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NEW DAY

Another Deep Freeze; Sochi Terror Threats; Can Talks End Syria's Civil War?; Justin Bieber Arrested

Aired January 23, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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


MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Just how much trouble is he in this time?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Your NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone. It's Thursday, January 23rd, 8:00 in the East. The bitter cold is back and staying for a long weekend. Take a look at these temperatures in the Midwest and the Northeast. Ouch.

Factor in the windchill. Some spots will feel like it's 40 below. And for areas still cleaning up from Tuesday's snow, the cold isn't helping at all. It's turning slush into ice and making for hazardous conditions for walkers, drivers, honestly everyone.

Meteorologist Indra Petersons is joining us once again from outside our studios, in the brutal cold to help us out -- Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's another point, Kate. Yes, I'm definitely earning points.

It's freezing outside again today. That means so many of us are going to be suffering. Yes, we had this huge snowstorm just yesterday. We're all excited.

OK. It's cleared out of here. Things should get better, right? Wrong.

We are talking about another cold arctic air mass bringing even cooler temperatures, possibly to the end of the month.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS (voice-over): Another frigid night for millions at bitter cold arctic air grips a large part of the country. For much of the East Coast, the dangerously cold temperatures plummeting 20 degrees below normal through the weekend and windchills in the Northern Plains could be as low as 50 degrees below zero today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wind keeps coming at you in the face. You clear a spot and it blows right over.

PETERSONS: Millions along the East Coast continue to dig out of Tuesday's massive snowstorm.

In Plymouth, Massachusetts, strong wind gusts creating 18-inch snow drifts. For road crews that's a tall order to keep up with the significant snowfall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The roads still aren't cleared.

PETERSONS: Bitter cold temps turning slush into dangerous ice, making driving downright treacherous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of ice. A lot of ice.

PETERSONS: This car collided with the snow plow removing snow in southern Massachusetts, sending the driver to the hospital.

In New York City, one of the glass panels of the flagship Apple Store shattered after being hit by a snow blower.

Further South, I-95 shut down for hours, in North Carolina, after an 18-wheeler slid into oncoming traffic.

The frigid temps could make the nation's propane shortage worse as demand for gas grows.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been delayed, delayed, and this -- this has gotten severe in some cases.

PETERSONS: And snow removal at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey is in high gear ahead of the Super Bowl. NFL officials do have a contingency plan, though. They can move the championship game to an alternate date if another massive snowstorm is forecast for the area that weekend.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PETERSONS: Let's talk about some of these temperatures. Into the Northeast today, single digit temperatures this morning as we're waking up. Into the Upper Midwest, temperatures already sub zero.

But then we still have to factor in the windchills. What does it feel like?

It feels like subzero in the Northeast which means the Upper Midwest is looking at temperatures below zero. That's below average for this time of the year. Huge dome of arctic air. That guy is going to be sagging farther to the south.

Way up to the North you see that low. This is the pattern right now. A series of clippers that for the most part bring snow just to the Upper Midwest and Upper Ohio Valley around the Great Lakes. Some of them can dip farther down to the South just like we saw yesterday.

The third one in this series looks like potentially could bring some heavy snow in through next week if one of the weather models is right. One of them says yea, other says nay. So, we're going to be closely watching that. Guess what is next week, at least at the end of the week? That would be the Super Bowl.

CUOMO: All right. And that's why we hope that you at home have the good sense to stay out of the cold if at all possible, unlike some people whose name rhymes with Schmidra Setersons.

New this morning: more reasons for real concern over what could happen in just over two weeks at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The latest, an e-mail sent to the Olympic Committee and its European counterparts warning of certain attacks at the Sochi Games.

The International Olympic Committee says the threat is not credible, but that isn't helping ease the fears of a world already on edge and the need for securing the events as best they can right up until and through the games themselves.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live in Sochi monitoring the situation.

The concern is real. What is the feeling on the ground?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chris, there's a real sense of tension here. We're talking about a pretty empty town so far. The guests are not really arriving, neither the athletes. A lot of police around.

This whole thing really about making Vladimir Putin feel like he can restore Russia to his former Soviet glory, that huge construction behind me where the games will be held.

But day by day, the threats keep coming in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): With just over two weeks leading up to the Sochi Olympic Games, mounting anticipation. Not about who will win the gold but instead, concern about a possible chink in the game's ring of steel.

The latest security threat, an e-mail warning of a terrorist attack sent to the U.S. Olympic Organizing Committee and several European countries. But the International Olympic Committee quickly quelled the security concerns, telling CNN the e-mail contains no threat and appeared to be a random message from a member of the public. The U.S. Olympic committee is looking into it as well saying the safety and security of Team USA is our top priority. And as is always the case, we're working to ensure that our delegation and other Americans traveling to Sochi are safe.

The White House, however, says that American travelers should remain vigilant.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have seen an uptick in threat reporting prior to the Olympics, which is, of course, of concern, although it is also not unusual for a major international event.

WALSH: President Obama and the joint chiefs continue to offer counterterrorism experts to Russia with IED detection software, jamming equipments and warships at the ready. All Russia needs to do is give the red light.

CARNEY: We are offering the Russians any assistance they may require or request in a situation like this.

WALSH: In the light of multiple terrorist threats, some carried out in regions surrounding Sochi, sweeps continue for the so-called black widow suicide bombers. One woman killed in a gun battle over the weekend. Another believed to have already bypassed security cordon of Sochi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: The Russian government is doing what it can to try and lessen a sense of attention. The Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev telling CNN there were these threats on a daily basis. And just today, in fact, the Russian government lessened the sentence of the business partner of one of Putin's key critics, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

You have to ask yourself at the end of the day, the focus now is not on the sport. It's on whether or not these games can actually happen safely. Maybe there was a miscalculation in Moscow and they chose to bring this international event here to see whether they could pull it off, whether they could get over the security concerns. And perhaps people are expecting a mood of festivity here, a mood of international cooperation, not anxiety about whether people's safety might be in doubt.

Back to you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. Nick, thank you so much.

Perfectly actually in mentioning Medvedev, teeing off chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. She's joining us.

Christiane, you were able to -- you were the one that sat down with the Russian prime minister to talk about these threats in Sochi. So, bottom line, I know you asked him, are they ready?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They say they are ready. And, of course, they are concerned about security threats. I asked him about the specifics of these black widows and other such threats that have been made on the Internet to the games.

He said, look, this is a globalized world. There are threats all over the place. He obviously mentioned the Boston marathon. If you remember back in the Olympics in Atlanta, there was an attack there.

In other words, today's world is a very dangerous world. But he says, that despite some sort of controversy about whether they are cooperating or not, he insisted that the Russian security forces and the Americans, the FSB and the FBI and military cooperation is happening. And he says that there are tens of thousands of Russian police, paramilitaries and security forces deployed to Sochi.

BOLDUAN: Even a key lawmaker we spoke with yesterday said it was impressive how the presence -- the military forces are on the ground in Sochi, but still that intelligence sharing between the two services is not good enough. And that needs to be improved. But two weeks away, we'll be obviously continue to talk about it and talking with you about it.

But I want to quickly -- I have to ask you about the latest regarding the future of Syria and the peace conference that is going on in Switzerland right now. Right now, we all knew this was not going to be easy. If it was, this civil war would not have been going on for three years now.

But after those fiery speeches yesterday, are these talks falling apart before they've even really began?

AMANPOUR: Well, yesterday was the day for speeches. And everybody took their best shot as they put their position in public. So, yesterday was one where people were competing to prove that they were right.

The actual talks between the two sides are meant to be getting under way Friday. That's tomorrow in Geneva. And right now, we understand U.N. officials and others are sort of shuttling between each side to see whether they will even sit in the same room with each other.

This is the first time in three years of this war that both sides have agreed to come to a negotiation like this. But the outside hopes seem to be that perhaps there might be some agreement on humanitarian delivery. Perhaps there'd be some agreement on watching what happens with detainees and particularly in light of the shocking report that we have on Monday about evidence that international jurors say proves that there's been systematic killing of detainees by the Assad regime.

These calls are becoming more urgent, including from Secretary of State Kerry.

BOLDUAN: And what you are mentioning right there I think is key because these talks all come against this backdrop of that exclusive report that you -- that you had on this trove of photographs, gruesome photographs that we will not show because they're probably -- it's just too much for morning TV, I would argue. They are described as direct evidence of torture by the regime.

You've put out that report and senior adviser to Bashar al-Assad spoke with Wolf Blitzer. And let's play what you said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOUTHAINA SHAABAN, BASHAR AL-ASSAD'S SENIOR ADVISER: Do you have to be in Syria to know who is doing one? One can't be in Washington, Christiane Amanpour, or in New York, and then decide who is doing what. This is simply a huge, huge lie.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: (AUDIO GAP) move forward with these talks if this is the talk we're getting from Assad's senior adviser?

AMANPOUR: Well, you know, it's hugely unsurprising that Assad's senior adviser would say this is a huge lie. That is what they would say. They will deny what has come out.

But this evidence is the first public photographic evidence of what people in the human rights community and especially in the U.S. State Department have worried about for years now, that there has been a systematic torture and killings. This is what's important about this. It's not just torture. It's killings of detainees by starvation, strangulation and severe beating and other such thing.

And it isn't Christiane Amanpour saying this. It is international jurists who have examined 55,000 images representing 11,000 bodies that a defector who was an insider has shown them. And today, members of the Syrian opposition have got access to more of these same batch of photos but more of them, and they've put them out and they are even more gruesome than the ones we put out.

So, we have seen this kind of behavior in some of these terrible conflicts internationally. The perpetrators do not admit it, and it will take a court of law or tribunal to assess culpability. But the international juries have said that they have absolutely no shadow of a doubt. They call it a smoking gun.

And, of course, yes, the talks are happening against this backdrop but remember also against the backdrop of a 120,000, at least, people who have been killed in the last three years with no country able to do anything to stop it. And that is the most important point.

BOLDUAN: I think you are absolutely right on that, which really shows we can say peace conference and people can gloss over, not pay attention but that is why there is true urgency because it is such a dire situation. It's been dragging on for three years now, such a humanitarian crisis.

Christiane, thank you very much for coming on. We'll talk to you soon.

AMANPOUR: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Michaela?

PEREIRA: All right, Kate. Thanks so much.

Let's take a look more at your headlines start with breaking news out of Arizona. Twenty-three people have been injured following a bizarre incident that caused a Greyhound bus to crash just west of Phoenix. We're showing you a live picture right now of a crash scene. Our affiliate KNXV reports that a passenger attacked the driver, punching him while he yelled that he was going to flip the bus.

This happened overnight on the way from Los Angeles to Dallas. We're going to continue to monitor this for you. Breaking overnight, Texas has executed a Mexican national convicted of killing a police officer. Forty-six-year-old Edgar Tamayo was put to death by lethal injection after the Supreme Court refused a stay. The death penalty was carried out despite opposition from both sides of the border. Secretary of State John Kerry even said it would put Americans overseas at risk.

New today, the NSA's program to collect phone records in bulk getting blasted. An independent federal privacy watchdog says it yielded only minimal counterterrorism benefit. It's illegal and should be shut down. In a speech last week, President Obama said that while he wanted to find a way to end the government's collection of bulk data, the program's capabilities should stay.

New details emerging in that chemical spill that left 300,000 people in West Virginia without safe water. The company responsible for the spill now says it involved not one but two chemicals. The second chemical which made up only a small part of the 7,500-gallon leak is apparently less toxic than the first. Still residents and officials are outraged they are only finding out now, two weeks after the leak.

People of a certain age will remember the "Captain and Tennille", perhaps the most famous love song, "Love Will Keep Us Together." Well, it turns out nothing lasts forever. The '70s pop duo now in their 70s is divorcing after 38 years. Back in 2010, the captain was diagnosed with a form of Parkinson's disease. He told TMZ he didn't know why his wife had filed for divorce.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: That's a sad story.

PEREIRA (on-camera): It is.

CUOMO: I remember them so well.

PEREIRA: Thirty-eight years together.

BOLDUAN: Long time together.

PEREIRA: It is.

CUOMO: All right. Coming up on NEW DAY, Justin Bieber arrested for DUI and drag racing in Miami, Florida. You may be surprised by the level of charges he could be facing.

BOLDUAN: Also ahead, Animal Planet's hit show "Call of the Wild Man" is coming under fire this morning. A new report claiming animals are being mistreated and illegally drugged. The show's producers fighting back. We're going to get both sides of the story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Some celebrity breaking news for you this morning. Pop star, Justin Bieber, arrested on serious charges out of Miami. According to the "Miami Herald," early this morning, his entourage allegedly blocked a residential street with their cars so Bieber could drag race on it. When cops caught up to Bieber's Lamborghini, he allegedly failed a field sobriety test and was described as incoherent.

He didn't resist arrest and was taken into custody without incident. There are actually mixed reports on that. Meanwhile, authorities in Miami are also investigating accusations that police gave him an unauthorized escort around Miami so he could travel between strip clubs.

CNN's senior and legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, joins us now. You know, it smacks familiar of a law school exam about how many different charges can you file --

(LAUGHTER)

PEREIRA: I was trying to figure out what it was that smacks familiar.

CUOMO: As I was reading that, so many things are like, ding, ding, ding. So, what do you see from 30,000 feet here about what the kid could be facing.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, you think about all the phrases in this case, like rented Lamborghini, ace of diamonds strip club, 19 years old, like nothing good can come from those combinations of words.

PEREIRA: Good point.

TOOBIN: I mean, obviously, drunk driving is one possibility. Some sort of reckless endangerment. And, you know, of course, under age everything. Underage drinking, under age going to a strip club, but perhaps, the most interesting part of it is how did the Miami cops behave, and did they facilitate and aid him in doing whatever he was doing which raises a possibility of wrongdoing by the police in addition to --

CUOMO: Would that mitigate the charges?

TOOBIN: Probably not, although, you know, a situation like this, the most important thing is at least no one seems to have gotten hurt. You know? I mean, that's obviously the thing you worry about with, you know, all these circumstances. If no one got hurt, if, you know, it's a drunk driving matter, you know, it's serious.

CUOMO: That's a felony.

TOOBIN: It's potentially a felony, but it means he loses his license. It means he --

CUOMO: If he has one.

TOOBIN: If he has one. I guess, I was assuming he did. I don't know for sure. You know, interesting question.

PEREIRA: That would come up before, though, wouldn't it have?

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: Well, also, how does a 19-year-old rent any car, much less a Lamborghini?

PEREIRA: Ding ding. That's a very good point.

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: Twenty-one, usually 23 in some places.

BOLDUAN: And Jeffrey, how does this situation if he is charged, how does it impact then, the ongoing investigation in California into this big egging drama?

TOOBIN: Not directly, but it certainly will suggest to prosecutors in both places, look, this is not some kid who made a mistake. A lot of 19-year-olds drink and drive.

CUOMO: This is way worse.

TOOBIN: Yes. It's -- it's not technically legally relevant, but certainly, prosecutors are going to say, you know, you can't be treated like a kid who made a mistake if you keep making criminal mistakes in various jurisdictions.

PEREIRA: Folks at home are going to say, he's not going to face any serious -- he won't do any time. He'll probably get a slap on the wrist. A lot of people feel that these celebrities get off easy. Where the rest of us would, you know, face a lifetime of --

(CROSSTALK)

TOOBIN: For better or worse, I've spent much of my career covering celebrity in trouble cases, and the problem is, how do you treat them like everyone else? I mean, that's always -- and it's not always easy to do. I mean, how do you treat someone like everyone else when they have a police escort? No one else has a police escort.

CUOMO: Where was the escort? And cut both ways, but I got to tell you, in Miami, drag racing is taken very seriously.

PEREIRA: Should be taken --

CUOMO: They charge for it all the time. It's a big problem, even in a residential area. DUI is almost always a felony. These are big charges. You have to hear it from me. We have on the phone right now Officer Bobby Hernandez with the Miami Beach Police. He's the PIO there, the public information officer, and he is a sergeant. Sergeant Hernandez, if you can hear us, what are we looking at in this situation from your perspective?

VOICE OF SGT. BOBBY HERNANDEZ, MIAMI BEACH POLICE: Good morning. It's going to be a DUI arrest. Basically, it was this morning. We observed a Lamborghini and a Ferrari drag racing (INAUDIBLE) which is a residential area of Miami Beach. They were subsequently stopped. One of the vehicles, the yellow Lamborghini, was being driven by Justin Bieber.

He had any signs of impairment. He was offered a field sobriety test on the scene which he failed. He was then taken to the police department where he's in custody right now.

CUOMO: Did he have a license? Did he resist arrest? Are there any other aggravating factors that you can discuss?

HERNANDEZ: No, that's basically it. What we do know is that there were two -- we were able to identify -- vehicles that facilitated the race. They actually blocked the traffic at 26 and pine tree so that they could race north on pine tree, almost making it like a makeshift racetrack if you will. So, we stopped him. We arrested him for DUI. He's currently -- as well as the other driver was arrested for DUI.

I don't have his identity right now, but he's an associate of Justin Bieber. And he was also arrested for DUI. Both vehicles impounded, taken to the tow yard. And right now, we're processing both of them and they'll be transported to the main facility, which is Miami-Dade County jail.

CUOMO: So, it's interesting. Both men have been equally charged to this point. Do you anticipate further charges?

HERNANDEZ: Could be as the processing goes. There's always a possibility charges are added. For example, he might have a suspended driver's license, et cetera, the thing that he does, but those are all things that happen when the processing begins. But at minimum, he's being charged with DUI. And just some clarification, it wasn't Miami Beach Police Department that escorted Justin Bieber anywhere.

CUOMO: It was or was not?

HERNANDEZ: Was not. We had nothing to do with that.

CUOMO: And what do you know about that?

HERNANDEZ: That's a separate agency, not the Miami Beach Police Department.

CUOMO: But what do you know about that? Were the cops giving him an escort from club to club?

HERNANDEZ: Don't know. That's another agency. I just know it wasn't Miami Beach Police Department that did it, and our concern right now is the arrest.

CUOMO: No, I got you. I understand. It's not your agency. I understand it's not your agency, but I mean, you know, you're aware of the situation. Is there anything to that allegation?

HERNANDEZ: No. I'm not going to comment on that. But I'm just going to clarify that it's not our agency that's involved.

CUOMO: All right. So, if there is an agency involved, it's not yours. That's for sure, right?

HERNANDEZ: Exactly.

(LAUGHTER)

HERNANDEZ: We didn't (ph) blame for it, but it's not ours.

CUOMO: I got you. I got you. Sergeant Hernandez, thank you very much. We're just trying to get to the bottom of what actually happened as opposed to ascribing any blame. But thank you for helping fill in the picture this morning. And, we'll talk to you again, I'm sure.

BOLDUAN: All right.

TOOBIN: You know, one of the things that Michaela you mentioned, like celebrities. What often happens is like the people who were blocking off the traffic, celebrities, unlike the rest of us, they have entourages, posies whatever that, you know, help them do these things. What's their culpability? How does that fit into all of this? It's one of the many things that makes these cases --

CUOMO: It's also how drag racing commonly works. There's a lot of coordinated behavior that goes on. It's interesting to hear that both people they picked up have been equally charged. Let's see what happens going forward.

TOOBIN: I mean, you know, so dangerous. I mean, can you imagine Lamborghinis, Ferraris, drunk, four o'clock in the morning? It's just terrifying when you think about it.

BOLDUAN: Block off or not. Thanks, Jeffrey.

TOOBIN: OK.

BOLDUAN: All right. We're going to take a break.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, a new health warning about soda. A chemical found in the caramel coloring that's added to soft drinks could cause cancer. We're digging deeper.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Time now for the five things you need to know for your NEW DAY.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (voice-over): At number one, pop star, Justin Bieber, under arrest for DUI in Miami. He allegedly failed a sobriety test after being found drag racing. Authorities also investigating whether police gave him an escort between strip clubs.

It is going to be a cold winter weekend from the Carolinas to the Midwest and the northeast. More snow could also arrive early next week. Texas has executed a Mexican national convicted of killing a police officer. Mexico and the U.S. objected to the killing of Edgar Tamayo. The U.S. is concerned about safety of Americans abroad.