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Nearly 100 Million People In Storm's Path; Parents Of Murdered Teen Forgive Killer; Two Major Papers Push Clemency For NSA Leaker; CNN Anchor's Secret Health Battle; Shia Labeouf's Bizarre Apology Campaign

Aired January 02, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Inevitably, with extreme weather come traffic conditions, roads, and nor'easters do not mix. Take for instance this scene in Missouri this morning where icy roads caused a tractor trailer to jack knife, shutting down one side of an entire interstate. This thing happens as a lot of travelers are trying to get home from the New Year's celebrations.

So joining me on the phone is AAA travel expert, Heather Hunter. Assuming you look at the traffic on this interstate, a lot of people on the roads today, right?

HEATHER HUNTER, AAA TRAVEL EXPERT (via telephone): Yes, AAA was forecasting that 94.5 million Americans were traveling for the Christmas and New Year holiday so many of them are making their way home to their destinations now and through the rest of the weekend. So the roads are particularly crowded at this time of year.

BALDWIN: OK, Heather, so driving in snow and ice, some people don't have a choice, but to do this, what is your advice for those people?

HUNTER: Most importantly, check the weather at your destination and along your route. If you can alter your plans to avoid the worst of the storm, please do so. If you can't, most importantly, be sure to slow down. Also increase your travel distance between you and the car in front of you. Normally, you allow about three to four seconds in between the time you would approach the car in front of you. But you want to increase that to about ten seconds to allow extra time to stop.

BALDWIN: OK. Those are things you can think about. What about the notion of winterizing your car? What does that entail?

HUNTER: Yes, make sure your car is ready for winter travel. You want to check your tires, make sure the pressure is fully inflated in the tire, and make sure the tire thread depth is adequate. Make sure your wind shield wiper fluid has an anti-freeze component to it so that when you use it will properly clear your windshield and not freeze up.

BALDWIN: OK, Heather Hunter, great advice from AAA. This nor'easter is definitely snarling holiday travel here as AAA was telling us and advises, check the weather of the place you're headed, and that's what we're going to do right now. Alexandra Steele joining me and we know the snow is coming. In some places, it's already there, but so is the wind, so is the cold.

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know, you heard Heather talk about the distance between, you know, the car in front of you. But we have blizzard conditions especially for the Cape and Long Island. So what we're going to see is such low visibilities that really you're going to have to allocate a lot more than that.

So let's take a look as we look at these temperatures. That's one big aspect of it, not only have they been incredibly cold and low in the upper Midwest, they have been getting very cold in the northeast. And also, this is not just a snow maker. This is wind and also this is an incredible amount of snow and cold temperatures.

So the three together creating an awfully difficult environment, hour by hour windchills, here's the snow accumulation. What we're seeing, 8 to 14 for Boston and New York. Here comes that snow. Again, Friday, the snow will be over, but on the backside, those incredibly gusty winds, thus the blizzard warnings and such an incredible amount of snow and difficult travel on the cape and the islands -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, we'll have much more weather at the top of the hour. Alexandra, thank you very much.

STEELE: Sure.

BALDWIN: But let me now just tell you, you can only imagine how remarkable Colorado teenager, Claire Davis, was after you see how exceptional her parents are. Claire was murdered last month by a school shooter who then killed himself after he shot Claire. Her community memorialized Claire New Year's Day.

And during the tributes to the 17-year-old's kindness and spirit, her parents, Michael and Desiree, said in her honor, they chose to, quote, "Love consciously." And they said they forgive -- they forgive the Arapahoe High School student who took Claire from them, revealing the last words she spoke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL DAVIS, FATHER OF SCHOOOL SHOOTING VICTIM: The young man that shot Claire had a name. His name was Karl Pierson. For reasons most of us or all of us will never know, Karl allowed himself to be filled with anger and rage and hatred. That anger, rage, and hatred blinded him. He blindly followed a path that led him to do something no one should ever do. He took an innocent person's life. He took our daughter's life.

Claire's last words are poignant and profound. She said, my gosh, Karl, what are you doing? The fact is that Karl was so blinded by his emotions that he didn't know what he was doing. In her most innocent and precious way, Claire tried to shine a light on Karl's darkness.

My wife and I forgive Karl Pierson for what he did because he didn't know what he was doing. We would ask all of you here and all of you watching to search your hearts and also forgive Karl Pierson. He didn't know what he was doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Wow, the power to forgive. The Davises have also set up a fund in honor of Claire that will help provide mental health services and anti-bullying programs in the Denver area.

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BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The "New York Times" today has reignited a debate over Edward Snowden. Is the man who divulged the NSA's secrets an enemy of the state or a hero or somewhere in between? The "Times" just officially declared the side its taking. Its editorial labels Snowden a whistle blower and writes this, quote, "Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear, and flight.

He has done this country a great service. In retrospect, Mr. Snowden was clearly justified in believing that the only way to blow the whistle on this kind of intelligence gathering was to expose it to the public and let the resulting furor do the work his superiors would not." That's from the "Times."

Britain's "Guardian" is joining the "New York Times" in its call for the government to drop the case against Snowden or cut him a deal so he can come home to the U.S. Snowden, as you know, now living in Russia under temporary asylum.

So joining me now, "CROSSFIRE" co-host, former Obama advisor, Van Jones. Van Jones, nice to see you. Happy New Year.

VAN JONES, CO-HOST, CNN'S "CROSSFIRE": Happy New Year to you as well.

BALDWIN: Let's begin with the editorial from the "Times" this morning. Is it a fruitless effort? I mean, can we assume that the president would never give clemency to this guy?

JONES: Well, obviously, that's not where we are right now, but I do think this is very important. This was probably 20 percent aimed at the White House. I think 80 percent of this was aimed at the American people. I think the "New York Times" did a great service -- I think a lot of people don't understand. This guy was not protected by ordinary whistle blower protections because he was an independent contractor. He's not a normal kind of a traitor. He didn't sell this stuff. If you were trying to hurt maybe, he could have sold it for billions of dollars to China, Russia, or even al Qaeda. He didn't do that --

BALDWIN: Van, he broke the law.

JONES: Absolutely. But that's why this is such an interesting case. Usually, you break a law because you want money for yourself. You're trying to hurt the country. This guy got no money. He hurt himself and he helped the country that's why the "New York Times" is saying treat this guy differently. He did not sell the information. He gave it away for free. I think it's important for us to look at it from that point of view.

BALDWIN: What about a different point of view when it comes to someone like James Clapper. The "Times" mentioned James Clapper. Some folks are saying he broke the law. He's accused of lying, you know, to Congress during a hearing. Take a listen. Let's take you back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: What I wanted to see is if you could give me a yes or no answer to the question, does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?

JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: No, sir.

WYDEN: It does not?

CLAPPER: Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So should Clapper -- should he face any kind of punishment for that?

JONES: Obviously, he should. I think part of the problem is you're just a regular person watching this, you see people like a Snowden stepping forward. He's got his life on the run. The U.S. government was willing to force down the plane of a head of state to try to get him. Then you have Clapper, whose job it is to keep Congress and the American people honestly informed, lying, and nothing happens to him.

I think for younger people, they don't understand as they watch the stuff, what kind of country are we when these kinds of injustices happen at the top and nothing happened and independent contractors wind up with a life on the lam. I do think they're trying to shape the debate going forward about privacy.

BALDWIN: Let me take you back to Clapper. You say, yes, he should face a punishment. What kind of punishment would fit what he did?

JONES: Well, there needs to be a real inquiry, but I don't know how -- I'm surprised Congress hasn't been more aggressive. Listen, I'm a Democrat. I love this president, I love this administration, but you can't have any government official whose job it is to inform Congress, which is the people's body, sit there and lie and have nothing happen. That's a much bigger threat from my point of view, long term, than what any of these independent contractors did.

BALDWIN: Final question, just under any possible scenario, do you think there's any olive branch that the president would extend to Snowden, anything?

JONES: Not at this stage. If the public begins to come around, the auditors had said he had a point, a judge said this is possibly unlawful. The media is starting to come around. You could imagine a scenario developing later on where the president changes his calculation, but I think right now, he's going to stay where he is. I think the American people are going to keep moving in this direction.

BALDWIN: OK, Van Jones, thank you. We'll see you on "CROSSFIRE" at 6:30 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.

Coming up, a special story I want to share with you. I have been looking forward to speaking with this anchor here at CNN. She reveals an emotional, candid health problem, one she has been dealing with since a little girl. I have to say having worked with her, I have no clue. This shocked me, Zain Verjee, I'm honored to be joined my friend, Zain to share her secret, next.

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BALDWIN: I want to share a story. This is a story about one of my colleagues. Do you recognize her?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Is that more gunfire? Can we have the helmet? Where is the helmet?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That is Zain Verjee. I hope you recognize Zain because she has been with CNN for nearly 15 years, been to all the hot spots, and today I learned that Zain Verjee, while she has been out there working with bullets flying around, she has also battled a serious, serious physical ailment. Zain is good enough to join me from London. Hello, my friend. Nice to see you.

VERJEE: Hi, Brooke. Thank you so much for having me.

BALDWIN: Wow, let's just begin with your battle, and Zain, at its worst, how bad was your skin condition?

VERJEE: It was really traumatic. I basically struggled to walk. I was unable to do so without putting heavy Vaseline on my legs that were almost twice the size because the psoriasis plaques had grown so substantially. They would bleed all the time. They would itch like crazy. There would pus so there would be a lot of smell around me and I would douse myself with a lot of perfume to disguise the smell and wrap myself up with saran wrap and kind of wrestle my way through the day, and my scalp would flake.

It would itch me all the time and I was extremely uncomfortable and wearing clothes was just such a nightmare. I was so resentful and bitter and angry, especially when I saw somebody on a dress on TV, and I was like, God, I would have to wear long sleeves.

BALDWIN: And now we see you're in short sleeves. We'll get to the happy moment in a minute.

VERJEE: It's very exciting. BALDWIN: You write in your piece, it started at 8 years of age. At one point you were in a pool in your 20s at the Dead Sea, wanting to be out, and somebody said leave. You know, you've cried to your mother, who will want me, who will touch me? You have been in a sense, in hiding.

VERJEE: People with psoriasis suffer through this every single day. You're thinking of the best strategy to hide. A lot of us are embarrassed, ashamed of the situation. When you leave a space, the flakes are everywhere. It's really stressful. You come up with fantastic strategies to hide, and you're always looking at someone's eye movement, where are they looking. You sit in a dark corner of the room or you can get dressed in the dark really well. You learn to adapt, but you retreat into the shadows of yourself and in the physical world.

BALDWIN: Yet, here you are, this beautiful TV news anchor. It's a visual medium, and I want to read one of your quotes that really stuck me. You mention the Vaseline and wrapping yourself. You write, "Somehow my imagination takes me far. I'm in my early 20s and it's the beginning of my career. I'm anchoring the primetime shows in Kenya. It's a big opportunity. My game face is on. I've spent the afternoon on hair and makeup.

As I settle into the anchor's chair, I hear the faint rustle of plastic shrink wrap. I wrapped myself up my legs and torso in a clingy film after soaking my scales in Vaseline so that the pain is lessened and the putrid smell is contained. The director calls out. The floor manager cues me. The lights on, news copy in my hand, I smile and welcome millions of Kenyans into the studio. What were you thinking when you wrote that?

VERJEE: How I have a relationship more with my face for my whole life, and I felt more like a floating head. And when I'm in a situation like that, that's how I'm relating to people on television. And that's the only medium that matters. Not the chaos that's etched throughout my body from my neck downwards. So that's what I was thinking. Since then, I have evolved.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about the evolution. Here you are short sleeves, breakthrough. Talk about the angel you referred to in your piece.

VERJEE: I was at the worst moment. I was about 23 years old. I was hysterical, crying with my mom, and someone came to my mom and said, send her to George. My mom forced me to go there because I was so fed up with doing anything. It was a clinic in South Africa, a small town by the lake that basically believed in mind, body, and spirit healing. I thought this was too squishy for me, I was not into any of this.

But really, it was diet, convincing myself, talking to myself, not eating foods. We were banned from eggs, seafood, sugar, alcohol, smoking, red meat, fish, rice, bread, butter, tomatoes, mushroom, garlic, pretty much anything that tastes good, but it was --

BALDWIN: You can't eat. VERJEE: Yes, but a deep relaxation, meditation, constant exercise, water, foods that are immune boosting because psoriasis is an autoimmune disorder than genetic. What you're doing is removing the toxicity from your body and doing it with the power of your mind as well. And you know, I would never have believed in this stuff until six months later, I was 100 percent clear after being a total disaster.

What I just wanted to say is that by writing this, I really want to empower young people that look at themselves and think that they have a condition that they're not good enough, that they have to be perfect because you know, we all look so perfect on TV.

BALDWIN: We're so not.

VERJEE: Yes. We're really not and the narrative can be completely different. So you can't assume what it is and that you can do anything when you set your mind to it.

BALDWIN: Yes.

VERJEE: And self-acceptance, I think, is essential.

BALDWIN: Good message for so many of us here in the beginning of this New Year. Zain Verjee, incredible piece. I salute you. You're a brave woman for sharing such a story. Zain, thank you. You can read her piece on CNN.com, CNN Living, and we'll be right back.

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BALDWIN: Shia Labeouf is trying his best to make good with an author he is accused of ripping off, by the way of an apology. The actor first said that he, quote, "Got lost in the creative process" and that was his reason for not crediting this author for inspiring his film, howardcanter.com. Stephanie Elam joins me now and so what exactly is Labeouf doing to make it up to this author?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a very interesting story. It's an interesting way to give an apology, Brooke, when you take a look at this. What he has done is take it to the skies. What happened, this is a short film that he made that debuted in 2012. At that point, not a lot of brouhaha about it, but then when the film came out and released online at the end of last year, that's when people noticed it looked a lot like a book written by Daniel Cloves.

Well, that's when people starting noticing all of the issues. So he took to the skies. He posted a picture on his Twitter account, Shia Labeouf did, and he said, "I am sorry, Daniel Cloves." And he did this over Hollywood. One problem, however, as you point out, he also points out that cloud also means to make less clear or transparent. He put this over Hollywood. Mr. Cloves lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. That did not get seen by him, but he's also had a lot of interesting tweets as well -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Well, what did this author have to say about all this? ELAM: Well, the whole thing has gotten so much bigger because there have been several tweets that have come out from Labeouf on his Twitter page where he's basically taken other people's apologies and adopted them as his own. One from Kanye West that I saw, one from the BP of -- the CEO of BP when he was talking about the oil spill, just taking their quotes.

Since then, we have heard according to "Buzzfeed," that Mr. Cloves has said he was shocked and didn't know this was something he was doing, but he just doesn't know what was going through his mind. He's mulling legal action, we understand -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, Stephanie Elam, thank you. And now to this, a "Breaking Bad" fan gets busted, and "Time" magazine makes an interesting choice for its new cover. Here is today's CNN Pop.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: With a new transmission, a new push-button transmission.

BALDWIN (voice-over): A piece of Americana goes Italian. Fiat taking full ownership of Chrysler in a $4 billion deal. The U.S. carmaker is now in a better position to compete with General Motors.

Apparently, a "Breaking Bad" fan did not learn much from Walter White. Just a couple months after this guy won a contest to watch the show's finale with the cast, he's behind bars on drug charges.

In Cincinnati, fans are facing a TV blackout of the Bengals playoff game this weekend. But have no fear. Chad Johnson wants to help. In response to the team's fears of not reaching a sell-out, the former receiver tweets, he'll get the rest.

And of all the big-time events coming up in 2014, the Olympics, elections, "Time" magazine is apparently really excited about this guy's new late night show. No pressure, Seth Meyers. That's today's CNN Pop.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: And here we go, continuing on, I'm Brooke Baldwin. Canceled flights, hazardous road conditions, add to it dangerously low windchills and more than a foot of snow in spots, and you have a wallop of a winter storm. The first nor'easter of 2014 is Around the corner, and forecasters say it's promising to keep folks from the Midwest to the east coast very, very busy. And that includes us.

We have teamed spread out across the eastern half of the country monitoring the storm. Here you have Margaret Conley in Boston, where snow emergency and flights at Logan Airport will stop in about five and a half hours from now. Sunlen Serfati is keeping an eye on flights at Washington's Reagan National Airport.