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Storm Brings Snow to Northeast; Senate Passes Foreign Aid Bill; Voting Underway in New York's Special Election; Azi Paybarah is Interviewed about the New York Race; Inflation Cools in January; Woman Shot by Deputies Five Times. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 13, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:54]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening at this moment, a monster winter storm is rolling through the northeast with more than 30 million people in its path. It's bringing heavy snow, powerful winds, and the potential for coastal flooding.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A woman shot five times by deputies. They say they mistook her for an intruder and opened fire. We have new body cam video showing the moment the shots were fired.

SIDNER: And the first report on inflation for 2024 is out showing some relief for Americans' wallets. We're going over the new numbers for you.

I'm Sara Sidner, with John Berman. Kate Bolduan is out. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Happening now, a powerful and fast-moving nor'easter is hitting the East Coast threatening multiple cities with several inches of heavy snow and plenty of rain. Right now, more than 30 million people are under a winter storm warning and 20 million are under coastal flood warnings. New York could be one of the hardest hit cities. It already started. I saw it. Possibly getting up to eight inches of snow today, which is a lot for the city. The most it's seen in years. Already more than 1,000 flights have been canceled across the entire country and some cities have closed schools and declared a weather emergency.

CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us now from New York City.

What are you doing? You're, oh, it has - it's been really weird because there was snow on the ground when you started this morning, which was beautiful. Now you're in Times Square, where it's like doing that weird freezing rain thing, right?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I think this is a testament to the pre-deployment of like 700 salt trucks that came through and layered a fresh layer of salt right through Times Square here. Boy, it - yes, what a difference between this location and Central Park, where we were located about a half an hour ago where almost two inches of snow has accumulated. It's very heavy, wet snow.

But you are watching this city transform into a real-life snow globe right before our very eyes. A much long-awaited transformation because it has been 744 days. We're going back to January 2022 since the last time this city was under a winter storm warning. And it is right now. And we anticipate that five to eight inches of snow potentially falling where I'm located.

Let's just get a look around. There's the ball, 2024 clearly there. Temperatures around 32 degrees. They're big, fluffy snow -- snowflakes, but they're very heavy, very wet. And we were picking up some of the snowfall and kind of squeezing out the water there. So, this is very exhausting snow to try and shovel.

There had been impressive snowfall totals just north and west of the -- of the city. Check out my graphics because you'll see just that. Central Park, we've had 1.2 officially, but some locations in Pennsylvania have already received over ten inches. So, how much snow do we still have to come? Well, you can see the back edge of this snow band. But one thing you need to notice is that this snow band is starting to pivot right over the tristate area. And this is significant because the National Weather Service just recently issuing a special weather bulletin calling for intense snow bands in the round the New York City metropolitan region. One to two inch snow per hour. And if we get that amount of snowfall officially in New York City, we could receive more snow in a day's period, or in one hour, more than what we have had in an entire day over the past couple of years.

SIDNER: Wow.

VAN DAM: So, that's really putting this storm into context.

Theres the I-95 corridor. This is not a Boston snowstorm. This was a Hartford, Providence, New York to Philadelphia snowstorm. You can see that clearly on the radar. Long Island getting hammered with this heavy, wet snowfall as well.

Snowfall to come. Still another one to three inches of snowfall. Again, it's being treated very well here across Manhattan and into parts of New York City. But as you look towards the Cape Cod coast, that's where they're factoring in the wind. We could have a little bit more impacts in terms of downed trees, power lines, that type of thing.

[09:05:03]

So, the storm will exit quickly by this evening, Sara, and we'll say goodbye and good riddance to our first nor'easter in several years.

SIDNER: I have to say, as a person who grew up in Florida and in California, it still delights me to see that sort of beautiful, soft snow coming down. But I'm not in it, you are. You're welcome, Derek Van Dam.

VAN DAM: (INAUDIBLE). I love it. I love it.

SIDNER: Thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: It was snowing so hard when I came in this morning, it messed up my hair. That's serious.

SIDNER: It looks good now.

BERMAN: That is serious.

All right, in the wee hours of the morning, just a short time ago, the Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid package that most importantly includes money for Ukraine that President Zelenskyy there says he absolutely needs to get. The package also has aid for Israel and Taiwan. It received 70 votes in the Senate, 70, that's bipartisan, with 22 Republicans voting for it. Now it heads to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, he might not even let it get to the floor for a vote, which is exactly what Donald Trump wants.

CNN's Eva McKend.

Eva is on Capitol Hill this morning.

What's going to happen now? It's all in Mike Johnson's hands.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, Speaker Johnson has made it clear that he has no appetite to advance this foreign aid package in the lower chamber. He essentially, in responding to this, says that the House will now work its will on these important matters. He argues that national security begins at our border, and he sort of is needling his colleagues, saying that they have been silent when it comes to the border.

The issue with that argument, of course, and this is really underscoring the vast foreign policy differences among the Republican conference, is that there was a bipartisan border deal in the Senate with many of the policy provisions that the speaker champions that he could have taken up and could have advanced. But he rejected that after former President Trump indicated that he really wants this as a campaign issue. Some House Republicans say that bill did not go far enough.

So, at this stage, what could happen is some House Republicans could band together with Democrats through a procedural mechanism to try to advance this bill in the House, but it's unclear at that stage if they want on an engage in sort of this lengthy and difficult process.

And, John, if all that is not enough, House Republicans also pursuing an effort, again, to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after a failed effort the last time. They didn't have the votes the last time and it suffered an embarrassing defeat on the House floor. They may be able to eke it out this time.

What has struck me about this is the secretary seems totally unbothered by this effort. There's no reporting to suggest that him or anyone on his team, for instance, has tried to meet with House Republicans to try to dissuade them from this. He says that he's really focused on his expansive portfolio.

But two articles of impeachment that the House Republicans could vote on today. No indication that if they are successful, that the Senate will take it up, John.

BERMAN: Yes, there could be weather issues with some of the members getting back for that vote tonight.

All right, Eva McKend, on The Hill, thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: Speaking of weather issues, John, this powerful nor'easter is colliding with a battle ground special election in Long Island. Polls are open right now as voters decide who will fill the vacancy previously held by ousted Republican Congressman George Santos. The battle for New Yorks third congressional district is a local race, but it has wider national implications.

CNN's Athena Jones is joining us now from Glen Cove, New York, this morning.

I'm glad you and your crew made it there safely as this snow comes piling down.

What are you hearing from voters? Is there any indication that some folks are like, I just can't make it to the polls, because that can make the difference.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Sara.

Well, that's exactly one of the concerns. I spoke to some poll workers here. We just arrived here. We were at an earlier location at a school where just a few voters were trickling in. The poll workers there said it's usually a little bit busier around this time of day in the morning as people are heading into work.

Here at this location, the poll workers tell me that just so far they've seen about five voters and hour. That's because of the snow. This huge nor'easter. It's already dropped it looks like several inches outside. I don't know what the actual measurement is. No one's really on the roads. And so kids are staying home from school. Schools here are closed. So, you don't have parents commuting into work, going to the train station and such, and that's why we're not seeing as much activity around here, at least according to these poll workers.

They also said that they believe a lot of early voting and mail-in voting was -- took place. We have the numbers from New York City in Nassau County, 80,000 or so early votes, about 13,000 of those vote by mail. And so that's why they think it's a little slow right now.

[09:10:02]

I was able to speak to two voters just a short while ago. They were both interesting voters for Mazi Pilip. That's the Republican challenger to Tom Suozzi, who is the former three-term congressman from this area. Both of these older voters were former Suozzi voters. They said they voted for him and supported him for some time. But this time around they're voting for Mazi Pilip because their main issue is immigration, is the migrant crisis.

This district encompasses parts of Nassau County here on Long Island, and parts of Queens, which is a part of New York City. All of these areas have been impacted by the migrant crisis. And so that was their main issue.

We will wait and see whether turnout picks up today. But again, this is a very, very closely watched race because it could be a bellwether for how the national elections will go in -- in November of this year.

Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, and certainly the political ads have been very focused on immigration as well.

Athena Jones, I know you'll be watching it all. Thank you so much. We'll be checking in with you.

John.

BERMAN: Five voters an hour is not a lot.

SIDNER: Yes. No.

BERMAN: Is not a lot.

With us now is "Washington Post" national reporter Azi Paybarah.

Great to see you.

You are safely inside in good weather in Washington, D.C. Not so much good weather out there. That turnout that Athena Jones just reported at that polling place, that's low. I mean that's very low. How might that impact the results?

AZI PAYBARAH, NATIONAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, Democratic campaigns, for a long time, have encouraged voters to vote early and to also vote by mail. Republican campaigns have largely a skewed that -- that kind of strategy, except in this race, both campaigns have really encouraged their voters, their supporters, to either vote early or vote by mail. And some of those ballots have started to come in. They're roughly on par with the voter registration in the district. More ballots have come in from Democrats than Republicans. But again, those haven't been opened, they haven't been counted. And just like you saw in Athena's reporting, some people who were Suozzi supporters before have announced that they are voting for Mazi Pilip over the migrant crisis.

So, ballots are coming in. Weather might encourage some people to stay home. But this is a district that likes to vote. They are sort of used to sort of inclement weather. A lot of voters out there have cars and are able to drive in. But this is not what the campaigns had expected one, two or even three weeks ago. BERMAN: No, you bring up a good point. And, again, it's great having Athena there because we're seeing two things. Number one, turnout so far at least seems very low.

PAYBARAH: Yes.

BERMAN: Number two, though, some of the voters she has spoken with are voters who on paper you might think may be voting one way.

PAYBARAH: Right.

BERMAN: But when you speak to them, you find out something else. And that is interesting because for Mazi Pilip to win, she will have to convince people who have voted Democratic, I would think, you know, historically, not necessarily last time but historically -

PAYBARAH: Right.

BERMAN: To vote for a Republican. And that shows the trends in that district.

PAYBARAH: Right. And Republicans have shown that they are able to win election time and time again in that part of New York. Remember, it's a suburb. People who were living there are used to driving into New York City for work and coming home to Nassau County. They've sort of voted with their feet, if you will, by where they've decided to live.

And in that part of the state, the migrant crisis is a very big deal and the candidates, when you hear them talk about it they're emphasizing different elements of this crisis. Mazi Pilip, the Republican, is saying that Suozzi and Biden created this. Therefore, vote for me and sort of punish them. Suozzi is using language that you would often hear from Republicans by saying he would either close or secure the border and sort of stop this. And he's trying to say, vote for me because Mazi Pilip is not supporting the bipartisan deal in the House.

So, it's really where are voters feeling they want to make their voices heard, on putting the blame on someone, or trying to vote for someone who is - who is offering some type of detailed solution.

BERMAN: Azi Paybarah, smartly staying dry, staying away from Long Island. Great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

Sara.

PAYBARAH: Thanks.

SIDNER: All right, ahead, new this morning, the first report of the year on inflation. Some good news for consumers. What it means for you and your family. We'll have that ahead.

And deputies in Texas mistake a woman for an intruder and shoot her five times. We have new, disturbing body camera video.

And back like he never left. Jon Stewart returns to "The Daily Show" and, boy, he's going for it.

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JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": They are the oldest people ever to run for president, breaking by only four years the record that they set.

You know what, I think we've got a new name for our election coverage, "Indecision 2024: Antiques Roadshow."

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BERMAN: All right, brand new this morning, a few minutes ago we got the first inflation report of 2024, and it does show prices cooling off, but maybe not as much as people were hoping or expecting.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is here to explain what that number, 3.1, means.

Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: All right, so we are cooling, but we're going back to what we saw in November. So, that's tracking in line with November prices. After we saw a little bit of a uptick in December. And that was probably because of some of that holiday spending, holiday prices. Moving, though, back in the right direction, the cooling.

But, as you said, it's not the 2.9 percent that many analysts wanted. But month over month we're up about 0.3 percent. And on the year, 3.1 percent.

And a lot of that, the cooling effect that we have seen is because of energy prices still continuing to drop. If you look at energy prices, you're seeing a decline of 0.9 percent on the month. That's actually the line graph just showing how far we've come over the last two years. So, that's good news, watching that line graph drop down.

[09:20:00]

But if you look at that, energy prices dropping 0.9 percent over the month of January. And on the year, energy prices falling 0.6 percent.

Food, though, food at the grocery store, we've seen some items tick up in January. That is still a little bit expensive for folks. And then shelter. Shelter accounted for two-thirds of the monthly increase and two-thirds of the year to year number. So, that is where people are spending the most, on their rents every single month.

We also, in January, John, saw some people wanting to travel a little bit. Airfares are up a little bit in January. You're also seeing lodging away from home. So, people taking some trips, spending money at hotels. But you are seeing some decreases in used car prices as well. That's really good news for consumers as those prices have been a little bit expensive over the last couple years.

What does this all mean? We're heading in the right direction. Inflation is still a little bit too hot but wages for everyday Americans are still outpacing inflation. So, hopefully that helps offset a little bit.

What does this mean for the Federal Reserve? Well, Jerome Powell said he wants to see more good data. Is this good enough for him? We'll see. He's going to get a lot more data before the Federal Reserve meets in March again.

Markets, this morning, I'll mention though, the Dow dropping more than 300 points on this news.

BERMAN: Yes.

YURKEVICH: They wanted to see it cooler. And they were also hoping the number would be better so the Fed would cut interest rates sooner.

BERMAN: That's right.

YURKEVICH: But we'll have to wait and see, John.

BERMAN: Yes, not as good as the market was hoping, for sure.

YURKEVICH: Yes.

BERMAN: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you very much for that.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, this morning, stunning new body camera video out of Houston. Disturbing. It shows two sheriff's deputies responding to a report of a suspected break-in and then firing dozens of rounds through an apartment door at a woman inside who they mistakenly thought was an intruder. The Harris County Sheriff's Office has now released this edited body camera video. We need to warn you, very disturbing images here.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sheriff's office.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shots - shots fired. Shots fired.

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SIDNER: I'm sorry, that was really disturbing.

The woman survived, believe it or not, but she was shot five times.

Joining me now, CNN's Jason Carroll and CNN's chief law enforcement analyst John Miller.

That was hard to watch. I had seen a little bit of it this morning, but seeing it again in stark view.

How did this all happen?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's difficult. I mean, look, what ultimately happened here, in all likelihood, may end up being decided by a grand jury. But here's what we can tell you.

It was early Saturday that the Harris County Sheriffs got a call of a possible break-in at this apartment building. Their deputies show up. There's a resident there who points them to the direction of the apartment in question.

Now, once they get there, they notice that there's a broken window. They're looking through this broken window and they see a woman allegedly walking towards them holding a gun. So, they say that they announced themselves. They say that they knocked on the door. You can see some of what happened there on the video. But ultimately what ended up happening is they ended up shooting this woman, Eboni Pouncy. She was struck several times.

Also, at one point, Sara, another woman had come down the stairs and had said, don't shoot, don't shoot. So, she did not end up getting shot. Investigators later learned that Eboni Pouncy was living there with the other woman. The window was broken because apparently what happened was they locked themselves out. They broke the windows so they could get inside.

Ben Crump has gotten involved. We all know Ben Crump. He's been involved in many cases like this. He's released a statement that says in part, "this newly released bodycam footage, which has been edited, is evidenced of the unnecessary and excessive force used against her. The video shows the deputies that responded to Eboni's friend's house shot first and ask questions later. We demand that the deputies being held accountable."

SIDNER: You talked about the potential of this going to a grand jury, and I think you are right, spot on with that, Jason.

CARROLL: Yes.

SINDER: John Miller, we just saw the edited version, right, so you cannot make a whole bunch of inferences. But we did hear the sheriffs identifying themselves. But two clips. We saw that the officer first fired through the first clip and then the second clip.

And how - what are -- what should police be doing here?

[09:25:01]

And do you see something that seems like this was a big mistake?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well -

SIDNER: We know it is now, but then, before they knew. MILLER: In various roles in New York and Los Angeles I've responded to and help evaluate literally dozens and dozens of police involved shootings. So, you know, what you look for in a case like this is, what - what's going on, what's going on in the background, you know?

So, they have a report of a burglary. They come up the stairs. They see an obvious front brake. So, the indicator is, there may be a burglar inside. They go to the door. They announced. And then one of the officers says, you know, we're in a tactically bad position because we can't see what's coming behind that door.

They go to the far end of the porch where they can now see in, but only below this curtain, this shade. One of them goes down a couple of steps so that they have a better view.

The problem is going to emerge here is from the drop the weapon, the command, and before the command is over, they have already opened fire. So, the subject inside, whether they're a burglar or a resident -- and remember, this is Texas -

SIDNER: Right.

MILLER: Where a resident coming to the door with a gun is not unusual.

SIDNER: It is not.

CARROLL: Correct. Correct.

MILLER: There's no time between the command and opening fire. After that the issue is going to be fire control, which is, did they fire several shots, access, and then move? They keep firing, drop a magazine, reload, keep firing again until they go into slide lock. So, you've got 40 some odd rounds being fired at least here by two officers where it seems adrenalin, fear and other things has taken over from tactics at that point.

SIDNER: Well, it was hard to watch and I'm sure this is going to go forward now. They have an attorney. So -- and I just want to be clear, the woman that was there, she was living with her friend. So, this was her home as well.

CARROLL: Yes. That is correct.

SIDNER: And she was in a position, trying to protect herself. And now we're in this situation.

Jason Carroll, thank you so much for the details.

John Miller, thank you so much for the analysis.

Good stuff and disturbing video.

Thank you.

John. BERMAN: All right, the epic return nearly nine years in the making.

Jon Stewart back in the chair at "The Daily Show" again for the first time. Wait until you hear what he had to say about the presidential race.

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JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": Why am I back, you may be asking yourselves. It's a very reasonable question. I have committed a lot of crimes. From what I understand, talk show hosts are granted immunity. So, it was -

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