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New Day Sunday

World Leaders Race for Peace Deal; Brian Williams Temporarily Stops Anchoring; Boston Expecting Two More Feet of Snow

Aired February 08, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: We've got a lot more ahead on the next hour of NEW DAY. It starts right now.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: More violence in Ukraine and the hopes for peace don't show a lot of promising signs of taking shape here. We're talking to State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki as world leaders wrap up a conference, a security conference, in Munich.

BLACKWELL: President Obama under fire. Was the president drawing comparisons between Islamic terrorists and the Crusades? Were his comments out of line?

PAUL: A rear-end crash, one person dead. Now, could reality TV star Bruce Jenner face time behind bars?

Your NEW DAY starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAUL: Good morning and welcome. I'm Christi Paul .

BLACKWEL: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's 7:00 here on the East Coast.

PAUL: We want to begin this morning with breaking news in Ukraine, where deadly shelling is still going on. And really rocking the city of Donetsk this hour.

BLACKWELL: Now, according to pro-Russian rebels here, eight civilians were killed this weekend in fighting. And Ukrainian forces report losing 122 of their own soldiers while eliminating, in their words, 70 insurgents across the conflict zone.

PAUL: You're looking at some of the news video we're just getting into CNN. And despite failed efforts to broker a peace deal, we have just learned the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine have reportedly all agreed now to meet in Belarus on Wednesday.

BLACKWELL: CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joins us live in Donetsk where that deadly shelling continues. Nick, it's pretty difficult to forge a peace deal when each side

is counting the day.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly. And the dead so far, the separatists enumerate eight to 17 wounded now. There have been over 200 killed so far this month on both sides of the line, say the United Nations.

But let's break into a little bit more of that discussion about meeting in Minsk, Belarusian capital on Wednesday. It is still days away. You hear behind me that continued shelling being picked up on my microphones.

We don't quite know exactly who will be there. The French government is saying it's a trilateral group, which would suggest Ukrainian, Russian and separatists present there as well, along with the OSCE monitors. Although there's continued work, of course, being done apparently tomorrow in Berlin and a conference call today between key leaders to try and push this forward.

But the question you really have to ask is, what is going to be on the table in any such meeting? Are we going to see territorial concessions potentially being pushed upon Ukraine? Kiev's been very clear it doesn't want to see a loss of its territorial integrity, as is most of its allies. But frankly where I'm standing here, the separatists self-declared Donetsk People's Republic feels like Russia and has a pretty tight border system now in place for the rest of Ukraine.

So, realistically, some sort of concession may end up being made perhaps to usher in a cease-fire. That's the last thing Ukrainians are going to want to entertain. That leaves the question, are we simply seeing in Minsk, a reiteration? You can hear sirens now behind me. A lot of times, we see ambulances running up and down that street.

Are we going to seeing in Minsk, again, attempt the cease-fire from last year which really didn't get off the ground at all? Are we going to see violence pick up ahead of those talks as both sides try to forge a reality on the ground to improve the negotiations on the table? A messy potential few days ahead, before we even start really sitting down to talk peace again on Wednesday -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: Nick, we can hear the shelling behind you. There was another one, and, of course, those sirens.

Often in conflicts like this when there are humanitarian cease- fires for a brief period, a truce of just a few hours, are the people there even being afforded that opportunity to get out of areas in which they're trapped?

WALSH: Well, we've seen periodic moments, particularly one town called (INAUDIBLE) to the northeast of where I'm standing where yes, indeed, there was a brief pause in the fighting to allow people out. That happened periodically as well because the shelling wasn't constant on the main exit road. Here in Donetsk, well, the violence here has been escalating for

months, frankly. This shelling behind me is more intense than I've personally witnessed since coming here. But people can potentially get out if they have a pass from Ukrainian authorities. We've seen long queues at the exit areas here.

Some, though, feel trapped. Some feel they can't afford to leave. Some don't want to leave their homes.

But we have ourselves this morning seen what shelling did to one family's home. The mother there injured, the children narrowly escaping from shrapnel that littered their room. A very violent situation here for civilians caught between the shelling. And it is pretty relentless -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Nick Paton Walsh reporting the very latest for us from Donetsk -- Nick, thank you.

PAUL: Secretary of State John Kerry is weighing in on the crisis in Ukraine as well. He spoke just a short time ago in Munich where he's attending a security conference there. And he reiterated there's no military solution to the Ukraine conflict. And he went on to say that the U.S. and Europe remain united.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are united. We are working closely together. We all agree that this challenge will not end through military force. We are united in our diplomacy. But the longer that it takes, the more the off-ramps are avoided, the more we will be forced to raise the costs on Russia and its proxies.

This much I can assure you -- no matter what the United States, France, Germany and our allies and partners, no matter what, we will stand together in support of Ukraine in a defense of the common understanding that international borders must not, cannot be changed by force in Europe or anywhere else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Joining me now for more, Colonel James Reese, a CNN global affairs analyst and former U.S. Delta Force commander, and Michael Bociurkiw, the spokesman for the OSCE special monitoring mission in Ukraine.

Colonel Reese, I want to start with you. And first I want to put to you something that the German defense minister said at this conference. And she asked two questions, and I'm just going to give them to you to answer.

The questions are, are we sure that we would be improving the situation for the people in Ukraine by delivering weapons? Are we really sure that Ukraine can win against the Russian military machine?

What do you think?

LT. COL. JAMES REESE (RET), CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Victor, good morning.

I think the answer is no and no. We're not sure. One of the problems we need to do diplomatically right now is the bottom line is this. The Russians have come in. They have taken this large swath of land. And if we think we're going to push them out right now with lethal force, it's not happening. We need to diplomatically be in there talking with the Russians.

What we want to do right now is hold this line is what we need to do, where it is. We need to hold it. We need to make sure there's not a humanitarian disaster going on within the Ukraine. And this needs to be a political aspect. The Russians right now have the upper hand militarily.

BLACKWELL: Michael, I wonder, Colonel Reese just brought up this humanitarian concern. Secretary of State John Kerry this week said that $16.4 million from the U.S. is going there. Short of the defensive lethal assistance that many are discussing, are the people of Ukraine getting the support they need to deal with the humanitarian effort?

MICHAEL BOCIURKIW, SPOKESMAN, OSCE: Good afternoon from Kiev.

Well, the humanitarian predicament is dire, there's no doubt about it. The numbers really speak for themselves. Our colleagues from the United Nations have been doing a splendid job putting together their newest numbers.

And they are getting bad, obviously, more than 5,000 dead. And the number of wounded has very quickly jumped from a little over 10,000 to well over 12,000. And now the number of displaced is getting very, very big. In Ukraine alone, almost a million people have been displaced.

Now, don't forget, this displacement has been happening for quite some time, from the time of Crimea to the growth of the conflict in the east. And what's been happening, Victor, is that those people that left earlier have put a real strain on the very limited facilities and the very limited resources of nongovernment organizations taking care of by these.

So, this is a big problem when UNHCR and the others are addressing. But we don't see unfortunately an immediate end to that outflow of people from these conflict zones. And indeed, I can tell you from what our monitors are telling us, Victor, they're leaving with very little of their own belongings and also very little winter clothing. So they're in a tough predicament.

BLACKWELL: Michael, is there any overlap here? We know that the U.S. and Hollande and Angela Merkel and members of the E.U., they are in lockstep saying the sovereignty of the Ukraine must be respected. But we know that Vladimir Putin would like to annex, would like control, would like some type of autonomy for the Donetsk region. Are they overlapping anywhere?

BOCIURKIW: Well, the best way I can answer that, because, you know, don't forget, we are the special monitoring mission in Ukraine. We're very operational. We don't get involved in the stratosphere of kind of politics.

Our chief monitor has been very clear. The ambassador saying the clearest way to peace in Ukraine is that hostilities cease immediately and those Minsk documents that were signed way back in September are adhered to and also that, you know, he's a strong supporter of President Poroshenko's peace plan. So the most important thing, of course, that could happen right now is a return to the dialogue table, and that would be the clearest way out of here.

BLACKWELL: Well, we know the Minsk agreement last year was violated in a couple days, maybe hours by some measures. They're going back to Minsk on Wednesday. We'll see what happens this time around.

Lieutenant Colonel James Reese and Michael Bociurkiw, thank you so much.

REESE: Thanks, Victor.

PAUL: Still to come, he faces a firestorm of criticism. Now, Brian Williams taking a break from "NBC Nightly News." Is this the right move to make?

Also, it's a horrific accident on the streets of Malibu. Bruce Jenner involved in a fatal crash. Now, police are digging deeper into what he was doing right before that accident. We have a live report coming up for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Thirteen minutes after the hour now.

"NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams announced that he is temporarily stepping aside. He is currently under investigation by NBC.

You know this scandal broke Wednesday when Williams apologized for repeatedly lying about a personal experience from 2003. Some would say it broke sooner than that with a report in "Stars & Stripes."

Williams he claimed he was aboard a helicopter hit by rocket- propelled grenade when he was on a different helicopter. In a new statement to colleagues, he writes in part, "I've decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days, and Lester Holt has kindly agreed to sit in for me to allow us to adequately deal with this issue. Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us."

Let's bring in my colleague and media correspondent Brian Stelter. Also, Joey Reiman, CEO of Bright House Consulting.

Brian, I want to start with you because when we spoke yesterday, we asked, would he step aside? Would he step down? There was a disagreement here if he would do that. But I was following you on Twitter yesterday in the afternoon.

STELTER: Yes.

BLACKWELL: And it seems to have come together pretty quickly. Did it come together quickly?

STELTER: It did. This decision was made by Brian Williams later in the day after we spoke on Saturday. NBC executives say this was entirely his decision. But obviously a lot of people think he was at least encouraged to go ahead and do this by the executives at NBC News.

They have not said anything publicly to support him. And that's one of the reasons why, Victor, people in the industry are talking about whether he's ever going to back to the chair. It's an extraordinary thing to say because he's the nation's top-rated news anchor. But since this has done serious damage to his credibility, anything's really possible at this point.

BLACKWELL: Joey, what do you think? Was it a good decision to step aside?

JOEY REIMAN, CEO OF BRIGHTHOUSE CONSULTING: Absolutely. And by the way, taking a break doesn't mean trying to escape or making a break for it. I mean, here's a guy who's been in business 30 years. He's got 9 million viewers. He's a very, very trusted brand.

Yesterday, I talked about NBC being an acronym for --

BLACKWELL: Not being canceled.

REIMAN: -- not being canceled.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

REIMAN: Today, I would change that to "now being counseled" because the top brass at NBC clearly have said, listen, before you go back on air, we've got to air some laundry and see if there's a pattern here.

BLACKWELL: What you told us yesterday is that all silence is not golden. Has he said enough?

REIMAN: No, he's not. And you know, the greatest brands are transparent brands, authentic brands, brands that don't step out but step forward and step up. And tell you a story. You know, human beings are meaning-seeking creatures. We love stories. Those poles will change on his behalf if he tells his breaking story which is the truth.

BLACKWELL: Brian, what's this investigation look like inside NBC?

STELTER: It's a fact-checking mission, basically, inside NBC to figure out if what Brian Williams has said in the past matches up with other people's accounts. There's been lots of external stories. As you mentioned "Stars & Stripes," newspaper is one of them, that has quoted soldiers contradicting what Williams has said.

NBC wants to make sure it's done that research on their own, and I'm going to have a soldier on "RELIABLE SOURCES" later this morning who actually has been interviewed by NBC as part of this fact-checking process. They want to make sure they know what's actually happened here. I agree, Brian Williams will have to say more about this. The question is how and when. A lot of people, I think, do want to give him a second chance if they believe he's being truthful.

BLACKWELL: Brian, there's this poll -- actually a survey commissioned by "Variety" in which they polled 1,000 people. And 80 percent of them think that Brian Williams should lose his job. Now, we don't know how many of those people are ABC viewers or CBS viewers.

STELTER: Sure.

BLACKWELL: Or loyal NBC viewers. But 80 percent is a pretty high number.

STELTER: Yes, this is a competitive business. And this is a loyal business. Viewers are loyal, right? They like to stick with the channels they choose.

And it's a competitive business. There's a lot of rivalries, a lot of back-biting. It's a tight-knit business but a very competitive business. Obviously, there are some detractors of Williams out there who might be trying to encourage this story to become bigger.

I've got to say, my Twitter feed, my replies, are the opposite. I'm finding 80 percent of people are telling me give Williams a chance. Don't be too hard on him. Let's figure out what really happened here. I do think there's a wide variety of reactions to this. The bottom line, though, is in this business, what we have to go on is trust. What we have to go on is credibility. If that's eroded and viewers don't watch to watch Williams as a result, well, that's the ball game.

BLACKWELL: And finally, Joey, to you, every day that he's off, I wonder if the message of Brian Williams not returning means that that they found something else and that further erodes the trust. Does it not create this artificial plot?

REIMAN: Yes, the clock is clicking and what Williams needs to do is get back on the air, air his laundry, tell people not so much how or when, but why. People want to know why. If you have a why, it creates a story. And stories beat polls every single time.

BLACKWELL: All right. Joey Reiman, thank you so much.

Brian Stelter, thank you as well. And of course, Brian, we know you'll have more on "RELIABLE SOURCES" at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. We look forward to that.

STELTER: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Christi?

PAUL: Well, you know, still ahead, the Northeast -- I know that you thought you were getting a break. I'm sorry to say that's probably not going to happen because we know another winter blast is coming your way.

Sara Ganim is following all of it for us in Boston.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi.

Inches of new snow falling overnight in Boston. What the mayor is saying about what this could do to the budget, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Second verse, same as the first -- although we're probably on the fourth or fifth verse with this storm now. There's more snow coming. Another storm adding to the mounting snow already in the region there in Boston.

PAUL: Yes, but, you see winter storm warnings already issued for parts of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Boston. Beantown, in particular, facing up to two feet of snow, and all of that piled on top of the record already set for the snowiest seven-day period in history there with more than 40 inches of it.

BLACKWELL: Sara Ganim is covering the story for us in Boston -- Sara.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM (voice-over): A winter-weary Northeast is bracing for yet another round of snow. This coming after a series of back-to-back-to- back storms that have already unleashed record amounts of snow in the region.

(on camera): What's it been like the last few weeks having back- to-back snowstorms? What's it been like for business?

CARL HAGGARD, BARISTA, THINKING CUP COFFEE SHOP: It's been really slow. There have been days where we've sat around with literally nothing to do, and all we'll do is bleach the counters.

GANIM (voice-over): And it's not just wearing down residents. City and state agencies across the Northeast are close to busting their budgets in an effort to keep up. In Boston, Mother Nature has dumped more than 54 inches already on the ground. Not a record- breaking year, but more than average, and enough to strain resources.

MARTY WALSH, MAYOR OF BOSTON: If we continue to get the snow we're going to get, we're going to shatter our budget for snow. Our budget for snow is roughly $18 million. We're not over the top yet with the $18 million. We still have money underneath the cap, but we're heading towards that. GANIM: City officials across the state are also saying they're

approaching their snow removal budget for the year. In Worcester, records are already broken: 77 inches have fallen, and it's still February.

And in New Hampshire, officials say their salt supplies are dwindling. Some areas have seen 48 inches of snow in the last few weeks. Suppliers are having a hard time keeping up with those demands.

KEVIN SHEPHARD, DIRECTOR, MANCHESTER DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS: We've got about a $1.2 million budget. We spent somewhere between $800,000 to $900,000. We spent some money over the past couple weeks with the storms that we've had.

GANIM: And even more snow is still on the way, a frustrating prospect for residents who are having a hard time getting around.

HAGGARD: I don't know how much money the city's lost at this point from all this snow, but if we don't get rid of it and allow people to function normally and allow me and my coworkers to, like, go to work normally, allow customers to come in normally, then businesses can't function.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM: Victor and Christi, take a look at the snow piles in the street, in this neighborhood in Beacon Hill in Boston. They're getting bigger and bigger with each snowstorm.

Take a look at this one. For example, this is not even just a snow pile. This is a car buried in here that has been buried since the initial blizzard.

The snow keeps piling up and up in this neighborhood. It makes it very hard to get around as a pedestrian. Even as driving a vehicle, even when the streets are plowed, the streets get very narrow with all of the snow.

And it's not just in Boston. I've seen this in other cities across the northeast as we've been covering these back-to-back snowstorms.

And this isn't just an inconvenience for people who are trying to get around the city. This is also a safety concern. Officials in Massachusetts asking people through a Twitter campaign to go outside and shovel out their fire hydrants because if a car can be buried under that much snow, it can cause a lot of problems for emergency vehicles and such cases like a fire -- Victor and Christi.

PAUL: My goodness. Sara Ganim, take good care there. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: The U.S.-led coalition is ramping up with airstrikes on ISIS positions. PAUL: Yes, and the fight in the air may get a big boost from the

UAE. It is sending, we've learned, a squadron of F-16 fighter jets to Jordan. We're going to take you live to Amman, next.

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