Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

New Video From Inside Ft. Lauderdale Airport; Man Drove a Truck into a Crowd of Soldiers in Jerusalem; President-Elect Donald Trump Scheduled to Hold His First News Conference; Top Trump Aide Deflects Question On Hack; Intel Report High Confidence Of Russian Interference; President Obama To Give Farewell Address Tuesday; Hours Away From Awards Season Kick-Off; Future of Technology at Huge Electronics Show. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired January 08, 2017 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00] ASHTON CARTER, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: And that's why I have called Americans. They need to regard very seriously.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What is true is that the Russians intended to meddle and they meddled.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Plus --.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Can you confirm to that president-elect Trump's committee to replacing Obamacare the same day that it will be repeal?

WHITFIELD: CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

Hello again, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredrick Whitfield.

All right. We have distressing new video from inside the Ft. Lauderdale airport showing the moment when the gunman opened fire in the baggage claim area. We do want to warn viewers that this video is difficult to watch. But it is crucial in understanding the context of this shooting.

This is a freeze frame of what appears to be security camera footage obtained by TMZ. The man in the blue shirt is believed to be accused gunman Esteban Santiago. We recorded the video one-time this hour. It will be silent. It is security footage and it is disturbing. Pay attention to the left side of your screen where the man in the blue shirt enters the frame.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Boris Sanchez is joining me now with more on this video.

Boris, what more is being said about this video? How was it obtained and whether it is authentic?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Fred. Yes. We heard from spokesperson for the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood

international airport who told us that they would not comment on leak of this video. They say it is being investigated and law enforcement is involved. Right now, we don't know how TMZ got their hands on this video, but it does appear to show what happened on Friday here at the Ft. Lauderdale airport. It really a striking video. Hard to watch.

Just before Esteban Santiago enters the frame, you see children walking in front of him. You see people walking towards the carriage area to retrieve their bags. And then you see him walk into the frame. Really the most striking thing about this is his expression. He is totally nondescript. There is nothing that really stands out about him up until the moment that he reaches into his waistband and removes that nine millimeter pistol that he uses in that attack. And his expression doesn't change at all. He is totally emotionless when he opens fire on the people that were nearest to him.

After that, you see him seemingly crouch and then he runs out of the frame. And after that you see everyone around realized what is happening. You see some of people pick the ground. One woman gets behind a luggage carrier trying to hide from the shooter. All of this corroborates what officials told us that Esteban Santiago has confessed to them during an interview with him on Friday. The fact that he planned to come here to Ft. Lauderdale and do this, flying here from Alaska.

The reason he chose Ft. Lauderdale is still unclear. But we should tell you, he is due in court at 11:00 tomorrow. He is facing several serious charges, all of them eligible for the death penalty.

One more note, Fred, we have been talking about people that have been stranded here in Ft. Lauderdale traveler that haven't been able to get home in part because of the chaos that unfolded as the shooting was taking place.

I spoke to one of them just a few moments ago. She was telling me, a Canadian woman who was telling that she can't get home. She had been wearing the same clothes for two days, doesn't have her bag, doesn't have any of her personal belongings on her and she is searching for answers trying to figure out how she is going to get her belongings and get home.

We got to chance to ask a spokesperson for the Ft. Lauderdale airport that just moments ago. He told me they are doing everything they can. But there are some 20,000 personal belongings that are right now being held in storage that people are trying to get to, that are trying to be, you know, sorted through to get to those passengers that lost them. It is a very, very difficult task ahead, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Right. Especially since you have to identify some of the luggage or at least retrieve it. Some people need IDs. And, of course, if you don't have ID, then that's a whole other problem.

All right, very complicated. Boris Sanchez, thank you so much.

Meantime, we are learning more about Esteban Santiago's past, assault charges involving a girlfriend, hearing voices in his head, even asking for help.

CNN's Dan Simon travels to Santiago's town in Anchorage to learn more about this past.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His troubles began after serving time in Iraq, relatives say, Esteban Santiago spent 10 months in war country or in a combat action batch. His brother says that changes I him were apparent.

BRYAN SANTIAGO, ESTEBAN SANTIAGO'S BROTHER (through translator): They had him hospitalized for four days and then they let him go. How are you going to let someone need a psychological center after four days when he is saying that he is hearing voices that the CIA is telling him to join search and troops?

SIMON: Santiago's brother referring to the 26-year-old's meeting with the FBI and a subsequent mental health evaluation. Santiago on his own walked into the FBI's Anchorage office last November, seemingly to explain the demons in his head.

[16:05:10] MARLIN RITZMAN, ALASKA FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN-CHARGE: Mr. Santiago walked into the Anchorage FBI office saying to report that his mind was being control by U.S. intelligence agency. During the interview, Mr. Santiago appeared agitated, incoherent, and made disjointed statements.

SIMON: Authorities say they didn't find his behavior threatening, but there was ample reason to alert the local police who took him to a psychiatric hospital. In his meeting with the FBI, Santiago said he had a gun which was seized by the agents.

CHIEF CHRISTOPHER TOLLEY, ANCHORAGE POLICE: Santiago was having terroristic thoughts and believed he was being applause by ISIS. Santiago go ahead and rode a magazine on him that had left his firearm in his vehicle prior to contacting agents. Also in the vehicle, was Santiago's newborn child.

SIMON: CNN has learned the evaluation lasted less than 72 hours, Santiago a free man. And a month later, he got the gun back from police, the same gun law enforcement sources say he used to shoot 11 people at the Ft. Lauderdale airport.

Santiago's troubles history also includes a domestic violence case involving his girlfriend in this home in Anchorage. In court documents obtained by CNN, Santiago was charged with assault and criminal mischief. He allegedly broke down the bathroom door in his girlfriend's home. And the woman told police that Santiago yelled obscenities while strangling her and smacking her in the side of the head. Santiago fled no contest, but the charges were set to be dismissed if he stayed out of trouble.

While a motive for the shooting remains unclear. Santiago's neighbors are left wondering why he chose Ft. Lauderdale as his target. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) sometimes in in Firewood. You know,

he could have shot everybody up just in the vicinity. If he went all the way down there to shoot someone.

SIMON: Despite the FBI's interaction with Santiago, he was not placed on a no-fly list.

RITZMAN: There had been concerns raised about why Mr. Santiago was not placed on a no-fly list. I want to be clear, during our initial investigation, we found no ties to terrorism. He broke no laws when he came into our office, making disjointed comments about mind control.

SIMON: So why would someone who was clearly mentally disturbed be able to get his gun back? Well, the U.S. attorney in Alaska said there was no legal basis to prevent him from having it. A judge would have needed to declare him quote "mentally defective to deny him his second amendment rights."

Dan Simon, CNN, Anchorage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And earlier today I spoke with Broward County sheriff Scott Israel to get his take on the future of airport security at baggage claim following this violent attack. And he began by giving us an update on the survivors in the hospital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERIFF SCOTT ISRAEL, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA: Two of the visibilities are still in the ICU unit over the Broward health. And from what I understand, the other four are either released or are recovering in the hospital.

WHITFIELD: All right. Now, how might this impact airport security at the baggage claim area there at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood airport or perhaps even nationwide in your view?

ISRAEL: Yes, that's a great question. I mean, I directed one of our majors to complete an after action report of the entire incident. And we will look at everything from our response time to mitigation to staffing and we will make changes or perhaps we will uncover things that support the way we were doing things.

But the answer isn't to beef up airports or well that might be important to beef up venues. We are a free society. We as Americans, we go to airports and stadiums and venues, you know, every day of our lives. The answer is to have our lawmakers start to look at whether or not what they can do to ensure that convicted felons, people that are put on no-fly lists, certainly people that are suffering from mental health issue. And I have compassion, you know, for people that, you know, they are not problem people. They are people with very real problems. But why individuals are suffering from mental health issues, convicted felons and certainly people who are put on no-fly lists, they should not in my mind possess handguns. WHITFIELD: Meantime, Florida is one of six states that bans guns in

airport terminals. A Republican state senator introduced a bill just last week that would repeal that ban. Is that something that you would support after that attack?

ISRAEL: No, absolutely not. I think that we need to have guns in less places not more places. We need to have guns not in airports, not in schools, you know, the less places that we are allowed to have firearms, long guns, handguns, I think the safer we are.

WHITFIELD: At that Saturday news conference with the FBI, you said quote "when you have a lone wolf assassin who wants to conduct some cowardly heinous act, there is not much law enforcement or anybody else can do about it. Does that mean that there is nothing in your view that could have been done to prevent what happened?

[16:10:17] ISRAEL: Well, many times no. I mean, I do remember what I said. If you have a lone wolf assassin, if you have a person that is committed to commit a cowardly heinous act of mass murder and they are going to come up from behind people and execute people. They are going to drive a vehicle into a large group of pedestrians that might be standing on a corner and that switch is flipped, there's not much you can do.

That's why it's so important to limits people like this, their ability to have weapons and carry weapons. And just as importantly, you want to make sure that the people who have a propensity for violence or what have you, if the public notices these people or they notice a change in behavior, they notice a person is behaving completely different and has a propensity to speak about violence, they need to call law enforcement, they can remain anonymous. But if you see something in America, you need to say something in America. It doesn't work all the time, but that doesn't mean we stop doing it. We need our citizens. We need our civilian partners to help us, you know, stop these horrific acts.

WHITFIELD: Broward County sheriff Scott ISRAEL, thanks so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, a horrific scene in Jerusalem after a man drives a truck into a crowd of soldiers. What we know about the suspect and his ties to terrorism next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:14:53] WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

Israel says it's considering holding people without charges following an attack in Jerusalem earlier today. That's when a truck slammed through a group of Israeli soldiers standing together after getting off a bus. Three military cadets and one officer were killed and at least ten others injured. Israel's prime minister saying the attacker may have been an ISIS sympathizer. The attack was caught on video.

And a word of caution, this video is disturbing and we strongly advised viewer discretion. The driver not only plowed into a group of soldiers, he turned his truck around and appeared to drive over some of the victims. Israeli officials say the attack ended when the driver was shot and killed.

CNN's Oren Lieberman is in Jerusalem.

So Oren, we understand that Israeli security did arrest family members of this driver. What more do we know about the types of charges if any they would face?

OREN LIEBERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We haven't heard about charges yet, but we know from police as part of the follow-on investigation after this attack in Jerusalem. The police have arrested nine suspects, five of which are family members of the attacker in this case, the truck driver.

This all started around 1:30 in the afternoon when police say the truck driver drove off the road straight into a group of soldiers coming off a bus. We now know that horrific result of that attack. Four soldiers killed, all in their 20s, three women and a man, dozen others injured.

As part of police and authorities here deciding what steps they will take, as you mentioned, one of the steps they are considering is using administrative detention which is holding somebody without charges or trial in the case that that person is considered or suspected to being ISIS supporter. And that would be a result of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said when he visited the scene a few hours after the attack. He said that there are indications the driver here, the person who carried out this attack was an ISIS supporter. It is not something we hear very often in Israel or in Jerusalem or even in the West Bank.

Mikey Rosen (ph), the police spokesperson saying there are no ISIS cells here. Seemingly indicate that this was a lone wolf attack, that will be the effort, the focus of police right now trying to figure out where this truck came from, whose it was, and was this planned in advance, or was it an improvised quick attack that had a terrible results in Jerusalem today -- Fredricka.

[16:17:08] WHITFIELD: All right. Oren Lieberman, thank you so much in Jerusalem. Appreciate it.

All right. Coming up, the Trump transition team dealing with more conflict of interest concerned this time over Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's business ties. So how will Trump answer tough question about that and his nominees during his first press conference in months and it happens this week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:21:12] WHITFIELD: President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to hold his first news conference in months and that happens on Wednesday, the same day confirmation hearings will still be under way for several of his cabinet picks.

But the independent office of government ethics says many of Trump's nominees have not been properly vetted yet. All of this as one of Trump's closest advisor is coming under growing scrutiny for possible conflicts of interest.

A "New York Times" article is raising questions about Trump's son-in- law, Jared Kushner, and his extensive business dealings with China and other countries.

CNN national correspondent Ryan Nobles is joining us right now.

So Ryan, this could be a really pivotal week. You are talking about confirmation hearings, and his nominees, the first press conference in a very long time for Donald Trump. So how are things likely to shape up this week?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Fred, this will be the first press conference of the president-elect has held since he won the election back in November. So it is going to be important. In fact, there is going to be a lot of people related to the transition, answering a lot of tough question this week in Washington. You got that press conference for the president-elect. And of course, the cabinet hearings begin this week on Tuesday. In particular, Jeff Sessions, his picked for attorney general, and John Kelly, his picked for the department of homeland security will begin their scrutiny by members of the Senate.

And there is this concern from Democrats at the office of government of ethics feels as though the paperwork process, the prescreening of these candidates has not gone quickly enough. But the transition believes that this is something that will get done in timely fashion. And then they believe that the Democrats are just trying to cause a problem where one doesn't exist.

Listen to what the Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had to say about this issue this morning on CBS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: So all of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration. And having not only lost the White House, but having lost the Senate. I understand that. But we need to sort of grow up here and get past that. We need to get the president's national security team in place on day one and papers are still coming in. And so I'm optimistic that we will be able to get up to seven nominees on day one just like we did eight years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And what Republicans are stressing, is that they have all the votes to get all these nominees pushed through in orderly fashion. And that if the Democrats given the way, they are just attempting to obstruct the process. That they are necessary raising serious concerns. In fact, Sean Spicer tell the group of reporters this morning that they view this as an all-star group of nominees who will not have a problem at all getting their confirmation -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ryan Nobles in Washington. Thank you so much.

All right, there will be a change in tradition in other ways because this man has been an announcer or every presidential inauguration Dwight Eisenhower since 1957.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush, the president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So people have heard his voice for years during this occasion. Well now, the 89-year-old Charles Bratman will not be the voice of Donald Trump's swearing in. He is being replaced by a local freelance announcer. A Trump spokesman says Bratman will be honored as the quote "announcer emeritus." Bratman told the Washington D.C. station that he was heartbroken when he first heard the news.

All right. Meantime, this week's confirmation hearings, U.S.-Russia relations and Trump's road ahead will all be in focus this week as CNN host two separate town halls. On deck tomorrow night, Chris Cuomo sits down with Bernie Sanders at 9:00 eastern time. And then on Thursday, Jake Tapper hosts a town hall with Paul Ryan. That airs at 9:00 eastern. Both right here on CNN.

And we will be right back. .

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:28:10] WHITFIELD: All right. This morning on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper, top Donald Trump aid Kellyanne Conway deflecting question about Russia's hacking of Democratic operatives. Conway insists those attacks had nothing to do with the outcome of the presidential race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Now that president- elect Donald Trump has been formally briefed, has he been persuaded that Russia did carry out a comprehensive cyber campaign against Hillary Clinton and what is he prepared to do about it.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR/GOP POLLSTER: Jake, if you read the entire statement, followed the briefing on Friday, he makes very clear, that Russia, China and others have been attempted to attack in different government institutions and businesses and individuals and organization over a series of time. He specifically mentions the Democratic National Committee, because that's why we're having this conversation.

I don't want any of your viewers to be misled into thinking that somehow the Kremlin and the Republican Party that they had -- the Kremlin was dealing with any of the hackers in bringing that information back to Moscow and somehow that anybody who allegedly attempted to influence your elections actually did. If you read the full report, he made very clear. Mr. Clapper and his

testimony made very clear on Thursday under oath that any attempt, any aspiration to influence our elections failed. They were not successful in doing that. And it's a very important point, we are talking about this because we had embarrassing leaks from the DNC emails. There were no fireworks in that report because there was no fire wall at the DNC. The RNC apparently there was an attempted hack on the RNC uninformed, but they had this sufficient fiber security firewalls in place.

Jake, CNN's own reporting showed this week that the FBI asked the DNC to have access to its information, to its server I guess and to its information and the DNC refused to turn that over to the FBI, according to CNN's own report.

[16:30:00] So all of this amounts to a very simple fact, which is that alleged attacks and alleged aspirations to interfere with our democracy failed. And they failed, that we know that, because Donald Trump won.

TAPPER: What do you mean alleged attack?

CONWAY: If you look at CNN's own polling data, for one year before the election, Hillary Clinton was viewed by the majority of Americans as unlikable and she was viewed by a higher number of 60 percent as dishonest and untrustworthy. It had nothing to do with Moscow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right Donald Trump has questioned the judgment of U.S. intelligence agencies that concluded Russia was responsible for the hack. President Obama says he has talked to Trump about the importance of trusting the people he will rely on like the Intel community when faced with tough questions as commander in chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So let's say I'm on the policy wonk end of the spectrum, as much as I can dive into a briefing book and really work to master various subjects that come before my desk, I'm still not an expert on a huge amount of stuff that we work on. But I do make sure that I've got people who are experts that are helping me make the best decisions possible. And if you don't have good people and you don't have a good process and you don't have at some level the basic reverence for this office and an understanding of the incredible responsibilities and obligations, then I think you can get in trouble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, let's discuss all of this with CNN Presidential Historian Tim Naftali and CNN Senior Political Analyst. Ron Brownstein. Also Ron, do you think this is another effort by President Obama to, you know encourage Donald Trump to trust the Intel community, and to trust the people around you, the president is saying he may be, you know a political wonk and likes to dive into the briefing book, but at the same time he is trusting the good people around him to best advise him before he makes big, critical decisions.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know it really feels like since the first day after the presidential election, that President Obama has a kind of two tracks or dual strategy with Donald Trump. On the one hand, they do seem to have genuinely establish, some kind of personal for the generally avoided criticizing each other. President Obama has a variety of public and I am sure private settings tried to give Donald Trump his best counsel about what it takes to succeed as president after two terms on the job.

On the other hand I also think that if you listen carefully to the things the president has said on many different subjects, from climate change to Obama care to intelligence, he is also setting the predicate for basically arguing somewhere down the road, that I give him every chance and he still moved in a direction that I think is deleterious for the country and the world and therefore I'm going to speak out more than former presidents usually do.

WHITFIELD: And then Tim, you know every president of course, you know can customized, can tailor the kind of briefing they get, how they get their information and how they want to apply it, but the question is, for Donald Trump, when it comes down to the people he surrounds himself with, how much deference do they give to the Intel community? How much respect, you know, do they give to the Intel community, given that Donald Trump has doubted publicly much of the Intel?

TIMOTHY NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well today's comments by Kellyanne Conway are reasons why there are concerns that the Trump team will not use the intelligence community effectively. Kellyanne Conway on Jake Tapper's show said that the report from the intelligence community, it was called an intelligence community assessment, that it said that the hacking had no effect on the election. Well, that report wasn't meant to assess the effect of Russia's hacking on the election, because there are intelligence community doesn't do that. In fact it's against --

WHITFIELD: You mean being hack.

NAFTALI: It was basically arguing that Russia had done the hacking. But Kellyanne Conway who is going to be a source of important information once Mr. Trump is inaugurated, she engaged in misdirection. So the use of intelligence by Mr. Trump will depend in part, I think, on what his advisors are saying to him and so far his advisors have shown that they understand the nature of our intelligence community.

WHITFIELD: And how long can the Trump soon to be administration afford to carry on that way and talk about the looking back justification of his win, as opposed to looking forward. How to apply this information from this Intel report to best secure this country and democracy as a whole?

BROWNSTEIN: the is really the key point, because I mean, from the beginning, President-Elect Trump has viewed this entire controversy over the Russian hacking of the DNC, essentially through the lens of what does it mean to me? This primary concern has ended. They seem to view it, out worry that they will undercut the validity of his win. So you call Kellyanne Conway inflating two completely separate things in our interview with Jake Tapper today, whether Russia directly hacked the voting machines, which no one has alleged or proven and whether their hacking and release of information had any impact on the outcome on the way people voted which is a completely separate question. And I think the fundamental challenge here is that Russia has found a mechanism that did disrupt and introduced Tom Well in to the U.S. election. We have critical election coming in 2017 at the other end of the Western alliance in Germany, and France. The question really is. Are we going to be able to find some way to counter this ongoing trans-national threat or are we simply going to, try sweeping it away as quickly as possible. Because President-Elect Trump used it as somehow cloud over the validity of his win.

{16:36:05] WHITFIELD: All right this is a really important week, for so many reasons, of course you got the confirmation hearings of this cabinet choices for Donald Trump, his first press conference in a very long time, and then you have President Barack Obama who will be giving his fair well address to the nation in his town of Chicago on Tuesday. We already know hundreds of people. You know braved the frigid temperatures there to line up and hope of getting this free tickets. And you see people waving so excited to this historic address, in fact we had a chance to talk to a number of people, this is how excited they are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's well worth it, I got my golden ticket and I can't wait to see Obama.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's part of history and I'm just glad to be a part of it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was like a person who just voted from this recent election for the first time, it is really special to be able to see him speak live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And so many people are (inaudible). It was reminiscent of when President Obama won and how hundreds of people would show up in Grant Park and they have their first kind of face to face moment with he and the family. What an electric moment that was, so, you know, Ron, is there something to this full circle, you know motion, perhaps the president is making a big hello to the nation from Chicago and now a big goodbye to the nation from Chicago?

BROWNSTEIN: Absolutely. But it is a very bittersweet one, as you can imagine. Because he is looking at a situation where he could not break the two term limit and we have seen for every parties since World War II, except Ronald Reagan in 1988, Mew York City, no party has been able to hold the White House for more than eight years, when he came in, Democrats held the house and the senate. He will leave Republicans controlling vote. And yes, Democrats have won the popular vote in six of the past seven elections, he solidified the coalition of emerging groups, but to help him do that, the fact is they are operating on a narrow playing field, there's big parts of the country that they're not speaking to and that is left his considerable accomplishments in considerable jeopardy of being reversed starting with the ongoing Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare.

WHITFIELD: And Tim, what a contrast to, especially with the incoming president on this president's departure. You hear so many on Capitol Hill, who are saying, you know give the next president a chance, where as President Obama was met with some sentiments on Capitol Hill which wanted to see defeat right away, so how do you, you know compare and contrast the incomings and the outgoings here?

NAFTALI: Well I would think that one thing we should look for in President Obama's farewell address is something he started developing in his interview with David Axelrod, which is it, his sense that his view of America, continuing the progress forward, that vision may still be right, that what we may be in for is a four-year or eight- year retrenchment, but that his vision of America, of a post racial America is not delusional. That is really what he ran on.

And even though right now it doesn't look good for the Obama legacy, presidential legacies are not set for a long time and there are a number of things that he put in place that may not disappear very quickly and even if some of them disappear, he may have changed the American people, in a way he and his associates will find very positive in the future. So right now he may just want to stress his hopes for the future and his sense that America's trajectory is still what he thought it was eight years ago.

WHITFIELD: Although Ron, I think some will argue it was not post racial, but instead the message was inclusion and that still might be a message that the president is trying to impress on his way out.

BROWNSTEIN: Well yes, look, in the long-term trends in American life are real, I mean a majority of our public school students already are kids of color, we are becoming a more diverse nation and we have to find ways to expand the circle of opportunity, not only for the interest of minority communities themselves and those kids, because the entire economy doesn't work if more of those kids don't get into the middle class and develop the income to pay the payroll taxes that will support retirement for the aging white baby boomers. So, ultimately we are independent and the president I think will make arguments to that effect.

The challenge that he faces, the Democratic Party as it is now defined is enormously popular in urbanized centers, it's enormously popular with minority voters, with millennial voters, it is very competitive with college educated white voters, but it is really falling off the table beyond that in blue collar white America, older white America even angelical white America and non urban white America and that is left it, with too narrow basis to really could be for congress. As we saw even in that election that problem extended up the ticket to the presidential where Hillary Clinton won 88 of the largest counties in America but ultimately lost the Electoral College.

So ultimately, I think the president is talking about this very candidly with David Axelrod and today with George on ABC. Democrats have to find a way to move beyond their beachheads, again and talk to a broader segment of America, Republicans face the same problem in reverse, all the demographic challenges they based are real. Just broke my final point, Donald Trump won the same share of non college white voters that Ronald Reagan did in 1984, in fact Ronald Reagan 59 percent of the total votes, they got Donald Trump 46 percent, so they haven't involved their problems either, but I think the president is keenly aware that his party has to find a way to make its principles relevant to a broader universal voters that is ticking to in the last few years.

[16:41:32] WHITFIELD: Leading in to the weekend, we saw a powerful and emotional, a farewell -- an official farewell from the White House from Michelle Obama. It will be interesting to see, you know, the kind of the emotional, you know, pulls that we might see tugged by Barack Obama's this week in Chicago. All right, Ron Brownstein, Tim Naftali, thanks so much to both of you. We appreciate it.

NAFTALI: Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: All right, CNN will have live coverage of the president's address on the special edition of "ANDERSON COOPER 360." that is Tuesday starting at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:45:38] WHITFIELD: Some dangerous winter weather hit much of the country this weekend, killing three people in Virginia, Georgia and Carolina, the snow and ice storms in east causing multiple accidents. Here's a look at a 20-car pileup in Connecticut. That shut down the highway for part of the night. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. And the west coast got hit with heavy rains and strong winds, all mixed in with some snow as well. Now more rain is on the way for the northwest and millions are under a flash flood or flooding watch.

All right, Hollywood's award season is just about to kick off tonight with the golden globes and we're keeping our eye on some of the most nominated films.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

WHITFIELD: All right that is "La la land" and it has the most nominations of the night with seven, including best musical or comedy, also getting a lot of nominations, "Moonlight."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's all love and all pried in this house.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: All right "Moonlight" is a coming of age film with six

nomination including, best motion picture drama. All right CNN Stephanie Elam is on the red carpet for dazzling among the stars there, but you are a star Stephanie, all right do you have any favorites on that line up?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I do have a few. I have to admit, I do like "Moonlight" was a movie I saw, Fred and I didn't even know what it was about. And it moved me so much. It is a beautiful film. There's is a reason why it had so many nominations. There is also the TV 5 of things to, because that is the thing about the golden gloves, that they're looking, the Hollywood foreign press is looking for the best in TV and film. So you have shows like "This is us " and a lot of people, kind a lot of resounding support as it was on the air. So a lot of people are looking at that, also west world, which is a very different kind of show, so you're seeing changes in what is out there this year and some new fresh ideas, much like "La la land" is a take on an old favorite, looking at the movie side. But as you can see, the carpet is starting to fill up there. There are people here in the stands behind me, very excited fans who are here to see people coming by. The other big show out here today is the sun, it's a little hot. Here on the red carpet. It was supposed to rain, but it rained yesterday, and it's going to rain tomorrow, so I think we're overall happy about that. Then there's the other thing about the golden globes. The Golden Globes is known as Hollywood's biggest party and that is because, during the show, they're able to do a little bit of this. A little bit of drink during the show...

WHITFIELD: Or like that little attach cup that is cute.

ELAM: You like that? It is a little cloth, the hand this out as you walk in to the show. We will watch as the star start coming down, they'll come down the red carpet this way to enter into the theater for the show, but a lot of people also looking for Jimmy Fallon as well, Fred. They want to see how he is going to do hosting. Remember he is a "SNL" alum, so he is used to working to under live pressure, he it all the time, right? Who will he bring out with him perhaps? And who will he be making of and who will he be poking jokes at? So a lot of people think there might be some political jokes that come out so, it is interesting to see how Jimmy Fallon will handle the night.

WHITFIELD: It sound like it is going to be very promising evening. The ground work is laid for a very fun night, you've got your bubbly, and you got the sunshine, which means, great hairstyle all the way around, no one will get drenched this time around.

(LAUGHTER)

All right have fun Stephanie, we appreciate it. All right we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:53:02] WHITFIELD: We got a very busy week here at CNN and the week ahead confirmation hearings on Trump's road ahead where all are focus this week. CNN hosts two separate town halls, tomorrow night Chris Cuomo sits down with Bernie Sanders at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. And then on Thursday Jake Tapper hosts a town hall with Paul Ryan that airs at 9:00 Eastern both right here on CNN.

All right 1 million dollars was on the line at the consumer electronics show. The exhibitions were you can see all of the hot new technology. 30 competitors got behind the wheel for a virtual race. For all of that cash, Andy Scholes is there in Las Vegas.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, The video came race put on by Turner Sports E League was one of the highlights of the weekend. This race is brought to you by Ford go further. Now this race, it pitted 20 pro formula e drivers against 10 video game pros. Now for those who don't know, Formula e is a class of auto racing that only uses electric cars and the competitors they sat side by side in simulators and they raced through a virtual Las Vegas course. In fact, 1 million dollars was on the line. This goes to show how popular Esports has become.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is amazing. It is the first of its kind. Like it is the biggest one ever and competing in real racing it makes it even better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you're on the racetrack, you work more with the g-forces. You have much more physical input. You have for example to press the brake much harder and so on and so forth. You have also the risk of being at 200 miles an hour.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope this is just a start and we get to come to cool places like Vegas a lot more times, because I'm always up for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: We have been walking around the consumer electronics show here in Las Vegas trying to check out all the cool new tech products. And I got one more for you that caught my eye. I was walking by and I saw this inflatable air bag vest and I have to give it a try so I put it on and they deployed it for me. I tell you what, it was a little scary when it deployed, but I could definitely see how this product would definitely help someone involved in a crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[16:55:04] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have an electronic device on your back that is metering every millisecond your position. In case you are losing control, the chip will know you that you are in a situation that you will not recover. Then it sends the information to deploy the air bag and milliseconds after that you are inflated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: The Company that makes this vest In Motion. They already sell a wearable air bag vest that deploys for skiers. The one that I tried on is for motorcycles it is going to be available soon. They won a couple of innovation awards here at the consumer electronics show for this vest. I can definitely see why. When it deployed, it was really big and puffy, and I can see how that could definitely protect someone while involved in a crash while skiing or on a motorcycle, Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right, it sounds like an interesting array of safeguards. Thanks so much Andy Scholes, I appreciate it. All right I'm Fredericka Whitfield, thank you so much for being with me today, this whole weekend. NEWSROOM continues with Pamela Brown right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)