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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Slow-Moving Blizzard Blankets Nebraska to Michigan; President's 2016 Spending Plan; Super Bowl 49: Patriots Win; The War on ISIS: Japan Vows Revenge

Aired February 02, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now: a deadly snowstorm smacking millions from the Midwest through the northeast. Flights cancelled, schools closed. Cities warning drivers this morning's commute will be dangerous. Chad Myers tracking the storm and the arctic chill that's right behind it.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Making the terrorists pay. Japan vows revenge after ISIS beheads its latest hostage. The new video that is creating outrage and new pleas for the safe return of other hostages. We have live coverage breaking it all down ahead.

ROMANS: A thrilling finish for Super Bowl XLIX. The Patriots coming out on top after roller coaster final minutes. A heartbreaking loss for the Seahawks. Andy Scholes, he was there. He's now live for us this morning. He's going to break down the big game moments.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I actually fell asleep in my Tom Brady gear last night. I did. I did. I forgot that until just now. I woke up in my big Tom Brady jersey and I'm OK with that.

I'm John Berman. It is Monday, February 2nd. It's 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And aside from Super Bowl, there's a huge storm out there. It buried the Midwest in snow, disrupted travel. And it is now here in the Northeast.

More than 70 million people across a huge swath of the country are affected by this. Some 2,000 flights were cancelled on Sunday. Many of them in and out of Chicago. It's such a busy hub. Twenty-five hundred more flights scratch today already. This same storm system, it is now here in the Northeast. Promises heavy snowfall in New England and a treacherous awful commute around New York City.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: The biggest threat in this case would be ice. We would expect a lot of icing on the roads and sidewalks up to a quarter inch of ice in some places. And a lot of that would happen in the early morning hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: This is now the early morning hours. So, how are we doing?

Chad Myers out in it all.

Good morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John, good morning. It has changed from all snow when I woke up now to a snow-sleet, almost freezing rain mix. And today, we'll get down to about 11 degrees after midnight.

So, this is going to be a wet storm. A white storm for awhile, a sloppy storm and then back to frozen all ice for New York City tomorrow morning.

Now, that's not the story for Buffalo and Boston. And that's not a story for Boston. A lot of snow coming down. It's 14 degrees in Boston. It's going to change over to ice, it is going to be one slushy, sloppy mess from Cape Cod all the way south.

But north of there, Gloucester, Boston, you see the purple area, that is a foot of snow or more, that goes from Maine back to Upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire. It's the same snow they had in Chicago, in Detroit, in Fort Wayne, in Gary, and all the way across from Pittsburgh now.

Remember now, Punxsutawney Phil is asked to wake to this morning. We're going to see what he has to say about the rest of the season, but tonight, some spots will be well below zero. It will be a very cold night coming up tonight.

And with this ice, snow, graupel, freezing rain, we actually have a better chance than the last storm which is a light fluffy snow of losing some limbs and losing some power lines, losing some power for some customers due to the very heavy snow packed on the trees about to get blown around by the wind, John.

BERMAN: Yes. And packed on to all the snow on the ground in most places. It's really just a mess out there.

MYERS: It is.

BERMAN: Chad Myers, thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

ROMANS: It's been a rough 24 hours, as Chad mentioned, for Chicago smacked with all of the snow. Wind gusts up to 40 miles an hour, driving miserable frankly, 350 plows and salt spreaders can't keep up, making driving dangerous, causing lots of accidents there in Chicago like this, travel is still hazardous enough that Chicago public schools are closed today. Surf is up. This is -- look at this. This is Lake Michigan. Unbelievable. Look, it's just caked with ice along Lake Michigan and Lake Shore Drive right now.

BERMAN: It looks ugly. Schools closed today across a big chunk of the country from Omaha to

Boston. It's not just driving that is dangerous. You can get hit while standing still. Look at the winds? Gusty winds hitting trees all over the Quad City areas in Illinois.

Iowa, the snow -- about 11 inches of snow fell, cancelling church services and closing businesses in Nebraska. The storm left a hazardous mess, killing at least two people knocking out tens of thousands. Look at that.

Heavy snow blanketed South Dakota as well. High winds, drifting snow reduced visibility.

The snow not a problem for everyone though. Look at the happy guy with the snowy white beard and wagging tail. These folks in Detroit, they went sledding. We're going to go sledding down a big hill and love it. That's Middlebelt Hill apparently in Detroit.

ROMANS: OK, social media pop quiz. What are the four cities in the Quad Cities? Don't Google it. Tell us @earlystart.

All right. Another Detroit area man. Look at this, this is a great idea for snow fun last night. Take a look at this.

He tossed on a pair of skis, hooked himself up to the back of a car and he was cruising along until a local news station spotted him. They broadcast this live. The local mayor, who is being interviewed by the station, do you think he was happy or sad?

BERMAN: I don't either. I thought he was angry.

ROMANS: He was not happy. He called on police to track the skier down and ticket him and that's exactly what happened.

BERMAN: Yes, all right. Schools will be closed today in northern Ohio as well, complete travel in place in Toledo. Snow emergencies declared throughout the region. The city of Cleveland has 40 snow removal crews out. There's a parking ban in place.

CNN's Martin Savidge is in Cleveland with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

You know, when it's all said and done, Cleveland is not likely to be the leader in the clubhouse, at least when it comes to snowfall from this particular snowstorm. But like a lot of the cities and so many of the people being impacted by it, it's likely and is already the biggest snowfall they have seen so far this winter season. It is a problem. As you can see, the streets here are covered with snow. The snowplows have not been able to keep up with the rate of snow that's been coming down.

Temperatures have been really critical, will be critical in storm. It had been hovering around the freezing point and that, of course, allows a lot of moisture to be in the air, which creates a lot of snow. It's cooled down, but the wind is picking up. That's a problem because, of course, it causes drifting and that too makes it a difficult issue when it comes to snowplows keeping up.

When it was Sunday, this was not a problem. But now, it's become Monday and it really is a problem, especially for the morning commutes, especially for schools and especially for air travel. Air travel in Cleveland, about 40 percent of the flights have been impacted. Ironically, not because of the weather here, but the weather of what's happening out west, particularly Chicago. That's had the greatest impact.

And speaking of out west, western Ohio, you talk about Toledo, there they really do have a snow emergency. Level three, in fact, the sheriff says the only people that should be out on the road are emergency vehicles. Anybody else, you could be facing arrest.

We'll see how the day progresses -- Christine and John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Martin Savidge for us in Cleveland this morning.

More headaches for travelers this morning in Chicago, Boston, New York. We've got flight cancellations, folks, lots of them, 2,500 flights have been cancelled today already, mostly in the Midwest and Northeast. That number is growing. It's in addition to thousands of cancelled flights yesterday.

No surprise, Chicago O'Hare has the most cancellation so far. Also pretty significant weather disruptions this morning in JFK, Newark, Boston Logan. Sound familiar? Those are the same airports just recovering from last week's blizzard backlog. Most airlines are waving their change fees for passengers flying in the storm's path.

BERMAN: The president rolls out his 2016 budget today. The $4 trillion spending plan would hike taxes on some of the richest Americans and the goal would be to boost middle class incomes. The president is also targeting a number of U.S. corporations that use loopholes to avoid paying certain taxes.

Erin McPike has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, Christine, the big news coming out of the president's budget proposal this weekend is the tax he wants to levy on U.S. companies that make large profits overseas and he explained the reason for that in his weekly address.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Since I took office, we cut our deficits by about two-thirds -- the fastest sustained deficit reduction since just after the end of World War II. We just have to be smarter about how we pay for our priorities, and that's what my budget does. It proposes getting rid of special interest loopholes in our tax code and using those savings to cut taxes for middle class families and reward businesses that invest in America.

MCPIKE: Specifically, President Obama is calling for a one-time transition tax of 14 percent on up to $2 trillion of earnings that U.S. companies have already made over overseas. He also wants to impose a 19 percent tax on all future foreign earnings to try to eliminate U.S. companies relying on tax havens.

Obviously, this is a surprising request for the president to make of a Republican House and Senate, but he says that he wants the revenue that it raises. That's hundreds of billions of dollars to go towards infrastructure spending, that's on highways, roads, bridges and transit systems.

Now, John and Christine, we should also be getting many more details of the president's budget later this morning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Erin.

Super Bowl XLIX, an instant classic, making John Berman a happy, happy man. The New England Patriots defeating the Seattle Seahawks, 28-24, for the fourth Super Bowl title in franchise history. The Pats ceiling the victory with an incredible goal line reception when the Seahawks were just one yard away from becoming repeat champions.

Andy was there and he joins us this morning from Glendale, Arizona.

The fact that I got to say so much about the Pats without a word from John is almost unbelievable.

BERMAN: I guess I'm speechless.

ROMANS: Hi, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys. You know, what a game. This is going to go down as probably one of the best Super Bowls of all time and considering everything that the Patriots had to deal with over the last few weeks, it's been a rough couple of weeks with all the off-field distractions, dealing with deflate-gate. They put together a great performance and made the big plays when it mattered most.

You know, they enter the fourth quarter down by 10, but Tom Brady lead on two touchdown drives to take the lead.

Now, the Seahawks, they came right back and Jermaine Kearse made arguably the greatest catch in NFL history. It put the Seahawks in positions for the winning touchdown, but a questionable call from the one yard line, one that's going to be questioned for a very, very long time. It led to rookie Malcolm Butler, making the play of his life, picking off Russell Wilson. Richard Sherman on the sidelines couldn't believe it. The Patriots meanwhile going nuts on their sidelines as they win in dramatic fashion, 28-24, and Tom Brady is your Super Bowl MVP for a third time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, SUPER BOWL XLIX MVP: On the other end of this twice now and being ahead late and not being able to make the plays to win, and this time, we made the play to win. So, it's just awesome.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And Brady has now won four Super Bowls, tying him with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for the most all time amongst quarterback. He's definitely in that conversation when you talk about the best QBs of all time.

Now, this was also the fourth Super Bowl win for head coach Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft. And CNN's Rachel Nichols caught up with the Patriot's owner after the game to get his thoughts on the amazing win after what's been a rough couple of weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: How did all the accusations effect this team and how does it influence how this win feels?

ROBERT KRAFT, PATRIOTS OWNER: I'm proud. I'm especially proud of Brady and Belichick and the way they handle themselves.

People can throw anything out there and leak anything. It's hard to compete with that. That's why if you hear the statement that I spoke when I got here Monday, that says exactly how I feel.

NICHOLS: How much do you think you guys will be talking about deflated footballs in the next couple of weeks as opposed to championship rings?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know that trophy isn't deflated, so we're all good.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

SCHOLES: After having plenty of fun over the last couple of weeks with deflate-gate, you have to check out the cover of "The New York Daily News" this morning, it reads "Balls of Steel."

I was on the field and I said I have to get you a souvenir. So, I went around, picked up a lot of this confetti and I'll make sure to mail you some up there to New York. You could have it from the Patriots fourth Super Bowl.

ROMANS: That's so nice of you.

BERMAN: I would love that actually. I will keep it forever and cherish it.

ROMANS: Can you bring back Tom Brady for him?

BERMAN: And I would keep it forever and cherish it.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: All right. Andy, thanks, Andy.

SCHOLES: Won't fit in the package.

BERMAN: All right. About 12 minutes after the hour right now.

A lot of news to cover this morning: Japan vows revenge after ISIS murders it's latest hostage. This new video raising questions over the safety of others being held by the terrorists. We have live coverage. The latest about what we know, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The prime minister of Japan is vowing to make ISIS pay for executing journalist Kenji Goto. The terror group posted video that appears to show his beheaded body right after a militant nicknamed by some as "Jihadi John" says, let the nightmare for Japan begin.

The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reacted with outrage, promised to make the terrorist pay the price.

I want to bring in international correspondent Will Ripley in Tokyo.

Will, how is the execution being received but also these words of revenge from the Japanese prime minister?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, throughout the whole hostage crisis, the Japanese government has publicly tried to show the people of this country that they did everything that they could to try to secure the release of the hostages, Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, both of whom have now been murdered by ISIS. And the outrage that they're expressing today is also part of that very important Japanese culture to publicly demonstrate this sort of thing as an elected official.

And so, the prime minister his strong words are echoing when what the Japanese public feels. Anger and sadness over the brutal actions of this terror group but what Japan can practically do to make ISIS pay is some what limited. The Japanese military only engages in self- dense as part of the country's constitution.

The prime minister is trying to push legislation to expand the military's role. It had been very unpopular domestically. It's interesting to see how the public feels about expanding the military's role now that this has happened. Yes, there's so much outrage and anger here, and determination to work with the coalition to continue support in the form of humanitarian aid and not bow down to this terror group, John.

BERMAN: All right. Will Ripley for us in Tokyo -- thanks so much, Will.

BERMAN: So, the people of Jordan are still desperately waiting for word on the fate of the Jordanian fighter pilot captured by ISIS. Muath al-Kasasbeh was not mentioned in this latest ISIS video featuring Goto. ISIS had said it would kill the pilot if Jordan did not release a convicted female terrorist. Jordan is willing to release that convicted terrorist Sajida al-Rishawi, but only, only if ISIS provides proof that its pilot is still alive and so far, ISIS has not obliged.

Turning now to senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir, live with the latest.

It must be frustrating to try to negotiate with this group, because it is unpredictable, it doesn't keep its promises, and it has brutal results.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely and the avenues for communication are so limited and the Jordanian government is taking to the media. They are publicly expressing their commitment to release Sajida al-Rishawi again and again, in the hope that ISIS is watching and listening and will in-turn send back some kind of message.

But as yet, none has been forth coming. It's an incredibly difficult time for the families who are now taking to pleading directly with ISIS, to release Muath al-Kasasbeh. But again, they have had no response.

This, of course, has broader implications. Not just for Jordan but for the entire fight against is. Jordan is a key ally. It's a key part of the U.S.-led coalition currently fighting ISIS. That role has been up popular domestically. There had been concerns about the growing civilian death toll that's been resulting from these airstrikes.

And this really is playing into that. A lot of the public opinion has been saying, well, you can't even promise us that those who take these risks, who go into harm's way, for the king, for the nation, and for this broader fight, that they will be brought back safely home, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Nima Elbagir, thank you for that this morning from Beirut.

Happening now: the measles outbreak in this country is spreading. President Obama weighing in with a new warning. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: So, we're expecting today to get an updated number of people who have contracted measles across the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control says in the first 28 days of January alone, 84 cases were reported in 14 states. Meantime, a scare in New York after a new measles case surfaced at Bard College, about a hundred miles north of New York City, concern that the student used public transportation in the city.

President Obama now urging parents to get their kids vaccinated, to get the outbreak linked to an initial outbreak at Disneyland under control. BERMAN: Bobbi Kristina Brown remains hospitalized this morning in a

medically induced coma. The 21-year-old daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown was found by her husband Saturday face down in a bathtub, not breathing. She was revived, taken to the hospital and is now said to be on a ventilator in intensive care. Bobby Brown, in a statement, appealed for privacy, saying, "Please allow my daughter to get the love and support she needs."

ROMANS: Rap mogul Suge Knight could be arraigned as early as today on murder charges. Knight is suspected in a hit-and-run incident last week that suspect killed one man and injured another in Compton, California. The 49-year-old surrendered to police on Friday. He's currently being held on $2 million bail.

BERMAN: An actor who appeared as one of the "Power Rangers" in a television series is under arrest, suspected of murder. Police in Palmdale, California, say 36-year-old Ricardo Medina allegedly stabbed his roommate with a sword over the weekend following an argument. He's being held now on $1 million bail.

ROMANS: A man who tried unsuccessfully to enter the White House grounds now in police custody. Officials say he was arrested Sunday after trying to climb a temporary barrier set up around the main fence around the residents. It was put in place after an incident back in September when an intruder climbed the fence and got into the White House. The suspect has been charged with unlawful entry.

BERMAN: All right. The big winter storm, it is hitting you now. Hitting millions from the Midwest to the Northeast. We're going to track it live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)