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Interview with Gov. Charlie Baker; Nuclear Negotiations with Iran; Wolf Blitzer's Family Link to Auschwitz

Aired January 28, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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


CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Is still 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 means airports. Hundreds of flights still being canceled for today and that's going to, of course, cascade across the country.

And you have the rails. Subways are getting back going. Amtrak resuming limited service between Boston and New York today. So all of that is good news, but it's going to take time.

But here's what you have to remember. There is a lot of bad things that happened, but it could have been so much worse, and it is so good that they're already in recovery mode. And the man responsible for the planning here in Massachusetts is the governor, Charlie Baker.

Governor, you're on the phone. Can you hear us OK?

GOV. CHARLIE BAKER, MASSACHUSETTS: Hey, Chris, how are you?

CUOMO: I'm doing very well. And, more importantly, so is your state. You had planning here and a little bit of good luck. How do you think you made it through?

BAKER: I think your characterization is about right. I mean the good news here was, we knew this storm was coming for a couple of days, which gave us an opportunity to pre-stage a lot of things with respect to getting ready for it. But your point about the fact that we had a little good luck is true. I mean if you think about -- you were just talking about the coastal flooding, which the lieutenant governor and I are going to go spend some time down there visiting with people today on that. But the fact that it was a little colder than we thought it was going to be meant the snow was a little lighter and fluffier along the coast than we thought it was going to be and that meant we had nowhere near as many trees down or as many lines down. And so the power outages we feared could be in the hundreds of thousands of customers ended up being in the tens of thousands of customers instead. So, to some extent, that was a big break.

CUOMO: And, you know, it's not just about the inconvenience, it's life and death when you lose power in these conditions and temperatures. And, of course, you know, you think back to 1978. You know, I lived through it, you lived through it. That was a deadly storm. Ninety-nine people lost their lives. Here we're hearing much less. It's not even the same story on that level. What do you think accounts for that? Was it preparation? Was it people heeding the call better because of experience?

BAKER: I think it was a little bit of both. And I will say this. I mean I - you're right, I was around in '78 when we had that blizzard. Part of what made that blizzard so deadly was the fact that it came upon people as a big surprise. You know, people were not really anticipating or expecting that we were going to have a big storm and a huge piece of the consequence of that storm were people getting trapped and stranded in cars and along highways literally for days. And I think in this particular case, because of the modeling and the National Weather Service saying a big storm was coming, and having that 24-hour period to prepare for it, and the fact that we did implement a 24-hour travel ban, which gave our plow people and our emergency service personnel the ability to get out there and clear the roads and not have to worry about stranded drivers, I think that combination again with what you call the little bit of luck is really where we came out better than we expected.

CUOMO: Right. And I don't mean in any way to minimize what was actually experienced and will continue to be experienced. You make a strong point that what killed people in '78 was carbon monoxide poisoning from being stranded. This time you didn't have the cars out there.

I know you're asking people to continue that forbearance, to not be on the roads because that will slow down the process and response time will still be long because of the stretch of assets. So allow me to ask you this, governor, before I let you get back to work. Can you make the case at this point to declare the impact of the blizzard a disaster and ask for federal funding? I know it's all about how much money this will cost you to fix.

BAKER: Well, we certainly have some homework to do with respect to that, but I think you can anticipate that we will be - by the way, the FEMA people, the Federal Emergency Management folks, worked side by side with us throughout the past three or four days and were terrific. But, yes, you can expect that we'll be having conversations with the federal government to see if there's some opportunity for them to assist us with paying for some of the damage that was done here. But I think overall I'm really proud of all the folks who were involved in getting us through this and the way we got through it. And your comment about the fact that we still have a lot of digging out to do over the course of the next few days is exactly right, and that's what we're going to focus on.

CUOMO: And I know that you're asking people to cooperate and they've done so thus far. This is one of those situations that is a test of leadership and the state seems to be pulling through. So good luck to you going forward and good job so far.

BAKER: Hey, thanks very much, Chris. We -- this isn't our first snowstorm.

CUOMO: No, no. No, it wasn't. But this was a tough one and every one is a challenge. So, Governor Baker, good luck to you. Thanks for joining us on NEW DAY.

All right, Alisyn, over to you in New York.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Chris, thanks so much.

Well, the president speaking exclusively to CNN on the controversy around Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned visit.

Plus, it's been 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. Our Wolf Blitzer has a very personal connection to the concentration camp and he'll join us to share his emotional journey.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: President Obama back in Washington after a trip to India where he spoke with CNN's Fareed Zakaria about nuclear negotiations with Iran and why he thinks those will work better than new sanctions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I've got a bunch of scientists and nuclear experts saying this assures us that Iran is not on the brink of being a nuclear weapons power, then that's a public debate we should have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about this and so much more. Joining us now is CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast," John Avlon and CNN political commentator and Republican strategies and Sirius XM host, Margaret Hoover.

Great to see you guys.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Great to see you.

CAMEROTA: I could use some company in here. Thanks for coming in.

HOOVER: I know.

AVLON: We're going to keep -- we don't want you to be alone.

HOOVER: But you're warm.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I'm - oh, thank you (INAUDIBLE).

So, Margaret, basically what the president is saying, I hear to Congress, back off. We have negotiations in place. We're trying for a diplomatic solution with Iran. Back off on your new sanctions.

HOOVER: Yes. And to their credit for going for a diplomatic solution. The question is, how credible is it? It seems to - that the members of the Senate and the House, both Republicans and Democrats, that Iran is just buying time. What helps get Iran to the table was incredibly crippling sanctions. And what has happened since the president laid off those sanctions is that it seems that Iran has just balked, balked, balked, bought more time, bought more time, bought more time and continued spinning their centrifuges. It is - it is Democrats and Republicans in the House and in the Senate who feel not that sanctions is going to derail the process. They're not trying to derail the diplomatic process in the United States. They feel that it gives the president leverage at the table in order to actually get a deal done with Iran.

AVLON: Yes. I mean the thing is, is that if the intention is to give the president leverage, you should probably check with the president to see if actually does give him leverage. Look, these are fundamentally different responsibilities. There's the responsibility to negotiate in executive capacity and then there's the ideological -- sincere ideological approach. And after - look, I mean, you know, Iran's been shouting death to America for 35 years. They have no credibility as being an honest actor on the world stage.

CAMEROTA: So, in other words, President Obama's being played?

AVLON: No, I don't know that he's being played. I think what President Obama is trying to do is nudge Iran into a more responsible role. But, obviously, trust but verify players here. They are trying to get negotiations done before March 24th. What they don't want is any congressional action by saber rattlers to derail those negotiations because it gives Iran a convenient out.

HOOVER: You know, it's just -- it strains credibility to call Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez saber rattlers. And it - and it - and what I think we're seeing here -

AVLON: (INAUDIBLE), nicely played.

HOOVER: What we're seeing here is not pure ideology but senators who are also responsible who know a lot about the dynamics of Iran and the negotiations.

By the way, it was this president -

AVLON: But not as much as the State Department.

HOOVER: It was not necessarily true, actually. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has been intimately involved in crafting these sanctions from -- even before this president came to the White House. And, by the way, they didn't even like the sanction at first. And now that they've been successful, they're happy to associate themselves with them.

CAMEROTA: So one thing that Congress is doing is inviting Benjamin Netanyahu, who has strong feelings about this, to come and speak before Congress. Should the president -- how should the president react to this, John? Should he meet with Netanyahu when he's here?

AVLON: Look, look, Israel is our closest ally on the world stage in addition to Great Britain. But on an interpersonal level, there's a lot of bad blood between these presidents. And I think the issue here, and the one the White House is using is, you've got an Israeli election in mid-March and this would be putting a finger on the scale I think is the phrase that the president has used. That's a credible common standard and that's probably one that should be enforced. The decision to invite Netanyahu, unilaterally on the part of the speaker of the House, you know, without consulting the White House is pretty unprecedented. It is clearly a political brush back move based in a shared belief.

CAMEROTA: Should the president break that rule that they have of not meeting with other world leaders when they have an election coming up within two weeks because they don't want to somehow sway the election?

HOOVER: Look, I -- this whole thing is such a debacle. And, frankly, it's become a distraction from the negotiations over the nuclear deal with Iran.

AVLON: Sure.

HOOVER: You can - you can certainly -- the relationship between Bebe Netanyahu and President Obama is so bad and the relationship between John Boehner and the president is so bad.

AVLON: Not quite (ph).

HOOVER: It's almost like nothing -- there's just not -- it's beyond salvageable. So, unfortunately, it's played out the way it's going to play out. I don't think it has - you know, Bebe Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has made the calculation that his best relationship and the place to really focus his attention is on the Congress of the United States, not the presidency. And there's two more years left of this president. So he just thinks, as long as he can get through this election, which by the way makes him look stronger.

AVLON: Not - maybe (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: I want to quickly get to some pictures of the first lady and the president when they went to Saudi Arabia. And the first lady, some people are saying that there was an etiquette breach. She did not wear a head covering when she met with the new king and she shook his hand, which apparently breaks protocol. Was Michelle Obama sending some sort of message, do you think, Margaret?

HOOVER: I do not think the first lady went to Saudi Arabia in order to make a political statement about a country that frankly is in the medieval ages with respect to women and maybe got a dose of the 21st century. So, if she was, I'd applaud her. But that's not what she was doing.

AVLON: Yes.

HOOVER: I think she was following very strict protocols of the president. There are -- of the U.S. Department of State. And as I understand, in some of the reporting, the king signaled to her - AVLON: Correct.

HOOVER: And stuck out his hand first and then she responded.

CAMEROTA: Ah.

AVLON: And, yes. I mean, and just for a second, let's play out what the reaction would be if she did wear a head scarf. I mean, you know, for God's sakes, I mean you can write that Twitter storm yourself in your sleep. So, I mean this is --

HOOVER: But, John, foreign (ph) women don't have to wear head scarves when they visit Saudi Arabia.

AVLON: Right. And, look, you can have mutual respect without mutual adaptation. This is a complex relationship with a lot of history to it. And the fact you saw the show of support to the new king speaks to how complex the relationship is.

CAMEROTA: Yes. John and Margaret, thanks so much.

HOOVER: Thanks.

AVLON: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Nice to see you guys.

You can watch Fareed's full exclusive interview with the president this Sunday at 10:00 a.m. on "Fareed Zakaria GPS," only on CNN.

Well, a somber milestone in Poland as the world marks 70 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. CNN's Wolf Blitzer has a very personal connection to the camp and he will join us to talk about his trip there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: World leaders and hundreds of Holocaust survivors marked 70 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp on Tuesday. More than one million people were killed there during the Second World War, most of them Jews. The day holds personal significance for CNN's Wolf Blitzer who traveled to the concentration camp for a new CNN documentary, "Voices of Auschwitz." Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM" (voice-over): It haunts us to this very day. You just hear that word, Auschwitz, and you think of death. You smell the death when you're walking around. I'd read a lot about the Holocaust, I had seen the movies, I've seen a lot of the pictures. Certainly I knew what happened, but until you actually see the location, you see where it occurred, and you get a sense of the enormity of this crime, it's hard to believe that people can be as cruel as they clearly have been.

On my dad's side, he grew up in the town of Auschwitz. He was born in Auschwitz. He grew up in that village, that town, and I walked around that town. And, you know, I couldn't believe how close it was. He himself was never taken to Auschwitz, they took him to a dozen other slave labor camps. I mean, I grew up hearing these stories. My parents were very open about their experiences. They never hid anything from me, but I finally went, but it was a powerful moment for me when you walked around those areas at Auschwitz and Birkenau, knowing the blood that's in the ground there. It wasn't until that moment that it hit me that my father's parents were killed at Auschwitz. Powerful experience. Something I'll never forget.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CAMEROTA: And Wolf Blitzer joins us now to talk more about it. Good morning, Wolf.

BLITZER (on camera): Good morning.

CAMEROTA: So, it is haunting. It's haunting to see those pictures, and for you knowing that your grandparents were killed there, what was the experience of going back like?

BLITZER: It was really moving. It was powerful just to walk around. Auschwitz itself is not all that big. There are barracks there, buildings there, that's where Dr. Josef Mengele did his so called scientific experiments on twins and all of that. But about a mile or two away is this Birkenau complex, that's where the crematoria, the gas chambers, and the mass murder really, really occurred. And when you see the enormity of that, when you walk around, you see what's left of those crematoria, you see what's left of the gas chambers, you walk into the barracks, you see how people were struggling to survive.

You know, 1.1 million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz, another 100,000 non-Jews were murdered, gypsies, homosexuals, political partisans, Catholic priests. So, this was a killing machine that the Nazis had established there in occupied Poland, and just to see it, and walk around, and knowing that on my dad's side, his parents, my grandparents, were murdered there, it was just a chilling experience for me just to experience it.

CAMEROTA: And you had never been there before. So, what had your family told you about Auschwitz?

BLITZER: Well, my dad grew up in the town. Auschwitz is the German name, Oswiecim is the Polish name, Oshpitzin is the Yiddish name. All of these towns, by the way, in Poland, they have three names, German, Polish, and Yiddish. Before World War II, a huge part of the population was Jewish in Poland. So, I heard all of these stories about the town of Oswiecim, Oshpitzin, Auschwitz as it was called in German, but, you know, and my dad, of course, and my mom always told me that their parents died during the Holocaust, but I really didn't -- I may have known it, but I really didn't remember it. I certainly didn't appreciate it, that my paternal grandparents were actually murdered at Auschwitz. I never knew exactly where they died, the circumstances. I knew my dad, even though he grew up in that town of Auschwitz, he had never been an inmate in the death camp at Auschwitz. He was a young guy, so he was taken to the slave labor camps.

So, I heard all of these stories my whole life in Buffalo, but I didn't really appreciate the fact that my paternal grandparents died at Auschwitz. My maternal grandparents, my mom's parents, they died at the slave labor camp called Skarzysko near their home town of Suchedniow in another part of Poland. So, all four of my grandparents were murdered during World War II. And I knew that, of course, as a little boy growing up, but I didn't know all the details until I started to get into that "Roots" package that I was working on last summer.

And then, in the course of that research, whether at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem when I was covering the war between Israel, Hamas and Gaza at the time, I spent some time - - So, I got to learn a whole lot more. A lot of this, by the way, the "Voices of Auschwitz" documentary that will air tonight is so powerful. Not my voice, but these voices of Auschwitz survivors. They tell their story. It's really amazing.

CAMEROTA: Oh, Wolf, we can't wait to watch it and we're so happy that you came on NEW DAY and previewed it for us. It looks really emotional and really moving. So, thanks so much for sharing your family's personal history with us.

BLITZER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, Wolf Blitzer's emotional documentary, "Voices of Auschwitz," airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN. Don't miss that.

Well, the blizzard in New England will not be forgotten by people who lived through it, but what about one little guy who was born during it? It can only be the Good Stuff. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right, it's the Good Stuff. We have a little of the Good Stuff going on behind us right now. Take a look at this, guys. Dave, show them up. We have Fenway and Bower, Fenway's the brindle, and Bower. They're out here, they're playing in the snow. We have little Harry there, he and his mom are going at it with the snow balls. She was hitting him from behind. That's dirty pool. But, you know, people are starting to have some fun here, but the dig out obviously a big deal. Mick, I saw you in repose in the snow. I respect it.

Now, the Good Stuff is usually ordinary people doing the extraordinary. Right? Yes, you looked good there. But, you know, the blizzard created so much negativity that we just wanted to find, you know, something positive that came out of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CUOMO (voiceover): Nothing says positive like a new baby, and that takes us to Danielle Smith from Nantucket. Now, Nantucket, you know, was really hard hit. It's just an island. She wasn't supposed to give birth until next week, but before the first snowflake even fell she told CNN she started having contractions and went to the hospital with power out all over the island, and guess who came? Caden Keith Moore delivered at 3:53 Tuesday morning. Doctors at a Nantucket cottage hospital using generators to bring the blizzard baby into the world. We're told that mother and child are doing well, thank God, this morning.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CUOMO (on camera): And also, thank God, she gave him a normal name, didn't name him bliz or something like that. You know, that never - - that doesn't have any staying power.

CAMEROTA: Michaela, you are really acclimating to your surroundings.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Chris. We have one in Connecticut, too.

CAMEROTA: Oh, tell us.

CUOMO: Oh, you had a baby?

PEREIRA: Oh, so, Sarah and Andrew Browning, yes. Graham Michael Browning was born during the storm at 8:30 in the morning, not due until February 14th. He came really early. 5 pounds, 11 ounces.

CUOMO: Awesome.

PEREIRA: Mom and baby are doing just fine. Congratulations to them.

CAMEROTA: That's great.

CUOMO: Beautiful.

CAMEROTA: All right, guys, get back here.

CUOMO: I'll tell you what, now that the urgency has passed, Alisyn, if I were there in Connecticut, I would pancake you in that snow right now, Micky. You wouldn't have a chance.

PEREIRA: Hey, hey, you better watch yourself.

CUOMO: We'll all be together again tomorrow. Alisyn, thank you for guiding the ship from New York. Micky, I'll see you soon. It's time for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Carol?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Chris. NEWSROOM starts now.