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Large Snowstorm Hits Massachusetts and Connecticut; Deal in the Works to Free ISIS Hostage; Interview with U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff of California

Aired January 28, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, January 28th, about 8:00 in the east. Chris Cuomo live in Boston for you, Michaela Pereira in Connecticut, and Alisyn Camerota steering the ship in New York.

So here's the snow situation in a snapshot here in Boston. I don't know what that sound was. We'll figure it out later on. I'm about eight inches off the ground and there's still a foot plus of snow behind me. More than 24 inches, that's for sure. That's why this is a record-setting blizzard with at least two feet of snow on the ground, and that's just here in Boston. That makes it the sixth biggest snowstorm in the city since 1935.

Let's take a look at a map. North and west of here several towns in Massachusetts got a whooping, three feet of snow in places, literally, three feet of snow. All of New England feeling the pain -- 33.5 inches in Thompson, Connecticut, 33 inches in Nashua, New Hampshire. In Long Island, Suffolk County there, the town of Orient saw 30 inches.

Alisyn, let's take brother Dave's camera real fast if we can and show them the ferries are back running again, Alisyn. I know you were working and living up here. And that's how fast they are getting back and going here, another testament to Boston strong. But a long way to go in the dig out.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Chris, you're so right, Boston is used to snow. But it can still paralyze the city when it is this much and this cold as you've been describing. Now, this morning New York City and New Jersey are essentially back to normal. So why didn't the forecast add up for millions who were expecting an epic amount of snow? We've been exploring that and we'll talk more about it during this hour. Chris?

CUOMO: Yes, I still don't get why people are complaining about not getting hit. It's like some kind of mass masochism. Anyway, as you know, Alisyn, that boom we heard, that was old Ironsides firing her cannon because it's 8:00 in the morning here in Boston. That's what that was.

All right, so, for all the talk about snow, it was the wind that the blizzard whipped up that was the worst. Coastal flooding as a result forcing many along the south shore of Massachusetts to literally run for their lives. There were sights, sounds, and sensations felt all over the northeast that will never be forgotten. Here is a taste of what it was like to be in the blizzard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: The sound of a blizzard. Hurricane force winds 78 miles an hour in Nantucket. The sight of storm surge breaching a seawall along the southern coast of Massachusetts. Roads like sled paths, drivers crawling through a whiteout near Boston. This is New England, buried by the year's first and historic blizzard, snow not by the inch but by the foot from Connecticut to Maine, towns like Worcester and Framingham surpassing 30 inches. Cars turned into igloos in a sea of white. The snow different depending on where you were. Inland, small, dry crystals from the bitter cold. Along the coast, flakes were wet and clumpy like white mud on the ground. High tide coupled with near hurricane strength winds flooding homes.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's water coming up right over the seawall right now.

CUOMO: CNN's Alexandra Field in Scituate when the freezing water surges onto shore. The National Guard racing to save the lives of residents who didn't evacuate, steering in near zero visibility. Mission accomplished as soldiers share a warm embrace with the community members they pluck from danger.

SGT. JENNIFER BRUNO, HOME DAMAGED IN MARSHFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS: I've been through a lot, and that was just more than I thought would have happened.

CUOMO: For one National Guardsman, a bitter sweet return home. Sergeant Jennifer Bruno's community was safe but her coastline home destroyed.

BRUNO: My friends and I, we actually just grabbed a few things, some uniforms that were right there and a sword I got when I was in Iraq.

CUOMO: By all accounts, most residents did what they were supposed to, heeding the calls of state officials.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get ready to hunker down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get home and hunker down.

CUOMO: These warnings, possibly saving lives.

But from the severe to the sublime, surfers riding dangerous high tides. Monday also saw the first of many winter storm miracles. This mother forced to break the travel ban during the height of the blizzard in Connecticut making it to the hospital just in time to deliver a beautiful baby girl.

HEATHER KLEIN, DELIVERED BABY DURING BLIZZARD: The roads weren't that bad because nobody was on them. I was happy once we got here. I was a little relieved.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CUOMO: A little bit of a nod to the fact that life must go on even through the worst. And when we talk about that, that's going to take us to the coast of Massachusetts. It is a disaster there this morning. Homes are just battered by waves as rising flood waters submerged communities literally. The coastal town of Scituate very hard hit. We have Nick Valencia there with the latest on the devastation. Nick, we saw what you went through down there. What is it like this morning?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Now that the sun is out we are getting a fresh perspective of the damage left behind by that severe weather system that whipped through here, this coastal community. We are seeing things slowly get back to normal in this town of Scituate. People emerging from homes, people slowly getting back on the roads, and of course people having to shovel that more than two feet of snow that ended up here in this area.

A really windy day as well. I was talking to this gentleman here who says he's lived here for more than 50 years and that he was here for the last really big storm, he says, which was in 1978. This community, of course, a coastal community that is accustomed to sort of catastrophic things, catastrophic damages, but they say that what they saw here in the last 24, 48 hours was truly remarkable. They say they are going to make it, though. They are just glad that they think the worst part is over.

The coastal flood advisory, the seawall that was breached where Alexander Field was, that coastal advisory ended at 7:00 a.m. Right now though it still is pretty cold out here and that wind seems to be the biggest issue now that that snow has stopped falling here in this coastal town. Chris?

CUOMO: Hey, Nick. I've been apologizing to you all morning. We need you there but it's so tough being right off the seawall there and getting hit with that wind. But that's what they're living with. I don't know if you noticed when that man was shoveling snow, you see the shovel go in, then there's a hitch, and then he throws. That's because this snow is so heavy because of the temperature change and the freezing and moisture that's it's going to be tough shoveling. The digging out is going to be very difficult.

Now, we've been talking about the danger, OK? And it's no question it's not about the snow accumulation simply. It's about the wind that causes the waves that causes the flooding. That's the formula for disaster that this blizzard brought to bear, especially in the coastal parts of eastern Massachusetts like Scituate.

So joining us right now from there is John Danehey. He is the chairman of the board of selectmen for the town. They are going to be in charge of getting it back on its feet. Thank you very much for joining us Mr. Danehey. We saw the pictures. It looks frightening. What is the status of your seawall and the community's well-being?

JOHN DANEHEY, CHAIRMAN of BOARD OF SELECTMEN, SCITUATE, MASSACHUSETTS: Good morning. Actually, with the seawall right now, we're actually going out to assess it. Unfortunately during all of the storm it's really hard to get out there with all the water coming in. So right now we're looking at it. It looks as though about 15 feet of it from the top of the wall has been taken in, and so we'll go out there, we'll put some large armor stone out there and some other sands to try to impact it until we can get there in the spring to kind repair it.

CUOMO: Why do you have to wait until spring? Is it just about the temperature, exposure to the elements, and what work can be done?

DANEHEY: Yes. It's usually because of the -- in order to do the concrete, be able to pour it, given the weather conditions, you usually wait until the springtime to do it. Plus, you've got to get access to it. The problem is trying to get the access to it because a lot of the homes are built right to the wall. So you have to approach it from the seaside.

CUOMO: Sure, tricky work. The community particularly vulnerable because of what you just said. They are really right on top of the sea wall there. We heard about 200 plus homes, 212, something like that lost power. But what are the conditions now? Does everybody have what they need to move on?

DANEHEY: Sorry, I lost your --

CUOMO: You got me? You got me now, Mr. Danehey? Mr. Danehey, can you hear me? All right, Mr. Danehey lost us. One of the many problems, obviously, that you deal with are communications. The good news, you heard it there, they're now in the assessment mode. They're able to deal with what happened there. About 200 plus people lost power. They're going to hopefully get that back. Our estimates that we're hearing about are from today. So that's the situation down there, just a taste of how bad it was. And that's only Massachusetts. This is all of New England. And Connecticut, punished. That's the only word you can use. Northern end of the state, especially the town of Thompson, got 33 inches of snow. In the south they're upwards of two feet in Waterford. That place neighbors New London. And that is where we find the inimitable Michaela Pereira.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: She was born up in the hinterlands of Canada. She laughs in the face of snow. And even the great Michaela was stranded with what she faced in Connecticut.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Stranded. Stranded. Look, it took a lot to put my producer and I down for the count, but we got stuck in New London, Connecticut. We've been very grateful to the folks here for their amazing hospitality.

Chris, you've been talking about this sort of two-sided or two-faced storm that we've been seeing. New York mostly didn't get what was anticipated, New York City, Manhattan, et cetera. But Connecticut, as you mentioned, really, really got smacked.

And depending where you are in the state you'll see different levels. You mentioned Thompson -- 33.5 inches of snow here. In New London we've seen anywhere the estimates are between 20 and 26 inches of accumulation. It is a very different story. In fact, we've seen some blue sky behind me.

Indulge me here for a second, Chris. I'm going out on the street. It is safe. I'm looking both ways. The road crews have done a yeoman's job in clearing these roads. These are bare roads. They put a fair amount of salt and other substances down on these roads. This is bare. It's not icy at all. But they've been telling me that the -- not all of the roads are as clear as that one. They're working on getting those roads clear for people. Businesses are back to usual here in New London.

I spoke with the mayor a little earlier this morning. And while the travel ban has been lifted here, they say they're trying to ask people to stay off the roads so they can get the rest of that removal going. And then once they get it removed and cleared from the roads, look at all these snow banks along here. I mean, this is an incredible amount of snow that was drifted and then piled up from the snow plows. So it's going to be a long melt here when it ever gets warm enough to do that. Right now it's like 12 degrees with a wind chill of minus two, Chris. So it's chilly.

CUOMO: Yes, I'm waiting for the inside of my nose to defrost let alone the snow. They're not going to have any warmer temperatures for days. It's going to be tough. But you braved it well and your reporting there has been helpful, my friend. I look forward to seeing you back in the city.

Alisyn, you've got the short stick today there in the studio in New York. You know, being all by yourself. I'm sure it's very hard.

CAMEROTA: It's extremely hard. So hard to be this warm and cozy while watching you guys out there. You know what is hard, Chris? The karma that I know is going bite me for whatever the next assignment that's going to be in Siberia.

CUOMO: No. No. You deserve good things. I just don't like smiling this much. My face is frozen like this. I'm not smiling right now.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: I understand. You're doing a good job of speaking with frozen mouth. I know how hard that is. Chris, thanks so much. We'll get back to you momentarily.

But we do want to get to some breaking news right now that we're following out of Israel. The Israeli Defense Forces launching attacks out of key Hezbollah operations following a missile attack on one of its vehicles. CNN has learned that there are casualties, but at this hour we do not know how many. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the IDF is prepared to act forcefully in retaliation.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreeing to testify before the House select committee's investigating the 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. The panel's top Democrat, Congressman Elijah Cummings, says Clinton did not hesitate when she was approached in September but a date and time are still being worked out. Clinton's spokesman declined to say when exactly she will testify. And they're famous for outrageous Super Bowl ads, but Go Daddy may

have gone too far this time, the company pulling its ad which previewed online Tuesday. Animal lovers and rescue organizations blasted this ad which follows a lost puppy who makes it back to his owners who are so happy to see him, not because he's home but because they sold him on the website they built with Go Daddy.

All right, we have breaking news this morning. There may be a deal in the works to free two ISIS hostages in exchange for a female terrorist. We are talking to a Washington insider about this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Breaking news this morning: we're learning a deal may be in the works to free at least one of the two hostages being held by ISIS.

Let's bring in CNN's Will Ripley. He is live from Tokyo.

I know this is a minute-by-minute developing story. What's the latest, Will?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In less than 45 minutes now until the ISIS execution deadline where ISIS promised to execute not only the Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, but also a captured Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kasasbeh, if their demand of a terrorist swap, a prisoner swap was not met. Of course, that terrorist we've been telling you about, Sajida al-Rishawi convicted of the 2005 bombing attack that killed dozens of people.

Jordan issuing a statement through their state television channel saying that they are ready to hand over al-Rishawi but they insist ISIS hands over their pilot. That statement did not mention anything about the Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. It's important to keep in mind ISIS never offered to hand over the pilot, they only offered to spare his life, to not kill him 45 minutes from now.

So, what we know about these deals, Alisyn, is that all of these discussions, any of these negotiations are happening far from the public and any handover that would happen would be in a secret location conducted totally secretly. So, the world, Japan, Jordan, the families of Kenji Goto, the families of al-Kasasbeh, they're not going to know the outcome until one or both of these men come home to their families, Kenji Goto comes home to his wife and daughter or his mother or a much more tragic outcome, Alisyn, if ISIS decides they are not willing to hand over the pilot. We'll just have to wait and see.

CAMEROTA: Of course, so nerve racking for the family. Will, thanks so much for the update.

Let's bring in now, Congressman Adam Schiff. He's a Democrat from California and a ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Good morning, Congressman.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: Good morning. How are you?

CAMEROTA: I'm well.

What do we know about this reported deal between Jordan and ISIS to get the Jordanian pilot out?

SCHIFF: I think there are still a lot of moving pieces. It's not clear that ISIL is ready to trade the Jordanian pilot for al-Rishawi. So, I'm not sure that Jordan can go ahead without an assurance that they're going to get their pilot back. The war effort is controversial in Jordan. This puts the king of Jordan in a very difficult position.

There have been a number of foreign fighters, many hundreds, that have left Jordan to join the fight. So, Jordan is in a precarious fight. And I think this is deliberately design to drive a wedge between the king and his people, as well as the nation of Jordan and the nation of Japan.

So, it's a very difficult box for Jordan to be in. At this point, I don't think we know how this is going to turn out.

CAMEROTA: And, Congressman, doesn't this put everyone, all world leaders in a precarious position? Because if you acquiesce to ISIS' demands, it merely serves as an incentive for them to continue taking hostages and doing the rest of their barbaric acts?

SCHIFF: That's certainly true and I think if this goes forward and there is a swap, it is going to encourage them to try to take other prisoners. That is probably more of an issue when it comes to the people like Mr. Goto, the journalist.

The Jordanian pilot, all pilots, anyone that's actively fighting ISIL is at risk of not only becoming a prisoner but becoming, you know, killed in the conflict. So that's unavoidable. Obviously, I think we have to all take precautions to try to avoid putting any civilians -- Western civilians within the reach of ISIL because it is of great value to them as a propaganda coup as well as leverage against these governments and the war effort.

CAMEROTA: And, of course, you've heard the Obama administration say that we do not negotiate with terrorists, yet it has been pointed out that in order to get Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl out of Taliban hands, we had to, in some ways, negotiate. We went through an intermediary. But it's hard to say when it's one of your own that you wouldn't use every means necessary.

So, how is the Bowe Bergdahl situation different from what Jordan is trying to do now?

SCHIFF: Well, look, you can distinguish the two, but it's very difficult. And I think whatever the Jordanian government decides, we won't be critical of Jordan. They're in a difficult spot. And as you point out, we did trade Bowe Bergdahl for this Taliban, in something that I'm not sure was a very good exercise and a very good precedent for the United States to set.

But in any event, Jordan is a key ally. We'll support them with whatever they decide they have to do. This is the scourge of dealing with a terrorist organization that is willing to behead people if it doesn't get what it wants. There are no laws of war. There are no rules of war. There's nothing but brutality, and murder and death when it comes to ISIL. It ought to reinforce why this terrorist group has to be stopped.

CAMEROTA: Congressman, as you know, there's also been a terror attack on a tourist hotel in Libya, in Tripoli, in the capital. One American was killed. What should the U.S. response be?

SCHIFF: Well, this is a very difficult situation because you've got two rival governments competing with each other, one in Tobruk and one in Tripoli. We have been trying to negotiate a resolution so that we can help Libya remain one country and reinstate some level of security because in the absence of that security, we have ISIS taking advantage of the situation, carrying out attacks like we saw in this hotel.

I mean, obviously, we're going to go to whatever length we can to bring to justice any of those that were responsible for killing this American and seven others. But that's very difficult to do in an environment like Libya, where you don't have a stable government and, in fact, you have two governments that are in competition with each other.

CAMEROTA: Congressmen, quickly we have been reporting this morning that Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state, is prepared to go back to Congress to testify about the terror attack in Benghazi, Libya.

What more do you want to hear from her?

SCHIFF: Well, I'm not sure what more there is to hear from the secretary, and I fear that this is really just politically motivated. Obviously, they think this will be advantageous in terms of the presidential election, and I'm concerned with how this is being drawn out.

The committee waited six months to ask for any documents from the State Department and now says, well, we have to delay bringing the secretary in because we don't have the documents we want. So, I fear that they're trying to run the clock so that they can push this further into the presidential cycle.

But honestly, so much of the facts are known and have been described in great detail by the accountability review board and about eight other investigations, I'm not sure there's much new that the secretary can tell us.

CAMEROTA: Congressman, last, can you tell us where Congress is on the authorization for use of military force in Syria and Iraq fighting ISIS?

SCHIFF: Well, we're not much closer than we were when this conflict started now almost half a year ago, which I think that's an incredible abdication of our responsibility. I'm introducing a bill to authorize a very narrowly tailored bill to use the force against ISIL, but I would love to see the Congress and administration working together to actually have a debate on this war, have a vote on this. I'd also like to see it be a narrow authorization, not the kind of open-ended resolution we passed in 2001 and 2002, which are still being relied upon by the administration today in very different circumstances.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Congressman Schiff, thanks for taking the time to come on NEW DAY.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much.

Well, the blizzard slamming New England is causing all sorts of problems this morning. We will go back to Chris who is live in Boston and we'll talk with the Massachusetts governor about the big cleanup.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

I'm live in Boston which has feet of snow and days to go before life gets back to anything near normal. Let me show you the deal. Right now, we're eight cinches off the surface. Dave, the photographer tells me.

And here we go. So, for eight inches off right now, you have another two plus feet right here, and this is in Boston. This is how much snow? And the cold has made this very hard. So, you're not going to go tromping through it. That's going to make it very hard to remove.

You know what else the cold does? Make it hard to get up. There we go. So, that's the snow situation. No need to hype it because the numbers tell the story. Two feet in Boston making this storm deposit the most snow in January, any January ever in Boston, OK?

Then you go 40 miles west of here and you have a record set for the most snow ever, 34 inches in Worcester. OK?

So, on top of digging out from all of the snow, the blizzard was about wind, right? Wind whips up the water, creates the waves, breaches a seawall, creates flooding. The southern part of the state after a seawall failed, sent water just gushing into towns, waves reported at 20 feet high. Some of the storm surge, 6, 7 feet flying in., in those temperatures, imagine.

So, the impact is being felt in those communities, even though the blizzard is over. The story here will last days for that reason.

In the Northeast, trying to get back up and running in these airports, hundreds of flight still being cancelled for today, and that's going to, of course, cascade across the country.