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Protests in Kiev; Oppo Leader Arrested Amid Venezuela Protests; DNI Clapper Tries to Shift Blame to Bush Admin for NSA Spying; More Winter Weather for Northeast; Hollywood Turns to the Bible

Aired February 18, 2014 - 15:30   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: I want to come up live on these pictures. We want to stay with this story here.

Live pictures out of Kiev, this is basically like the Times Square of Ukraine. This is what they call Independence Square, and we have been watching these protests, between this group of people and really this is just manifested in this fiery demonstration here, in this prominence square.

We've gotten news now from the U.S. embassy out of Kiev, basically telling any Americans in the capital city, stay in your hotels.

We will take you live to the State Department for an update on this situation, as clearly it is escalating there overseas.

Meantime, three American diplomats expelled from Venezuela must leave the country by tomorrow. This is according to Venezuela. The country's socialist leaders accused the U.S. of encouraging violent protests, rocking that nation's capital.

Today, however, supporters of the government commandeered the streets here, in this massive support, show of support, I should say, for President Nicolas Maduro.

Plans for an opposition rally raised fears of confrontations, but that, as we've been watching, has yet to happen.

Also this, we have confirmed the arrests of the Harvard-groomed leader of Venezuela's opposition, he's there in the middle of your screen, in the white long-sleeved T-shirt, in police custody.

He is charged with murder in connection with violence protests.

Rafael Romo joins me now. He's our senior Latin American affairs editor. First, just explain, why is this happening now?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: I could tell you that inflation in Venezuela is 56 percent, in only one year. I could tell you that there's 5,000 workers in a country of 30 million people.

But to illustrate it better, I have this bill. Officially, it is 30 cents. Allow me to make a contribution to the Brooke Baldwin retirement fund.

You have 30 U.S. -- 30 cents U.S. money.

BALDWIN: OK. That's not a big contribution.

ROMO: But in reality, Brooke, it's worthless, because of inflation, because of the way prices have gone up in the last few years.

If you were to buy a whole chicken, that officially cost $3, you would probably find it at $12.

And people, the reason why you see those people on the streets, protesting, is because they're fed up, insecurity is impossible, prices are through the roof, people's salaries are not going up.

And today, the demonstration was called by the opposition to say, enough is enough.

BALDWIN: So then you have the opposition, the leader of this opposition, as we mentioned, this man by the name of Leopold Lopez, you know, guy wears khakis and button-down shorts, and now he's in police custody.

What is he all about? What's his story?

ROMO: Well, essentially, the government has been trying to reinvent socialism.

And Leopold Lopez has said, no, this is not going to work here in Venezuela. I have better ideas and the idea is to give freedom to the people, let them do what they do best, which is produce.

But the government instead of listening to his demands, said he was to blame for three deaths during demonstrations last week, that he was to blame for all of the violence during the demonstrations this weekend and a couple of days ago.

And they issued an arrest warrant against him, and today, he decided to turn himself in. And that's what we just saw.

BALDWIN: That's what those pictures are.

OK, Rafael Romo, thank you very much.

I want to take you back to those live pictures in Kiev here. Let's stay on this story out of the Ukraine.

Again, this is the capital city. This is what they call Independence Square. We've been watching this for some time. You hear the blasts, the smoke, the fire.

The latest from the U.S. embassy there in Kiev, warning U.S. citizens in town to stay inside, stay in your hotels.

Elise Labott is working this for us on the domestic side, at the State Department. And, Elise Labott, tell us more about what you're learning about what's happening there.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Well, Brooke, the U.S. embassy in Kiev, issuing a warning to U.S. citizens in the city to stay in, do not leave, because they do not want any Americans to get caught up in the violence and be hurt.

You know, the U.S. has been criticized for its role in Ukraine, by members, supporters of the government.

You remember, last week, over the last couple of weeks, there's been this to-do about the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, Victoria Nuland, on a conversation with the U.S. ambassador to Kiev, giving the F-bomb to the E.U., because they weren't getting involved enough in the Ukraine.

So, their role, the government is really critic sizing them for working too closely with the opposition.

But the U.S. ambassador said, listen, we are friends to the people of Ukraine, we want our voices to be heard, and they've been tough on the government to let these protests take place.

BALDWIN: Do we have any idea, Elise, how many Americans right now could be in the capital city, in the Ukraine?

LABOTT: Well, if they're not registered with the State Department, it's a little hard to know.

There are thousands of people there, obviously. There's a lot of business that goes on. There's a lot of NGOs going on right now.

Don't have exact numbers right now, but certainly the U.S. is concerned that even just walking along the street, you know, these protests kind of have a life of their own.

They spiral out of control and are very unpredictable, and they want to make sure that no one gets caught up in the violence or possibly even get arrested.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. Elise Labott on the State Department angle.

We've got a White House angle as well, reaction there. We'll talk to the host of "THE LEAD," Jake Tapper, on what's happening, next.

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BALDWIN: All right, Jake Tapper is up next with "THE LEAD," and Jake Tapper, I wanted to talk to you about James Clapper, the director of national intelligence and the sort of 180 he has made on the NSA.

I want to focus on these pictures here, as we have been reporting on. This is the capital of the Ukraine.

This is Kiev, what they call Independence Square, these clashes between these protesters, these opposition groups.

And of course the government, and we have heard from the State Department specifically, U.S. embassy there, warning Americans to stay inside, stay in their hotels.

What are you hearing from the White House?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Oh, the embassy there is also warning Americans that it's dangerous to travel to Ukraine right now.

The White House has put out a statement, talking about how they're shocked by the violence.

Secretary of State John Kerry spoke earlier, saying that he called, or that the U.S. government called on the government and protesters to take immediate steps to de-escalate situation and to resolve political differences through high-level dialogue.

Translating that from diplo-speak, that they are definitely holding both sides accountable for the situation, by talking about the protesters and the government to de-escalate the situation, Brooke.

Sometimes the White House will give a statement, or the secretary will give a statement, where they only talk about one side needing to de- escalate. This time, both sides.

BALDWIN: That is the Ukraine. Now back to James Clapper, director of national intelligence, made these candid remarks about the phone data collection by the government.

This is what he said in this interview here. He said, "Had we been transparent about this from the outset right after 9/11, we wouldn't have had the problem we had with the explosive public reaction."

It is worth pointing out, phone data collection precedes the Obama administration, so Clapper wasn't there to make those early decisions.

Do you think he's shoving blame for the heat he's taken on to the Bush administration here?

TAPPER: Obviously there's some of that, because he's talking about this needing to have been done 10 years ago.

But I think more theoretically, obviously, President Obama could have come in and Clapper, when he was appointed director of national intelligence, could have come in and announced that this program, Section 215, the collection of metadata, the surveillance on Americans, they could have announced it at the time.

I've spoken to others in the Obama administration, who have voiced similar regrets, not that this debate is going on.

They think it is a healthy debate, but they said they wished that it had happened a different way, not because of these leaks from Edward Snowden.

Now, of course, it's easy for them to say that, because by and large, it appears, at least, according to congressional action, and many polls that I've seen, it appears that the American people are not all that concerned by these surveillance programs.

I'm not saying that that's the right thing, but that does appear to be the case.

So, perhaps they wouldn't feel like it would have been a good thing for us to have got, out and announced this, and this debate would have happened, if the administration had found themselves facing a little bit more blowback.

They haven't, really.

BALDWIN: OK. Jake Tapper, we'll watch for you as always in 15 minutes on "THE LEAD." Thank you, sir.

It is back. Here we go again. The winter weather, we are getting word of another round.

Chad Myers is all over this. We'll tell you what areas will be hit hardest. That is coming up, next.

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BALDWIN: I think it's February 18th, checking my calendar here, asking the folks in the studio, because, listen, it's the middle of winter.

So, I guess we should not be surprised that many of you are seeing this out on the roads.

But the thing is, Chad Myers --

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

BALDWIN: -- is that with all of this snow, we're now getting record levels of snowfall for the year. Yes?

MYERS: There's no place to put it. People are --

BALDWIN: Problem.

MYERS: -- tweeting me and saying, please don't send me any more. I can't shovel it any higher.

I can't get it over -- it's just -- look at this, 77 inches of snow, not currently on the ground, but total for the year.

There's been some melt. There's been some compaction and all of that, Indianapolis, over 50, Cincinnati, 44, Philadelphia now running at 60 inches of snow.

All that said, Brooke, and you get to go home pretty soon and it is now officially 70 degrees outside here.

BALDWIN: We don't want to rub that in.

MYERS: I don't want to rub it in. I don't want to rub that in at all, but I'm going to, a little bit. Here we go here. This is Nashua, New Hampshire, all the way up to Down East, Maine. This is the snow that you were talking about, probably six-to-eight inches of snow. Not anything for Boston, significant, and nothing down here, New York City, warm enough.

But if you get up here in the Poconos, we're going to see a little bit of ice tonight. And it only takes that much in some mountain areas to get a real fun event there, so be careful in the Poconos after dark tonight, for sure. You might get just a little bit of rain at about 31 degrees

That is what is coming. That means spring. That is a severe weather event that might happen from Chicago to Detroit, all the way down to Memphis.

And I mentioned it not because we're hoping for severe weather. I mentioned it because warm air has to be coming back north to get that to happen at all.

And, finally, a break in this ugly, ugly weather east of the Mississippi, at least for a day or two.

BALDWIN: I was starting to do my happy dance during the commercial break. I wasn't quite planning on doing that on television.

Chad Myers, thank you very much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: An apology now from suspended Miami Dolphins player Richie Incognito to his ex-teammate, Jonathan Martin.

He took to Twitter, and let me read this for you. "I would like to send Jonathan my apologies as well. Until someone tells me different, you are still my brother. No hard feelings." From Twitter here. He had gone radio-silent and no longer.

Back on Friday, this independent report into the bullying accusations inside the Miami locker room was released. It said there was, quote, "a pattern of harassment" by Incognito and two teammates towards Martin.

Cue the music. You know what that means. We're going to talk about the Olympics, and it also means put me on mute. Don't worry. I won't be offended. Just for a hot little minute here, because I'm going to tell you what has been going on in the world of Sochi here.

So here's the deal now. The U.S. pulled in another gold in Sochi today. David Wise won men's freestyle halfpipe skiing. Canada took the silver, France with the bronze.

As it stands, the U.S. and the Netherlands are now tied in the medal count, both at 20. That is six gold medals apiece, Russia right on their heels with 19 medals total.

Also, the women's bobsledding heats, no medals were handed out here, but two of the three U.S. women's teams did do well.

U.S. driver Elana Meyers led her team to top place. And Lolo Jones fell short in her debut, dropping to 11th place after two bobsled runs. Jones is the tenth American to compete in both the Winter and the Summer Olympic games.

Coming up, a movie about the Bible opening this week and Satan is no longer a star. Find out what happened there.

Plus, several other movies coming up this year based upon the Good Book. We're asking the question, why the sudden surge? The business of the Bible, ahead here on CNN.

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BALDWIN: Of course, Hollywood is always looking for a good story. You know that.

Oh, and before we get to that, forgive me. I just wanted to go back to the Ukraine, to the capital city of Kiev.

As we've been watching these clashes of protesters in what is basically the Times Square of Ukraine, Independence Square, they have been fighting back and forth for a number of months, but specifically today, it's really escalated as we've been watching the fires and the smoke and the blasts.

The latest that we have from the U.S. embassy in Kiev is the fact they're warning American citizens, specifically, stay inside, stay in your hotels, and if you are contemplating travel to the Ukraine, do not do it.

Moving back to Hollywood, always looking for a good story here, and it appears it's found one in the Old Testament, several religion-themed films coming to a theater near you, including a big-screen version of the hit TV miniseries, "The Bible."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are Son of God, command that this stone becomes bread.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man shall not live by bread alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: "The Bible" scored monster ratings, more than 13 million viewers, but also stirred controversy because you saw the man in the cloak here. Look familiar?

A lot of people looking at that and saying, hmm, looks a lot like President Obama. By the way, this is Satan in this series.

So now, the movie executive producers are hoping to avoid that. They are reportedly cutting this character from the film's version. And then there was this movie, Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ." Talk about big business, this film grossed more than $80 million opening weekend at the box office.

So, it appears Hollywood is getting ready to take movie-goers back to church while it goes to the bank.

Joining me now, Michael Musto, he's an entertainment columnist at Out.com. And, Michael Musto, the business of the Bible, why is it so hot?

MICHAEL MUSTO, ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST, OUT.COM: Brooke, I'm actually working on a piece for TheBlot.com on this very topic, so I've done my research.

So, I haven't really read the Bible that closely, I have to admit.

BALDWIN: But still --

MUSTO: Industry insiders have told me that these are solid stories with clear-cut good and evil.

Also "Son of God," the Mark Burnett film, is being promoted actually as an action film. The official description of the film says it has the scope of an action film.

So, I guess it's kind of like "Thor" with more sandals and more divinity.

Also, families like this kind of thing. Big stars are attracted to it. The heyday of the Bible films was many years ago, but I think it's time for a comeback right now.

The country is changing. Some people are still clinging to religion. They are going to like these films.

But also people who are skeptical are going to like them because auteurs like Darren Aronofsky, who's doing "Noah," and Ridley Scott, who's doing "Exodus" with Christian Bale as Moses, hopefully with better hair than his last movie -

BALDWIN: Michael -

MUSTO: These are edgy people and they have unconventional ideas of God and religion. So, these are not going to be your typical Bible movies.

BALDWIN: So, they're flipping the script. They're not necessarily, from what I've read, these directors, not necessarily religious. but revisionists? Yes?

MUSTO: In some ways, but "Son of God" is different. That's very evangelical. They're catering to the evangelical figures.

These are -- that movie is based on scenes and outtakes from The History Channel's hit series about Jesus.

They've cut Satan, which is I think perfect. Get rid of Satan.

BALDWIN: Satan is gone.

Just quickly, big names, who can we look for starring in any of these films? Fifteen seconds.

MUSTO: Russell Crowe is Noah with all these digitized animals on his ark, and Emma Watson who co-stars in it, says that it could be set at any time.

That's another reason they are going to be able to make these films more accessible. They're not billing them, necessarily, as biblical.

Christian Bale, as I mentioned, is Moses. He's the new Charlton Heston, I guess. He'll be Ben-Hur next.

BALDWIN: How about that. We'll look for it this year.

Michael Musto, thank you, as always. Appreciate it.

And thank you for watching. I'm Brooke Baldwin, see you back here tomorrow.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.