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CNN International: Haley Attacks Trump Ahead of New Hampshire Primary; DeSantis and Trump Seek to Slow Haley's Momentum; Trump Urges U.S. Supreme Court to Reverse Colorado Ruling; Netanyahu Appears to Reject Creation of Palestinian State; U.S. Launches Fifth Round of Strikes Against Yemen's Houthis; Report: Police Response to Uvalde Shooting "A Failure"; U.S. Winter Storm Alerts. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 19, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo, live from London. Max Foster has a very well-earned day off, just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We want to do better than we did in Iowa. That's my personal goal, is to make sure we do better than we did in Iowa.

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The law enforcement response at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, and in the hours and days after, was a failure that should not have happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are the airstrikes and damage working?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you say working, are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM, with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.

NOBILO: It is Friday, January 19th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in New Hampshire, where the state's presidential primary is now only four days away. And where Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley spoke to voters at a CNN Town Hall just a few hours ago. Haley answered questions on a range of topics and said her goal next week is to do better than she did in Iowa's caucuses, where she was placed third.

She dismissed racist dog whistles used against her by leading Republican candidate Donald Trump. The former president promoted a post that falsely stated that Haley wasn't eligible to be president because her parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of her birth. Haley was born in South Carolina, making her a natural born American citizen. And she followed up on her previous statements that America is not a racist country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HALEY: I mean, think about what you're saying. First of all, I will tell you, when you look at, you know, the Declaration of Independence, it was that, you know, men are created equal with unalienable rights. Right. That was what we all knew.

But what I look at it as is I was a brown girl that grew up in a small rural town. We had plenty of racism that we had to deal with, but my parents never said we lived in a racist country. And I'm so thankful they didn't, because for every brown and black child out there, if you tell them they live or born in a racist country, you're immediately telling them they don't have a chance.

And my parents would always say, you may have challenges. And, yes, there will be people who are racist, but that doesn't define what you can do in this country. And so I think it's important that we tell all kids that, look, America is not perfect. We have our stains. We know that. But our goal should always be to make today better than yesterday. It's hugely important.

And that's the problem I have is we have too many people with this national self-loathing. It is killing our country. We have got to go back to loving America.

We are blessed because that little brown girl in that small rural town in South Carolina, she grew up to become the first female minority governor in history. She then went on to be U.N. ambassador, and now she's running for president of the United States. I want every brown and black child to see that and say, no, I don't live in a country that was formed on racism. I live in a country where they wanted all people to be equal and to make sure that they had life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Meantime, Trump took aim at Haley during a Fox News interview on Thursday. He said she had no path to the nomination because MAGA Republicans don't like her and falsely claimed that Democrats could vote in New Hampshire's primary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONAL TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's not going to make it. She has no chance. She's got no way. MAGA is not going to be with her.

Democrats are allowed to vote, which they're going to vote for her because they don't want to run against me. They want to run against her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: With Trump and Ron DeSantis both attacking Haley, CNN's Omar Jimenez reports on her momentum and challenges heading into Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HALEY: In five days, we shocked the country.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nikki Haley sees a path in the final days to the New Hampshire primary, one that increasingly involves going right through Donald Trump.

HALEY: The reality is who lost the House for us? Who lost the Senate? Who lost the White House? Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): It's a notable shift from Haley, who up until now has largely focused her criticism of the former president on policy differences.

HALEY: He threw a temper tantrum last night. He's doing other things to attack me, but he won't get in front of me and answer the question.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The former South Carolina governor emphasized to voters there's a crucial bottom line at the ballot box Tuesday.

[04:05:00]

HALEY: I'm going to tell you the truth. You're going to see a lot of things said. But at the end of the day, it's the drama and the vengeance and the vindictiveness that we want to get out of the way.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Haley was the only candidate campaigning in New Hampshire Thursday, hoping to capitalize on a toned down DeSantis presence in the state. As DeSantis says, they're shifting focus to states beyond New Hampshire.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nikki Haley cannot compete with Donald Trump there. And the fact that she can't do it there, she can't do it anywhere. She's certainly not going to do it in South Carolina.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Meanwhile, former President Trump has turned his attention squarely on Haley here as a weaker candidate to take on Biden.

TRUMP: A vote for Nikki Haley this Tuesday is a vote for Joe Biden and a Democrat Congress this November, because that's what's going to happen. You can't do it.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): And even going after his rival personally, promoting lies on social media about her eligibility to run for president, despite Haley being born in the U.S.

HALEY: He can say whatever he wants. His record has been that he lost the House. He lost the Senate. He lost the White House. That's a fact. That's not what I'm saying. That's what he's done.

JIMENEZ: Some of the sharpest comments we've seen yet toward the former president. Now, one of the interesting things with all this is that when Chris Christie dropped from the race, I talked to a lot of his supporters who were thinking about jumping to support Nikki Haley at the time. But those that were hesitating told me it was because they didn't think she was confronting Donald Trump directly enough. So it'll be interesting to see if this is part of a pattern or just her responding to recent attacks.

Omar Jimenez, CNN, Henniker, New Hampshire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Donald Trump is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a ruling from Colorado's Supreme Court, which removed him from the state's ballot. His legal team filed a brief on Thursday, setting out their arguments for why the state's court decision is wrong. CNN's Paula Reid has the details from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The Trump legal team expanding its arguments about why Trump cannot be removed from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, the so-called insurrectionist ban.

At a high level, the team is arguing that this would disenfranchise voters, potentially unleashing chaos and bedlam if other states and state officials follow this pattern. Now, I will note that chaos and bedlam, those are words that Trump has used in the past that have in part incited violence.

The Trump legal team's constitutional arguments are extensive. They argue that this particular section of the Constitution does not apply to presidents because it does not specifically say that it applies to presidents and that presidents are not officers of the United States.

Now, they also insist that Trump did not engage in an insurrection. That's interesting because it is highly unlikely that the high court is going to want to take up that question of whether what Trump did in and around January 6th was an insurrection.

Instead, it is expected that they are going to focus on constitutional interpretation and providing clarity to the states.

Now, they also insist, the Trump legal team, that this section requires Congress to enforce it, not state officials. They also say that it only prevents you from holding office, not running for office.

At this point, though, it's unclear exactly how the Supreme Court is going to approach this case. They have not laid out a set of questions they intend to answer. But it is expected that this will probably be a narrow ruling that the chief justice will try to build consensus, especially at a time that the high court is under such scrutiny for politicization.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) NOBILO: Gaza is under a near total communications blackout that's been going on for more than a week now. It's happening as Israel presses ahead with its military offensive there. Most phone and data connections are down, which aid workers say makes it near impossible to do their job, as you can imagine.

Meanwhile, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is again pushing back on U.S. calls for the creation of an independent Palestinian state once the war against Hamas is over. A plan which Netanyahu has long opposed. During a news conference Thursday, he argued Palestinian sovereignty would pose a serious risk to Israel's security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Any agreement, with or without agreement, the state of Israel must control security between the Jordan River to the sea. And the clashes of the sovereignty idea, I'm telling our American friends, I stopped at a reality which would have hurt the security of Israel.

The prime minister of Israel should have the ability to say no, even to our greatest friends, when he has to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: But the U.S. State Department is arguing the exact opposite, saying a Palestinian state is a must for Israel's long-term security. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:10:00]

MATTHEW MILLER, SPOKESPERSON, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: There is no way to solve their long-term challenges, to provide lasting security. And there is no way to solve the short-term challenges of rebuilding Gaza and establishing governance in Gaza and providing security for Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: For the fifth time in a week, the U.S. has struck Houthi targets inside Yemen in hopes of stopping their attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. U.S. Central Command says its forces destroyed two Houthi anti-ship missiles aimed at the critical waterway that were prepared to launch. A White House National Security Council spokesperson says the ongoing strikes are taking away capability from the Iran-backed militants.

But a Houthi spokesperson said the group will not stop going after vessels they believe are linked to Israel, and called the attacks by the U.S. and the U.K. a, quote, persistent act of aggression. The U.S. president admitted Thursday that the Houthis remain undeterred.

CNN's Scott McLean is following this live from Istanbul. Scott, great to see you. We miss you in London, of course. So if the Houthis remain undeterred by this, strategically, what is the point? Obviously, the Houthis have been attacked by Saudi Arabia on and off since 2015. They've proven their resilience. These U.S. and U.K. strikes also feed into their narrative and their conception of the world and what they want to communicate. So what is the purpose? Is it purely so that the U.S. and its allies can say we will put our money where our mouth is if we say we're going to retaliate? We do.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, that's a great question, Bianca, because there's no indication at this point that the strikes will stop on either side. The Pentagon said yesterday that, look, we never said that the stops -- that the strikes from the Houthis would stop immediately. And so, it seems like this will continue on, because even though last week when these strikes began, a U.S. official figured that about one third or so of the Houthis offensive capabilities had been destroyed. And now there have been five rounds of American strikes, and they continue to come.

There have been American-owned ships targeted for each of the last three days. On Tuesday and Wednesday, by the way, those ships were actually hit by Houthi missiles, though it didn't cause enough damage to actually prevent them from continuing to sail.

As you mentioned, the Houthis say none of this is going to deter them. And President Biden had a pretty interesting exchange at the White House yesterday. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Are the airstrikes in Yemen working?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, when you say working, are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: The Houthis, by the way, did make clear that ships that had no links to Israel or were not allied with the West were free to pass. In other words, Chinese, Russian ships, good to go -- Bianca.

NOBILO: And Scott, could you tell us more about Benjamin Netanyahu's latest remarks about the potential of a future Palestinian state and why that could continue to drive a bit of a wedge between Israel and the United States?

MCLEAN: What's really interesting here is that it seems like the American position and the Palestinian Authority position are actually quite well aligned on this particular day, even though the Palestinian Authority is blaming the U.S. for the deterioration of the security situation right now. Saying that it is the Americans, in their words, blind support for Israeli occupation that has led us to this place. Both sides say that, look, you're not going to get the long-term peace and stability without a Palestinian state.

But as you said, it's putting America and Israel at odds. Americans are becoming increasingly frustrated that they are sending aid to Israel and Israel is accepting the aid, but not accepting their advice, necessarily.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, he's under plenty of pressure as well. Remember that his governing coalition in Israel is quite far right. Many people in that coalition never supported a two-state solution to begin with.

And U.S. officials have been so far inclined to maybe brush this to the side and say that, look, Netanyahu's made these kind of statements before and then walked them back. Case in point, Ben Cardin, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday, had a closed-door meeting with the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and he came out of that meeting with this conclusion. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-MD): We recognize that statements are made sometimes for whatever reasons they're made. We don't deny the challenges we have with the prime minister on this issue and the politics in Israel. But we think that there will be a new day once we -- Israel is successful in eliminating the threat from Hamas. And at that time, we believe there's opportunities to move forward with peace in the region, which includes two states living side-by-side in peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:15:00]

MCLEAN: Yes, it just doesn't seem like the opportunity is at this moment, Bianca, because yesterday in his press conference, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that, look, Israel is not going to stop this war until they get complete victory. That means demilitarization of Gaza. It means complete security control by Israel over Gaza, complete control over what goes in and what goes out.

We also heard yesterday from a former Israeli diplomat named Alan Pincus, who says that Netanyahu's words here, this is for domestic consumption. This is for his base in Gaza. In Israel, his far right base of support in Israel.

And he says that President Biden has a whole menu of options as to how he might respond. You know, he might call out Netanyahu publicly on this, that he's not being a very good ally. He could much more drastically do something like put conditions on American aid. He could go to Israel, speak directly to the Knesset, sort of go above Netanyahu's head, something that Netanyahu did to President Obama when he visited Washington when he was in office. And so there's a whole host of options.

But at the moment, at least, it seems that the Americans are just content to try to not make a huge deal about this -- Bianca.

NOBILO: That's really interesting, Scott. Yes, I've forgotten about Netanyahu's visit under the Obama administration. Very interesting indeed. Scott McClain in Istanbul for us. Thank you so much.

Russia claims it shot down drones deep in its territory, hundreds of miles from the battlefields in Ukraine. So still ahead, why Ukraine could be relying more on drones in the coming weeks.

Plus, the latest on a new damning report on the Uvalde Texas school shooting and very slow law enforcement response.

And after a deadly string of winter storms, more winter weather alerts are in effect for millions of Americans. We'll look at what people can expect in the northeast today.

That's ahead and more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Welcome back.

A scathing new report from the Justice Department calls law enforcement's response to the 2022 school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, quote, a failure. But the Uvalde County Sheriff tells CNN the criticism leveled against him is, in his words, all false. We've got more now from CNN senior crime and justice correspondent, Shimon Prokupecz.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The Justice Department releasing a damning new report about law enforcement's failures responding to the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: The law enforcement response at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, and in the hours and days after, was a failure that should not have happened.

KIMBERLY MATA-RUBIO, MOTHER OF UVALDE VICTIM: I hope that the failures end today and that local officials do what wasn't done that day, do right by the victims and survivors of Robb Elementary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got shots fired in the school.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Bursts of gunfire.

GARLAND: The victims trapped in classroom 111 and 112 were waiting to be rescued at 11:44 a.m. Approximately 10 minutes after officers first arrived when the subject fired another shot inside the classrooms.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Reports a teacher was shot.

GARLAND: There was still waiting at 11:56 a.m. When an officer on the scene told law enforcement leaders that his wife, a teacher, was inside room 111 and 112 and had been shot.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): A desperate 911 call from a trapped student.

GARLAND: The student was in a room full of victims. That student stayed on the phone with 911, 911, for 16 minutes.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Major events that should have prompted police to step in immediately. Instead, police waited 77 minutes to stop the gunman.

GARLAND: 49 minutes after officers arrived on the scene, and they were still waiting for another 27 minutes after that until finally officers entered the classroom and killed the subject.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): During those 77 minutes, 19 children and two teachers were killed.

The long-awaited 575-page report is the fullest accounting of what happened, highlighting the serious failures in the law enforcement response.

JOSHUA KOSKOFF, LAWYER, KOSKOFF, KOSKOFF, AND BIEDER: These families didn't need a 400- or 500-page government report to learn that law enforcement failed them in a historic way.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): While quick to arrive to the scene, their report found law enforcement stopped outside the classroom where the gunman was on a killing spree inside.

GARLAND: I think the report concludes that had law enforcement agencies followed generally accepted practices in an active shooter situation and gone right after the shooter to stop him, lives would have been saved and people would have survived.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Countless other issues identified in the report after the gunman was killed, from the emergency medical response to how bereaved parents were told their children were dead.

GARLAND: Some families were told that their family members had survived when they had not.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Many family members of the victims and survivors thankful for the federal report detailing what went wrong that horrific day. But they are still frustrated by the lack of accountability.

VICTORIA MATA, MOTHER OF UVALDE VICTIM: We're grateful that we got what we have right now because it's probably the most updated information that any of us have gotten.

JAZMIN CAZARES, SISTER OF UVALDE VICTIM: What else does she possibly need to prosecute or to remove these people from their positions of power when they can't even do their jobs?

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The federal assessment does not make any recommendations for punitive steps for law enforcement. But in an exclusive interview with CNN, Attorney General Merrick Garland says the report provides a basis for accountability.

GARLAND: The community now has the kind of report necessary to make sure accountability occurs.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The Uvalde District Attorney says she's continuing to investigate. But families say they want charges brought against the officers. [04:25:00]

MATA: We're going to continue fighting and that some type of change is made in honor of our kids.

PROKUPECZ: The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, released a statement thanking the Department of Justice for their report. He said that he's already taken some of their recommendations and put them in place. And he says that the most important thing that he's done is try to keep schools safe. We also heard from other officials, like from the Texas Department of Public Safety. They, too, have thanked the Department of Justice for their report. And they say also that they have already implemented some of the recommendations.

Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, in Uvalde.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: More than 100 million people, that's nearly a third of the U.S. population, are under winter weather alerts across the country today. A series of winter storms have killed at least 55 people across 10 states, mostly in the northwest and the south. And more heavy snow is expected to hit the northeast in the coming hours.

Here's CNN's Chad Myers with the forecast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Bianca, winter still in full bloom across the United States. That cold air that moved in over the weekend has really just kind of settled down into the Midwest. And any time a storm runs by, it's going to make snow. It really isn't going to make rain.

Now, there was some freezing rain in the overnight hours somewhere between Kentucky and Tennessee. And some of those roadways are very difficult at this hour. And even the snow coming into parts of the northeast could slow down the morning rush hour just a little bit. Philadelphia more than New York and back out into the western part of Virginia and also West Virginia, yes, a little bit more. Into Ohio as well, Cleveland, you'll get the lake effect, not Buffalo for later on today.

So things are kind of switching around, the wind direction switching around. But later on tonight by 10 o'clock, if you want to go out after dark, things look dry, maybe not still slick in some spots. You may have a few spots out there that will probably still be a little bit tricky.

Otherwise, really, about one to two inches overall. There will be some spots here in the mountains that could pick up around six inches. And even some of the bigger cities could get around two to four.

But the below average temperatures that we have seen now over the past week will be gone. And by Tuesday, we are above normal. And by next week, we are way above normal across the whole U.S. So things really are switching. The entire jet stream is really on the move. And that's going to change the direction of where this cold air is for today. Only seven degrees in Omaha where it snowed yesterday. Roads are a little slick around there as well. And then we warm things up as we work our way into next week.

It will take a couple of days for that cold air to move away. But, yes, it is on its way out and a very pleasant next week for sure. In fact, some spots across the northeast are really going to warm up. Look at Atlanta, all the way to 73 for an afternoon high on Thursday.

After I killed all my outdoor plants with a low of nine degrees a couple of nights ago, they're not going to come back, even with 73. They are, unfortunately, stung by that very, very cold air -- Bianca.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Nikki Haley is hoping to win Tuesday's New Hampshire primary by courting a few specific types of voters. Details on her coalition strategy coming up next.

Plus, the U.S. Congress narrowly avoids a partial government shutdown, but only for now. When Budget Talks will start up and heat up again when we return.