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CNN This Morning

GOP Candidates Campaign Ahead Of New Hampshire Primary; Trump Campaigns With SC Leaders Ahead Of New Hampshire Primary; DeSantis Cancels Sunday Interviews On CNN, NBC; Trump Claims He Aced Cognitive Test After Haley Questions His Mental Fitness; Fears Of Regional Conflict Grow After Strikes In Iraq, Syria; Zelenskyy: Trump's Claim That He Can End The War In 24 Hours "Very Dangerous"; Trump Expected Back In Court In E. Jean Carroll Defamation Trial; New Hampshire To Hold First-In-The-Nation Primary Tuesday; Biden, Harris To Hold First Joint Campaign Rally Of The Year; Oscar Nominations Announced Tuesday; King Charles To Be Treated For Benign Prostate Condition; Alabama Set To Execute Death Row Inmate By Nitrogen Gas; Concerned About Torture, U.N. Requests Alabama Discontinue Use Of Nitrogen Gas Method Of Execution; Interview With NYU School Of Law Clinical Law Professor Margaret Satterthwaite; U.S. Will Experience Arctic Blast Over The Weekend; Photographer Creates Art In Freezing Weather. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired January 21, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Pro Bowler Dion Dawkins, he knows what's up. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DION DAWKINS, BUFFALO BILLS OFFENSIVE UNEMAN: I'm excited because it'll be -- the environment will be different. And not to say it's in our favor, but stadium is our favorite. You know, stadium is us. That helps us. I don't care what nobody says. This is the most dopest feeling I've ever had. Like we've -- we're having two back to back playoff games home. Like, come on now. Like we get to leave and go eat wings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: That's my boy, Dion. It'll be deafening, loud. Let's go, Buffalo.

AMARA WALKER, CNN HOST: I mean, for this diehard fans, it's great to pay them and give them a warm meal, but I mean, let them meet the players then, too, right? I mean, geez.

WIRE: Yes, absolutely.

WALKER: They're coming out and showing up for them.

Coy Wire, thank you so much.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: You got it.

WALKER: Well, the next hour of CNN This Morning starts now.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Sunday, January 21st. I'm Amara Walker.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Thank you for spending part of your morning with us. Here's what we're watching for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you're 80, that's what happens. You're just not as sharp as you used to be.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My mind is stronger now than it was 25 years ago. Is that possible?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Nikki Haley takes some shots at Trump's mental fitness the day after he apparently confuses her with Nancy Pelosi in this final weekend before the New Hampshire primary. Plus, what had Ron DeSantis going toe to toe with the voter in South Carolina?

WALKER: And there are new details in that Israeli strike on a building in Damascus. What we know about who they were targeting, and of course the broader concerns over escalating attacks in the region.

BLACKWELL: Alabama is scheduled to execute a man by nitrogen gas this week for the first time. A plan, the U.N. says, is untested and could amount to torture. One of the members of the panel who opposes this will join us.

We start this morning in New Hampshire. The 2024 presidential candidates are making their closing arguments to voters ahead of the state's primary on Tuesday. Nikki Haley is betting heavily on a strong finish on New Hampshire there -- in New Hampshire, I should say, holding a half dozen events across the state. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, he'll be back in the state after some confusion about his path forward.

WALKER: So DeSantis spent Saturday campaigning in South Carolina, which primary is more than a month away. Then he canceled two Sunday morning TV appearances, including an interview with CNN, citing scheduling issues.

Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips, who is mounting a long shot challenge to President Biden, is also holding two events today. Now, yesterday, Haley and Trump ramped up their attacks on each other. Haley questioned Trump's mental fitness after he confused her with former House Speaker Nance Pelosi.

CNN's Alayna Treene is live in New Hampshire. Hi there, Alayna. What are you seeing?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, good morning, Victor and Amara. Just two days to go until the New Hampshire primaries, and we are seeing a Nikki Haley and Donald Trump crisscross the state all weekend to deliver their closing arguments to New Hampshire voters. Ron DeSantis, however, spent yesterday in South Carolina.

He's expected to return to the Granite State today, but I think that just underscores how his strategy is very different here. He spent much of the months leading up to the Iowa caucuses really aggressively campaigning there. And in New Hampshire, we've really seen little of him in this state.

And so that's kind of led to a lot of people to look at this as a two person race between Trump and Haley here in New Hampshire. Now, Haley, for her part, has been polling very well with moderate voters and independents in New Hampshire, and that's led to a lot of confidence for her campaign that she will do well on Tuesday.

Trump, on the other hand, has really been urging his supporters not to get complacent. It's an argument we heard him made several times in the lead up to the Iowa caucuses as well. And here in New Hampshire, he's been telling his supporters margins matter. So please ignore the polls, ignore my commanding lead here in the state and turn out for me.

And I can tell you from my conversations with Donald Trump's campaign and his advisers that they really do believe if Trump can win with big enough margins on Tuesday, they think that'll effectively end the primary early and force his rivals out of the race.

BLACKWELL: Yes, DeSantis isn't the only one who hopped the flight from South Carolina to New Hampshire. The former president paraded a host of South Carolina Republicans this weekend. Talk about his strategy here.

TREENE: That's right. Last night, Donald Trump called up a series of South Carolina leaders to the stage during his rally in Manchester. And I think the strategy here is really to argue that Nikki Haley isn't very well liked by people in her own backyard. Some of those people on stage last night included Governor Henry McMaster, a fierce Trump ally who endorsed him very early on back in 2022 actually, as well as a series of South Carolina congressman.

[07:05:09]

Take a listen to what Trump said as he introduced them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Almost every politician from South Carolina is endorsing me. How do you do that when she was the governor? The radical left Democrats are supporting Nikki Haley for one reason, because they know she's very easy to beat. She's going to be very easy to beat. She's them.

That's why I'm so proud to be joined today by an incredible group of leaders from Nikki's home state of South Carolina, where we'll be in about three weeks. We'll be there in three weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP) TREENE: Now, Victor and Amara, him parading those South Carolina leaders on stage comes after Friday, where he picked up a major endorsement from South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. I know from my conversations with the Trump campaign that I had been pursuing that endorsement ever since Scott dropped out of the presidential race last year.

And I think the timing here is what's really worth noting. Of course, that endorsement has led Trump's team to feel confident about their chances in South Carolina, but they are choosing to make the South Carolina lawmakers and their support of Donald Trump a big moment this weekend, just days before New Hampshire, because they're really eager to try and undercut Haley as much as possible.

And, of course, as you just heard Trump say there, he's also been attacking her, trying to paint her as being someone on the left, trying to tie her to Biden and using the South Carolina leaders to really argue that. Look, even the governor of South Carolina and Senator Tim Scott are endorsing me, not Nikki Haley.

Victor, Amara?

WALKER: Alayna Treene, braving those frigid temperatures and that terrible wind. Thank you so much for hanging with us this morning. Good to see you.

So Nikki Haley has surged in recent months, cutting Trump's lead in New Hampshire to single digits. And now she's making a pitch to New Hampshire's large number of independent and undeclared voters.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Kylie Atwood is traveling with the Haley campaign.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nikki Haley is barnstorming a state of New Hampshire just a few days out from Tuesday's primary and she is making her pitch to voters, asking them to go vote on her behalf. And also cranking up her attacks on former President Trump.

She also is going after him for his ads, that New Hampshire folks are seeing on the TV, saying that they are full of lies, trying to correct the record when it comes to her record on gas tax and social security and when it comes to South Carolina lawmakers, who are up in New Hampshire at the events with former President Trump.

This weekend, not with Nikki Haley. Of course, South Carolina is her home state. That's a bit of a stinging blow. She said she was disappointed that Senator Tim Scott has endorsed former President Trump and is with him. But she also said that's a decision that he's going to have to live with her campaign.

Has said that they're just not focused on trying to rack up endorsements that they say don't matter. What they're focused on is trying to do well here in New Hampshire. It is a critical state for her to do well because she came in third in Iowa, and of course, she's trying to also position herself to compete in South Carolina, where her campaign is already set to begin airing ads just next week. Victor, Amara?

BLACKWELL: Thanks, Kylie.

So his rivals are setting up shopping the Granite State, but Governor Ron DeSantis, he's throwing a bit of a curve ball. He's canceled interviews today with both CNN and NBC. He's going to be in New Hampshire, but he's spending a lot of time in South Carolina.

WALKER: He sure is. Here's CNN's Steve Contorno with a look at where his campaign is headed.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Victor and Amara, the New Hampshire primaries may be just days away, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spent Saturday in South Carolina, some 900 miles away. That is because this is a state that is coming up on the primary nominating calendar and he is trying to use it to sort of give his campaign new life.

But he is going to have a challenge here because this is former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's home turf. So yesterday when he was speaking to crowds, he was asking them exactly what did she do here?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I also had one of the Republican debates coming up and so I was like, you know what, I need practice debating somebody that's almost as liberal as Nikki Haley. And so we did that and, you know, it's -- we got differences on the Republican side too, you know. It is what it is.

Now, can someone tell me -- I mean, seriously, I've been asking crowds what her big achievements were as governor here. Can somebody name?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now Haley supporter actually saw Governor DeSantis make those remarks from Myrtle Beach and decided to confront the governor at his events in Lexington to defend Nikki Haley.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

DESANTIS: Well, listen, school choice. Did she do it? Yes or no? Because she promised it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not talking about that.

DESANTIS: But I'm talking about big conservative achievements. That's what the name of the game is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: We caught up with that Haley supporter as she was leaving. Here's what she said about how she was treated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:10:02]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did not expect him to shut me down like he did. I expect him sincerely to take my question and be respectful of me and answer or at least say, well, you know, OK, but he didn't even acknowledge that I said, as He raised. He heard I was a teacher and that was it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now DeSantis was supposed to appear on State of the Union later this morning, however, he had to abruptly cancel that appearance. He'll be speaking instead later today in New Hampshire. Victor and Amara?

WALKER: All right, Steve Contorno, thank you.

Let's get now to Jackie Kucinich, a CNN Political Analyst and Washington Bureau Chief for the Boston Globe. Jackie, good morning to you. You know --

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

WALKER: -- it's important to mention because the unaffiliated or independent voters, they make up 39 percent of the electorate in New Hampshire. That's significant. We also know that independents are allowed to vote in either party's primary and that around 4,000 Democrats switched their voter registration to undeclared by that October deadline last year.

So many of them may vote in the Republican primary. Jackie, what does this mean then for the front runner, Donald Trump?

KUCINICH: Well, so the -- I'm sorry, former President Trump is really trying to rally his base, the supporters that really, you know, they come out for him. I was at an event where J.D. Vance was headlining for Trump a day or two ago. And J.D. Vance asked, who in this room? Is this your first time coming to a Trump event? Absolutely, no one raised their hand.

These are people who really believe in the president. He's making sure they get out where Nikki Haley is still in a convincing mode. She's trying to get people out to vote for her. I met a voter yesterday, unaffiliated, former Republican who said he's voting for Haley because he wants to move on from former President Trump.

So there really is a battle of the -- getting the faithful out and changing people's minds or getting people to her side going on right here in the granite state right now.

WALKER: Is this a must win for Nikki Haley in New Hampshire considering the fact that there are a lot of things working in her favor, especially with the number of undeclared, but also the fact that the electorate is more moderate and of course less religious than Iowa? KUCINICH: You know, the folks here who are Haley supporters tell me that they don't think she needs to win, but they do think she needs to get close because to build some momentum, to show that the former president is stoppable. Because if he does win by large margins here in New Hampshire, a state he did not win from in a -- in the general election, it's somewhere he really wants to win in the general election, that will really, like, give him momentum going into these -- going into Nevada, going into South Carolina, these -- and, you know, throughout the rest of the primary.

So she -- there needs to be a disruption if he's not going to be basically coordinated in this Republican primary.

WALKER: So yesterday we've been playing it this morning, Nikki Haley criticized Trump's mental fitness after he confused Haley for House Speaker -- the House Speaker at the time, Nancy Pelosi, when he was talking about January 6th over the weekend.

I want to play for you their back and forth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY: The concern I have is, I'm not saying anything derogatory. But when you're dealing with the pressures of a presidency, we can't have someone else that we question whether they're mentally fit to do this.

TRUMP: A few months ago, I took a cognitive test my doctor gave me. I said, give me a cognitive test just so we can, you know, because you know what the standards were. And I aced it. My mind is stronger now than it was 25 years ago. Is that possible?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: So Jackie, is Haley's pitch for a new generational leader, a younger leader, is she betting that it's going to have a stronger resonance in New Hampshire?

KUCINICH: I mean, certainly. However, she's ramped up her attacks just in general on, you know, the former president's record on the economy, on some of the things that he's saying about her. She was talking -- I was in Petersburg yesterday and she was talking about the lies that he was telling about her as she described them on the campaign trail.

And so the question is, is it too late? Was she handling him with kid gloves for too long throughout this primary? Because remember, you know, early on in the waning months of 2023, you really couldn't get any of the former president's opponents to save Chris Christie, to say anything negative about him.

So whether that's going to hit here in New Hampshire and, you know, the next two or three days, we'll have to see. It's exciting.

WALKER: So what will you be watching for then on Tuesday?

KUCINICH: I mean, really the margins. We're going to be watching who -- I mean, it's going to be asked of you. We're going to see who wins. We're going to see how close Haley can get because that I do think that's going to matter going forward in this contest. How many independents actually do get out. And if the former president can pull out the party faithful.

[07:15:05]

WALKER: And to Ron DeSantis, you know, because, you know, he did cancel his TV appearances, his Sunday TV interviews, including on State of the Union, they said it had to do with scheduling issues. Ron DeSantis has been insisting that he is in the race for the long haul.

He's definitely fighting to try to stay relevant. What do you make, though, of these TV cancelations and where his campaign is headed?

KUCINICH: Yes. He just last week said that were indicated that he is leaving New Hampshire and, you know, focusing all of his resources in South Carolina. So the fact that he's back today definitely did raise some eyebrows. We'll have to see what happens at that event later.

But certainly, you know, he spent a lot of money and time in Iowa to finish 30 points behind the former president of that. I mean, and while he did beat Nikki Haley by 2 percentage points, that's not exactly a return investment on all the time he spent there because she really didn't. She didn't have the ground game that he had.

So what that means going forward, that campaign definitely has been struggling a little bit. And, you know, we'll have to wait and see what happens today.

WALKER: Jackie Kucinich, thank you very much. And don't forget --

KUCINICH: Thank you.

WALKER: -- special live coverage of the New Hampshire primary starts Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

BLACKWELL: Still ahead, fears are growing that Israel's war with Hamas is spiraling into a regional conflict in the Middle East after the latest attack on U.S. forces at a military base in Iraq and another round of missile strikes in Syria. We'll discuss that.

Plus, in a lot of the U. S., it's still cold or it's cold again, depending on one of your last couple of days. I've got good news for you. A warm up is on the way. We'll tell you when.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:21:06]

BLACKWELL: Missile attacks in Syria and Lebanon and Iraq Saturday have shown the growing risk of the war in Gaza triggering a wider regional conflict. Iran's president promises to retaliate after he blamed Israel for a missile strike in Damascus that killed five members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. And in Iraq, an Iran-backed militia claimed responsibility for an attack on the outside airbase that injured several U.S. personnel. Joining me now is Washington Post Columnist and the author of "Chaos Under Heaven", Josh Rogin. Josh, good to see you again. So I said the risk of the war in Gaza triggering a wider regional conflict, attacks by the Houthis and Hezbollah and Islamic resistance, U.S. service members injured, IRGC members killed. Is that that conflict here now?

JOSH ROGIN, WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST: Well, Victor, yes, I think it is here, and I think it has been here for several weeks, if not months. 140 attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria since the Israel- Gaza war began, that averages out to more than one a day. And now we see the retaliations by the American and Israeli forces getting larger and larger.

And the re-retaliation getting larger and larger. No, it hasn't expanded into a full out war between the United States and Iran. That is the -- what I think all sides are trying to avoid. But with these latest missile strikes, the attack on U.S. forces that are resulting in multiple injuries, we can see that this is slowly but surely getting much, much worse.

And neither side knows where the other side's red lines are. Neither side has a perfect understanding of how to contain this. And therein lies the danger. I mean, that Washington or Tehran really wants to go to war. But that a miscalculation or a mistake could lead to that very outcome.

BLACKWELL: Yes, trying to avoid this direct U.S.-Iran war. But one would expect there would be some retaliation against the Islamic resistance for the attack that injured U.S. service members. The Washington Post at least reporting that there will be now some sustained campaign against the Houthis since the strikes against them to stop these attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

The president acknowledges. Has not worked. Just detailed the fine line that this administration will have to walk to degrade capabilities without setting off that full-fledged war.

ROGIN: Right. I think there are two things. I think inside the administration, there is a debate over whether or not to attack sites inside of Iran. Right now, the president hasn't decided to go that far, but that would be the next step. That's what happened a few years ago when -- if you remember after the United States killed the Iranian leader Qasem Soleimani, there were retaliations and re-retaliations, and we almost struck inside of Iran, but it didn't happen.

So I think that's one big line that everyone's waiting to see if the Biden administration is going to cross. The other thing is that there's no reason to expect that this cycle of retaliation and re- retaliation will end before the war in Gaza ends, and while the Biden administration likes to say that these two things aren't connected.

It's obvious to everyone, including the Israelis and the Iranians and the Houthis and the American troops there that of course it is connected because the reason that the Iranians have activated all of these proxy forces is to pressure the Americans, to pressure the Israelis to cut down on the violence in Gaza. So without a policy change, either in Washington or in Israel, that turns to some sort of path to resolving the violence in Gaza, there's going to be no way to stop the violence that is precipitating throughout the region.

[07:25:01]

BLACKWELL: Is this -- the strike in Damascus that happened yesterday that ended with the deaths of several leaders of the IRGC, is that a part of this continuous simmer or does that escalate the series of attacks back and forth that we've seen involving Iran and Iranian- backed groups?

ROGIN: I think it is an escalation and it's again, everyone's trying to escalate just a little bit. But who knows what a little bit of an escalation really means. And when you're striking inside of foreign countries, you have to risk retaliation by that country and by the country that owns the people that you just killed. So, yes, there's going to be politics inside Syria, politics inside Lebanon, where Israeli forces struck inside of Beirut just a couple of weeks ago.

Politics inside of Iraq. Well, the Iraqi government has no desire to see American forces and Iranian-backed forces having a proxy war on their territory either. So yes, every strike escalates and every strike makes this even more complicated and even more dangerous.

And that's why one would think that diplomacy would have to get involved here. But right now the conditions there for that just don't exist.

BLACKWELL: Let's turn toward Ukraine now. And President Zelenskyy, he spoke with Britain's Channel 4 and spoke specifically about former President Trump's assertion that he would be able to end Putin's war in Ukraine in 24 hours. Here's what President Zelenskyy said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): When he himself says, I will end the war in 24 hours, it seems to me, how do I put this? Very dangerous, what he says. I will explain. He will make decisions on his own, without -- I'm not even talking about Russia, but without both sides.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, Zelenskyy also said that, you know, this could be electioneering. He's just saying what he needs to say to get elected. But what you heard there from Zelenskyy, any reason to believe he's wrong about that assessment?

ROGIN: No, I actually agree with Zelenskyy. I think Trump's rhetoric is reckless and dangerous. And if he were to become president again, there's no telling what he would do. Already, we see President Trump working with his allies in Congress to try to kill the Ukraine aid. That's what's happening right now in Washington. The MAGA people and -- are trying to scuttle the immigration Ukraine negotiation that's going on in the Senate, and that's even before he's president again. So yes, no, I think if, I was Zelenskyy, I'd be very, very worried about a Trump presidency, not just because he might do what he says he's going to do, which is try to force some resolution in 24 hours, which could only be achieved on the backs of the suffering of lots and lots of Ukrainians.

But because you don't know what he's going to say tomorrow or the next day, which could be totally different in that kind of uncertainty and risk is the last things that the Ukrainians need as they fight for their survival. But at the same time, Zelenskyy's got to be coming to terms with the fact that might be something he can't avoid.

He might have to deal with President Trump again. And if you remember the last time he had to deal with President Trump, it didn't go that well for either Zelenskyy or President Trump. But, you know, that's the problem with history. If we don't learn from it, we're doomed to repeat it.

BLACKWELL: Yes. First impeachment. Josh Rogin, thanks so much.

WALKER: All right, coming up, former President Trump is expected to be back in a New York City courtroom tomorrow for the E. Jean Carroll defamation case. Will he take the stand?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:32:26]

WALKER: Here are five things to watch this week. Donald Trump is expected to be back in court tomorrow for the E. Jean Carroll defamation case. It's unknown, however, whether he will testify. We'll have much more on that case in just a moment.

New Hampshire's first in the nation primary is Tuesday, and it is a critical primary for Nikki Haley as she is hoping for a better showing than her third-place finish in Iowa. Now, all of the GOP candidates and Democrat Dean Phillips are holding events in New Hampshire today. And of course, CNN will have special coverage of the primary all day on Tuesday.

President Biden and Vice President Harris will hold their first joint campaign appearance of the year on Tuesday. The two, along with their spouses, will focus on reproductive rights as they try to make that a central issue of the 2024 race. We'll have more on that at the top of the hour.

Oscar nominations will be announced this week, and critics expect "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" could each get Oscar nods, but we will have to see when the nominations are announced on Tuesday.

And King Charles is expected to go into the hospital this week for treatment for an enlarged prostate. Buckingham Palace says, the King's condition is benign, and the Palace says, his public events will be postponed while he recovers. BLACKWELL: And as Amara mentioned a moment ago, sources say, the Former President Trump is likely to appear in court again tomorrow for that E. Jean Carroll defamation case. Remember, this is a separate trial from last year where a civil jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and he defames her in 2022 statements. This defamation trial is about comments Trump made in 2019 while he was president and will determine what damages, if any, he must pay.

CNN's Kara Scannell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It happened nearly three decades ago in a New York department store. Advice Columnist E. Jean Carroll says she was leaving Bergdorf Goodman when she ran into Donald Trump.

E. JEAN CARROLL, MAGAZINE COLUMNIST: He said, come advise me. I want to buy a present. I said, oh, for who? He said, for a girl. So, I was enchanted.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Carroll says, they went to the lingerie department on the sixth floor and joked about who should try on a sheer bodysuit. She followed Trump into a dressing room. That's when, she said, a lighthearted encounter turned into a life-changing assault.

CARROLL: The minute I was in there, he shut the door and pushed me up against the wall and bang -- banged my head on the wall and kissed me. I just -- it was so shocking.

SCANNELL: She says, Trump pinned her to the wall and pulled down her tights.

CARROLL: That was when it turned serious. I realized that this was a fight.

[07:35:00]

SCANNELL (voice-over): Carroll says she fled the store and largely kept the 1996 encounter secret. It wasn't until June 2019 when she shared the story publicly. "New York Magazine" ran an excerpt from her new memoir. Trump has continued to deny the encounter happened, and even knowing Carol.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have no idea who this woman is. This is a woman who's also accused other men of things, as you know. It is a totally false accusation.

SCANNELL: Carroll first sued Trump in 2019 for defamation, but for years he successfully tied the case up in litigation. In 2022, under New York State's Adult Survivors Act, she filed a second lawsuit against Trump, this time for battery and defamation. That case went to trial last year. Trump didn't appear in court, but his video deposition was played before the jury where he denied raping Carol. TRUMP: She said that I did something to her that never took place. There was no anything. I know nothing about this nut job.

SCANNELL (voice-over): He even mistook Carol in a photo for his second wife, Marla Maples.

TRUMP: That's Marla. Yes, that's my wife.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which one are you pointing to now?

TRUMP: Here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carroll.

SCANNELL (voice-over): And when questioned about it, he defended the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape where Trump was caught off camera making lewd remarks about women.

TRUMP: This is very old news. Fully litigated during debates, during everything else. Fully litigated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

TRUMP: And you know what I said then and I say it now? Locker room talk. It was locker room talk.

SCANNELL (voice-over): The jury ultimately found that Trump did sexually abuse Carroll and defame her. They awarded Carroll $5 million. But Trump didn't stop. One day after the verdict, at a CNN Town Hall, Trump repeated his statements.

TRUMP: And I swear -- and I've never done that. and I swear to -- I have no idea who the hell -- she's a whack job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --

SCANNELL (voice-over): Carroll updated her 2019 lawsuit, now seeking more than $10 million for Trump's repeated verbal attacks and denials. Meanwhile, the former president is squeezing in court appearances to his packed campaign schedule. His attorneys say, he may testify next week.

TRUMP: Hello, New Hampshire.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Kara Scannell, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Still ahead, Alabama is set to execute a death row inmate by nitrogen gas this week. A controversial method never used in the United States before, we'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:41:59] BLACKWELL: This week, a man in Alabama is scheduled to become the first death row inmate to be executed using nitrogen gas, a method that has never been used before in the US. He was convicted of 1988 murder for hire. His name is Kenneth Smith. His initial lethal injection was halted in November because of IV-line issues. After the failed attempt, he requested death by nitrogen gas. This new method has U.N. experts concerned about the upcoming execution, citing a painful and humiliating death.

Here with us now is Margaret Satterthwaite, clinical law professor at NYU School of Law and one of the members of that U.N. panel. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. Let me start here and back away just for a second from the method used here and simply that there is an execution. The U.N. statement citing the concerns from your panel say, that the panel regrets that executions are still pursued in the U.S. So, is the primary concern the method and means or that this man will be executed?

MARGARET SATTERTHWAITE, CLINICAL LAW PROFESSOR, NYU SCHOOL OF LAW: So, the primary concern in this case is the method of execution. It's really a question of whether Alabama can put to death someone in this incredibly painful and untested way.

BLACKWELL: Now, I said that this is his request to die by nitrogen gas. If he must die, this is the way in which he's requested. It's gone all the way up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court sided with Mr. Smith. What role does that play in your assessment of -- if this should go forward?

SATTERTHWAITE: It's a great question. It really does not play any role. And the reason is he is requesting something amid a set of horrific options. He is, of course, facing the ultimate sentence of death, and Alabama has given him this option of an experimental type of death that we have absolutely no idea how it will go. We know that this method is untested, and it's even not allowed to be used on animals.

So, the concern here is that he will experience an excruciating death and a death that is unlawful under International Human Rights Law.

BLACKWELL: From what I've read, this deprives the brain of oxygen. So, he'll essentially die by suffocation. I said that this has never been used in the U.S. The U.S. is in the minority of countries still executing prisoners. Has this method been used anywhere in the world to execute prisoners?

SATTERTHWAITE: So, there are multiple kinds of uses of different protocols around the world. This is unique. And our fear is that he will be in excruciating pain and that he will essentially be tortured to death, and that's something that is absolutely not allowed under human rights law.

BLACKWELL: So, at what point does this -- I mean, a lot of these executions are painful.

[07:45:00] We've seen botched executions and moratoriums placed in several states across the U.S. At what point does this violate the convention on torture to which the U.S. is a signatory?

SATTERTHWAITE: So, it's important to look at this in context. The reason that the protocols are changing in part is because the suppliers of other methods, of other drugs that have been used for killing people have been difficult to get because other countries in the world reject this practice and do not want to be part of it. So, it's important to put it into that context.

When a death becomes so excruciating in the case that we believe will be the situation for Mr. Smith, it is likely to become torture because it's an excruciating, agonizing experience that will last a period of time that is simply unacceptable.

BLACKWELL: And then -- so, what recourse does anyone have? Again, Mr. Smith has asked for this method. The U.N. opposes it. If it goes forward and it is as bad as you say it could be. Then what?

SATTERTHWAITE: Well, then we have tortured a man twice because we have to remember that Mr. Smith was already the subject of a botched execution. He was poked and prodded for hours under the sense of doom and the sense that he would be killed.

So, he -- we will have killed someone through torture and we will have done it almost twice. And the fear here is that the U.S. government is not looking at this problem of the rest of the world seeing this case and thinking, wow, we're about to torture someone to death. It's time for us to step away from this practice and to see it for what it is. It's a barbaric practice that needs to be put into the dustbin of history.

BLACKWELL: Margaret Satterthwaite, thank you so much for your time and expertise this morning.

WALKER: All right. Still ahead, what do noodles, eggs, and toilet paper have in common? Nothing, except that it's, in some places, it's so cold people are using these very everyday items to create some interesting frozen creations.

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[07:51:32]

WALKER: Warm temperatures may be around the corner, but that's little comfort to those of us waking up to freezing temperatures this morning. Milwaukee, Wisconsin is covered in ice and snow. A drone caught this aerial view of huge ice chunks in a very blue Lake Michigan.

BLACKWELL: Meteorologist Elisa Raffa is here. When is this going to be over?

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: By the --

WALKER: You're not sick of it, are you?

BLACKWELL: Am.

RAFFA: It -- look, it is only 14 right now in Atlanta, so that tells us just how far south this cold air is stretching. It ends by the end of the week. Those temperatures are going to swing way the other side. I mean, but we're starting out at three right now in Cincinnati, one degree in Chicago, down to 14 in Atlanta. You're even below freezing even as far south as Jacksonville. You could see the wind chill and freeze alert stretch down Florida Peninsula.

We do have a winter weather advisory as well where we could find some ice accumulation, even a little bit of an ice storm warning just to the north and west of Little Rock. Because the storm that's going to come in and start to bring in the warm air brings a lot of rain, but it could start as some ice for parts of, again, Missouri and Arkansas there.

So, you can see where that ice starts as we go into tomorrow morning. We'll have some of that heavy rain continuing to fill in as well. Could mix us some snow up in the upper Great Lakes, and then you'll find some rain heavy at times, too, along the Gulf Coast, getting into areas like Houston, New Orleans and Atlanta.

Here's a look at some of those ice totals that could be as much as a half an inch in some locations that could cause problems of power outages and some tree limbs being down. What it will do, though, as it brings us the rain is going to surge in that warmer air.

So, when you look at temperatures for the next four days, really warming up, D.C. barely making freezing today and then you're in the middle 50s by Wednesday. Atlanta in the middle 60s by Wednesday. We're going from temperatures about 10 degrees below average today. We'll be about average Monday and Tuesday. And then by Wednesday and Thursday, look at that, soaring 10 to 15 to 20 degrees way above average in the 70s from Atlanta to Charlotte, which is really thawing out. Some records could even fall over parts of Florida.

Here's the seven-day for Atlanta. We're in the 40s today, some 20s on the overnight and then look at that warm up. You're over in your 70, way above the average of 54 degrees by the end of the week. Comes with some showers and storms, but it's a huge warm up even for a cooler place like Cincinnati. Your temperature swing also a good 30 degrees.

WALKER: That's so bizarre. All right. Elisa Raffa, we'll take it. I guess. Thanks so much.

BLACKWELL: It is so cold.

WALKER: How cold is it?

BLACKWELL: It is cold enough to turn a banana into a hammer. Jeanne Moos talked to a photographer who is having some fun with all this cold weather.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When it's 40 or 50 degrees below zero, you can't blame a guy for taking boiling water and blowing off a little steam, watching it instantly turn into snow and ice.

But photographer Joe Chowaniec of Alberta, Canada, got a kick out of seeing what other people did. How cold is it? Cold enough to use a banana to pound a nail. Cold enough to beat a frozen shirt like a drum, to turn jeans into a battering ram. So, Joe decided to do his own game of, you froze your what off?

JOE CHOWANIEC, PHOTOGRAPHER: The next one was the plate of ramen noodles.

MOOS (voice-over): In 60 seconds, the boiled noodles were frozen stiff.

CHOWANIEC: Frozen in time. The frozen in time series, I guess I'm calling it.

[07:55:00]

MOOS (voice-over): The next experiment involved placing an egg on a couple of straws and cracking it open. Forget hard boiled. We're talking frozen solid.

CHOWANIEC: My neighbors were looking out the window and thought I was crazy.

MOOS (voice-over): And finally, there was something charming, making that charming about what the severe cold did to toilet paper.

CHOWANIEC: People should make the best of the conditions they're in.

MOOS (voice-over): But don't try using it, or you will truly freeze your butt off. In the immortal words of Annie Lennox.

ANNIE LENNOX, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Cold, cold, cold,

MOOS (voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: OK. That was funny.

BLACKWELL: That was good.

WALKER: Don't use a frozen toilet paper or you will truly freeze your butt off.

BLACKWELL: I just think about people having to stand out there long enough to hold it there while it freezes.

WALKER: I know. I know. I wouldn't want to be out there for more than 10 seconds. Although, you know what, if you're bored at home with the kids, some experiments -- BLACKWELL: Something to do.

WALKER: -- some science experiments you can do with them. I have some ideas now.

Coming up, we are just two days away from the New Hampshire primaries, and the 2024 candidates are making their final pitch to voters. We're live in the campaign trail after a short break.

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