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Obama Immigration Plans Halted by Judge; International Leaders Meet at White House for Terrorism Conference; Copenhagen Gunman Swore Allegiance to ISIS on Facebook; More Winter Storms Pummel South, East, and Northeast; Interview with Boston Mayor; West Virginia Train Derailment Examined

Aired February 17, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, taking on terror, representatives from more than 60 countries are starting to gather in Washington. Their objective is to beat back the terror threat known as ISIS that's spreading around the world and spreading very fast. We have the details.

A state of emergency in West Virginia today after a train carrying crude oil jumps the track -- just look at that -- and explodes. Now fears of contamination as oil leaks into a nearby river. What this means for the water supply.

And dangerous and deadly cold continues to grip most of the U.S. as the South gets hit with more snow and ice. All you can say is it is no good.

Hello, all. Thanks for joining me. John Berman is off today.

New this morning, the president's immigration plans under fire, a federal judge in south Texas blocked the president's executive action a day before some measures were set to take effect. The block, though, may be temporary, as the Obama administration is planning its next move as we speak.

But this is a victory for the 26 states that filed the lawsuit. They're in the yellow on the map there. That is a majority of the states in the country, essentially taking the president to court.

Supreme Court reporter Ariane De Vogue is here with more on this. This has a lot of people's attention obviously, not just the politics of it, Ariane, but really the effect of the policy that's now been held up.

So what is the impact of this specific ruling right now?

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTERS: So 26 states led by Texas brought this challenge against the administration's actions. That was the controversial program announced last November that eased deportation threats for these eligible immigrants.

The judge temporarily shut down the program, pending trial. He blocked it nationwide.

BOLDUAN: What exactly did the judge say is wrong here?

DE VOGUE: This wasn't a constitutional ruling. In fact, he said two things. First of all, he said that Texas has the standing. They are allowed to bring the case, and that was a big question. A lot of immigration experts said that Texas wouldn't be able to prove that it had been harmed.

And the second thing that the judge said is that administration violated procedures. They had to give notice and that they didn't do that in the proper way.

You remember the administration had argued that it had broad discretional authority.

BOLDUAN: So of course then the big question, what's next? The Obama administration will be appealing. But what does that all mean?

DE VOGUE: For now the Obama administration said this morning that they are going to appeal. So it would probably go to the Fifth Circuit court of appeals and maybe to the Supreme Court.

But for now these immigration groups, they can't go forward and apply for the program. It's temporary blocked, pending trial.

BOLDUAN: A temporary block, but nowhere near over and decided. We'll see if it makes it all the way up to the high court.

Ariane, great to see you. Thanks so much.

DE VOGUE: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: And also this, a Jewish radio program based in Copenhagen is canceling its daily broadcast for security reasons. Radio Shalom's host told local media that the Danish security and intelligence service warned that holding the broadcast from its studio would be too dangerous.

But the program plans to be back on once the situation is safe. But of course, when's that? The move comes after two policemen and a volunteer civilian guard were shot outside Copenhagen's central synagogue.

In a few hours, the White House is taking on terror from a bit of a different angle, community leaders and foreign ministers from more than 60 countries will be gathering in Washington where President Obama is hosting a three-day summit on how to counter violent extremism at home and abroad.

The summit was announced after the deadly "Charlie Hebdo" attack in Paris. You will remember after the attack in Paris, the president faced some criticism for what many considered to be a tone-deaf response from administration following that attack.

White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski is joining us with much more. So, Michelle, a lot of folks coming in for this, three days that the White House is dedicating to this. MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right.

BOLDUAN: But what realistically does the White House expect to accomplish?

KOSINSKI: That's really the question. And, remember, this was planned for months ago and then it was delayed for logistical reasons. But they are making a big deal out of this. The skepticism out there, though, is what could it really accomplish. It's just talking about countering violent extremism.

But the White House wants it to be practical and useful. And when you look at it from that perspective, sharing information among national communities, international groups, looking at programs that are in effect, seeing what works and doesn't work, that cannot hurt.

And time and time again we've heard the White House talk about how getting at the violent ideology is really going to be a key to ultimately defeating ISIS and having that last, long-term.

Now, the timing is also interesting, because just yesterday we saw this new CNN/ORC poll, so it comes out at a time when Americans are split, according to these new numbers, on whether they trust President Obama as commander in chief.

You look at some of these numbers. I mean, 57 percent disapprove of how the war against ISIS is going. We saw 58 percent feel that it is going badly. And even among Democrats, nearly half are not happy with that.

Another interesting thing to come out of this poll that the vast majority, nearly 80 percent of respondents feel that Congress should be voting on what the fight against ISIS will look like in the future.

And that is what's going to happen. The president presented his plan to Congress. They still need to tackle it. But I think the most important point to come out of that poll, which is related to that, is that as you're seeing this growing disapproval of how the president is handling terrorism and foreign affairs in general, you're seeing more Americans now open to using ground troops against ISIS if they had that chance.

The president of course is staunchly opposed to doing that, although what he presented to Congress does leave some leeway, so that is going to be the debate once Congress does tackle this, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, the changing kind of -- the shifting American mood toward this has been stark. You threw up that poll about who was in favor or opposed, the split on favor and being opposed to sending ground troops in.

In November, it was much more toward angle of being opposed to that, 55 percent opposed in November versus 43 percent in support, and now you can see it's very much near split in terms of U.S. sending ground troops to fight ISIS.

Michelle, thank you so much for that.

There are also some new developments in the deadly terror attacks in Denmark that we want to tell you about. The gunman swore his allegiance to ISIS on what's apparently his Facebook page. It was posted just before the weekend shooting spree began.

Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is in Copenhagen for us. So, Nick, how seriously are investigators taking this Facebook post?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're taking it seriously. The police have said in advance of our discovery of this and other people's discovery of this that they believed there was a possibility he could have been radicalized by ISIS propaganda online, so this is something the police have been looking at already.

What we have heard from the Danish intelligence services today is that they said that were aware of him but they didn't think that he was about to commit an attack.

Why were they aware of him? Well, the prison services here alerted the intelligence services that while he was in prison, and he was released from prison just two weeks before the attack, that while he was in prison his character seemed to change.

And we've heard from people who knew him prior to being in jail when he was a gang member, and he was in jail for a violent stabbing crime, that while he -- he had been a gang member, thrown out of that gang and there was a sense that he was gravitating towards radical Islam.

So this is going to be something that the police here are going to be looking at and from that the network of people he might have been connected with here, because that is the main thing for the police at the moment, are there any other associates who are out there perhaps planning other attacks, Kate?

BOLDUAN: And that's clearly where the focus of the investigation is from here.

Nic, thank you so much.

Looking to Ukraine, Ukraine says five more Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in just the past 24 hours. This comes three days into a cease-fire, apparently a cease-fire, between Ukrainian forces and pro- Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a meeting between Ukrainian officials, pro-Russian separatists, and European officials about the shaky cease-fire was canceled after one of the parties failed to show up.

The U.S. has embedded spyware overseas. It says the spyware was placed into computer networks in countries like Iran, Russia, China, and others being closely monitored by American intelligence.

A Russian cybersecurity firm claims the spyware was placed by a group called the Equation Group, thought to be a veiled reference to the National Security Agency. Sounds a little bit like a spy novel, if you will.

The new secretary of defense, Ash Carter, reported to work earlier this morning at the Pentagon despite the snowy conditions in the Washington area. The Senate confirmed Carter last week.

He's the fourth secretary of defense to serve during the Obama administration. He succeeds Chuck Hagel as you well know. Vice president Biden swore Carter in just a few moments ago.

A state of emergency in West Virginia, thousands at risk of losing water service today after a train derails and explodes, spilling crude oil.

Also coming up for us, cars out of control as ice blankets the South and dumps even more snow up north. So what is next?

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BOLDUAN: It's not just Boston anymore, folks. This morning more than a hundred million Americans in the Midwest, South and East are dealing with snow, ice and plummeting temperatures or a combination of all three. And more is on the way.

From middle Tennessee into North Carolina, ice has been the biggest culprit turning roadways purely into ice rinks. States of emergency were put in place in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, and some 200,000 people in the South are without power right now.

Back in Boston, it seems a lot like Groundhog Day yet again, more snow expected in the city today and again later this week.

Joining us now, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Mayor, it's great to hear from you. Unfortunately I feel like we have to give you a new title as chief snow correspondent because you've been dealing with this so much.

How is the city --

MAYOR MARTY WALSH, BOSTON (via telephone): I was laughing when you called this Groundhog Day. It is. It's like I wake up -- it's actually snowing right now outside my office. I'm like, this is crazy.

BOLDUAN: Is it snow or frozen tears? I really don't know what it is at this point.

How is the city handling this round of it?

WALSH (via telephone): You know, we're back at removal phase right now. And the storm -- actually, we're getting some snow today, which is going to be a dusting, I think, I hope. But we're at removal phase.

Just every time we get these piles in our streets and trying to widen streets, once we finally make some major headway, we get hit with another storm and -- so, we're going to continue at it.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely, you can do -- that's really all you can do at this point. I mean, when you think of how many times the city has been hit and really just socked in, despite all your best efforts, you can't really fight as much snow as you're getting. People in their city, I mean, they're -- not only staircase (inaudible) but they all need to get back to work and get back on the roads. What's a deal -- what is the status of transportation -- public transportation in the city?

WALSH: Yeah, that's one of the problems we've had in this storms -- these storms that it's really affected public transportation system. And there's a lot of finger pointing going on right now with that, but I just think a lot of comes down to just the mere volume of snow and ice that we've received over the last three and a half weeks here in the city of Boston. And that doesn't help because we're trying to clear the roads and get people back to work.

But, as the snow keeps coming, it's crippling our transportation system, particularly outside. We have buses running in the city today and trains -- the underground portion of our trains working but we're not working in the outside stations, because it's affecting the power source, the third rail (inaudible) trains. So it really is -- I don't want this crippling our city but it's doing an awful lot of damage to individuals and their ability get to work and also businesses and their ability to be successful.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. I mean at this point, how many days or -- and even moving into weeks, do you think this city has been effectively shutdown

WALSH: I think as far as days, I think eight solid days which I think -- I'm just trying to do the math in my head right now. Probably eight solid when we've shutdown as a city during work days, but for the most part, I mean, we haven't had complete workweek here in Boston since I think, middle of January.

And that's affects a lot of different business retailers, and people trying to get work and expecting business. Our students have lost eight days of school this year. You know...

BOLDUAN: Wow. What are you going to do about that? What's the decision there, how are you going to make that up?

WALSH: Well, we're taking some holidays and we're doing school on Evacuation Day in March and also on Bunker Hill Day in the city, and then also, looking at if we need to take more days away. This week, well bless this week, we have February school vacation week so, we haven't to cancel school this week which is good.

Hopefully, if we don't have to cancel any more school days, we'll be OK. If we have to cancel anymore, that's when we have start looking at April vacation and looking at Saturday school and things like that.

BOLDUAN: What are you prepping for? You know, you could get another round of it possibly. Looking into the weekend, what are you guys looking at?

WALSH: Well, right now what we're doing is we're full removal phase because if we do get more snow, we have to make rooms for the new snow to come.

Last weekend, we're able to do an awful lot of removal of snow in the city, which made room for the new snow that came over the weekend. So, we're kind of in that phase, but not really -- I don't think our public works are looking at the next storm then saying, "How do we get the snow off the ground, today, tomorrow." We still have a parking ban in effect in Boston. We'll probably lift that at some point over the next days, so but, parking ban allows us to be able to widen the main arteries (ph).

Really, it's about to the public safety, making sure the streets are clear for public safety. And then we delve (inaudible) in to the neighborhood after that to remove piles from corners and try and make the street as passable as possible and safe as possible for people.

BOLDUAN: All right. This snow needs to leave Boston alone this time. Mayor, I don't know what you did but you need to change your mojo on the snow front.

WALSH: Yeah. I know that's why I'm changing ties up, I'm changing suits up. I'm doing everything we can, you know.

BOLDUAN: You need a rally cap, that's what you need next.

WALSH: Ever since we won the Super Bowl, we've been buried with snow.

BOLDUAN: It means something, I'm telling you. It's not a coincidence Mayor, just kidding.

Mayor Martin Walsh, thank you so much, mayor, good luck.

Coming up for us, from ice to fire, a massive train derailment to tell you about leads to an explosion that is still smoldering at this hour. There are health concerns for the public. The EPA is on the scene, and some evacuation order is in effect, we'll have that.

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BOLDUAN: Right now on West Virginia, crews are trying to get control of a fire from yesterday's massive train derailment and explosions, multiple explosions.

The train was carrying crude oil when it veered off the tracks in Fayette County into a river. Several rail cars exploded sending huge plumes of smoke and fire into the air. Just look at these pictures. This is in West Virginia folks.

Hundreds of people can't go home yet with an evacuations order still in effect. One house caught fire. Amazingly though only one person injured that we're aware off. There are also concerns right now about the town's and neighboring towns' drinking water that it could've been contaminated.

Let's get that angle, let's get to Rene Marsh who's joining us from Washington. Rene, you've been taking to look at this. So what are the latest? Obviously, they're testing the water, but what are you hearing?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well Kate, we know that environmental teams actually on the scene, they say at this point, it does not look like oil made it into the water supply. Of course we are waiting results from samples to verify that. They took test samples last night, they also took samples from the drinking supply today.

So, again the test samples will verify that but it's unclear when we will get those results. There was roughly -- I think it was about 12 inches of snow in West Virginia. So, that's slowing down the transport of the samples to the lab. But the concern specifically for the town of Montgomery -- town of Montgomery, we know that the water supply there, they're really focusing on that to make sure that it was not indeed contaminated.

But here is the good news, according to people on the ground, they believe that the snow and ice on the river actually helps slow down the oil from flowing downstream and into the water supply, Kate.

BOLDUAN: What else do we know kind of when you look at these massive explosions, Rene? What -- have they've learned anything yet about what caused the train to derail? Was it the weather? Was it the snow?

MARSH: We don't know at this point. We know that federal investigators, they are on their way the scene. We do know that the fire is still essentially burning. I mean we're almost hours after this incident and we know that firefighters are still dealing with trying to get the flames out here because they were just so intense.

So, we know that once the scene is secure, once that fire is out, then investigators will be able to move in and start that process. They'll be looking at the tracks, they will obviously want to get the event recorders from the train to try and piece this altogether. But at this point, it's still a mystery what caused this derailment.

BOLDUAN: And I'm sure it's a mystery, Rene because snow and ice, that's not unusual to parts of West Virginia. It's also a very typically route as I understand it, for this type of a train to be traveling through with crude oils. So something different had to happen in this case. That obviously is a big question, right?

MARSH: Right. They're going to want to know what caused this. I mean, unfortunately this sort of thing has happened before. This isn't an isolated incident and what I mean by that is these tankers carrying crude oil traveling through these communities, we have unfortunately seen this happened in the past. And in other past incidents, it's been a deadly situation.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

MARSH: Of course, this really highlights the safety issue as it relates to transporting this highly explosive crude oil within these tankers. Many as we know, the skin of the tanker very thin, very easy to rapture. So, there's that safety concern as well, Kate. BOLDUAN: And that's a huge question once this investigation wraps up, and what caused this disaster this time around. Rene Marsh, thank you so much.

Coming up, we're going to continue to talk about this massive explosion and the danger that it brings with it. We're going to get a perspective from on the ground in West Virginia -- on what happened with this dangerous derailment. We'll be right back.

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