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Dangerous Winter Storm Affecting Millions across the Nation; South Africa Mourns the Death of Nelson Mandela While Celebrating His Legacy; "Sound of Music" Live on NBC
Aired December 06, 2013 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Temperatures across the U.S. plunge as this monster ice storm puts millions at risk.
I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
As the world mourns an icon, Washington didn't always see Nelson Mandela as a saint.
America's unemployment rate drops, but will conservatives give president Obama credit?
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIE NELSON (singing): Whiskey river take my mind.
BALDWIN: Willie Nelson pulls out of a gig at Sea World after CNN's explosive film on killer whales. Willie tells me why live.
And when Twitter bites and critics sting. Carrie Underwood's version of a classic hits a nerve.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: We have a lot to talk about here on this Friday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for joining me. But let's begin with this dangerous and deadly winter storm affecting millions of you all across the nation today.
This freezing storm hitting from Texas, all the way up to New York, you see the map here. The system causing flight cancellations, dangerous driving conditions, and now deaths. Three adults have died in car accidents in both Oklahoma and Texas as a result of this storm system that you're looking at here. And in Arkansas, one man died after a tree fell on his camper during the freezing rain. You know, ice can bring down those tree limbs and power lines when the accumulations really start piling on and getting thicker. People in the Dallas -Fort Worth area, they know that all too well today. Around 250,000 customers are without power as I speak. And that is where Alina Machado is. Ted Rowlands is live for us in Memphis, and Jennifer Gray here in studio 7 at the severe weather center. But first, Alina Machado, to you, my goodness. Incredible what a couple of different days makes, right? 80 degrees now down to a lot of ice and snow where you are.
ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Brooke, it was 80 degrees here in Dallas on Wednesday. This is clearly a completely different story. It was sleeting and there was freezing rain for a good chunk of the morning. For most of the morning, and this is the result. Take a look at this chair. Frozen. Lots of ice. It's been out here all day with me. Look at the chunk of ice that's on it. Frozen bushes, trees. The roads are slushy. Barely anybody out here. Downtown Dallas is essentially a ghost town. And this isn't the only thing that's been going on here. We know that there have been flight cancellations. The airport's a mess, the roads are a mess. And really, this is all about people trying to stay home, trying to stay out of this weather if they can. We know that at least one person here in the state of Texas, in Hockley County, Texas, died yesterday because of this storm. So this is really a very serious situation here, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Stay warm to you and your crew, Alina, for us in Dallas. And let's head to Memphis now. Ted Rowlands is standing by there. And Ted, how bad is it where you are?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, all day until about an hour ago, Brooke, it has been raining in Memphis, which has been good. Right now, we're seeing that mix of ice. This morning, we drove into Arkansas, about 45 miles from here. And that is where it is all ice. They have been getting the ice all day long, and it was treacherous and slow going on the roadways. We saw a couple spin-outs. And there you're seeing the power lines with ice, the trees with ice. It is in Arkansas where you mentioned the man died after a tree fell onto his camper. And right now, Memphis is bracing for the exact same as we speak, this rain is turning to that dreadful ice. And as Alina said, downtown Dallas is pretty much deserted, Memphis is the same, people hunkering down and getting ready for what could be a very long day - night and couple of days.
BALDWIN: Ted Rowlands, thank you. Let's just broaden this out. Jennifer Grey in the CNN weather center. And so, where is the worst of it? What should people expect this coming weekend?
JENNIFER GRAY, METEOROLOGIST: Well, luckily, it's going to push out after tonight, but we have another round of this coming later in the weekend that we're going to talk about. Right now, seeing some ice and freezing rain, of course, in Memphis. And that stretches all the way up through places like Cincinnati. Still seeing that big old swath of snow as well. In Dallas, it is over for you, but it's still on the ground. And temperatures aren't going to get much above freezing for the next couple of days, so you have to worry about it staying on the ground. It is going to stay slick and slushy for you in Dallas for the next couple of days. Here's a look at some of those snow reports. And in Arkansas, we had a foot of snow, and so we also saw amazing sleet accumulations. 3 to 3 1/2 inches of sleet in places like Texas and also Mineral Wells, Texas, had the most at 3 1/2 inches. And so that's going to stay on the ground for a couple more days. You can expect those power lines will be strained for the coming days. This is going to quickly pick up some steam and move on out late tonight. So we do have a break on Saturday. But the next system will be just on its heels, and that is going to be here by Sunday.
You could see more ice accumulations in places that have already seen it, Brooke, and so this could be the beginning of a one-two punch over the next couple of days.
BALDWIN: Thinking of those marathoners in Dallas. I can't say I have ever run 26.2 miles, but layering here is key, layer up, tomorrow, it's going to be really cold. Jennifer, thank you very much. We'll check back in with you a little later.
Let's talk economy now. Because the new government jobs report has turned out to be an early holiday gift for us here in the U.S. With the unemployment rate at its lowest since 2008. Look at the number in red, seven percent. Last month, 203,000 jobs were created, beating many economists' expectations and more importantly, the numbers behind this jobs report show that the hiring isn't just for those $9 an hour jobs, but also for higher paying positions. So, let's talk about this with Nela Richardson, our senior economist at Bloomberg Government. And Christine Romans, who stayed up for us and we appreciate you, Christine.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: CNN chief business correspondent and host of CNN's "Your Money." So, Christine, first to you. Because we all know ...
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
BALDWIN: November means holiday shopping for most of us, if you think ahead, which means seasonal workers.
ROMANS: Right.
BALDWIN: So, when we look at these numbers, did the government adjust for that?
ROMANS: Oh, yeah, and I'm going to tell you this is a pretty broad- based jobs gain. It wasn't just people who are bartenders and waitresses, you know, stocking up for the holiday season. It wasn't just people stocking up at the stores, doing shelves and temporary work. It was broad based. I mean you look at warehousing and transportation, those jobs, 24 bucks an hour. You saw big job gains there. Also in manufacturing. So, I like how broad-based these jobs gains were, and I also like the trend, Brooke. And this is why so many people are saying this is the best jobs report in four or five years. Because when you look at the long trend, I have five years for you on this bar chart. You can see that we're crawling out and have almost crawled out of that terrible, terrible hole. That's the unemployment rate, the best since 2008. That's the line chart. The bar chart shows you that you're almost out of the hole. About 1.3 million jobs to go and you'll be back where we started. You see how horrible that was, in late 2008 to 2009.
BALDWIN: Yes.
ROMANS: Slowly - It's taken 45 months to crawl, get our head above water, but we're almost there. Now, there are some folks who will tell you now, be careful, don't get too excited about it too soon, but we are on track for the best year of jobs gains since 2005, so that shows you just how much better this is and it has been in prior years.
BALDWIN: I'm curious. Let's just - guys, let's take a quick live look at the market here, and let's take a look at how the Dow Jones numbers are looking. We're up. Look at that. We're up almost 200 points here as we're just less than two hours before the closing bell. Nela, do you think this is really the thrust behind the market reacting right now?
NELA RICHARDSON, SENIOR ECONOMIST, BLOOMBERG GOVERNMENT: Well, the market's been down for five or six days. And so now it's rebounding on good news. For a while, we have seen the market rebound on bad news because bad news meant the Federal Reserve was going to keep pumping money into the stimulus. But it's nice to know that the stock market is now properly aligned with Main Street and they're reacting to the strong numbers and encouraging jobs number. Encouraging, but not - clearly not out of the woods yet.
BALDWIN: Christine, it's, you know, you say we're not totally -- our heads are beginning to bob above water, to use your metaphor, is a great jobs number, but in terms of long-term unemployed, there are still millions of them. People are still suffering.
ROMANS: Yeah, 4.1 million to be exact. And you'll hear a lot of cynicism today from people who have been unemployed for a long time, saying it doesn't feel better to me, and they're right.
BALDWIN: Yes.
ROMANS: Because when you look within these numbers, the White House even pointed out. Brooke, in its statement about the jobs report that all of the benefits that lower unemployment is settled to seven percent because people who were newly unemployed had found jobs. Not because people who've been out of work for six months or longer had. So, it's really a tale of two job markets here. The people who have recently been unemployed, things are looking much better for you. They really, really are. The best they've looked in several years. Long-term unemployed, it's still the same bad story.
BALDWIN: Christine Romans and Nela Richardson, thank you, ladies, both very much for joining me this afternoon. And just a quick reminder to all of you. Christine, we'll have much more on the jobs number and what this means for every single one of us. Tune in Saturday on "Your Money" 9:30 in the morning Eastern right here on CNN.
From protests to prison to the presidency. We're celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela. South Africa declaring ten days of mourning for their most cherished leader.
As world leaders, including President Barack Obama, the first lady, make plans to travel to South Africa for the memorial, Mandela's body will lie in state at government buildings in Pretoria until his burial. That is December 15th in the village where he grew up. Next, we will go live to Johannesburg for the latest on what could be one of the biggest gatherings of world leaders to remember the man who helped shape a generation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NELSON MANDELA: The greatest thing for a politician is whether the ideas to which you have committed your life are still alive. Whether these ideas alive in the air, and everything that happened showed that we have not sacrificed in vain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Nothing Nelson Mandela did was in vain. He negotiated an end to Apartheid. Helped black and Indian South Africans out of a barely human existence and dismantled a police state, all the while inspiring a generation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The day he was released from prison, he gave me a sense of what human beings can do when they're guided by their hopes and not by their fears. And like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set.
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: He lived this extraordinary life of belief in this simple principle of fighting discrimination. This extraordinary struggle of all those years in prison, then the immense triumph against adversity in all he achieved for his country and to inspire people around the world, and then throughout all of this, this extraordinary generosity and sense of forgiveness that he had for those who had done him so much harm. And that was the real privilege of meeting him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Right now, South Africans are taking to the streets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nelson Mandela!
CROWD: Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela.
(SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Ten days of mourning to remember a man who changed their way of life. We expect the memorial rituals to include Western traditions and those of his native clan. His ancestral leaders are believed to be with his body right now, and they're expected to stay there with him, explaining to his body everything that's happening over the course of the next ten days. Then on the tenth day, that's December 15th, his burial, it will take place in Qunu, in the South African hills where he spent his childhood. For now, though, Mandela's body has been taken to a military hospital in Pretoria, and no public events are planned until early next week, when tens of thousands of mourners are expected to pack a Johannesburg soccer stadium for a public memorial service.
So, let's go to Johannesburg to our senior international correspondent there, Arwa Damon, surrounded by so many there outside of Mandela's home in a Johannesburg suburb. And Arwa, although removed from politics, you know, Mandela remained this moral center. Tell me what the reaction has been there to his death.
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we're just outside of his Johannesburg home, as you're saying, it was actually about there where he just spent his final moments. The crowd here has been growing as the night has progressed, but it is a crowd that first came here just as soon as they heard that Nelson Mandela had passed away. People coming, expressing their sorrow, but also celebrating the man who really truly transformed this country in a way that few could have ever imagined possible. Now, Nelson Mandela had been sick for quite some time, so people in a certain way were perhaps prepared for his death, yet so many of them still telling us that it did come as a shock, that they're still struggling to deal with all of the various different emotions that they're going through. Many of them saying that there are actually no words to express what one man has done to truly fundamentally change this country. Earlier in the day, when we were on our way here, we met a young black university student. And he had a really profound message, exclamation, when it came to what Nelson Mandela's life legacy and death meant to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nelson Mandela means a lot for me, right. I mean like for me, the way we are now today, able to -- I was able to - I had a privilege to go to school with the white people. I was - I had an opportunity to also go to one of the best universities, which is right here. And then for Nelson Mandela, for me, I mean, I can't even explain how -- I can't even talk, how can I explain about this? I'm very -- you know, I'm very heartbroken.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DAMON: What do you think about it, Brooke? In the days of Apartheid, this was a white neighborhood. For blacks to come here, they had to get a special permit. And when you look at the diversity around us today, you really see how far the country has come. The diversity, the unity that Nelson Mandela was able to create, most certainly reflected in the crowds around us tonight, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Hearing the noises, the chanting from the crowd, it almost seems less mourning and more celebrating the life of such a legend. Arwa Damon, thank you very much in Johannesburg, and please stay tuned. Because coming up next hour, I will be honored to speak to Dr. Martin Luther King's daughter, Bernice King, who will join me, who has some stories to tell about meeting Nelson Mandela and specifically about that trip she took with her mother to South Africa for his inauguration when he became president. So, do not miss that next hour.
In the world of weather, freezing temperatures across the country. Tennessee and Arkansas have already declared states of emergency. Ahead of what is shaping up to be a severe winter storm. We will tell you what to expect heading into this weekend. But next, the "Sound of Music" live. Did you watch this last night? Millions of people did. And a tidal wave of tweets slamming the musical immediately flooded Twitter. Was it really that bad? We'll discuss. Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Well, the numbers are in. And the "Sound of Music" live is sounding like a huge hit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UF (singing): Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels, door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzels with noodles, wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings - these are a few of my favorite things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Classic, don't you just know every word? The live telecast of the musical adaptation drew more than 18 million viewers. That was NBC's biggest non-sports Thursday since the finale of "E.R.", that was back in 2009, but those viewers don't come cheap, because production of the three-hour event was reported $9 million. CNN entertainment correspondent Nischelle Turner joins me now. And I tell you, Nischelle Turner, just looking at my Twitter feed last night, it was either people paying their respects to Nelson Mandela ...
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Or they were people hating on Carrie Underwood. But I guess she can take the hate to the bank, huh?
TURNER: Well, yeah, and first of all, there's always going to be haters talking about something, Brooke, you know. There's going to be undoubtedly somebody that asks me while I'm staying here talking to you and say that Nischelle Turner, I hate her hair ...
(LAUGHTER)
TURNER: So, there's always going to be haters for something, but yeah, there was a lot of backlash last night over this live event. And it's really interesting because so many people watch this broadcast. It was NBC's biggest live broadcast for a number of years, since 2009. I think you mentioned. So a lot of people watched. There was a couple of people that did talk about it on Twitter. And I'm going to read a couple of them. So, bear with me, Carrie Underwood.
BALDWIN: OK.
TURNER: I'm sorry. But Kelly Philips said last night, "Did NBC forget that there would be parts where Carrie Underwood doesn't sing and we'd have to watch her try to talk these words? #TheSoundOfMusiclive." Also, another, from Rob Lowe, "OK, so some of the acting is pretty bad, but you can't have everything. #TheSoundOfMusic." Now, the interesting thing is I did speak with some writers, and actually, our own Brian Stelter before this broadcast on Thursday night, Brooke, and one thing we talked about was NBC was taking a really big risk with this when because Carrie Underwood, we know she's a wonderful singer, but the big question was, can she act?
BALDWIN: Right.
TURNER: And you did have to act in this. It wasn't all singing. You definitely had to act in this live broadcast as well.
BALDWIN: Maybe since the numbers were so great, maybe we'll see more live shows from NBC. You know, hey, here's to stepping out of the box, I suppose. Nischelle Turner, thank you very much.
TURNER: Absolutely.
BALDWIN: Coming up, the one and only Willie Nelson will be joining me. He is pulling out of a concert at Sea World weeks after the CNN film "Blackfish" aired. We will ask him why he made that decision.
And coming up next, more on Nelson Mandela's legacy and why Washington didn't always see him as a saint. In fact, did you know he was on the terror watch list until 2008? We'll talk about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
