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New Day

Epic Snowfall Isn't Over; Jeb Bush Releasing Emails & Ebook Chapter; Late Night Shows Take On Williams

Aired February 10, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good to have you back here on NEW DAY.

Snow-weary Boston is shattering records. In the last 30 days alone, more than 72 inches has fallen in Boston, setting a new record. Public schools in the area are closed once again, and this morning, all bus and rail service is suspended. Dozens of flights have already been canceled. Now, the big story is the deep freeze that will grip much of the nation this weekend.

We'll talk to Chad Myers coming up a little bit to tell you more about that deep freeze that's in the forecast.

Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A European diplomat says top pro-Russian rebel leaders will not be represented at the Ukraine peace talks in Minsk. Leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine scheduled to meet tomorrow, and President Obama waiting to see what comes out of that before deciding whether to send arms to Ukraine.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, validating gay marriage. But many Alabama counties still refuse to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. And listen to this, Alabama's chief justice has their back, in defiance of a federal court order. Several other judges, though, have green-lit the situations, allowing many gay couples across the state to tie the knot. This just shows how complicated the law can sometimes be.

PEREIRA: Opening statements begin tomorrow in the murder trial of Eddie Ray Routh, the marine veteran who admitted to killing American sniper Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield. His jury will be 10 women and two men. Routh served in Iraq, he was treated for PTSD, his lawyers are expected to pursue an insanity defense.

Ahead this morning, we're going to talk more about Chris Kyle and the new insights that came if our CNN special "Blockbuster: The Story of American Sniper."

CAMEROTA: And dramatic video out of Australia to show you. Two men were trying to evade police, jump out of that stolen blue car that you see there, they then run across a busy highway, as you're about to see, one suspect with his gun drawn, suddenly gets slammed by a car.

I think you'll see that in a second. Police chasing them for nearly 100 miles, there you go. The duo will face charges for attempted murder and carjacking, at least three cars.

CUOMO: Oh, boy, oh, boy. Driver did what he had to do.

All right. Chad Myers, we understand that all of your communications equipment are now working.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

CUOMO: Obviously, the effects of the cold on your head. But now, what can you tell us?

MYERS: Got a little strep throat, a little cold, maybe some influenza, I'm not even sure what's going on in this head.

Twenty-six in New York, 33, D.C., today is a mild day, but a major cool-down coming. Understand now for New York, it should be 41, Boston, you should be 38. Those are the highs for the day.

Then, you should be around 28 for the morning lows and you're going to be two. This is a frigid arc outbreak, we call them all the time. Polar plunge, whatever it is, frigid temperatures diving all the way down to Florida, all the way through to Georgia, and then a secondary front comes by and reinforces that cold air and I don't see any break in this forecast for many, many days.

For Boston, Sunday, you should be 38, you'll be 12. New York, you should be 41, you'll be 12. Morning lows should be around 30 degrees in both cities, there you go, almost 30 degrees colder than normal. And I know for International Falls that may seem like a normal day. But for New Yorkers in Boston, have to work to walk to work or walk to get groceries, that's a cold morning.

CUOMO: True, true.

Context is different, it sounds like what my wife says, you should be 45, but you're 12.

(LAUGHTER)

MYERS: Bada-bing.

CUOMO: Oh, sick Chad, not quite as funny. Come on, Chad. There you go.

MYERS: All right.

CUOMO: All right. We're going to take a break.

Jeb Bush is making some big moves. He's opening the book on thousands of emails from his two terms as Florida governor. Rarely done. Can this be anything but a step toward the presidency? Our political experts clue us in. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Ever wondered what kind of emails Jeb Bush -- ever wondered what kind of emails Jeb Bush wrote when he was governor? You're about to find out.

Here to weigh in, CNN political commentator and Republican consultant and Sirius XM host Margaret Hoover, and CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast", John Avlon.

Great to see you, guys.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, Jeb Bush just released this compendium of emails that he exchanged while he was governor. Some of them are tedious, presidential notes to staff, but the ones to constituents are a bit entertaining.

Jeb Bush loved an emoticon. We've learned. Let me show one example of this from a constituent. They wrote to him, "Politicians make me sick. You make me sick." And he wrote, "I'm truly sorry you feel that way, have a nice day," smiley face.

What is the point of this, Margaret?

HOOVER: Imagine what he does with emojis. I mean, this is all the emojis (INAUDIBLE).

The point is to get everything out so that nothing can comprise surprise anybody later on. It's a great tactic. It's sort of like the Friday dump, right, where you just let things out on Friday, nobody covers it.

This is the equivalent of that in a two-year presidential cycle. You get it all out early. So, if something comes out early, they say, oh, but those were the emails from two years ago. Didn't you read all of them? Oh, you didn't?

What's interesting is --

CUOMO: What if it's not something in this dump? Then, is this move something that winds you up enhancing the negative effect?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, no, no. You know, I think the point of the emails is like the emoticon, you're killing them with kindness, journalists and oppo researchers. You're saying, look, there's nothing left to hide.

Now, if it's a planking move that's get you. There's nothing you can do about that. But this is really unprecedented. This kind of radical transparency, it's not just every email, but his entire calendar.

I mean, that's a radical transparency move. It's because the Bushes have been to this rodeo before and they're anticipating future attacks.

HOOVER: But it's extraordinary, too, because it shows he doesn't feel like he has anything to hide. He's willing to be an open book.

CUOMO: True.

HOOVER: Not a lot of politicians are. And being and willing to put sort of everything you have out there. I mean, it's funny. What it does, is it gives you a sense of governing, what it's like to sort of be governor.

Imagine if other governors just dumped all of their emails and you get a sense of what the day in and day out is like of the daily governance. To the extent that constituents don't even believe they're emailing him. So, if there's nothing critical that comes out, the advantage that it will be viewed in the context of thousands and thousands of other emails and nothing can be blown out of proportion when you have the full context of the governor's communications.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, some of it is mundane, but it is interesting to see how much he emailed, he was constantly on that BlackBerry and even responding to constituents, and that does say something about him.

AVLON: It does. It's estimated that --

CUOMO: Do we know that it's him, by the way?

AVLON: We do. No, no, I mean, you know, Margaret was reading one of the emails on the way here. And it was actually a constituent asked that question -- he said, is it staff or Jeb? He said, it's Jeb.

CUOMO: Well, there you go. That's it, then.

AVLON: Thirty or 40 hours a week he was spending on this and he was an early adapter. I mean, you know, this sort of really being on email, dealing directly with constituents, it speaks to the man and his style of governing in a way that I think also creates a contrast with the other Bushes.

CAMEROTA: Margaret, let's talk about what's going on with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Is he experiencing a surge in popularity right now? And if so, what's behind it?

HOOVER: He is definitively, unquestionably, experiencing a surge in popularity, both in the grassroots and some of the conservative intelligentsia. And what I think is, he provides, at least on paper, before anybody's really lined up and started going a real alternative to Bush fatigue. And --

CAMEROTA: Just because his name isn't Bush?

HOOVER: Because his name isn't Bush, and because he actually has a lot of mainstream appeal and access to major donors. The reason he has access to major donors is because he had the good side of having three races in four years. His recall actually allowed him to tap major donors around the country because there are unlimited contributions that are able to participate in that recall election. So, all the major donors in New York and in California, and around the country, started writing him big checks.

So, that means he can go longer than all those --

CUOMO: The other part of Hovalon was making a gas face --

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: Yes, here's the deal, first of all, you know, I get how a blue state Tea Party governor from the Midwest is doing well in Iowa right now. He's leading in one of the polls that just came off by one point.

CUOMO: Fifteen percent they give him.

AVLON: That's right. But reality check on this, when the greatest thing you've done as being governor is be so unpopular they want to kick you out midway in your term and survive, that's not a ringing endorsement.

The second this, he's had an inflated reputation in Washington for a longtime because the RNC and Reince Priebus and the staffers at the Republican National Committee are all Wisconsinites. And so, he's a hometown hero to them. So, they've been pumping out his name inside the D.C. press corps for a long while now. So, there's a bit of a Walker bubble I think you're seeing as well.

CAMEROTA: So, what does it mean for 2016, Margaret?

HOOVER: Look, I think he and Jeb and Christie are sort of leading the pack and I think you have another tier of candidates that's sort of behind. And, look, we know this is a long race it takes two years to get there and then it is about -- you know, who can get the most money to get through it. And I think Walker is a contender. I really do think --

CUOMO: Oh, you're going to have an emphasis on who right now, because you're light on what. You won the election but you won it basically because the Democrats were in disfavor, not because had you some plan you were offering or some rationale and I think that's why you're seeing a difficulty in congressional leadership early on.

My question is, so, if you're not going to have the what, then what's the who? If you're not going to have the what and what's the who?

HOOVER: What do you mean we don't have the what?

(CROSSTAK)

AVALON: This is like a Dr. Seuss book.

CUOMO: No, no, here's why -- Reaganesque is starting to come up again, right? Look, he may he rest in peace, he was a legend in American politics, but do you think that's the model you want to go if you want to win back the middle class, and you're going to have trickle-down? Trickle-down all of the deficit problems you had under Reagan?

HOOVER: In the conservative primary, the Republican conservative primary, say Reagan as much as you want. If you want to win a new generation of Americans, the largest -- the oldest millennials were eight years old when Reagan was president. They don't remember him.

If you want to build new coalitions, you want Hispanics, you want women, you want the youth who are going to be more than 25 percent of the electorate, don't do the Reagan thing. Just stop.

CUOMO: Then why do you keep saying it?

HOOVER: What? I don't keep saying it. I think the conservative intelligentsia.

CUOMO: You have the elephant right over your shoulder right now. That's the people your party is in.

HOOVER: He's talking in my ear.

(LAUGHTER)

HOOVER: Look, it is not the way to win a new coalition to build new coalitions, you can't keep harping back. I agree with you, I think it's nuts. But Republicans can't help themselves. He's the last big successor who built coalitions on the Republican side.

CAMEROTA: Margaret, John, great to see you guys.

AVLON: You guys, too.

CAMEROTA: Thank you so much.

CUOMO: I felt like Margaret almost was with me on something there.

AVLON: How did it feel?

CUOMO: It's very odd. I don't know. I process and I'll get back --

CAMEROTA: He's disoriented at the moment. Thanks so much, you guys.

PEREIRA: We'll give awe whole commercial break to process that, Chris, OK?

"NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams now the subject of punch lines. Ahead, we're going to show you "The Daily Show" take on the scandal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, THE DAILY SHOW: Bri, why? Why, Bri? Why, Bri, lie? Sigh. I see the problem -- we got us a case here of infotainment confusion

syndrome. It occurs when the celebrity cortex gets its wires crossed with the medulla anchordala.

The truth of what a reporting saying is on the direction their face is turned. News story -- war story. Trust me on this. Total bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Jon Stewart taking on the Brian Williams scandal on the "Daily Show" last night.

The controversy seeming not going away for Williams. "Stars & Stripes", the Web site that first broke the story, just released an interview with the news anchor in which he answers questions about his false reporting from the Iraq war.

So much to talk about with our own Bri, why, Bri? Brian Stelter, host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES", and senior media correspondent.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I'm looking straight at the camera the whole time.

PEREIRA: You got to watch which way you look at the camera.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: I want to talk about the Stewart aspect of it, he's the only one of the shows, none of the other late-night shows, even touch the subject, which he found interesting when you think of the fact he was on Fallon some 18 times between 2009-2013. Several times on Seth Meyers, et cetera.

STELTER: And he was supposed to be on Letterman this Thursday.

PEREIRA: It's interesting, though, that none of them would touch it. It seems prime fodder for them.

STELTER: Yes, only Comedy Central. I thought Larry Wilmore went a little tougher on Brian Williams than Jon Stewart did. Stewart and Williams been friendly over the years and they appeared on each other shows, so maybe that was why.

I do think Stewart was making some important points, though, about the moment in the culture we're in, right? If we in 2003 --

PEREIRA: Infotainment. Interesting.

STELTER: Yes, if we were in 2003. He's right, a lot of people were in agreement about there weren't enough tough question asked about the war in Iraq. But every story and every moment you know, kind of comes together. This is a moment where lying or exaggerating or fibbing is something that the culture is engaged in and talking about and concerned by. So, that's one of the reasons that the story is resonating. CAMEROTA: "Stars and Stripes" magazine, a military magazine, has

released a new excerpt. It was taped on February 4th interview with Brian Williams, where he tries to explain how he conflated the stories and why he got them wrong. But we're not sure that it actually helps him.

Here, let me play the portion of his explanation.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I was told by one of the crew members who was actually on your Chinook is that you guys were like an hour behind this grouping of three Chinooks, out in front and that's three Chinooks out in front came under fire and the middle one was hit.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS: And that's the first I've heard of that. I did not think we were in trail by that far. I could not see in front of us, but I thought we were just in one flotilla for lack of a better word. I did -- that's the first time I've heard that.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So, he says it's the first time that he heard he was an hour behind. But during the actual reporting back in 2003, I believe he, they had mentioned that he was 45 minutes to an hour behind.

So, does this help explain that he confused his memory? Or does it hurt?

STELTER: Some people think this interview does help, you know, because it does show that maybe he genuinely did not know what was going on at that moment in the mission until he was told about it in "Stars and Stripes" and told about it by these soldiers. But then, you wonder, why he didn't do more checking at the time. In the hours and days after this RPG strike on a helicopter near him, why didn't he do more reporting at that time? That becomes one of the question --

CUOMO: Well, the original reporting that they did had it just about right, right? I mean, the original reporting by NBC. That it changed over time.

STELTER: Except that several soldiers told "Stars and Stripes" and one of the soldiers have told me, that they heard an NBC report that exaggerated the tale in 2003, within weeks of this initial incident. Now, no one has found that video. No one has found that transcript. Every hour of Iraq war coverage was not logged and is not online.

So, maybe the video is out there somewhere. If it is, that's damning for Brian Williams, because these soldiers say they heard it, we haven't seen it yet. And I thought it was notable in the "Stars and Stripes" interview, Williams says he doesn't think it's true.

I also thought it was notable in the interview, it happened on Wednesday, few hours before he apologized on air. That apology on air is what triggered all the rest of this, because people thought it wasn't sufficient. Well, in the "Stars and Stripes" interview, he said he didn't know if

he was going to apologize on air. He said, I'll talk to my boss about it. I'm open to it.

It suggests to me that NBC didn't understand how much of a crisis this could become. If they weren't aware how severe this could be to as a hit to his reputation.

PEREIRA: I find this interesting. There may be nothing there about this. This, as you mentioned, it was February 4th, interview was done. Why is it now only coming to light and we're hearing about it?

STELTER: "Stars and Stripes" says they put it out now because he canceled on Letterman, because there's no other interviews scheduled, they thought she should share all of this. We should get it all right to the public.

CUOMO: This is also, I mean, "Stars and Stripes" is a very specific outlet. This is not kind of stuff they ordinarily engage in. They have a pretty mandate.

But I think it's a good suggestion, who is the critic base? In part, it's Brian's competition.

But also, the media is in a tough spot when it gets into this, we're going to judge who's good and bad at the job. I think that we don't want to give a pass to the late-night comedians, because they're so desperate to be relevant. And they want to take on the media all the time.

Jon Stewart is going to talk about infotainment? He created it when it comes to media. You know, he's the one who blurs that line about that stuff.

You know, Fallon, these guys, I love Jimmy Fallon, these guys, Letterman, he did this on Letterman. How do they not talk about this and then say they are a relevant outpost for media criticism?

STELTER: Is that a version of elitism that media --

CUOMO: I think they're protecting their friends. I think they don't want to get stink on them. And it shows that they don't doe do what we are forced to do by mandate, which is, even when it's uncomfortable, even if you like the guy, you have to talk about it because there's a standard.

STELTER: The question I've been asking myself is, does the public care? Does this resonate out in the rest of the country?

PEREIRA: Yes, I'm very curious about that.

STELTER: Some of Brian Williams fans are upset last night that he wasn't on the air. You saw it all over Facebook.

BERMAN: We've known by Friday, though, Brian. Tell them about the number Friday. STELTER: But on Friday, after four days winning in the ratings, Brian Williams dropped to number two, that was before he took his leave of absence, an early indication that some viewers were paying attention and there's a "New York Times" report this morning with some interesting market research data. It's by a firm called the marketing arm, used to call DB Brown. They research celebrities and people like that. He was the number 23 most trusted person in the America. He fell all of a sudden to number 835.

So, that might be temporary, but it's another example that the public is paying attention.

PEREIRA: But it's a big question about if. I mean, there's a lot of ifs about how this is going to be handled. But let's say NBC was to take a really aggressive stance and say he's out or he decides to take himself out of the chair permanently.

Then what? What does NBC do? I mean, do they have a bench that lends itself to stepping in and filling the shoe.

STELTER: Some people feel the network does not have a bench, has not been grooming a successor. I disagree. I think Lester Holt who filled in last night has been there for a decade, he's been filling in for Brian Williams for a long time.

PEREIRA: Well-respected.

STELTER: Yes, definitely well-respected. We quoted someone yesterday as saying there's not a curve ball he can't take. He's up for anything, and he's been thrown one right now, probably the toughest curve ball of his career right now, because he can't appear too comfortable in the job, lest he appear to be taking advantage of the situation, but he has to steady the ship, and I thought he did a good job of doing that last night.

There's others, Matt Lauer, you can imagine Savannah Guthrie, Josh Elliott. I think the network has options. Its just a matter of whether they're going to actually make that move. It will be an extraordinary moment to either force him out or have him leave voluntarily as a result of this. But it is actively being talked about.

CUOMO: That job is not just another news desk job. I mean, I know the audience is stratifying in the morning. Not to be self-serving, but the morning has certainly become a bigger financial outpost and relevancy outpost. But people when they tune in, when things matter, when bad things are going on, the men and women who occupy those jobs count and it can't just be somebody.

STELTER: It's still a special role. It's still a role many young journalists aspire to have. Even when very bad news or very good news happens, those are the top jobs. Even in the stratified media age. That's one of the reasons why he's being held to such a high standard.

PEREIRA: The conversations obviously going to continue. You can continue it on Twitter or on Facebook. Get into the conversation with us.

CUOMO: One story, but there are so many this morning. A lot of news, let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Boston has been pummeled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The crippling effect of all of this snow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been 14 days, we've gotten 70 to 80 inches of snow around the commonwealth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody just fed up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They keep losing territory here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The two leaders, they sounded very far apart on the key question of sending arms to the Ukrainian military.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I've asked my team to do is to look at all options.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reports say that Jesse Matthew has been charged with first degree murder.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Authorities investigating if He could be connected to a string of unsolved killings and disappearances in the area.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eighteen-year-old Hannah Graham was last seen in September. The body was found just over a month later.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY.

We begin with the relentless, record-breaking snow paralyzing New England. Boston, shattering the record for the most snowfall in the last month, with more than five feet of snow on the ground. The state's governor declaring a state of emergency.

COUMO: The snow has the city at a standstill. Streets are impassable. Cars are buried, the rail service has trouble. Now, there are reports of roofs collapsing under the weight of the very heavy snow.

Let's begin our team coverage with Rosa Flores. She's live in Boston for us.

Big city there. You know, certainly by Massachusetts standards, and everything is just frozen. What's the latest? ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, I want to show you the

magnitude of this prolonged snow event. You can see there's a lot of snow around me. The snow banks very, very high.

I want to measure one for you, really quickly just to give you an idea, this one, measures at about 45 inches here. And you're probably thinking, oh, Rosa, that's a snow bank, no big deal. Hear this -- the National Weather Service saying Boston, is going to receive more than six feet of snow. I stand probably an inch shy of that.

And guess what? The snow doesn't only pack on roads, take a look up here. It packs on roofs. Making the situation very dangerous.