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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Major Snow Storm Cancels Flights on East Coast; The Person Who Changed Chris Cuomo's Life. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 22, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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


ASHLEIGH BANFIELD: Because nobody is supposed to be on the streets, and I can imagine not a lot of planes are going to be on that tarmac behind you.

[12:30:09] RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, I just did a count, Ashleigh, and clearly, is things are spinning out here. I mean, this morning when we got here, we saw lots of people, long, long lines, people lining up at this ticket counter, trying to get that last-minute seat so that they can get out of here before the storm. And now we see that operations are slowing down.

We don't see that many aircraft out here on the tarmac, and look at the board. People are married to these things, because they want to know what's the status. And you can see that the cancellations they are piling up. And we're going to continue to see the cancellation pile up today through Saturday. And there is going to be a point where nothing is happening, absolutely nothing meaning no planes are landing or taking off.

When I talk about things thing out, I mean, just take a look down here, and you can see a couple of the stragglers, these are the lucky ones. Take a look at these faces. These are the people who are managing to perhaps get out before the storm, but as it approaches us, that window is closing. So, we are going to be seeing that airlines are pulling those aircraft out of the airports, because they don't want their airplanes stuck either. Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And my son's hockey coach said that he was flying in from London today, and all I could think of is what about that equipment? I understood that so many of the airlines want their equipment out of the East Coast area, they're getting them to the West Coast. So I can imagine lots of the incoming flights aren't incoming, because they don't want the gear in the snowstorm.

MARSH: Yeah, that is it. I mean, the thing is that it is really hard to get operations back up and running when you have aircraft that are buried under snow. So they do is they pull them out so that, you know, we can clear the taxi ways and the runways and they can get things up to speed.

The number one question that people are asking is, when are things going to be back to normal? And the answer is, we don't know yet. It is hard to tell, Ashleigh. BANFIELD: All right. Rene Marsh, live for us at Reagan National, thank

you for that. She's going to continue to update us as late as she can until she needs to get on the road as well and get home.

Coming up next, an update on where the blizzard is hitting. And we're also going to check with the Virginian National, ready to come to the rescue of anybody who is caught in what could be a killer storm.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:36:30] BANFIELD: It is our breaking news on CNN this hour and throughout the weekend as well, this massive winter storm. The heavy snow fall, the ice, the wind and of course, all of the drifting snow.

The whole thing is bearing down on the Eastern Seaboard and we are on the edge of it, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., the Carolinas. About 30 million people right now, 30 million Americans living under a blizzard watch, a blizzard warning or some other kind of weather warning. CNN Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is live in Washington, D.C., right now on the mall.

It is looking kind of nice behind you, but I know this it is the calm before the storm. There are a lot of people are getting off work right now, and heading home. So, just sort of walk me through where you are. You are in a state of emergency, and it doesn't look it, but you are.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS, METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. You would never know it, Ashleigh. Look behind me. There are thousands and thousands of people behind me at the national mall. And, these aren't people trying to go home, these are people walking around, they are protesting, it looks like any other normal Friday. It is unbelievable. People are urged to get home by 3:00 p.m.

We are in that state of emergency and the snow is coming. That leading edge is inching towards the D.C. area. And once it starts conditions are going to deteriorate in the snap of a finger. And so hopefully this people will be making their way home soon but you would never know that a storm is coming just by looking at behind me.

Let's get to this graphics, you can see that snow line is getting very very, very close to the D.C. area, filling in little by little, like you said, 29 million people under the blizzard warning, and that stretches from D.C., Baltimore, Philly, New York, Philadelphia could see more snow than originally expected. We could see up to 20 to 30 inches here in the D.C. area, and it is going to continue to snow for hours and hours on end. We are looking at the 24 to 36 hours. The winds are going to pick up. We're going to see winds at a 30 to 40 miles per hour with the gusts up to the 60 or higher as the storm makes its way up the coast.

We will continue the feel the winds through tomorrow, and then finally starting to slack off by Saturday night. Look at that, D.C. definitely in the bull's eye. The nation's capital getting the very, very strong winds, and then it is going to continue up, Ashleigh, the East Coast, we're also going to get the possibility of the major coastal flooding and beach erosion up and down the coastline, Ashleigh. BANFIELD: OK Jen, I have to scoot, but not before I ask you once again

to ask your cameraman to pan back over to all those tourist, because they have two hours and change, until they need to be on their way. Are the capitol police telling them that there is a massive dangerous storm on the way?

GRAY: Well, there are a couple of police officers right where the roads are barricaded, but as far as we can tell, they are letting the people through, and I don't know if you can see as far as we can see the sea of people, thousands and thousands of them. It is a really unsettling, the metro is supposed to stay open until 11:00, but once it starts, it is going to deteriorate quickly. There is a lot of traffic on the road, but we saw what happened the other day, which is a tiny, tiny bit of snow and we need just really to see people to get home quickly.

BANFIELD: That's just unbelievable. Well, I sure hope they have plans, because driving is going to be very difficult. Jennifer Gray, thank you update, surprising update.

I want to take a couple of live pictures of if I can right now. Nashville, Tennessee, yeah Nashville, this is not what you are used to seeing there, traffic just inching along on that ice. They are not used to snow and ice on the roads on a regular basis, there, also I want to show you some live pictures from further east.

[12:40:12] These are from Roanoke, Virginia, and our affiliate WDBJ7, snow coming down there, traffic seem to be moving along. Not a lot of cars out on the road, that's a good thing, the governor of Virginia saying that he is especially concerned about the northern part of his state, at Washington D.C., area. He has also activated upwards of about 500 members of the Virginia national guard to fan out and help people who are in need, especially in the rural areas.

On the phone with me, Cotton Puryear is a spokesman for the Virginia State National Guard. Thank you for joining me, Cotton. Give me the state of the union on the job right now, because I can only imagine, you have got hundreds of people coming into active duty, they're going need a lot of assignments, and their job is going to be real tough.

COTTON PURYEAR, VIRGINIA NATIONAL GUARD PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER: Well, thanks for the opportunity for us to talk about what the guard is doing. We really appreciate the governor getting us that declaration to get the personnel in place before the bad weather hits, because that is really key to us being able to provide a rapid response if we need to get the folks in place safely. And we are currently staged at key e locations across the commonwealth. We've got soldiers with vehicles that are capable of moving through large amounts of snow. So we are standing by and ready to assist.

BANFIELD: May I ask you about the readiness stations that I've been reading about. You've got the stations set up along the freeways and particularly I-81, what exactly is the readiness station?

PURYEAR: Right, well, these are the -- the readiness centers -- that's the new term centers. That's the term that we've used for our armories though it's the places where the soldiers to go and conduct the drill. That's where their vehicles are stationed.

And there -- we just happen to have them in all the right places along the I-81 corridor to be able move to where they need to go. So, they're in their armories and in most cases. But now we're also starting to move forward to link up with Virginia state police, and co-located their facilities along with the Virginia Department of Transportation, and we have a few localities that have requested guard support. So we're co-locating with them. So have a combination of strategies that again allows us to be able to get our personnel and equipment in the right place so that they are able to respond.

BANFIELD: At a time when the rest of us just thinking about hunkering down with Netflix all weekend long, you and your colleague, about what, up to 3,000 to 3,500 of you are gearing up and doing the dangerous work. Do you have all of the gear and everything that you need to do to do what's coming?

PURYEAR: Yes, we are very fortunate, you know, the guard is a dual status force so we have the federal state mission, so we have the federal equipment, we've got the latest the Humves we've got medium truckload (ph)tracks, our soldiers have the cold weather gear. So they've got the equipment that they need to then be able to turn around and be of assistance to the citizens in the commonwealth.

And we are also fortunate when you are talking about everybody else hunkering down, we're fortunate that the employers, because all of the guardsmen do something else before they are guardsmen. So our employers have let all of the employees go, and we got the families back home. I know my wife is not happy about all of the snow she has the shovel while we are out here doing this, but it is what our soldiers signed up to do, and we really look forward to the opportunity to be able to assist the citizens of the commonwealth when they need us.

BANFIELD: Well, let me thank you in advance, because I know also your families that are going to be left on their own, and that's really tough for all of you and your colleagues. So thanks you work, thank you for your service, and thanks for doing the interview, Cotton. Good luck.

PURYEAR: Thanks very much. We appreciate the opportunity to tell you about the great things the guards are doing.

BANFIELD: Well, we'll check in with you throughout the course of the storm. Cotton Puryear joining us live. National guardsmen, tough workers folks, thank them if you get the chance.

Mayor of Washington D.C said the storm has life and death implication. Coming up in the next hour, the mayor of New York expected to speak live about the preparations in this city. We're going to bring you those updates as we get them live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:48:18] BANFIELD: This Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, CNN is bringing you a two-hour special called "The Person Who Changed My Life." for me, it was my mom, but for my colleague Chris Cuomo, it was also a family member, but a really little one who changed his life and changed his heart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ACHOR: Family is everything, a simple lesson that has taken on deeper meaning since we lost the man who taught it to me, my pop.

UNKNOWN MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, the governor of New York, Mario Cuomo.

CUOMO: To me, he wasn't the governor, he was a father.

MARIO CUOMO: And what about Christopher?

CUOMO: Who was always teaching about giving back.

MARIO CUOMO: That is right to give to people and to the world.

CUOMO: But his biggest lesson is what this piece is all about.

My father would often say to me, spend time with your kids, and don't bring your work home with you the way I did.

To be a good parent, for me and Christina, that means raising our jewels, Bella, Mario and Carolina. Raising the girls can be a joy and a chore. But the biggest challenge for me has been figuring out the dynamic of making a man. It may be the hardest thing I've ever done.

A lot of men, a lot of people realize their mistakes sometimes, but they don't want people to know.

I know, because I was one of those people struggling trying to balance what I thought was right with what was actually right for my son, and the answer came from the person who changed my life, Mario.

[12:50:15] My son helped make me change in a way that made me who I am right now in this chair as much as any formative experience in my life. I am not embarrassed to say that my relationship with my son was not how I wanted it. I wasn't doing the best for him. It wasn't making him the best that he could be.

If you have to raise your voice with your kid every time you wanted him to do anything, are you really getting it right?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO: Hold on, one, two, three.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Being intense and insistent works as a journalist, but it was not working for me as a father. Even as a baby, my little man literally ran the other way.

CHRIS CUOMO: Who knows what is going the other way.

He is not motivated by the same things. He's not scared by the same things. He is sensitive to things that I am not.

YOUNG MARIO CUOMO: Don't do that.

CHRIS CUOMO: Don't do what, I won't do it.

Mario is who he is even at this young age, five, seven, nine now that he is. And he is always completely sure of telling me that he does not like what I was doing.

Sure he in knew that I loved him, but we round up in frequent standoffs that were kind of funny, but really frustrating.

I'm a 220-pound monster and have this 40-pound kid refusing to do what I said, and I'll be like, where is the fear? You should have fear, and then when I did see the flashes of fear in his eyes, I didn't like it. Just because that worked for me as a kid growing up that was our dynamic. I didn't want it to be his, but it was all I knew.

It is almost impossible to compare how it was for me and pop with me and my kids. Times are different. My mom ran the house.

MATILDA CUOMO: I think that you were like a different person. You used to come home -- you just were so happy to see him that you behaved yourself. It was very nice for me.

CUOMO: Mama reminded me that I was more than a handful as a kid, and I was forgetting two things, strength is not just toughness, but sweetness, especially for boys.

MATILDA CUOMO: A father has to give time and his love, the love, and the affection that they need more than you can believe. A boy, especially a boy, they don't show it, you know. But it is just as much as a girl, they want to know that you care for them.

CHRIS CUOMO: So, what's the plan today?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIO CUOMO: Fishing.

CHRIS CUOMO: Fishing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: The second thing was the key. She said Mario will be your best teacher. Listen to him. Let him show you how to be. And so I stopped insisting and started listening.

BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIO CUOMO: Hot.

CHRIS CUOMO: One, two three. Look for the rope. Good job, bud. Make sure that you hold on to the rope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: And sure enough, I realized my son and I were saying the same things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO: Stay right behind the guy in front of you. This is squid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: It's just in our own way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO: So if say how much do you like something and you say one out of 10 that means that you don't like it. Do you understand that?

MARIO CUOMO: No, daddy, one is the worst and two is the second worst and five, 50-50 and nine is second to best and 10 is the best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: So now what I do I do? I do reach out to people who know better, I reached out to clinician. I reached out to the people who do it for a living who understand kids.

Some book learning, and the intuition from mom, and example from my wife all helped, but the best teacher ended up being my little man.

It was really hard for me to change what I thought was right and what I knew and how it was, and he helped me to do it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIO CUOMO: You caught something?

CHRIS CUOMO: No.

I used to get angry a lot more than I do now, right?

MARIO CUOMO: Yes.

CHRIS CUOMO: I would say, I'm sorry, I stink, I will trying to be better right?

MARIO CUOMO: yeah.

CHRIS CUOMO: How do you think you helped me become a better daddy?

MARIO CUOMO: You always were a good daddy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: It does not matter if he knows how much I changed, how much I learned from being with him.

That little man taught me if I let go and let somebody else have their way a little bit, I wind up happier and wind up more satisfied most of the time.

I am not saying it is all smiles and laughs, but now, we find a way through whatever life brings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO: Look at that grass fish.

Do you think that we will always be buddies?

MARIO CUOMO: Uh-huh. Even when you are not o earth anymore, you will still be my buddy. Always.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Now I know when he says that, he is thinking about grandpa being gone, and so am I.

It would be amazing for me to watch pop with Mario now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO: Mario?

MARIO CUOMO: Yes.

CHRIS CUOMO: Right here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: I think pop would respect the effort I made to be better for my family. He put inside of us what we need to stay together and stay true to what matters most, and that is all i want from my kids.

[12:55:03] Two Mario's changed my life I suppose, and my hope and prayer is that what mattered most about the one that is gone will live on in me, my girls and the son who carries his name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIO CUOMO: No, no, no.

CHRIS CUOMO: Do you understand why it is important to name you after grandpa?

MARIO CUOMO: No.

CHRIS CUOMO: Because grandpa is gone right, but his name lives on.

MARIO CUOMO: He is not gone. He is still in my heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [12:55:47] BANFIELD: You can watch all of these incredible stories at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. Thanks, everyone, for watching. It is great to have you with us, and my colleague Wolf Blitzer is going to take over after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)