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CNN NEWSROOM

Severe Winter Storm on the Move; Senate to Vote on Hagel Today; Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus; Interview with Representatives Bill Pascrell and Trey Radel; Arias Still on the Stand

Aired February 26, 2013 - 11:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, everyone, and welcome. I'm Ashleigh Banfield.

Seventy-five big-name Republicans coming out in support of same-sex marriage. No, the sky is not falling. This has really happened.

Plus, the former New York cop accused ever fantasizing about kidnap, rape, murder and cannibalism, one of his fantasy victims, his wife, she takes the stand.

And a grad student in Texas ready to hand out shotguns to all the neighbors, but is that legal? Those stories and much more ahead on this hour of CNN.

First, though, our lead story today this hour, a record-setting blizzard is on the move. It has already dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma, places that are not used to this.

It has collapsed roofs. It has killed two people. Drivers stranded everywhere. Take a look at this picture from iReporter Phillip Prince who says he was stuck on Interstate 40 in Texas for about eight hours when he took this picture. You can barely see anything.

Hard to see anything but flying debris and snow from this iReport from Jason Boyett.

And now the massive storm has set its sight as far as Michigan. That's a long way north, folks, and the snow is not the only threat. The South and the Mid-Atlantic is also getting slammed with flooding rains and severe storms.

We're covering the full reach of this storm is for you, state by state, with severe weather expert Chad Myers and, also, Erin McPike, who got the short straw. She's live in Kansas City.

I've watched you this morning as you've been hit from one side pretty regularly with driving snow, and it looks like it's a slushy mess behind you. How are things?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Ashleigh.

The snow has been really bad throughout the morning, but it's finally let up as you can see.

The roads were very icy and treacherous for a while, but, obviously, there are lots of snowplows coming by, very noisy around here, but for as thick a layer of ice as we had on the roads earlier, you can actually now see the road for a change. So, things are getting better.

But, Ashleigh, the big story here this morning are the power outages. Already in Kansas City, there are 45,000 power outages in this area. There are 10,000 in Texas. Thousands more in Oklahoma.

That's the big problem, obviously, because it's cold out and people need to have heat. They need to have their power, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And, Erin, that's just a thick, messy, gluey kind of snow. It's not the easy stuff that you can get rid of. And it's the kind of stuff that's really hard to shovel.

MCPIKE: Well, it is really hard to shovel. It's hard (AUDIO BREAK) and the other thing is that there are some traffic lights up the street that are actually covered in snow, and you can't tell which light is lit.

So -- but the big thing about the heavy snow is that it's snapping power lines and that's what's causing power outages around this area.

BANFIELD: All right, Erin McPike, keep giving us the details as that storm front moves past you.

Let's bring in Chad Myers now. The blizzard moving across several states and, again, I said, Chad, a lot of these states not used to getting this kind of a volume of snow, and you saw that thick stuff. Makes it very dangerous, very difficult to remove, and obviously very heavy for the power lines and for the trees, et cetera.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And yesterday we had all the wind, that, once they were trying to clear the roads and once they got them cleared, in 15 minutes, the wind just drifted them shut again, Ashleigh.

We had wind gusts of almost 70 miles per hour across Texas. Even as far south as San Antonio, there was damage because of the wind. Houses lost their roofs around Round Rock just because the shingles coming off.

Because this wind had a very potent low pressure center here blowing the wind. Now, the storm has moved off to the east a little bit and it has calmed down.

And let me describe why the snow has pretty much decreased and calmed down. There's the snow. For it to be a big snow today, there would have to be no rain accompanying this storm at all because the rain is stealing the moisture that could be a snowstorm.

So, it's raining here and that's great news that there's so much rain across the East Coast stopping this thing from being a major blizzard even for Chicago or for Milwaukee.

The snow is about to stop for Kansas City. There have been big numbers across western Kansas, western Oklahoma, as well. Let me get to -- I can get you one of those.

So, take a look at these because some of these are just sublime. Amarillo, Texas, 19 inches, that was at the airport, a little bit less maybe downtown. But Woodward where we had that once house collapse, the roof collapsed, 15. Auburn, Kansas at eight. Some Pratt County, Kansas, numbers of at least a foot. And that's where the wind was blowing so much, Ashleigh.

It is still coming down, but it is calming down today.

BANFIELD: And I only think sometimes when you want to try to find some kind of a silver lining, when you have these areas that have been ravaged by drought, this has got to be sort of a good thing for the drought-stricken states.

MYERS: You know, absolutely. There is probably one, full inch of water in 10 inches of this snow in western Kansas. Probably one inch of water in 7 inches of snow in eastern Kansas.

And this drought has been all over the place. The drought has been in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and they really did get a good dusting of snow, and even a couple of spots now breaking the record for February.

This is from last week. We'll get a new update on Thursday. I bet some of these red zones will go away.

BANFIELD: All right, Chad, keep an eye on that for us if you will. Thank you, sir. Chad Myers doing the job for us in the Severe Weather Center.

In just about an hour, Chuck Hagel's nomination for defense secretary is expected to clear a major hurdle. The Senate will try for a second time to muster 60 votes needed to hold an up-or-down, straight majority, floor vote.

This time, pro-Hagel odds look a little bit better. Still, the former Republican senator faces little support from his fellow Republicans.

Jack Lew had a smoother right through the Senate finance committee today. President Obama's pick for treasury secretary could face a full Senate vote later today or tomorrow.

And now for some other top stories making news.

In Egypt, a gas explosion being blamed for the deadly fall of a hot air balloon. Eighteen tourists were killed when their balloon dropped a thousand feet to the ground. Three others were hospitalized, including the pilot of that balloon.

Next, let's take a look at the big board. The uncertainty caused by the Italian elections sent ripples through world markets this morning, but so far the Dow has been looking pretty good. Unlike the Dow, major indices in Europe and Asia dropped by as much as four percent, but there you go, 61 points and climbing for the Dow here in the good old U.S. of A.

The United States Census Bureau is removing one race from their next survey. Wait for it. It's negro. It is amazing that this has not been removed before now.

Apparently, they considered dropping it for the 2010 census, but here's why they didn't. They figured that older African-Americans still in the South identified with that term.

In 2014, they are just simply going to use black or African-American as the choices on the form.

Three days and counting until $85 billion worth of spending cuts are going to take effect in Washington and guess what? It's going to affect you, too.

Washington feeling the heat now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: We have moved the bill in the House twice.

We should not have to move a third bill before the Senate gets off their ass and begins on do something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Ouch, tough talk. I'm going to talk with a Republican newcomer to Capitol Hill and also with a Democratic old-timer. That's when we come back.

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BANFIELD: We're learning more now about what life will be like after Pope Benedict steps down this week. The Vatican says the pope will keep his name, Benedict the XVI, and the title, "His Holiness." He'll also add the title, "Pope Emeritus." Gone will be the flashy robes and the hat. Instead, he will wear a simple white robe while in seclusion, and will have regular police protection instead of having the Swiss Guard on call.

A Coast Guard search off of the coast of San Francisco has turned up no sign of a family that's been missing. There were four people reportedly on board a sailboat, including two children, one just four- years-old, the other one, eight.

The Coast Guard released their distress call in hopes that someone could identify the missing boaters. Have a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coast Guard, Coast Guard, we are abandoning ship. This is the Charm Blow. We are abandoning ship.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: The water temperature in that area is less than 50 degrees.

If he hasn't or if he isn't already, President Obama is soon going to be wheels up for the Tidewater Region of Virginia, Newport News to be exact, where defense spending drives the economy.

At 1:05 Eastern time, the president will be talking about a major hit to that economy from those spending cuts that are due to start phasing in on Friday. As I'm sure you've heard, $85 billion is being squeezed out of defense and non-defense programs alike.

Between March 1st and September 30th every single state is going to feel the pinch, including the two states represented by my next two guests.

Bill Pascrell is a nine-term Democratic congressman from New Jersey and Trey Radel is a freshman GOP representative from Florida. Welcome to you both.

Congressman Pascrell, I want to begin with you, please. The White House has been warning that ...

REP. BILL PASCRELL (D), NEW JERSEY: Ashleigh, how are you?

BANFIELD: I'm well, but I don't think you are going to be in a couple of days. The White House has a warning that 60 schools in your state are going to be losing funding, 11,000 civilian defense workers are going to face furloughs and 18,000 fewer residents will be getting HIV tests.

And then I think the specific concerns that are digging into you, people who are struggling from Hurricane Sandy are going to get some really bad news.

What is happening?

PASCRELL: Well, that's a good question. You know, three-fourths of deficit reduction, Ashleigh, had already been in terms of cuts to the budget.

So anyone who says that this president has not attempted to really shave off what we possibly can live with is absolutely wrong. In fact next year's non-discretionary -- discretionary budget, not including the military, will be the lowest we've had in many, many, many a year, so we're attempting to do this.

The other side, many on the other side, claim that the only way we can break the deficit, reduce spending, is simply to cut, cut, cut, and not look to any revenues.

We've already passed that hurdle. We believe that we do not have to raise anymore income tax rates. We do believe and Senator Lindsey apparently agrees with us. Last night, he made this statement from the other side, that he thinks we can get this from subsidies, the oil-producers, who have retained a lot of the taxpayers' money and they don't need it.

We can do this with revenue and, we do it smartly, we can come together.

BANFIELD: Yeah, but nobody's been acting very smartly and I'm sure you're probably sick of hearing this, Congressman Pascrell, but you all brought this on yourselves, didn't you?

PASCRELL: We absolutely did, and with the administration, our partners along this way, we all decided, Democrats and Republicans, that we would put off and kick the can down the street like we're pretty good at doing.

I don't think we can do that any longer. These cuts are going to go into effect. And when I hear people from any side tell us that these cuts, don't worry about it, we'll get over it, it's not going to be too dramatic, it will it take a long time for them to go into effect, I don't accept that.

I think the American people should know what they're getting into, and I don't think that we have been direct enough to the American people as to what the consequences of these cuts are, whether you talk about mental health for children, whether you're talking about our teachers, whether you're talking about anything dealing with defense. It's ...

BANFIELD: If we're talking ...

PASCRELL: We've been warned by Senator Panetta. I don't know what we need to know.

BANFIELD: Well, if we're talking about consequences, Congressman Radel, you are the tea party darling and the tea party often stands for cutting wherever you can.

The White House is saying that 130 Florida schools in your state are going to lose funding, 31,000 defense workers are going to face furloughs and almost 80,000 unemployed Floridians are going to lose the government help to find a job.

That's got to be sort of a tough pill to swallow even with the kind of philosophy that you espouse. Are these good cuts? Are you happy with what's coming Friday?

REP. TREY RADEL, (R ) FLORIDA: First of all, I enjoy support from all sorts of people. While that may include the Tea Party, it also includes people like Mayor Rudy Giuliani, just north of the representative here in New York City. I'm all for an efficient government. I've been here a few weeks basically. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that we are $16 trillion in debt. We are buried in debt. We need to do something and do something now.

(CROSSTALK) BANFIELD: Are these the right cuts then?

RADEL: You cannot cut, cut, cut your way to prosperity. But here's where we're at. Unless we make these choices right now, it's not just about cut, cut, cut. It's about save, save, save. Saving things in the big picture like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: But you're not answering my question. Congressman, I asked you if you're in agreement on what's happening in your state on Friday. Those are pretty serious specific cuts. Are you okay with it ?

RADEL: First of all, these cuts are only threats right now. We have no idea how they're going to be implemented. The president could go tour around all the country that he wants to say this is going to happen. Let me give you a real world example what have will happen in my district, Ashleigh. Two airport towers are potentially because again these are just threats from the president are potentially going to be shut down. Their overseer is the department of transportation. Do you realize that even with this so-called sequestration and massive cuts, these scary cuts, that their budget is going to increase? We're talking about knocking off two percent of spending from the entire budget, two percent. Do you really think the government is that efficient?

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Okay, so when you talk about the two percent, I'm still trying to get the answer from you. You have said before, and I think you tweeted, let me just read a tweet that you sent out, "#sequester #sequestration is about a 2 percent cut. Governments buried with $16 trillion of debt!" You think it's so efficient that it can't spend 2 percent? Can Florida stand the cuts that are coming on Friday? Even you say they're threats. Can you stand those threats that are coming to your state on Friday yes or no?

BANFIELD: We can stand them and actually the country needs to stand them. If we don't begin to have a responsible efficient government here, the cuts that will come in five or ten years from now are going to be brutal. If you want to save all of the great things that the Representative Pascrell is talking about, certain areas where is the government can play a role in of helping t he Sandy victims then we need to do what we need to do now.

PASCRELL: Let's be honest. You voted against that. So you got a heck of a nerve to even suggest to Ashleigh that we have to help the Sandy victims when you voted against it.

RADEL: I did.

PASCRELL: Every time Florida has had a problem, the folks in the northeast have responded as they should. This is our responsibility. This is one country, one nation, and we should concern ourselves with the common good. (CROSSTALK)

RADEL: But let's talk about --

PASCRELL: It was your example. You brought it up, I didn't even bring it up.

(CROSSTALK)

RADEL: Representative Pascrell, let's talk about prioritizing here. Why in that bill are we sending money to Alaskan fisheries, why are we buying a new car fleet, spending millions of dollars expanding the department of justice? I want to help the victims, but how can I help the victims when pork and fat -- this is the business in Washington. I've been here for a few weeks, and this is what happens time after time. And he said it himself, they've been kicking the can down the road for not just years, but generations. It's time somebody stands up and holds this government accountable, and that's what my constituents -

(CROSSTALK)

PASCRELL: You're not going to get any special medals to stand up for what we know is avoidable. We believe in surgical cuts, not cutting across the board. That hurts our military, it helps our security, it helps our kids. I don't accept that -- the president has had three plans already. Chris Van Hollen has had a plan in the House of Representatives as an alternative with sequestration. We'll leave here on Thursday evening, leave here he again as we usually do, and not solve the problem. I don't accept this. I don't accept this at all. But for you to bring up the Dandy victims, do you know that the Sandy victims, the money that's going to New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, it will be cut by 5.3 percent? So whether the cut comes next year or a year from now or two months from now is immaterial. This is unacceptable. This is not the way to do business. I say let's have a balance between --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: You two --

(CROSSTALK)

RADEL: I'm not doing business this way. The pork and fat that has been loaded into bills year after year here in Washington, you voted for this budget control act. This is your sequestration, not mine. It's time that we take some responsibility and stand up for the American people.

BANFIELD: Can I tell you I love that you're finally talking. In any case regardless --

RADEL: I think that that's a good start, as well.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

BANFIELD: I wish we could have cameras in your in-camera meetings at all times so we can hear this kind of conversation. Representatives, Bill Pascrell and Trey Radel I think we'd need an entire cross fire program in order to get this debate even started. Thank you to both of you. Please get to work.

PASCRELL: We may need a translator.

BANFIELD: I believe that is a -- you are speaking different languages. You are. Thanks very much to both of you for being on the program.

RADEL: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Love to have you both back. Very spirited.

So moving on. Is it a case of cold blooded murder or self defense? Jodi Arias returning to the stand. Man, she's been there a long time. Will it do her any good? This thing is lurid, I'm telling you. Back in a moment.

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BANFIELD: It's really not often in a very grizzly sexy murder case that the defendant will take the stand and speak in her own defense, but that's exactly what Jodi Arias has been doing for 11 days. Talking and talking and talking. And that was the easy part. When the prosecutor got a hold of her, things got real tough. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have problems with your memory?

JODI ARIAS, ACCUSED OF MURDER: Occasionally.

BANFIELD: There is no doubt Jodi Arias is a liar. But is she a cold blooded murder? On the second day of cross-examination, the prosecutor launched an all out assault beginning with a secret recording with detectives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the reasons I'm here is I believe that you know some of these details, and I think you can help us.

ARIAS: I'd love to help you in any way that I can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes or no. Were you there to help him?

ARIAS: I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you there to tell the truth?

ARIAS: No.

BANFIELD: Arias does not deny killing Travis Alexander, but says it was in self-defense because he forced her into kinky sex, engaged in violence, and once choked her unconscious. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You went out of your way --

BANFIELD: But the prosecutor spent Monday hammering away a web of lies from a woman he describes as unremorseful, especially the night she killed her ex-boyfriend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You nicked yourself and it hurt, right?

ARIAS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I think the word that you used stung.

ARIAS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you imagine how much it must have hurt Mr. Alexander when you stuck that knife right into his chest? That really must have hurt, right?

BANFIELD: Arias told the jury she lied to investigators out of shame and lied to friends out of confusion. Even to Alexander's grandmother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that you did was you actually sent Ms. Sarby (ph) irises, right?

ARIAS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You indicated she was in your prayers, right?

ARIAS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did this, ma'am. That's a lie when you say you felt sympathy for her.

ARIAS: No, that was not a lie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this sort of a way for you to assuage your guilt? Is that what it is?

ARIAS: That wasn't my thought.

BANFIELD: As the sparring continued on day 23, the burden lies on the prosecutor to convince these jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that Arias is a murder and not simply a victim of domestic violence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Joining me now, Beth Karas and Sunny Hostin to talk this one through. Beth, let's begin with you, since you've been sitting through all of the details of this case. It's never easy when a prosecutor gets a hold of you and starts to cross-examine. But she seems to be pretty stalwart. Is that such a good thing?

BETH KARAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Her demeanor was different the two days she has testified. She was a little bit smug some people thought arrogant last Thursday on day one of cross. She was a little more humble yesterday on her second day of cross. I have no idea how this is resonating with the jury, but the jurors watch her. Some jurors don't want to seem to look at her any more. They're looking away especially the juror closest to her. Occasionally they take notes. But for the most part, I can't tell what reaction the jury is having to her. She gets backed into a corner pretty frequently, though, because she has told so many lies.

BANFIELD: Yeah, I'll bet. And Sunny, there's one thing that I noticed in the courtroom, and I just noticed it a lot in that back and forth. Whenever she answers the question to the person who is asking it, the prosecutor standing in front of her, she looks off to the jury to answer the question. Some people coach their defendants to do that. Is it a good thing, though, to constantly be answering the jury instead of answering the questioner?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It certainly is a coached thing. Typically as people in general if you're talking to me, I'm speaking back to you. If you ask me a question, I direct the answer to you. So my sense is that her defense attorneys are trying to coach her to get some sort of relationship going on with the jury because if you look at the stats and you look at the reports, a jury that commiserates with the defendant is less inclined on to convict on the highest charge and less inclined to let's say impose the death penalty.

I don't know that that works for Jodi Arias because, as Beth said, this is someone who has lied time and time again and when you're beseeching someone and looking at a jury asking them to believe what you're saying, having been caught in all these lies, I'm not surprised that there are jury members who can't look at her. It's difficult to look into the eyes of a liar.

BANFIELD: Every case is different and every defendant is different. And so sometimes it works and sometimes it don't. All right. Beth, thank you for that. And Sunny thank you as well. We've got more legal discussions coming up.

In fact first there is a new anti-crime plan in Texas and it's a bit of a head-scratcher. Someone wanting to pay for some guns for his neighbors and pass them out, see how they do, for free. Is it legal? Coming up.

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