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New Day Saturday

ISIS Kills 38 Iraqi Soldiers, Police; Boston Braces For Fourth Snowstorm In Weeks; Shelling In Ukraine Ahead Of Ceasefire; Family Loses Three Kids as Ceasefire Deadline Nears; Scott Walker Plagued by "The London Curse"; Unlikely Friendship Between Two Justices

Aired February 14, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Iraqi forces were able to shove the militants back, but we're now learning that 13 Iraqi soldiers died in that attack. Elsewhere, ISIS put on a very brutal show of force parading captured Peshmerga fighters in cages.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: It's chilling video. Iraqi tribal leader says cities and towns in Western Iraq's Anbar Province could collapse to ISIS within hours if Iraqi forces do not stand their ground.

SAVIDGE: Yes, he is pleading for more U.S. intervention including ground troops. CNN's Phil Black is on the ground in Northern Iraq -- Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christi, Martin, we're getting a greater sense of the cost, the casualties inflicted upon Iraqi Security Services in this ISIS assault both on the town of Al- Baghdadi and the nearby air base of Ayn Al-Assad.

Within Al-Baghdadi we are told some 25 Iraqi police officers were killed trying to repel the ISIS assault on the town. They were ultimately unsuccessful. At the air base, some 13 Iraqi soldiers were killed by the attack that took place there.

We know that there were some 20 to 25 militants who moved on this base, as many as eight of them were suicide bombers. We were told that the Iraqi forces repelled them, stopped the attack, killed most of those suicide bombers, but clearly, there was great cost involved.

At Al-Baghdadi, the security forces efforts to retake that town from ISIS have not made much progress. They have moved into the perimeter, but ISIS still is very much controls the heart of the town. It has boasted online about taking over the local police station, freeing all of the prisoners there.

It now looks to have something of a foothold which is a concern because it is from there that it could launch further attacks against that nearby air base. The Pentagon expects they will do so but has been keen to make the point that so far U.S. military personnel on the base have been under no direct threat.

That there were some miles away from where this attack took place at one of the perimeters of the base, it is a large sprawling base that explains how those U.S. military personnel could be such a great distance, but still within the same facility. The concern going forward, though, is that there will be further

attacks. Christi, Martin, back to you.

PAUL: All righty, thank you, Phil. CNN's Erin McPike is covering the latest on the ISIS attack from Washington because you look at this and wonder what does this mean for the U.S.? Erin, good morning. Wondering what you're hearing from Pentagon officials this morning.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christi, Pentagon spokesman, Admiral John Kirby said Friday, the Americans located at that base were not in immediate danger even though he couldn't say for sure whether the security perimeter there was breached.

But just the proximity to the attack is raising new questions whether U.S. forces will ultimately get dragged into a combat role as this war on ISIS intensifies. He insisted that still not the intent in an interview with our Jim Sciutto yesterday listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: These U.S. troops that are at Anbar are trainers, advisers, and that's what they are doing. They are training now hundreds of Iraqi security force personnel. They have the right to defend themselves.

And so and we've been very honest that, of course, U.S. forces are in a combat role in Iraq. I mean, we've conducted more than 2,000 air strikes. That's combat. There's not going to be a return to a combat mission on the ground and these individuals are not in a combat mission on the ground.

Again, as I said, they have the right to defend themselves and should they feel under threat they certainly have the right and the responsibility, the obligation, to shoot back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: But let me point out to our viewers he said the policy in place is that there will not be a return to a combat mission. There is a slight opening there because of course policies can change as conditions do.

But what was also striking yesterday is how even as ISIS is taking control of Al-Baghdadi, the city, Kirby was pressing the point that look, Iraqi forces can handle this war because they beat back ISIS on the nearby base.

But that's likely not going to satisfy the hawks in Congress who are going to look very skeptically at this in the weeks to come as they debate what this authorization for the use of force will really look like -- Christi and Martin.

PAUL: All righty, Erin McPike, appreciate it. Thank you very much.

SAVIDGE: Joining me now from washington is CNN security analyst, Peter Bergen. And Peter, although the attack on this base failed, we're learning more about certainly the heavy casualties it appears that the Iraqis suffered. I think I know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask will ISIS try to strike again?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Of course, they will. They have a natural advantage in Anbar Province, which is about a third of the land mass of Iraq. This is an area that al Qaeda in Iraq, which was the parent organization controlled in 2006.

It's a rather small population even though it's a very large chunk of Iraq, but it's almost entirely Sunni and they pledge advantages. The big question, Martin, I think is, you know, does this set them up for some kind of ability to strike into Baghdad in some serious way.

I think that is -- I'm pretty skeptical there. Baghdad is a big city with the Iraqi army and the Shia militias will defend Baghdad quite well. The fact they are doing well in Anbar Province isn't necessarily a threat to Iraq.

We've seen this movie before, as they took over Anbar Province in 2006 and began failing because of their own internal problems, basically the population was not happy by being ruled in a sort of Taliban rule and rose up with help with the U.S. military. Could some version of that happen in the next year or so? Maybe.

SAVIDGE: You're right, we've seen this before. Anbar Province was I believe one of the deadliest for U.S. forces in the war when they were there. A tribal leader is now telling CNN the situation in parts of Anbar, around the base.

That they are on the verge of collapsing as he warns of a possible massacre in a town that's about 2 miles away from the ISIS-controlled area of Al-Baghdadi. What can you do to stop something like that?

BERGEN: Well, I don't know, but I think a big issue here is what happens with the authorization for the use of military force, which President Obama put to Congress on Wednesday. There's going to be obviously a big debate in Congress about what exactly that authorization looks like.

But already in that authorization there is I think quite a lot of wiggle room for more U.S. engagement, you know, it doesn't -- it says Martin, that it doesn't allow for enduring ground operations. How long is enduring, is that a week, a month, a year?

That's really something that's going to be I think going to have to be debated in some detail. The point is I think that authorization allows more wiggle room than we've seen hitherto for a larger American role.

SAVIDGE: What do you think the strategy of ISIS is at the moment? Is it to sort of begin reaching out towards Baghdad or do you think it's to try to carry out some sort of horrific attack in which Americans could be killed as well?

BERGEN: I don't think it's either or, Martin, but I do think their capacity to do an attack on the United States is low. We've seen very, very small numbers of Americans join ISIS. A number of them have been killed because they have no idea what they are doing.

It's a very dangerous place to go fight in Syria or Iraq. I'm not going to so much concerned about that. Yes, in the end they would love to take Baghdad. That is not easy.

One approach is sort of to take all of the cities around it and basically create a belt through which you basically start strangling Baghdad. They tried that in 2006, 2007. My guess is that would be what they would want to do now. That's the approach they would want to take.

SAVIDGE: Actually talking about the Americans at that base which is now potentially targeted by ISIS. What do you think the danger is there?

BERGEN: Well, the base could be overrun, but I mean, you know, the American advisers there, pretty sophisticated group of people. I think they would be getting out of there if there was any danger of being overrun.

SAVIDGE: Peter Bergen, thank you very much.

BERGEN: Thank you.

PAUL: You know, we need this morning to talk about Eastern Ukraine because there are sounds of gun fire and shelling as we speak. With less than nine hours to go before a cease-fire deadline. You have to wonder if this fighting is going to cease or as it seems right now to be getting worse.

SAVIDGE: And millions of people could soon be impacted by another monster storm in the northeast. Could Boston again expect to get hit very hard?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: All right, look at what people are dealing with in Boston this morning. Look at the mounds of snow and there is more on the way. Crews are racing around the clock right now to get ready for another blizzard. This is historic because this will be the second blizzard of the season and Boston has never seen that before.

SAVIDGE: And of course, it's not just Boston, the storm is expected to affect that city as well as 60 million people in all in the northeast. Ivan Cabrera is in the weather center. He is tracking the latest for us -- Ivan.

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Another storm, this is going to be just the kind of winter here. We're setting up to be probably we could reach the top of worse snow season we've ever seen in Boston.

In fact, I was there for '95, '96. I remember the 107 inches, that was terrible, but it was spread out throughout the season. It's so bad this year because we had a record low season starting in Boston and we just ramp it up. Here we are '14, 2015 at 79.5 with this next system here we'll likely go to top three and then with more storms ahead likely get into the top two, perhaps top one. Why so many storms? People have been asking this, well, the jet stream. That's the storm track.

It has been essentially stuck in the same place here. It has allowed for these lows to deepen off the coast and move in as nor'easters with plenty of moisture.

We also have very warm Atlantic waters above average, actually, and that has helped fuel these storms over the last several weeks. There is your February 2nd storm, Groundhog Day storm, we won't forget that one.

And even the clippers that moved through that usually don't produce that much snow because of the orientation of the jet stream these also have been blowing out there, February 10th, and current storm, I know you don't want to see this.

But this is a potential for next week as well, that's the pattern we're in, by the way, that storm could impact the southern U.S. I think we may even have some snow in Atlanta.

But here is the storm that's impacting the northeast right now. Heavy snowfall, 8 inches to 12 inches that's going to be coming down with hurricane force wind gusts along the coast and so that is the danger here.

We could have some power outages and coastal flooding. The high tides along the Massachusetts coast are occurring Sunday morning so that is when I think we are going to have the potential for some splash over here. So that's going to be an issue with the blizzard warnings.

How much snow? Well, there we have it as far as Boston looking at 8 inches to 10 inches of additional snowfall, 15 to 18 up across down East Maine and that is going to continue over the next couple days. Saturday night tonight and then Sunday that is the peak of the storm with these winds that are going to be 50 miles to 75 miles an hour.

Been talking to my good friends in Boston, the snow blowers aren't working anymore because you are trying to blow the snow and it is essentially hitting the piles and coming right back down. It's rendering the snow blowers useless. People are hands up in the air and giving up.

PAUL: Feel for those people. Ivan Cabrera, thank you so much.

SAVIDGE: That's one of the reasons as Ivan just mentioned, that you now have got front-end loaders or high lifters as some call them that are lining the streets of Boston as they try to move several feet of the old snow ahead of the new snow.

PAUL: Yes, after all of this, month of record snowfall, of course, Massachusetts governor spoke late last night to talk about how they are going to deal with this latest blast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER, MASSACHUSETTS: We will have the support and assistance from crews across about eight different states throughout New England and the northeast, that involve basically signed up to spend time working literally on a 24/7 bases here in the commonwealth to clear snow, remove snow and dispose of snow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: CNN's Ryan Young is following the very latest for us now from Boston. Ryan, how is it?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi and Martin, the temperature has already started to drop here in Boston and look, this area has been hit already with nearly 6 feet of snow, and they believe another foot could hit today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG (voice-over): It's a race against Mother Nature and time. One blue tarp and plenty of heavy lifting, the men here push, pull and haul massive amounts of snow from the top of this high school where eight-foot snow drifts become mascots. Record snowfall has Boston facing a serious challenge causing one mayor to shut all his area schools down.

MAYOR JOSEPH CURTATONE, SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS: Anything over 18 inches you shouldn't move with kids in the school. Now as I said before, can I guarantee that a roof wasn't going to collapse? No, we weren't willing to take that risk.

YOUNG: A risk no one is willing to take especially with the youngest. But here in the city that's faced snow drifts the size of trucks and more than 70 inches on the ground, forecasters believe the next round could drop another 10 to 14 inches.

Now under way a record response after three major storms left the area snow weary, building inspectors worry about the load from the punch of another heavy snowfall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see the snow banking up against it. I'm a little more concerned about that.

YOUNG: Crews now running the streets looking to find any weak spots, especially in neighborhoods where more snow could mean disaster.

WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER, COMMISSIONER, BOSTON INSPECTIONAL SERVICES: We don't want to see mom and pop get on the ladder and try to clear the ice. We're being proactive in having to go after professional contractors to help remove the situation.

YOUNG: Dropping temperatures, rock frozen neighborhoods and plenty of good people wanting the winter wonderland here to grind to a warmer halt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife and I have four children and I can tell you, Ryan, I'm begging for them to go back to school last week. I mean, cabin fever is at the extreme.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: That's why the operation to move so much snow of the roofs here is so important. They also believe they could get hit with hurricane force winds. This will make for a rude Valentine's Day -- Christi and Martin.

PAUL: All right, Ryan, thank you so much. Still ahead, Jeb Bush getting a big endorsement in a potential White House run, someone in the past who said, don't do it.

SAVIDGE: A grandfather from India visiting his son in Alabama is left partly paralyzed after that takedown by police. It's on tape. We'll talk to the man's family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Here's a look at the other stories that are developing right now.

PAUL: The FBI first of all is now investigating the deaths of three Muslim college students in North Carolina as a possible hate crime. In a statement yesterday, President Obama called the execution style shootings quote, "brutal and outrageous murders."

SAVIDGE: The suspect, Craig Hicks, is in custody. Police said it appears he killed the students over an ongoing parking dispute, but their family believes they were targeted because they were Muslims and insist that this was a hate crime.

PAUL: Former first lady, Barbara Bush, says she's changed her mind about her son, Jeb Bush, running for president. Speaking at a charity event last night, Jeb mentioned that yes, a couple years ago his mom insisted there had been enough Bushs in the White House already.

And then suddenly she appears on the ballroom video screen via Skype telling the crowd, quote, "our problems are so big that it doesn't matter what your last name is." Certainly giving him the go ahead.

SAVIDGE: Yes, there you go. Mom says it best. Ukraine's president says that the ceasefire there is in big danger and the fighting is increased as the clock ticks down toward that deadline and the violence.

When presidential hopefuls head overseas they have to avoid what pundits call the London curse. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker suffered a bout of it in London this week, what he said and didn't say that is raising eyebrow, that's ahead.

PAUL: So let's talk about a topic that gets everyone's attention, right, food. And in this week's CNN Money, an Atlanta restaurant is getting a lot of buzz for bringing cooks into the dining room to serve their own food and talk to customers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KEVIN GILLESPIE, GUNSHOW: I'm Kevin Gillespie and I'm the owner of Gunshow. My dad and I used to go to this local gun show and sort of our father-son bonding experience. So I thought let me name it something that reminds me of him.

My dad was always worried he would embarrass me if he came to my restaurant, that they were too blue collar. So I made the decision that I was going to build a restaurant that wouldn't exclude any one again.

I wanted to feel like people are dining in my home so we had those break down the walls, both figuratively and literally by bringing the cooks into the dining room to serve their own food.

It's rare in this business that those who spend all day pouring heart and soul in the food actually have a chance to talk with the people who are eating it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is called smorgas torta.

GILLESPIE: Your only job as the diner is look at something and make the decision whether you want it or not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It breaks down the barriers I think between what you normally see in a restaurant.

GILLESPIE: A sweeping change from week to week. The food can have influences of the entire world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our chicken and waffles. It is a little bit of a Vietnamese spin on the classic.

GILLESPIE: Where I see victory is providing that individualized experience in a place where regardless of where you came from to get here you feel welcome and you feel like a part of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: At this hour, Ukrainian soldiers and pro-Russian separatists are supposed to be gearing up for a ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine. But with just under nine hours to go, sounds of shelling and gun fire can be heard in the eastern cities of Mariupol and Donetsk.

PAUL: CNN senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh is live in Donetsk for us right now. Nick, we saw last time that you were hearing shelling very near you. What's the situation now?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that shelling has stopped. We still hear it elsewhere in the town. That was the close it's come to here, our hotel where there are a number of key separatists administrations buildings around us.

We do expect it to continue, though, for the rest of the day until we head out toward this ceasefire at midnight. We're learning apparently the Ukrainian president will talk to the French and German leaders, and then to Barack Obama about four or three hours from now.

But all eyes on whether the fighting can slow down and of course, how people react to that. The civilian toll being so extraordinary on both sides of the lines and we saw the tragic losses of one family on Thursday ourselves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): It was here Thursday night when the family got their first running water for a week and quickly made the kids bath. Two and a half-year-old (inaudible), Nastia (ph) age 14, Tashia, 7, their godmother explains. Then the first shell hit.

Direct here on the bath itself. All three were killed. But their parents were both in the front bedroom. Windows didn't even shatter. This civilian area is still being shelled here 34 hours before a cease-fire. The family is now a shell, numb, in mourning. The tiny coffins ready for tomorrow.

LYUBA, MOTHER (via translator): I went to get them a towel in the other room. The lights went out, everything flew into the house.

What cease-fire? I curse every day those who killed my children and all those of the country. People who want to live peacefully, we lived, grew up, took our children to school. These are not people.

WALSH: The father Dennis is alone, talking to himself, peeling vegetables for the wake.

"My innocent grandchildren were killed", she says, "innocent. Mr. Poroshenko, your cease-fire I welcome."

Any quiet the cease-fire may bring will ring hollow, numb and mere hours too late here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: Now here in Donetsk the fear is, of course, that the guns will not fall silent in about nine hours from now. And we are also seeing it seems intense fire fighting (inaudible) to the northeast. The Ukrainians hold it, have thousands of troops inside. The separatists say they've encircled it and therefore it's their territory.

Now (inaudible) last point, even the Kremlin is (inaudible) technically separatist territory in their vision. We're just going to have to see if even the guns fall silent at midnight and then how long that lasts. Back to you.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: Nick that was a really powerful piece. Nick Paton Walsh for us there -- thank you.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN HOST: Let's bring in Nicholas Burns now. He's the Harvard Kennedy School professor. Professor Burns thanks for being with us.

The two sides did not stick to the Minsk peace plan. And of course, many people think that it's not going to work this time. What are your thoughts?

NICHOLAS BURNS, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL PROFESSOR: I think it's hard to believe that it's going to hold. You see that the Russian military has been violating at least the spirit of the cease-fire over the last 48 hours. You just showed footage of continued shelling.

The U.S. government has said this morning on Twitter that it believes that Russian military systems are across the border, aiding and abetting those military systems -- the pro Russia rebel forces. And so if there was going to be I think from the Kremlin and from the Russian rebels a true indication of what they intend to do is try to gain more territory in the last 48 hours of this time before the cease-fire at midnight tonight.

SAVIDGE: And some of the reason for the skepticism is the feeling that provisions, some of the provisions in this cease-fire, are rather broad or ill-defined.

BURNS: I think it's interesting that it was the Russians according to President Poroshenko who pushed for this period of time before the cease-fire. I think now all true transparent in what they are trying to do just make up more territory gain a significant advantage and I think what is apparent here is that President Putin's tactics for the last several months have been to create a frozen conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Meaning he wants Russian rebels to control the territory. He wants to divide Ukraine. He wants to weaken the Ukrainian government -- all to show that Russia will have, in effect, territorial control of the eastern part of Ukraine as well as Crimea which is the next. I think the Russian strategy is very clear here which leads me to believe that Russia will not honor, I fear, the terms of this cease-fire in reality, the way Russia did not honor the Minsk agreement of last autumn.

SAVIDGE: I mean I hope you're wrong for the sake of all of the civilians that are caught up. But let's say the cease-fire does not hold, there's going to be a lot of pressure especially in the United States that the U.S. should move forward with some way of arming -- perhaps heavily arming Ukrainian troops. A good idea?

BURNS: I think it's necessary. If the cease-fire does not hold and, of course, everyone hopes that it does hold for the sake of those civilians as you say, but if it doesn't, then I think you're looking at much stronger economic sanctions from the European Union and the United States, long overdo. And you're probably looking at the United States perhaps Canada, and other countries on a multi-national coalition providing much superior military technology, defensive weaponry to the Ukrainians to level the playing field so that the Ukrainian government can defend the territory that the United Nations says is Ukrainian territory. And that will up the ante for president Putin, increase the cost to him for what he's done here in this outright aggression against Ukraine.

SAVIDGE: It has been suggested that President Putin is also trying to put a wedge between the United States and Europe. And I'm wondering, is he succeeding?

BURNS: I don't think so. I think you saw that President Obama and Secretary Kerry were strong supporters of this cease-fire agreement. President Obama withheld of course the decision to transfer arms to Ukraine because Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande of France were engaged in the cease-fire in talks. I think there is unity here.

I do think it's fair to say that the United States and Canada have been more aggressive, wanting a tougher reaction against Russia, the Europeans have held that back. But if the cease-fire doesn't hold, this is brokered by the Europeans, then I think that all bets are off and the Europeans will join the U.S. in tougher economic sanctions and the U.S. will give serious consideration to military assistance to Ukraine.

BURNS: Let's hope it holds. Nicholas Burns, thank you very much.

As the conflict worsens in Ukraine civilians are falling victim to the crossfire. For ways you can help support victims of the crisis in Ukraine, go to CNN.com/impact.

PAUL: So let's talk presidential hopefuls because they are jockeying for the 2016 race really right now. And they have to prove themselves both domestically and internationally.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is in London, he's dipping his toe across the pond but he seems to be suffering from what some pundits call "the London curse".

SAVIDGE: Instead of a toe, he might have put his foot in it.

Plus, a man who doesn't speak English is now partly paralyzed after an encounter with Alabama police. Will the officers be charged? We'll have the details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: 39 minutes past the hour right now.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is in London this week, the GOP presidential hopeful there to get some international seasoning some say. And similar to other presidential hopefuls he seemed to get sucked in by what's known as the London curse. Walker was criticized by the British media for punting on a question about evolution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: That's a question a politician shouldn't be involved in one way or the other. I'm going to leave that up to you --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any British politician right or left wing would say -- they would laugh and say, "Yes, of course, evolution is true."

WALKER: To me it's just one of those -- I'm here to talk about trade, not to pontificate. I love the evolution of trade in Wisconsin. It's going well. I'd like to see an even bigger evolution as well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: He seemed to recover there but you heard the chuckles. Let's bring in Chris Moody, he's the senior correspondent at CNNPolitics.com. So, I mean Chris, this is not the first instance of this so called London curse -- hence its name.

I mean let's listen here to Chris Christie talking about the measles vaccine and Bobby Jindal on no go zone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: All I can say we vaccinate ours, so you know, that's the best expression I give you my opinion. It's much more important I think as a parent than what you think as a public official.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: There are people here in London that will tell you there are neighborhoods where the women don't feel safe walking through those neighborhoods without veils. There are neighborhoods where the police are less likely to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So Chris, are these really gaffes or as I was reading in one article yesterday, even a Londoner said yes, you know, we like to judge, I guess, the Republicans that come over and open their mouths.

CHRIS MOODY, CNNPOLITICS.COM: For a lot of these presidential hopefuls going to London or going abroad can be a little bit like walking through a mine field. I mean consider the context here. They are away from their element, their mind is not focused on their day- to-day schedules and a lot of their staff is back home. They also don't know a lot of the reporters.

I'm not making excuses for these guys but in the case of Scott Walker he really refused to answer almost -- well, lots of questions. He wouldn't talk about foreign policy and then, of course, with evolution he wouldn't talk about that. I think the British thought they were kind of tossing up a softball and he refused to even swing at it.

We saw with Bobby Jindal he criticized the country without really having details to back it up.

And then with Chris Christie with the vaccine comment, I think he was just making an off-hand comment and didn't realize that it would really blow up back home as much as it did. But these guys have to be cognizant of the fact that we live in an international 24-hour news cycle right now where news doesn't stay on that side of the pond.

PAUL: Right. So how do they recover? I mean do they recover from that? And how important is it to do so? MOODY: You know, I think these are really blips on the radar. They

are just small data points and what will be a year and a half possibly, you know, presidential campaign if they stay on for the long haul. There's another added element to this is that anything they say is not just reported back here in the United States, but reporters like us will report on the way the British press is reporting on it because they have a different style.

So all of this gets compounded and then when you look at how Mitt Romney handled London, Jindal, Christie, and now Walker, you know how in journalism three or four definitely becomes a trend. And that's what we're seeing.

So we're kind of looking to see for any gaffe or see what happens with this so called London curse.

PAUL: But Dems are not off the hook either. They're not immune. In 2009 Michelle Obama hugged Queen Elizabeth during a visit -- remember? That sent the British media into a tizzy. And then in '09 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insulted democracy telling the European parliament that the American democracy was older than European versions.

Go back to 2011, Reuters reported President Obama and former French President Nicholas Sarkozy were caught talking, let's say unfavorably perhaps about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Why do our politicians seem to, dare I say, step in it so much overseas?

MOODY: Well, there's a lot more pitfalls over there. You know, I would recommend maybe staying, you know, in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina. It's a little safer in those places just as far as -- you know, there's different rules over there. You have to be aware of a lot of things. A lot of these so called candidates or possible candidates are aware of them and they're trying to be polite, they're trying to do the right thing. But it certainly isn't easy especially when the spotlight is on you.

Look, Scott Walker, he's just governor of Wisconsin with no presidential ambitions, no one really pays attention to him. But he's not that anymore. He is riding high on polls of perspective presidential candidates. And when you go abroad with that behind you the stakes are much higher. And I would imagine so is the pressure.

PAUL: All right. Before I let you go we have to ask you about First Lady Barbara Bush who said in the past, she does not want another Bush in the White House, referring of course to her son Jeb. Now, she seems to be changing her mind a little bit about him. What do you make of that?

MOODY: The first rule of political reporting, and I mean horse race reporting, when someone or even their mother says they are not going to run for president they still might run for president. Look, I'm not surprised at all. I would imagine they've had family discussions, Mrs. Bush speaks her mind. She has been known to do that for a very long time.

But you know, her son was showing real interest in running for president. And I can't imagine she would continue to say that he should not publicly once he is stepping his toe into that water.

PAUL: She's a strong woman and a mother and those things definitely go hand in hand. Thank you so much, Chris Moody. We appreciate it.

MOODY: Thank you.

HARLOW: Then there's this. CNN is debuting a new quiz show that's hosted by Anderson Cooper that will put some of our anchors to the test on presidential facts and trivia. They will be competing for a chance to help some of their favorite charities.

We sort of put together a behind-the-scenes look at the show that's set to air Monday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: I think the team that gets the most right will win.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jake Tapper, he asks me the most obscure random questions.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Chris Cuomo was physically -- trying to physically intimidate me.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Strategery --

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Strategery --

CUOMO: -- comes to the party at the end.

LEMON: Who said strategery?

(inaudible)

LEMON: I'm a good guesser.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: They have a combination of smarts and strategy that I think is pretty effective.

CUOMO: I've been doing this every day a thousand times a day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He asks me which president had 15 children. I said I don't know.

LEMON: I want Tapper to go down.

I'm in the middle of my show and he is sending stupid questions about presidents.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: What makes us a good team is we -- unlike the other guys -- we actually really like each other. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: You can catch the whole show. That will be Monday night at 9:00 eastern right here, of course, on CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: So, we don't get to see the personalities of Supreme Court justices very often but oh, what a rare moment you're getting here.

Here's Pam Brown.

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ANTONIN SCALIA, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: Why don't you call us the odd couple?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader-Ginsburg -- two polar opposite legal minds with the closest friendship on the bench.

SCALIA: You know, what's not to like -- except her views of the law of course.

BROWN: Sharing a laugh about Ginsburg's sleeping habits at the state of the union.

RUTH BADER-GINSBURG, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: The audience for the most part is awake because they are bobbing up and down all the time. And we sit there stone-faced, sober judges. At least I wasn't 100 percent sober because before we went to the state of the union we had -- we had dinner together. And Justice Kennedy brought in --

SCALIA: That's the first intelligent thing you've done.

GINSBURG: So I got a call when I came home from one of my granddaughters. She says Bubba, you were sleeping at the state of the union.

BROWN: The sharp as a tack 81-year-old even admitted she's had occasional help staying awake from now retired Justice David Souter.

GINSBURG: He had an acute sense of when I was about -- so he would give me a pinch.

BROWN: Ginsburg nicknamed "Notorious RBG" and Scalia known as Nino have long vacationed together with their families -- Scalia admiring his pint-sized partner's taste for adventure.

SCALIA: And Ruth, honest to goodness, went up behind a motor boat in a --

GINSBURG: Parasail.

SCALIA: Yes. I mean she's so light you would think she would never come down. BROWN: Their political differences an elephant in the room they

aren't afraid to confront or ride as they did in India.

GINSBURG: That was a rather bumpy ride.

SCALIA: Some of her feminist friends gave me a hard time or her a hard time because she rode behind me on the elephant. Big deal. I'm not kidding.

GINSBURG: It was -- the driver explained it was a matter of distribution of weight.

BROWN: Pamela brown, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: That was just a little bit of levity there that you so rarely see.

SAVIDGE: Yes, delightfully human especially when this court has to deal with such difficult issues to see the human nature there -- very reassuring actually.

PAUL: Isn't it? A very good point -- very good point.

SAVIDGE: Still to come, did Argentina's president try to cover up an Iranian link to a deadly bombing. Now there is a prosecutor in that country that is asking a federal judge to investigate after another prosecutor was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Here's a look at some of the other stories we're following today. Argentina's president may face an investigation into whether she tried to cover up Iran's alleged involvement in a deadly 1994 bombing. An Argentine prosecutor says that there is enough evidence to continue the probe. It was put on hold when another prosecutor in this case was found dead last month. 85 people were killed when a bomb exploded in a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

PAUL: And in Canada police foiled a plot by two people who were planning to go to a public area to kill as many people as they could and then kill themselves, authorities say. The 19-year-old male suspect shot himself to death after police surrounded his home. The 23-year-old woman was arrested at Halifax Airport and confessed to the plot. There was evidence two other males were also involved and we've learned they have been arrested but police say the plot had no connection to Islamic terrorism.

SAVIDGE: The U.S. Coast Guard is in the middle of a dramatic rescue mission to save 27 fishermen 900 miles off of Antarctica. The Coast Guard says subzero conditions, snowstorms and the extremely thick ice make the situation difficult but they are making headway. The Australian fishermen became stranded earlier this week when they hit thick ice and that damaged their ship's propellers.

And a new winter storm is expected not only to affect Boston but some 60 million people in the northeast.

PAUL: How do you deal with that? Ivan Cabrera in the CNN Weather Center tracking the latest for us -- where is it right now? I mean when do you expect this thing to really take off?

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So I think you have about six hours if you are watching this from the northeast specifically across portions of Long Island heading up into Boston and into Portland. About six to eight hours to get really hunkered down and prepare for a significant impact storm.

We're talking about hurricane force winds, heavy snow fall and the wind chills here are unlike any other storm. This is going to be the coldest storm we've had so far. And that wind chills are going to be anywhere 20 to 30 below. You don't want to be out there in that. That's not just uncomfortable. That is going to be dangerous.

Here are the updated snow totals here. We're thinking Boston 10 to 12 inches. The further up the coast you go, closer to the storm on the back side of it here especially through the day on Sunday -- that's when the heftier snowfall totals are going to be. But all of us are going to be seeing white-out conditions where you have the blizzard warnings because -- look at the winds, 50 to 60 miles an hour, 65 to 75. Remember, hurricane force winds at 74. We're likely going to see that along the Cape and outer islands. So that's going to be an issue.

And then yes, the wind chills, 25 to 35. That will continue, I think by the time we get in through Sunday and even into Monday. So not only are we going to have I think blizzard conditions as the storm is getting going tonight and into tomorrow, guys. But I think we're going to have what we call ground blizzard conditions in that once the snow falls it's going to be very fluffy snow. The winds are still going to be strong enough Monday so more blinding snow for them.

PAUL: I feel for those people. Ivan -- thank you so very much.

SAVIDGE: Well, that's it for us. We'll see you back here at 10:00.

PAUL: Here is SMERCONISH.