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11 Million Plus under Blizzard Warnings across 10 States; Biden: U.S. Troops Will Move to Eastern Europe "in the Near Term"; NTSB Investigating Pittsburgh Bridge Collapse that Injured 10; COVID- 19 Cases and Hospitalizations Declining, Deaths Still High; Trump White House Spokesman Subpoenaed by January 6 Committee. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired January 29, 2022 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:33]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Right now a powerful and potentially historic winter storm is slamming the East Coast from Virginia to Maine. Ten states are under a blizzard warning. Some areas could see more than two feet of snow. Hurricane force wind gusts are possible creating (INAUDIBLE) flooding and power outages.

Rhode Island and Massachusetts are seeing the worst of it already. Massachusetts already reporting more than 110,000 without power.

CNN has teams covering all of this across the northeast.

Polo Sandoval is live for us right now in Boston. Let's go to you first, Polo. There you are in seemingly whiteout conditions. What else is happening.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, if you think of this as football, we're about halfway through the second quarter kick. So we're very anxious to make it to half-time and eventually get through the next few hours.

We're going to be getting snowfall here in the Boston area of about two to four inches an hour. So do the math, and there's a potential for historic snowfall here in Boston.

And we're seeing some crews (INAUDIBLE), you see them as they drive by. (INAUDIBLE) constantly the roads, making sure that they are clear. But I have to tell you though Fred, (INAUDIBLE), I can tell you that there are very few people who are out and about. (INAUDIBLE) Massachusetts Governor made it clear that almost every (INAUDIBLE) for people to stay home if you don't have to be out and about. (INAUDIBLE) want to or need to go out (INAUDIBLE).

WHITFIELD: All right. Sorry Polo, we're having some audio problems there but understandably. I mean look at the conditions there. For the most part, we do get the point. There is a lot of snow and it is coming down really hard there. We're going to check back with you to get more detail on how everyone is handling it.

All right. Brynn Gingras, you are in New York City. Lots of snow on the ground there, lots in the air. I see a few people out behind you. So what is happening? Are people treating this like it is, you know, potentially very dangerous?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know what, Fred, it is a Saturday so I think that certainly helps. If this happened during the week, it would be a mess here in New York City. But so far, exactly what you said, people are kind of happy it is snowing at this point. And we're certainly not seeing the treacherous conditions that Polo is experiencing.

And we really haven't all morning. The worst it got was really a couple of hours ago when the wind was just slamming you in the face with the snow. And it is very cold.

But other than that, it has gotten much better, the conditions. I want to show you the roads because this is what the city is keeping an eye on because the snow, as you see, is continuing to fall. We've already seen about, from anywhere from like 3 to 6 or 7 inches in New York City and you're seeing more come down.

So we've seen probably four or five times plows come by this area of Columbus Circle to make sure those roads are cleared. And you could see cars are moving just fine. Earlier this morning, it was a different case. We saw cars slipping and sliding all over the place.

Even still, officials in the city are saying, you know what, just stay off the roads. It is Saturday, you don't need to be out. Stay off the roads so they can continue to keep up with the plowing.

As far as coming out though, sure, take a walk in Central Park. You can see people are pretty happy to be out here on a snow day. We have seen joggers. We have seen a lot of people with their dogs walking them and they are in the snow having a good time. A lot of tourists.

We met a family from New Orleans who hadn't ever seen snow. This was their first snow. So very excited people too among the crowd. But certainly a different experience here in New York City than other parts of New England and the tristate are which are getting pummeled with that heavy snow and heavy wind.

WHITFIELD: Yes, definitely stay inside but if you, you know, by choice outside and you want to have a good time, you saw there, a big old playground.

All right. Brynn, we'll check back with you.

All right. Brian Todd, you've been battling the elements, have been watching all morning long. It's still happening there in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which by the way, is also under a blizzard warning. So what are you experiencing? BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fredricka, we're still getting

pounded with this snow and still pounded with the wind and the snow combined.

We're told by our CNN weather team that about 10 to 14 inches of snow has already fallen here in Atlantic City. The snow is going to end in about three hours we're told, but the blizzard warning will continue until about 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. You can see down here in Atlantic Avenue, visibility still very poor.

[11:04:53]

TODD: However, lots of vehicles on the road. Many of them snowplows, emergency crews. Even in the middle of all this, they are trying to get some of these roads plowed.

Here comes a snow plow right behind me right here going south on Atlantic Avenue. They have been plowing side streets throughout this area of Atlantic City.

So they are trying to get ahead of, you know, some of the conditions here so that people can get out on the road once the snow stops. But again, this is something -- if you see this vehicle traffic here on Atlantic Avenue, this is something that Governor Phil Murphy, the Mayor Marty Small here in Atlantic City have told people just don't do this. Do not venture out.

We're still told by city officials that people are getting stuck on the roads trying to come out and do stuff like this. So, again, they are just telling people do not venture out. Sit this one out today at least for the next few hours.

We have had some good news in the last hour or so. We've been told that Route 40, which is a main artery into and out of Atlantic City, that had been shut down a few hours ago because of flooding there. Again, this is a barrier island, so you've got tidal flooding that can occur and did occur in the bay area of the island that is Atlantic City.

That route was shut down a few hours ago but it has since reopened because the tidal flooding has since receded. So that's good news.

Some other good news from Governor Murphy, he said power outages are not as bad as they thought they might be. There are only about a thousand customers without power in New Jersey as of a couple hours ago. About a third of them are here in Atlantic City.

So people are getting through this, they are punching through it like they usually do. They've had a 13-inch snowfall earlier this month, so it is not like they are not used to this, but this combined with the wind and the possible flooding from the tidal surges has really caused kind of a triple whammy here.

You've got accumulation, you've got wind and you've tidal flooding in some areas although the flooding again has receded since high tide at 4:30 this morning.

So Fredricka, they are not out of the woods yet. Still a lot of driving snow around here. But again, people are venturing out and the plows are out to try to get ahead of this once it ends in a couple of hours.

WHITFIELD: All right. It's already a nailbiter that's for sure for a host of reasons.

All right. Brian Todd, thank you so much.

All right. Our Tyler Mauldin is keeping an eye on the latest forecast from the CNN Weather Center. So Tyler, what is the latest? I mean, it sounds pretty hopeful when you listen to the conditions right there from Brian that, you know, a couple more hours of enduring this. But what about if you are further up north?

TYLER MAULDIN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Well, something that Brian mentioned was the triple whammy. And one of the areas dealing with the triple whammy is for sure Nantucket, Massachusetts.

And you can see that here with this video we can see the storm surge, the coastal flooding. You can see the heavy snowfall, the trees coated in the snow and also the breezy conditions.

Here in Nantucket, they have actually dealt with wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour at times. So almost hurricane-force. And when you start to widen the view here and start looking at snowfall totals across the region, the Delmarva has picked up more than a foot now and these are getting into Connecticut, New York and New Jersey and they are well above a foot. In fact, there are portions in New Jersey that are enclosing on a foot and a half.

We're going to add to those totals because this system is slowly moving to the north and it has rapidly intensified. And we're seeing the intense snow bands push into portions of the northeast and New England right now.

Notice that Nantucket is dealing with a 40-mile-per-hour sustained wind, gusts up to 67. Boston 30 miles per hour sustained and gusts up to 45. There are times where we'll see the gusts get up to 50, 60, maybe 70 in this region.

Notice the storm surge, too. Nantucket up to 3 feet, Boston up to 2.5 and you can see Atlantic City nearly 2 feet storm surge right now.

The snowfall is stretching from Maine all the way down into Virginia. At this time, it's beginning to taper off across the Carolinas.

We continue with the winter weather alerts from the Carolinas and the Delmarva all the way up into Maine. The blizzard warning is for the coastline of Maine down to Virginia. This does include Boston. It does not include New York and Philadelphia. New York and Philadelphia are both under a winter storm warning.

In terms of totals on top of what we've already dealt with, we'll see an additional foot across much of eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire and also Maine. Maine is really going to take it on the chin later on today.

Through Sunday morning, I think in total from the storm system there are portions of eastern Massachusetts that could see up to 3 feet of snow. That is why, Fredricka, the main impacts, the extreme impacts will be felt here across Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts and going into portions of eastern New Hampshire, too.

That's where we're going to deal with the really harsh blizzard conditions as well as the hurricane force winds causing there the white out conditions and white night. We could also see power outages and absolutely terrible travel in this part of the country.

Then behind it, yes, we've got some cold air coming in.

WHITFIELD: Oh, no. That is just icing on the cake, so to speak.

MAULDIN: Oh, yes.

[11:09:57]

WHITFIELD: Yes. In a terrible way.

All right. Tyler, thank you so much. Appreciate that. Thanks, everybody.

All right. New Jersey one of several in the region that is under this state of emergency. Joining me right now by phone is New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.

Governor, so glad you could be with us. So everyone keeps referring to this as the triple, you know, whammy particularly for your state. You've got accumulation, you've got wind and possible, you know, tidal surge as well. How are you assessing things?

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ) (via telephone): Good to be with you, Fredricka. I think that you have it exactly right. It is a statewide event, so there is snow all over the state but it is really the Jersey Shore that is getting clobbered. Your colleague from Atlantic City I think said it exactly right.

But you know, you pick any number of towns that I've been in touch with including the mayor of Atlantic City, Asbury Park, Manasquan, Avalon, any number of communities are clocking in somewhere 15 plus inches of snow with several hours still to run. Very high gusting winds especially on the shore.

A little less concerned about flooding. That is not to say that we're not concerned about it, but accumulation and winds are the bill challenge for us right now.

WHITFIELD: So besides sand trucks and plows, how do you prepare for something like this?

MURPHY: Yes. So we put a state of emergency in anticipation of this yesterday at 5:00. We have a commercial vehicle ban, that is to prevent the jackknifing of tractor trailers. We brined roads up and down the state, pre-positioned what is now probably 3,000 vehicles, pieces of equipment to deal with this, working very closely with contractors, county, local officials.

So it's a whole array of steps you take. You do everything you can. But you can't deny the fact it's Mother Nature.

WHITFIELD: Right.

MURPHY: So you can mitigate some of this but you can't -- you can't necessarily overcome all of it.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it can be very unpredictable. But, you know, you also need the cooperation of the public. You need people to stay off the roads, right.

MURPHY: Yes.

WHITFIELD: So are people heeding the warnings?

MURPHY: They are. And that is a big deal and a big asset going for us right now. The fact that it is a weekend is terrific as your colleague in New York City mentioned. And separately folks are doing all overwhelmingly the right thing. They are staying home. And that is exactly the right advice.

Sit this one out, it will be passing in some number of hours and then we can slowly get back on our feet.

WHITFIELD: Right. As I hear my colleagues, at least in New Jersey, you've still got another couple of hours before maybe things taper off.

What are you bracing for? What are you telling people to brace for in terms of, you know, when there may be some relief or when you --

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: -- you know, sort of --

MURPHY: It will take us some time to dig out of this one. The power outages as one of your colleagues mentioned, are a lot lower than we had feared. They're under 1,200. We have fewer accidents than we had feared. I think that is largely due to folks just not being on the roads.

I think patience, Fredricka is the one thing I would ask folks because it is human nature, the sun is going to be out tomorrow. It's going to be cold, but you want to think everything can get back to normal like a light switch.

It will take us a few days to dig out of this one and that is probably what's the realistic scenario.

WHITFIELD: Sure. What are your concerns? What is the message you're trying to convey to people who were counting on the thousands of flights that have been canceled and even delays that may be impacting Amtrak?

MK1: Yes, I mean patience. I was supposed to be in Washington at the National Governors' Association as of yesterday. You know, Mother Nature, you have to have patience. You have to have a willingness to be flexible. We've had Newark's Liberty Airport has had many hundreds of flights canceled. I know Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, the PATH trains have all -- have all been impacted. I just think folks have to realize this is one of these days where you have to kind of go with the flow.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Governor Phil Murphy, thank you so much. All the best to you and everyone in your state.

MURPHY: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: And throughout the northeast as a matter of fact in New England.

All right. Still ahead this hour, President Biden making plans to send U.S. troops into eastern Europe as tensions intensify between Russia and Ukraine. We're live in Kyiv next.

Plus investigators are searching for answers as to what caused a bridge to collapse in Pittsburgh. Officials say the bridge was known to be in poor condition. Details straight ahead.

Oh, and then New York Governor Hochul right now is speaking. Let's listen in on this update with New York under a state of emergency.

[INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT]

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): -- give you an update and I understand that things are looking very good and give credit for that because if it doesn't, they blame you. So enjoy that, you know. And I know you had a very good experience, he just told me he was coming down and giving people directions on the subway. So he is a real hands-on leader and I appreciate that.

Also from the epicenter, Long Island. I will be Zooming in very shortly our Commissioner of DOT, an incredible leader as well. And I want to thank you Commissioner Dominguez, the leader of the DOT. So you will be hearing from her shortly.

[11:14:59]

HOCHUL: So let's see what we're looking at right now. This is a very serious storm, very serious. We've been preparing for this. This could be life-threatening. And we want to make sure that we took all the steps that we believe were necessary including starting with the declaration of emergency -- a state of emergency early on in the process. Yesterday we announced that it would be going into effect at 8:00 p.m. yesterday.

And that allowed us time for the DOT to deploy their trucks, bring in (INAUDIBLE), all the plows that we'll bring so some other parts. More details on that momentarily.

But also the utility workers because this, as we've seen from past storms, this is a huge point of vulnerability. You do not want to be in the middle of a storm and then start calling in utility workers to be on the ground to start doing their repairs so we can store power. They need to be deployed and on the ground and ready to take action the second the limbs come down and bring down the wires or whatever circumstances there because when the weather is this cold, this is where the danger sets in.

cannot have people in their homes without heat for any length of time and that is the danger. It's part of what we're concerned about, why we wanted to reach out on utilities, maker sure they're on the ground and we've received the word that they are.

So we are responding quickly and urgently, and as I mentioned it's a classic nor'easter. The snow is on track in terms of volume. And this is why we keep track of how much is predicted overall. How much per hour because that is going to show you the severity. Couple that with the wind velocity because that's what creates the white out conditions.

But as much as we're glad it is a Saturday, very happy it's a Saturday. We don't have our normal rush hour commutes. We had anticipated based on the projections and that was forecasted that we'd be seeing the brunt of this during the late night hours from midnight to about 8:00 a.m.

this storm lingered, we're still getting the same amount of volume, the same effect. But as everyone knows, we are dealing with this in live time right now as opposed to being in a cleanup mode which is what we had hoped for.

So we're going to see some peaks now. It will continue to pick up on the Long Island, as you know, Hudson Valley (INAUDIBLE) New York City. But it is high winds, heavy snow, blizzard conditions -- all the elements of a classic nor'easter. That's what we're dealing with right now.

So our latest storm projections show that Nassau and Suffolk are being hit the hardest. As of 9:30 a.m. they had about 7 to 11 inches. That is going to continue until about 6:00 p.m.

And I want to make sure everyone understands this. Even though there might be a little break, we start seeing a little clearing, don't be -- don't' be misled by that. There could be a gust of wind that creates whiteout conditions while you're out in the stores, running to do that last milk you wanted to get.

Hopefully everybody gets (INAUDIBLE) this is not a time to be out there shopping. But the good news is that we know the timing of this and it will abate over the next few hours, next few days for sure when cleanup starts.

So this should not be a sustained storm as I've seen in my experience where I live where it sits over you for days and days and keeps accumulating and then it does make it very challenging to go out and get the groceries or whatever you need to source.

People just need to hold on. Just wait a little bit longer and we're still expecting another 5 to 12 inches on Long Island until about 6:00 tonight

New York City, a little less but still, you know, given the density and people parking on the thoroughfares, on the roads and in the communities makes it very complicated for the plows to get out there and that is why we see problems.

But 4 inches so far, another 4 to 7 before -- and most of that should start abating around 3:00 p.m. So that is an earlier termination expected time than we're seeing on Long Island.

(INAUDIBLE) Rockland (ph), Westchester -- 2 to 4 inches, another 1 to 5 to come. So that's what we're looking at. And again, it should not be continuing into tomorrow which is exceptionally good news as well.

[END OF LIVE EVENT]

WHITFIELD: All right. You are listening to New York Governor Hochul right there talking about 4 inches roughly accumulation right now. The brunt of the storm still under way. She calls it a classic nor'easter, all to taper off somewhat this afternoon.

We'll continue to watch and monitor the events there.

Meantime right now, take a look at that white out conditions. Live pictures from Plum Island, Massachusetts being hit really hard by this nor'easter as we continue to follow breaking on what's being this bomb cyclone nor'easter hitting the East Coast and New England.

We're back in a moment.

[11:19:15]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

Pictures right there from Scituate, Massachusetts as we continue to follow breaking news on this bomb cyclone nor'easter hitting the East Coast. And you can see the waves just hammering the shoreline there. Massachusetts really in the bull's eye of this storm.

10 states overall are under blizzard warnings. More than 50 million people are under winter weather alerts in fact as dangerous snow and at times hurricane force wind gusts batter the country from Virginia to Maine. And we'll have more on the storm as it develops.

But first, President Biden says he is ready to send U.S. troops to eastern Europe in the near term, marking a new phase in the U.S. response to Russia's military buildup on Ukraine's border. As many as 8,500 U.S. troops have been placed on heightened alert earlier this week to prepare to deploy to NATO allies in the region.

And it comes as a top U.S. general warned a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be horrific and result in significant casualties.

CNN's Melissa Bell is in Ukraine for us.

And Melissa, does Ukraine's president share the same kind of urgency as President Biden right now?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely not, Fredricka. And even as we were hearing those words, President Biden talking about that near-term deployment of those troops, General Mark Milley talking about the threat that Russia currently poses to Ukraine.

Here in Kyiv, we were hearing from the Ukrainian president with a very different message urging other world leaders not to be talking such a tough game, not to be leading to the sort of panic as he described it that we've been seeing here in Ukraine.

[11:25:01]

BELL: Of course, Ukrainian authorities very worried that that kind of language and sort of tension that has surrounded the country over the course of the last few weeks is not good for the economy and is causing its citizens to become unnerved.

President Zelensky really talking quite frankly about a very different assessment of what is happening across the border in Russia saying that as far as he is concerned and as far Ukrainian intelligence is concerned, things have not changed much on the Russian side from where they were nearly a year ago.

And of course, to understand that, you have to put it into the context that here in Ukraine, and it isn't just the presidency, but ordinary people, important things hearing about when we speak to people on the streets, people have been living with this, often low level sometimes ratcheting it up conflict in the east of the country now for eight years, Fredricka.

So what is happening on the other side of the border is something they have come to get used to. What is happening in the east is something they have come to get used to and they see it in a different way. Have a look -- have a listen rather, to what the president had to say last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I'm the president of Ukraine. I'm based here and I think I know the details much deeper than any other president. It is important the president should know what the situation is from me, not from intermediaries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: Now, we've been hearing also a moment ago, earlier today from the deputy Ukrainian defense minister pushing back on media reports that Russian troops were beginning to move blood and other medical supplies towards the front line, towards the Ukrainian border saying look, this is again about a propaganda campaign that is just designed to sow chaos and confusion within Ukraine.

So a very different way of looking at things, very different messaging, I think you're hearing from the two presidencies. The point of the White House's strategy over the course of the last few weeks and specifically the last few days Fredricka has been really to bring often divided NATO European allies together behind this push, this very aggressive push in terms of rhetoric against Vladimir Putin.

Here in Ukraine, it is a very different sentiment and they are speaking to a very different population and in very different context. The danger for President Biden as he continues to double down on that language and on those threats is that the more time passes as we await President Putin's response to those written proposals that have been sent by both NATO and the United States, the longer that lasts, the more those divisions between Ukraine, the United States and European allies are likely to grow.

WHITFIELD: All right. Timing is going to be very important. Melissa Bell in Ukraine, thank you so much.

All right. Coming up, the bridge that collapsed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was known to be in poor condition. We'll get the latest on the investigation next.

[11:27:34]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

Right now, this is what it looks like if you look outside your window or anywhere somewhere along the East Coast, in the northeast particularly -- a powerful winter storm slamming the region. In fact right here, this is Newport, Rhode Island. 55 million people from Virginia all the way to Maine are under winter weather alerts. The so- called bomb cyclone nor'easter has already dropped over 15 inches of snow in parts of New Jersey. And as it moves up the coast, the storm is expected to bring whiteout conditions dumping feet of snow with near hurricane-force winds.

And as we continue to monitor the winter storm, the search for answers in Friday's bridge collapse in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh in particular, is just getting underway right now. NTSB investigators are on the scene there in Pittsburgh. And we expect safety officials to give an update on the investigation later on today.

The collapse sent several cars and a transit bus plummeting into a ravine early Friday morning. 10 people were injured but no deaths were reported.

CNN's Athena Jones is live for us at the scene. And every time you look at those images, I mean it's just miraculous that more people were not impacted, good thing.

What schools -- the schools there were delayed by two hours so that probably is a contributing factor as to why fewer people were on the road, Athena .

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi Fred, and also -- that and also the weather. I mean it was very, very cold. Inclement weather. That is certainly what officials here say. There are usually people jogging under this bridge, you can see behind me, where the work, as you mentioned, has begun on trying to figure out what led to this collapse.

The National Transportation Safety Board, their team arrived here Friday afternoon and their first order of business today once it got light enough was to send a drone up over this incident scene to map out the scene. We also saw more than a dozen members of that team heading down into the ravine to check out things on the ground. They, of course, want to make that model so they can do an analysis later before they move any of the -- any parts of the bridge.

They have (INAUDIBLE) lined up prepared to do that when they're ready to do it. And of course, this is a team of structural engineers, material engineers. They want to be looking at whether there were any cracks or fissures or other kinds of corrosion on the bridge that may have led to this collapse.

They expect that investigation to take anywhere from 12 to 18 months or more. But what's important here is that this bridge was known to be in overall poor condition. That's the rating it had gotten the state's Department of Transportation. And even residents around here who witnessed the collapse, who were awakened by it or who were awake and saw it, they were aware of the problems with this bridge.

Take a listen to a resident who is just about 50 feet away from where I'm standing right now. He witnessed the collapsed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD ENGELBERG, WITNESSED BRIDGE COLLAPSE: They do come and inspect it. And it got a --

JONES: They did inspect it.

[11:34:49]

ENGELBERG: Yes. They got -- it got a poor report but they didn't say there was any imminent danger. So I was always hopeful that it would hang in there and they wouldn't have to replace it.

This is a wakeup call because this bridge is in better shape than most of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So there you go. He said this bridge is in better shape than most of them. There are a lot of bridges in the state that are older than the national average. And a lot of bridges that are rated in poor condition. that is why it is a good thing, says the Lieutenant- governor that this state Pennsylvania will get $1.6 billion from that bipartisan infrastructure bill to question towards repairing bridges like the one behind me, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Wow. That is incredible.

All right. Athena Jones, thanks so much.

All right. Coming up, we'll take you to Washington, D.C. next where the nation's governors are attending an annual meeting but the vicious winter storm forced many to stay away.

[11:35:41]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Happening right now in Washington, the National Governor's Association meeting, the groups two leaders, Republican Asa Hutchinson and Democrat Phil Murphy wrote in an op-ed for Fox that their priority will be to work on bipartisan agreement saying this. "If there is one thing we have learned during the pandemic, it is that bipartisan leadership is what drives solutions for all Americans."

CNN's Daniella Diaz is at the meeting. And I know some governors are not there. I just recently spoke with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy who had to stay put because of the nor'easter. What is happening there today?

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, that's right. Phil Murphy is not here. He is actually in leadership at the National Governors' Association and unable to come because, of course, of that huge winter storm we've been covering all day. But that, of course, has not stopped at least a dozen governors, Republican and Democratic governors from across the country to stop by Washington, D.C. this weekend for the first in-person meeting for the National Governors' Association since February, 2020.

And look Asa Hutchinson a Republican from Arkansas and Jared Polis the Democrat from -- Democratic governor from Colorado, they just wrapped a press conference with reporters here moments ago where they emphasized that the goal of this meeting is bipartisanship of course and also the implementation of that bipartisan infrastructure bill that was passed in President Biden's first year of his administration.

They are talking about solutions, they are talking about COVID. This is really the goal here. We're not really expecting a lot of fireworks this weekend between Republican and Democratic governors.

But look, these governors are going to get some face time with President Joe Biden tomorrow during a black tie dinner. So we expect that that will happen tomorrow night.

But really, you know, just another weekend here at the National Governors Association, first meeting since February 2020, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Trying to start on an optimistic note of working together. All right. We'll see.

Daniella Diaz in Washington, thank you so much. All right. Still ahead, some good news on the pandemic. Signs that the

virus is loosening its grip across the nation. But not all states are seeing a downward trend. We'll discuss next.

[11:42:29]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: After months of an omicron surge, COVID cases nationwide are down more than 25 percent from the peak two weeks ago. But not all states have reached their omicron peak yet. A handful are seeing increases shown on this map in orange and red, but COVID remains deadly. About 2,200 people in the U.S. continue to die from the virus every day.

Dr. Anand Swaminathan is an emergency room physician. Doctor, always good to see you.

So Dr. Anthony Fauci said this week that he is cautiously optimistic that this wave is going in the right direction. Do you share that optimism?

DR. ANAND SWAMINATHAN, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: I think that I do. I understand where he is coming from with this optimism. A couple of weeks ago, a month ago, we weren't sure if we were going to see the same rapid decline in cases that we saw in South Africa. And now we're seeing that that is coming to fruition here. So that is a positive thing.

At the same time, there are a lot of parts of this pandemic that we shouldn't be optimistic about, that are still a major concern.

WHITFIELD: What do you mean?

DR. SWAMINATHAN: A high number of cases, high number of deaths. And Fred, I think one of the things that we have seen throughout these two years, that is maybe even more so now is the disinformation, the frank lies, the malicious information that is being put out that is really helping to continue the pandemic instead of helping our efforts to really suppress it.

WHITFIELD: Right. It is perplexing why it's not tapering off by now, why people are not able to discern, you know, truth you know, from fiction. But you're right, it only seems to be growing.

So what we also know is there are a lot of stories being told about, you know, variants -- more variants to come. But what is the truth in your view? I mean is that something we need to worried about?

DR. SWAMINATHAN: I think as long as we have high numbers of people who aren't vaccinated, where transmission can continue, we'll continue to see variants develop. Whether those variants will be worse, whether they will be more lethal, whether they will be more infectious -- we can't predict at this point. We don't have that information.

And what we have to understand is that while cases are dropping, we are not really through this surge yet. We still have 550,000 cases a day, over 2,500 deaths in the U.S. alone every day.

We're not out of this surge. But what we should be focusing on is what do we do when this surge starts to pass, when we start to have that trough. And I think when our case levels get low enough, we tend to become complacent.

What we need to do instead is to really double our efforts, increase our vaccine numbers whether that's through mandates, whether through other efforts. Really work to stop that disinformation, increase our availability of testing, invest in schools to increase ventilation.

There are so many different things that we need to do when the case numbers start to drop. But we're not quite there yet.

WHITFIELD: Pfizer and Moderna announced that they are conducting clinical trials for an omicron-specific vaccine. If that's the case, what is the message that's being sent about the effectiveness of the current vaccines against omicron?

[11:49:50]

DR. SWAMINATHAN: Well, the current vaccines are very good at preventing hospitalization and death, especially if you get a full series and then get boosted on top of that. We know that that markedly reduces the risk of serious illness.

An omicron-specific vaccine is unlikely to really change that part of it. This omicron-specific vaccine, the real goal is can we increase the protection against any infection. And that's going to be a hard thing because vaccines aren't really great at preventing all infection. They're really designed to prevent those serious cases.

I'm not sure that an omicron-specific vaccine is going to have any significant impact. It's certainly not going to have an impact on this surge. We're not going to see that vaccine for months, but it's still important research to be done because we need to find out can we ramp up a variant-specific vaccine very quickly if we run into a variant that is more prolonged in how long it's affecting the world as well as more lethal.

So we need to have that information. We need to do that research. I doubt that an omicron-specific vaccine is really going to have a significant impact unless omicron really hangs around for a much longer time than we expect.

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk about those test kits being promised. I mean more than 60 million households have requested these new government COVID test kits. The White House says tens of millions of those tests have already shipped. So what do you believe the impact of these test kits might be once they reach these households?

DR. SWAMINATHAN: It's a good step in the right direction. I'm glad that 60 million households have requested these. Everybody should be requesting them. I didn't mind. It took about 30 seconds to request those tests, and I have friends that have already gotten their tests delivered. That's great. And these can be helpful, especially if you're using them to maybe say well, we're going to have a small family gathering, let's test everybody before we gather. Or if you're using them to decide whether you can exit isolation, if you have a breakthrough case. I think it's going to be very useful.

But really we need to ramp up the availability of these rapid home tests, four tests per household. We talked about it before, Fred. It's just not nearly enough. We need to get to the point where people can go and pick up a seven-pack or an eight-pack of tests any time they need them so that they can have their whole family tested when that's necessary. That's really where we need to get to.

And again, we can invest the money and get that production really ramped up. That's going to be a big focus of the coming months.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Anand Swaminathan, always good to see you. Thanks so much.

And this programming note -- join CNN's Sara Sidner as she rides along to find out why driving black in America is deadly serious. This new "CNN SPECIAL REPORT: TRAFFIC STOP" begins tomorrow at 9:00 p.m.

Coming up, the January 6h Committee is zeroing in on a former White House spokesman who they believe holds critical information on former President Trump's actions before and after the insurrection. Details next.

And take a look at this, I know it's hard to see, whiteout conditions right there, this from Plum Island, Massachusetts as we continue to follow breaking news on this bomb cyclone nor'easter hitting the East Coast. We're back in a moment.

[11:52:52]

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WHITFIELD: The House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has issued another round of subpoenas, this time the panelists targeting former deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere. Investigators believe Deere has critical information on former President Trump's behavior before, during and after the capitol attack.

CNN national security reporter Zachary Cohen joining us now. So Zachary, what more do we know about what was said in these meetings?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well Fred, the committee has been consistent that they want to know what was happening behind closed doors at the White House for those 187 minutes while the riot was happening and nobody heard from the former president.

Now, Judd Deere is somebody who can give the committee that kind of information. He was there on January 6 and the committee says that he helped formulate the White House's response as the attack was ongoing. Now interestingly, the committee also cites a January 5th meeting that Deere participated in and it wants to talk to him more about. During this meeting, the committee says that the former president allegedly told a group of allies and said, quote, "What are your ideas for getting the rhinos, Republicans in name only, to do the right thing tomorrow? How do we convince Congress?

Now obviously, the next day, January 6th, is when Congress was supposed to certify and ultimately did certify the election results, but committee members think that the president was floating the idea and trying to get advice on how to potentially disrupt the certification process the next day.

WHITFIELD: So Zachary, we're also learning that more than a dozen subpoenas were sent to keep people tied to that fake elector plot. What can you tell us about that development?

COHEN: So the committee sent out 14 subpoenas to individuals from seven different states who were really integral parts of this fake electors plan. So what we're seeing here is an expansion of the committee's investigation. They want to know if these people ended up communicating with the Trump campaign, who was organizing this fake electors effort, because ultimately I think that they were hoping that mike pence would throw out Biden's electors and install these individuals.

Time will tell if they will test that before the committee, but they should have firsthand knowledge about what was happening.

WHITFIELD: All right. Just the tip of the iceberg. Zachary Cohen, thanks so much.

[11:59:57]

WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Right now a powerful and potentially historic winter storm is slamming the East Coast from Virginia to Maine. Ten state are under a blizzard warning.