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Some Parts Of The Midwest Could See The Coldest Weather In Decades; Cold Weather Has Caused A Lot Of Shutdowns And Cancelled Flights; President Is Using His Executive Time This Morning, His Fifth Day With No Public Schedule. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 30, 2019 - 07:00   ET

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

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[07:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... in recorded history is expected.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like hard to take a breath in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We currently assess that North Korea will seek to retain its WMD capabilities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the hell is wrong with the DNI? He has no political judgment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's clear at a minimum that the President is not listening to them. They may as well be serving in a different administration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Universal care for everyone. That's aspirational. People don't want to pay for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For those who are hitting Senator Harris, how do you propose to cover more people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to go back to the Affordable Care Act, refine it, and fix it.

(INTRO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Good morning and welcome to your New Day. Shocking cold, historic cold, wicked cold, they all work. We're talking about life threatening cold temperatures hitting hundreds of millions of Americans this morning.

Some parts of the Midwest could see the coldest weather in decades. It will be colder in Chicago than Antarctica, Alaska, and the North Pole. That's not the way it's supposed to work. The most extreme temperatures will be felt in Minnesota where wind chills could be 70 degrees below zero. The winter blast is already being blamed for at least five deaths.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: The deep freeze forcing state governments and schools to close. Airlines have canceled thousands of flights. Amtrak has canceled all trains in and out of Chicago. And the U.S. Postal Service is suspending mail service in at least 10 states; states like Michigan pounded by heavy snow. Look at your screen.

There's lots of reporting of white out conditions there. The snow and ice triggering numerous multicar crashes on highways as you can imagine. In Minnesota, 193 accidents were reported to the state patrol in just one day. So CNN's Ryan Young has (INAUDIBLE) short straw in Chicago where the temperature is 22 degrees below zero. Ryan, tell us what that feels like on your skin.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unbelievable, you're not even hitting the wind chill factor that we know has now hit 50 below in this area, record setting temperatures so far. The word is going out to make sure that everyone's safe, especially for those who don't have well insulated homes.

There are heating centers open all across this area. Look at the iconic river here in Chicago. It is frozen over. But I can tell you, when this wind hits you it delivers quite a punch. Nearly three quarters of the U.S. bracing for bitter cold.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like I'm going into a freezer.

YOUNG: Digging out as life threatening low temperatures and ferocious winds grip the Midwest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard to take a breath in. It's affecting my lungs a little bit.

YOUNG: In Wisconsin, a 55 year old man found frozen in his garage after authorities say he apparently collapsed while shoveling snow. Slippery roads making travel a nightmare, this dash cam video capturing the treacherous driving conditions in Minnesota where police say 193 crashes were reported on Tuesday, the wind chill at the Benson Minnesota Airport clocking in at 62 degrees below zero.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really - really dangerous out right now.

YOUNG: This 13 vehicle pileup in Michigan bringing the highway to a standstill for hours.

ERIC WESTVEER, OTTAWA COUNTY SHERRIFF: Slow down and leave space between you and the vehicle in front of you. And be prepared for white out conditions. In Illinois, giant patches of ice blanketing the Chicago River. Residents insisting they're ready for the deepfreeze.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'm dressed in layers. So I have two pairs of pants on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as I bundle up, have a hat, have a coat I think I'll be fine.

YOUNG: Dangerously cold air predicted to make temperatures here feel like 50 below. J.B. PRITZKER, GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS: These conditions are and can be life threatening. Even short periods of exposure to this type of weather can be dangerous.

YOUNG: Winds also whipping in North Dakota where it's expected to be negative 20 degrees, across the nation, airlines canceling thousands of flights because of the deep freeze.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they're putting the deicer on, and the deicer froze on the plane.

YOUNG: And for Amtrak customers, all Chicago trains suspended. The flames on these tracks are intentional, crews setting them on fire to keep commuter trains going. The weather is so cold, the United States Postal Service suspending deliveries in multiple states across the country.

Hey John and Alisyn, we were actually using the building to kind of shield us. We wanted to come out here on the bridge to show you power of the windy city. You can see the flags blowing there. That wind really whips through you. We have several layers on. I think I have four our five on at this point.

So I don't really feel it on the middle part of my body. But on the exposed parts, especially my face, this feels like needles basically hitting your face over and over again. We know that if you're out for even as little as 10 minutes this could lead to frostbite.

So it's something that people show pay attention to. Don't forget school's been canceled in this area. They're hoping everyone stays inside today. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. So far the roads have been pretty safe. And they've been moving pretty freely as well.

BERMAN: All right, Ryan. Ryan Young get inside, take care of yourself, take care of the crew. Be careful everyone. This cold is serious.

CAMEROTA: Ryan's making me cold in the studio.

[07:05:00]

BERMAN: Yes, it's crazy. You see the flags flapping up there?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERMAN: All right. Happening now in real time, the President is using his executive time this morning, his fifth day with no public schedule. But what he's doing is he's writing on Twitter, trying to basically make his case. This after his top intelligence chiefs contradicted him on the situation in several of the hotspots all around the world. Listen to what they told Congress.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Against ISIS. We've beaten them, and we've beaten them badly.

DAN COATS, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: ISIS is intent on resurging and still commands thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria.

TRUMP: Chairman Kim, we have a great chemistry. And we're well on our way. You know, we signed an agreement that said we will begin the immediate denuclearization.

COATS: North Korea will seek to retain its WMD capabilities, and is unlikely to completely give up its nuclear weapons and production capabilities.

TRUMP: I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this I don't see any reason why it would be.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, DIRECTOR OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: Not only have the Russians continued to do it in 2018, but we've seen indication that they're continuing to adapt their model.

CAMEROTA: All right, joining us now, we have Phil Mudd, former CIA Counterterrorism Analyst, Samantha Vinograd, former Senior Aid to the National Security Advisor in the Obama White House, and Joe Lockhart, former Clinton White House Press Secretary, great to have all of you.

Sam, you're the expert. I want to start with you, in terms of - you know, as we know, President Trump decides foreign policy by feeling. He feels he has a good chemistry with Kim Jong-un. Therefore, Kim Jong-un must be telling the truth. He admires Vladimir Putin. Therefore, Vladimir Putin must be telling the truth. Peel back the curtain for us. Tell us what goes on in the White House before the national security advisors like that - the intel institutes I should say, come out and deliver an assessment like they did.

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, FORMER SENIOR AID TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Well, I've actually been there. When this briefing was presented to the President, there were no surprises from the President's perspective.

And what the Intelligence Community chiefs made very public yesterday, typically this worldwide threat assessment, which is a coordinated analysis of the 16 members of the Intelligence Community.

This isn't just the director of national intelligence, the CIA director. It is coordinated assessments about what they all believe to be true. This assessment is typically delivered to the President. It's often briefed to him verbally so that he can really plan what his priorities should be for the coming year. And importantly, get a sense of where his policies may or may not be working.

That way he can choose where to devote resources and where to change course. North Korea is a perfect example. A responsible president, after getting a briefing like this, would say my policy on North Korea needs to change. They're not going to denuclearize. What should my goals be, realistically, on North Korea?

Instead of changing his policies on North Korea, the President doubled down by tweet this morning, which really begs a question of where is he getting his intelligence from? If it's not from his own experts, is it from his two sons? Is it from television? Or is it from the foreign leaders that he tends to meet with by himself without any note takers present.

BERMAN: Look, I was going to wait to play this sound, but since you asked the question where does he get his intelligence ...

CAMEROTA: We have the answer.

BERMAN: ... we have the answer. You know, it's Lou Dobbs who goes on T.V. last night and attacks the Director of National Intelligence, the DNI Dan Coats, for presenting the intelligence that he has discovered and uncovered around the world. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOU DOBBS, FOX BUSINESS NEWS ANCHOR: What the hell is wrong with the DNI? He has no political judgment. He has no sense of proportion. I mean, what in the hell is he thinking about?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Phil Mudd, your take on Mr. Dobbs there.

PHIL MUDD, FORMER CIA COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Mr. Dobbs, what the hell are you talking about? Let me - let's be clear here. Seventeen years ago I was there, the agency, the CIA said, look, the President of the United States wants to - wants us to help the American people understand how bad Saddam Hussein is.

I - I remember the path we took. I understand the reasons we took it. Let's help support the President. Seventeen years later, I think people of my generation, and for example Gina Haspel, the CIA Director is from my generation, are looking - saying look, the President has the right to say we want a new path on places like Russia, Iran, North Korea. But we got to get out and tell the American people here's what the facts are.

If the President or Lou - Lou Dobbs wants to say the tooth fairy exists, the intel guys aren't going to say look, let me explain where the tooth fairy lives. They've got to offer the facts, and they did. What's the problem here? You want to relive Iraq again? We're not going to do it.

CAMEROTA: I mean - so Joe, as Sandra (ph) said, the President's been briefed by the Intel chiefs, OK?

JOE LOCKHART, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Right.

CAMEROTA: So he knows all of the - whatever it is, the Intel that they've seen, the facts on the ground, the surveillance photos, whatever it is they have. And he is sticking with his guy feeling that Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin are - must be good guys somehow. And they're telling him the truth. I mean, it's really either woefully naive, or I guess arrogant, that you're just going to stick with your gut feeling.

[07:10:00] LOCKHART: Yes. Well, it's - it's problematic, in one sense, to ignore your intelligence chiefs. It's really problematic to make Lou Dobbs the head of your CIA and intelligence operations. The guy has been screaming at the T.V. for 30 years. It didn't make sense 30 years ago. It doesn't make sense now.

It also is problematic for - but for Trump, I think it's - it's more than about feel. It's about politics. He's trying to create a brand. Remember, it shouldn't be surprising. He stood at the convention and said only I can solve these problems, only I.

So all of the apparatus of government is useless to him, he's got the idea. The problem is reality is meeting this image that Trump has tried to create. And it's just a very dangerous situation. And yesterday was remarkable. We have gotten numb to the daily trip of, you know, what happens in Washington.

To have all of the 16 intelligence agencies to get up there and say the President is lying to you. They didn't - they didn't use those words, but they were saying the President lies to you every day. That is remarkable.

BERMAN: They didn't say that. I mean, they really didn't say that. But what Dan Coats did say is that he's not going to have his facts and the intelligence swayed by politics.

LOCKHART: Right.

BERMAN: He did go out of his way to say that. And you can interpret that as you will.

LOCKHART: Yes.

BERMAN: Sam, there was another development last night. The Financial Times has the report on what now appears to be a pattern. This has to do with Buenos Aires. The President was in Buenos Aires. Vladimir Putin was there. There was a formal bilateral meaning that was canceled because of Russian activities against Ukraine.

But the Financial Times reports that Donald Trump sat down with Vladimir Putin for several minutes of conversation at the end of the evening at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires with no translator or note taker from the U.S. side to record the dialogue between the leaders.

That's according to people who had direct knowledge. There was a Russian translator there. And apparently the F.T. is learning from Russian sources that some of the things discussed were Syria, a policy in Ukraine, and a number of foreign policy issues.

VINOGRAD: Well, I just answered my previous question which is, where does a president get intelligence and foreign policy advice from, essentially from Vladimir Putin who he's treating as his shadow national security advisor in this case.

He's spending more time alone with him talking about sensitive issues, and getting insights from him, and giving information to the Russian government that his team may not have, that he may be spending with John Bolton or the intelligence chiefs.

And what this tells us is that the president really does not engage in the most basic counterintelligence hygiene. This G20 meeting came well after the Helsinki summit, when there was so much criticism about the President handing Vladimir Putin just manipulation points, in terms of what the Russians knew, and what the United States didn't know.

He chose to make that same mistake again. We know that the President was the subject of a counterintelligence investigation a long time ago by the special counsel. We don't know if that investigation has concluded.

But every time that he puts himself in these situations, it makes it so easy for Vladimir Putin to get more manipulation points on him. That really adds fuel to the fodder, and the conversation about whether there's just something he's trying to hide.

CAMEROTA: Phil, I want to ask you about that because this, you know, oops he's done it again. I mean, we don't know if this is a mistake or if this is by choice because now it's Helsinki, where this happened, where the President met with Putin without a U.S. representative to record it.

Hamburg, as we know, he took the interpreters notes when the interpreter was there so that even his own advisors back at the White House don't know what was said. The files, even the classified files now do not represent the details of what has been said in now these three different places, including Buenos Aires two months ago. So what are the - I mean, if only Putin and his interpreter know, how - what position does that put President Trump in?

MUDD: Well, I think it - there's a couple of questions you'd have to ask of him. The first is if he made a decision with Putin, who executes that decision? The President makes a decision, and the secretary of defense, the state of state, they execute.

If they had a conversation, that is Putin and the President about Syria and they decided something, what happens? The second is, as Sam was pointing out, let's say Putin lays out what he's doing in Syria. And the facts that the intel guys have don't correspond with what Putin said. Who's going to tell the President, Mr. President, Putin just sold you a bill of goods.

It's fake. What they're doing in Syria is different than what he said. Who gives the President the truth? There is one final question, Alisyn, that really disturbs me about this. I suspect that the President offered perspectives on what he was going to do in Syria to Putin, who's an adversary, before the President told allies like the Turks. That is, he told an enemy what we're doing in Syria before he told a friend. Not good business right there.

LOCKHART: And - and remember, just a few weeks later we changed our policy.

MUDD: Yes. [07:15:00]

LOCKHART: He said we're getting out of Syria. And it - by all accounts, the defense secretary didn't know that we changed our policy. The Intelligence Community didn't know we changed our policy. But if they were talking about Syria, it appears that maybe Vladimir Putin not only knew about our new policy, but had a big influence ...

VINOGRAD: Or suggested it.

LOCKHART: ... on that change. Yes, or suggested it.

VINOGRAD: Or suggested it.

BERMAN: Bottom line is we don't know.

LOCKHART: We don't know.

BERMAN: We simply don't know because there was no other U.S. person (ph) there.

LOCKHART: And we - and we should know.

BERMAN: Yes.

LOCKHART: So - I mean, I can make these statements that, you know, Vladimir Putin (inaudible), but we should know. The public should have the confidence, that the entire apparatus of our government is working in the same direction, not at odds with the President.

CAMEROTA: Joe, Sam, Phil, thank you all very much.

MUDD: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, Democrats throwing their names into the presidential race for 2020. So what can a candidate do to stand out from the pack? We have former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum joining us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: All right, some really interesting new developments in the race for 2020. I think what we had overnight was the first sort of walk back or clarification from one of the main democratic campaigns. Joining us now to discuss our CNN political commentator, Andrew Gillum. He's the former democratic nominee for Florida governor and served as Mayor of Tallahassee. Welcome to the family.

ANDREW GILLUM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you all for having me. It's been great so far. I'm glad I'm getting out of New York before it turns, I don't know, 6 degrees.

CAMEROTA: No, (inaudible) Florida is going to be better.

GILLUM: Exactly. You all are always welcome to do the show from there.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

BERMAN: So there's been an interesting substantive discussion about healthcare for the last few days. Medicare for all is something that many democrats have called for some time; I believe it's something that you have supported for some time. Senator Kamala Harris from California in a CNN town hall which not for nothing was the most- watched candidate town hall ever.

GILLUM: Wow.

BERMAN: She talked about Medicare for all and when pushed by Jake Tapper, she said it would be okay if it meant the end of privacy insurance. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: So for people out there who like their insurance, they don't get to keep it?

KAMALA HARRIS, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE: Well, listen, the idea is that everyone gets access to medical care. And you don't have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require. Who of us has not had that situation where you have to wait for approval and the doctor says well, I don't know if your insurance company is going to cover this. Let's eliminate all of that. Let's move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So eliminate all of that which is something that jumped out to a lot of people. Eliminate privacy insurance. Well, over the course of yesterday her campaign made clear that, yes, she has supported measures that do that are you about she also supported other measures that would not do away with private insurance. I call that a walk back or a clarification. But it's interesting, what political reality is she responding to there?

GILLUM: Well, I tell you, even if that clip -- and I want to compliment the senator obviously for being willing to make an announcement and go straight into a televised -- nationally televised forum where she would get real questions and have to go on the record on these kinds of issues. But what I heard in that clip really was a statement around a north star of where she wants to go. I didn't hear a very concrete set of steps on the way to getting there.

There have been plenty of pieces of legislation that have been put forth into Congress, and a number of them will take different approaches on the way to expanding access to healthcare, bringing down costs, and obviously dealing with this whole issue of affordability, even for those of us who have insurance.

So what I would say is, I think every democratic contender for president of the United States, including on the Republican side, I must say, should offer a vision as to how it is that they're going to expand coverage and bring down costs in the process. I am an endorser of Medicare for all. When I ran for governor in the state of Florida I talked about that and I did it unapologetically.

But when it came to steps I would take as governor of the state, if I were to be elected which obviously I subsequently was not, it would have been to expand Medicaid in our state to over 800,000 individuals because we recognize that the step to getting toward Medicare for all is one that quite frankly is one that might be more gradual. And even Senator Sanders' legislation deals with the 39 million uninsured first and then there's a rollout or a step toward getting -- to complete coverage.

CAMEROTA: On the bigger picture -- excuse me -- of the 2020 field, the fact that Senator Kamala Harris had the most-watched town hall ever, OK, we're counting other networks, we're counting 2016, what does that tell you about the excitement around her?

GILLUM: Well, I think there's a lot of excitement around her. She was coming off of a very, very successful, I would say launch over the weekend. But I will tell you there's a lot of excitement for a lot of the contenders in the Democratic field. We will have the most diverse field of candidates running for president that this country has ever seen.

I'm good friends with Secretary Castro who also produced a really, really, I think well-attended announcement. What I'm hoping for, however, is that the candidates will use these first several months -- I think we have our first debate on the Democratic side maybe in June of this year. But they ought to use this as an opportunity to cast big vision, talk to the American people about where it is that they want to take this country.

I don't think we ought to spend a bunch of time relitigating the past. I think this is about, as is all elections, about the future and where we want to go. Ultimately, I think the person who will win not only the Democratic primary but the White House will be the person who, in my opinion, is able to reach some of those Trump voters. And I don't mean those who might self-identify as racist, but I mean those individuals who believed that quite frankly they were getting a raw deal that the economy wasn't working for them, that they want better opportunities for themselves and their families.

They didn't feel that. The president somehow was able to convince them that we were going to win again. But what he didn't communicate is that he was going to win again. Rest of us were going to suffer. And I believe that Democratic nominee, whoever will become the president, who's able to cast a bigger, broader, more aspirational vision for where we want to take this country.

[07:25:00]

BERMAN: How should, in your mind, Democrats walk the line between progressive candidacies, or more centrist candidacies, you know? Howard Schultz, and there are some people who say that he's getting more attention than perhaps he deserves right now. But he has drawn a contrast with himself, what he calls centrist policies, moderate policies where he feels most of America is, and the Democratic Party which he says has left him, and moved too far to the left. Is that something the Democrats who are running need to be aware of?

GILLUM: Well, I'll tell you I don't Mr. Schultz. I understand he's been a lifelong Democrat. I will tell you as a lifelong Democrat, I would welcome him back into the Democratic Party and in the Democratic fold. There are a number of candidates who have staked out more progressive positions in this primary.

If he believes that there is room for his vision. If he believes that whatever his version of a moderate vision for the future of the country is the right way to go, I think he ought to make that case inside the Democratic primary.

I don't think that it is helpful. Not to him, and certainly not to the country, and not to those of us who want to replace Donald Trump in White House, for him to, quite frankly, skirt that process, use his billions to run an independent, and I believe, likely failing race for President which would, I believe, almost ultimately guarantee Donald Trump's reelection.

If there are enough people - if you're just doing the math - if everybody is carving out a space on the progressive side then don't you think, in the process of elimination, if you took a different route and there's a constituency for it, you ought to go out and make the case. He may not get my vote.

But I do believe that if he believes that the constituency on the Democratic side for that message, he ought to take the opportunity to get out there and explain it. What I don't agree with is I don't think you can sit back in the cheap seats and basically complain about everybody else's policy proposals without offering your own vision for where you want to take the country.

CAMEROTA: Like we do. Mayor Andrew Gillum, welcome to the CNN family.

GILLUM: Thank you for having me.

CAMEROTA: Great to have you.

GILLUM: With to be hear with you all.

CAMEROTA: Great to have your voice with us.

BERMAN: Look forward to seeing you again. Remember, New Day is most important show here.

GILLUM: There it is.

BERMAN: That's part of our new family.

(LAUGHTER) CAMEROTA: All right, a bipartisan group of lawmakers will meet today to prevent, or try to, another shutdown. If there any hope that negotiations will work this time? That's next.

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