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Weather Causes Flight Delays, Cancellations; 2015: A Year of Faith and Politics. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 25, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gunman went into the office during the editorial meeting.

[06:00:17] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police raids linked to the Paris attacks are under way in Belgium.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An active shooter in San Bernardino, California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISIL wants to bring this as a war between the United States and Islam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An unbelievable scene of lawlessness in Baltimore.

MARILYN MOSBY, PROSECUTOR, BALTIMORE: To the youth of this city, I will seek justice on your behalf.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another tape the city of Chicago does not want you to see.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're bringing drugs. They're rapists.

Complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I cannot wait to stand on the debate stage with Hillary Clinton.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mail.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've lost more sleep than all of you put together.

KIM DAVIS, COUNTY CLERK IN KENTUCKY: You're a strong people!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pope of the Holy See.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there's anything true about Pope Francis, he is close to the people.

POPE FRANCIS, CATHOLIC CHURCH: God bless America.

(END VIDEOTAPE) (MUSIC: "JOY TO THE WORLD")

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to a special Christmas day edition of NEW DAY. Merry Christmas. You have your news elves, Alisyn Camerota, Michaela Pereira, and whatever my name is. We're all here for you. You were just listening to the Young People's Chorus of New York City. They're going to be with us throughout the morning, a real big treat.

We're also going to give you the latest news, as well as going through 2015. All the big stories, from the rise of Trump to the ongoing terror threats home and overseas.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And on this Christmas day, we'll have a look at the role that faith played in the headlines this year, including the pope's historic visit to the U.S., of course, and Cuba. So we'll discuss all that with our religious roundtable.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: And our show wouldn't be complete without talking about holiday returns.

CUOMO: Uh-oh.

PEREIRA: You probably got something today that you might not have had on your list. We're going to share some tips to make the process painful -- painful? Or painless.

CUOMO: Yes.

PEREIRA: Probably better.

CUOMO: Strong correction.

PEREIRA: All that and much more ahead, but first, let's give you a check of your headlines at the news desk.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and merry Christmas. I'm Boris Sanchez. Let's take a look at your top stories.

The severe weather death toll rose overnight as officials count the casualties from dozens of tornadoes across the country. And with the record warmth continuing, the threat of severe weather continues through the weekend.

The National Weather Service has issued a rare tornado warning for the Sierra foothills after multiple funnel sightings like this one. The apparent tornadoes left behind toppled trees and damaged the homes and cars, but fortunately, no reported injuries.

A very different story in the southeast, though. Officials now say 14 people died as a severe thunderstorm tore across the region. Dozens more were injured. At least seven of the deaths came from Mississippi, where the governor has declared a state of emergency. The weather service says at least 14 tornados hit that state alone.

I want you to listen to this man's terrifying experience. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When it started really whooshing, and it started sucking my bedroom window open. I took off to take cover.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Officials say most of the damage came from one monster tornado. Look at that. The monster tornado may have been on the ground for 150 miles, all the way from Mississippi into Tennessee. Six people there died, where a state of emergency has been declared.

And in Georgia, as well, there was widespread flooding from heavy rains.

The weather still causing headaches for holiday travelers. More than 100 flights already canceled this morning, with major airports gripped by heavy fog and storms. More than 400 flights canceled in the U.S. yesterday on Christmas Eve, with delays stretching several hours. Airlines also bracing for a winter storm that could wreak havoc over the weekend.

For the latest on the severe weather, let's bring in meteorologist Chad Myers.

Chad, good morning, merry Christmas to you. You know, we were joking about the warm weather we were going to have on Christmas...

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... but this is what you get with those unseasonably warm temperatures: some spring severe weather.

MYERS: It felt like spring. It smelled like spring, and merry Christmas to you, too. And it still does here on the south. I just saw a bunch of lightning on the way in. But we did have tornados in California yesterday. Two tornados in California and one down in the Deep South. That's about what we expected, just one. Because we knew it wouldn't be a day like the day before where we had, like, 20.

And today's still going to be a wet day, and it's still not out of the question to get another couple tornados in some spots. And really, even in California, there are two tornados on average every December. So I guess we got our two. Now we're done. We don't need any more. So that's the good news.

[06:05:07] Warm weather across the Deep South. If you're traveling today, there's a lot of flooding.

Honestly, there's a lot -- there are many, many roads in the southeast that are either under water, impassable or at least have a blockade over it and says, "Don't go there."

Now there's a potential for more weather today, and it's weather in the same places that we've had weather already. It's the flood threat that we're seeing: one shower after another, rain after another, on top of another, another. And that's where we're seeing this warm weather, humid weather, lots of rainfall.

Look at this: D.C. today will be 24 degrees above normal. That's the warm weather you talk about. But when you get that kind of warmth, you get humidity, and you get heavy rain.

Back to you.

SANCHEZ: All right. Chad, thank you.

Protestors staged what they call a black Christmas in Chicago, more than 100 people marching along Michigan Avenue on Thursday, holding die-ins, blocking last-minute shoppers from stores and calling for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The protests happening in response to the 2014 police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

And tense moments inside a busy mall in Charlotte, North Carolina, as police shoot and kill a suspect they say pointed a gun at a police officer. The incident started with a fight between rival groups, where the suspect allegedly fired his gun. It obviously drew the attention of an off-duty cop. Witnesses say the suspect pointed his gun at the responding officer, who then shot and killed the suspect.

And right now, Pope Francis sharing his traditional Christmas message and blessing to the world from the central balcony at St. Peter's Basilica. During Christmas Eve mass, he denounced materialism, urging Catholics to not be intoxicated by possessions.

And until then, there's a look at your morning -- Christmas morning headlines. Alisyn, Michaela and Chris, back to you.

CUOMO: Let's begin this morning talking about the role of faith in some of the biggest headlines of the year. We all remember the pope's historic trips this year. You had all the religious rhetoric surrounding the 2016 presidential race. And of course, what we're dealing with in terms of terror.

All right, let's discuss with a special group: Christine Lee, the vicar of All Angels Church; Father John Devaney, host of Sirius XM's Catholic Channel. And McKay Coppins. He's not clergy. He's senior political writer from BuzzFeed. It's great to have all three of you here. Merry Christmas or whatever applies to you.

All right. So let's look at the best and the worst. Christine, I'll start with you. When you think about faith, the best manifestation of it this year?

CHRISTINE LEE, VICAR, ALL ANGELS CHURCH: I think definitely Pope Francis' visit.

CUOMO: You give the nod to the big man out of Rome, do you?

LEE: I do.

CUOMO: Why?

LEE: Well, I think there's something about Pope Francis. And he said this himself, that when he looks at people, he sees the image and likeness of God in them. And that gives them value and dignity. So whether he's talking to President Obama, whether he's talking to a homeless person, whether he's addressing Congress, or meeting with Kim Davis, he sees each person as made in the image of God, and he treats them as such. And that's so out of the ordinary in our very politicized world.

CUOMO: The Kim Davis. I like how you tucked that in there. Want to bring up a little bit of controversy to the pope's trip, because he had struck this almost ecumenical, almost secular vibe, where boy, he's just going the right thing, doesn't matter what you believe. And then there was that meeting with Kim Davis, which started the play into the little inside politics. How did you see it?

MCKAY COPPINS, SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER, BUZZFEED: Well, I mean, the pope has been interesting in the way he's kind of scrambled the politics in this country.

But I think the visit with Kim Davis was a non-toward the fact that the Catholic Church cares a lot about the issue of religious liberty.

Kim Davis, in particular, though, has been a very controversial figure, because she's become -- almost immediately was kind of co- opted as an icon of the religious right and the Republicans. You saw candidates like Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz aggressively champion her, almost turn her into a stump speech line. Right?

But I think that the issue of religious liberty, while this was a very controversial point, continues to feed into the 2016 race and will all through next year. And I think that there are also signs of real compromise that are to be had, if people are willing to come together in kind of good faith and work it out.

CUOMO: It's a real flip on the notion of religious liberty. We've been playing with it in terms of inclusion. This wound up being about essentially the right to exclude. Kim Davis, of course, the Kentucky clerk. You remember, she didn't want to deal with gay marriage.

So father, that brings us to you. The worst manifestation of faith. What do you see out there, where you're like, "Wow, this is not good, not good for the world of faith?"

FATHER JOHN DEVANEY, HOST, SIRIUS XM'S CATHOLIC CHANNEL: Sure. Any kind of fundamentalism. It's clear. Obviously, I mean, what we've seen since the stage with June 2014 now, the threat of ISIS. Pope Francis talked about this not too long ago. Any kind of fundamentalism in the name of God, especially with murder, is blasphemous.

CUOMO: Your brothers and sisters, some of them within the Christian faith, Catholic faith, do not like to hear that. They say the Muslims are different. They're different than us. Christians don't do that. What do you tell people?

DEVANEY: We're all people of good will. And we're all people who are children of God. I mean, that's what we truly believe. If we believe in the one God who created us all, who got the whole thing going, so to speak, and as we view him as a merciful father, that's the big thing the Catholic Church is in right now, the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.

[06:10:09] And for example, you know, we have Christians in the Middle East who are finding a place where they can't live, necessarily, anymore. So we have to look at everybody as children of God.

CUOMO: But Christine, we know we were dealing with this as a culture right now. Whether it's President Obama and what he decides to call terror, not saying the word "Islamist" or "Islamism" or "Islamic," what do you tell people when they say, "But Christians don't run around killing people in the name of Christianity the way Muslims do. They're different."

LEE: That's the primary thing, is I always go back to Alexander Solzhenitsyn's great quote about the line between good and evil doesn't run through religions. It doesn't run through -- it doesn't run between religions or between nation states, but through every single human heart.

And I think that there can be a lack of humility on the part of Christians when you say, well, there's a good us and a bad them. To me, that feels like a lack of self-awareness about the reality of sin in our own hearts. And that it's not a Muslim or a Christian thing. It's a human thing.

And so I feel like this out there is some -- there should be some kind of understanding and a graciousness towards each other, knowing that we're all just trying to do the best that we can.

CUOMO: High bar when people deal with fear and anxiety and terror. What do you think needs to happen in terms of bridging this gap of understanding what is about faith, versus what is simply a perversion of faith?

COPPINS: Well, I think that, no matter what faith you come from, you can find historic -- historical examples of your faith being perverted and turned evil, right? This is a point that President Obama once made, and it became very controversial, hearkening back to the crusades.

Now, in our time, obviously, Muslim people of faith are dealing with this hateful ideology that's taken roots in some parts of their community.

But I think that one thing that can happen that, hopefully, would bring people together is if Christians and people of all faiths were able to reach out to Muslim people.

I think we've actually seen an interesting example of that in Texas with the Syrian refugee crisis, where you saw a lot of Christian religious organizations defy the conservative politicians in their state and take Syrian refugees in and say that "We want to help these people, regardless of what the -- kind of the pulpit pounders and the conservative political world are saying. We want to help these people." And they cite religious liberty as their right to do it.

I think that the more we see that, we see religious organizations, whether they're conservative or liberal or in the middle, reach out to Muslims, I think that that will -- that will help to bridge the gap.

CUOMO: Christine, McKay, Father John, thank you very much. Merry Christmas to you both.

DEVANEY: Thank you.

CUOMO: You too.

COPPINS: Chris, I...

CUOMO: As a reporter, I should have given you a nod, too.

Alisyn, I'll tell you: We'll end it where we started, with the pope. When he was asked this very convoluted question about what to do with Islam, he cut it off and he just said, "Be kind. Be kind, always be kind."

CAMEROTA: Chris, that is so simple, yet profound.

Now to the other end of the spectrum, politics. The political pundits dismissed him, but Donald Trump dominated in 2015, becoming the undisputed Republican frontrunner. Will the same be true in 2016? We'll discuss when our special Christmas day edition of NEW DAY continues.

But first, let's listen to the Young People's Chorus of New York City.

(MUSIC: "DECK THE HALLS")

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:12] CAMEROTA: Donald Trump rewriting the political playbook this year, sparing no one his insults and making loads of controversial comments. What will happen next?

Here to predict and discuss this wild year in politics, John Avlon, a CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast"; and Errol Louis, political anchor at Time Warner Cable News and a CNN political commentator.

Gentlemen, great to have you here.

CUOMO: Merry, merry. Happy, happy.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Merry Christmas.

CAMEROTA: So no one other than perhaps Donald Trump saw this coming, his dominance in 2015, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. No, it's been through the looking glass this year. I mean, this is -- this is a circus unlike anything that we have seen in modern American politics. I mean, for the sheer rhetorical style of a celebrity demagogue. It's like Huey Long plus, you know, someone with a telethon.

But it has been remarkably powerful in rallying a core part of the conservative populist base. And at this point, it ain't no joke. And the Republican Party needs to get its head around it, and they're starting to. But this guy could be a real threat to be the nominee. To say otherwise is irresponsible.

CUOMO: Well, look, I mean, it was slow going for a lot of people in the media to take him seriously. But now I hope that it has moved past that, because there's just too many polls saying it another way. And people say it as a revolution, not a circus who follow him. That they are done with politics as usual. They want someone from outside who's showed success and who says it like it is. What's the plus- minus on that.

LOUIS: It's very interesting. Because you properly, I think, sort of pivot where the media should have been all along, which is not so much what's going on in Trump Tower and Donald Trump, but what's going on out in the hinterland, the people who support him. Is it a moment or is it a movement? Is it a man or is it a movement?

I think there's something going on out there, and it seems pretty clear that it's widespread distrust with many of our institutions. You can go from the local level to the White House, and you see that the schools aren't teaching, the factory's closed. It looks like government's been bought by the wealthy.

And people sort of get that there's this problem out there, and so they have seized, many of them, on Donald Trump, because he has some very simple clear-cut emotional solutions. Not policy specifics in most cases, but just this kind of raw emotion that something's wrong, something's horrible. Let's go get them. Round up the pitchforks.

AVLON: Yes. The populist billionaire is an unlikely creature, and I think the two things that are different about this, there's one celebrity, which becomes his Teflon, right? It's the Achilles Heel of our culture.

Because he is a celebrity, and he's seen as being brash. He can't say anything that's so scandalous that people are actually shocked. The second thing is the self-funding mechanism. There's no things that there are things that politicians can learn from Donald Trump in terms of being more authentic, more raw. But the real dangers the forces were playing with here right now, and we've got to be real about that, too.

CAMEROTA: OK. So that was one big political surprise of 2015. Another surprise award goes to John Boehner. Let's remember the moment that he announced his surprise resignation.

AVLON: I'm going to cry.

CAMEROTA: Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I rise today

to inform you that I will resign as speaker of the House, effective upon the election of my successor.

I will also resign as the representative from Ohio's Eighth District at the end of this month. I leave with no regrets, no burdens. If anything, I leave the way I started. I'm just a regular guy, humbled by the chance to do a big job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Errol, there were lots of interpretations about why he chose that moment. Some gave credit to the pope, that he had had sort of a come to Jesus talk with himself about what his future was.

LOUIS: Well, I mean, maybe the pope helped him with the timing, but the fundamental forces, I think, relates back to the Donald Trump phenomenon, which is massive discontent.

Over the last couple of cycles, we replaced conservative Democrats with whom Republicans normally had some sort of ongoing working relationship, with Tea Party Republicans who are unyielding, who made an enemy of John Boehner, who wouldn't give them their votes, who forced him into all kinds of terrible choices about whether or not to keep the government open. He got sick of it.

And I think he was right to get sick of it. It's been incredibly frustrating. I think the public that supports this whole working arrangement right now is going to probably realize sooner or later that this is not the way to run our particular government.

CUOMO: It does seem that the GOP avoided the baby bath water dilemma with Paul Ryan of getting him to come in and take it over. Maybe does become a breath of fresh air in what looked like a real miscalculation for the party overall.

AVLON: Absolutely. I mean, once you RINO-hunted Boehner and Eric Cantor out of office, you had this real crisis, where Kevin McCarthy, the heir apparent, all of a sudden pulls out of the race under sort of cloudy, murky circumstances.

And really, the entire leadership has to beg Paul Ryan to come in and save their bacon, which he ultimately did. Didn't want the job, ultimately took it.

But in this transition was actually two moments of grace, maybe not worthy of people -- papal grace. But one is that Boehner really made an effort to, as you said, clean the barn for the next guy. He took on a lot of tough bits of legislation. He didn't just leave Paul Ryan with a festering mess when it came to submergent bill (ph).

Paul Ryan has been a breath of fresh air. You talk to people on Capitol Hill; you talk to staffers and congressmen. They feel galvanized. They feel optimistic. They feel it's a more open style of leadership. And Paul -- probably, Paul Ryan is the only person who could have united the disparate factions of the GOP... CUOMO: For now.

AVLON: For now. That's the big thing. That's for the new year's day show.

CAMEROTA: Very, very quickly, on the flip side, Hillary Clinton had an interesting 2015. How would you at the end of it categorize?

LOUIS: I think she got lucky, a couple of different times. Of course, you know, she made her luck. Right? A lot of hard work.

CUOMO: ... made her opportunity?

LOUIS: Exactly right. She diligently put together a very impressive campaign organization. She did the same in 2008, and it didn't work out. But she's got the wind at her back at this point. A lot of experienced hands who are not going to make some of the mistakes from the past.

And because of what was going on, you can call it a circus. You could call it something unusual happening on the Republican side. She really kind of got a pass on many things. The e-mails never really sort of took hold with her base. They just don't care about that. There's a lot of stuff going on in the world.

She has an opponent in the form of Bernie Sanders who right up front said, "I'm not going to attack her personally." It's a gift. And she's made very good use of that gift. She's stayed out of the headlines. She's continued to raise money. I think she's continued to line up endorsement. She's got an eye fixed on the delegates, which she screwed up last time in 2008. And it looks like smooth sailing for her going into 2016.

CAMEROTA: There you go.

AVLON: She had a rough spring and summer. Don't kid yourself. And the Bernie Sanders phenomenon, the fact that all the energy in the activist class is surrounding a socialist senator from Vermont is surreal.

But Hillary Clinton, I agree with you, it's -- you know, merry Christmas, Hillary. You got out of it OK.

CAMEROTA: The gift of the Berni.

AVLON: That's right.

CAMEROTA: John Avlon, thank you guys so much. Merry Christmas. Let's get over to Michaela.

CUOMO: Play on Magi there.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

PEREIRA: I saw that. Very clever. All right. One of the biggest political debates is President Obama's

strategy against ISIS. The terror group continues its reign of terror around the world. We're going to discuss the effort to defeat them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC: "WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS")

PEREIRA: Good morning on Christmas morning. Welcome back to our very special Christmas day edition of NEW DAY. That was the Young People's Chorus of New York City playing beautiful for us.

Certainly, a lot to get to this half hour, including a look at the ongoing threat that ISIS poses to us here at home and around the globe.

CUOMO: First, let's get a check of your headlines at the news desk right now.

SANCHEZ: Good morning. I'm Boris Sanchez. Let's take a look at your top stories this Christmas morning.

Pope Francis just finishing his traditional Christmas blessing to the world from the central balcony at St. Peter's Basilica, calling for mercy for prisoners and help and dignity for refugees. During midnight mass, he urged Catholics to reject lavish living and to focus on being simple of heart.

Let's bring in CNN senior Vatican analyst John Allen, live for us in Rome. John, this message of modesty to be expected from the pope. He also...

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: ... Pope Francis very much aspires to being a peace pope. And so no surprise that he would use this traditional Christmas day urbi et orbi message -- to the city, meaning Rome, and to the world -- to issue a strong call for peace.

He touched on a number of global hot spots. From the Israeli- Palestinian conflict to Syria, to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the peace talks in Colombia.

He also denounced what he called brutal acts of terrorism in 2015, including, of course, the November attacks in Paris that have left such a scar on Europe.

As Europe deals with its most significant refugee crisis since the Second World War, he called on compassion for people fleeing situations from violence and poverty, calling upon host nations to be generous. He ticked off a series of other social ills, including child soldiers, human trafficking, unemployment. Called for respect for the dignity of every human life.

So what we've got, in a sense, was an X-ray of the social concerns of this pope, using the prominence of one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar to try to raise his voice in defense of peace and dignity around the world for us.

SANCHEZ: All right. John Allen, live for us in Rome, bringing us the latest from the pope's traditional Christmas blessing. Thank you, John.

There have three attacks, new attacks by Palestinians on Israelis in the last 24 hours. Officials say a man stabbed two soldiers in the --