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U.S. East Coast States and Cities Recover from Snowstorm; Interview with Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser; Interview with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo; New York Governor: "Forecast Was Right On"; Clinton, Sanders Prepare Final Pitches To Iowa. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 25, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: More than 1,200 flights still cancelled.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The most historic snowstorm ever.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to do the best I can to make sure that I get the nomination.

BERNIE SANDERS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The American people do not want to see our nation move toward an oligarchy where billionaires control the political process.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This guy Bernie Sanders, give me a break.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am officially endorsing Ted Cruz.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Older brother Larry Sanders says he is not surprised the man he called "Bernard" is doing so well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think he can beat Hillary Clinton?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is January 25th. I'm Alisyn Camerota. I am on top of this snow mound here on what is Columbus Circle overlooking Central Park after this epic snowstorm. Chris Cuomo is in Des Moines, Iowa, for us, heading up the CNN Democratic forum. We'll get to him in a moment. John Berman is inside.

But look around. New York City is coming back to life after being completely shut down on Saturday. New York got 26.8 inches. It was one-tenth of an inch away from making history. That was the biggest snowstorm ever. This one almost broke that record.

There was a travel ban in New York City. That is almost unheard of on Saturday, but it did allow snow plows to get out and make the streets here passable today. So this morning we are seeing commuters come back. In fact, if you want to join me live back here, I'm going to come down from my snow mound, this might not be pretty, to show you what is going on here. You can see everybody on the sidewalks, and it looks like the winter wonderland over there at Central Park, but it's still treacherous. This is very icy. It is below freezing here. All of this is very slippery.

And then look at the yellow tape. This signifies just how dangerous it is. It says falling ice. The skyscrapers all around New York City have huge ice cycles hanging from them, and if you walk too closely to the building you could get pelted with one. So still lots and lots of danger even though it does look like a winter wonderland here.

But let's go to see how people are coming into the city today, to Penn Station. That's where we find CNN's Jason Carroll. What's it looking like there, Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, I think you said it best when you were talking about the city coming back to life. Just within the past hour some more of the Long Island railroad service has been restored. That is certainly good news to the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on that service every single day. Still some delays. That's a key word, "delay." Another key word, "patience." You are still going to need a lot of it when you head out in the city today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a complicated snow removal effort.

CARROLL: 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.

GOV. LARRY HOGAN, (R) MARYLAND: 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.

GOV. TERRY MCAULIFFE, (D) VIRGINIA: I believe at the end of the day this will probably be our most expensive snow event.

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 one-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 can't be sitting in the car that long. It's really sad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And Alisyn, unlike some other cities where schools are closed, schools in New York City remain open today, and that is a problem for some folks who are out in Queens where some of the secondary streets surrounding the schools have not yet been plowed. The city officials asking those folks to remain patient while they try to get the plows out into those neighborhoods and plow some of those secondary streets. Alisyn?

[08:05:12] CAMEROTA: It will require patience today. Thanks so much for that, Jason.

One city that is not yet up and running as normal is Washington, D.C. Federal offices there are closed as are schools. So let's check in with Nick Valencia. He is there to give us a status report on how D.C. is doing. Hi, Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn. Things are steadily getting back to normal here, if you can call it that. This certainly is not a normal sight here in the district. Heavy equipment being brought in, hundreds and hundreds of pieces of heavy equipment, things like snow plows, these big trucks that are loading tons and tons of snow that has accumulated over the weekend, more than 22 inches of it here in the district.

And it hasn't been pretty over here for the weekend. The cold weather has just been bone chilling, 34 hours of straight snow. It's been a very expensive storm to pay for, millions and millions of dollars. Across the river on the other side the governor of Virginia saying it may be the most expensive storm in the history of the state.

And of course the forecast doesn't look any better for tomorrow. There isn't snow expected today. The sunshine may help melt some of this ice. But of course with the rain coming tomorrow that could cause even more problems. And of course the state police here very concerned that the roads could ice over, and for the people who have dealt with this for three days gotten a little stir crazy and may want to test the limits of these road conditions, government officials stressing to stay inside, stay indoors. The worst of the storm may have passed but it is still a pretty big issue here in the nation's capital. Alisyn? CAMEROTA: Back pedaling on snow like you just did, Nick Valencia, you are a coordinated man. That is great stuff. Thanks so much for that status report.

Obviously air traffic has been snarled all around the country because of a ripple effect, what happens on the east coast affects the rest of the country. And 1,200 flights already cancelled for today. Let's check in with CNN's Rene Marsh. She is live at Reagan national airport. How is it looking behind you, Rene?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, it is starting to look like an airport. Take a look for yourself. You actually see people with luggage. They are smiling, going into the checkout counter, printing their boarding passes. We are actually seeing planes on the tarmac. Quite a difference from what it looked like the last couple of days here at Reagan national airport. We are seeing limited service happening here at Reagan as well as Dulles International also in the Washington, D.C. Aarea.

It's pretty significant because these are the last two airports to get service up and running -- when I say last two airports, airports within the target zone of the monstrous storm. Of course we saw New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore resumed limited service yesterday. Although things are getting up and running people are dealing with delays. They are dealing with lots of cancellations. This is going to be something that won't be resolved today only.

The airlines say they have been able to book the majority of these passengers, but everyone will not be able to get to their destination today. Airlines still struggling to catch up to themselves. So people will be getting to their destination but will happen throughout the course of this week. So we heard Jason say it. I have to repeat it, patience, patience will be key for anyone trying to travel by air, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Rene, thanks so much for that. We are going to stick in Washington, D.C. now where the mayor is trying to get the city back up and running. But as we said federal offices and schools are still closed. We want to bring in Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C. now. Mayor, thanks for joining us. How is it going there?

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER, WASHINGTON D.C.: Hi, Alisyn. We are digging out. We had our first big dig day on Sunday. We had a big snow, as you know, and we are working hard to dig out all of our residential streets over the next several days.

CAMEROTA: Buy mayor, by all accounts you all got a record-breaking snowfall there. However something went sort of hay wire in your measurement system and it didn't record accurately. Do you know how much snow you got?

BOWSER: Well, we don't measure the snow. I know the National Weather Service does that. From my estimation we got more snow than I have ever seen in Washington, D.C. I think my director reported to me that we're about 21, 22 inches, although we have had different snow totals in the district. I would venture to say we are higher than that in some parts of D.C.

CAMEROTA: I think you are. Dulles airport I think came in at 28.3 inches. As you say at the national zoo there in northwest Washington 22.4 inches. As we were saying, some of D.C. is still shut down. We know you are trying to dig out and get back up to speed. What has been the biggest problem with reopening and allowing this to be a sort of real Monday morning there?

[08:10:01] BOWSER: I would just say we expected with this amount of snowfall that it was going to take several days to get going. So we have been focused on our major arterials which are shaping up pretty well now. We also have to get into our residential areas. We had a freeze overnight and are going to continue to have cold temperatures throughout the week. So those things have been tough.

Our transit system came up partially today so that we have limited service. A lot of service in Washington, D.C. and our underground stations is open. We have limited bus service. When we get our metro system back, that is going to go a long way into getting the city reopen. We are still asking our residents to stay off the streets and motorists and pedestrians to stay off the streets. Even though our roads are passable we need to get our parking lanes back. We need to get the shoulders back on the highways. And that is when we will have regular operation on all of our city roadways.

CAMEROTA: Mayor, we just talked to the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, who said that he credited the main factor being able to get New York City up and running was the travel ban that he put into place on Saturday afternoon that allowed the snow plows to do their work. Did you consider a travel ban? Did you have moments of that?

BOWSER: We have throughout the storm encouraged our residents to stay off the streets, and for the most part they have heeded that. They prepared to hunker down and they did. We closed our government today and the federal government has closed, which is keeping the major users of the roadway off the road so that we can continue curb to curb access to our roadways.

CAMEROTA: Mayor, before we go, we found some pictures of you on twitter yesterday. What you were doing, which was basically helping to shovel people out, look at you. You grabbed a shovel. You are as hearty as they come, helping residents there. I mean, obviously we know everyone has to be careful. The snow is heavy. How are you feeling today after all of this activity?

(LAUGHTER)

BOWSER: Well, I feel fine. And it's true that we have mounted at a tremendous volunteer team to go out and help residents shovel. We have gotten over 4,000 requests for assistance and we have over 2,000 volunteers who have spanned out over Washington, D.C. to help a neighbor. I'll tell you, when we got to some places to help, neighbors were already pitching in. And there is more of that to do today. It is an incredible amount of snow. And the shoveling tips are serious. Take breaks, drink water. Don't try to do it all at once. CAMEROTA: Those are great reminders. Mayor Muriel Bowser, thanks so

much for joining us. Best of luck to you and the city today there.

BOWSER: Thank you. Thank you. Have a great one.

CAMEROTA: You too.

All right, let's go back inside to John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank, Alisyn. I want to bring in New York's governor Andrew Cuomo. Governor Cuomo, thanks so much for being with us. It is Monday morning. The storm is over. What is the area of greatest need right now?

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO, (D) NEW YORK: Well, John, we are doing pretty well frankly all across the board. We took some measures before the storm and during the storm that actually turned out to be very helpful. To the extent we have ongoing issues, it's on the Long Island railroad. It's a railroad that's above ground. There is a lot of icing on the tracks, a lot of snow on the tracks. So that has been the main area of focus even though Long Island railroad is functioning for about 80 percent of riders, but there is still some tracks that need to be cleared.

BERMAN: You talk about the measures that were taken before and especially during the storm. You did road closures, a lot of them in New York City, Long Island, bridges and tunnels, things like that. How much of a difference did that make? And governor, when you see the pictures that come out of Pennsylvania and Kentucky where you have these highways with miles and miles of traffic in the middle of the storm, what would you say to those states and how they chose to handle it?

CUOMO: Well, first of all, I know enough not to second guess or Monday morning quarterback, because I have been there myself, John. You make the best call you can given the forecast you have. I've made some decisions in past storms that turned out to be wrong because the forecast was not what they predicted. In this situation the forecast pretty much was right on so the decisions we made in the middle of the storm turned out to be prophetic.

We instituted a total road ban in downstate New York, which is a very elaborate measure. Let's use that word.

[08:15:00] New Yorkers don't like to be inconvenienced. And when you close all the roads and we closed all the crossings from New Jersey to come into the down state area. So that actually turned out to work very well because it kept people off the roads. It reduced the number of accidents.

We didn't have any fatalities due to the storm. We've had people who lost their life shoveling snow, but we have no accident-related fatalities which was amazing, frankly.

And since the cars were off the road we could use the plows effectively and we actually cleaned the roads and that is why we are in the good shape we are in today.

Now if the forecast doesn't turn out to dump as much snow then they are hanging in effigy today and criticizing me. But we have been there. I have been in situations where we didn't close the roads, people wind up on the road. One car gets stuck.

It backs up an entire highway and now you have a real public safety hazard on your hands. I have had people in cars overnight. It is not a good situation to be in. Again, it is up to the forecast.

You make the best decision you can with the forecast you have. This time in New York it worked out very well.

BERMAN: No effigies this morning, Governor. A good decision to help keep the people in the city and this state safe.

Now one CNN anchor who chose to get out of town in the face of the danger in the storm was NEW DAY's Chris Cuomo. He is on the phone with us. He is with us from Iowa -- Chris.

CUOMO: What happens is this, John, it is self-selecting. Some people see a challenge coming and they run. They just know that they can't deal with it. They get intimidated and anxious and literally flee the scene. That has happened.

I don't want to name names. Look, it can be even people very close to you. We all react to danger and challenges in our own way. I will not second guess anyone, John.

BERMAN: Thank you, Governor, for your graciousness. I know it is appreciated across the board.

A. CUOMO: Thank you.

BERMAN: Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Governor, for your graciousness. Is that what you have to say? JB, can you try and keep it a little impartial? Look how happy you are. You like that the governor came after me on my own show, don't you, you like it?

BERMAN: Whatever goes on between you two is not my business. I'm not getting involved there.

CUOMO: You didn't do anything to bait him at all. You are a good guy. I'll see you soon. We'll see how that snow tastes when I get back.

All right, so Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and also Governor O'Malley are all coming down to the wire here in Iowa. That is why we are having a town hall tonight.

This is probably the last best chance for them to get big exposure coming directly at voters. How are they preparing? Let's talk about Secretary Clinton's campaign when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:50]

CUOMO: All right, this is it. We have the three Democratic rivals preparing to talk directly to Iowa voters at tonight's CNN town hall here in Des Moines 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

So we have a new CNN poll of polls out this morning as well. What does it show? Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton neck and neck. There it is, 46, 44, 4. Let's discuss with Brian Fallon, press secretary for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Mr. Fallon, how are you this morning?

BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Good, Chris. How are you?

CUOMO: What is your take on the new numbers?

FALLON: I think the polls are up and down. There was a poll just on Friday that had Hillary Clinton up by 29 in Iowa. Do I think that is correct? No, but I also don't think that we were down by eight when CNN poll came out on Thursday suggesting that that was the case.

The bottom line is it is tight. We always knew it would be and in these final days I think that voters are going to contemplate on who is the fighter with the tenacity to get results on the issues that keep Americans up at night, who can do all aspects of the job keeping them safe from terrorism, but also insuring that the prosperity is shared economically up and down the income ladder.

And in this high stakes environment that we are in where Republicans look increasingly like they are going to nominate someone like Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton is best positioned to protect the gains we've made under President Obama.

CUOMO: We hear a contrast between for lack of better analogy perspiration versus inspiration, that Hillary Clinton is selling the pitch of how to do the job and what it takes to get things done a kind of pragmatism and that Bernie Sanders is reaching out to the heart of people and the passion of people on the Democratic side. Do you accept that comparison of the two?

FALLON: No, I don't. Here is why. There is no one that exudes heart on this campaign trail more than Hillary Clinton. I will give you an example.

She met a man in New Hampshire by the name of Keith who told her a story back stage prior to an event a couple of months ago about how he has to take his mother to work with him because she is suffering from Alzheimer's and he can't afford for her to have care during the day so that he can leave her and go to work.

And that has inspired Hillary Clinton to put forward a detailed plan to help not just with research to help make a cure possible for Alzheimer's, but also she proposed a top to bottom plan to help caregivers like Keith afford the cost of care and deal with the situation that they face with when they have a loved one that needs all day attention.

That is just one example of how she poured her heart into this campaign. She really listens to people out on the trail and has adopted some of her ideas based on what she hears from people.

That is why I think that tonight's forum is actually right up her alley. This is her at her best. She loves to take questions in the form of town hall style events. That is how we do it in Iowa and across New Hampshire. So I think she is uniquely positioned tonight to really shine.

[08:25:05]CUOMO: That's what tonight is about. We will tee it up with each candidate, but then it is about how they deal with the direct concerns of actual voters. How do you account for these crowds of Bernie Sanders and the numerous younger people who are there? This is a fact in terms of what we see on the ground here. Why do you think that is?

FALLON: So we have had great crowds, too. We are proud of the enthusiasm that we are seeing on the trail. I know that Senator Sanders over the weekend essentially insulted our reporters by suggesting that they are not as enthusiastic or energetic.

I don't think that is the case. I think that would come as a surprise to volunteers who fill our offices across Iowa and New Hampshire. And also beyond, Chris, because we actually have a deep volunteer network in all of these states that are going to be voting in March.

Hillary Clinton has visited many of those states and we get great crowds in those places, as well. So I think we are seeing a huge outpouring of enthusiasm and support for Hillary Clinton.

This is a great contest that's going on. It is a good thing for the party that it is happening. I think that we will be better off as a party going into a general election because of it.

CUOMO: Brian, very often we hear from people in the campaign and supporters of Secretary Clinton. Bernie is the new thing. You guys are fascinated by that and the energy around him. You judge him by a different standard than you do Secretary Clinton.

It is interesting that President Obama came out with a new interview talking about the election seemed to say the same thing. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete long shot and just letting loose. I think Hillary came in with the both privilege and burden of being perceived as the front runner. You are always looking at the bright shiny object that people haven't seen before. That is a disadvantage to her.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CUOMO: One of several examples in this interview what seems to be President Obama putting his thumb on the scale a little bit, not openly endorsing but seeming to favor Secretary Clinton, is there a plus minus to that?

It is always good to have the president of the United States in party say something good about it. Is there something about being connected too closely to the Obama administration given all these talk of a desire to move away from the establishment?

FALLON: Well, I saw the interview and read some of the president's comments including some very gracious compliments that he paid Secretary Clinton. I think that is a testament to the fact that they have a deep mutual admiration and respect for each other.

Obviously, they had a very spirited nomination contest back in 2008, but I think the respect for each other only grew after that. She was honored to serve under President Obama and his administration.

And actually she opens many of her events on the campaign trail by praising President Obama and saying that she doesn't think that he gets enough respect and credit for all the work he's done to repair an economy.

I do think that Democratic voters are looking for someone who will protect against the gains that we have made under President Obama because we do see Republicans seeking to repeal the Affordable Care Act, repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform.

They want to undo the president's executive actions. Who is best situated to help protect the president's accomplishments over the last seven years is a question that I think that they will be asking.

But notwithstanding the president's comments to "Politico" today, which were very gracious. I do think that Hillary Clinton realizes and President Obama would be the first to say that what matters most is what is in the minds of Iowan caucus goers. That is why we are trying to earn every vote.

CUOMO: That is why we are giving you the exact opportunity that all of you wanted. You will get to talk to actual voters tonight. CNN is happy to provide that opportunity. Brian Fallon, thank you for being with us. I'll see you later on.

FALLON: Thank you so much.

CUOMO: Remember, town hall is probably the last best chance for these three to be together and yet dealing with the same voters, but in their own way and all about the voter and the exchange with the candidate. That will be tonight 9:00 Eastern only on CNN.

So now on the Republican side, we have new polls showing in Iowa Donald Trump has made a move, a positive move for him leap frogging Ted Cruz. One prominent conservative is warning this Trump potential win could mean bad things. He is coming up on NEW DAY to make his case. You may know him. Glenn Beck is his name. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)