us safe and not only he did keep us safe, but no matter what you want to say about weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was in violation of U.N. resolutions, an open violation, and the world wouldn't do anything about it and George W. Bush enforced with the International Community refused to do -- and again he kept us safe, and I am forever grateful to what he did for this ...

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How did he keep us safe when the world trade center came down? I lost hundreds of friends. The world trade center came down during the reign -- he kept us safe? That's not safe. That is not safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: All right so they are in the background under Donald Trump, you heard another key participant in this debate. It was the audience. That crowd off stage, it was boisterous, it was loud, and spirited. Earlier, my colleague, Natalie Allen, spoke with Larry Sabato the director of the center for politics at the University of Virginia and she asked him about the audience's reaction to the candidates.

(BEGIN VEIDEO CLIP)

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: This was a mob scene on the stage and also in the audience. The audience was completely out of control, and so loud and obnoxious, at times you couldn't hear what the candidates were saying.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm also going to ask you about the audience joining in the bloodbath per se. You know, Donald Trump has been at advance when he is trying to hold back on vulgarities that he's used before, and the people are like wanting it. They just kind of wanting these bloodbaths. What does that say about this part of the voters and what they're looking for perhaps in a president or the issues?

SABATO: Well, they're angry. And certainly the Trump followers are. That's his 35 percent. That's his one-third of the Republican Party. Now, there are -- a good many people in the other two-thirds who feel the very same way and you saw that. There was booing and all kinds of activities of one sort or another directed at just about every candidate, encouraged by the candidates.

I lost count how many times Bush and Trump engaged and poked at one another in a very direct way. There was nothing subtle about anything they said but of course Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio went after one another. I think Rubio missed having Chris Christie there to do the attacks on him but all of them except for Kasich and Ben Carson were fundamentally negative.

ELLEN: Right and Kasich and Carson kept trying to be the anti- negative but they would only get their little short time to that and it would go back go back to what it was. Jeb Bush didn't get kind of a zinger in there though. He said -- and to Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan didn't tear down people the way Donald Trump does. He tore down the Berlin Wall. So he seemed to be a little more on game and message when it comes to taking on Trump. What did you think?

SABATO: Oh, I thought he had -- he's done well the last several debates and what's interesting to me is his poll numbers haven't moved. Now, his campaign did a superb job in packing the audience. I think that was obvious to everyone but his11 percent approximately in the polls in South Carolina. Trump is at about 35. Bush is actually in third or fourth place. So he would have to gain an awful lot from this debate, and it would have to last a full week which doesn't sound like very long but in our world today, it's amazing how quickly these little bumps from events like debate can fade.

ELLEN: Yeah absolutely. So what's your takeaway other than the fact that this was the kind of blood sport there in South Carolina at this debate? As far as anyone that got significant points on the conservative issues that matter to these voters?

SABATO: Mainly, Natalie, they reinforced the support they already have. They realize they're not going to make converts at this point. This campaign has been going on seemingly forever. What they have to do in South Carolina and elsewhere is to motivate the people who already like them to turn out disproportionately that's the only way they're going to meet the expectations and potentially get a rocket boost into the next series of primaries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Some strong language at the normally diplomatic security conference in Munich, Germany, on Saturday, including warnings and stern responses between Russia and the West. Stay with us.

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[05:17:23] HOWELL: A U.K. group that monitors the Syrian war says that Turkey is now targeting Kurdish rebels in Northern Syria. Those Kurds known as the YPG are backed by the United States, but they're seen as terrorists by Turkey. The Syrian observatory for human rights says Turkish shelling killed two Kurdish fighters in Northern Syria on Saturday. Turkey's prime minister calls that claims that the Kurds fired over the border into his country first.

Pressure is mounting on Russia now to be more careful about who it targets in Syria. On Saturday, the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, told a Munich security conference session that many Russia's attacks have been against legitimate opposition groups and not ISIS. Russia has denied, though, bombing any civilians. The tensions, they are still clear. Russia's prime minister even said Saturday that Russia's current relationship with the west is similar to the cold war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMITRY MEDVEDEV, RUSSIAN PRIME MINSITER: NATO's policy with regard to Russia remains unfriendly and opaque. One could go as far as to say that we've slid back to a new cold war. Almost a navigate basis we're called one of the most terrible threats either to NATO as a whole or to Europe or to the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson is live from Munich, Germany at that Security conference. Nic, good to have you this hour. So look we heard that icy perception that was stated by Russia's prime minister about relations with the west, and now we understand that Russia's President Putin and U.S President Obama spoke by phone specifically, talking about Ukraine. What more can you tell us about that conversation?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, talking about Ukraine and about Syria, we've got a few more details now. These have been released by the Kremlin. What the Kremlin says was President Obama and President Vladimir Putin discussed the importance of finding a common strategy to tackle terrorist inside Syria. That this was the only way to fight ISIS going forward.

Now, of course, this is a very important part of the conversation of the united states and Russia are supposed to be having right now because they are leading the task force that is to set the modalities of a cessation of hostilities inside Syria that supposed to come into effect in five days now. And a key part of that is this issue of who are the terrorists and who aren't.

Sergey Lavrov, of the Russian foreign minister here, on Thursday when that agreement was hammered out, indicated that they were getting closer to determining who the terrorists are.

[05:20:01] Russia's been often saying that it's targeting the terrorists but as we heard from Secretary of State John Kerry, they're hitting civilians.

We know from the opposition that they're going to judge very closely what Russia does. Because obviously, if they're hitting the opposition that's supposed to be getting into the talks here -- this is what Secretary of State John Kerry said -- then there's very little chance of political talks happening. But the atmosphere here in the Security Conference has been quite tense.

Those comments made by the Russian prime minister really indicate that tensions that exist between Russia and the west at the moment. I asked the NATO Supreme Allied Commander, the military commander in charge of NATO Forces, the U.S. four-star General Philip Breedlove, if he felt that there was a Cold War developing with Russia. He doesn't think there is. But he sees Russia, as he told me, as trying to not just rewrite the international rulebook, but to remake the rules. They're the ones that have crossed the international border into Ukraine and Crimea, building up military, sophisticated military sites from the north and colliding all the way now into Northern Syria. Systems that can take complex missile, systems that can take out threats in the air, on the sea and by land.

So, this is precisely what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Isn't this by definition the Cold War build-up?

GENERAL PHILIP MARK BREEDLOVE, NATO COMMANDER FOR EUROPE: They are entitled to their understanding and description of this and their description of this. We and NATO do not want to see a Cold War. We do not talk about it. It is not what we want to happen or anticipate to happen.

We're a defensive alliance who are arraying ourselves to face a challenge and we see that challenge as a nation that has once again decided that it will use force to change internationally recognized borders. And so we take those appropriate actions to be able to assure, defend, and deter.

ROBERTSON: There's an indication of the tension that's exist when it comes to trying to set this cessation of hostilities in Syria that President Putin and President Obama are talking about this directly to each other on the phone.

George?

HOWELL: And Russia and the United States directly tied together when it comes to starting peace in Syria. So we will have to continue to monitor how these conversations go.

Nic Robertson, live for us in Zurich. Thank you for reporting there.

We move on now to the pope's visit to Mexico. Pope Francis saying that Mexico is a great country, but one with a history of difficult moments.

On his first visit to the nation as pope, Francis urged the president there to fight against corruption and drug-related violence. He also called on the clergy to strengthen their stance against the drug trade.

As Mary Moloney, reports, day one of the pope's historic trip kicked off with cheering crowds and a special welcome ceremony.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARY MOLONEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 3,000 greeted history's first Latin American pope as he raid to Mexico City's historic centers, Saturday.

Pope Francis stopped to meet the adoring crowd on his way to the National Palace, handing out rosaries and embracing 76 children. Mexico's president welcomed the pope with a special ceremony where Francis later delivered his first major address aimed at the country's and political and religious leaders.

POPE FRANCIS, (Through Translator): Experience teaches us at each time we seek the path of privileges or benefit for a few to the detriment of the good of all, sooner or later, the life of society becomes fertile soil for corruption.

MOLONEY: The pope also spoke of how Mexico's richness rise in its young people.

POPE FRANCIS, (Through Translator): A people with a youthful population is that people able to renew and transform itself. It's invitation to look to the future with hope.

MOLONEY: Francis wrapped up his first day with a mass to Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

POPE FRANCIS, (Through Translator): Today, I come as a missionary of mercy and of peace. But also, as a son who wishes to pay homage to his mother, the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, and place himself under her watchful care.

MOLONEY: I'm Mary Moloney reporting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: From Mexico and now to the U.S. State of Pennsylvania where at least three people were killed after heavy snow and whiteout conditions contributed to a pileup involving at least 60 vehicles on a major U.S. highway.

Police say more than 70 people were injured. The pileup began Saturday morning, and Interstate 78 is still shut down in both directions.

[05:25:05] Derek Van Dam here, our meteorologist joins us to talk to us about the weather conditions at the time of that pileup.

DEREK VAN DAM: George, I'm from the Great Lakes myself. And I've encountered the snow conditions that reduce visibilities in a matter of mere seconds.

HOWELL: Right.

VAN DAM: And this is exactly what they experienced on this Pennsylvania Highway near mile marker seven and a half take a look at this aerial shot. It was, unfortunately, a deadly day. A devastating day for over 60 vehicles and trucks are very, very scary moments to say the least.

And you can imagine what people had to contend with that's a reading showing the personal accounts as the snow came in quickly, drifted over the roadways and reduced feasibility's to less than one or two city blocks. They tried to pull off to the side of the highway, and as they did so, that's when they actually over struck from behind. Scary moments, this is the satellite or the rather the radar from Pennsylvania. We'll zoom in to the Harrisburg region, just to the north and east, that's where Fredericksburg is near mile marker seven and a half on into update 78 and there was indeed heavy snowfall across that region.

And this is all thanks to the arctic blast of air that continues to inundate and invade the eastern half of the United States that's started across the Northern Greenland and eventually made its way across the Great Lakes and into the New England coastline. But what it's done, it has created this lake-effect snow bands that continued to carry across the eastern half of the U.S.

We get that warm water with cold wind rushing over top of that. We get instability and eventually snowfall. But it's astounding to see what happened this year compared to the past two winter seasons in terms of Great Lakes ice coverage, normally, we would have mainly ice coverage that continues to blanket the Great Lakes area but unfortunately this year that hasn't been the case. And so our lake- effect snow machine has not been cut off just yet.

HOWELL: Derek Van Dam, thank you very much. You're watching "CNN Newsroom" we'll be right back after the break.

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[5:30:35] HOWELL: A warm welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Good to have you with us, I'm George Howell.

The headlines, U.S. Supreme Court justice, Antonin Scalia has died. For almost 30 years now, he was one of the court's most conservative justices. He was known for his opposition to same-sex marriage and gun control and for his witty and incisive decision and legal comments.

One week before South Carolina's Republican primary, the Republican presidential candidates clashed at their debate Saturday night. Marco Rubio and Donald Trump accused Ted Cruz of being a liar. Cruz then fired back saying that Rubio is weak on immigration and Trump is unreliable as a conservative.

Russia's Prime Minister is calling his country's relations with the west, a new cold war. He made the comments at the Munich security conference on Saturday. NATO's Europe commander says he does not agree with Dmitry Medvedev's comments.

More now on the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the political storm that is brewing to replace him. Scalia was not a politician but as CNN's Joe Johns reports, he has always been a conservative Republican standard bearer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIN SCALIA, SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FORMER ASSOCIATE JUSTICE: I, Antonin Scalia, do solemnly swear ...

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The first Italian American to sit on the nation's highest court, Justice Antonin Scalia was a conservative in thought but not in personality.

Antonin Gregory Scalia was raised in the Elmhurst, neighborhood of New York City, the only child born of a Sicilian born college professor and a school teacher mother. They instilled in the precocious child a love of words and debate.

SCALIA: I was something of a greasy grind, I have to say. I studied real hard.

JOHNS: He was a top student at public and private catholic schools in the city. Scalia's interest in law began in college and so too, an interest in Maureen McCarthy, with whom he later married and had nine children.

His exuberant embrace of conservatism attracted the attention of the Republicans. And President Reagan ultimately named the 50-year-old Federal judge to the high court in 1986. There, he developed a reputation as a reliable conservative. And his own style helped liven the public face of the high court.

PAUL CLEMENT, SCALIA'S LAW CLERK: Some of the other justices, including justices who were already on the court and had been on the court for a while, were kind of, well, you know, if the new guy gets to ask all these questions, I'm going to sort of step up and ask some questions, too.

JOHNS: On abortion, the death penalty, affirmative action, homosexual rights, Scalia clashed early and often with more moderate or less leaning bench mates.

JOAN BISKUPIC, SCALIA'S BIOGRAPHER: If he was trying to get anybody to sign an opinion, it was harder when he would use more combative language.

But, you know, as much as they would say, you know, I'd like to strangle Nino, he was still theirs in many ways.

JOHNS: And those descents help him hone a creative, some said often cruel streak in his writings becoming a master stylist. He once referred to the junior varsity Congress. He quoted Cole Porter, Shakespeare, and "Sesame Street" songs.

Off the bench came admiration from young conservatives who wrote books and created websites and tributes but controversy too, a hunting trip with Vice President Cheney. At the same time, the court was considering a lawsuit against the number two over access to privileged documents.

A Sicilian gesture, some interpreted as obscene and captured by a Boston newspaper. He called it dismissive in nature. Justice Scalia, a man both respected and dismissed, feared and celebrated. BISKUPIC: He'd be remembered in many ways. Certainly as this larger than life figure, larger than bench figure, someone who embraced both the law and a life beyond the court.

JOHNS: A judge who combined street smarts with a well-calculated conservative view of the law and its limits on society.

SCALIA: I'm not driven. I ain't sure what I'm doing. As soon as I no longer enjoy it, I am out of there.

JOHNS: Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Justice Scalia's death is already triggering an election year battle as President Obama is expected to nominate someone to fill that court vacancy.

[05:35:00] Mr. Obama says that he will nominate a successor in due time. But Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the vacancy should be filled by the next U.S. president.

Meanwhile, the Republican contenders for the White House paid tribute to Justice Scalia. They observed a moment of silence ...

They observed a moment of silence at the start of Saturday night's debate.

But then, the gloves came off. And while the candidates agree that the President should not nominate a successor to Scalia, they didn't agree on much else. In fact, the debate was contentious and combative.

Here's a look at some of the moments that stood out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The next president needs to appoint someone with a proven conservative record similar to Justice Scalia.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's up to Mitch McConnell and everybody else to stop it. It's called delay, delay, delay.

TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have 80 years of precedent of not confirming Supreme Court justices in election year.

JOHN KASICH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not even two minutes after the death of Judge Scalia, I just wish we hadn't run so fast into politics.

TRUMP: Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake. Took him five days, he went back. It was a mistake. It wasn't a mistake. Took him five days before his people told him what to say. George Bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes. But that one was a beauty.

BUSH: I am sick and tired of him going after my family.

TRUMP: The World Trade Center came down ...

BUSH: He's had the gall to go after my mother.

KASICH: Oh I got to tell you, this is just crazy. This is just nuts, Ok. Geez, oh man.

BEN CARSON, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you for including me in the debate. Two questions already. This was great.

CRUZ: Marco has a long record when it comes to amnesty in the state of Florida as speaker of the House.

MARCO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know how he knows what I said I'm Univision because he doesn't speak Spanish. And second of all, the other point that I would make ...

CRUZ: (Speaking in Foreign Language).

BUSH: I feel like I have to get into my inner Chris Christie.

CRUZ: You shouldn't be flexible on core principles. I like Donald. He is an amazing entertainer.

Right now, today, as a candidate, he supports federal taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. I disagree with him on that. That's a matter of principle and I'll ...

TRUMP: You are the single biggest liar. You probably are worse than Jeb Bush. You are the single biggest liar.

CRUZ: Donald has this weird pattern. When you point to his own record, he screams liar, liar, liar, if you want to go and want ...

TRUMP: Where did I support it? Where did I support it?

CRUZ: If you want to go ...

TRUMP: Hey Ted, where did I support it?

CRUZ: If you want to go with Donald Trump as president, he will appoint liberals. If Donald Trump is president, your second amendment will ...

KASICH: And these attacks, some of them are personal. I think we're fixing to lose the election to Hillary Clinton if we don't stop this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: You're watching "CNN Newsroom". Canada is resettling thousands of Syrians.

Still ahead, we travel to Calgary to see what refugees faced when they arrived in their new country. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:41:13] HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm George Howell.

It is a long way from the civil war in Syria to the Canadian West.

The thousands of Syrian refugees are making that journey, hoping that Canada can offer them a brighter future.

CNN's Drew Griffin looks at how the city of Calgary is coping with the influx of people and the security concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's quiet, for sad can barely contain the joy inside.

This is Calgary's Margaret Chisholm resettlement house. And it's dinner time.

Huge families, huge smiles. Cries, laughter, and everywhere, children. They're all Syrians refugees plucked from uncertain futures in Jordan and Lebanon selected under the Canadian refugee resettlement program to be accepted as newly landed immigrants.

Anoush Newman helps run this center. In three years, she says, everyone you see will be able to become a Canadian.

They really have nowhere else to go?

ANOUSH NEWMAN, CALGARY CATHOLIC IMMIGRATION SOCIETY: No, they can't because the surrounding countries such as, you know, where they were, they don't give them citizenship.

So, they'll remain as refugees for the rest of their lives.

GRIFFIN: Zyad Handawi (ph) arrived just 10 days ago. He and his wife and four children fled Aleppo, Syria.

NEWMAN: They left because there was a constant bombardment. And they're worried.

Many times, they came very close to death. So, that's when they decided that let's leave before it gets worse. And he took his family and went to Lebanon to settle there as refugee.

GRIFFIN: Do you miss Syria?

ZYAD HANDAWI (ph), REFUGEE: Of course, of course. It's from my heart. We're very, very happy and very, very relaxed.

GRIFFIN: For the first time in years, he feels his family is safe. But there's a long way to go.

They speak almost no English. They are new to just about every Canadian custom. We shake hands with men and boys, but not with the women.

FARIBORZ BIRJANDIN, CALGARY CATHOLIC IMMIGRATION SOCIETY: And we do a lot of parenting skills with it.

GRIFFIN: Fariborz Birjandin, Director here says, that, too, will change and soon.

BIRJANDIN: In two months, if we talked to these children that they just arrived and -- you won't even recognize them as refugees.

Ten days ago, they didn't even know they were coming to Canada. Now, they're here, obviously, so we realized that they have a lot of fears and a lot of hopes.

GRIFFIN: Most arrive in families. There are only a few single Syrian men. And just as in the U.S., the program has raised concerns about safety and terrorism.

I've got to ask you, they don't look dangerous to me.

BIRJANDIN: No. They are fantastic people. They've gone through hell.

GRIFFIN: While in the United States, there's still deliberation over just how many or even if Syrian refugees should be brought into the country.

By the end of February, Canada will have reached its goal of bringing 25,000 Syrian refugees on to its soil.

Confident, that its screening process can tell the bad guys from the good.

IAN HOLLOWAY, DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY LAW SCHOOL: Most Canadians are not that worried about the security issue for the people we've selected.

GRIFFIN: Ian Holloway, the Dean of the University of Calgary Law School, also works with the Canadian Government, reviewing its security intelligence operations.

He says the refugees Canada brings in are screened and, quite frankly, he sees them as no threat at all.

HOLLOWAY: We feel that we have been able to take reasonable measures to not guarantee. You can never guarantee these things, but to do everything we can to satisfy ourselves that the people we've taken in are not likely to be bad guys.

[05:45:00] GRIFFIN: To make sure, Canada follows the progress of its newly arrived immigrants for two years.

All the children will go to school. Families will be helped to find work, housing, and their ultimate goal, a permanent home in their new country, Canada. Drew Griffin, CNN, Calgary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: There's a new call for help in the U.S. City of Flint, Michigan. That's where residents are dealing with a water crisis. Mayor Karen Weaver is asking for $55 million to replace every lead pipe in her city. Officials discovered lead in the city's water supply after the city changed its water source back in 2014. Soon after that, an outbreak of legionnaires disease began, sickening 87 people, nine of those people died. Experts believe the corrosive water gave the bacteria a chance to grow.

Southern California Gas Company says it's temporarily controlled a gas leak near the City of Los Angeles. Thousands of family, families I should say in Porter Ranch have been forced to leave their homes because of that leak that started last October. One family even says they've had enough and just want to go home now. CNN's Sarah Sidner has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PORTER DONAH, PORTER RANCH RESIDENT: When we got our stuff together and left because we had to, we knew it was -- it's -- I'm sorry. It felt like all that we had worked so hard to do was really, really being taken away. Right they were taking away the home that we made for our kids. They were taking away, you know, they just all the little stuff you put into a home that makes it your kids' home. We actually woke up, and the smell was strong. It was it smelled like it was something leaking in the house.

CHASE DONAH, DAUGHTER OF PORTER DONAH: It smelled like gas.

P. DONAH: I've got a 7-year-old, Chase, and I got a 5-year-old, that's my little girl, London. One has autism. Every family with has kid with autism will tell you that essentially routine in schedule is what makes it possible for them to function.

They all began telling us, no, it's nothing to worry about. Its no long-term effects about a month in is when we started hearing they're underreporting the benzene. The gas is underreporting the benzene. Benzene if anybody Googles it, which is exactly what we did, is a carcinogen. This is something that really can hurt you.

It's set him back in a way that I can't tell you how upsetting it is as a family. Because change is scary to them in a way that even more than to say somebody not on the spectrum. It's almost paralyzing to them.

SARAH SIDNER, CNN: What do you miss the most?

LONDON DONAH, SON OF PORTER DONAH: About school.

SIDNER: When you talk about them, I can see the frustration and anger and really kind of hurt.

P. DONAH: Yeah.

SIDNER: How would you guys been handling this? P. DONAH: When you tell your kid you can't go back, what that is the message, this isn't safe anymore, right? We can't make good on the promise that we made that your home, where we picked to raise you, would be safe. They've taken that ability away from us as parents. And you want to talk about mad, right?

SIDNER: So, when would you like to move back into the house if you could?

C. DONAH: Tomorrow.

SIDNER: That fast?

C. DONAH: Yes. I would think it just big pipe if it was broken. That they would just have to use a big tape and put it around where the hole is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Americans and others have been paying very close attention to that, and of course we will obviously follow that story, as well.

Some of the biggest names in British and U.S. Film will gather in London on Sunday evening. Of course, we will have that story for you later, as well. Stay with us.

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[05:52:52] HOWELL: American and British Actors are getting ready for Britain's Film awards Sunday evening in London. The Film Carroll starring Kate Blanchett and Steven Spielberg's, Drama, Bridge Of Spies lead the night with nine nominations. Each this is year is back will be hosted by Stephen Frei at London's Royal Opera House and CNN will take you to the red carpet. Stay with for it.

This Valentines Say we have a story about a couple who met in the 1940's but then they parted ways for 70 years after a big misunderstanding but now they are reunited and inspiring others to never give up on finding true love again. Ivan Watson tells us how their children in some total strangers help them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORMAN THOMAS, PARATROOPER FOR THE US FORCES: I'm going to give her a squeeze.

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Norman Thomas never stopped thinking about Joyce Morris. The pair first met 1944. She a 17-year-old British girl living in London, he a 21-year-old Paratrooper for the U.S. Forces. Young love blossomed.

JOYCE MORRIS, BRITISH GIRL LIVE IN LONDON: We snagged then he totally when it was dark and no one could see us.

WATSON: But their brief romance was interrupted when Thomas was deployed to Normandy to fight in World War II. After the war her returned to the U.S. and invited Morris to join him but she misunderstood his letter and thought he was already married so she refused this invitation and they went their separate ways.

They married other people Thomas eventually became a widower Morris got divorced. Last, year one of her son's found Thomas online and they reconnected on Skype after more than seventy years.

MORRIS: Each day common figure out and I say good morning to you every morning.

THOMAS: Yeah. And I will take this one

MORRIS: And, what wish you got (inaudible).

THOMAS: And I will say good morning back to you. You broke my heart.

MORRIS: Oh. I don't believe that for a moment.

THOMAS: What would you do if I could give you squeeze?

MORRIS: Oh it would be lovely.

[05:55:01] WATSON: A crowd funding campaign raised enough money to make that actually happen. This week Thomas made the journey from Virginia to Adelaide.

MORRIS: Well you're still vertical. Hello.

THOMAS: I'm going to give you a squeeze.

WATSON: A couple that first met just before D-Day reuniting seven decades later just in time for V or Valentine's Day.

THOMAS: This about the most wonderful thing that could have happened to me.

WATSON: Ivan Watson, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: U.S. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be spending Valentine's Day apart but that did not stop them from professing their love for one another.

Mr. Obama even prepared a funny poem for his other half with the help of talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Somebody call the Situation Room, because things are about to get hot.

MICHELLE OBAMA, U.S. FIRST LADY: Roses are red. Violates are blue, you are the president and I am your boo.

OBAMA: I ObamaCare about you more than you even know. That's right, Obama cares .

But, Michelle, I've made a lot of great decisions as president. The best decision I ever made was choosing you. Thanks for putting up with me. I love you.

And Ellen, Happy Valentine's Day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And thanks for watching. I'm George Howell at the CNN's Center at Atlanta.

For viewers in the U.S, "NEW DAY" is next. And for other viewers "BEST OF QUEST" starts in a moment.

You're watching CNN, the world's news leader.

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