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Bomb Cyclone Dumping Up to Two Feet of Snow on Northeast; Violence Erupts Across Mexico After Cartel Leader Killed; CNN Poll Shows Trump's Approval Rating Drops to 36 Percent. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 23, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news. A bomb cyclone blasts the northeast. Snow piling up more than two feet in some places, thousands of flights canceled. We are tracking the storm live.

Plus, taking the stand, yhe Georgia school shooter's mother just started testifying in her estranged husband's trial.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Also happening now, chaos in Mexico, tourists sheltering in place as a drug cartel leader's death triggers an outbreak of violence.

And historic finish, Team USA coming up on top against Canada, the first gold for the U.S. men's hockey team since the legendary Miracle on Ice 46 years ago.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news, a massive bomb cyclone detonating over the northeast, dumping more than a foot of snow in at least five states, from Delaware to Connecticut. Some areas are already -- have already gotten more than two feet of snow. The ferocious storm is unleashing -- unleash -- also unleashing wind gusts of more than 80 miles an hour in some areas, like Eastern Long Island, for example.

Those hurricane strength winds and the wet heavy snow are bringing down trees and power lines. More than half a million homes and business are already without power right now. City and state leaders across the region are urging people to stay off the roads. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. NED LAMONT (D-CT): We're sort of a foot, foot and a half under snow. It's a wicked nor'easter, and what we try and do is make sure DOT, the Department of Transportation, has the major thoroughfares cleared. We can only do that if you stay off the roads. Then they coordinate with ever source and U.I., our two electric utilities, make sure they can get access to any trees that are down, powers that went out. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our correspondents are scattered across the northeast. I want to begin with Michael Yoshida, who's in Boston for us. Michael, what are the conditions like there?

MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Wolf. It is blizzard-type conditions here in Boston, Massachusetts. See, we got the gusts picking up at points. We have a lot of snow coming down. You can see some of the snow. They've already started to pile up here and downtown Boston. We're right by the harbor right near the New England Aquarium, for those who are familiar with this spot.

And, normally, as we're looking up towards the rest of downtown, you'd be able to see some of the buildings, obviously, we have some of those whiteout conditions as a result of this weather.

I was actually just talking with someone with the State of Massachusetts. They say -- ooh, there's some of those gusts -- that right now these gusts with the drifting they're causing with the amount of snow that we're having come down, that's the big issue right now for all of those plows that we've seen spread out across the state, across Boston. We know some thousands of crews are out right now. But it's a real challenge to keep up with all of these conditions.

Of course, it's not just the snow and the wind that are causing concerns for travel, big worries when it comes to power outages here across Massachusetts. We know with these wind gusts and with -- as we look, we have a lot of thick, heavy, wet snow here. As this starts to cake onto the power lines, onto the trees, officials saying that's when we're going to start to see those limbs come down, those power poles come down and going to lead to outages.

A short time ago, our producer that we were looking, I think we still had tens of thousands here in Massachusetts already without power. Crews are standing by to address that. But, of course, we have to get through this storm first, and right now we're just getting into the thick of it. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Michael Yoshida, stay safe over there. Good luck. We'll stay in touch with you.

CNN's Brian Todd is on the scene first in Philadelphia right now. So, what are the conditions like there, Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, they've been deteriorating for the last several hours. We're in a particularly treacherous neighborhood of West Philadelphia called Manayunk, and it's treacherous because of streets just like this one. They narrow, some of them are unplowed, and they're very hilly. Our photojournalist, Tyler Ryan, and I are going to take you a little bit down the street here.

Now, this is Davis Street. Crescent Street is the main drag there. You can see Crescent is plowed pretty well, but streets like this, Davis Street, not so much. It's tougher for them to get up into these narrow streets and get some of this heavy, wet snow out of here.

[10:05:05]

I'm talking to Sam McLaughlin (ph). He is a local resident. Sam has lived here for about three years. You're going to shovel your car out, right? And how tough has it been to navigate through all this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty tricky. You know, getting the cars out is probably the hardest thing. And, you know, like you said, these streets are not plowed, but it's great because you'll see the neighbors later coming out and kind of doing their part tackling the streets. So, it's really -- you know, it brings the community together.

TODD: You said you've lived here for pretty much your whole life in this general area. You're from Chester County. How bad is this compare to all the snowstorms you've lived through?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you know, it's definitely significant. We're not strangers to snow up here in the Philly area, but it's -- this is definitely, this is definitely a big one, for sure.

TODD: Sam, good luck. I hope you can get your car out.

Here's a little bit of what Sam and some of the others are up against. Take a look at the cars down here, just kind of buried in looks like more than a foot of snow here, if you can get a kind of a gauge of the depth of the snow.

I talked to a Philadelphia state trooper -- a Pennsylvania state trooper not long ago, and I asked him what his biggest concern was about the roadways here. He pointed out the one big concern he has is the speed of the vehicles. The speed limit in a lot of the highways, like the one behind me over there, has been lowered to 45 miles an hour in some places, 35 in others. And he says a lot of people just overestimate the capability of their vehicles, even four wheel drive vehicles. He said, none of that matters if you hit ice. So, they're really trying to, you know, make people aware of that.

Another big concern, guys, is here, look, look at the heavy snow on the power lines here. That is going to be a big concern as we proceed later on today. Wolf, Pamela, back to you.

BLITZER: All right. Brian Todd reporting for us from Philadelphia, thank you very much.

I want to go to CNN's Leigh Waldman in New York. Leigh, what are you seeing in New York City?

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, it's been consistent snow with conditions deteriorating here as well. We can take a look down Seventh Avenue. You should see the lighted billboards of Times Square, if you look down that street, we can't see anything. Even the buildings are obscured because of how much snow is coming down. Already more than 15 inches here in Central Park. That's the largest one day snowfall total from a single storm in five years now. And this is not light, fluffy snow. This is snow that's hard to shovel. It's wet. We've got dogs out here enjoying, their bundled up too. People have been enjoying the snow. We've seen cross country skiers, but the snow is hard to move yourself. They have thousands of snow shovelers out on the streets of New York trying to clear the roads, if they can. You can see not a ton of traffic here. That's because there's so many snowplows out trying to make sure that these roadways are clear.

But the snow, while it is a problem for travel, it's a lot of fun. If you want to have a snowball fight or make a snowman, Wolf, this one's dedicated to you, this is Wolf Blizzard right here. He's been a hit with the people of Central Park who've been coming through taking their picture with you, with your snow form here.

So, as bad as this is for travel, it's a great day for New Yorkers enjoying themselves.

BLITZER: Enjoy the sense of humor. All right, Leigh Waldman reporting for us in New York, Brian Todd of Philadelphia, and Michael Yoshida in Boston, we have reporters all over the place, this is a huge, huge story. Thanks to all of you. Pamela?

BROWN: You just needed Lucy Blitz there. It's a little snow.

BLITZER: Sweet little dog, Lucy Blitz.

BROWN: named after you.

BLITZER: What about Bingo?

BROWN: And Bingo too. That's right.

All right, so, I mean, you know, we saw there and Leigh's live shot. A lot of people are having fun, but there couldn't be some dangerous conditions for people.

So, I want to bring in Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. Derek, this storm is far from over. What is the big picture right now?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Pamela, what I've seen a common theme between Leigh's and Brian's live shot there is the heavy wet nature of this snow. We call this heart attack snow because it can be so dangerous to shovel it because it's so heavy. You think it's that light, fluffy snow like we get out west. It is the complete opposite, right?

So, right now, you're looking at Mystic, Connecticut, over 18 inches of snow reported here. It's not done just yet. And it's the wind that has accompanied this incredible amount of snowfall stretching over 700 miles. We've had observed wind gusts of over 50 miles per hour from Virginia Beach all the way through Coastal Maine.

And when you look at the two-foot club and you talk about the heavy wet nature of the snow and you factor in the wind gusts over 50 miles per hour, you know you have problems. We already are edging near 600,000 customers without power because of this nor'easter here.

This is effectively a hurricane, right? Look at this visible satellite imagery as this sun starts to rise on the East Coast, illuminates the cloud so we can get this accurate picture, yes. What do you see there? An eye, yes, you know, 972 millibars. That's the latest pressure reading from this hurricane. Well, I should call it a snowcane, more or less. It's churning off the northeastern coastline. And, of course, that is an indicative of its strength, right?

So, we're producing this blizzard like conditions, dropping the visibilities below a quarter of a mile. And if you look at the radar, it is lighting up like a Christmas tree here with some of the heaviest snowfall right now along the I-95 corridor from Eastern Long Island through Connecticut, into the Massachusetts Turnpike and the Cape.

[10:10:06]

BROWN: All right. Derek Van Dam, very busy in the Weather Center, thank you so much. Wolf.

BLITZER: 5,500 flight cancelations already today, another 1,100 delays.

BROWN: Yes, what a mess.

BLITZER: So, it's having an enormous impact.

Still ahead, thousands of flights, as I just said, canceled. We'll take a closer look at how this historic storm is upending travel.

BROWN: And up next, American tourists trapped in Mexico as violence erupts after a notorious cartel leader was killed.

You're in The Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

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[10:15:00]

BLITZER: We have breaking news. Chaos in Mexico after government forces killed the country's most wanted drug cartel leader, and that set off a wave of violence and arson attacks in parts of the country, including near the Guadalajara Airport. Passengers had to scramble for safety.

At one point, suspected cartel members set up more than 250 roadblocks. American tourists were told to shelter in place in parts of the country. They shared some of their frightening stories. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the looting that was taking place as (INAUDIBLE) stores and buildings were being attacked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boxed away is where all of it's happening, and all the OXO, they burnt down all of the little OXO. So there's been little fires and stuff all over the city around us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's crazy to watch, you know, the town burning and all these cars being set on fire one by one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

And joining us now, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton and CNN Global Affairs Commentator Sabrina Singh. She's also a former deputy Pentagon press secretary.

Colonel Leighton, the White House says the U.S. provided intelligence support for the Mexican military operation on this cartel kingpin. What information do you think the U.S. likely provided?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, one of the things, Wolf, would probably be locational data. They would be able to possibly track El Mencho's movements. He is the -- that's the nickname given to the drug kingpin here. And the ability to track these movements becomes critical.

They may have also been able to penetrate the organization with human intelligence resources, probably in conjunction with the Mexican intelligence services. And those types of intelligence pieces come together to kind of form that whole picture that you need in order to find and capture somebody like this.

BLITZER: Interesting. Sabrina, let me bring you into this conversation. President Trump has been warning Mexico not for a long time over cartel violence and smuggling into the United States. Will this killing of a cartel leader help ease some of that U.S.-Mexican tension, at least for now?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: I think it certainly shows that this administration in Mexico, Claudio Sheinbaum's administration, is willing to take the cartels threat even more seriously than previous administrations have. I do think the strike that that led to the capture and killing of El Mencho does alleviate some tensions with the U.S. As you know, Donald Trump has threatened to strike within Mexico. So, I think this is a political victory for the Sheinbaum administration.

But I think the fallout from this is what we're seeing of the capability of the cartels to disrupt travel, to block streets. I think if the United States and the Mexican government continues to pursue cartel leaders, you could see more retaliatory -- retaliation effects from these cartels on the ground, which, of course, there are so many Americans that travel to Mexico on a daily basis that are now trapped at these airports. So, it is a calculation that the administration is going to have to weigh.

BLITZER: Thousands and thousands of tourists are there right now.

SINGH: Exactly. Thousands of tourists are there, flights are being canceled. I was actually in Mexico last weekend at the Cancun Airport flying out. I mean, I was surrounded by American tourists that go down there, whether it's from California or anywhere in the country, go down to Mexico to enjoy, you know, whatever it is, to get away from the weather.

And it is a calculation that, you know, going after these cartel leaders while targeting them is a good thing. They are responsible for bringing fentanyl into our country, you know, the deaths of Americans. At the end of the day, there are also American citizens in Mexico trying to get out now.

BLITZER: Colonel Leighton, let me get you back into this conversation as well. I want to turn to Iran for a moment. It looks like we'll be getting more talks later this week between Iran and the U.S. But just today, the U.S. is ordering some of its government workers and their families out of the US Embassy in Beirut. Are we seeing signs of the United States potentially shielding its personnel from potential Iranian attacks?

LEIGHTON: Yes, Wolf, I think so. Usually, when things like embassy evacuations occur, that means that action is imminent or at least a very high possibility. So, in this particular case, you've got the USS Gerald R. Ford, which is now in the Eastern Mediterranean steaming toward the Israeli and Lebanese coastline. That really is an indicator that the administration is at least preparing for action in this case against Iran.

And in this situation, what you're looking at is the State Department being a bit proactive in trying to move people out of countries, like Lebanon, where they are at considerable risk from organizations like Hezbollah, which, of course, as we all know, are Iranian proxies.

BLITZER: Yes. So, they're doing this out of a abundance of caution right now, especially because Hezbollah and Iran are allies right now. Hezbollah still has a presence, a serious potential military presence in Lebanon right now.

[10:20:00]

Sabrina, I want you to listen to what the special U.S. envoy, Steve Witkoff, said about President Trump's expectations with Iran. Listen to this.

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STEVE WITKOFF, SPECIAL ENVOY: He's curious as to why they haven't -- I don't want to use the word capitulated, but why they haven't capitulated? Why under this sort of pressure, with the amount of sea power, naval power that we have over there, why they haven't come to us and said, we profess that we don't want to be -- we don't want a weapon, so here's what we're prepared to do. And yet it's hard to sort of get them to that place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, is the president underestimating Iran right now and its willingness and ability to defend itself?

SINGH: I don't think the president is underestimating Iran and its ability to defend itself. I think that the president sees that the Iran retains capabilities. We saw this administration back in June during the 12-day war say that the nuclear facilities of Iran were completely obliterated. We knew that was not true then, but Iran does maintain an arsenal of ballistic missiles that are capable of reaching Israel or U.S. bases in the region.

And so I think the president is taking the threat of Iran seriously. What I don't know if it's what's being taken seriously is the negotiations, of how serious is Iran when it comes to its nuclear enrichment program or when it comes to, you know, disabling its proxies. I think you have people going into these negotiations, like Steve Witkoff, trying to get a deal come into place, but these things take time and Iran is more than willing to run down the clock, I think.

BLITZER: An important point. Sabrina Singh, Colonel Cedric Leighton, thanks to both of you very, very much.

Coming up, by the way, in about ten minutes, we'll speak to an American tourist who's now trapped inside Mexico, and we'll have much more news right after the break.

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[10:25:00]

BROWN: Well, new this morning, on the eve of President Trump's State of the Union address, a new CNN poll points to the enormous challenges ahead for him and Republicans heading toward the midterm elections.

Look at this. Only 36 percent of all U.S. adults approve of Mr. Trump's job performance. That's down 12 points from a year ago. 63 percent say they disapprove.

CNN Senior White House Reporter Kevin Liptak is here with us. Kevin, you've been looking more closely at this pool and the issues the president faces. What are some of the important trends right now?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the trends are all going downwards. Certainly, we saw that downward trend in the overall approval rating. That's the lowest point for the president heading into one of these yearly State of the Union addresses in both of its terms, but it's also sort of historic low for any president this century at this point in their terms.

So, these are significantly weak numbers. And I think what is driving it is the independents, when you look at how much in the approval among independence has really dropped off. Last year the president was down 13 points among independents. This year, he's down 47 points among independents. So, 26 percent approve, 73 percent disapprove.

I think anytime you're that far underwater among independents, your overall approval rating, you just can't recover from that essentially.

And when you look at all of these other demographics where the president has actually traditionally done fairly well, you can also see where -- what is driving these approval ratings down. So, for example, men. Clearly, that's traditionally a strong point for the president. Last year he was at 54 percent among men. Now, he's at 40 percent among men. White voters as well, traditionally, the president has done pretty well among white voters. He's at -- was at 55 percent last year. Now he's at 45 percent this year.

And then, you know, we've heard so much about Latino voters. Last year, the president did surprisingly well, you know, many people said among Latino voters. Last year he was at 41 percent. Now, he's at 22 percent significant drop off among Latinos.

BROWN: And do we know what the why behind it? Is it the immigration tactics? Is it the economy? Do we know what's driving this drop in numbers?

LIPTAK: I think when you look at what we have asked voters do not think that the president's priorities are their priorities. They do not think that the president, you know, is focused on the right things. And when you look at what issues people want to hear about in the State of the Union tomorrow, you know, I don't think it's any surprise that the overwhelming majority say it's the economy and cost of living, 57 percent.

I think where that gets into trouble for the president is what you have actually heard him talking about over the last year. So, for example, immigration, we heard so much from the president on immigration, only 13 percent say that that's their top issue in the State of the Union.

BROWN: All right. Kevin Liptak, thanks so much, I appreciate it. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Thank you as well.

And thousands of flights canceled, passengers stranded in this ferocious snowstorm that's ongoing right now.

CNN's Jason Carroll is over at Newark Liberty International Airport for us. Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And, Wolf, we're here where it's been one story after another of cancelations and folks having to pack out here overnight. I'll have the full story coming up.

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