Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Deep Freeze Slams South; DHS Runs Out of Funding Friday; Interview with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; Putin: War with Ukraine "Unlikely"; British Police in Turkey Searching for Missing Schoolgirls

Aired February 24, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, you know, yesterday morning, it was a rough commute for people trying to go to work. It's going to be just that again this morning for many Texans.

Over my shoulder to the right, you might see the black ice glittering in the light. And that is the real danger. The temperature here in the 20s, but the wind chill bring it is down to the teens. It's the cold that's causing all the trouble.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Breaking overnight, investigators say treacherous icy conditions may have caused this American Airlines Boeing 737 to skid off the taxiway. All 68 passengers and crew forced to evacuate from the emergency exit at the back of the plane. More than 1,000 flights cancelled from Dallas International Airport, where up to two inches of sleet and freezing rain fell on Monday. Drivers are losing control, paralyzed by ice blanketing the road ways.

NINO ARZON, DALLAS DRIVER: There's a path that the cars have made, and I just kind of follow those paths.

SAVIDGE: Officials closing all Dallas independent school districts. As the police department says they've responded to hundreds of ice accidents.

KRUNAL PATEL, DRIVER: I know that this, you know, your car gets out of control. You cannot control it.

SAVIDGE: Take a look at this big rig, hanging precariously off of a bridge in a busy Dallas interstate after hitting an icy patch. The driver making it out of live, but police say they'll have to use a crane to remove the 18-wheeler.

Meanwhile, the deadly roadways actually bring the community together, dozens of good Samaritans with SUV's and four-wheel drives scoured the icy roads overnight, looking for stranded motorist and hauling them to safety.

JOE TOREZ, DALLAS GOOD SAMARITAN: Not very many people do it these days, and it's kind of one of those reasons you want to get out and help random people.

SAVIDGE: This is dangerous levels of snow and ice...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang on.

SAVIDGE: ... continue to accumulate across the country. Winter storm warnings and watch stretch now nearly 3000 miles from California to the Carolinas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE (on camera): And then there's this as Texans make that difficult commute this morning. They're hearing on their radios another winter weather advisory goes into effect later today for another winter system that moves in tonight and tomorrow, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN anchor: Martin, thank you very much from the reporting on the ground. The Northeast had its hands full. The Southeast is much more vulnerable. Let's bring in meteorologist Chad Myers from (inaudible) but in a different environment as we keep saying can do a lot more damage.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And a lot fewer pieces of equipment to take care of this, 34 and raining in Atlanta but 31 and freezing rain in the northern suburbs including the interstates that have shutdown this morning, schools are canceled all over the southeast 27 at then moving 24 up in Knoxville where it's still snowing right now.

The first storm move on today will put down about four inches of new snow especially in the highest of elevations. But the one -- the storm, the new one that Martin was talking about still out here in Mexico about to spread snow over Dallas and over Memphis and over Little Rock and even into Nashville. This is the next storm system.

And what we have here, we have so much snow and so much cold air that's already in place. Look at our temperatures right now. The record low in New York today was 16. It is now four degrees up to six. It was down to four for awhile, six degrees now. So it broke that record by a dozen degrees. It is seven below in Pittsburgh. The old record was two below. So you get the idea. The cold air is already here and that's what's causing all of this.

The next snow event, all the way from Buck, Dallas, all the way through Charlotte, North of Atlanta, could be a four to six inch snowfall and that will last a long time because they just don't have the equipment of pushing out of the way, guys.

Here, take a look at Hudson River. We got some video yesterday off of a drone high above the Hudson River taking all the big pieces of ice just floating down the river. This river looks exactly the same. Great shots there from John Doover (ph) here from a New Day crew get to shot look at all that ice floating down there. That's not something you want to take your boot on I think, not for awhile.

I think boating in the northeast is going to be a little bit slow because the Great Lakes are just about completely covered as well over 85 percent ice coverage in the Great Lakes right now. Guys back to you, there it is, there's the shot. CUOMO: That's our director John Doover you're talking about Chad. Good thing, he knows how to fly that drone. One misstep, he's going to be crying in his corner.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: We'll be checking back in with you in a little bit, Chad.

MYERS: There you go.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Well, to Capitol Hill now, a possible break in the stalemate to keep the Department of Homeland Security operating beyond Friday.

The Senate Majority Leader suddenly changing tactics, he now says he has a last minute plan. Let's bring in CNN Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. A cold reality is setting in here in Washington, Alisyn, and we're not talking about the weather this morning although it is rather frigid.

That's right. The Department of Homeland Security does not have funding by the end of this week, by Friday at midnight. That department will shut down. The impact will be widespread. Let's put them up on the screen and show them to you.

30,000 workers of the Department of Homeland Security would be furloughed. They would not be allowed to go to work. A hundred thousand more would have to work with no pay, so they won't be happy about that. And again, widespread impacts of border security and TSA workers at the airport, secret service, who protect the president, all of those agencies will be impacted.

And the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says even at the agency's headquarters, there will be problems. Here is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Headquarter staff is cut back to a skeleton that inhibits our ability to stay on top of a lot of the existing situations and challenges to Homeland Security right now

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, you mentioned Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he thinks he's found a way out of this impasse. He is proposing legislation that would strip the immigration language from the Department Of Homeland Security funding bill. Remember, Republicans wanted that attached to it to protest the President's executive action on immigration.

The Senate would then pass that in theory, and then sooner over to the House, but there are no guarantees that that will take place, Alisyn and Chris, so we maybe right back at the brink by at the end of this week.

CAMEROTA: Of course, we will be. Jim Acosta, thaks so much for that preview.

CUOMO: All right. So let's bring in one of the players in this game. Here, Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, Tulsi Gabbard. She's a member of the House Armed Services Committee and an Iraq War Veteran. It's great to have you as always here on New Day. Congratulations on the engagement.

REP. TULSI GABBARD, (D) HAWAII: Thank you very much.

CUOMO: A little bit of good news mixed with some bad as you're looking at your job right now. This is a game that you guys are not supposed to be playing taking it up to the brink. This solution by McConnell will it fly with your party?

GABBARD: I think it will because I think there's a time and place for politics, there's a time and place for debating very important issues, like immigration and immigration reform, but there is one thing that you don't mess with, you don't mixed partisan politics with the net to safety and security of the American people as we're seeing now with this Department Of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill.

So, I think it's important. I think it's a good step that Mitch McConnell is looking at separating the issue, having an upper down vote on the immigration component, and really looking at passing this clean department of homeland security funding bill before the deadline.

CAMEROTA: So you do not think that on Friday DHS will shutdown?

GABBARD: I hope not. A lot can happen between now and then. But I think that this development now is a good first step in that direction. I think the first positive one that we've seen really over the last several weeks.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the president's request for war authorization, the AUMF. A lot of people, even Democrats, are not happy with the President's war plan, what's your issue with it?

GABBARD: I have a several concerns. So I think one of the foremost ones is that we're not really seeing a very clean outline winning strategy in how to defeat this threat that is being fueled by different Islamic extremist groups with the ISIS really being the -- at the forefront right now.

CUOMO: And aren't you a Democrat. Did you just say Islamic extremist groups?

GABBARD: Once again...

CUOMO: You're not supposed to say that word.

GABBARD: There are issues that should not be mixed with partisan politics. This isn't about any personality or any political party. It's a very simple thing for me. I'm a soldier at heart. So when I look at who is posing this threat to the American people, I look at who is our enemy. I want to know exactly what's motivating them. What's driving them? What is their primary recruiting tool? And the reality is, that this is an enemy that is recruiting people with this Islamic ideology saying, "You will go to heaven if you do this or that." And so, we have to defeat them militarily as well as ideological -- ideologically, and that's where the strategy needs to...

CAMEROTA: So you want to hear the President name the enemy specifically?

GABBARD: It's important to be specific and accurate when we're talking about military tactics and we're talking about strategies and when we're talking about our enemy to be very specific and who is posing that threat and why.

CUOMO: Now, when you talk about the strategy of how to win. You are not fighting this war, I know I'm speaking you as a veteran. The U.S. troops aren't fighting it, so how can you win it as the United States? This is about the Arab region coming together and fighting this enemy and beating them off. Do you see that happening?

GABBARD: I think that President al-Sisi's call to action, call to an Arab force to come and fight on the ground is a very positive step in the right direction. I think it's exactly what we have been waiting for. And we as the United States need to support, you know, countries like Egypt, countries like Jordan, we need to support...

CUOMO: Do you think they could get a real coalition of warriors?

GABBARD: I think that this is an issue where they can. I think that when you look at all the things that are happening there in the region that this could be that coalescing issue where you can support and arm the Kurds directly. You can support and arm these Sunni tribes directly, support Egyptians, support the Jordanians in their fight because they really do have the stake in this. And there's a strategic element to this as well, which I think is important to talk about. It's not just about not sending U.S. troops.

Again, if you look at the ideology of this enemy, their primary recruiting target is saying, look this is a war being wage between the west and Muslims. If you have the forefront, if you have the tip of the spear being an Arab or a Muslim force, it completely undercut their recruiting argument. You're able to stop them in their momentum, both on the ground as well as in their ability to continue to grow in their strength.

CAMEROTA: It makes perfect sense. It sounds like the solution, yet all sorts of analyst say, "It's not going to happen." Why couldn't there be a strong Arab force in this fight?

GABBARD: There's history obviously there. We've got to take into effect the Sunni-Shia Sectarian Civil War and divide that continues on. And I think that points to this failed central Iraqi government policy that continues on starting in the Bush Administration now continues in this administration because it's not taking into account the Sunni-Shia divide.

The fact that ISIS exists in Iraq today because of the Sunnis, who've been completely oppressed and continue to be persecuted by the Shia militias, the Iranian influence government there. So they don't have any where else to turn.

CUOMO: People forget that that a big part of the fighting force when the United States was involve on the ground, there were Sunnis. And now, many of them have defected to the other side or they're just staying out of...

GABBARD: Because they have no place else to go.

CUOMO: Right.

GABBARD: So let's look at Mosul, you know, there's this conversation about this offensive action in Mosul to take it back from ISIS. This will be a feudal effort. It will be counterproductive unless you take into account the fact that these Sunni fighters, these Sunni tribes have to empowered. And there has to be an agreement in place that once ISIS is defeated in Mosul, it needs to be led and secured by the Sunni people. They need to be empowered to be able to do that.

CAMEROTA: Do you see that happening?

GABBARD: We're pushing for it because this is the way we get to a place of defeating ISIS. So it's important that we recognize the nuances and really the history of this place and take that into account as we look at a winning strategy.

CUOMO: Get to a place of defeating ISIS. True and off right now, you are not defeating ISIS right now. if you were to be straight about what's happening right now.

GABBARD: We are not defeating them in a way that's going to last for the long term. And the reason why is because you can defeat them militarily, you can defeat them in a few different battles but until you also defeat them ideologically, we're still going to have new recruits popping up replacing those who've been killed.

CAMEROTA: Congresswoman Gabbard, great to see you on set here on New Day. Thanks so much for coming in.

GABBARD: Thank you, good to see you. Thanks.

CAMEROTA: All right. Meanwhile, Vladimir -- President -- Russian President Vladimir Putin says a war with Ukraine is "unlikely." This as forces in Kiev they cannot pull heavy weapons from Eastern Ukraine and city is still under attack by pro-Russian rebels.

CNN's Diana Magnay is tracking the latest live from Donetsk. Diana.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that's right, Mr. Putin calling the likelihood of war with Ukraine in apocalyptic scenario and extremely unlikely but if you speak to people on the ground here, they would call what we've seen over the last few months a day in fact a war and one which was certainly on the pro-Russian side assisted fortified by Russian armor and Russian troops, the charge that Mr. Putin has, of course, always denied.

Sergey Lavrov of Russia's Foreign Minister, also having some very strong words against the United States and the U.N. Security Council meeting last night, where he accused the U.S. of being the root cause of all the problems in Ukraine and in the Middle East. And that is, of course, an accusation that many in the West have leveled back at Russia certainly in relation to Ukraine.

Now as to the situation on the ground, it is now over a week into this so-called ceasefire, more than a week and a half after the Minsk agreement. And it has been continued shelling. There are still hot spots around the conflict area including here in Donetsk where you'll here shelling, that's were the Ukrainian say they're not going to pull their heavy weaponry back. The rebels though said -- say have been, "We haven't been able to verify that -- with that process," they say began today.

Back to you.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Diana, we appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Here's some breaking news we're watching this morning in Philadelphia. Firefighters are struggling control these two alarmed fire. We're showing it live. Look at the scene right now.

Hydrant problems apparently are preventing crews from getting water to that building. We're told that fire is also affecting a line on the city's train system, obviously, bad news for morning commuters. Right now, no word just yet on injuries or what may have caused this blaze.

CUOMO: Oh, look at that fire.

A home invasion becomes a bomb scare in Connecticut. Suspects allegedly bust into the home of chief financial officer of a credit union. They drive him to his office, ordering him to empty the vault. And then the police arrived and find the CFO in a car with a possible explosive device strapped to his chest. Police later determined it was a fake. The suspects still at large.

CAMEROTA: OK, here's Chris's favorite story of the day. And I'm going to need his assist in reading this because look at this insane record shuttering standing broad jump...

CUOMO: Are you kidding?

CAMEROTA: ... at the NFL...

PEREIRA: Do it again. Do it again.

CAMEROTA: ... Scouting Combine.

PEREIRA: Nice. CUOMO: This is where the best players in the country come to see it. They'll make it to the pros. Nobody jumps as far as this guy did. Even his competitors have to high five him. Watch this. Nobody.

PEREIRA: That's phenomenal.

CAMEROTA: That is University of Connecticut cornerback Byron Jones leaping in astonishing 12 feet, 3 inches.

CUOMO: Look at him.

CAMEROTA: No one's ever broke in 12 feet at the Combine as I can tell you.

CUOMO: That will be like a million dollars of foot.

CAMEROTA: And look at -- wow, that's a great action shot. And Jones's just appears to be the longest in human history, Chris. Wikipedia lists the all time world record at 12 feet, two inches. Jones is now to be considered the top 50 NFL prospect entering the Combine. The teams are now taking...

PEREIRA: And so is U.S. track and field and I bet the Olympic team is also like, "Hey, what's up."

CAMEROTA: And NASA for his flying gravity.

PERIERA: I love it. That's incredible. I can watch that all day. Amazing.

CUOMO: Isn't that amazing. It's -- I just love seeing what humans are capable of.

PEREIRA: Yup. It's really is tremendous. Thanks for bringing that (inaudible).

CAMEROTA: Great story. All right. On to this fascinating story, there is a woman who may have recruited these three British teenagers to leave home and join ISIS in Syria with her.

Investigators are now focusing on Aqsa Mahmood as they desperately search for the missing girls. What can be done to prevent that kind of recruiting?

CUOMO: All right. So here's the scenario. Scott Walker wants to run for president. The media asks him about what Rudy Giuliani said about the President not loving America at a Walker event.

He says, "No, no, no, that's a media got you game." Is it? Inside Politics takes it on for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: British police in Turkey this morning hunting for three missing London school girls believed to be headed to Syria to join ISIS. Authorities think the girls may have been recruited by Aqsa Mahmood. That's a Scottish woman who joined the terror group back in 2013.

CNN sat down with Aqsa Mahmood's parents in September. And they shared her explanation of why she joined ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUZAFFAR MAHMOOD, AQSA MAHMOOD'S FATHER: She -- One message was that, "I will see you on the day of judgment."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That must have been very hard for you as a father.

MUZAFFAR MAHMOOD: It was. "I will take you to heaven, I will hold your hand." That's what she said. "I want to become a martyr.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining us now is Aamer Anwar he is the attorney for the Mahmood family. Mr. Anwar, thanks you so much for being on the program.

AAMER ANWAR, ATTORNEY FOR MAHMOOD FAMILY: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the connection that authorities believe exist between this 20 year old who known as a Jihadi bride, who joined ISIS Aqsa Mahmood who's family you represent and these three British girls. We know that one day before these British girls left on February 15th there was some social media connection between them and Aqsa. What more do we know?

ANWAR: Well what we know is that one of the young girls a 15-year-old may have been in contact with Aqsa Mahmood via Twitter. And Aqsa had said for her to direct message her back. Beyond that we don't know much more but the family are somewhat surprised, horrified because they understood that Aqsa Mahmood's social media contact was being closely monitored by the security services in this country.

And the real concern that arises is, now if a known member of ISIS who is now a poster girl for ISIS seems to be recruiting and spreading propaganda is in touch with young people in our country. Then one would expect the courtesy of a knock on the door of those families to advice them that their children maybe on the cusp or radicalization or be going off to Syria to join them. Yet that never happened.

CAMEROTA: In fact the Mahmood family put out this statement after the girls disappeared they say security services have serious questions to answer. Aqsa's social media has been monitored since she disappeared over a year ago. Yet despite alleged contact between the girls and Aqsa they failed to stop them from leaving the U.K. to Turkey, a staging post for Syria. Sadly despite all of the government's rhetoric on ISIS if they can't even take basic steps to stop children leaving to join ISIS, what is the point at any new laws?

Again that was from Aqsa Mahmood family who you represent. It sounds like they're saying the British Security Services are not doing their jobs what do they want security services to do? ANWAR: Well there's a number of things if the security services are engaged in monitoring and carrying surveillance and monitoring all our social media contact which we know courtesy of Mr. Snowden a U.S. citizen, that all our social media contact is regularly monitored. And obviously it's not a question of finding a needle in a haystack. But if you know of known individuals like Aqsa's another radicals and terrorist who are only using social media to spread propaganda then you monitor them and you see which young people are in contact with them.

And if they are in contact with them then there's a problem. You contact the parents and you allow them to intervene an early stage. Secondly when young people appear on airport a 15-year-old unaccompanied, going to Turkey you would expect the flights for Turkey being targeted via security services on a basis of targeted intelligence, you would not expect for them to go past one sector security, a second set of security and a third set of security and to be allowed to board that flight when it would be most obvious, the most basic step would they are unaccompanied by their parents, unaccompanied by adults what are they doing going to Turkey.

Even a few questions taken aside, 30 seconds saying we need to phone your parents would have resolve the situation. In fact, what happened was, they were allowed to flight out to Turkey in the same Aqsa did was and the concern now is that they may have crossed the border. I understand this morning the Turkish Prime Minister has criticized the U.K. authorities saying that it was some three days later that they were in touch with the British authorities to say they're looking at for these girls.

Now I don't know, there's an argument going on between both sets of authorities. But it's far too little and far too late. And the real concern is that if they have intelligence, if they have information then they should share it not just with the Turkish authorities and other governments but they should share it with the families so that they can also intervene with their children, rather than waiting for once the holes is bolted, when it's far too late.

CAMEROTA: That makes perfect sense. I was surprise to read that Aqsa Mahmood who -- you represent her family, is still in regular contact with her family. Then she calls home about once month even though she has joined ISIS. What are those conversations like?

ANWAR: Well, a social media contact, I mean, the contact is intermittent. So, I suppose the conversation if you can call it that is an unnatural conversation because it's really one-way the family aren't able to ask her any questions. She would refuse to answer questions. And if you had a child that let's say had gone abroad. Let's say had traveled to Europe. One would expect the parents to be able to engage in face time in social media contact to see photographs of their friends, their surroundings and to know what they're up to on a day to day basis.

Unfortunately there is none of that for the family. So they just literally hang on to her words hoping that she's alive when the contact comes through that she hasn't being killed a drone or by a bomb, or whatever. Most of the contact is extremely religious and justifying her actions. But the parents have been extremely hard on her, on this occasion whether the news about contact with the three girls. And they've said that as far as they're concerned their actions are a perverted evil distortion of Islam.

And they condemn her actions but at the end of the day she's their daughter, she's their flesh and blood they wanted to come home.

CAMEROTA: We can imagine the heartbreak that we saw in that short excerpt of the family. Aamer Anwar thank you so much for all of the information.

ANWAR: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Nice to talk to you. Let's go back to Chris.

COUMO: Alisyn it's real, it's happening and if it can happen there it can happen in the U.S. that's why you have to pay attention.

So, the media and insiders all over your T.V. for the last few days are fretting over home security, getting shutdown this Friday. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says I got this, I have a plan. Question is will it work only John King knows. And he will tell you on Inside Politics.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)