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Woman Claims JFK Affair; Josh Powell Blows up House With Kids Inside; Colorado and Minnesota Up Next in GOP Race; Multi-Generational Living; Violence Escalating In Syria; Super Bowl Halftime "Bird"; Weird Winter; Child Abuse Allegations at School

Aired February 06, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANHOR; Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get you up to speed. A father does the unthinkable, setting his own home on fire, killing his two young sons and himself. Police in Washington state say that Josh Powell started the fire yesterday moments after a social worker dropped the children off for a supervised visit. Powell had lost custody of the boys and he was a suspect in his wife's disappearance. He sent an e-mail saying only, "I'm sorry. Good-bye."

Josh Powell's brother-in-law talked about what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRK GRAVES, JOSH POWELL'S BROTHER-IN-LAW: We're in shock. We are simply -- it's beyond belief. We have had suspicions of various things Josh was capable of, but I for one, didn't think he was capable of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Colorado and Minnesota, next two stops on the road to the Republican presidential nomination. Both states hold caucuses tomorrow. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich rally their supporters in Colorado today. Rick Santorum and Ron Paul campaigning in Minnesota. Santorum event on health care got under way in Rochester, Minnesota, just last hour.

And some California parents are furious now because they think a Los Angeles school didn't do enough to protect their kids from two allegedly abusive teachers. They are protesting in front of the school right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They don't need no privacy. For what? So they can get (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We are still learning details about this bizarre and disturbing case. Our Thelma Gutierrez has some background.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm angry. I'm disgusted. I'm sad.

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Investigators say the case against Berndt broke in 2010 when a film processor noticed disturbing images of Berndt with his arm around the children or his hand over their mouths. Others showed the children with their eyes blindfolded and mouths covered with tape. Some depicted children with Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces.

SGT. DAN SCOTT, LA CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT., SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: The children felt this was a game. They didn't realize they were being victimized. They thought they were just being blindfolded and gagged as a game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: We're going to have a full report from Thelma Gutierrez just a little bit later.

State Department shut down its embassy in Syria just hours ago and it's urging Americans now to get out. Syrian activists say 56 people were killed today alone in the city of Homs. That is after what they describe as a weekend bloodbath that left hundreds dead. Activists accuse the Syrian government of intensifying its brutal crackdown.

Russia and China gave Syrian president Bashar al Assad, a lifeline, vetoing a U.N. resolution that would have condemned him.

Flooding has forced thousands of people from their homes in Australia, rising waters threatening communities along the Balonne River in Queensland. Now, this part of the country is still recovering from last year's devastating floods.

The NFL and NBC are apologizing today for offending Super Bowl viewers. Performer MIA gave the middle finger during her halftime performance with Madonna. It happened so fast, a lot of viewers didn't even notice. Her finger here is blurred. The NFL, which produced the halftime show, said the obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing, and we apologize to our fans.

She was a White House intern who says she had an affair with the president, right? Sound familiar? Well, this Washington sex scandal allegedly took place five decades ago, and the president in question, John F. Kennedy.

Mary Snow -- she joins us with the latest on this story. It was always rumored, Mary, that Kennedy was having affairs and was a playboy. This woman now is coming forward and giving details, things we have never heard before.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Suzanne, this book is a very salacious one, with a very detailed account by Mimi Beardsley Alford, as you mentioned, now 69 years old. "The New York Post" obtained a copy of this book, in which Alford claims she had an 18-month affair, that she claims she met the president just four days into her internship at the White House, and she was invited to swim with the president at the White House swimming pool. And she claims things progressed from there.

She did do an interview with NBC News. It is an exclusive interview in which she describes what she claims were these sexual encounters and talks about them. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIMI ALFORD, SAYS SHE WAS JFK'S MISTRESS: I think overpowered in the sense that he was the president. He was this unbelievably handsome man, 45 years old -- not overpowered physically that someone had grabbed me and made me do something that I wasn't really willing to do because I really think I was willing to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Now, in this book, Suzanne, Alford claims that the affair lasted until November of 1963, just about seven days before President Kennedy was assassinated.

MALVEAUX: Mary, do people believe she's credible?

SNOW: You know, we spoke with Robert Dallek. He's an historian who revealed this alleged affair for the first time in his book in 2003. And that's when Mimi Alford first came out and released a statement saying that she had had an affair with President Kennedy. And the reason why Robert Dallek wrote about it was because a former White House press aide wrote about it or spoke about it in an oral history that is available at the JFK library.

And that aide has since died. But in that history, the White House aide that have that oral history -- she does talk about Mimi Alford and writes about what she says was a special relationship with the president, and also mentions these swimming parties, also saying that Alford had traveled with the president on various trips.

So that is what historian Robert Dallek is basing -- based -- why he wrote about it. You know, we spoke with another historian, Douglas Brinkley. He says he has question marks about it. So and it's very difficult because so many people in that administration are now dead, so we can't get many accounts of this...

MALVEAUX: Right.

SNOW: ... besides hers.

MALVEAUX: And Mary, do we have any idea -- she's a 69-year-old grandmother. Why did she come forward now? Why did she wait to come forward now, what -- the timing of this?

SNOW: That is unclear, why she has this book deal at this point. She signed this book deal about two years ago. And as I said, you know, she released a statement back in 2003, but gave no interviews. So why at 69 now she's deciding to come out -- still don't know 100 percent why.

MALVEAUX: OK. Mary Snow, thank you. Appreciate it.

Well, it's your turn to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. Does President Obama deserve a second term in office? In a live interview that aired on ABC just before the Super Bowl, President Obama told Americans he does.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I deserve a second term, but we're not done. Look, when you and I sat down, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. Now we're creating 250,000. We created 3.7 million jobs over the last 23 months. We've created the most jobs since 2005, the most manufacturing jobs since 1990. But we're not finished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says the president's economic policies have failed, that the economy is not creating enough jobs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R-MA), FMR. GOV., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not so fast, Mr. President! This is the 36th straight month with unemployment above the red line your own administration drew. And if you take into account all of the people who are struggling for work or just stopped looking, the real unemployment rate is over 15 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So what has the Obama administration done? The president says he's responsible for creating over -- creating jobs over 22 months. In 2010, he signed his signature health care bill reforming the system. If he gets a second term, he'll be able to fight to keep it. He also ended the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, now allowing gays in the military to serve openly. Last spring, he ordered special ops forces to out bin Laden in Pakistan. And in December, he got U.S. combat troops out of Iraq.

So what is left to do? He's got to tackle the federal deficit, save the Pentagon budget, deal with immigration reform, and still the nagging problem of more than 8 per percent of Americans now out of work.

So and the "Talk Back" question, Does President Obama deserve a second term in office? Leave your comments at my Facebook. page -- my Facebook page, Facebook.com/suzannecnn. We're going to air some of your thoughts later in the hour.

Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we're covering over the next hour.

First, a sad story. A man in Washington state sets his house on fire, killing himself and his two boys as a social worker watches in horror from the street.

Then, Republican candidates prepare to duke it out in Colorado and Minnesota.

And later, we're going to take a look at, yes, the middle finger slip-up at the Super Bowl, plus highlights of Madonna's extravagant halftime show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: What started with a missing persons case more than two years ago ends up with a man blowing up his own home, killing himself and his two sons. A sheriff's spokesman in Pierce County, Washington, tells CNN that Josh Powell was despondent after a judge refused to allow him to regain custody of his sons. Police say that Powell was the only suspect in his wife's disappearance. She went missing in December of 2009.

Our Thelma Gutierrez is following the case from Washington state. Thelma, what new details do you have about what we know about this man and what they found inside of his home?

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Suzanne, I want to show you what's going on right behind me. Just a few minutes ago, investigators with the fire marshal's office arrived here at Josh Powell's home. They are combing through the rubble. They will be looking at how this fire started.

All along, they had suspected that an accelerant was used because of how quickly this fire spread, how hot it burned. And the fact is that they couldn't get in, once this explosion happened, into this house for several hours because they felt that this home was not structurally sound. And when they did go in, when firefighters did go in, they found the bodies of the two boys and an adult there in one room, in the middle of the room where they all died together -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Now, Thelma, we understand that before these boys perished, there were reports that they were starting to actually remember and talk about their mother's disappearance. What kind of details do you have about that?

GUTIERREZ: Suzanne, that's what I find most interesting about this. Anne Bremner, who is an attorney for Chuck and Judy Cox, who are Suzanne (SIC) Powell's parents, said that she -- the parents -- the grandparents did not want him to have contact with the children. They feared that this day would come, that Charlie, the 7-year-old, had actually started talking about Mommy and said that Mommy is in the mine, Go find Mommy.

And Suzanne, in that area in Utah, there are mines. This is the area where they believe the mother could have disappeared. This is the area where the father, Josh Powell, had taken his young sons camping after midnight in sub-zero temperatures. So they're looking into that right now.

MALVEAUX: Do we have new information about Josh Powell's father?

GUTIERREZ: Yes. I just talked to the sheriff's spokesperson here in Pierce County, and I asked him if Mr. Powell knew what had happened to his son, what had happened to his two grandsons. He said that he had been informed. He was told of their deaths, and that he only shouted at them, that he became very uncooperative, and that now he is in suicide -- on suicide watch. He is in custody, being held on 14 counts of voyeurism and also possessing child pornography.

MALVEAUX: This is just a terrible story, just a big mess overall. Josh Powell, I understand, sent an e-mail to his lawyer and to his cousin before he set the fire. What did he say about what he was going to do?

GUTIERREZ: Sheriff's investigators say that that offers a glimpse into what this man was thinking. They say that he knew exactly what he was going to do. In the e-mail that he sent to his attorney, he said -- he only said, "I'm sorry. Good-bye." And then he also sent an e-mail to a cousin of his in Texas that said the same thing. The cousin received the e-mail instantaneously right as that home exploded, and the attorney opened his up about two hours after this terrible tragedy.

MALVEAUX: All right. Thelma Gutierrez, thank you. Really, an awful, awful, complicated story. Thank you.

Mitt Romney has a winning hand in Nevada. It is on to Colorado and Minnesota. Presidential candidates are focusing on tomorrow's caucuses in those two states. Missouri voters also go to the polls tomorrow for the primary, but delegates are going to be awarded at the caucuses next month.

Want to bring in our political director, Mark Preston, Mark, to talk about all things politics and Mitt Romney because you have some news here. I understand that there is a poll that matches up Romney and Obama, and the Romney folks are weighing in on this. They don't agree with this poll. Explain.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: They don't. In fact, let's take a quick look at it. This is the "Washington Post"/ABC poll just came out a few hours ago. It shows in a head-to-head matchup, that, in fact, President Obama holds a 6-point lead with registered voters over the front-runner, Mitt Romney.

However, just in the past 30 minutes or so, the Romney campaign has put out a memo saying that, in fact, this poll is flawed. And their contention is, is that there was a series of questions asked before this head-to-head matchup question was asked that put negatives on Mr. Romney, specifically about his wealth and about his religion. They are calling this poll flawed, so a very interesting strategy, a very aggressive strategy by the Romney campaign at this point (INAUDIBLE)

MALVEAUX: The fact that they're responding to this now is pretty -- it's pretty remarkable. I mean, they put out the poll, and they're, like, No, this isn't true, this isn't actually factually correct. They are also doing something, you told me at this hour, holding a national conference call regarding Rick Santorum.

PRESTON: Somebody who they have not attacked publicly. You know, we've seen some skirmishes on stage between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum during the debates, but we've never seen them really go overtly after Rick Santorum.

Twofold, right now, Minnesota governor, Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota governor who's backing Mitt Romney, is holding a conference call, criticizing Rick Santorum for being a big pork barrel spender, at the same time the Romney campaign is also attacking Rick Santorum for saying that his attacks on Mitt Romney about health care are all false. So a new strategy by the Romney campaign to really take everybody on head-on.

MALVEAUX: Why would they go after Santorum? Is he really that much of a threat?

PRESTON: Well -- well, certainly, in Missouri, where there will be no delegates awarded tomorrow, Rick Santorum is trying to win that state. He's on the ballot. Romney's on the ballot. Ron Paul's on the ballot. Newt Gingrich is not on the ballot.

So if Rick Santorum were to win tomorrow in Missouri, perhaps we would then perceive that as a criticism from conservative voters about Mitt Romney. So they're trying to deflate Rick Santorum.

Plus, I think they want to take Rick Santorum out of the equation at this point because the more that Rick Santorum criticizes Mitt Romney, the more it helps Newt Gingrich.

MALVEAUX: Any sign he's going to get out any time soon?

PRESTON: Absolutely not. This is going and it is going -- and in fact, we saw Newt Gingrich say that very defiantly on Saturday night, that he is going to go to the convention in August.

MALVEAUX: All right. Mark, thanks. Good to see you.

PRESTON: Thanks, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Live coverage of tomorrow's caucuses and primary will begin with a special edition of "JKUSA" with John King at 6:00 PM Eastern. That is followed by complete coverage of the results at 7:00 with Wolf, Erin Burnett, Anderson Cooper, Candy Crowley, John King and more.

Grandma moving in?

(LAUGHTER)

MALVEAUX: That's the story all over the country. We're going to take a look at why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right, sure, you love your family. But can you really picture this -- grandparents, mom, dad, kids, grandkids all living in one big house? A lot of people are doing it. Christine Romans finds out why and why it's working.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet the Loefflers.

TOM LOEFFLER, LIVES IN MULTI-GENERATIONAL HOUSEHOLD: I'm Dad.

SHARON LOEFFLER, LIVES IN MULTI-GENERATIONAL HOUSEHOLD: I'm the mom.

MATT LOEFFLER, LIVES IN MULTI-GENERATIONAL HOUSEHOLD: I am the son.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm the grandmother and great-grandmother.

ROMANS (voice-over): Three generations, plus one dog, living under one roof. Make that four generations when granddaughter Ella visits.

SHARON LOEFFLER: I really value family. It means a lot to me to have everybody together a lot.

ROMANS (on camera): For the first time in decades, more generations are moving in together, reversing a trend that's been in place since World War II. It's about culture, it's about convenience, it's about money.

(voice-over): The trend has grown 30 percent over the past decade, fueled by immigration, people living longer and more recently, job losses and foreclosures.

DON DYRNESS, SPECTRUM CONSTRUCTION: We have a couple of bedrooms upstairs...

ROMANS (voice-over): New Jersey builder Don Dyrness renovates single-family homes to accommodate more than one generation.

(on camera): When you look at what's been happening in the housing market, you can see that this is an area in housing that is showing growth, no question. Are you seeing that in your business?

DYRNESS: Absolutely. We've been doing multi-gen houses for 20- something years. It was spotty -- one a year, two a year, zero. And then in 2009, it's grown to three to five projects per year.

ROMANS (voice-over): One of those projects, building an addition for the Loefflers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the kitchen. I could have never have lived by myself. I could never have afforded it. I never -- I couldn't -- you know?

SHARON LOEFFLER: For her, it was definitely economic. But for us, I think it was peace of mind having her here.

ROMANS (voice-over): Peace of mind also meant a new social dynamic to keep the peace.

SHARON LOEFFLER: Mom is sensitive to our family dynamics, too.

TOM LOEFFLER: It was important for us to keep the -- her room separate. I mean, she's an integrated part of the house, but you know, she could make it separate. And she has a separate entrance onto the back deck. So she -- hopefully, she feels like, Hey, it is separate. I think those are the important things.

ROMANS (voice-over): But change comes with unexpected perks, too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My washer and dryer right here.

MATT LOEFFLER: Every couple days, I bring my laundry down, drop it off, and when I come home from work, it's all pressed and good to go.

ROMANS (voice-over): Christine Romans, Succasunna, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: The U.S. shuts down its embassy in Syria with security concerns and a rising death toll. We're going to take a look at what is next for Syria.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here's a rundown of some of the stories we're working on next. The U.S. closes its embassy in Syria and tells Americans to get out.

Then we'll separate political -- we'll actually separate political fact from fiction as we examine some of the recent campaign rhetoric.

Later, we're going to talk about Super Bowl and the entertainment halftime show, including the middle finger malfunction. Did you actually get a look at it? Yes.

We're going to go to a break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Right now, we want to focus in on Syria. Explosions are reverberating across the city of Homs. We have just gotten an updated death toll from Syrian activists. They say that 56 people have been killed today alone in cities across the country.

That is after a weekend in which hundreds were killed. The U.S. today shut down its embassy in Syria. CNN national security contributor, Fran Townsend, she is joining us by phone from New York.

She is a member of the CIA External Advisory Committee and Fran, this is just a disaster when you see what's on the ground there. It's on the brink of civil war.

So now you have the U.N. Security Council resolution that would have backed up the Arab League's peace plan vetoed over the weekend, what's next?

FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR (via telephone): And you add to that, Suzanne, the announcement that we're going to pull back our ambassador and close our embassy.

The State Department was quick to say that that does not mean we're cutting off diplomatic relations, but we were merely closing the embassy for security concerns. You take that at face value. I think that's right.

The security situation is so seriously deteriorated. The State Department and the secretary clearly have very little choice. It's very difficult other than in a war zone where you have the U.S. military.

But to have just the usual Marine detachment and embassy and in this kind of a deteriorating security environment where you don't have the commitment of the Syrian government to protect the diplomatic establishment, there really was no choice.

The problem with that is we lose leverage. Ambassador Ford has been a very effective advocate for the opposition. He's borne witness to the atrocities taking place there and that's put added pressure on the Assad government. To bring him back is really unfortunate both for the protesters and for U.S. policy.

MALVEAUX: Well, yes. I was going to ask you that, Fran, because if you pull out the U.S. ambassador -- the Syrian protesters there, they see one of their greatest allies packing up and leaving shop there, leaving the country. I mean, what kind of a position are these protesters who are on the ground now?

TOWNSEND: They're for more vulnerable because they lose a witness. They lose a spokesperson who can attest to exactly the way that they're being abused, the violence being visited upon them by the Assad regime.

And a credible voice that Ambassador Ford speaks as a third party to what he sees there, and so it is a blow to the opposition in Syria.

MALVEAUX: So the U.S. says they're not giving up on Syria. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice talked to Soledad O'Brien this morning and said the U.S. is going to try to step up pressure on Syria. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN RICE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: The United Nations will continue on this issue. We, the United States, and 13 of the 15 members of the Security Council are united in seeking a peaceful resolution of this.

We will step up our economic pressure. We will coordinate with our Arab partners ever more closely to increase the pressure on Assad and isolate him.

And Russia and China will eventually, I think, come to regret this decision, which has aligned them with a dying dictator whose days are numbered and put them at odds with the Syrian people and indeed the entire region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, Fran, so far economic sanctions haven't worked. What makes the Obama administration think that further sanctions will?

TOWNSEND: Well, I don't think there's any indication that further sanctions are really what is going to make the difference in Syria. Frankly, what the U.N. Security Council and the United States at this point have sort of put pinned their hopes to is the Arab league plan.

And that couldn't get past the Security Council because of Russia and China's veto. The U.S. needed to put their pressure on Russia and China to change their stance to stop protecting the Assad regime and has to look to work more closely with the Arab League who will have greater influence than the United States does right now.

MALVEAUX: Fran, let's move on to Iran here because we heard from President Obama yesterday before the Super Bowl talking about Israel's intentions regarding going after Iran's nuclear sites and here's how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't think that Israel has made a decision on what they need to do. I think they, like us, believe that Iran has to stand out on its nuclear weapons program.

We have mobilized the international community in a way that is unprecedented and they are feeling the pinch. They are feeling the pressure, but they have not taken the step that they need to diplomatically which is to say we will pursue peaceful nuclear power. We will not pursue a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So, Fran, earlier, you have the Defense Secretary Leon Panetta going further saying that Israel was ready to strike Iran as early as this spring. Is there disconnect here? Why these two different messages?

TOWNSEND: Well, look, I think that Secretary Panetta described -- this is sort of the glass half empty or half full, but it has the same amount of water. Both are saying, both President Obama and Secretary Panetta is that there is an increasing likelihood of an Israeli strike if Iran does not stand down in the nuclear weapons program. They have not. There have been sanctions and diplomatic efforts. People are increasingly frustrated and Israel feels increasingly a threat and the more they feel threatened the more likely it is they'll consider an attack.

Look, I think that Israel will have to make its own decision on its own behalf. President Obama has clearly signalled we prefer to see a diplomatic resolution to this, but both President Obama and Secretary Panetta have said they're going through the steps of military planning and no option including the military one is off the table.

MALVEAUX: All right. Fran Townsend, thank you very much. Appreciate your perspective.

The head of the Democratic Party says that Mitt Romney has already outspent John McCain's entire presidential campaign when it comes to negative ads. We'll see if that passes the political fact test.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right, Madonna's halftime extravaganza wowed a lot of folks, but during her performance her co-star, MIA flipped off the audience. It happened so fast a lot of fans missed it. I know I missed it. "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" reporter, Nischelle Turner joins us live from Los Angeles.

Nischelle, so tell us what happened because when I watched this I didn't actually see it. It must have happened so quickly, I really didn't see it at all.

NISCHELLE TURNER, ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know what? I missed it first time around, too, Suzanne, but when I saw it blowing up all over social media then I had a TiVo moment, went back and that's where I saw it.

But you know, you think people would learn, but no, here we are again, you know Madonna has to be pretty ticked off at MIA this morning because she was putting on this fantastic show last night, Madonna, but now all anyone wants to talk about is how one of her supporting acts, MIA, decided to use her middle finger to communicate with the fans.

Now the middle finger moment like you said was so quick, you probably missed it. A lot of people did. The NBC censors did, and they were a split second too late to block it, and a microphone caught her swearing, but that was almost inaudible.

A source close to MIA who is not authorized to speak on the record is telling "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" that MIA knows she messed up. Now the source says, quote, "She was amped up. She was in performance mode and she was nervous and not thinking and adrenaline took over."

It wasn't meant as a gesture or statement of any kind, it was an artist who had a mishap. They also said, Suzanne, that she feels horrible for putting Madonna in that position. She messed up.

MALVEAUX: I don't understand the whole adrenaline got me to do it case there. Was this really a surprise? I know they have these rehearsals that happen ahead of time. Did this completely come out of the blue?

TURNER: You know what? I think it was a surprise. Like the statement said that MIA was in adrenaline mode and took over because here's the thing, if anyone knows how to work controversy it's Madonna.

She was promising that there wasn't be anything like a wardrobe malfunction or anything, so I'm not sure that they expected this type of snafu and we reached out to Madonna for comment, but so far she's being tight-lipped.

She's not saying a thing. The NFL is, though. They issued a statement and they're saying there was a failure in NBC's delaying system. The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointed and we apologize to our fans.

NNC apologized as well and the Parents' Television Council is predictably outraged. They said the NFL promised them that the show would be appropriate and now they're calling for some folks to be held accountable.

MALVEAUX: Nischelle, you know, all of the talk this morning in the morning meeting among our team was Madonna and how she did, you know. Like some of us were, like, and others were she was great. She's 53 and she rocked it. There was a lot to that program last night. What was the highlight for you?

TURNER: You know what? I have to do -- full disclosure, I'm a big Madonna fan and I know there were mixed reviews, but I thought the production of the halftime show was fantastic.

She had a couple of mishaps, with the middle finger moment and she almost fell during "music," but she was 53 in five-inch heels and she was dropping it on the platform and dancing with LMFAO, you know what? A couple of little snafus, I'll take it.

MALVEAUX: I have two questions, though. First of all, how much did that hat weigh? I heard her hat was more than 20 pounds or so.

TURNER: Yes. That's what I heard, too. I heard that it was about 20 pounds, very heavy, and you saw, she was working that hat. The Voguers were doing their thing, but Madonna, she was working that hat.

MALVEAUX: My other question real quick. Was she lip syncing?

TURNER: Yes.

MALVEAUX: She was?

TURNER: Yes. You saw Cee Lo. He was off a little bit on "Like a Prayer" with his lip synch so, yes, she was lip syncing. MALVEAUX: All right, for all things entertainment, it was fun. It was worth staying up for.

Want information on everything breaking in the entertainment world? Watch "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" at 11:00 p.m. Eastern on HLN.

Punch line time, Newt Gingrich took a beating in Nevada over the weekend, but the real bruising came from SNL.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a surprise to see you here, Mitt. As I recall you found the moon colony silly back in 2012.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Newt, we were all wrong. Ever since you left earth, it's been a nightmare. Please forgive me and let me work in your admoonistration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just supposed to believe that you've completely changed your position?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it wouldn't be the first time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Pretty funny stuff.

So we hear a lot of statements getting tossed around by the politicians. Some of them can get pretty outrageous. So we want to separate political fact from campaign fiction.

To help us do that, bringing in Bill Adair, he is the Washington bureau chief for the "Tampa Bay Times", and Pulitzer Prize winning editor of polifact.com.

So let's take a look at some of these claims and how they measured up. Let's start with Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee.

She says Mitt Romney's campaign has already spent more on negative ads than John McCain did during his entire presidential run. What do we know, Bill?

BILL ADAIR, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "TAMPA BAY TIMES": That one got a false. The math just doesn't even come close here. If you look at how much McCain spent, it was about $174 million, maybe the majority of that was negative.

So maybe 90 million, Romney and even if you include the "Super PAC" supporting him have spent more in the neighborhood of $15 million so far so not even close. That one gets a false.

MALVEAUX: All right. What about this comment from Republican Congressman Randy Forbes who says the national debt is equal to $48,700 for every American or $128,300 for every U.S. household, it is now equivalent to the size of our entire economy, true or false? ADAIR: True.

MALVEAUX: Really?

ADAIR: In fact, we thought we should invent a rating true, but depressing.

MALVEAUX: Very.

ADAIR: This is the -- this is the burden that we all have to bear. And we checked out those numbers, looked at the population figures and found that he's right. It's a whopping amount of money.

MALVEAUX: Wow! That is some bad news there.

Finally, this comment from Tennessee State Senator Stacey Campfield in a Sirius Radio interview raised some eyebrows. He said, "AIDS was transmitted to humans because one guy had sex with a monkey and then started having sex with men."

ADAIR: We gave that one a pants on fire, which is our lowest rating. The rating that we reserve for the most ridiculous falsehoods.

MALVEAUX: Yes.

ADAIR: The truth of this is actually really quite interesting. We talked to some researchers, our colleagues at Politifact Tennessee, and found that actually you can trace AIDS back to the 1920s when people in Africa were hunting and ate chimpanzee meat that apparently was infected. And then it sort of went very slowly through Africa, through heterosexual sex and through blood transfusions and needles. And it wasn't until later that it became the AIDS epidemic that we're all familiar with. So pants on fire for that one.

MALVEAUX: Yes, surprising people are still saying that kind of ignorant stuff.

All right, Bill, thank you.

ADAIR: Thanks, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: We're having some beautiful weather here in the United States, but Europe getting buried. We're going to take a look at what is causing this weird, weird winter.

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MALVEAUX: It's turning out to be a weird winter here in Atlanta. For instance, yesterday, we were all running around in shorts in February. So while we're enjoying all these beautiful day, mild temperatures, Europe is getting hit hard by brutally cold weather. Jacqui Jeras to kind of sort all this out. So sorry you were working there yesterday.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know. I didn't get to go out and enjoy it, unfortunately.

MALVEAUX: Is it going to last?

JERAS: Well, you know, overall, I think, yes, we're going to see above average, especially across much of the lower 48. However, what's been going on in Europe has really been a very serious situation. You know, more than 300 people have died here in the last week. We've had record temperatures, feet of snow, straining emergency services, halting travel. This video you're looking at from Bosnia-Herzegovina, thousands of people have been trapped here because the snow has been so high. Towns have literally been cut off. They've been using helicopters to get emergency services, as well as food to some of these people. Schools are closed. A state of emergency has being declared there.

We'll take you to Poland here now. Isn't that a beautiful picture, though? Look at that house. It's just amazing.

MALVEAUX: Wow. Really pretty.

JERAS: And, you know, it's not just the snow, it's the cold. The temperatures have been so extreme, 35 degrees below zero. That was the lowest temperature all week long. So that is -- your skin will literally freeze in a minute or less, probably, for there.

And then we'll take you to Italy. It snowed in Rome even this weekend. Can you believe it?

MALVEAUX: Wow.

JERAS: You know, it's happened before, but maybe only three times in the last 15 years. So kind of a rare event. This hit the ruin, too. We've got pictures of the Coliseum that we'll show you. It was shut down this weekend because they were concerned about safety measures. There it is. So beautiful conditions.

It's really been hardest hit in eastern and southeastern parts of Europe, but it has gone into western Europe. There you can see in London, Big Ben with snow on it. They had to cancel about 30 percent of the flights out of Heathrow yesterday because of the snow.

MALVEAUX: So why is this happening? I mean, and is it related -- the cold weather in Europe related to the really nice weather here?

JERAS: Probable not exactly related to each other. There's this phenomena, it's called the arctic isolation. And basically, you know, in wintertime, all that cold air gets bottled up into the arctic circle and eventually the pressure builds up enough that we get a little kink, as we call it, into the jet stream. And so that allows that cold air to move in from Siberia, enter eastern Europe.

And the problem this time around isn't so much -- you know, they get these cold snaps, but this has been prolonged. We're talking over a week. And more cold air is going to be moving in by the middle of this week. So it's been a long, extremely difficult. You know, the homeless population in particular has really struggled with this event (ph).

MALVEAUX: So it's not going to warm up in Europe any time soon? JERAS: It's looking like perhaps towards the end of the week we'll see more significant warming, yes.

MALVEAUX: And here? What's going to happen here in our backyard?

JERAS: In here we're staying -- we're staying awfully warm. I know. I mean we were talking tropics potentially over the weekend.

MALVEAUX: Wow. Unbelievable.

JERAS: So it's hard to believe. Very unusual for us, too.

MALVEAUX: All right, thanks, Jacqui.

JERAS: Sure.

MALVEAUX: You've been sounding off on the "Talk Back" question today. What does -- whether or not President Obama deserves a second term in office. Here's what some of you are saying.

Lisa writes, "yes, I think he does. I'm not happy with where things are now with the economy, but I think it could have been so much worse for the middle class and the truly poor. Honestly, does anybody really think Romney has a clue what it's like to struggle every month?"

Dave says, "no. We are slowly moving towards a socialist and entitlement-type society. I don't know that he's doing it on purpose. He means well but is creating a huge deficit and is in over his head when it comes to understanding economics."

Carl write, "yes. He has done a lot considering the absolute mess he took over when he was elected."

Matt says, "he didn't deserve the first chance. I can only hope America wakes up."

Harry says, "I am a Republican, but not a stupid Republican. President Obama deserves another term. He wasted two years trying to keep a naive promise to the American people to reach across the aisle and was viciously rejected. He included Republicans in his cabinet and they plus Congress undermined his every attempt to improve the country."

Thanks to all of you for writing in, Keep the conversation going at facebook.com/suzannecnn.

Well, they should be your kids' most trusted ally. Instead, two teachers at a California school are accused of disturbing acts of abuse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Angry parents in one California neighborhood say their children aren't safe at school anymore.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is about the children!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got children --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're talking about -- we're talking about --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: They are protesting outside the school right now. The L.A. school is at the center of a bizarre child abuse case. The school is going to be closed tomorrow and Wednesday while investigators try to figure out what is going on. Two teachers are now under arrest and the allegations are shocking. Thelma Gutierrez has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): This is 61-year-old Mark Berndt, an elementary school teacher accused of taking bondage photos in his classroom of more than two dozen boys and girls between seven and 10 years of age. On Friday, Los Angeles County Sheriff's investigators arrested a second teacher, 49-year-old Martin Bernard Springer, a colleague of Berndt's.

CAPT. MIKE PARKER, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT.: The allegations involve two girls who were allegedly fondled in the classroom at Miramonte School by suspect Springer. They were approximately seven years old at the time of the incidents, which were alleged to have occurred during the past three years.

GUTIERREZ: At this point in the investigation, officials could not say if there was a relationship or connection between Berndt and Springer. Both men taught at Miramonte Elementary School in south Los Angeles, a low income area which is 98 percent Latino.

Parents at the school are outraged that they're just learning about the sex crime allegations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm angry. I'm disgusted. I'm sad.

GUTIERREZ: Investigators say the case against Berndt broke in 2010 when a film processor noticed disturbing images of Berndt with his arm around the children or his hand over their mouths. Others showed their children with their eyes blindfolded and mouths covered with tape. Some depicted children with Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces.

SGT. DAN SCOTT, L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPT. SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: The children felt this was a game. They didn't realize they were being victimized. They thought they were just being blindfolded and gagged as a game.

GUTIERREZ: Detectives discovered 400 photos. Some showed children with spoons at their mouths filled with semen, which they believed was liquid candy. They recovered a plastic spoon and empty container from the suspect's classroom, tested the contents and found a match to Berndt's DNA. So far, 23 victims have been identified. SCOTT: There's at least 10 children that we have not been able to identify. Obviously, we can't put their pictures out because they are potential victims.

GUTIERREZ: Berndt had taught at Miramonte for 30 years. Gloria Polanco (ph) has two children in the school. She says she and other parents want to know why. If the bondage photos were brought to the attention of authorities back in October of 2010, why Berndt was allowed to remain in the classroom for three months until school officials finally removed him in January of 2011. Los Angeles School Superintendent John Deasy says the school district acted as quickly as it could.

SUPT. JOHN DEASY, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: The police were very clear that we were not to be involved in the investigation and we followed everything to the letter of the law that they directed us to do. And I believe that is why, in the end, they were able to collect the evidence.

GUTIERREZ: Polanco says if these crimes had been committed in another area, where there were Anglos, like Beverly Hills, this would have been handled differently. She says news of the two arrests has shaken their trust in the school and now some parents are talking about pulling their children out of Miramonte Elementary School for good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: A very disturbing story. And Mark Berndt is being held on $23 million bail. His public defender isn't talking to reporters about the case. Martin Springer is being held on $2 million bail and police say charges will be filed against him next week.

CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ashleigh Banfield in New York.

Hey, Ashleigh.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Suzanne Malveaux. Nice to see you.

MALVEAUX: Nice to see you.