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New Day Sunday
CNN Poll: Sanders Leads, Buttigieg Gains Momentum In New Hampshire; Biden Targets Buttigieg's Lack Of Experience Ahead Of New Hampshire Primary; Some Republican Senators Urged White House Not To Fire Gordon Sondland; Two U.S. Service Members Killed In Afghanistan Attack; NYPD Officer Shot While Sitting In Parked Van In The Bronx; At Least 26 Dead, 57 Wounded After Soldier Goes On Mall Rampage; American Family's Adoption Dream Delayed By Outbreak; President Trump Slams Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) For Impeachment Vote; L.A. Times Releases Audio From Bryant's Final Interview With Paper; Storm Bringing Rain To South Snow To Midwest And Northeast. Aired 6-7a ET
Aired February 09, 2020 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:14]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The final 2 1/2 days now until the New Hampshire primary. Today it seems the Democratic candidates are running for president against each other.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's a great mayor. But guess what? He was a mayor.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bernie and I are friends. I appreciate his service but I don't think he should lead the ticket.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At least two U.S. troops are dead and six more wounded after a firefight in eastern Afghanistan. The U.S. military says reports indicate someone wearing an Afghan uniform opened fire on U.S. and Afghan forces with a machine gun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The death toll from the Wuhan coronavirus spiked today. The death toll from this virus has now surpassed a total number of people who died during the SARS epidemic. At least 805 people have now died from the virus worldwide, including the first American fatality.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning you to you.
Bernie Sanders is holding on to a lead two days now before the New Hampshire primary. According to a new CNN poll, he has the support of 28 percent of Democratic voters in the state. Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg is behind him there at 21 percent. And finishing at the top four former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Now after a disappointing finish in Iowa, Biden appears to be changing his strategy now. Yesterday he ramped up his attacks against Buttigieg.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): When President Obama called on him Joe Biden helped lead the passage of the Affordable Care Act which gave health care to 20 million people. And when park-goers called on Pete Buttigieg he installed decorative lights under bridges giving citizens of South Bend colorfully illuminated rivers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: You can see the point there that the former vice president is trying to make.
Joining me now CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip, and Dante Scala, professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. He's the author of "Stormy Weather, The New Hampshire Primary and Presidential Politics." Good morning to both of you.
Abby, let me start with you. Pete Buttigieg gaining momentum after a strong win -- a strong showing there in Iowa. What are we seeing from the Biden campaign as they try to combat that progress?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Victor. Good morning.
I mean, we've seen a really marked change in tone here. On the ground in New Hampshire and a lot of that has to do with for a lot of the candidates an unexpected showing of strength from Pete Buttigieg in Iowa. And several of the candidates most notably, Joe Biden have clearly decided that they have to stop Pete Buttigieg one way or another. And Joe Biden and his campaign launched unusually sharp attack against Buttigieg really taking on his legacy as mayor and what he's done in that role and comparing it to what Biden has done as vice president.
Now, that naturally led to some questions about whether Joe Biden believes that Pete Buttigieg is inexperienced in the same way that many people believed Barack Obama was inexperienced when he ran for president two years into his Senate term in 2008. And here's how Biden responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: This guy is not a Barack Obama. Barack Obama made United States senator of a really large state. Barack Obama had laid out a clear vision, what he thought the international society should look like and what the order should be. Barack Obama had laid out in detail what he thought should happen with regard to the economy. Barack Obama inherited the worst recession in the history of America short of a depression, new coming into it, and laid out what he was going to do about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now, look, Joe Biden is not alone in this. He's been joined by Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, even Tom Steyer and the warring campaign and more sharply criticizing Pete Buttigieg. There's a clear sense that in the last several days he has received some kind of bounce coming out of Iowa and the time is really running short before they have to do something to stop that momentum here in New Hampshire as well.
BLACKWELL: Dante, Abby points out here that the Biden campaign is not alone. He's the one with the digital ad naming Buttigieg. I think we should also point out that the former vice president made this pledge back in May of 2019.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: You will never hear me speak ill of another Democratic candidate. And there's a really simple reason for that, we have to be in a position, whomever the nominee is, to be able to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:05:05]
BLACKWELL: So he clearly has gone back on that. Is this -- I mean, this is not a slash and burn type of digital ad but is this a sign of panic from the Biden campaign?
PHILLIP: Well, clearly, Joe Biden is doing much more poorly than he was -- had anticipated. You know, frankly, Victor, that pledge everybody knew when he made it -- it was highly unlikely that he would be able to keep a pledge like that in any kind of political campaign. But our latest poll as you just showed, Joe Biden is really distantly in fourth place here in New Hampshire. And that's a real worrying sign.
His campaign aides refuse to tell reporters how they expect him to finish in New Hampshire. They've even sort of lowering expectations for Nevada and pitching -- have been pitching forward to South Carolina as a place where he can be expected to do well.
So, the Biden campaign's rationale has always been he's going to do well when the electorate gets more diverse which is much more reflective of the Democratic Party and the country as a whole. But at the same time, the question becomes how many losses can he sustain and what will that do to his own supporters who might start to view that as a sign of weakness. The problem for Biden will be is if his base of support even among African American starts to erode if he sustains too many losses in a row in all of these races, Victor.
BLACKWELL: Dante, let me bring you to the conversation. Senator Sanders won New Hampshire back in 2016. It was binary race there with Secretary Clinton by 23 points. If he wins on Tuesday, you write that this is more than New Hampshire winner wins New Hampshire. It's where he wins if he takes it. Explain why that's so important.
Dante? I don't know if Dante can hear me. All right. We can work on Dante's audio.
Let me stay with Abby Philip then. We looked at the polls at the top, the new CNN poll. There are some differences in the Monmouth, the Marist, and the CNN poll. Our poll has the largest lead for Senator Sanders there by seven points outside the margin of error.
Who needs to move? Let's put the poll up and show what our numbers show there in New Hampshire. Who needs to move in New Hampshire and show the numbers in New Hampshire. Who needs to move in New Hampshire to move on to the future contest?
PHILLIP: I mean, the clear top three in both Iowa and New Hampshire are Buttigieg, Sanders and Warren. And I do think that Elizabeth Warren, she has an opportunity here, just like Bernie Sanders as a neighboring senator to do very well. She's neck and neck with Joe Biden in this poll. And so it is a chance for her to potentially gain -- regain a little bit of momentum.
Of course, Joe Biden should do well in New Hampshire. I mean, one of the interesting things that we've seen at the debate he mentioned that he didn't expect to do well in New Hampshire. That's clearly something that I think his aides did not want him to say.
Voters do not like being written off and certainly New Hampshire is a state that he should do well if he's a top tier candidate. But I think that Warren has an opportunity here as someone who has done well in this state, in previous polls and someone who did do fairly well in Iowa to regain a little bit of lost ground, especially as she tries to hold on to her campaign going forward.
For all of these candidates, Victor, it's a race against the clock. They have got to start doing well. They've got to start -- they've got to continue to raise money. Otherwise, their campaigns are going to collapse underneath their feet.
It gets extremely expensive after South Carolina to run a campaign. When you get to Super Tuesday, you need a lot of money to do that and a lot of these candidates can very well be on the verge of not having enough funds to make it to Super Tuesday.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Abby Phillip for us.
Dante Scala just outside the camera shot. Obviously some audio issues. We're going to get back to him and his reporting about the specific areas that are so important for this primary in Tuesday a little later in the show. Thank you both for getting up so early for us.
PAUL: Sources tell CNN a group of Republican senators ask the White House not to fire E.U. ambassador Gordon Sondland. These senators included Susan Collins, Thom Tillis, Ron Johnson, Martha McSally.
BLACKWELL: Now according to "The New York Times," they were concerned the move would look bad for the president and that it was unnecessary since Sondland was considering leaving after the trial.
PAUL: CNN's Sarah Westwood following the latest for us. Sarah, obviously, the president is ignoring some of his Republican allies.
[06:10:03]
Very strong allies for him that just a couple of days ago helped acquit him in the impeachment trial. How is this going over?
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: And that's right, Victor and Christi. And good morning.
Yes. These Republican senators, allies of the president told the White House that they were concerned about the appearance of removing now former ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, especially because as you mentioned Sondland was considering leaving on his own after the impeachment saga. But they were concerned that this could reflects poorly on the administration, that this could give the appearance of the president exacting revenge on witnesses who testified against him.
Recall that Sondland is someone who was once very close to President Trump. He had Trump on his presidential equivalent of speed dial. They spoke frequently.
But since Sondland delivered what ended up being some of the most damaging testimony in the House impeachment inquiry he has not spoken frequently with President Trump. They haven't even spoken at all. And he was pulled from dealing with Ukraine in his foreign policy portfolio.
There were concerns that perhaps he would no longer be able to do that job effectively given how badly his relationship had frayed with the president. But among those Republican senators who pushed President Trump was Senator Susan Collins of Maine, Senator Thom Tillis, Martha McSally -- senators who as you mentioned had just voted to acquit President Trump in the Senate trial.
BLACKWELL: Sarah, we've learned that the National Security Council is planning to cut some positions. They say that it's a little bloated. What can you tell us about that?
WESTWOOD: That's right. That's something that National Security Council Robert O'Brien had said he planned to do when he came into this position in the fall. He had said and CNN reported at the time that he wanted to reduce the staff of the National Security Council by half by early 2020. So, he appears on track to meet that goal. This week he said that the National Security Council personnel and staff had become too big and he wanted to start to reduce it. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT O'BRIEN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: It's bloated. We're going to bring it back to a size that's manageable and efficient. And, look, the folks who are there really need to want to serve the president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WESTWOOD: Now O'Brien has been accomplishing this so far largely by attrition. Not filling jobs when people leave. He's also been ending temporary assignments for officials that have been on loan from other agencies, like the State Department and the intelligence agencies, sending them back to their original agencies earlier. But CNN is reporting that perhaps those cuts could start to look like more direct firings as he accelerates. Major staff shakeup at the NSC.
PAUL: All right. Sarah Westwood, good to see you this morning. Thanks for the update.
And be sure to watch "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER" this morning. Democratic presidential candidates Senator Bernie Sanders, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg on the show along with DNC chairman Tom Perez. That's "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER" today at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
BLACKWELL: Two U.S. service members are dead after an attack at a base in eastern Afghanistan. Military spokesman says that someone in an Afghan uniform started firing a machine gun on combined U.S. and Afghan forces.
PAUL: Thirteen thousand U.S. troops are currently serving in Afghanistan fighting terrorist groups and assisting local forces there in that country.
Jennifer Glasse an international journalist is with us now from Kabul. Jennifer, thank you so much for taking the time for us. I understand this attack comes obviously as President Trump is considering drawing down U.S. force in Afghanistan. What are you hearing there?
JENNIFER GLASSE, INTERNATIONAL JOURNALIST: Well, we know that the U.S. commander here, General Scott Miller has told the White House and U.S. military officials that he can do the job that he needs to do with about 8,600 U.S. forces here. So about a quarter of those 13,000 forces could leave and General Miller says he could do the counter terrorism missions and the training and advising missions that he needs to do with those forces. That announcement has not been made yet but that is where it stands right now. And, of course, it comes as the United States and the Taliban are also trying to reach some sort of agreement on a withdrawal.
BLACKWELL: All right. Jennifer Glasse there for us reporting. Jennifer, thank you.
PAUL: Still ahead, an attempted assassination on a New York police officer. The manhunt for the gunman after the break.
BLACKWELL: Plus, as the coronavirus outbreak reaches a new milestone, its impact goes well beyond health concerns for one American family.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the first time in my life that I truly wept to the point of being sick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Why their dream of welcoming an adopted daughter is now on hold.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:18:45]
PAUL: There is a manhunt in New York right now for a shooter who wounded a police officer. Two officers in the Bronx were sitting in a van when a man approached them, asked a question, and reportedly then pulled a gun. Now one of the officers was shot in the jaw the other was unhurt.
BLACKWELL: Investigators have released a couple of images, some surveillance photos here of the man they think is the suspect. There is a $12,500 reward for information about where he is. New York mayor Bill de Blasio has called the shooting an attempted assassination.
Police in Thailand had killed a soldier who went on a shooting rampage. Watch this.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
BLACKWELL: You hear some shots in the background. Authorities say the gunman killed at least 26 people, wounded 57 others during a standoff in a crowded mall.
PAUL: Authorities say the shooter was arguing with a superior officer apparently before the shooting. Here's CNN's Kristie Lu Stout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Terrified shoppers run out of the mall as a calm day turned deadly in one of Thailand's largest cities. Nakhon Ratchasima, also known as Korat city, is where a Thai soldier opened fire at Terminal 21 mall, killing at least 26 people.
[06:20:08]
Hours after the rampage began, images on social media showed people sprinting across the mall as heavily armed Thai police and military evacuated them.
Jon Fielding, an English teacher, was inside the mall during the shooting.
JON FIELDING, TEACHER (on the phone): I was just at the mall with a friend. Everything was completely normal. And then all of a sudden, everyone started running. Lots of shouting and panicking. And we immediately knew something was wrong. And the immediate reaction is to kind of duck down and hide. And then everyone was running into the shops and restaurants and barricading the doors.
Luckily we were right next to a restaurant, so we went inside and shut the door. It's a huge mall, really busy, on a Saturday. There must have been thousands of people in the mall. STOUT (voice-over): The tragic event unfolded in real time and security forces published images on social media, giving instructions for people trapped in the building to get out. Emergency workers live streamed their rescue efforts as they were taking victims on stretchers out of the building.
ANUTIN CHARNVIRAKUL, THAI PUBLIC HEALTH MINISTER (through translator): We have been trying to bring out whoever we can. And we will gradually save others who are still stuck inside.
STOUT (voice-over): Thailand's defense ministry spokesman said the suspect, Army Sergeant Major 1st Class Jakrapanth Thomma, shot and killed his superior, then went around shooting his colleagues. After he escaped from his quarters he drove to the mall and started shooting civilians.
He added, the gunmen's motive is still unknown. Facebook said in a statement it had removed the suspected gunman's page, although there was no evidence of violent videos.
"We are working around the clock to remove any violating content related to this attack," the statement said. "Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and the community affected by this tragedy in Thailand."
(on camera): The saga ended on Sunday when authorities confirmed that the gunman was shot dead by police.
Kristie Lu Stout, CNN Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: Kristie, thank you.
And listen to this. I can't believe this. We now know the coronavirus has killed more people than the SARS outbreak did a couple of decades ago.
I want to give you the worldwide figures here. First of all 800 people have died, including a U.S. citizen in China. And there are more than 37,000 cases of the disease globally.
BLACKWELL: Now most of those cases, the vast majority, in fact, the cases and the deaths are in China. But coronavirus has also spread to more than two dozen countries. The outbreak is putting the lives of a lot of people on hold, including a little girl who should have been by now meeting her new family.
PAUL: CNN's Natasha Chen spoke to this American couple who had hoped to bring their adopted daughter home. But they're not going to be able to do that now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Noah and Ivy Cleveland were supposed to be on a flight to China Friday night to pick up their adopted daughter.
IVY CLEVELAND, ADOPTIVE MOTHER: We had this made for her to wear on her adoption day.
CHEN: Instead, they and their two sons spent Friday evening showing us the baby room. They spent months preparing for 3-year-old Ruby Faith's homecoming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we also like is dogs right here and --
CHEN: The Clevelands spent two years and an often unpredictable adoption process. They finally got the certainty of booked plane tickets, hotel rooms, only to have their adoption agency tell them less than two weeks before meeting their daughter that plans were on hold because of the coronavirus outbreak. This was just days before the U.S. announced restrictions on people traveling from China.
I. CLEVELAND: This was the first time in my life that actually went to the point of being sick in my body. I just laid over her bed, over her crib that I had, you know, prepared for her and look at that, the pictures on the wall and her clothes in her closet. And just understanding that this is not happening right now.
CHEN: The State Department says adoption cases are still being processed, though the advised adoptive parents not to travel to China for the time being.
I. CLEVELAND: Our two boys were staying here. And so I had six different babysitters line that they care for them for the 14 days we would be gone.
NOAH CLEVELAND, ADOPTIVE FATHER: These are our suitcase all over the countries we've traveled --
CHEN: And because plans in this house often involve Noah Cleveland's out of town tours performing Christian music, the sudden change in logistics is also costly. More importantly, it's stretching their faith.
N. CLEVELAND: I know by my story and my life that I did -- there's many things I signed up to go through. But at the end, the way that God works it out I would never trade it. And I know this is just a part of our story. It's part of Ruby's story and how incredible will it be to be able to tell her, look what -- look what -- look what we did to fight for you.
[06:25:05]
CHEN: What they did to fight for a girl who they say was abandoned in a hospital bathroom when she was six months old. A girl who's diagnosed with hydrocephalus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And daddy built this sign.
CHEN: A girl whose new middle name is Faith, the very thing her family is relying on right now. (on camera): If you could say something to her that she would understand right now, what would you want her to know from you?
N. CLEVELAND: Mama and Daddy is coming. Just wait, we'll be there soon.
CHEN (voice-over): Natasha Chen, CNN, McDonough, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: You hear the stories day after day of the diagnoses and the deaths, but stories like that show just how broad the impact is on families who don't have the disease or no diagnosis but around the world --
PAUL: And children who need to be in a home.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Natasha Chen, thank you for following that story for us.
All right. He was acquitted in the impeachment trial. But just take a look at the president's Twitter feed and you can see he's not ready to move on. Brian Stelter is with us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:00]
PAUL: So President Trump is attacking senators who voted to convict. First, it was Mitt Romney, remember, the only Republican to break with GOP. Now, it's West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, a senator seemed to be on the fence during the trial. But, ultimately, he voted for impeachment.
BLACKWELL: Yesterday, the president called Senator Manchin weak and pathetic and said, he wouldn't understand the transcripts if he read them. Manchin responded, I read the transcripts. Where I come from, a person accused defends themselves with witnesses and evidence.
With us now, CNN Chief Media Correspondent, Brian Stelter. Brian, the president was acquitted in the Senate trial. He got what he wanted. I don't know if anyone should be surprised. The president still talks about the 2016 election, not winning an Emmy for The Apprentice several years ago. So should we be surprised that he's holding on to this?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Not surprised, but it's striking that he and his allies are relying on anger and resentment as an emotion more so than joy and relief that the trial was over.
I was watching television Wednesday night, turning on Fox and in other right wing outlets. And instead of talking about the president's success, it was all about Mitt Romney and it was all about Nancy Pelosi. And that is just striking to me that -- to see that the story is so often about anger and bitterness toward opponents or perceived enemies. But to your point, Victor, this has been the strategy for several years and a very effective strategy for President Trump. It is just a little bit sad, I think, to see so much vitriol and vindictiveness not just from the president but also from his media allies. Again, even four days later, the State of the Union tearing of the speech by Nancy Pelosi, it's still a hot topic in right wing media. They are still talking about the tearing up of a document. That is remarkable that those kinds of moments can so overshadow a speech and be the topic that's being discussed instead.
PAUL: So I know this week that the president publicly called some lawmakers evil, crooked, dirty cops, liars, he cursed at the podium while at the White House and you were just talking about right wing media. Do you think right wing media fuels the president or does the president fuel the right wing media?
STELTER: I think it's largely the right wing fueling the president, giving him talking points, giving him ideas to focus on. For example, he went out there and claimed that maybe it was illegal for Pelosi to tear up the speech, even though constitutional scholars say there's nothing to that. But he was hearing that T.V. and then repeating it out to the press corps. It's this base level politics about with us or against us. You're with us or against us that the president has perfected, or that is ultimately all of this comes back to.
And what we're going to see now as we think about the 2020 election is this different versions of the president for different platforms. It's kind of like a version of different strokes for different folks. What we saw at the State of the Union was this attempt to appeal to suburban moms, to reach out to African-Americans and Hispanics. And then what we see on his Twitter and Facebook feeds and what we see in his advertisement, in his advertising, it's a very targeted message to his base, his white working class base that they need to stick with him.
So we're going to see that all throughout in the next eight months, different target -- different versions of the president, different messages targeted for audiences.
And what's toughen the Facebook age is that you're getting one version of the president's ads and you don't know what your neighbor is getting. That's the new development for 2020.
BLACKWELL: Brian, the important thing, and some of this kind of carries over into the conversation we've been having about the primary, is that this often works when races get tight, candidates don't switch to more optimistic advertising or rhetoric, they go negative, they go aggressively negative, so this may work for the president.
STELTER: Yes, that's what it reminds me of. When we see the president angered in the wake of acquittal and Jeanine Pirro, for example, last night, one of his most ardent supporters, screaming at Mitt Romney through the television. It is a version of that campaign choice to go negative instead of staying positive. You often hear the president and his supporters say, look at economy, focus on the economy. But oftentimes, it's his media allies that are focusing instead on their perceived enemies and not the economy.
PAUL: Stelter, you've got a heck of a job right now.
STELTER: This is a beautiful sunrise behind. What a beautiful day.
BLACKWELL: Look at that.
PAUL: The optimism.
BLACKWELL: Always endless optimism.
STELTER: I'm going to get out of the way. Please enjoy this.
BLACKWELL: He leaves us with the horizon there. Thank you, Stelter.
STELTER: All right, see you.
PAUL: Stelter, we love you, buddy. Catch Brian later today at 11:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
[06:35:01]
BLACKWELL: All right. We'll look forward to that.
Serious turn here. One of the final interviews that Kobe Bryant gave before his passing has now been released. We'll hear some of what was on the basketball legend's mind before that tragic helicopter crash.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: The L.A. Times has released the audio from its final interview with Lakers legend Kobe Bryant. It's likely one of the final in-depth interviews he gave before he and his daughter and seven others died in a helicopter crash last month.
[06:40:07]
PAUL: Coy Wire is with us now. And know the first thing he talked about were his -- was his daughters. I mean, I've heard people say I've seen him happier in these last three or four years than I've seen him ever before. And he's with the family.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It's a really great point. And his love for his daughters really shined. And it was a 17-minute interview and he talked about a wide range of topics. But a lot of it kind of pointed back to his passion for being a great dad. So Kobe spoke about being his daughter Gigi's basketball coach, he talked about creating a legacy built on championing women sports. And he also talked about why he would have rather stayed at home than go to a Lakers game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOBE BRYANT, NBA LEGEND: it's not that I don't want to go. It's I'd rather be giving my baby a shower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel you, yes. You're a father.
BRYANT: (INAUDIBLE). Do you know what I'm saying?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel you. No, it makes sense.
BRYANT: I'm going through 20 years and the journey and career with my kids, and I thought if it ain't Gianna, I probably would have that consistently. Do you know what I'm saying?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BRYANT: You feel me? So for me to make a trip off to the Staples Center, I mean, I'm missing an opportunity to spend another night with my kids. And I know how fast it goes, because my daughter is 16. Do you know what I'm saying? And Gianna is 13 right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BRYANT: That time came and went. So I want to make sure that the days that I'm away from them are days that I like actually have -- like I'd rather just be hanging with them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Now, Kobe's public memorial is at Staples Center in L.A. on February 24th. Tomorrow, there's a memorial at the L.A. Angels Stadium in Anaheim for John Altobelli and his wife, Keri, and their daughter, Alyssa. They were also killed in that plane crash.
Now, we have to move on to some other sports stories that happened yesterday. And if you check it on the XFL and their return to television, Victor, definitely not, maybe Christi, but it has been 19 years since the pro league had made its T.V. debut.
And it made a big return with a big splash yesterday, familiar names, intriguing alternatives to the NFL game, big hits, highlight reel touchdowns like this one. Former Ohio State quarterback, Christi, Cardale Jones gets his first pro T.V., a double reverse. His D.C. Defenders took down the Seattle Dragons.
Now, these games, they go a lot quicker than the NFL. running clocks, except for the last two minutes of each half. Mid game interviews also, fans get to hear from these players in the heat of the moment like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. There's just a lot of time after play. We're trying to make stuff happen and they're doing a little pushing and shoving. We're trying to get the (BLEEP) job done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Sorry, the adrenaline can kick in as you can see. Kickoffs are fun. Look at this, potentially safer than that what you see in the NFL. No running starts, the teams start just five yards apart. So there are fewer big collisions, maybe something the NFL might try to adopt, many were saying on social media.
Now, how about a cup of Gatorade bath to celebrate the league's debut? It might have some staying power. There are a lot of fun moments, social media really buzzing about this. But the first time that this league came around, 19 years ago, it lasted just one season. But we'll see now.
Remember, the AAF tried to make a run last year. did make it through a full season, but generally great reviews on social media.
BLACKWELL: That coach's reaction time to that cup of Gatorade was really slow.
PAUL: Yes.
BLACKWELL: Can we watch that again?
WIRE: Was it like lukewarm water?
BLACKWELL: So he pours the Gatorade, one, two, three, four --
PAUL: Well, now, it's in his slow motion anyway.
WIRE: I mean, yes.
BLACKWELL: And why was Christi maybe? She saw it. It's definitely not.
PAUL: Thank you so much for giving me credit where I did not deserve any.
BLACKWELL: You'd see it may be on T.V., XFL.
PAUL: I'm an Ohio State player. That's what it was.
BLACKWELL: Christi has got a connection.
WIRE: There you go.
BLACKWELL: All right. Thanks, Coy.
PAUL: Coy, thank you.
So I know going into tax season, not our favorite time. Some experts say, listen, this year could actually be even more surprising in a negative way for a lot of people. We're going to talk about it coming up. Stay close. Financial adviser with us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:45:00]
BLACKWELL: Well, it's time to face the tax season. PAUL: Do we have to?
BLACKWELL: Yes, I think we have to. And by law, we really have to.
PAUL: By law, yes, we really do have to.
BLACKWELL: And sometimes you get that knot in your stomach. I had it last week. I finished mine, fortunately.
PAUL: Good for you. I'm still working on ours. And, yes, I do, do ours by the way. And this is the thing that's interesting this year. There are some experts who say this tax season could actually be worse than last.
BLACKWELL: Wow.
PAUL: And I wonder, what about you? Are you worried about this? Well, we got insight from financial expert Ted Jenkin of oXYGen Financial. Listen to what he says.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: Ted, so good to have you here. I want to ask you because I think what some don't realize is that this tax season for some could be even worse than last year. Is that because those tax cuts that the president talked about went into effect this year for the full year as opposed to a partial?
TED JENKIN, CEO, OXYGEN FINANCIAL: That's right, Christi. This is the first full year that you'll see the tax effects really happen. And some deductions have gone away. You can't take your kids anymore as personal exemptions. As of January 1st, alimony deductions have gone away and new cases, miscellaneous deductions like job search and mileage and meals and entertainment have all gone away.
So what you have to figure out is that the standard deduction for an individual will be $12,200, and for a married couple, it will be $24,400.
[06:50:01]
Or you can itemize deductions, which means if your mortgage interest, your charitable contributions, your state and local taxes are all higher than that, then you're going to want to itemize.
PAUL: Do all donations count regardless?
JENKIN: No, they don't. If you take the standard deduction, you won't get the donations. If you itemize, then you can take the full set of charitable contributions.
PAUL: Okay, that's good to know. I think of people know that there are several tax brackets, that there are different tax rates. But how do we know really where we fall in those rates?
JENKIN: I mean, it's really challenging, Christi. It's a tough tax system, because we are in a progressive tax system. So what happens is the first amount of money that you make, you get taxed at 10 percent, then the next amount at 12 percent all the way up to 37 percent.
So the marginal bracket is the tax on the last dollar of income that comes into your household. Your effective rate, which really is your tax rate, is your overall tax rate. This is all of your income minus all of your deductions. So what you'll find out once you get that tax rate is how much money you'll get for a refund or how much money you owe based upon what you withheld during the year.
The real X factor for some families too, Christie, is what state you live in. Nine states in America have zero income taxes and you have states like California that are at 13.3 percent.
PAUL: Ouch. Ouch, ouch. All right, I know that there are a lot of cheap or no cost tax preparation services, kind of like DUI system. Smart do it on your own? Do you need a CPA?
JENKIN: I think, in general, if your situation is pretty simple, you have wage income and a little bit of interest income from the bank, you can use one of those online tax preparation systems. But if you own a business or two or you own a couple of pieces of real estate, then you probably want to have a CPA in your corner.
Here is the big news. In America, if you make less than $69,000 of adjusted gross income, guess what, the IRS at irs.gov has teamed up with a half dozen of the biggest online tax prep systems in the country, Christi. And you can get your taxes done for free. Only 2 percent of Americans are using that system right now.
PAUL: Oh, my gosh. All right, Ted, you've given us such good stuff to know as we head into what is one of the most, for some, gut-wrenching times of the year. It's cumbersome, it's complex. Thank you for helping us break it down a little bit more. Good to see you.
JENKIN: Thanks, Christi.
PAUL: Sure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: So the writers at Saturday Night Live, they had a smorgasbord to choose from. They had so much that happened last week. What do you think they opened with? The debate from Friday night, here is a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay. I don't know how or why it happened. But I am king of an army of internet trolls called Bernie Bros. Could I stop them in their tracks? Of course. Should I? Yes. Will I? Eh.
Hillary Clinton says nobody likes me. Let me ask you this. Then how come I'm the most popular guy on 4Chan?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayor Pete? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, I know corruption is a problem in this country. I know big business controls too much of Washington. I know Democrats don't want another candidate with massive corporate donors. And I know that I sound like a bot that has studied human behavior by watching 100 hours of Obama speeches. So let's get white Obama trending. And please, please not ironically. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tried to tell you guys, the robots are calling Yang Gang 2020. Let's get the shmoney (ph).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:55:00]
PAUL: Listen, there is another storm system brewing and it's going to make a mess for a lot of us, starting workweek here tomorrow, of course. Southeast, Midwest, we're target today.
BLACKWELL: Yes, near the path.
CNN Meteorologist, Allison Chinchar is following this system. There's a lot going on with it.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And there's going to be a series of systems that come right behind it. So that's going to be the problem for a lot of these areas. You may get rain for five days straight. So it's not just a quick moving system that's in and out. This is going to be a little bit different.
So let's take a look at where is now. You've got some snow right now. You've got some thunder snow for portions of Minnesota, just south of Minneapolis right there, heavy snow making its way into Wisconsin as well. St. Louis started to snow then got a wintry mix. Now, we've transitioned back into rain.
Now, all of this is going to continue to push off to the east. We have about 30 million people under some type of winter weather alert at least just in the short-term. Now, the concern is going to be where does that spread over the next 24 hours.
Here's a look. You can see very heavy snow expected o for much of the upper Midwest. Again, you're talking portions of Wisconsin, even Michigan, before that snow finally spreads over into the northeast. But areas like Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, you're going start as snow and then see it transition back over into rain as it slides to the east.
The heaviest snowfall totals are going to be across portions of Wisconsin, Minnesota and areas of Michigan where, yes, eight, even ten inches of snow not out of the question. The majority of everybody else though, just about two to four inches.
On the southern side, flooding. This is going to be the big threat. Because we mentioned a series of systems, this is going to be the start of it today, and as we head into the day, Monday. But even after that, look at the amount of rain that we expect over the next several days.
[07:00:00]
Because it's a series of systems, widespread, five inches of rain for a lot of those areas.
BLACKWELL: Wow.
PAUL: Allison, thank you so much.
