Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

East Coast Digging Out from Historic Blizzard; Video Shows Names of 9 Paris Attackers; Obama Weighs in on 2016 Race. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired January 25, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The stakes in this election are so high.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we win here in Iowa I think we're going to do very, very well in New Hampshire.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via phone): I would love to have Michael Bloomberg run. I would love to have competition.

JOHN BERMNA, CNN ANCHOR: ISIS has released a gruesome new propaganda video.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It appears to show the nine of the terrorists responsible for the attacks in Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Or for some of you, your snow day. I'm Alisyn Camerota, outside of the Time Warner Center here at Columbus Circle. You see Chris Cuomo there, live in Iowa for us this morning; John Berman, live inside our headquarters. Both of you are inside, interestingly.

But I'm out here in the elements to show you the aftermath of the blizzard of 2016. New York City got 26.8 inches of snow. It missed breaking the record by 0.1 of an inch.

Behind me you see Central Park. That's where the snow measurements are taken. And all around me, you see New York City getting back to normal. It is a Monday morning, and commuters are coming back. New York City is open. Not true of other metropolitan areas such as Washington, D.C.

This storm affected the East Coast from the Carolinas up through -- past New York. But interestingly, not Boston.

Let me just show you some of the pictures here. You're seeing people trying to make their way in the aftermath of all the snow, all the cleanup crews. It has proven much more challenging than expected to clean up. Particularly, as I said, in Washington. Look at the roads. Look at

people here trying to pass. People got stuck. There were hundreds of people that got stuck on some highways.

So let's talk about people who are trying to use mass transit this morning.

CNN's Jason Carroll is live for us at Penn Station. How is it looking there?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, I know you're seeing New Yorkers are trying the get back to normal. But it's really an effort for commuters, especially those commuters trying to take the Long Island Railroad. Still experiencing a number of delays because the rails refroze, several rails refroze overnight.

So basically, the reality is whether you're here in New York City, or in Maryland, or in Washington, D.C., or Philadelphia, it's just going to be slow going today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, BALTIMORE: This is a complicated snow removal effort.

CARROLL (voice-over): This morning the historic and deadly winter storm is still paralyzing parts of the northeast. Millions continue trying to dig and plow out of the weekend's record-breaking aftermath. From space, you can see snow enveloping more than 13 states in white.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. There you go.

CARROLL: Officials now warning the melting slush may refreeze overnight, causing dangerous icy conditions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You might be cruising along at 50 miles an hour, and then you're going to hit snow. And we're going to have some accidents.

CARROLL: Crews in several states are still working around the clock to get Metro, train, and bus services back up and running. In New York, the Long Island Railroad sustained significant damage during the storm, forcing officials to only open 80 percent of the busiest commuter railroad in North America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will be a slow start.

CARROLL: The snowstorm dropping over 26 inches in Central Park, the second largest snowfall in New York City history. Glengary, West Virginia, two hours west of Washington, D.C., was the hardest hit, with over 42 inches covering their small town. The feet of heavy snow collapsing roofs in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

BILL DE BLASIO, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: I believe at the end of the day this will probably be our most expensive snow event ever.

CARROLL: This as reports rise to at least 30 deaths by the crippling winter storm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I tried to help the girl.

CARROLL: In New Jersey, a mother and her 1-year-old son died, waiting inside this car to stay warm. But snow was covering the tail pipe, and carbon monoxide quickly suffocated the family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, when the muffler is covered, you can't be sitting in the car that long. It's really sad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: Alisyn, anybody who knows this spot outside of Penn Station knows that normally, on any given day, you would see a number of cabs lined up out here and a number of people waiting for those cabs. But as you can see right now, it's empty.

Again, the reason for that is the people simply can't get here, get into the city to get the cabs. So the mayor is saying expect at least half-hour delays here. But those who are taking the Long Island Railroad, Alisyn, are going to be looking at delays much, much more longer than that.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely, Jason. Everybody is going to have to be patient today.

One of the places that is still crippled by the aftermath of this storm is Washington, D.C. Federal offices are closed today. Schools are closed today. And that's where we find Nick Valencia to give us an update of what's it's looking like on the ground.

Hi, Nick.

[07:05:05] NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Alisyn. Good morning.

We are right smack in the middle of the clean-up efforts here in the nation's capital. You can see here hundreds of pieces of equipment, heavy machinery. Spreaders, snowplows, things like that have been brought into the nation's capital to clean up the tons and tons of snow left behind. I was talking to one of the members of the cleanup crew here.

They say they're actually taking all of this snow to RFK Stadium. That's the old Washington Redskins Stadium. This, of course, is the result of 34 hours of consistent snowfall, more than 22 inches of snow measured at the National Zoo. And it's really crippled the nation's capital.

The federal government offices are closed, local government offices are closed, as well as schools. And if you look forward to the forecast tomorrow, freezing rain expected here, with this snow still all around. Let me get out of here as this police vehicle comes through here.

There was snow still all around the district. And with it, probably very limited places for it to go. There's a strong potential that there could be flooding here in Washington in the days ahead -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: That would be bad. And of course, the freezing rain is also dangerous. Thanks so much, Nick.

More than 1,200 flights have already been canceled for today. Obviously, what happens along the East Coast has a ripple effect out through the rest of the country.

But let's go to Rene Marsh. She's live for us at Reagan National Airport. How's it looking there, Rene?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what? We're starting to look like an airport here. We're seeing, like, luggage, passengers, people checking in. We're actually seeing the aircraft. It all is starting to look a lot better, Alisyn.

Here, Reagan National Airport, as well as Dulles International. They resumed limited flight operations this morning. It's a couple of flights landing. Significant for people trying to get in and out of the Washington, D.C., area, because these are the last two airports to open.

When I say last two airports, airports that were in the impact zone. Of course, we saw yesterday airports in New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. They resumed limited service.

But although things are getting up and running, these passengers are dealing with delays and cancellations. You said it right off the top, over 1,000 today. You're still seeing airports like LaGuardia, Newark. They still have lots of cancellations.

I have been speaking to the airlines. They tell me that they have been able to rebook a lot of these passengers. Everyone is not going to get to where they need to go to today. So people have to be patient. They're rebooking people. The moral of the story is people are getting boarding passes, but not everyone's going to get out today.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. That's a good message, Rene. We'll check back with you to see how it's going.

Meanwhile, our intrepid meteorologist, Chad Myers, is usually out here in the elements. Strangely, he's in the warm studio right now, looking out at how on the snowfall has gone, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I can finally feel my left toe, my left big toe after being out there all weekend long. So yes, we're in good shape. Thank you for being out there for me, by the way.

Temperatures will warm up but not enough to really make any significant snow melt except right there in the gutter as you step off the curb and you go splosh. Make sure you take an extra pair of shoes with you, because if you're walking to work today here in New York City, there's a lot of snow in those gutters, and it's all liquid, kind of mushy mess.

GFS model over the week. Take a look at what happened. New York City, they had about 12 to 18 inches. Obviously, it was bigger than that. We had significant numbers over 24 in a lot of cities.

The European model, though, not even close. Only 12 inches. So at least for once, we can say the American model outworked the European model here on the forecast. Central Park at 26.8. Dulles, 28.3. These are all big numbers. And it is still -- they're still tallying whether these were the biggest numbers or not in some of those locations that we call the little mezzonet (ph), the little guys that tell us all what's going on.

Late-week storm, I think it's offshore. I'm not worried about it, honestly, at all. He had run past D.C., past New York City. So far offshore that I think we do stay dry from it. We'll keep watching it. There's still the potential for it to do something. But for now, I'm not worried.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chad, we know you'll keep watching all of that for us. Thank you.

We want to go live now to Baltimore, where this storm was a record breaker. We want to bring in the mayor, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings- Blake.

Mayor, thanks so much for joining us this morning. How is your city doing?

STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, MAYOR OF BALTIMORE (via phone): Thank you for having me. We are digging out. This is the big dig from our -- the most historic snowstorm ever. I'd like to thank everyone for heeding the warnings and staying off the roads for the most part so we can focus on clearing the snow and not on removing vehicles. We have over 3,000 lane miles of neighborhood streets that we have to go in, dig the snow out and remove it. So it is a big endeavor.

[07:10:01] CAMEROTA: And Mayor, as I said, Baltimore broke previous records. You got 29.2 inches. So what was it like at the height of the storm there?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Well, it certainly wasn't a record that I was excited about breaking. But, you know, listen, people, everybody hunkered down. You know what we had to do. People are out having snowball fights, having a good time. And really, we just want everybody to be safe. If people can stay off the roads, that's why we closed the city government today. And schools are closed for a professional day. People can stay off the roads, we can do what we need to do, and we get the city back up and running as soon as possible.

CAMEROTA: We are looking at a live shot now of Baltimore. It is just incredible to see. It's a ghost town. I mean, it's a wonderland. You see some people there trying to make their way by foot on the streets. You're now in what you call phase two of your emergency plan. What does that involve? RAWLINGS-BLAKE: That means if you don't have the all-weather radio,

you don't have four-wheel-drive, you don't have chains on your tires, you are not permitted on the roads. And we're doing that because, at certain points during the storm, even our emergency equipment was getting stuck. And that's not where you want to be. And we want to keep as many of the abandoned vehicles off the road so that we don't have to slow down the pace of the work of removing the snow.

CAMEROTA: We know that mass transit in your city was shut down over the weekend. So for those people who do have to go to work today, is it going to be running?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: The state has said that they're going to do limited service for mass transit. And again, we're encouraging people to use common sense. I encourage offices, businesses, to use common sense. If your employees won't be safe getting in, then you should consider closing.

CAMEROTA: Mayor, how will you be spending today?

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: I am going to be visiting some of our youth workers. This winter we started a new program where we have kids signed up, young people signed up. And they will be paid through the youth works program to help shovel out seniors and people living with disabilities. I'm looking forward to going to visit them and just check in on some of our workers.

I spent some time yesterday visiting one of our expanded shelters and just -- I really just wanted to lay my eyes on people and make sure that everyone was doing OK. I keep saying that we're all in this together. And if we can remember that, I think we'll be better off.

CAMEROTA: And Mayor, that is such a good reminder. If you have a good neighborhood kid, if you have a teenager down the street, let that person shovel you out. Because we have seen, sadly, this storm has been deadly for some people. And people think that they can tackle this heavy snow, and they end up getting hurt.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: It's a really dangerous storm. And you have snow that's heavy. A lot of people aren't used to doing this type of aerobic exercise, aerobic activity for long periods of time that it takes to remove the type of snow that we have. And some of our guys out there, they want to be superman, but they don't have to be. They can be superman for 30 minutes at a time. They really need to take a break, stay hydrated and make sure they don't get wet.

We don't want to see anyone die out there shoveling snow. It's not that important. Your life is more valuable.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, thanks so much for taking time to join us on "NEW DAY." Best of luck there today.

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's go back inside where here it's probably about 70 degrees Fahrenheit. And John Berman standing by. BERMAN: It is. I've been acting like superman here for several minutes. I can go more than 30 inside here. Thank you, Alisyn.

All right. ISIS releasing a new propaganda video claiming to show the nine Paris attackers making their final statements before the massacre that killed 130 people in Paris. The tape also seems to confirm the order came from the very top of that terror organization. CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, joins us from London.

Nic, what is on this video?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: John, it's a very slickly produced production by ISIS. One, it uses a lot of news media footage of the attacks itself. Even video from inside the football stadium where, of course, there were three suicide bombers.

But what it does after that is very brutal, very stark and in keeping with what we've seen from ISIS previous to this. There are -- the nine alleged attackers. Three of them, they identify as French, four Belgium, and two Iraqis. And each of them has a little bit to say to the camera. There are threats. There's innuendo. And also demanding and calling for other Muslims to come and join the fight in Syria.

But also at the same time, they're involved in brutal killings of -- of prisoners. It is not quite clear who those prisoners are. It's almost, horrifically, almost as if they're extras in ISIS's awful propaganda material and then executed.

There were two references there to France. One is "We will attack you at the foot -- the bottom of the Eiffel Tower." There's another one: "Soon, the Champs-Elysees," the huge boulevard there everyone's familiar with in the center of Paris that leads up to the Arc de Triomphe.

[07:15:12] So very clearly insinuating that the attack is going to come to France. They say that Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, gave permission for it. Also, we see them training with automatic weapons again. This does seem to indicate, from what we saw in the attacks, they have had training. This is ISIS at its worst, trying to capitalize on that awful attack last year -- John.

BERMAN: Trying to show a direct link between Europe and Syria, to be sure. Nic Robertson for us. Thank you so much.

Severe turbulence on an American Airlines flight sends seven people to the hospital. The flight carrying 205 passengers on its way from Miami to Milan when it briefly hit turbulence. The plane was diverted to Canada where paramedics evaluated passengers and crew.

All right. Look at this. A skier in Alaska loses her footing and takes just an awful fall. Angel Collins plunged 1,000 feet down a mountain side in Alaska. You can hear the panicked breaths in the just unbelievable video as she tumbled down the slope. She finally came to a halt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANGEL COLLINS, SKIER: I'm OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You can hear her say, "I'm OK" right there. That is incredible. Glad she's doing OK.

All right. Time for us to get back to Des Moines, where Chris Cuomo is looking forward to that town hall tonight.

Hey, Chris.

CUOMO: Wowee. Wow. Wait a minute. Can we just talk about that video for one second, J.B.? Holy cow, it's amazing. Now, these athletes not just trying to find a way to survive it, but they can't wait to get back up there and do more extreme skiing.

BERMAN: Yes, I don't know. I'd think twice before I got up and did it again. I'm also thinking the audio equipment is pretty good.

CUOMO: Yes. That's a great demonstration of audio equipment right there, J.B., I'll tell you that.

BERMAN: Held up very well.

CUOMO: All right. Well, good. Lucky for her. Lucky for her It's good that it ended that way.

All right. So here we are. A lot at stake in Iowa. We're just a week away. So what could make a big determination. What's going to push the needle? I'll tell you. This town hall tonight is going to have a lot to do with it. This is the last best chance for the three candidates to get between actual voters and you, everybody at home watching, and make their best pitch for themselves.

Now, we have some news, as well. Bernie Sanders says he has a lot in common with President Obama. He says 2000 Iowa caucus, that's a good parallel for when an underdog can make a move.

Is he onto something? Guess who weighed in? President Obama. We have the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:21:47] CUOMO: Crunch time in the presidential race. Voting begins in one week here in Iowa. The intensity is high. Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders vying to make the case for why they are they one to keep the White House blue in November.

CNN is hosting a town hall tonight, perhaps the last best chance for all three candidates to make pitches directly to the voters. Here with me this morning to discuss the stakes and state of play, CNN senior political analyst editorial director for "The National Journal," Ron Brownstein; CNN Politics executive editor, Mark Preston; and CNN senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny. Gentlemen, thank you. CUOMO: So a big, big name just weighed in probably more than he has to date on what's going on on the Democratic side. President Obama, in an interview with Politico, letting his thoughts be known about the race. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete long shot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

OBAMA: And just letting loose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

OBAMA: I think Hillary came in with the -- both privilege and burden of being perceived as the frontrunner. Whoever the nominee is, is going to need the other person's supporters. It is important, however, to maintain a tone in which people feel as if you're playing fair. And I think Hillary has done that so far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Hmm. Disagree if you most -- must, Mark Preston. However, it seems to me, based on this and other things said in the interview, that the president, as his own staffer says, is thumbing the scale for Hillary Clinton, saying Vermont Senator Sanders is the bright, shiny new object that ironically he was in 2008.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: You stole my line. Because we now, back to the 2008 race for the White House, he came in as the bright shiny object at the outset. You know, he goes on to say that they need to come together if they're going to win.

But if you go back to 2008, Hillary Clinton didn't get out of that race until early June. That battle lasted that long. Now, the bad part of that was -- is that Barack Obama had to keep fighting. The good part of that was, though, that Barack Obama had an organization that was activated in all of these states that stayed activated through the general election.

CUOMO: I took your line. That was the pointzilla. But something else from the interview I want you to take on. Is the media being too harsh on her, President Obama. Yes. Is Bernie Sanders the new Barack Obama? "I don't think that's true," he said.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON POLITICS: And he believes that it's not true. There are many, many, many differences between Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is a 74-year-old independent who's now running as a Democrat. And he's a socialist. And he calls himself proudly a socialist.

Barack Obama has been a state legislator. He's worked with Republicans. He was a freshman senator, totally different. But I can tell you. The old Obama supporters, the coalition that he built here on the ground, it looks similar to Senator Sanders. You go to these events. The -- his supporters are younger. You know, they have more energy here, but there are many, many, many differences between Obama and Sanders.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That's still the big question about how far -- how far is the Obama coalition going to go? Now, let's just think about that, is the president is right, that from the beginning Hillary Clinton, I think, to a much greater extent than Bernie Sanders, formulated and put together her agenda with -- with an eye on actually being president and what you could actually do.

And it's interesting. As the race has gone on, that really has become an important fissure in the contest. Sanders, if you look at that beautiful final ad, the "America" ad is about joining a movement that is really not immediately attached to what can happen. Whereas Clinton's argument aimed primarily at older voters, I think, is who is ready to be president. Who has a plan that can actually be implemented? The president, again, kind of thumb on the scale was kind of saying, well, maybe you need to focus on that.

CUOMO: How important is it, though? Another thing that is different between Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama is Barack Obama was a black guy who was invigorating the minority base in a way that we hadn't seen. I mean, isn't that a fair point of contrast to what the Vermont senator will be able to achieve here in Iowa.

PRESTON: Right. But here in Iowa, I think it's about 5 percent of Iowa is African-American, right? So in many ways, if you compare Iowa to South Carolina and what Bernie's problems are and what we're saying is that Bernie has a problem with African-Americans.

So he's doing well here in Iowa. Barack Obama, as Jeff said earlier, did well. He proved that a black man could win in a state that was overwhelmingly white. That helped him. You know, he didn't win New Hampshire, but it certainly helped gain some credibility.

BROWNSTEIN: And had black support in South Carolina.

CUOMO: You didn't have to be -- you didn't have to be brown as a Democrat to be excited by the idea of a black president either, which played a role.

ZELENY: But Senator Sanders is making the Obama argument in every stop he makes. He's like don't let them, don't let the establishment tell you that this can't happen. Eight years ago, she made the same argument about experience. So it is closing in a similar way. She's making the experience argument. Remember that 3: a.m. phone call ad? Her ads now are so similar.

You know, the -- it's just a different time. And the Obama campaign built a much better organization here than the Sanders campaign has.

CUOMO: His mind, the intellect of the campaign then, was -- the sell was this is the new. We are the new. The new change. That is not Bernie Sanders's pitch. I mean, in many ways, his plan is the New Deal brought into this again. So that's a fundamental difference also.

BROWNSTEIN: The point of, I think, convergence is this idea that it's a movement, not just -- you're not just electing a politician. You're transforming America. And I think that is -- you're right.

In terms of the actual ideology of the agenda, Bernie Sanders is both -- is certainly left of even where Barack Obama was and certainly to where Hillary Clinton is today.

Obama in 2008 really did change the electorate in Iowa. Candidates talk about it all the time. It doesn't happen that often. You've gotten to a point where 22 percent of the voters here in 2008 were under 30. That was 5 percent.

CUOMO: Usually, it's single digits.

BROWNSTEIN: There were 17 in 2004, only 9 in 2000. So it was 2 and a half times. But it was the highest it was in many major state, and 22 percent in Iowa is higher than it was in any major state in 2008. So they really did transform the electorate. We will see, and I think that's going to be a critical factor in both races, in terms of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, for that matter. How much they can really bring in new voters and change the composition of the electorate?

PRESTON: Worth noting, too, back when Barack Obama was running, he ran on hope and change and encompassing message. We see this ad, or this recent ad, this America ad, which is a very good "feel good" ad.

However, what is his key word? This is a political revolution. It's the pitchforks. Let's go -- let's go to Washington and take it over, almost in a very aggressive way. Obama didn't go in that way. He went in saying, "I'm going to bring change, and I'm going to work with people."

Bernie Sanders is saying, I'm going to go in, and we're going to burn the place down and rebuild it.

ZELENY: Now President Obama knows how hard the job is. Eight years ago, she called him naive, among other things. So you cannot -- a lot of his supporters out there I've talked to, some of the people who supported him, they say we're going to be with Sanders, even if he doesn't like what it does to the race. They like, you know, what it's doing for Secretary Clinton.

We'll see if she's veering too far to the left, though. That's the next question as this race goes on.

BROWNSTEIN: Even here, this question...

CUOMO: Real quick.

BROWNSTEIN: Even here, the question whether Sanders is over-relying on younger voters. Because I mean...

CUOMO: Right. BROWNSTEIN: ... this is not a primary. Every vote does not count

equally. You don't get points for, in effect, making the rubble (ph) bounce. A certain amount of delegates in each place. And once you win them, you win them. And having more votes doesn't advantage you in the same it would in a primary state.

CUOMO: Ron, Jeff, Mark, thank you very much. Appreciate it, as always. They will be with us tonight. We have the CNN Democratic presidential town hall, perhaps the last best chance for candidates here at Drake University in Des Moines, 9 Eastern right here on CNN. Alisyn, where are you now? Are you back in the studio or are you still standing in the snow? No, there you are.

CAMEROTA: They let me back into the studio so I can defrost. But I will be back out there, Chris, to show everyone what the aftermath is.

CUOMO: Of course you will. Hearty.

CAMEROTA: Exactly. All right. Chris, thanks. We'll be back with you, as well.